Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Lab Day Two



Well today was a much better day. We learned how to do a bunch of different things with Photoshop and I am now convinced that I can not believe ANYTHING I see in any photograph ever. So far we are working with digital photos that the professor took and not our own. But it's amazing what you can do! There's the basics like cropping photos and zooming in and out. But then you can make pix look like mosaics or frescoes or even distort them like you're looking through water or plastic wrap. You can delete whole backgrounds, like taking away a cloudy sky from one photo and inserting blue sky from another photo into it. You can sharpen images, change colors, and enhance lighting levels. And of course, we all had fun taking Caesar's head off of a statue and putting on someone else's (see other post for mine, but others did animals, celebrities, etc.). I'm excited to learn more! For lunch they gave us breaded turkey cutlets (tacchino) with pasta and french fries, cookies and fruit. After class, a few of us walked down the Janiculum together and went to run errands like going to the "better" grocery store just to check it out, and I had to get a new adapter. That was a project - trying to explain in my pretty limited Italian that I need an adapter that will turn a 3-prong American plug into a 2- or 3- prong Italian plug. But I did find one hardware store and managed to get out of him that he didn't sell them but got directions on who did. And they were open! And in the meantime, from the first guy, I got these cute little bronze fleur di lys hooks that will look cute in the bathroom!!! For only 2 euro! Since coming home, I've checked some guides and maps and figured out where to eat tonight - it's a pizzaria described as "big, bright and often busy," and is known locally as "L'Obitorio" (the morgue) because it has cold marble-topped tables. It's on our street so it shouldn't be too hard to find and it's cheap! Well, it's 7:30 and we're off. I'll let you know how the pizza was when I get back. Planning an early night tonight lolol.

The pizza was a hit. Kathy and I had three other joiners and we walked down the street (in Italy that's about 1 1/2 miles) to the pizza place. Although we could see the marble tables and the pizza cooks flipping dough, we ate al fresco out on the sidewalk tables. I'll only speak for my own meal, which was fabulous: uno fiora di zucchini (a fried zucchini flower stuffed with mozzarella and anchovies, battered and fried) e una pizza margherita (with basil this time!), and of course, vino rosso della casa (the house red wine). All of which was very tasty and accompanied by a husband-and-wife accordionist and cello team. The check was hand-written, prices only without any description as to what was what) on a pocket-sized graph paper pad. Interesting...
But it was, in fact, pretty cheap, and when we asked where the best gelateria was, he informed a happy group that it was only 30 meters down the block. I had a small cone of cocomelo...watermelon...now, you know when you have Friendly's watermelon sherbet or a watermelon Jolly Rancher and it doesn't really taste anything like watermelon??? Well, this was like watermelon on a cone. It really is an amazing thing. Deliziosa. Next block I spotted an open flower stand and decided some Gerbera daisies would spruce up our dining room table (yes, we have a dining room table...it seats 6!). The "vendi di fiore" was a man who, although he understood English, was happy to assist me in practicing my Italian. I have this thing about trying to talk to them in their own language, even though most of them speak English, and I even ask them to help me practice, which, happily, they are most eager to do. While the two Kathies waited outside, I had light conversation in Italiano for about 20 minutes, then, with a kiss-kiss and promise to return in a few days, we strolled off to the tram back to our apartment. Not sure if I've mentioned the weather, but let's just say we have gorgeous blue skies, white puffy clouds (not even Photoshopped in!), an amazingly cool breeze and I've never experienced Rome with weather quite as perfetto! A productive, successful and happy day was had by all and I'm now off to dreamland. Ciao!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

How is it that you will eat everything - but only in Italy?

Anonymous said...

Here here, C! lolol J