Ravenna... still!

Hi all,

Well we are half way through day 4 of the course & it's speeding by very quickly. Have finished both of my mosaics, although the first one needs to have the cheesecloth taken of with boiling water tomorrow. Today we did our modern mosaic in a few hours. Much simpler process - put cement that dries in a couple of hours directly into a frame, transfer your design & work like mad to finish before the cement sets! You just put the pieces straight into the cement. Quicker but once a piece is in, it's pretty much in!

The other people in the course are mostly nice. There's an aunt & niece who keep a bit to themselves as they are on a kind of bonding trip. There's the OT who talks ALL THE TIME about things nobody else cares about. She gives details of everything her daughters, son etc do & don't do, info about their husbands etc. And always has a story to equal or better anything somebody says! She seems to have pissed off all 4 of us already. A clean sweep.

Lastly there's Sylvie, a doctor from New York who I have teamed up with a bit. We have had dinner together a few nights & went to a jazz concert last night. The Ravenna Festival is on so there's things to do at night. Hostel curfew is 11.30pm though, so I have to be careful not to be locked out! Tonight we are meeting the computer man from the course at a ceramics exhibition & having drinks with him & some of his friends.

The people running the course are amazing. Very passionate about what they do. Luciana is the boss & can speak English, but gets so excited talking about mosaics she reverts to Italian & Analisa had to translate! Ana helps teach but is also the translator. She's also a great source of local information & likes collecting expressions from other countries. I have taught her "off like a bucket of prawns in the sun".

Brunetta is just that & Sylvie & I can't work out how someone can look so elegant making mosaics! She's an amazing artisan (NOT an artist) & watching her work is quite fascinating. Then there's Luca who's a dogsbody really. He'll cut tiles for us, prepare the cement/binder/glue etc but he also works on their mosaics.

Last night there was a new girl in my dorm, who is here updating the Let's Go Travel Guide for the US. I spoke to her about the course & she came with me this morning to speak to them "for 5 minutes" - but of course they're italian & she left about 45 minutes later.

We go on a tour of the Basilicas etc this afternoon to see all of the mosaics. I am able to stay at the hostel on Friday night as well so will head to Venice Saturday. Until then, ciao.

PS Happy Birthday again for yesterday, Penny!!!

Luv,

Belle xxx