Spring has sprung

There will not be a single YouTube video in this post! Impressive, huh?

Winter semester is over (thank goodness!) and I have since moved on to the much nicer, prettier, and less stressful spring term. I absolutely love BYU in the spring. All of those people who leave Provo in the middle of April probably have no idea that our wintry campus is actually capable of attaining beauty, which is kind of a shame, because if they could only stay a few weeks longer... BAM! Flowers! Beauty! Most of the blossoms are finally starting to fall off the trees now, but for a while there the whole campus smelled like perfume... except for right in front of the administration building, where they planted those smelly trees whose blossoms smell like dog food. Why do people plant those, anyway?

My Italy trip is fast approaching, which is also exciting. For a couple months during the winter it was hard to get excited, because it seemed so far away, and all I could think about was that I was really going to miss Chris, and it hadn't really sunk in yet that I was actually going... but something about sending in my last tuition payment and figuring out everything from luggage to confusing Italian train schedules has made it finally sink in that I'm actually going, and I'm excited! For me, half of the fun is in the planning, and I'm having the time of my life figuring out weekend trips to Venice, Rome, Switzerland, and Paris. My apartment in Florence also comes with a kitchen, so I'm picking out all of the most promising recipes from my copy of Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking to make while I'm there. And... well, I'd rather not say how many times I've listened to the Italy section of Eat, Pray, Love. Let's just say it's a lot. And that I know where I'm buying my pizza in Naples now.

I guess I'll end this post by posting some sketches? I've always had trouble motivating myself to keep a sketchbook, so I'm taking a Sketchbook class this term, and my teacher suggested that I buy a smaller sketchbook, which is apparently exactly what I needed. It's not so hard to fill the page on a small sketchbook, so you feel like you're able to actually finish a drawing. Plus, drawing so small has made me realize how much I love making tiny, postcard-sized ink drawings. Who knew?