Snowstorm, History and the Adirondacks!

So the other day, we got a huge snowstorm here in Syracuse. We have about a foot and a half of snow now!! I have not seen this much snow since I was a little kid! We actually had our afternoon classes canceled, which was a nice relaxing break. A ton of people built snow forts and snowmen, so a drive around the off campus housing area is really interesting now! It was perfect packing snow too- one igloo was about 10 feet tall!

I am working on a paper proposal for my “HST 201- History of Italian City-States” class right now, which should be pretty interesting. It is going to be a 20 page research paper- EEK! As an art history major, I am allowed to take any regular history courses I want, so I chose to take this one- and so far I am really psyched about it. It is a small class with only 10 people and a fantastic professor who is a gift- I love him! We even take turns bringing food every week J. For my paper, I want to take it in an art history direction (duh!) by researching art that was made in Italy in 1100-1450 (pre-renaissance). We have read a little bit about “Pittura Infamate” or “insulting painting” basically. At this time, people who betrayed their city states would have images made of them that were insulting- some were painted hanging upside down! One specific traitor who had been beheaded was shamed by having his portrait removed from the town hall (and in its place, a statement explaining his traitor status was written)- at the meeting when they made this decision however, one councilman suggested that they cut the canvas of the original painting at the neck so that it hung off just like it had in real life. Gross!

I am also busy tonight planning events for my co-ed service fraternity. Next weekend (March 6-7^th) I am leading a trip to the Adirondacks for 50 people! I am really excited about the trip- we are going to be helping the ESF Ecological Center to establish some kind of communication system on the top of a mountain (think 2 mile hike uphill with tons of equipment!). After we are done volunteering with that, we are going to snowshoe, have a campfire, play snow-ultimate-frisbee and have a fantastically good time! Lets hope it isn’t too cold!