Ecco i miei fotografie all'internet: www.learningitalianisfun.shutterfly.com
Here are my photos online: www.learningitalianisfun.shutterfly.com
Monday, August 31, 2009
Nickname of the day: Bologna la grossa - Bologna the Fat
So I went to Bologna over the weekend. Bologna is the capitol of the Emilia Romagna region of Italy. Emilia Romagna is the home to Ferrari, Ducati, Lamborghini, and Maserati factories. But, more importantly Parma and Bologna are located within the region. Parma of course gives us Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and Parma Ham. Bologna gives us the classic meat sauce called ragu bolognese. I'll talk more about food later.
So in Bologna we climbed up a tower, watched Inter v. AC Milan in a bar, and visited the duomo. Bologna actually had 200 different towers at one point in history. There are only 22 surviving. Anyway, the highlight of the night was eating their food. I had ravioli stuffed with bread crumbs and ricotta cheese covered in a cream sauce with pancetta on top. It was incredible. After that I had an espresso to wash it down. Fantastico. I wish I would have taken a picture of the dish.
So in Bologna we climbed up a tower, watched Inter v. AC Milan in a bar, and visited the duomo. Bologna actually had 200 different towers at one point in history. There are only 22 surviving. Anyway, the highlight of the night was eating their food. I had ravioli stuffed with bread crumbs and ricotta cheese covered in a cream sauce with pancetta on top. It was incredible. After that I had an espresso to wash it down. Fantastico. I wish I would have taken a picture of the dish.
Stone Furniture
Looking down
Piazza Maggiore from the Tower
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Phrase of the day: Bo . . . ma - I don't know
Me - So I'm doing an independent study involing both management and design.
Professor - Bo . . ma. I am old. Perhaps somebody mentioned it to me earlier, but I don't know anything about it. How is doing both management and architecture possible?
So I spoke to one of the professors that was supposed to give me some guidance regarding my independent study and it seems that he was not aware that I was even doing it. He has offered to help in anyway with contact information, resources, etc. I'm just surprised that he knew nothing about it.
Kent State University leases the Palazzo dei Cerchi for its study abroad students in Florence. Part of the agreement is that we must keep the palazzo in good condition. Some brief history of the Cerchi family can be found on wikipedia. The building was built in the 13th century and is older than the more iconic Palazzo Vecchio. I have taken a few pictures but it's difficult to convey the feelings that the palazzo evokes. Since it's an old building, Kent has had to add stairs and even intermediate levels because the floor to floor height was so large. The building still has some terracotta floors from the 15 century. The frescoes that are on some of the walls are protected by government and are ugly. Most of them have disintegrated and there are only patchy and faded blotches of frescoes. Perhaps I am a bit too insensitive. However if it doesnt really appear to be anything, what's the big deal?
Anyway, my luggage did arrive on Monday, so that was nice. I can finally wait a week or two between laundry days. It's still unbearably hot.
Orientations have generally been boring and common sense reminders. We've had various people come in and speak to us. All of the teachers have had a round of talking, but they also brought in Police Inspector Michele who warned us about "Disney Land syndrome" and Italy's national sport: women. Each semester there are between 6000-7000 US students who attend about 30 different universities situated in Florence. Many are undergraduates who like to drink alcohol and now don't have to worry about being underage. This leads to disney land syndrome and bad decisions. Michele also warned us about the behavior of creepy italian guys and how they play the "national sport". The best reaction is to have no reaction. Anyway, he told us that the girls will miss all the attention once they get back to the States. He also mentioned that because of how annoying italian men are, italian women have learned to block it out and thus have become unfriendly and cold.
I would say the police inspector tells the truth. He warned us that he was not going to be politickally correct all the time. He mentioned the pitfalls of dealing with illegal street vendors, illegal aliens (tons of north africans illegally come to Italy), yada yada yada. Generally a good speech, but stuff that people should know.
Professor - Bo . . ma. I am old. Perhaps somebody mentioned it to me earlier, but I don't know anything about it. How is doing both management and architecture possible?
So I spoke to one of the professors that was supposed to give me some guidance regarding my independent study and it seems that he was not aware that I was even doing it. He has offered to help in anyway with contact information, resources, etc. I'm just surprised that he knew nothing about it.
Kent State University leases the Palazzo dei Cerchi for its study abroad students in Florence. Part of the agreement is that we must keep the palazzo in good condition. Some brief history of the Cerchi family can be found on wikipedia. The building was built in the 13th century and is older than the more iconic Palazzo Vecchio. I have taken a few pictures but it's difficult to convey the feelings that the palazzo evokes. Since it's an old building, Kent has had to add stairs and even intermediate levels because the floor to floor height was so large. The building still has some terracotta floors from the 15 century. The frescoes that are on some of the walls are protected by government and are ugly. Most of them have disintegrated and there are only patchy and faded blotches of frescoes. Perhaps I am a bit too insensitive. However if it doesnt really appear to be anything, what's the big deal?
Anyway, my luggage did arrive on Monday, so that was nice. I can finally wait a week or two between laundry days. It's still unbearably hot.
Orientations have generally been boring and common sense reminders. We've had various people come in and speak to us. All of the teachers have had a round of talking, but they also brought in Police Inspector Michele who warned us about "Disney Land syndrome" and Italy's national sport: women. Each semester there are between 6000-7000 US students who attend about 30 different universities situated in Florence. Many are undergraduates who like to drink alcohol and now don't have to worry about being underage. This leads to disney land syndrome and bad decisions. Michele also warned us about the behavior of creepy italian guys and how they play the "national sport". The best reaction is to have no reaction. Anyway, he told us that the girls will miss all the attention once they get back to the States. He also mentioned that because of how annoying italian men are, italian women have learned to block it out and thus have become unfriendly and cold.
I would say the police inspector tells the truth. He warned us that he was not going to be politickally correct all the time. He mentioned the pitfalls of dealing with illegal street vendors, illegal aliens (tons of north africans illegally come to Italy), yada yada yada. Generally a good speech, but stuff that people should know.
graduate studio space
landing between ground floor and 1st floor
third floor looking up at intermediate landing
Monday, August 24, 2009
Word of the Day: Perdere - To Lose
io perdo noi perdiamo
tu perdi voi perdète
lui/lei perde loro perdono
pp perduto
Ho niente portare perchè British Airways ha perduto I miei bagagli.
I don’t have anything to wear because British Airways lost my luggage.
Ciao ragazzi! So my flights to Italy were without too much excitement, which is good. I flew from Cleveland to Baltimore to London to Milan. Unfortunately, I had to go through security in each airport. However, TSA didn’t feel the need to swab my CPAP in Baltimore. Also in London I didn’t take off my shoes and I didn’t remove my CPAP for them to swab in London either. I’m such a rebel! On the flight over the pond, we ran into some turbulence and the guy next to me started to get nervous. He slouched in his seat and wrapped his entire arms around the armrests. I of course was just as nervous as he was, but because holding on to armrests doesn’t really do anything for my personal safety, I decided to remain calm and focus on my in flight movie. British Airways fed me twice on the flight over, which was unexpected. I had chicken and rice for dinner and a Danish for breakfast. Then, on the flight from London to Milan they even gave me a ham sandwich, with drinks included!
The real excitement of course came in Milan at the baggage claim area. Where there was nothing for me to get excited about of course. So I had to stand in line for an hour waiting to talk to a representative at the lost and found. I don’t know if the American public is aware of this, but Europeans are not really into forming lines. Generally, they create blobs of people and there are tons of annoying people who cut to the front of the blob. Anyway, a lot of people tried to cut to the front of the blob, but the lost and found people were having none of it, thankfully. I was happy when several people walked to the front and were promptly told to go to the back of the line. So the nice lady behind the desk spoke good English and helped me file the proper paperwork to get my baggage shipped to Florence if/when they find it.
So from Milan Malpensa (MXP) I took a bus to Milano Centrale, the main train station of Milan. From there I took a train from Milan to Florence. Somehow, I got the best seat on the train. It was a window seat, by myself, close to the luggage rack for oversized luggage, and the car was pretty empty. Unfortunately, there was no need to sit next to the luggage rack because I had nothing to be protective of. My carry-on luggage fit easily in the overhead racks. I made it to Florence without much fanfare, found my hostel, and tried not to sweat too much. The average high in Florence this time of year is around 84 degrees Fahrenheit. This week and next week the high should be around 100. This is much hotter than I prefer. After spending a night in a hostel, I found the leasing office and got the keys to my apartment. The apartment is on the third floor of a building and is nicely furnished with a big living room. I was the first person to check into the apartment and I opted for the single room. It’s actually up 11 more steps so it’s a little hotter than the rest of the apartment but the difference between 100 and 105 is negligible. If you’re sweaty at 100, you’ll be sweaty at 105. But, my room has its own private bathroom including shower, sink, toilet, and bidet making it even better. So my apartment has air-conditioning units that are remote controlled. We have remote controls, but they don’t work on our units. The apartment next to us is also inhabited by Kent State students. Of course, the remote controls work on their units and not ours. But for some reason, Italians don’t believe in air conditioning. So when we asked the leasing office about it, they took away the remote controls and we were told to go to the beach if it’s hot and that the air conditioning is not part of our lease. I think they’re dumb. Anyway, I found another remote control, which I gave to the apartment across the hall. If I were them, I would set the thermostat to 60 degrees just because the leasing office is dumb. After reading through the pamphlets of information that the leasing office gave us, you’re only allowed to heat your apartment for 8 hours maximum in the winter. And you’re not supposed to leave heat on at night. This is especially dumb. Also refrigerators in Italy aren’t cold, no matter how cold the setting is in them. I don’t understand. Anyway, we did find some old fans in the closet and they are somewhat operable. So that is a large help. So that’s enough ranting for one day. It does feel good to get it off my chest.
The pictures should be of my room - I did end up stealing the bedroom with one bed and its own bathroom for myself - and the entry into my apartment building. Which the 30 year old married roommate is not happy about. But tough, I got there first so deal with it. (His wife is not on the trip with us)
tu perdi voi perdète
lui/lei perde loro perdono
pp perduto
Ho niente portare perchè British Airways ha perduto I miei bagagli.
I don’t have anything to wear because British Airways lost my luggage.
Ciao ragazzi! So my flights to Italy were without too much excitement, which is good. I flew from Cleveland to Baltimore to London to Milan. Unfortunately, I had to go through security in each airport. However, TSA didn’t feel the need to swab my CPAP in Baltimore. Also in London I didn’t take off my shoes and I didn’t remove my CPAP for them to swab in London either. I’m such a rebel! On the flight over the pond, we ran into some turbulence and the guy next to me started to get nervous. He slouched in his seat and wrapped his entire arms around the armrests. I of course was just as nervous as he was, but because holding on to armrests doesn’t really do anything for my personal safety, I decided to remain calm and focus on my in flight movie. British Airways fed me twice on the flight over, which was unexpected. I had chicken and rice for dinner and a Danish for breakfast. Then, on the flight from London to Milan they even gave me a ham sandwich, with drinks included!
The real excitement of course came in Milan at the baggage claim area. Where there was nothing for me to get excited about of course. So I had to stand in line for an hour waiting to talk to a representative at the lost and found. I don’t know if the American public is aware of this, but Europeans are not really into forming lines. Generally, they create blobs of people and there are tons of annoying people who cut to the front of the blob. Anyway, a lot of people tried to cut to the front of the blob, but the lost and found people were having none of it, thankfully. I was happy when several people walked to the front and were promptly told to go to the back of the line. So the nice lady behind the desk spoke good English and helped me file the proper paperwork to get my baggage shipped to Florence if/when they find it.
So from Milan Malpensa (MXP) I took a bus to Milano Centrale, the main train station of Milan. From there I took a train from Milan to Florence. Somehow, I got the best seat on the train. It was a window seat, by myself, close to the luggage rack for oversized luggage, and the car was pretty empty. Unfortunately, there was no need to sit next to the luggage rack because I had nothing to be protective of. My carry-on luggage fit easily in the overhead racks. I made it to Florence without much fanfare, found my hostel, and tried not to sweat too much. The average high in Florence this time of year is around 84 degrees Fahrenheit. This week and next week the high should be around 100. This is much hotter than I prefer. After spending a night in a hostel, I found the leasing office and got the keys to my apartment. The apartment is on the third floor of a building and is nicely furnished with a big living room. I was the first person to check into the apartment and I opted for the single room. It’s actually up 11 more steps so it’s a little hotter than the rest of the apartment but the difference between 100 and 105 is negligible. If you’re sweaty at 100, you’ll be sweaty at 105. But, my room has its own private bathroom including shower, sink, toilet, and bidet making it even better. So my apartment has air-conditioning units that are remote controlled. We have remote controls, but they don’t work on our units. The apartment next to us is also inhabited by Kent State students. Of course, the remote controls work on their units and not ours. But for some reason, Italians don’t believe in air conditioning. So when we asked the leasing office about it, they took away the remote controls and we were told to go to the beach if it’s hot and that the air conditioning is not part of our lease. I think they’re dumb. Anyway, I found another remote control, which I gave to the apartment across the hall. If I were them, I would set the thermostat to 60 degrees just because the leasing office is dumb. After reading through the pamphlets of information that the leasing office gave us, you’re only allowed to heat your apartment for 8 hours maximum in the winter. And you’re not supposed to leave heat on at night. This is especially dumb. Also refrigerators in Italy aren’t cold, no matter how cold the setting is in them. I don’t understand. Anyway, we did find some old fans in the closet and they are somewhat operable. So that is a large help. So that’s enough ranting for one day. It does feel good to get it off my chest.
The pictures should be of my room - I did end up stealing the bedroom with one bed and its own bathroom for myself - and the entry into my apartment building. Which the 30 year old married roommate is not happy about. But tough, I got there first so deal with it. (His wife is not on the trip with us)
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