Wednesday, March 4, 2009

A Field Trip

I think I mentioned this earlier in the week, but Sean and I are doing Headstart this week on-post, which is basically a week of learning some Italian language and culture. It's been ok so far. The first two days were mostly all language, where I quickly learned that Sean doesn't pick up on languages quickly and has passed off the Italian duties to me.

Yesterday though we went on a field trip to the mall that is near here.

In my opinion the best part of the mall is the Wal-Mart esque store called Emisfero. Oh my gosh. It is amazing! I told Sean that I really hoped heaven looked like this. Aisles and aisles of cheap but good wine, fresh squid, shrimp and fish, tons of varities of cheeses, pasta galore and last but not least, two aisles devoted to yogurt. How can you not love a place like that?

The rest of the time we were there I used to salivate at the window displays filled with cute shoes and clothes (which all seemed a bit expensive to me) and had a little snach of gelato. I picked lemon and hazelnut. Both were tasty, but I'd have to go with the lemon as my fave. The only downside of the afternoon was that I left my umberella on the bench that I ate my gelato on. This was not good considering it was raining cats and dogs when we got out of the mall and having to wait 15 minutes in pouring rain for the bus did little to help my drowned rat appearance. By the time we got back to post I was literally soaked to the skin.

Today we are going out into Vicenza for lunch and a visit to the museum. It's still raining though, so I'm hoping this time I don't come back soaked.

So about the job interview...I'm pretty much 90% sure I have the job. She said as much and I did go in and bascially train for a few hours the other day, but we are just waiting for the background check to come in. I'm pretty sure that I'll pass that with flying colors since my background is pretty squeaky clean. I'll discuss the job more once I'm for sure about it.

In other news I have checked the results for the Army Photography Contest that I entered in December and although my pictures advanced to the national level, they didn't win. I was hoping one of them would, but now I have a whole year to work on my entries for this next contest.

Concerning photography, can anyone tell me what differences there are between Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop Elements 7? I'm guessing CS3 is more what the pros use, but I'm not sure. I have Photoshop Elements and I'm trying to figure it out. Allison has been kind and tried to give me a few tips, but I think I'm going to have to buy some kind of dummy manual for it too. It's so much harder to use than Picasa!

One last question for you. Is anyone out there a scuba diver? I'm thinking of getting certified sometime in the next six months. I got the new Outdoor Recreation/ITR booklet of upcoming trips for this summer and they have several dive trips to be certified that are taking place in Croatia. It's something I'd really like to do, but I just wanted to know if anyone else out there was into scuba.

Well, I think that about wraps it up for me!

Ciao!

22 comments:

Kebi Cedawna said...

It always makes me so happy when I see your name on my reader!

That store does sound amazing-gourmet food for cheap!

I know that Pioneer Woman does alot of tutorials with CS3 and she'll include tips on how to integrate it into elements sometimes. From what I've read CS3 is more professional and to the tune of $700 bucks, it should be!
Go check out her photography tutorials, I'll bet they may help.
Have fun in class, hopefully you'll get many more "Field Trips" haha
Love and miss you a ton!!!! (I'm so wishing I could have been a contortionist and squeezed into your suitcase to come along for the ride)

Jon and Steph said...

I'm glad you asked the question about Photoshop because I am very interested but don't know which one to buy!

And Croatia!!! Jon wants to go there for our one year anniversary! How exciting that you are planning to be certified to scuba. I've never been, you'll have to let us know how it is.

And about the rain, I feel ya girl, it rains a lot on my end too. But spring is here and it will be nice soon!

ele said...

Ciao!
I'm italian and I really like your blog!
A presto :-)
Ele

Casey (@ Chaos and Cardboard) said...

I have Photoshop Elemnets (6 for me, the report was that 7 had a lot of issues). I bought the book "The Missing Manual" and just spent a LOT of time playing with the program. Between those two things I was able to do most of what I wanted to with it. I'm not ready to spend the 700 bucks yet!

We have done scuba on our vacations, and loved it. If you have the chance to get certified, I totally would. Egypt has some of the best diving in the world, and it is so close! You will be glad you did it. And Croatia is awesome too!

lola said...

I use Elements 7, and I'm still learning a lot of the effects and whatnot. I really enjoy it though, and haven't found anything that I cannot do.

I'm a certified SCUBA diver. I really love it. It's unbelievable to be underwater for what seems to be forever! :)

Sara said...

Mark and I both scuba dive. We have enough dives to be certified, but just haven't gone through the cert classes. What do you want to know? I'm crossing my fingers that you get the job. That would be wonderful for you guys. Can't wait to hear about it. Tell Boomer Jagger says hello and that the beagles he's been playing with aren't nearly as cool as boom boom.

Lindsay Gray said...

One big difference with CS3 is that you have the ability to perform actions. If you look at Pioneer Woman, she explains what an "action" is pretty well.

PS- Thanks for feeling up Juliet for me, I'm sure she enjoyed it. ;-)

tootie said...

That store you found sounds awesome!

I bet you'll have a great chance of winning the photo contest next year. Think of all the cool places and things that you'll be able to take pictures of this year!

Meg said...

Congrats on the almost job!

I actually do have my SCUBA license. I got certified off the Keys in Florida a few years ago, and went again off the coast of Kenya in the Indian Ocean last year. It's actually well cool, but I caution you to be careful and just use your head if you do it in Italy. The regulations are completely different in other countries than they are here, and a lot of times they will send you out whether it's really safe for you or not. I had the make the call on my own to pull out of a dive in Africa because I knew it wasn't safe.

If you have any questions, though, throw them my way and I'll try my best to answer them! :)

SarahEileen said...

I'm jealous of your mall excursion. Not because you were shopping in Italy, but because I'd just like a mall right about now...any mall at all!

My husband did scuba for years when he was younger. I tried all the junk on when he was home in the summer and it's weird! At least until you get used to it anyway. I'm sure he'd love me to get certified, but I don't know. Keep us all updated if you do it or not!

Sassy Engineer said...

That store sounds like so much fun! I love lemon gelatto - mmm! I hope the job works out. It sounds mysterious :)

As for scuba diving, I have no advice. My husband can't because of an inner ear problem, and I am terrified of the idea. I can barely snorkel! Seeing underwater is just weird to me, and drowning seems like the worst way to die. I know - I have issues! I hope you do it and have fun though. I hear it is amazing.

Allison said...

I don't know anything about CS3. I have elements 6 and I am still discovering new things that it does everytime I use it. I should get a manual...

I'm like the others, though, I can't justify spending the $$$$$ on CS3 yet :)

Anonymous said...

Ooohhh Emisfero sounds amazing! And if i lived in Italy i would eat Gelato every day! *jealous!*

Photoshop CS3 is a little more professional. Its what i use but i design ads all day long using both graphics & photography. I've been using it & previous versions for 6 years though, it could be pretty overwhelming if you're starting out. Elements has basically everything you need for editing photos (adjusting levels, brightness, contrast, etc...) You should download free trials of both at Adobe.com!

juliannah said...

One major difference between CS3 and Elements is the price. Your right CS3 is what the pros use. You might want to try GIMP it is a free program and is similar to Photoshop. Instead of renewing the license for PS my work downloaded GIMP and we use it for image manipulation. Here's the link
http://www.gimp.org/

Sarah said...

I haven't used CS3 but I have used CS2 and I have elements 5. I like CS programs better to be honest, they allow a lot more creativity (once you figure them out) and elements really limits you in what you can do. But that's just my opinion.
As for scuba diving, I've never actually gone or even trained but my boyfriend took a course (and never got to use it poor guy) and loved it. I think it'll be something to do on our honeymoon. =]

Anonymous said...

First off I am glad Linda went with you! I am going to miss the job, I really had a great time working for Linda and everyone else involved. If you need anything feel free to shout me a holler!

If you loved emesfero then you will love the markets downtown!

Oh and my upstairs neighbor Carlos is one of the Scuba guys. From what I hear its a blast and they have a great time, you should go for it!

Lisa said...

That store sounds awesome! I'd love to have a place like that here! And gelato... mmmm

I'm afraid I can't help with PS. I'm enjoying hearing about your adventures in Italy... I'd love to visit there someday, and reading your blog is giving me ideas of where I should go!

Kristen said...

I want to go to Croatia so bad!!! My in-laws went 2 years ago, but as we were in the process of PCSing to Texas, we didn't get to go. So jealous!

Anonymous said...

I was an Army wife for years, and my husband's language skills sound like your hubbie's. That's one reason that I started studying Italian twenty years ago. And now I have a book, website and blog on Italian that you and your friends might enjoy. Come visit me, and I'll keep following you!

Dianne Hales
www.becomingitalian.com
www.becomingitalianwordbyword.typepad.com

Christy said...

First - Wow, cheap gourmet food!! What an amazing find!!!

How neat that you guys are taking an Italian class, I think it's really cool that you guys are making the most out of this adventure! :)

Kevin and I really want to get scuba certified too! I can't wait to hear how that goes for you guys!

Have a good weekend!!

Tania said...

That store sounds amazing! Seriously...two aisles of yogurt?! I'm sure it's got some good stuff...not the icky stuff we have here!

PS is really difficult for me as well. I have CS2 (got it for free for work) and really haven't played around with it too much. There are no magic buttons to make things happen. I've been thinking about getting a dummy book too....there's just so much to do to get a certain effect!

Momily said...

I have Photoshop CS3 at work, and Photoshop Elements at home. If you really get into details, you can do more stuff with CS3, but I find that all the stuff I know how to do and/or like to do anyway are things that I can do with Elements. The biggest difference is the price. CS3 tends to sell for over $500 by itself, or about $1000 when bundled with the other adobe programs (premiere, illustrator, etc). Photoshop Elements 7 tends to go for around $80-$100 by itself or about $100-$120 when bundled with Premier Elements 7 (video editing). I just bought the Elements bundle for editing photos/videos during Beowulf's deployment. Unless you're going to be super-serious about it, Elements is really all you need.