Classes in Florence, part 2.

Wednesday evening (3pm to 8:30pm kind of sucks) I had my first design class, CAD II. There are maybe 7 people in the class, including Nicola and I, and apparently everyone else has been taking classes at LdM for a while now. This was very intimidating at first, not knowing what skill level everyone else in the class was at and wondering if I was going to be able to keep up. Also, the metric system. Trying to convert everything from inches into millimeters in AutoCAD was very frustrating and just added to my feelings of uncertainty. We learned soon, however, that we wouldn't be focusing much on AutoCAD this semester, but rather we would be learning to use Rhino and Revit. Since no one else in the class has learned these programs yet, the level playing field definitely put me more at ease. I've always really enjoyed the computer modeling aspect of my major so I think I'm going to like this class.

My Thursdays are very easily the roughest days I'm going to have each week. They start at 9am with my 20th Century Design and Architecture class. I'm sure this class will be somewhat interesting as most classes are composed of a lecture and also a mini field trip, it's just difficult for me to be inspired by anything at 9am I think. This week we visited the Odeon cinema. It's a really neat movie theater, way bigger and cooler than anything I've seen in Texas. I took pictures but now I can't find them. Sorry. (Edit: They're in my flickr photostream if you feel inclined to check them out)

At 11:30 when class got out, I thought I had half an hour to get breakfast before heading to my Italian class at noon, which was very close by. Then I remembered I left my textbook and homework in my apartment and spent the next 40 minutes almost literally running across the city of Florence in the freezing cold wearing my new boots which are really made for walking instead of jogging. I don't recommend this to anyone. I probably would have been fine without those things. Ugh.

View from Exhibit Design into the San Lorenzo market

Coffee machine near my class where I can get as many 70 cent hot chocolates as my wallet can handle each day.

At 3pm (another 5.5 hour class) I headed over to my Exhibit Design class right next to the Basilica of San Lorenzo. Having no experience in retail design and very little experience in actual design projects of any kind I was a little apprehensive about what to expect from this class. We spent the class period taking a "level placement test" which consisted of developing a concept, plan, and elevations for a product exhibit that fits the theme of "Beyond Graffiti", the subject of the school's art competition that we'll all be focusing our first project on. I really don't know much about graffiti culture so coming up with a brand was kind of challenging for me, but I was happy with the project I eventually came up with. I think overall I'm going to enjoy this class, but having my first project be limited by such a specific theme is not my favorite. Also worth noting, Nicola and I are apparently the only people in this class not skilled in Rhino or Revit, so I definitely felt like my attempt at conveying my project seemed very elementary compared to everyone else in the room.


I'm kind of nervous about how classes are going to go for me here. At TCU we worked with the same professors and students for 5 semesters so we had an extremely clear idea of what was expected of us. Being in a completely different environment with new professors and classmates of all different skill levels makes it difficult to judge just how easy or difficult this is all going to be for me, and that's unsettling. However, everyone I've talked to who's done this before has said that classes here are a joke, so I'm going to trust that everything's going to be fine.