Day 57: Hungry Children and Fancy Clothes

Tuesday - July, 13, 2010:

This is one of my mottos in life: set low expectations and be pleasantly surprised.

Today was a good example of living out that motto!

Today we we're scheduled to visit the World Food Program's headquarters in Rome and this costume warehouse. For some reason I can't pin-point, I wasn't too jacked up about the field trip. I don't know if it was because I had to wake up at 6:30, or that I had to dress business casual in 105 degree weather, or that this is like our 20th field trip of the summer.... but it wasn't ringing in on my excitement scales.

WRONG! How could I be so far from reality? Today was one of the better field trips we have had this summer (it ranks right up there with the Ninfa Gardens -- The Joseph S. Bruno Program likes to finish strong in it's field trips I guess).

Our first stop was the World Food Program headquarters. After we got checked by security (we had to have our Passports -- very legit), we met one man in charge, Graham Bell, and his intern Sascha. Graham was from the UK and Sascha was from Chicago, so it was all English all the time. Love that! I didn't have too much of an idea of what the WFP was before this visit. I knew that Auburn has something called the Committee of 19 who help WFP fight hunger, and we have had to play FreeRice.com this summer for an assignment... but that's about it. So Graham led us to a lecture room (without air conditioning) and here he talked to us for over an hour on the WFP. I learned SO much -- but, of course, I can't remember all the exact details, so I'll tell you what their website says the WFP is:

As the United Nations frontline

agency in the fight against hunger, WFP is continually responding to emergencies. We save lives by getting food to the hungry fast.

But WFP also works to help prevent hunger in the future. We do this through programmes that use food as a means to build assets, spread knowledge and nurture stronger, more dynamic communities. This helps communities become more food secure.

WFP has developed expertise in a range of areas including Food Security Analysis, Nutrition, Food Procurement and Logistics to ensure the best solutions for the world's hungry.

In 2010, WFP aims to bring food assistance to more than 90 million people in 73 countries

Cool, huh? And he wanted to talk to US and get US to help -- I felt very honored. So Graham talked to us and filled us with all the world hunger knowledge (and inspired us greatly), and then we went to their cafeteria for lunch. I felt a little odd eating lunch in the cafeteria of the World Food Program's headquarters, but it was a very fun experience! We got to see all the workers (they are mostly from the USA and UK surprisingly) and talk to Sascha.... I just really enjoyed my time. Also, I scored this cool WFP Feed Bag! By buying it, I fed a kid for a whole year -- see, we're already helping!! One can be yours as well if you go to this website: http://one.shop.musictoday.com/Product.aspx?cp=14483_14747&pc=1OAM10&src=BASE1811

After this eye-opening visit, we then went to our next stop -- Tirelli's Tailor Workshop. Tirelli is one of the largest theatre and cinema costume workshops. It has a collection of over 15,000 pieces on view and display, from the middle age and renaissance to the 1900s. The Tirelli Tailor Workshop and its key costume designers have received numerous Academy Awards in the US fo their outstanding work. We were guided by costume designer Andrea Sorrentino, who has worked on films such as Marie Antionette and Wolfman. (Yes, we were in the presence of someone pretttttyyyyyy legit!)

THIS WAS AMAZING. I was like a little kid in a candy store. Racks and racks of these old dresses, suits, coats... I couldn't get enough of them. I couldn't stop feeling them and picking them up... I had to mentally remind myself to act appropriate in public and not like a five year old. It was insane! I think what was so cool to me was I have just taken History of Costume class this past semester and I studied all these clothes! I knew all of the names of the pieces and the timeline of different dresses... it was all so applicable to me. I could go on and on for hours about each different dress, but I will leave you with a few of my favorite pictures!

{Look at this huge warehouse full of costumes -- we kept going and going and going... I didn't know if it'd ever end (and that would've been ok with me)}

{This is our guide, Andrea Sorrentino, he knew everything about every piece of costume. Its use and its construction}

{PLEAASEE let me take this 1920's flapper dress homeeeeee. I just want to be in The Great Gatsby wearing this}

{Tons and tons of clothes}

{Andrea holding a petticoat}

{And Emily trying on the petticoat}

{I know you can't see this dress very well, but I wish you could. It's a two piece dress with a bodice in the softest color of sky blue and a fitted skirt in the complementing pale nude color... it was gorgeous}

{picture of the dress forms}

{Peek even found some clothes she likes in here!}

{And kid clothes were in here too!}

{Andrea holding the dress that was made for Kirsten Dunst in Marie Antionette. We we're all dying to try it on but I don't think he spoke that in English because he never understood our question. Either that or he's protective of his costumes and is really really good at playing dumb!}

{Another dress from the movie}

{I loved the purple center piece on this dress}

{And a ruff! I studied these for probably 3 weeks and I was flipping out when I saw one in person}

{This dress/coat is from some movie, but I can't remember now which one (I'll come back to it), and Andrea is showing us the construction of the bodice and how they make it so fitted -- lots and lots of whale bone is used to create this look}

{The dress/coat... not sure what you'd call this garment}

{Lindsey matched all these dresses!}

{Caitlyn having fun in the armor section of the warehouse -- somewhere on this massive rack of costume armor is the piece Brad Pitt wore in Troy! And Andrea showed us the garment James Franco wore in Tristan and Isolde. Really? Was this happening? Yes, we are very very lucky to be abroad with such a great program that schedules visits like this one for us}

{The tunic worn by the actor that played Christ in the movie Passion of the Christ}

{Another garment from Passion of the Christ}

{Some big, black, feathery costume that I think is from Wolfman}

{And Oriental Opera Harem pants!!! Look how fun these are}

{Just another random costume worn in Operas}

{AND THEN... there's the highlight -- the jacket Jude Law wore in Cold Mountain! Every girl just about died}

{Jude Law's jacket}

{AND Heath Ledger's jacket!!!}

{Heath Ledger's jacket!!}

{A man's very detailed, pink on pink suit}

{Noelle and I with a Marie Antionette dress!}

{I loved this one, with the black spencer jacket and flowy skirt}

{Emily Blunt wore this dress!! Look at how small the waist is... I'm officially not eating ever again}

{What Meg would look like if she wore this dress -- don't you think she should try and get it for Fall Formal?}

{A Tirelli tag inside a coat}

{Becca and I went back to be with Jude Law's coat on final time...}

So as you can see, Joseph S. Bruno Auburn Abroad is full of surprises! And today was one of them. I had such a fun time and can't wait to see what they have in store for us these last three and a half weeks. I hope ya'll all had a surprisingly pleasant day as well :) Ciao!