Hey Everyone!!
I am so sorry that I have been slacking in my blog entries! I make no excuses, I know it is unforgivable of me since I am depriving you of such fascinating stories that I know you are dying to read ;)
So, let me catch you up on the last two weeks of my time in this beautiful, but exceptionally hot city! First things first: internship. It has been going very well and I have come to know the people here a lot better and the more I get to know them, the more I like them. Stephanie Moran, who will be head of the London office come September, and I have been working a lot together. We have learned how to edit and blend images acquired by the Lucida 3D scanner. I have even done several scans on my own. which were fairly complex because I had to account for a change in the Z-axis, which makes it more complicated to scan and process the data. It was a good experience and practice for me though! Stephanie and I have also been working on a tutorial for how to blend images together so any one who has never used Photoshop (like myself) will be able to process the images. Additionally, they have had me reviewing the entirety of their website in order to find ways to improve it, which is actually pretty nice because I get to read about all the artists that Factum works with and what type of projects they work on. I was reading about one that I thought was slightly disturbing and therefore, I would never want it in my living room. It was an artist that used rabbbit skins as a template for scultpures. It was pretty um creepy, which may have been the artist´s intent, who knows? It is memorable to say the least. :P
It has not been all work and no play for me! I have been able to go down to the City Center on weekends and enjoy some of city life of Madrid. My second weekend in Madrid, I pretty much just picked a direction and walked around taking pictures and going into shops. I have also defintely been eating way to much ice cream/smoothies because they are sold everywhere and really what is better than something cold on a day that is literally 106 degrees? In my wanderings I found a rooftop terrace, which overlooked the entire city and it was quite beautiful. I took many pictures, which I posted on Facebook if you are so inclined to look at them! :) I also enjoyed a lovely night on the town with some fellow co-workers, all of which were English actually (that may have been our bond-the common language ;)). We went to this very cool sherry bar. I have never had sherry and I think I like it, maybe. It was an interesting flavor slightly sweeter than wine, but with a zing too. I am not very good at describing it and I do apologize for that! I can tell you that the place smelled really good so that is a plus! After we were done at the sherry bar we went to a very delicious restaurant around the corner. Now, the one piece of advice that I would give to people who are traveling to places they have never been before is just order whatever or have someone else order for you and simply eat it without asking what is in it. Ignorance really is bliss sometimes. This allows people, myself included to try some amazing food that I may have bulked over if I had any clue as to what it was. That being said I have eaten things here that I literally have no idea what they were but tasted amazing. One of these things was at this restaurant. It was the spanish version of black pudding and no to this day I do not know how or what is in this pudding and I really don´t want to, so please don´t tell me. :) After the restaurant we went to this rather shady club where we danced to some oldies, which for all those who know me know I was in heaven! I literally knew the words to every song which means they really were old! By the time we were done dancing it was like 3am so Constanza and Arthur (co-workers) offered to let me stay in their flat rather than take a cab all the way back to my place. I readily agreed because I really wanted to stay in a place with air conditioning since my room at this point in time did not have any. Needless to say sleeping was a struggle!
The next morning after my first good night´s sleep in a week we went to the antiques market. They were very cool, I must admit! They had everything from vintage phones to record and cassette player combos. It was so bizarre! I was able to find a gift for someone back home, but I will not say the name here in case this person reads this and then that would just spoil the surprise and no one wants that, right? However, I did have a slight Marissa moment while, I was walking and I know some of you are leaning forward in your seats to read what clutzy things happened to me now and others are probably quite exasperated with my silliness! Any who, onto the story, so I was walking with my friends/co-workers to the market and I was just chatting away not paying too much attention to where I was going and being a life time clutz, I should really know better. So, as we were stepping off the curb I some how tripped over the cement cylinder, which I assume is there to keep cars from coming up on the pavement, so it is about knee height. So I tripped and I was following, but I managed to gran onto Arthur´s back pack while I twisted my ankle and bruised my knee. The important part though was that Arthur was not hurt and really the thing that was most hurt was my dignity! Oh well, everyone trips once and a while, right? I just happen to do it more than once and a while! ;) After this little incident I did not want to stay too long because I was sore and I really needed to do laundry, so I went back to my place.
This incident was not the last of my undignified moments of the day! When I got back to my place, my flatmate left a note saying that the alarms were on, which was very nice of him. So, when I went through the gate I knew that I had 30 seconds or so to turn the alarm off. Problem was I could not figure out which key was what to open the door to get to the alarm system, so the alarm went off. Then when that alarm went off, the second alarm also started to go off, so I am running around like a crazy person trying to stop the alarms before the police come to arrest me for trespassing! The security company also calls the person who owns the building to check to make sure it is an intruder but, since I don´t have a spanish number there was no way to reach me and check! I felt so terrible! Eventually, I was able to find the right key and shut the alarm off but this was a good 8 min after it was going off. My poor neighbirs, I tell you! I went upstairs to get my laundry and let me tell you I was almost afraid to go back downstairs for fear of finding the police surrounding the place or making the alarm mad again! It all worked out in the end, but it was a slightly trying day!
Well, that is all I have time for right now, but I will fill you guys in more tonight, hopefully!
Ciao!
Thursday, July 9, 2015
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Week One in Spain
Hola Everyone!
So, I have decided to create another blog about my internship in lovely and sunny Spain. I will be in Spain for about 7 weeks and I have been hear for about a week already and I felt that is was time to update all my amazing friends back home about the trouble I have been getting into! ;)
I have started my internship this week and so far it is very cool. I am working with a 3D scanner called Lucida, although it was formerly known as Lucifer, but due to the fact that there were several jobs done in the Vatican and other churches people felt the name should be changed. :P Basically, what this scanner does is it uses a laser to scan a painting, print or panel to get 3D information about the surface of the object in order to document the pieces before they are restored/conserved or to create a more accurate facsimile. For those who do not know, (and don't feel bad I didn't either until I came here) a facsimile is replication of an object, painting, or place. That is one of the main things that Factum Arte does. It is all very impressive. Some of the more well-known jobs that they have completed are creating a facsimile of King Tut's tombs as well as several Caravaggio paintings. More often than not they are asked to create these things in order to prevent damage to the original and if something were to happen to the original than all would not be lost. Additionally, they are asked to make replicas to be placed where the originals once hung in order to complete a church or a home since that is what they were meant to decorate in the past. It is also so very interesting and it really makes you question what originality means in the art world. Here is the link to the website if you all want to read more about it!
http://www.factum-arte.com/
Now, that some of the technical duties are explained, I shall inform you all about the people because really it is the people that make the place. Everyone here is absolutely fantastic and they all really believe in what they are doing which makes it even better because they love it and they are making a difference. People from all over the world work here including Brazil, Egypt, England, France, and I am sure there is more once I get to know everyone better. They are so willing to share, which is wonderful. The first night I was here a man named Miqui took me out to dinner and showed me how to get to the supermarket, but he would not let me pay for anything. He is such a nice guy and honestly cares about others. The second night I was here I had dinner with this lovely Englishman named Mike Ward and he was fantastic. He cooked an amazing meal for me and we talked for hours about family, politics, religion and art. It was amazing how much we had in common despite the significant age difference (40 years), so all you holding your breath that I may have found the love of my life (finally) should really continue to breathe for I fear you may expire before that happens. ;) I have met some people that are my own aged names Aliaa, Stephanie, Arthur and Constanza. They are a little older, but not much and they too are very generous and eager to learn and teach others. I must admit that I am feeling rather guilty because someone has cooked for me every night and it was so nice, but they would not let me clean the dishes or anything. Chivalry is really not dead, but apparently you have to come to Europe to find it. :) Any way, I hope to make my famous Cinnamon Rolls for them this week to say thank you and if you have not heard of these famous rolls you must tell me and I will make sure that you get them ASAP! I would hate to deprive you of their awesomeness (Sorry, I couldn't help but gloat a bit there, but I promise the moment has passed now.)
Lets see on to this weekend. I was able to navigate to the city center where I visited the Prada Museum and the Botanical Gardens. They were breathtaking and it was so nice just to wonder and not have any particular destination in mind. I think you almost find more interesting things this way. I walked for hours and once I was really tired I found a nicely shaded bench and read my book. It was so relaxing. I basically did the same thing on Sunday. I picked a direction to walk and I just walked and visited places that appeared interesting. It was wonderful. I did have a slight mishap with a larger large piece of glass, but I am okay. I rolled my ankle a bit and bruised my heal, but nothing out of the ordinary for me! I took many pictures which I will upload here or on Facebook. So I do hope that you enjoy them. If you notice a pink baseball cap in a few of them, don't mind it. I am sure those who know me will think it is strange since you all know I am not a huge fan of pink, however, it was given to me by Hooke College of Applied Sciences and with out them I would not be here today and I thought it would be nice to send some pictures of me wearing the hat to them! :)
Any who, it is getting late here so I will wrap up and probably blog more in the next few days!
So, I have decided to create another blog about my internship in lovely and sunny Spain. I will be in Spain for about 7 weeks and I have been hear for about a week already and I felt that is was time to update all my amazing friends back home about the trouble I have been getting into! ;)
I have started my internship this week and so far it is very cool. I am working with a 3D scanner called Lucida, although it was formerly known as Lucifer, but due to the fact that there were several jobs done in the Vatican and other churches people felt the name should be changed. :P Basically, what this scanner does is it uses a laser to scan a painting, print or panel to get 3D information about the surface of the object in order to document the pieces before they are restored/conserved or to create a more accurate facsimile. For those who do not know, (and don't feel bad I didn't either until I came here) a facsimile is replication of an object, painting, or place. That is one of the main things that Factum Arte does. It is all very impressive. Some of the more well-known jobs that they have completed are creating a facsimile of King Tut's tombs as well as several Caravaggio paintings. More often than not they are asked to create these things in order to prevent damage to the original and if something were to happen to the original than all would not be lost. Additionally, they are asked to make replicas to be placed where the originals once hung in order to complete a church or a home since that is what they were meant to decorate in the past. It is also so very interesting and it really makes you question what originality means in the art world. Here is the link to the website if you all want to read more about it!
http://www.factum-arte.com/
Now, that some of the technical duties are explained, I shall inform you all about the people because really it is the people that make the place. Everyone here is absolutely fantastic and they all really believe in what they are doing which makes it even better because they love it and they are making a difference. People from all over the world work here including Brazil, Egypt, England, France, and I am sure there is more once I get to know everyone better. They are so willing to share, which is wonderful. The first night I was here a man named Miqui took me out to dinner and showed me how to get to the supermarket, but he would not let me pay for anything. He is such a nice guy and honestly cares about others. The second night I was here I had dinner with this lovely Englishman named Mike Ward and he was fantastic. He cooked an amazing meal for me and we talked for hours about family, politics, religion and art. It was amazing how much we had in common despite the significant age difference (40 years), so all you holding your breath that I may have found the love of my life (finally) should really continue to breathe for I fear you may expire before that happens. ;) I have met some people that are my own aged names Aliaa, Stephanie, Arthur and Constanza. They are a little older, but not much and they too are very generous and eager to learn and teach others. I must admit that I am feeling rather guilty because someone has cooked for me every night and it was so nice, but they would not let me clean the dishes or anything. Chivalry is really not dead, but apparently you have to come to Europe to find it. :) Any way, I hope to make my famous Cinnamon Rolls for them this week to say thank you and if you have not heard of these famous rolls you must tell me and I will make sure that you get them ASAP! I would hate to deprive you of their awesomeness (Sorry, I couldn't help but gloat a bit there, but I promise the moment has passed now.)
Lets see on to this weekend. I was able to navigate to the city center where I visited the Prada Museum and the Botanical Gardens. They were breathtaking and it was so nice just to wonder and not have any particular destination in mind. I think you almost find more interesting things this way. I walked for hours and once I was really tired I found a nicely shaded bench and read my book. It was so relaxing. I basically did the same thing on Sunday. I picked a direction to walk and I just walked and visited places that appeared interesting. It was wonderful. I did have a slight mishap with a larger large piece of glass, but I am okay. I rolled my ankle a bit and bruised my heal, but nothing out of the ordinary for me! I took many pictures which I will upload here or on Facebook. So I do hope that you enjoy them. If you notice a pink baseball cap in a few of them, don't mind it. I am sure those who know me will think it is strange since you all know I am not a huge fan of pink, however, it was given to me by Hooke College of Applied Sciences and with out them I would not be here today and I thought it would be nice to send some pictures of me wearing the hat to them! :)
Any who, it is getting late here so I will wrap up and probably blog more in the next few days!
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