My classes

I'm sure everyone is wondering what my class load is it over here at the Orvieto Study Center. Well for those of you who didn't know, we took two of our own K-State Architecture professors with us. Our landscape professor is Rick Forsyth and he bought his wife Penny along for the ride. Our architecture professor is David Sachs and he brought his two sons (16 & 18) along with him. I am only taking 4 classes while I am here - 14 total credit hours.

One class is obvious: studio, which David and Rick teach jointly. We have series of 3 projects while we are here. They don't give a lot of busy work and the class is fairly laid back (compared to studio back home) due to the lack of technology and resources.

My second class is an exploration of architecture through drawing and painting, which Rick mostly teaches. (He's an excellent watercolorist). For this class, we simply keep a sketchbook and do 3-4 sketches weekly and then we will turn this in at the end of the semester. We are also required to do a "space analysis", and 2 "beautiful drawings" which is all due at the end of the semester. So as you can imagine, I am trying not to procrastinate, but I'm truly living the Italian motto: Don't do today, what can be done tomorrow.

My third class is Italian History/Culture, which is taught by Marco. Marco is a professor from the Rome area (his roots are in Umbria) and he lived for some time in Arizona. He speaks English well and he keeps us very entertained during his lectures. He has traveled all over the world and he enjoys showing us slides of the all the adventures he's taken. The only thing required for the class is to turn in a journal at the end of the semester.

My last class is Italian Language which is taught by one of the ladies who works at the Study Center, Roberta. There is nothing required for this class. Its a pass/fail credit and all they would like is your attendence. She speaks English, but doesn't use any during the class time. So, its difficult to understand and she teaches us as if we were 3-year olds. Which, in a sense, when it comes to the Italian language, we are. We play games and sing songs cut and paste a lot.

So as you can see, my class load is .... easy... and definatly not stressful. Its been a great break from the usual chaotic class load demanded of the architecture major. However, of course, the main source of my learning while here mostly comes from just being able to experience another culture's way of life. I've definatly already learned so much while being here and it has only been 2 weeks. I'm excited to see what Italy has in store for me!

Also, I have tried to post some pictures, but the blog website has had a disagreement with my images and refuses to post them, but I will keep trying anyways.