You are one week into the Senior Project Experience. How is your project matching up to your expectations or dreams? What did you expect coming into the project? What have you discovered? How have your experiences of the past week affected your expectations going forward? 

Orvieto itself has gone above and beyond my expectations of what the city looked like from pictures. Everywhere I walk I can’t help but take photos of what is around me. I have had a lot of trouble sitting down and working because I feel like there are not enough hours in the day for me to get all the work done that I initially planned for myself, which unfortunately happens inside, while also being able to enjoy the city to the fullest because the weather here has been significantly better than it appears to be back in New York. Unfortunately, I am also the kind of person who feels stressed and guilty when I am not doing work, so I have made more of an effort to set a more clear schedule for myself that does involve waking up earlier than I would like, but that way I will be able to go the studio first thing in the morning and work for a solid 3-4 hours, and be done by 1 or so, and then spend the rest of the day exploring Orvieto. Going forward I know that if I stick to the schedule I will be able to hopefully remove some of the stress and guilt that I have been feeling. Unfortunately, I have also been experiencing a flare-up of some of my health issues which has impacted how much work I can do, but my cousin Ellen has been constantly reminding me that a lot of these things are out of my control and all add to the experience of living on my own without basically any adult supervision and help. I have become very successful in both the local grocery store and the pharmacy, which I have visited countless times since my arrival. I have also made it a goal to visit a different cafe every day, and I am trying not to repeat restaurants until I try the majority of them. Unsurprisingly, the pizza and pasta have been amazing here, and I do not think I have ever been as close as I am now to breaking my vegetarianism, but I am trying to stay strong. By far my favorite parts of Orvieto have been the street cats, which are all fed by the people of Orvieto, and are at almost every street corner, and its architecture, which is all of these beautiful old stone buildings. I have gotten lost a few times, mostly because the streets here are not even somewhat close to a grid, so I will try and walk a different way that I think is the right direction, but it ends up veering off completely and I end up much further away than I originally wanted, but because of the size of the city I have been able to just wander in general direction until I see a landmark that I at least recognize so I roughly locate myself. It has been wonderful to reconnect with Ellen and her husband, and one of his sons. His other son is at a boarding school in Pennsylvania and will be staying with my family in New York over Easter, so we have been joking that we have done a child swap. 

All photos are mine