July

Sand Turn

The first couple of weeks with the Forest Service have been exciting and I have learned a lot. The more I learn the less i know. My first project is Sand Turn scenic overlook. Sand Turn is off of the highway and my job is to design a pedestrian friendly area for viewing the panoramic landscape. There are views out to the Tongue River Basin, to the Buffalo Tongue rock formation, and the Fallen City rock formation. Tomorrow I am going to try and go hiking, depending on the weather. I'm shooting for either Bighorn Canyon, or Tongue River Canyon. The images below are views from Sand Turn, and the Forest Portal sign which is going to be moved to Sand Turn from another location on the highway.

First Weekend

Over

I am home. Maybe I should continue the blog and rename it "A Semester in Italy and a Summer at Bighorn." Thoughts?

Out With A Bang

It is now the last weekend before I return home to Kansas City. I'm getting excited but at the same time there is so much more to see here and no more time. Last weekend Alyssa and John visited here from Prague so I went back to some of the cities I've already been to with them. On Thursday I met up with them in Rome and we went to the Vatican. On the way back to the train station we saw the Spanish Steps and the Trevi fountain. I was amazed at how much it has changed since the first couple weeks when I was there. The Steps and Fountain were very crowded in February but nothing compared to what I saw that day.

Friday we stuck around Orvieto for most of the day and then took a train to Florence where we stayed the night. We wandered around Florence in the evening to the usual sites, Duomo, Ponte Veccio, etc. When we got to Santa Croce we found that they were having a huge market of Italian foods in the piazza. Alyssa and I had artichokes and olives for dinner which was amazing. That night in Florence turned out to be something special. It was The White Night which is the May Day celebration of Florence and is the biggest Florentine party of the year. Everyone stays out until the wee hours of the morning no matter how young or old they are. There were concerts and bands set up all over the city. Every piazza, no matter how big, seemed to have a stage set up for a band. There was even a band playing on the Ponte Veccio. We wandered around for a while trying to avoid getting run over thousands and thousands of people. When we got to the Piazza Santa Maria Novella we heard the most awful noise coming from the stage of what seemed to be a large concert. Neither Alyssa and I knew what was going on but we knew that the music was awful and that people were really excited and cheering. The noises were high pitched screeching combined with the sounds of a sick whale. I don't even know. I picked up a flier on the ground and found out that it was the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra. All of the music was being made using only vegetables; eggplants, carrot horns, squash drums, and beans being thrown everywhere. I was actually somewhat impressed and I got some great video documenting it.

On Saturday we wandered around Florence again and saw pretty much everything we saw the previous night. Again, we stopped by the food vendors at Santa Croce and got the antipasti which may have been the most flavorful thing I've had in Italy.

Sunday Maxie, John, Alyssa, and myself went to Siena to see the St. Catherine's Day celebrations. We went to the church of San Domenico to see the opening of Mass where some of the Contrada members where dressed in their traditional costumes. A Cardinal also attended the mass and went over and talked to the head of St. Catherine. I bet that was a one sided conversation. We just walked around Siena the rest of the day. It was rainy all day so the festivities where a bit dampened. We went into the Duomo which may be the most impressive church I've seen in Italy. We also climbed an incomplete part of the Duomo to look over the Campo and the Duomo.

I have the rest of this weekend to pack and get ready for my return to America. I have been going out to a few of the local restaurants and having traditional Orvietani meals. For the most part, we have not eaten out in Orvieto all semester since we have learned to make such good dishes for ourselves. Now that I am going out to eat I am realizing why those people are professionals.

Florence 3

We went to Florence for the third time as a group but this time it was only with Carol's seminar. We went underneath the Duomo to look at the historical layers and the development of Florence through time. After we were done as a group, I went to Santa Maria Novella and the Boboli Gardens by myself. These gardens were nice but nowhere near as well kept as some of the villas we have visited. After the gardens I walked back down the hill to the river and then walked back up it to get to the Piazzale Michelangelo which has a bronze replica of The David. The piazza is much higher than the city of Florence and has the best panoramic view across the city. On my way back to the train station I stopped to get some lunch and ordered a sausage and eggplant panini. As you can tell by the photo, the sausage was completely raw. It tasted good and I didn't get sick but it was just really weird eating something like that. I definitely did not expect raw meat on my sandwich.

Siena

Siena has been one of my favorite Italian cities that we have visited this semester. It is a very unique city because it openly celebrates and adapts the historical traditions to this day. They have 17 Contradas which are historical districts of the city. They are very prideful and this is apparent everywhere; there are Contrada flags hanging all over the town marking the boundaries. As a group we went into the Goose Contrada Museum which is almost a sacred place for Contrada members only. It was really impressive because we got to see the historical costumes and the banners won in the Palio. This last weekend a few of us were in Siena for St. Catherine's Day celebration which I will talk about when I post pictures of last weekend. I really appreciated Siena's mentality that they can continue traditions and community pride but at the same time updating the traditions to the modern age. Siena is a pretty neat and interesting place. Do some research about Siena about the Contradas and the Palio if you want to know why I'm so interested in Siena.