Happy Birthday Momma and Tish, and Congrats Momma!

Firstly, it has to be said, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM AND SARAH TISHLER!! Today is the birthday of my mom AND best friend. It can't be coincidence that two of the eight most loved people in my life have the same birthday. I hope it's amazing and I love you both SO much.

I would also like to send my Mom and Dad a congratulations. There is a cycling race that travels all the way down California and ends in little Escondido on top of one of the highest hills in Southern California. It called the Tour De California. In preparation for a race that my parents are going to do in a couple months, they decided to do the hill the day before the Tour came through. I have done the hill with my dad and some friends and my dad had said that he wanted to do the ride from farther down (making it a much bigger climb) and with my Mom. I would like to mention that, besides racing, this hill was one of the most challenging things I have done, physically. My Mom saw me in complete exhaustion after the ride and swore she would never do it. The sweet bike she got for Christmas combined with my dad and I telling her she was DEFINITELY strong enough, convinced her to do. Anyway, I haven't spoken to her about it yet, but I did get a quick email saying they had done the ride and were now going to get drunk. I just wanted to say congratulations Momma for getting up that bastard of a hill and congratulations Daddy for getting there from Harrah's. You were seriously daunted and doubtful about it only about 2 months ago, and now you've done it. I can imagine that the celebration that evening was awesome. Love you both.

My week wasn't nearly as interesting as their weekend. I wrote a blog in the middle of the week so I'll just continue from there. I got so fed up with my crutches that I only use them for longish distances, and I walk as little as possible. I'm still taking my anti-histamines as instructed (most of the time) and basically, my feet situation is static. I'm still feeling a lot of pain but its not getting worse. Although it's not getting better either. I wasn't satisfied with the doctor's instructions to crutch around until my feet heal themselves. I was speaking to my friend here, Alessio, and he mentioned that he has a friend in Rome that's a physiotherapist. He was an amazing help and set up an appointment for me. Today he is picking me up from classes and taking me to the appointment. He's staying the whole time to be translator and hopefully I'll get some answers. A plus to this appointment is that I get to ride on his moto (vespa)!! I love it on that thing.

On the other side of things, on Friday night 8 other students and I had a cooking class in our apartment with our Italian professor and her friend who owns an Italian restaurant. We started at 6 pm and ended at 10 pm. All the ingredients were bought fresh from the market that day and made from scratch. Here's the menu: tomato and mushroom risotto, garlic and basil artichokes (cooked from whole artichokes), thinly sliced veal breaded with garlic and flour, and a desert of mixed berries on top of homemade cream on top of tiramisu biscuits. We students didn't actually do much cooking because we weren't very capable but it was by far the best meal I've had in Italy. And it was so simple, I'm going to attempt it at some point while here. I'll report back.

After that I went out with Alessio for a few drinks with his friends. Its really nice to be out with him because I'm not surrounded by Americans. Don't get me wrong, I love my friends here, but I also like going out and being mistaken for an Italian. People treat you differently. I was approached by a few different guys while Alessio was outside smoking and they would talk to me in Italian before realizing that I was American. AWESOME! Alessio's friends barely spoke english so it was a cool exercise to try and understand their conversation and try and speak back to them. I find that I understand most Italian and am able to communicate back with broken phrases and hand gestures.

I got home relatively early that night (1 am) and went straight to bed. The next morning I slept in gloriously late and then hung out all day in the apartment enjoying the beautiful sunshine flooding in from our massive windows. I had every intention of going to the Vatican to assuage my guilt for not having gone while in Rome for school. However, I've been before and quickly decided that it was unnecessary to go again, I'd much rather read and eat in my apartment.

That night, we hosted a toga party in our apartment. When in Rome, dress as the Romans do and then drink a lot. Right?? Because none of the students in my program have anything better to do, it was a really good turn out. There were about 30 people there, dressed in togas, and, by the end of the night, extremely drunk. We found ping pong balls and were able to play beer pong which we haven't played since getting to Rome. It was wonderful. It was also cool because one of my really good friends, Caitlin, is studying in Rome (she goes to U of San Francisco) and I don't get to see her as much as I would like. She and three friends were there. I got to see some of her side of life in Rome.

I only drank one bottle of wine that night so I wasn't hung over in the morning. I woke up relatively early and began my homework. This is the first weekend we have had a substantial amount of work and its only because we had a history exam today. I studied for the test and did studio work all day on Sunday. Went to bed early and woke up early so I could study more. I just got done with the test and it was AWFUL. I'm pretty sure all the stuff I studied wasn't actually on the test. Luckily, all the other students felt the same way so maybe the teacher will realize that and help us out a little.

I'm about to go around the corner and get some pizza for lunch. Then we have studio class and then my physio appointment. Cross your fingers for me. After that, I have a date! Haha. We'll see how that goes. I've given up most of my faith in the male species but I figured I may as well give them a chance. Haha. Tomorrow we have a couple low stress classes and then on Wednesday morning we leave for Tuscany. Spend the week touring with the class and then spend the weekend in Florence. Should be good. I'm just excited to be free from any kind of stress, once again.

Love you all. Hope you're all healthy and happy.

Ash

My Contact Info and a Piedi (foot) Update

Ok so sending packages is ridiculously expensive but if anyone feels like sending a letter, I LOVE getting snail mail. My address here is:

Ashley Hopwood

c/o PSU

1b Piazza Colegio Romano

00186, Roma, Italia

I mentioned the pain in my foot in my blog a couple days ago. Well, I never went on a run (thank goodness for Aunty Nikki and her wise words), but I was walking home from the studio on an especially cold night and the pain that had been subsiding increased to a serious intensity. All of a sudden is was too painful to walk.

I skipped our class' three hour walk the next morning and carted myself to the hospital. They took x-rays, said it wasn't broken and told me to come back in the afternoon to see a foot specialist. I spent the middle of the day in the studio and then went back to the hospital in the afternoon.

The doctor I saw was really sweet. He poked and prodded my foot and then in broken English told me that I have an "inflammatory disease". I'm not sure if disease is the correct word but basically, I have an infliction that causes any part of my body that I overuse to swell up and inflame. It tightens my tendons and muscles and makes it really painful to walk.

The only way to make it go away is to stop walking for a while. This is pretty much impossible in Rome and without a car so now I'm on crutches. It's two crutches until I can walk without too much pain, and then one for the rest of my time here. I have to switch legs that I favor so that the pain stays away from both feet.

Yesterday was a day of serious frustration and, unfortunately, all my emotions come out through tears so people that I was really sad. It's frustration I tell you!

Anyway, I grew a thick skin overnight and am able to handle the "gimp" comments much better. I'm going to the cheapy store down the road tonight so I can decorate my crutches and make them look as sexy as I do, hobbling around on cobblestones. Haha. Honestly though, all I have to do is think of the courage that Shelby (a friend from the Tri Club) has in her constant pain and I can feel my shoulders straighten and resolve strengthen.

While I'm writing, I should explain something. My dad mentioned the other day that I never talk about my interaction with Romans and my attitude towards Roman life. The truth is, I am constantly surrounded from my friends from my school's program and get very little interaction with Romans. The only Italian I get to speak is in airports, train stations, and panini shops. However, the taste I do get of Italian life is wonderful. I love their life style (siestas and food), their zest for life, their chaotic cityscape, the abundance of churches and random places of safety and quiet, and their really old architecture. Despite the fact that they don't like Americans in general, they appreciate my friends and my attempts to speak italian and to learn the lingo. I absolutely love Rome and wish I could be here for longer and that my family and friends from home could be with me

...maybe I would buy a scooter though.

Weekend in Barcelona

Well,

we arrived back from Sicilia very early monday morning, having just taken a 12 hour train ride back to Rome. That night of travel was followed by a very long day of travel and an equally long week of walking.

I'm sure I've mentioned it but I'll say it again. The program I'm in focuses on walks around the city. Rather than lectures in a classroom, we go to the actual sites we're learning about. Its a really cool system but it makes for extremely tiring days. Somehow, while in Sicily, I injured my foot. I say injured because I have NO IDEA whats wrong with it. It actually started in my left foot and then, I think because I was putting all my weight on my right, transfered to my right foot. It feels like I may have pulled a muscle in the top of my foot. Its very painful and not easy to walk. Let alone the fact that I look like a completely idiot. I have to walk with my butt kind of sticking out, with my left foot rotated out wards, and with a very heavy limp. Haha. I am relentlessly made fun of by my classmates. And I know some of you may be guessing that this casualty happened while I was intoxicated but thats far from the truth. It happened gradually and is getting worse. I know I should go and see a doctor but its a long process and I'm kind of just hoping it will go away. I am going on a run tomorrow (I can't bare to add another day to my 4 weeks of no working out) so we'll see how that goes....Probably not the best idea but oh well.

Anyway, now that you know the entire history of my foot injury, I'll tell you about the rest of my week. Like I said, we had about 16 hours of walking in 3 days. And on Friday afternoon, me and six girlfriends left for Barcelona. This friday was one of the few that we don't have design class until 5pm, so we took advantage and went away. We arrived in Barcelona at 5.30 pm and uneventfully found our way to the hostel. I was in charge of finding accommodation for this trip and I have to say that I did a pretty awesome job. We got a really clean (rare in hostels) private room on Las Ramblas for 13 euro a night per person. Not bad eh?

That night, we got ready for going out and began exploring the city. Within a few hours of being there, I knew that a weekend in Barcelona definitely wasn't enough. We got roped in to a pub crawl by a guy passing out flyers on the street. 3 pubs and 1 discoteca for 7.50 euro! Can't beat that. With ten minutes, we met two really cool Australian guys (gorgeous and with an accent) and roamed Barcelona with them for the rest of the night. Spanish night life starts and ends late. We began the pub crawl at 10.30pm and didn't fall into bed until 4am.

Somehow we managed to be out of the apartment by 10am the next morning and had a really full day of sigh seeing. For an architecture student, Barcelona is one of the many places you have to see before you die. Antonio Gaudi (a really outrageous architect from the 1900's) has several buildings there and we went to see them all. The most immpressive one was definitely Sagrada Familia. It has been under construction for over 100 years and is not projected to be ready until 2025. We walked around the unfinished cathedral for hours. We also managed to find a really short line for one of the elevators to the top of the towers. There is a bridge perched between them that you walk out on to and you have an incredible view of all of Barcelona. For a person with a fear of heights, like me, it was a mixture between pure torture and absolute awe. I stood up there to appreciate the view for as long as I could and ended up having to sprint down the tiny spiral staircase all the way to the ground floor. We also went to Casa Mila and Parc Guell. Both were really awesome.

By 6pm, I was ready to keel over. A combination of hangover, hurt foot, and lack of sleep made for a very interesting afternoon. I went back to the apartment for a nap while the other 5 girls went to another architectural site. It ended up being closed and I was really happy for not going. We all got ready for another night on the town. Didn't get to dinner until 10pm. It was Valentines Day so we all decided to treat ourselves to something nice. We ate at this restaurant that overlooked Las Ramblas. It was incredible food and actually not very expensive at all. We curtailed the price by drinking wine in the apartment before we went out and dinner was only about 25 euro per person. We are getting better at doing long meal times and ended up eating and drinking at the restaurant until 12.30 at night. At that point, all of us were falling asleep at the table. We crashed into bed around 1 am. An early night!

This morning we packed up our stuff and went to Starbucks for breakfast. There aren't any American chains in Roma and some of the girls were gagging for a larger than one sip coffee. We all sat with our pastries and coffee/tea and enjoyed conversation for about a half hour. At that point, one of us got up to get another coffee and was told that the man sitting behind me was about to mug me. Indeed, the man behind me was wearing a jacket with a hood on and was sitting about a foot from me, the jacket hanging on my chair, my backpack, and my purse. Stupidly, we thought we could get comfortable in a tourist trap like Starbucks. All of us gathered our things on our laps and continued to eat, scared that if we left, he would follow. It was then that we noticed an even scarier man sitting across the room staring at us while moving in on another group's stuff. Two of my friends felt it necessary to warn them before their stuff was stolen. She walked over and told them to keep their things on their laps. It must be said that the employees of Starbucks knew these men and we also walking around the restaurant telling people to watch their things. When my two friends returned to their seats, the man sitting behind me started SPITTING on them. Yes, spitting. We all jumped up within 10 seconds and sprinted out of the shop. I can honestly say that I have never been so genuinely terrified in my life. We will be keeping our belongings very close from now on.

We flew back in to Roma around 5pm. Got a cab back in to town and then headed to the studio to do some work. I left after three hours of building a ridiculous site model and went grocery shopping. Now I'm sitting in my apartment, about to go to bed after a long day and weekend. Hopefully I can get a hold of my parents, haven't spoken to them in at least 3 days. I'm going through withdrawals.

I hope everyone is well. Love you and miss you all.

Ash

Finally Some Photos

Architecture reunion at Frankfurt airport. Hadn't seen them in 8 months.

Hanging out in our apartment. Doing homework.

One of our three weekly tours around Rome. This is at the Forum.

Cocktails at the studio before our Welcome Dinner. These are two of my roommates and very good friends here.

"Family Photo". This is all the roommates before heading out to the Welcome Dinner.

Two really good friends and I, standing in front of the ruins at Ercolano (Herculaneum).

One of our first nights out. At the local bar called Led Zep.

Quick One

Hey All,

I start class soon so this will have to be a quick blog.

I haven't written in over a week because we were on a class trip. We started at our apartment in Rome on Wednesday morning (WAY too early for my taste) and drove down to Naples. Our first day was spent at the site of the ancient city (there seem to be a lot of those in Rome) of Paestum. There is a maze of half fallen brick walls and 3 very well preserved temples. Two dedicated to Hera and one to Apollo. We were given a couple of hours to sketch and take pictures there. On a side note, my skill in the artistic aspect of architecture is really progressing. Since we have been here, I have actually been enjoying sketching and can't wait to do it when I see something beautiful. Thats not to say that my drawings are any good, but at least you can tell what they are at this point. I'm hoping to scan some in to my computer and upload them sometime soon. However! I have yet to put pictures up so...

From Paestum we headed to our hotel for the night. We were given a couple hours to rest and then had a group dinner at the hotel. Our group of 34 students and 2 professors took over the restaurant and we all had an amazing meal with lots of red wine and laughing. It does help our merry making when we know that its all being paid for. We, somehow, managed to find a liquor store in the deserted beach town and continued the party in our block of hotel rooms. 

The next morning we headed to another ancient town, Ercolano (or Herculaneum in english). It was one of the cities that was ruined in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and apparently its very much like Pompeii. The modern city that surrounds the ruins is pretty disgusting and impoverished but we spent the day amongst the ruins so it didn't really affect us. Because of the nature of the city, we were able to stay in a ridiculously nice hotel. I'm talking 2 bathrooms per every 3 people. It was awesome. Again, we found a liquor store, and we roamed between hotel rooms all night. Since there are 34 of us and we all get along pretty well, its as if we bring a party wherever we go.

On Friday, we went to the Bay Naples. We did a lot of driving in the bus which I LOVED because it meant we could sleep. And sleep we did. Partying takes a lot out of you! Anyway, we went to a few more quick stop ancient ruins and ended in the city center of Naples. From there, we could take the train back to Rome with the professors or we could plan our own trip and make our own way back. 18 of us decided to take the ferry from Naples to Sicily and spend the weekend there. We took the sleeper ferry. After 9 hours of motion sickness and claustrophobia, we arrived in Palermo at 6 am. We wandered for an hour and eventually made it to our hostel.

The guy that ran the hostel was a complete sweetheart and told us all the places to go in the city. After a quick nap, we began exploring. First we all headed to the Catacombs. Now I'm not sure if it was the lack of sleep, but I didn't really stop to think what I would see in a catacomb. We descended the stairs and happened upon hundreds of skeletons. Dressed as they were were they died (in their best) and hung on the walls like trophies or medals. I wasn't really sure how to react and kind of went in to a state of shock and disbelief. I don't deal very well when faced with death. I kind of go all quiet (very unusual for me) and don't start talking again for hours. Needless to say, because I wasn't mentally prepared, I had a very quiet meltdown. Once we got outside and started walking again. I snapped out of it. My mood was helped when a friend and I accomplished one of our goals for our time in Italy. We bought a pair of Italian leather boots. It had to be done and we got them for 50% off. Only 64 euro! haha. Anyway, they're beautiful and I don't regret a cent.

After that, we went up to Monreale (a hill overlooking the city) and meant to go into the church up there. It ended up being closed so, instead, we raided a pastry shop and enjoyed the view of the city. We took the long but gorgeous bus ride back to the hostel for a siesta and regrouping.

Guiseppe (the guy that owned the hostel) directed us to a fantastic place for dinner. They sat 11 of us, 2 courses, 4 bottles of wine, and an irish coffee each for 22 euro! Guiseppe hooked us up!

We left the restaurant at midnight in search of some nightlife. Us women soon discovered that the Italian men in Palermo are much more forward than those in Rome. We were groped, whistled at, yelled at, and even smelled. I am the type of person to be flattered by any kind of recognition, but this was a little bit much. After and hour of wandering, 3 other girls and I went back to the hostel and straight to bed. 

I woke up the next morning to the realization that I hadn't brought my passport for the flight back. It hadn't even crossed my mind that I would need it. I just thought of it like a domestic flight in the US. Wrong! There was no way I would get through security without it. There was one other guy that forgot his passport as well. We ran to the train station to get a couple of tickets for the sleeper train back to Rome. I then ran from the train station to the famous Palermo Cathedral to attend a service with a few friends. I had been wanting to attend a service so that I could experience the architecture as it was intended. It was a really traditional Catholic mass and it was actually really cool. 

After that, we walked through a market to have lunch in front of the Teatro Massimo. The rest of the kids had to leave to get the plane home so my passport losing friend and I went to the train station. We boarded the train in Palermo at 5 pm and arrived in Rome at 5.45 am. It was a very cold, uncomfortable, and long ride, made even more bitter by the fact that it was my own fault. Actually, I make it sound really awful but it wasn't all bad. Dennis and I were in a cabin with two Nigerian refugees that had been living in a camp for two months and were now heading to Milan to start their lives. Their ultimate goal was to immigrate to America. It was really inspiring to hear their story and it made me feel incredibly privileged.

Now we're back to two weeks of classes. It's broken up by a trip to Barcelona with 5 of my architecture girlfriends. We will be there for Valentine's day and figured it would be a good idea to make it an all girls trip. It should be another weekend of debauchery that prolongs my body's fight with the cold I've had for weeks. Oh well! Its worth it.

Class is about to start! We are going on a walk in the rain. Haha. Should be interesting. Hope all is well with everyone. I love getting your emails after I send out a blog. Keep them coming!

Love,

Ash

Same thing, different country

Apparently I only remember to write posts on Sunday nights. I swear every time that I'm going to write more often and then the week slips by somehow. This week we were all shocked back into the life of studying and drawing and studying and working. Its not like we can't handle it, this is what we're trained for, but it hurts a little more spending an entire Saturday working on one page of drawings.

Anyway, enough of the dreary! I'm in pretty high spirits at the moment. Just finished a skype conversation with my entire family and it made my week to talk to them. Its the first time I've heard my siblings' voices since I left 3 weeks ago. We had the usual lewd conversation about the latest boys in our lives while my brother and dad sat there and cringed. I also got a little laugh about my brother breaking his wrist on the first day of a snowboarding trip and then having to get his wisdom teeth out the next week. Crappy for him but just a tad funny for everyone else. Its also amazingly comforting to get to see my parents. Although I don't get to reach out and hug them, just the sound of their voices makes me feel a little more at home here. Thank god for modern technology.

I'm also on a high because I'm realizing how awesome the next few months are going to be. We leave for a class trip to the region of Campania on Wednesday. We have three of these trips throughout the semester. We are gone for about 3 days. Stay in hotels with classmates and professors and go on walks around all the sights in that region. After that, we are free to make our own way back. Meaning, we can stay wherever we are for the weekend. After Campania, my girlfriends and I are heading to Sicily. Little nervous about the Mafiosa, but we'll be fine.

On top of looking forward to that, we just bought tickets for a weekend trip in Barcelona the weekend after that. We are having a girls trip there. Its Valentine's day and none of us particularly want to be around boys.

On top of that! One of my good friends is studying in Madrid right now and he just booked his fight to come and visit me in Rome. My first real visitor! I'm really excited. Plus, I haven't seen him since April so it should be a good reunion.

This week was a tough one, though. I have been pretty sick for a few days now. I think it might be laringitis and its been going around our apartment. I'm kept up all night coughing and sniffling and when I'm forced to swallow, it feels like I'm swallowing knives. I've been trying to ration the box of American medicine I brought with me, but last night I ran out. Of course, there aren't any pharmacies open on a Sunday. I walked around for an hour today trying to find a pharmacy and finally stumbled onto an obscure one the middle of nowhere. I told him the words for "hurting throat", "cough", and "tired" and got some kind of liquid which I think is cough medicine. I guess I'll just have to try it out.

Despite the illness and onslaught of work, I feel tonight, for the first time, that I'm getting healthy again and I'm really excited for the next few weeks. Oh yeah! We got our one and only design project for the weekend and I can't wait to start designing. All this work will hopefully pay off.

I need to go to bed now. My eyes are starting to droop. I hope everyone is happy and healthy and having a fantastic week. Hopefully I'll write before next Sunday (doubtful).

Love,

Ash