I have officially reached my fourth week of classes, and – no offense to my previous education – I have never felt so excited to learn! This is mostly because I’m strictly taking classes that I am passionate about, but there are also other elements to it. Before I get into them, I want to mention I am taking four classes: Yoga, Meditation & Spirituality, Advanced Filmmaking, Digital Sketchbook, and World Religions. I am a film major, and the rest are personal interests. Also, if you didn’t know, I am studying at Lorenzo De Medici in Florence, Italy.
All of my professors are born and raised Italians, and they speak English well as most in Florence do. I’ve found that having Italian professors has been helpful in understanding the culture because they will more often than not connect the subject matter to Italian influence. In my digital sketchbook class, we learn how to create art using Adobe Photoshop, but in every other class we spend half of our time exploring the city to sketch statues or architecture (we incorporate our work later at the computer lab). Before my professor lets us spread out and find a spot to sketch, he’ll explain romantic lore about the widow of war waiting in a specific window above the Piazza of the Annunziata. He’ll finish his stories with an emphasis that the truth is up to interpretation – as it is just Italian folklore – and we don’t have to draw that if we don’t want to. He then proceeds to light up a cigarette and disappear to a cafe. The next day I have my film class inside of the Franco Zeffirelli museum, which is a grand display of a renounced Italian filmmaker’s work. To find the bathroom, first I have to get lost in the exhibits of Zeffirelli’s set design masterpieces and life-size mannequins wearing his character’s larger-than-life gowns. I’ll even sit down in the mini theater for a moment and catch a glimpse of whichever one of his films is playing at the moment! Lastly, my yoga professor happens to also be my religion professor, and she is always giving the best museum suggestions to seek out manifestations of what we’re learning in class. I’ve quickly come to the realization that it makes a huge difference to take classes in a location that is full of rich history!
One of the best parts of going to class is how compassionate yet casual my professors are. My digital sketchbook professor has no problem giving me the same advice in different words (I really don’t know how to draw), and it won’t be until I succeed that he admits, “Ah! I was really getting worried but now I am not!”. My film professor is hilarious and not afraid to roast his students’ work, but I prefer it to other teaching approaches because I learn faster. To give an accurate description of his style, in one class he goes, “Okay we’re going to watch a movie now. It is pretty lighthearted, but I want you to pay attention to the cinematography”. He proceeds to put on the Korean film “Old Boy”, leaving everyone in the class appalled and speechless. If you don’t know the movie, just understand there was a unanimous agreement that it is the most disturbing movie we’ve ever watched in our lifetime. However, the screenwriting and cinematography were out of this world, and now I’m inspired to push my filmmaking limits more than ever.
The last point I’ll make about studying in this program is how interesting it is to hear perspectives from international students. Especially in my World Religions class. Half of the class is from outside of America, so their perceptions of popular religions and stigmas are fascinating to compare my own experiences with. All in all, I feel like I’m learning a lot more than I would if I took the same classes in America. It’s pretty amazing!
DU Abroad 