Tuesday, June 21, 2011

"if we miss the ferry can we stay here another day?" HYDRA

I am getting SO tired of having bread and jam for breakfast. (Yes mom I have been drinking coffee and no it is not stunting my growth!) Unfortunately the yogurt and honey at this hotel isn't exactly appetizing so i've been a religious carb loaded every morning. After my 2 pieces of bread-not toast, bread- we loaded a private bus for a 1.5 hour drive to board the 20 minute ferry to get to the Greek island of Hydra. We tried to sleep on the bus but the road was so windy we couldn't stay asleep, much less in our chairs. The ferry ride went by really fast and it was so exciting to pull up to Hydra because that is exactly what I expected of Greece. The beautiful clear blue water, the white houses, occasional blue shutters, and no cars just donkeys!

The excitement started right when I stepped onto Hydra. Demeris was about to take a picture of Holly, Claire and I with our cute hats on and of course the wind blew mine off straight into the water! After much contemplation we got a small boat worker to get it out with a pole and hook. Here's me and my hero!
(PIC SOON)
We had a couple of hours to do our last assignment, portraits. I love portraits but I hate asking random people if I can take their picture, especially when they barely speak English! Luckily, the friendliest girl in the world CLAIRE HOGAN was in my group and asked for me every time. praise the lawd for her!
my favorite portrait of the day

We finished early and had some time sit by the water before lunch. We ate at a really nice outdoor breezy restaurant and then headed for the beach! Laying out was AMAZING. The breeze on the coast of this island rocks. No one was sweating and it was like being in heaven. We literally laid there for probably 3 hours. Some people jumped off a little platform into the water but Holly and I couldn't get up... to comfortable!
holly me rachel and erin

Our ferry came to pick us up at 6:20 and this ride was a lot rougher than the morning ride. Everyone felt sooo sea sick and the 1.5 hour windy road bus ride back to Nafplio made it so much worse. Callie held a bag to her mouth the whole time which was kind of funny- only because nothing ever came out! And a good thing too, it probably would have been the domino effect from hell since we all felt somewhat queazy and couldn't have tolerated the smell. Sorry thats a little gross and graphic?
We arrived in Nafplio and went straight to dinner. We didn't realize how hungry we were until literally everyone finished their dinners!(which is a first) David was so proud. 
We walked back to the hotel and took MUCH needed showers. Working on blogs and picture sorting was just as miserable as always because we had to do it in the no AC lobby... yum. The guests who just arrived today we're also smoking in the lobby, so that made it so much better!... not. Holly and I retired early, couldn't handle the heat and smoke combo. Tomorrows our last day :( but I think I may be ready to head home. The bright side about the last day is breakfast isn't till 9AM!!! Hallelujah for sleeping in.

Monday, June 20, 2011

are we there yet?

After having breakfast at 8, we headed towards the huge hill to start our climb. We trudged up 999 ancient stone stairs to the base of an old Greek castle. The other day when we had steps at the beginning of our hike… that was NOTHING. Holly and I made a bet on how long we thought it would take the group to reach the top. I said at least an hour and she bet it’d be more. Surprisingly we made it in about 20 minutes?? It was a bit of a struggle but definitely worth it!

It seemed to have 3 different compounds on the property. One being the main castle, another smaller building, and a jail. The jail was my favorite because Dena, Erin, Rachel and I decided we needed to go explore it. We went into one of the cells and found a smaller tunnel dug out in one of the walls. Inside this tunnel we saw a door and got very interested (maybe a little big scared)…
SOO, being the adventurous girls that we are, we attempted to raid this “tomb” ourselves. That didn’t work out too well, so naturally we called David to come and go in first! We figured out that the very back of the tunnel lead to another cell but the door led to just an empty little room. We thought that was pretty cool two cells were kind of secretly connected.

We made David go in first

Going down these 999 steps took half the time and was easier but also made our legs veery shakey. But, luckily right after this we came back to the hotel to rest and change into our swimsuits. We got to split up for a 2 hour lunch and shop if we wanted. When we met back up with everyone we finally got to go down to the beach! The water was crystal clear and perfect temperature, COLD. The only thing we didn’t like was that there was no sand, just rocks. It’s not very comfortable lying on rocks! Regardless we were all very happy to tan and swim.
me and callie 
me and erin

After about 3 hours we walked back to Hotel Nafplio and cleaned up. We worked on our final projects and blogs for a little but couldn’t for very long because there is no AC in the lobby. Not comfortable AT ALL. We all went to dinner together at a cute restaurant where we could see the water. Holly, Claire and I discovered this garlic sauce appetizer to put on bread.. YUM. That was a dangerous discovery since we’re trying to reduce that carb count! Uh oh..
David and Carolyn gave us an On Assignment having to do with bracketing and experimenting with ISO. We had to take pictures of the same subject on every different ISO that our camera has- which basically just changes the lighting on each picture.
Holly, Claire, Callie and I did some of our assignment and decided we should stop for some ice cream. After quickly indulging in that we headed back to the hotel. We’re all so tired from all the sun today- and a little bit burnt!
We’re going to the island Hydra tomorrow and we’re all so excited!! 

Sunday, June 19, 2011

where's the beach?

This morning we woke up and finished up packing our suitcases. After breakfast in the hotel we loaded up the bus for a 3 hr drive to Nafplio. These morning bus rides are always so quiet- everyone falls asleep, including me! Hotel Nafplio appeared sooner than we wanted it to so we groggily unloaded our stuff and set up in our rooms.
We all met in the lobby and chose our recent top 3 pictures to be critiqued and had time to work on our blogs and projects. I like this town much more than Athens, it's much more of a relaxed vacation spot rather than a stressful business district. We walked down the pier to a restaurant for lunch and we were all anxiously scanning the horizon for the beach! Unfortunately its about a 10 minute walk so it wasn't in view but we could see the water! After lunch we had 2 hours to walk around and explore the town. We met back at Hotel Nafplio and put all of the pictures we have so far on the National Geographic hard drive. We got to split up for dinner and choose where we wanted to eat. Holly, Erin, Claire and myself went to a small alley café right next to a church that was having a wedding. A true “big fat Greek wedding!” We watched the couple run out through rice and get in their car, so cute. The rest of our dinner money went towards ice cream-unfortunately not the same as Italian gelato but it will suffice. The group met back and took night shots of the water and lit up town.


We heard that there was going to be some sort of religious Muslim ceremony so we went to watch. It was very interesting; they spun in circles for a really long time making me dizzy just watching. Even though this was kind of weird it was a great opportunity to work on shots of movement.

The group all sat around David’s computer in the lobby when we got back and had a critique session. Then, we watched the videos the 2 groups took last night for Caroline’s birthday – hilarious.
Tomorrow we’re hiking up 999 (not kidding…) stairs to get to an old castle on a mountain next to our hotel. Need some sleep for that! 
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD! YOUR THE BEST AND I LOVE YOU VERY MUCH!

Saturday, June 18, 2011

needin a rest

I slept SO well, this is the most comfortable bed i've had this whole trip. and we had AC!!! so exciting.
Dinner was at 8- had yogurt and honey duh. Greek yogurt is SO much better in Greece than Houston Texas... shocker.
After breakfast we had an hour to upload pictures from the previous day and get our stuff sorted out. We left the hotel around noon for our first museum-National Archeological Museum of Athens. Although the ancient statues are interesting we were so tired

Steph and Holly were so excited they fell asleep
All this... excitement... made us hungry, so we stopped at a sidewalk cafe for lunch. Another chicken gyro for me
After getting some energy we hit up yet another museum.. yyaaayyyy
I usually don't mind museums but we were all just so tired it was difficult to stay interested..
BUT, something that was interesting was the changing of the guards at Parliament. It is SO different than the US. The outfits are.. interesting and the routine is veeery interesting...

oh hey, you scare me
Thankfully, after this we went back to the hotel and had 2 hours to do whatever we wanted or needed to do. It was suggested to work for an hour and then rest for an hour but right when I laid down on my bed i passed out- such a nice nap.
6:30 we met back in the lobby and headed out on the townnnn for some shopping. We had dinner at an outdoor cafe and celebrated Caroline's birthday.
callie dena steph me holly 

steph me holly 

We decided to make a scavenger hunt/game to video people saying happy birthday Caroline in as many different languages as we could find.. so we did that after dinner for a good hour.(along with some more shopping)
Walked home and packed to leave for Nafplio tomorrow! hallelujah.

Friday, June 17, 2011

athens schmathens...

I am not impressed with the capitol of Greece.
After our 3 hour bus ride from Delphi we finally arrived in Athens. The streets seem even crazier than in Italy! Didn't think that one was possible... 
Unloading the bus right on a busy street was a very interesting experience, the police were NOT happy we were blocking traffic and getting yelled at in greek is even scarier than in English! 
The one thing I do like about Athens is our hotel. It actually seems like a real hotel! (the others were more of a bread and breakfast homey feel) 
We put our suitcases up and loaded up to go out. We weren't allowed to bring backpacks because thats too obvious... even though we all have these huge cameras hanging around our necks! 
Lunch was good- ate at a small sidewalk cafe. I had a chicken yuro (just like a chicken pita from smoothie island) 
We had some time to walk around and take pictures or shop if we wanted to. 
my UT girls! steph and claire

sidewalk cafe

The group met back up in the hotel and headed out for Acropolis. Its was an uphill hike to get there! But the view was definitely worth it. 

There was stray dogs EVERYWHERE and they were all huge. They looked like small wolves running around. 
On the way back down we had some time to shop in some of the street markets. I saw a really cute leather backpack-I might have to go back tomorrow and get.
We couldn't eat till 8 because we had reservations and it was definitely worth the wait. There was live music and Greek dancers! It was so much fun to watch this culture in action-we even got up and joined them! (struggle...) 
Walking home was cool getting to see the nightlife. So exhausted

Thursday, June 16, 2011

YASOO

I absolutely love Greece. First off we got to sleep in this morning and didn’t have breakfast until 9! Our hotel had Greek yogurt with fresh honey – so delicious. I’m definitely having that again tomorrow!
me and steph at breakfast

After breakfast we got to explore the town of Delphi and take some pictures, but we ended up getting sucked into the shops for most of the time. It was interesting to hear American music in every single store.

We met back at the hotel so we could upload all of our pictures so far to the National Geographic hard drive. That took longer than expected so we were all starting to get pretty hungry. We split up for lunch and got to go in groups to wherever we wanted to eat. It’s so much faster that way and fun to be on our own. Also, since we are on the side of a mountain every restaurant has an awesome porch room with the most amazing views! I had bean soup and a Greek salad (naturally).
We met back at the hotel and headed up the road to the Archeological museum of Delphi. The inside tour was very informal and interesting- lots of statues of Greek gods and cool stories to go with them. This was fun but the part outside was my favorite.
Some of the ancient ruins are still here and we got to walk around in them! It’s pretty cool that much has survived until now- even though some of it has been rebuilt. It was mainly temples(the oracle of Delphi), stands where statues once stood, a stadium, theatre, and a track for the “games” of course.

Once again we ate dinner at a mountain side open air restaurant and had more time to walk around.
Today is Abby’s birthday! We had a toga party (with white sheet togas and all) on the roof of our hotel with a delicious chocolate cake.

 We also got to see all of the pictures and videos entered from the scavenger hunt at the beginning of the trip- so hilarious. MY TEAM WAS THE OVER-ALL WINNERS! WUSSSUP.
We were watching all of these using a projector and a pinned up white sheet. After this, watching Mamma Mia seemed like a necessity so we watched it up there on the roof! It was so fun actually being in Greece and watching this movie. It made me very excited for Naphlio which is our final destination!(a coastal town)
Athens tomorrow!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

ciao italia, yasoo GREECE!

2 hours of sleep is NOT enough to be functional! At 4:30 AM we boarded the bus and headed for the airport. Unfortunately Massimo stayed in Italy so we had to say our goodbyes. Another unfortunate thing would be our 2.5 hour bus ride from hell… Naturally, we were all laying down attempting to sleep but couldn’t seem to stay on the seats due to our drivers start and stopping of the vehicle. Very very interesting. Checking in was also a struggle because the airline changed weight limits of ALL bags you take on the plane including carry ons. Eventually we worked it out (using the word "national geographic" while describing our group has its perks...)
The flight was a quick 2 hours, not bad at all! We landed and boarded yet another private bus for a 3 hour ride. This bus was huge and had a DVD player in it so we watched the Lizzie McGuire movie haha elementary school flash back! Greece is much more mountainous than I thought- such a nice surprise! Arriving at our hotel was also a nice surprise, exactly what I was expecting for a greek hotel! It's actually a lot nicer than the ones in Italy. We relaxed for a bit then went out to dinner. The restaurant was right on the cliff and the walls were completely windows. the view was once again amazing. I had some delicious chicken souvlaki (i've been craving chicken) and split baklava with claire! yum. We watched the lunar eclipse from the top of our hotel and went to bed. Breakfast isn't till 9. YESSSS!!
one of our leaders David on his balcony

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

the ultimate STAIRMASTER


Today was my favorite day so far. Cinque Terre! This morning we had breakfast at 7:15 and left by 8 on a private bus. It was a 2.5 ride to the train station then 20 minutes to the first village Monterosso. When we got off the train in Monterosso we all got so excited. The beach was absolutely beautiful. Also, there weren’t many people around for once so that was nice.

We walked up a hill, along the ridge of a cliff and arrived at the beginning of our “hike.”

Now, yesterday Massimo had ASSURED us that today wasn’t going to be some strenuous hike but a “concentrated walk”. Baloney. Baloney. Baloney! The beginning of this .. walk… consisted of about 30 million steep stone steps. We were all huffing and puffing and decided we had to rock just a sports bra because it was so hot. It was cool though because when we got to the first plateau there was a lemonade stand made from lemons grown right there on the pathway. Thankfully the path flattened out from here just a little ups and downs and I loved it- the view was unreal!
Once we made it to Vernazza we were all so exhausted from our 3 hour trek! We split up in groups and got to eat wherever we wanted. Stephanie, Holly, Erin, Rachel, and myself went to an open air café right next to the water for sandwiches and personal pizzas. We enjoyed the food but enjoyed our cute Italian waiter even more! We all met back up and went down to the beach. Even though the water was FREEEZING we were like “when are we going to get another chance to swim in the Mediterranean?” so we went for it! It was so salty and so easy to float. I loved getting to swim and relax on the beach for the afternoon. 


We boarded the train once again and got back on our bus. The exhaustion set in and it was a very quiet ride home. Since it was our last night in Italy we wanted to have a nice sit down meal instead of our pretty usual grab and go meal. We didn’t have time to shower so we all changed and prowled around looking for a restaurant that had room for 18. We ate at a cute neighborhood place with great food. I had a penne pasta dish and also sampled every other dish on the table! After dinner we wanted to get gelato for the last time – so sad! I got my new favorite pistachio. Strangely enough I ran into my cousin Jenalee there! (no we didn’t plan to meet up) its so fun running into her in this far away place. She told me that all the stores were still open and would be for the night because it was the beginning of fashion week! No wonder the city was buzzing with excitement. Unfortunately the real festivities were taking place down the street and we didn’t have time to go. David told us we had to be completely packed by 3AM so he and Massimo could get our luggage down stairs and loaded in the bus- how nice of them! So we headed home and packed. It took me a while since my side of the room was practically a yard sale! I spent the rest of the night trying to upload pictures to my computer and post blogs from days that I had missed. Now it is 2:30 AM and I’m finally going to bed! Have to be downstairs at 4:30 ayyyy. Greece tomorrow! 

Monday, June 13, 2011

"maybe if we lounge on the steps we'll look like locals..."

It is very very hard to get up when your alarm goes off at 5 in the morning. Good thing I had already packed my bag and picked out what I was going to wear for the day. We met downstairs at 5:45 and walked to the bus stop. After a quick ride to the train station and some much needed cappuccinos we boarded the train for Rome. It was a very quiet 2-hour ride. Everyone fell asleep immediately! We had to catch this time because the later one was a little too late to accommodate everything we wanted to do today. We made it to Rome and got to have a real breakfast in a really cute café near the train station. I had an amazing nutella croissant and another cappuccino (it was necessary). It was really nice to get to sit down and relax for a while. 

I was so excited when I heard our first stop was the Coliseum. I’ve always wanted to go and see for myself exactly what it looked like. We walked there, of course, and I could see the crowd from a mile away. There were some very interesting people dressed up as roman warriors standing around offering themselves for a picture. One in particular entertained us for quite a while…
I loved getting to walk around inside that enormous building. I still can’t believe it was built so long ago and is still standing to tell the story. 

It was really hard to get actual interesting shots because I’ve seen so many pictures of the coliseum I felt like they all started to look the same. I gave up a little early and decided to just enjoy it without stressing about the pictures. We walked to the forum and got an assignment to take the same picture 3 times with 3 different F stops. Things like this are starting to really help me realize how to set my camera for a good shot.
Even though Massimo wanted to hit the Trevi fountain before lunch, we convinced him we would all die if we didn’t eat before. So we ate before. I had the best pesto tortellini and asparagus. I already know I’m going to miss this real Italian food! No one had exchanged their American money for Euros yet so we literally spent the next 3 hours trying to accomplish that. It was actually a nice break once we got to a bank (after trying 2 different ATMs that wouldn’t work) cause we got to rest our feet and have air conditioning YAY.
I FINALLY got to throw a coin in the Trevi fountain! It was fun but the excitement didn’t last too long..

steph me claire 
Once again we convinced Massimo we needed some time to shop before going to the Spanish Steps, so we shopped! But mainly just bought gelato- my new obsession. Sitting on the steps and people watching was so much fun.
me and rachel laughing... really hard

Next we walked to the Pantheon. I still can’t get over the size and beauty of the buildings here.
Riding the subway to the train station was interesting- my first subway ride! We had a quick dinner in the train station and headed home. Ordering was so complicated I felt like we were one big family arguing and rushing each other to order take out! Haha. It was such a long day we are all going straight to bed!

Sunday, June 12, 2011

olives olives olives


We had to be entirely packed up BEFORE 8 a.m. breakfast. Ouch. We ate again in the hostel and loaded up a baggage taxi with all our suitcases. I began to recognize stores and street names during our walk to the Duomo and Cathedral. David and Carolyn gave us another OA (on assignment) for the morning of taking every angle possible of any building- not just the clique tourist picture. Thinking this would be an easy assignment I started firing away. After a couple of shots I started to realize they were ALL the touristy pictures- exactly what we did NOT want. I started to analyze my frames and subjects before I took the picture. Taking my time really proved to enhance the quality of my pictures. 

The only other thing we had to do today was visit an olive grove. We rode the public transportation for about 20 minutes to the very last stop and got off. I felt like we were ‘in the country’ Italy style. What Massimo forgot to tell us was that we were going to have to walk 45 minutes uphill to get to the grove… gratzie Massimo! It was difficult but the scenery was beautiful and we really got some pretty shots. When we finally made it up to estate 13 I could hear the sigh of relief from everyone- of course today was one of the hotter days here in Italia!
Touring the olive grove was really interesting but pretty much exactly what I thought it would be. A bunch of olive trees! But we did get a lot of interesting inside scoop from the owner and an up-close look at the process. After seeing how it’s done we got to be the judge of what’s good oil and what’s not. We each had 3 numbered cups and tasted each one. Number 1 was an example of what it tastes like when you only get vegetable fat. Kinda tasted like the Texan version of olive oil. Cup number 2 was fermented. Not so good either. Finally cup number 3 was what real traditional Italian olive oil is supposed to taste (and smell) like. Much better than any I’ve ever tasted! We enjoyed it with bread, tomatoes, and even some homegrown peppers. Yum.

Getting back on the bus (after a nice downhill trek) we headed for the 2nd hotel we’d be staying at. We’re now located much closer to the insides of the city and there’s much more commotion.  THANKFULLY someone had already carried our bags up the 3 flights of stairs to get to the first floor of the hotel. God bless that person. Another plus was that this hotel actually has an elevator! Using that after not having an elevator the first time to get up to our rooms was so nice. Did the daily routine of downloading pictures and had our first critique. Everyone put their top 3 pictures on a hard drive and we projected them up on the wall. Massimo critiqued each one and made suggestions as to how to make the specific picture and our techniques better. We were all starving after such a light lunch and we went out for pizza. A night shoot had been scheduled for that same night but we were all way too tired to go. Plus, tomorrow we go to Rome, which means we have to get up at 5 a.m. Not really looking forward to that! But I am excited to see the coliseum, Spanish steps, and trevi fountain! 

Saturday, June 11, 2011

"i think everyone here smokes"

Waking up was so so hard.. gotta love that jet lag! Thankfully breakfast wasn't till 9. We ate in the little dining room of our hostel and the owner/ waiter/ chef is too sweet. He happily served all 18 of us, made individual expressos, and wouldn't let us help him clean up.
After a short National Geographic video and some sample pictures we headed out to conquer Florence. The entire morning we split into groups and had a scavenger hunt around the Duomo which was so fun cause the list had pics and videos on it... 'acting out a street performance' was very interesting haha. My cousin Jenalee is living in Florence as part of a Baylor University study abroad program for 7 weeks and I got to see her today! What a coincidence were both here at the same time
We ate a pasta lunch at Pizzaria Nuti - the tortalini benisimo! and so were the nutella waffles that were served for dessert. We definitely needed that carbo load to make it all the way to the statue of David museum. David sure is a whole lot bigger in real life! The museum was filled with lots of interesting sculptures and paintings. After concentrating on photography this change of art pace was nice. After that inspiration we headed out and challenged ourselves to take 3 different category pictures: leading lines, rule of thirds, and framing. Looking for specific shots turned out to be a lot more challenging than I expected.
This is one of my rule of thirds shots.
We walked quite a ways to get to our Italiano cooking class. we had SO much fun. Isabella and Marchela were our chefs and taught us how to make spinach ravioli, baked vegetables, a chicken dish and tiramisu -ALL from scratch! a REAL Italian meal.
We had a long walk home but it was nice to see the nighttime movement and the city lights
We had a quick group meeting making sure we downloaded our photos correctly and made folders to categorize the type of shot and our "hotshots" for the day. 
My first impression of this city so far is exceptional. I love everything about it

Friday, June 10, 2011

Longest day of my life

This is what we had to endure to make it to Florance, a fiasco!
8 hour 40 minute plane ride to Paris (Steph and my personal TV screens wouldn't work, awesome.)
6 hour lay over (we all slept on the floor of the airport)
2 hour 30 minute plane ride to Rome
30 minute tram from air port to train station
2 hour train ride to Florence


Sitting next to Stephanie was the most entertainment I had on that first flight. After buying a pig neck pillow and taking a melatonin pill she was O.U.T. so funny. 


Trying to communicate at the France Airport was somewhat of a struggle-especially when trying to pay for chocolate croissants with american money! The workers got a kick out of our broken French and hand gestures. Getting absolutely no sleep on that first flight made me so tired during the layover I slept on the FLOOR of the airport, well so did everyone else. It was more comfortable than our plane seats! After making it to Rome we got to meet our two leaders, Carolyn and David. They are both really fun and I am so excited to get to know them more. Carolyn actually lives here in Italy so she has lots of knowledge to offer! She is also fluent in Italian and I love hearing her speak the beautiful language. The train station was definitely a culture shock for most of us from all the interesting clothes, to all the dogs, to a bathroom you could only use after you paid a fee! We finally arriving in Florence we met our National Geographic Expert, Mossimo! He also lives in Italy thankfully showing us the quickest way to a gellato store! yum. Now we are showering (much needed) and relaxing in a quaint hostel.I can not wait to lay down in a real bed and get some sleep! 
It's been a long day, or was it 2?

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

24 hours to go

Tomorrows the day!
We had our last class this morning, mainly just talking about last minute details and more fancy picture lingo. We got out pretty early and I spent the rest of the afternoon running around town on errands for the trip. I think my mom is just as stressed as I am which isn't helping the calmness level in the house right now! Since I'll be gone for oh 15 days I decided dinner needs to be something i definitely cannot get in Italy or Greece. So i'm thinkin Mexican or Chinese food. But first things first I really need to actually put my clothes into my suitcase! what. a. struggle. I really would prefer not to fall into my usual ritual of an all nighter to pack the night before a trip! 
The New Zealand/Fiji trip left today, I am so excited to see the pictures they come home with! I can't even imagine going from someplace so cold like New Zealand to hot and tropical like Fiji. Regardless, it sounds amazing.
I promise these posts will get more interesting once I am actually IN italy and greece...

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

City Center Test Run

This morning we met at city center to practice adjusting the ISO, F stop and shutter speed on our cameras. We used objects such as flowers, rocks and fountains to help us understand these somewhat confusing concepts.. (for me at least). Unfortunately we weren't allowed to practice using our tripods because of private property laws but we did what we could. Today was very helpful because I got to really practice outside and i'm starting to really appreciate good pictures and how much work goes into them. I used photoshop for the first time today and I love it! I'm so excited to get to Italy, take some amazing pictures, and show them to all my friends so they'll be JEALZZZZ (they better be reading my blog too!) 2 days to go... maybe I should start packing

Monday, June 6, 2011

First day of class

I can't believe I'm finally getting to visit my dream destinations; Italy and Greece. You'd think that all this excitement would have motivated me to start packing since I'm leaving in 3 days and all... but no. My usual procrastination is still alive and well but hopefully not for long! We began classes this morning starting promptly at 8:50 AM - rough morning for us who have began the sacred summer routine of sleeping till 10. Since our usual haunt Memorial High School is under construction this summer we had to venture to Spring Woods for our 3 days of classes before departure. Having no previous photography experience (I didn't even take photography senior year) I had no idea what to expect. I've always had a love and respect for the art but never really had motivation to learn much about it until this trip opportunity came up. I quickly became confused this morning with all the new vocabulary of F stops, shutter speeds and ISO Sensitivity, thankfully I wasn't the only beginner here! We walked to El Gallo for lunch and were all desperate for a siesta. Thankfully we came back to Spring Woods set up our blogs and got to leave. I feel like i've already learned so much and I hope I can remember it all. Some serious shopping is in order... when in Rome one must always look cute!