Linnet Walker

"In this success-oriented world, our lives become more and more dominated by superlatives. We brag about the highest tower, the fastest runner, the tallest man, the longest bridge and the best student… 

"If you think you’ve seen the same thing twice, you haven’t seen it at all."

 Our first class here in Italy, Disegno IN Orvieto is almost over. The next three days we will be working on our final projects for the class, and on Thursday, we will all present them and have one big critique.

"There are two ways through life, the way of Nature and the way of Grace. You have to choose which one you'll follow. 

Grace doesn't try to please itself. Accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked. Accepts insults and injuries.

Nature only wants to please itself. Get others to please it too. Likes to lord it over them. To have its own way. It finds reasons to be unhappy when all the world is shining around it. And love is smiling through all things.

They taught us that no one who loves the way of grace ever comes to a bad end.

I will be true to you. Whatever comes."

"Rome is probably the Italian city where I have lived the longest, without ever asking myself why." - Calvino

Rome in three and a half days.

Three and a half days of museums, churches, and navigating the cobblestone streets, encountering more history than can possibly be absorbed in such a short amount of time.

Travel Abroad Musings from Italy

"The power of expression is not the monopoly of man. Expression and communication are, to some degree, something of which animals are capable. What characterizes man is not only his ability to develop words and symbols, but also his being compelled to draw a distinction between the utterable and the unutterable, to be stunned by that which is but cannot be put into words.

According to the calendar, I have now been in the city of Orvieto for one week. To me, however, it feels like a much longer amount of time. Things that happened when we first arrived here feel like ages ago. Everyday is a strange contrast between feeling like I have so much more time in the day, and yet also feeling like the days are going by at an alarming rate. I have yet to reconcile why this is.

Early morning breakfast with Alyssa A of cornflakes, coffee, and leftover tiramisu.

Last orientation walk around town. Suggestions of where to eat and places to stop by from Karen and Emily.

Afternoon napping.