Traveling, Making Art, and Midterms…
February 23 - April 8:
It’s been a minute since I’ve written with an update, so there’s lots to catch up on.
At the end of February, I took a little weekend trip to New York to visit my dear friend Abby and her dad Jon who was in town from Colorado visiting. We went to The MET and visited with our friend Quoc, saw The La Boheme opera, went to the Folk Art Museum, looked around the Chelsea Flea Market, and had many game nights together. It was such a lovely trip!
When I got back from New York, I spent all my time in the studio working on my Midterm projects. I spent lots of time in the enameling room, getting all of the pieces for my quilt ready to be assembled. For one of my projects, I made a hand quilt. The metal quilt, that rests on my hand is supposed to mimic the weight of holding my grandmother’s hand. I had a lot of fun making it and I’m excited with how it turned out!
Towards the end of March, I started on my journey to Europe! My first stop of the trip was Lisbon for an 8-hour layover to explore the city before heading to Paris. It was a very rainy day in Lisbon, but I walked around the city, rode the famous yellow 28 tram around the city, and visited the National Tile Museum. The city was so colorful! Unfortunately, while I was exploring the city my luggage was stolen. Luckily I still had all my important documents and had to just journeying on!
With the clothes on my back and passport in my hand, I boarded my flight to Paris! As soon as I got there I stopped at a few second-hand stores to get a few pieces of clothing to carry me through the rest of my trip. In Paris, I stayed with my friends Emma and Leah in a high school where Leah was a teacher. We explored the markets, ate ham and cheese sandwiches, drank lots of coffee, tried escargot, walked through Notre Dame during 6 pm mass, took a sunset boat tour, went to the Musee d’Orsay, and visited the Eiffel Tower. Paris was so much fun, I definitely will need to go back!
After 3 days in Paris, Emma and I took the train down to Marseille for the day. I loved just looking out the window at the French countryside. We met up with Emma’s friend Lydia and she showed us around the city for the day. It was rainy so we took cover at the Palais Longchamp. Once the rain passed, we walked around the city for a bit before grabbing some dinner.
We then headed back to the station to take a bus to Nice. We arrived quite late so we just checked into our hostel for the night. We only had one day in Nice so we adventured as much as we could! Emma and I had gelato on the beach for breakfast and soaked up the sun. Lydia took the train over to hang out with us for the day to explore the cliffsides. We hiked the cliff along the coast for 10 miles. The weather was perfect and sunny, Emma even decided to take a dip in the water. After seeing her reaction to getting in the water, I decided to just watch her swim. After some lunch, we hiked to the panoramic lookout of the city and the cemetery. It was so gorgeous! We ended the evening with a drink and a charcuterie board. We had an early flight out in the morning so we decided to just sleep at the airport for the night. I know I’m only 22, but man my back cannot handle sleeping on the marble floor.
After a short flight, we made it to Amsterdam! We stayed just a 15-minute train ride outside the city on a little houseboat. It was so lovely. My friend Georgia met up with us as well! After we got all settled on the boat we decided to venture into the city. Unfortunately, about an hour into being in Amsterdam I slipped and fell into the freezing canal. All I could do was laugh. I changed into the only other outfit I had, slipped my wet shoes back on, and take two on venturing into the city. The first stop was to find me some dry shoes and get some groceries for the boat.
We stayed 4 days in Amsterdam and just enjoyed the slower pace. Lots of reading, train rides, stroopwafels, and coffee. One morning our lovely Airbnb host brought us some fresh boiled eggs from his chickens. We visited some jewelry collectives, windmills, coffee shops, and just explored the canals, being careful not to fall in again. It was such a relaxing way to end my travels!
As soon as I got back to school, I headed straight to the studio to work on my Midterms. This semester I’m really embracing experimentation in my work and I’ve been having a lot of fun with it. My Midterms went well and I’m excited to see the rest of the work I make this semester!
This past weekend I took a quick trip out to Tucson to visit my Granny. We adventured around town, visiting junk stores, did a vegan wine tasting, looked through old family photo albums, and went to dinner and a show at the Gaslight Theater. It was a lovely weekend trip!
Now, I’m back at school and getting to work on my finals for the semester. It’s been a super busy last few weeks, but I’m so grateful for the family and friends I have to visit!
Love, Sophia
