Masks, mosaics, glass blowing, and gelato
- Apr 4, 2017
- 3 min read
We made it to Europe! We began our third and last trimester in Venice, Italy. We spent a little over a week there and I absolutely loved it. My stay there was full of gelatos, pasta, pizza, waterbuses, arts and crafts, and more gelato (seriously I think I ate gelato like twice a day very day). Venice felt different than any other place we’ve been to because we had so much free time to go explore the city on our own that I actually felt like I was traveling and not just part of a program. I learned a lot about the language, the culture and the history of Venice. The first few days there we had the Executive Director of Winterline, Nathan, join us and we met the Regional Director of Europe, Anna. My stay there was much more fulfilling than any other place because both of them knew a lot about the history and culture of Venice. We went out into the main historic sites and monuments and they taught us about the trading and import history of Venice and art history. It was very enriching to have had that knowledge on our arrival. We also took an hour long Italian lesson and learned basic Italian phrases and I absolutely fell in love with the language. I know for sure I want to study it in college.
Other skills we learned was mask making which was so much fun. I thought I was going to hate it because I usually don’t like arts and crafts but making the mask was very fun. We had a mold to make the mask out of it and used paper and glue to make the mask, in the form of paper mache. After finishing the masks, we waited one day so they would dry and then we painted them. During that day we went to make mosaics. Making them was fun at the beginning but after a while it got tiresome and time was running out so it got so stressful. But it was ok, it was cool. Some people finished their mosaics and kept them but I didn’t finish mine so I left it there. The day after we went back to finish our masks. We painted the masks we made with two colors: black and the color of our choice, I chose dark red. The technique we used to paint it is called distressing or weathering. I painted it all red and dried it with a hair dryer, then I painted it all black and used a piece of damp paper towel to take some of the black paint away creating a fading look. After painting these masks, we got the opportunity to paint another mask that was already made and we painted them however we wanted. I chose the moon mask. The last day we saw how they made glass blowing and it was so cool. We went to the island of Murano to learn about the Murano glass. We made a tiny piece of art made out of tiny pieces of glass that they will melt together to obtain the last result. It takes a couple of days for this to happen so they are going to mail our pieces of art to Boston, so we don’t get to see the result until May!
The last day in Venice me and some other students went to an island called Lido and rented bikes to go to the beach. It was a nice ride through the town and it was definitely less crowded than in the other islands. There were barely any tourists and it sometimes looked like a ghost town. The beach was really pretty though. In that island there’s also cars and buses which was super weird to see since I got used to the pedestrian city of Venice and not paying attention to cars passing by.
Venice was so fun and I enjoyed it so much! I loved having the opportunity to explore the city on our own and having so much free time. I loved speaking the language and the food was amazing! I don’t think I ate anything else other than pasta, pizza, and gelato. I thought I was going to get tired but I didn’t. Also almost every meal was accompanied by a bottle of Prosecco which I miss truly. Venice was a great start to our time in Europe.
Comments