My teacher says porca mazeria is a really polite way of saying, "oh darn!" However, when I use google translator it says something different... Although Yahoo babelfish has something different. When I ask my teachers, they always say it just means oh darn. (And one of them uses it often, and he doesnt seem the type to actually swear)
Hey everybody! So we have presentations today for studio and then we're done with school. Although, I'll have to write a paper for my "independent study" on Management by Design sometime soon. So that's quite a bother. Anyway, the week leading up to studio presentations is always a bit exciting, there's always a lot to do and too much to think about. However, my 5.5 year old IBM laptop has a way of making things even more exciting. While surfing the internet one day, it just froze up and I couldn't even restart it in "safe mode" without getting the Blue Screen of Death. That was on Tuesday, so two days before final jury and it died. Luckily, IBM's come equipped with a "rapid restore" feature so I could extract my project files from the broken computer. Then, I had to completely reinstall windows and all other programs that I need to do my architecture work. This took about 10 hours to do completely. More or less. So this was no good. The next day my IBM decides to just turn off sometimes. No warning, nothing. Black screen, hard drives off, need to completely start over as if the computer was always off. This can be a bit unsettling while working on projects. Thankfully it only happened twice (once while installing a program, which i was about 3/4 of the way through and had to completely restart which took another hour or two) and once in the middle of me photoshopping a drawing, so that set me back another half hour or so. So needless to say, my project isn't as coherent and graphically strong as I had previously planned. Thankfully, it is holding out, I did print out my boards, and I did finish up my studio work. Just today, while checking my internet, the battery stopped charging even though it was plugged in. So I have approximately 2 hours of laptop time before I'm done for good. Unless, the power cord magically works again. We shall see. Needless to say, this is probably my last blog until I'm back in America. School is done today (officially) I still have to write the paper, I go to Siena with our teacher on Friday, go to some museums, pack, finish business in Firenze on Saturday, then off to Milan on Sunday, and then I fly home on Monday. I'm looking forward to going home. Our laundry machine has been broken since Sunday, I'm running out of clothes, the landlord hasn't fixed it, I'm getting sick, and my trusty thinkpad has been letting me down as of late. I am tired of schoolwork, am ready to just be done with everything, and I'm especially ready to be paying for things in dollars. I suppose you could say I'm a bit homesick. I'm really looking forward for it being my birthday, christmas, and seeing my family. Hopefully I'll have my paper finished (on the plane rides (I have 4 flights on Monday)) I can put it into my desktop computer back at home, and then email it to the professors back at Kent. Then, I can find random presents for people, find a place to live for the spring semester, and then just be a vegetable over the holiday break. That would be great. So I haven't decided yet if I'm going to continue to blog once I return to America. I suppose I could. I have plenty of languages and words that I could continue to translate for your enrichment. Meh, we'll see. Until next time, when I'll be back in Cleveland... Ciao ciao and thanks for following my blog
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Fruit of the day - Pomodoro - Tomato
Sorry for the long delays between posts. Things are really getting busy around here. I have about one week left in Italy, I've got a project due Thursday, I have to write a paper for my MBA thing by Sunday, and then I leave Monday for America and then I get to go Christmas shopping after. With the advent of the internet, I have been able to do some shopping by merely conversing with my siblings via the interwebs. I probably could pick up a few things in Italy while I'm still here...
I still have list of things I'd like to do in Florence: see the Bargello, go in the Uffizi (again), go in Palazzo Medici Riccardi, go in Palazzo Strozzi, and go in the Lauretian library (designed by Michelangelo). Today I saw the Bargello. It's the old townhall/prison and now museum. Donatello's David is here. It was erotic. That's what he was going for though. It's considered the first "nude" of the renaissance. The building itself was actually really cool. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to take pictures within the museum for some reason. With this big to-do list and all my compiti (italian for homework - you guys get two italian words today!) I'm not going to be able to see Miss New Giudi, which is a bummer. I was hoping to make a trip between my final project presentation (Thursday) and Leaving from Milan (Monday morning). However, it doesn't seem like it's going to work. Friday, the class is going on a trip to visit Siena with one of our professors, Marcello Fantoni. It has nothing to do with school. He's from Siena and wants to show us around. Siena is divided into 17 neighborhoods called Contrada (pl. contrade). Each contrada has their own logo, church, museum, etc. During the Palio (the horserace that takes place twice a year) there are 10 contrade that compete against each other. He's going to give us a little personal tour of the contrada he belongs to, the church, the museum etc. We'll see the campo and the city hall (where the Palio takes place) and then we're going to go to a nice restaurant. It's in one of the bordering contrada (a rival!) but the food there is undeniably good (as he says). So I'm really excited for that. MAYBE, if I can get all my work done by Thursday, I could go to Siena Friday, go to Genova Saturday, Milan on Sunday, and then leave for the airport early Monday morning. Although, this seems like a lot of traveling with a lot of bags, and this is all under the assumption MNG has nothing better to do on weekends before Christmas than to entertain me. So... I'm leaning towards just staying in Florence Saturday, leave for Milan on Sunday, and leaving for America on Monday. Next time I'm in Europe, I'll have to make another pit-stop in Genova to see her.
Anyway, back to the real reason for my post. If tomatoes originated in the "new world" (which they did), what did Italians eat before then? Italian food as we know it, has only been evolving since the 1500's AFTER Columbus and other explorers brought tomatoes to Europe. What then, did they eat before? I know that bistecca di fiorentina is a local Florence specialty. It's a big hunk of steak. That could have predated Columbus. There are of course the seafoods, the pestos, the cream sauces that could have been hold outs from previous times, but definitely not the ubiquitous tomato sauce everybody thinks of. I want to eat authentic, Italian food, like the Medici's ate, and see what that's all about.
I still have list of things I'd like to do in Florence: see the Bargello, go in the Uffizi (again), go in Palazzo Medici Riccardi, go in Palazzo Strozzi, and go in the Lauretian library (designed by Michelangelo). Today I saw the Bargello. It's the old townhall/prison and now museum. Donatello's David is here. It was erotic. That's what he was going for though. It's considered the first "nude" of the renaissance. The building itself was actually really cool. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to take pictures within the museum for some reason. With this big to-do list and all my compiti (italian for homework - you guys get two italian words today!) I'm not going to be able to see Miss New Giudi, which is a bummer. I was hoping to make a trip between my final project presentation (Thursday) and Leaving from Milan (Monday morning). However, it doesn't seem like it's going to work. Friday, the class is going on a trip to visit Siena with one of our professors, Marcello Fantoni. It has nothing to do with school. He's from Siena and wants to show us around. Siena is divided into 17 neighborhoods called Contrada (pl. contrade). Each contrada has their own logo, church, museum, etc. During the Palio (the horserace that takes place twice a year) there are 10 contrade that compete against each other. He's going to give us a little personal tour of the contrada he belongs to, the church, the museum etc. We'll see the campo and the city hall (where the Palio takes place) and then we're going to go to a nice restaurant. It's in one of the bordering contrada (a rival!) but the food there is undeniably good (as he says). So I'm really excited for that. MAYBE, if I can get all my work done by Thursday, I could go to Siena Friday, go to Genova Saturday, Milan on Sunday, and then leave for the airport early Monday morning. Although, this seems like a lot of traveling with a lot of bags, and this is all under the assumption MNG has nothing better to do on weekends before Christmas than to entertain me. So... I'm leaning towards just staying in Florence Saturday, leave for Milan on Sunday, and leaving for America on Monday. Next time I'm in Europe, I'll have to make another pit-stop in Genova to see her.
Anyway, back to the real reason for my post. If tomatoes originated in the "new world" (which they did), what did Italians eat before then? Italian food as we know it, has only been evolving since the 1500's AFTER Columbus and other explorers brought tomatoes to Europe. What then, did they eat before? I know that bistecca di fiorentina is a local Florence specialty. It's a big hunk of steak. That could have predated Columbus. There are of course the seafoods, the pestos, the cream sauces that could have been hold outs from previous times, but definitely not the ubiquitous tomato sauce everybody thinks of. I want to eat authentic, Italian food, like the Medici's ate, and see what that's all about.
Friday, December 4, 2009
French word of the day: dejeuner - lunch
So Friday we woke up, had some breakfast, and made our way to the Orangerie museum. It's a small museum built around 8 large works that Monet donated to the French government.
Monet specifically asked for the paintings to be displayed in an oval shaped room as well. So there are two rooms, each with 4 large paintings by Monet. On the other level, there are a bunch more paintings, but all the ones that I liked were on loan (they had photos of what was supposed to be there). Afterwards, we met up with Pelham (Sara's highschool friend) and Laure (Pelham's friend). We ended up going to an italian restaurant in Paris. It was supposed to be great. It was decent. I think I'm a little spoiled since I've been living in Italy for the last 3 months.
We did a little bit of shopping and looking around on the Rue de Rivoli. It's one of the main streets for large affordable shops (unlike the champs elysees). But, it was a little rainy, and all the stores were absolutely packed. When we got back to the apartment, I took a nap. Then when I woke up it was time for dinner. So that was nice.
We decided to go to a french restaurant for dinner. I didn't really know what things were. I knew that foie gras was goose liver. But I saw saw foie veaux or something like that which I knew was veal. And, I've never heard of veal liver. I decided to take a chance and I ordered it. It was good. It wasn't squishy like a liver, but it wasn't really meaty either. I think I did eat a veal liver. I guess even baby cows have large livers. It was good but the more I thought about the liver I was eating, the more and more soft and less "meaty" the dinner became. Anyway, I had desert and a cafe to end the dinner which was great. There's nothing like a great espresso at the end of a filling meal. Anyway, the only seats for this place were outside (at least for people without reservations or people who are obviously american, I'm not sure) and it was a little chilly. They had the heaters on, and the plastic tent thingy on the sidewalk but it was still a little chilly.
So then we had to clean up the apartment so we could check out the next day. I had to leave at 6:30 am to catch my 9am flight. Sara left a little later, at 7 am (she had to meet with the apt owners to get the deposit back). I was worried about catching the metro and RER's to the airport, but everything worked out OK. On the way to the apartment the first time, it took me 1.5 - 2 hours to get from the airport to the apartment. This time I knew where things were, I didn't have to buy tickets for the metros and RER, I didn't have to wait for checked luggage (Sara is taking one of my bags home for me), and it wasn't quite rush hour yet. So I made it there in good time and sketched for my field trip class.
Things are getting absolutely crazy here. I'm excited for studio but have been unable to devote a lot of time to it because of all of the other things I've got going on. We've got a final on Monday, a final on Wednesday. We finished up a class last Wednesday. I've got 2 weeks until Studio is done. Woof. Plus I have the MBA paper I should write sometime. grrr. 18 credit hours while in Italy, plus a random MBA thing is too much.
We did a little bit of shopping and looking around on the Rue de Rivoli. It's one of the main streets for large affordable shops (unlike the champs elysees). But, it was a little rainy, and all the stores were absolutely packed. When we got back to the apartment, I took a nap. Then when I woke up it was time for dinner. So that was nice.
We decided to go to a french restaurant for dinner. I didn't really know what things were. I knew that foie gras was goose liver. But I saw saw foie veaux or something like that which I knew was veal. And, I've never heard of veal liver. I decided to take a chance and I ordered it. It was good. It wasn't squishy like a liver, but it wasn't really meaty either. I think I did eat a veal liver. I guess even baby cows have large livers. It was good but the more I thought about the liver I was eating, the more and more soft and less "meaty" the dinner became. Anyway, I had desert and a cafe to end the dinner which was great. There's nothing like a great espresso at the end of a filling meal. Anyway, the only seats for this place were outside (at least for people without reservations or people who are obviously american, I'm not sure) and it was a little chilly. They had the heaters on, and the plastic tent thingy on the sidewalk but it was still a little chilly.
So then we had to clean up the apartment so we could check out the next day. I had to leave at 6:30 am to catch my 9am flight. Sara left a little later, at 7 am (she had to meet with the apt owners to get the deposit back). I was worried about catching the metro and RER's to the airport, but everything worked out OK. On the way to the apartment the first time, it took me 1.5 - 2 hours to get from the airport to the apartment. This time I knew where things were, I didn't have to buy tickets for the metros and RER, I didn't have to wait for checked luggage (Sara is taking one of my bags home for me), and it wasn't quite rush hour yet. So I made it there in good time and sketched for my field trip class.
Things are getting absolutely crazy here. I'm excited for studio but have been unable to devote a lot of time to it because of all of the other things I've got going on. We've got a final on Monday, a final on Wednesday. We finished up a class last Wednesday. I've got 2 weeks until Studio is done. Woof. Plus I have the MBA paper I should write sometime. grrr. 18 credit hours while in Italy, plus a random MBA thing is too much.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
City of the week: Parigi - Paris
Interaction of the day:
Me: Pourquois le troisieme etage non est ouvert?
Security: C'est ouvert, vouz prendez le ascenseur.
Me: Why is the third floor [of the Eiffel Tower] not open?
Security: It is open, take the elvator.
When we stand in line for the elevator we see a sign: 3rd floor is closed.
So anyway, the security guard at the Eiffel tower had no idea what he was talking about. We ended up getting a nice french lady to take a picture of us. Unfortunately, the picture is on Sara's camera and I don't have it yet. So you'll have to wait. Hopefully I'll get it from her soon.
Anyway, let me start again from the beginning. So the original calender that the director of Kent's study abroad program gave us said that we had Tuesday through Friday off due to the Thanksgiving holiday. However, in reality, we were only supposed to have Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off. We were taking a one credit hour class called the post-modern city taught by Giandomenico Amendola, who is a sociologist and world famous urban planner. It was supposed to be a three week long class. But, because of M. Sabini (the director who makes mistakes a lot) we only had 2 weeks of the class. This is torture. Giandomenico built up a case for his class, week by week, class by class. He was two thirds of the way into his story, and now I'll never get the ending! How can you start a story like that and then stop??? It was a great class. I really like to hear the different disciplines/point of views on cities that I've been getting this semester. We've had a class taught by a historian and by a sociologist. Unfortunately, we never got to complete the sociologist's class. Kent's ineptitude strikes again.
So anyway, class was cancelled because all of us had plane tickets or planes for Thanksgiving. I caught the Tuesday flight from Pisa to Paris Orly on Tuesday afternoon. For the most part, everything went smoothly. I bought a metro ticket and found the apartment that Sara and I were going to stay at. She had actually arrived on Sunday morning and was staying with her friend from highschool, Pelham. I found the apartment easily enough, and Sara was inside waiting for me! She had picked up a bottle of wine and ingredients to make dinner. We made dinner and drank the wine and since Sara was still jet-lagged we stayed in for the night. I watched a bad, dubbed, film called "american special forces" or something like that. It was dubbed into french, and it was american special forces unit involved in bad action sequences. It was pretty bad and yet somehow entertaining. Sara was asleep already, so I didn't even feel guilty about watching it. Ha!
So the next day we went to the Louvre and the Musee du Quai Branly. The french prime ministers have a history of creating public works before they leave office. For example, le Defense, the Grand Arch, the Glass Pyramid to the Louvre, etc. Jacques Chirac got Jean Nouvel to design a museum for non-western art and artifacts along the bank of the Seine near the Eiffel Tower.
It was really interesting to see how similar the beliefs, art, and artifacts of african, american, asian, and oceanic tribes were. We saw tons of masks, totem poles, pots, etc. The building was pretty nice. It was really dark, but I liked it because of it.
I forgot to mention that we went inside Sainte-Chappelle as well. It's a small chapel within the French Judicial complex (which houses their supreme court amongst other things). It was originally built to house the crown of thorns.
Sainte-Chappelle is renowned for its stained glass windows. The pictures and stories displayed are not that impressive by themselves. However, the collection and the sum of all the stained glass is quite impressive. There was scaffolding over the main altar unfortunately.
After the Musee du Quai, we were so close to the Eiffel Tower we decided to visit and take a few pictures. My camera is pretty nice.
So from there we walked down Rue Cler. It's a nice little street with markets and open air stalls with people selling shit to you lining the street. We got there around, hmm, I'm not sure. But it was dark and the markets were closing. However, thanks to Rick Steve's guidebook we went to Cafe du Marche. Sara had a pasta with cream and truffle sauce, and I ate a chicken. It was all good and very cheap (for Parisian standards at least). Dinner was good and then we walked slowly and made our way back to the apartment.
On Thursday, we tried to go to the Georges Pompidou but they were on strike (and they stayed on strike for the rest of the week) so we couldn't go inside. That was a bummer. We ended up going ot the Musee du Orsay. On the way there a van ran into the temporary barriers that surrounded the wet concrete that was being poured for the sidewalk. The barriers ended all over the street, I ran in the street and through the barriers on the wet concrete and stepped in it by mistake. Hopefully my Sperry's will be immortal. Anyway, the Orsay was nice. We then walked down the Champs Elysees where they were having a christmas fair. I got some hot wine and Sara got hot chocolate. It was fun. We went form the Louvre towards the Arc de Triomphe. We climbed up the Arc and took pictures and it was all quite nice. Yada yada yada.
The next day we went to Versailles. In Versailles town we found a market that was giving us whole chickens. We got a chicken, a shish kebab, and a load of potatoes for 10 euros. We ate most of it. After we saw the chateaux. It was really cold and windy in the gardens. But, the chateaux was outrageously large and obnoxiously baroque.
I feel like I'm forgetting to tell you guys things... I'll have to re-read this in a day or two and edit it and add stuff. I still have a few more days of Paris with Sara to tell you guys about.
Me: Pourquois le troisieme etage non est ouvert?
Security: C'est ouvert, vouz prendez le ascenseur.
Me: Why is the third floor [of the Eiffel Tower] not open?
Security: It is open, take the elvator.
When we stand in line for the elevator we see a sign: 3rd floor is closed.
So anyway, the security guard at the Eiffel tower had no idea what he was talking about. We ended up getting a nice french lady to take a picture of us. Unfortunately, the picture is on Sara's camera and I don't have it yet. So you'll have to wait. Hopefully I'll get it from her soon.
Anyway, let me start again from the beginning. So the original calender that the director of Kent's study abroad program gave us said that we had Tuesday through Friday off due to the Thanksgiving holiday. However, in reality, we were only supposed to have Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off. We were taking a one credit hour class called the post-modern city taught by Giandomenico Amendola, who is a sociologist and world famous urban planner. It was supposed to be a three week long class. But, because of M. Sabini (the director who makes mistakes a lot) we only had 2 weeks of the class. This is torture. Giandomenico built up a case for his class, week by week, class by class. He was two thirds of the way into his story, and now I'll never get the ending! How can you start a story like that and then stop??? It was a great class. I really like to hear the different disciplines/point of views on cities that I've been getting this semester. We've had a class taught by a historian and by a sociologist. Unfortunately, we never got to complete the sociologist's class. Kent's ineptitude strikes again.
So anyway, class was cancelled because all of us had plane tickets or planes for Thanksgiving. I caught the Tuesday flight from Pisa to Paris Orly on Tuesday afternoon. For the most part, everything went smoothly. I bought a metro ticket and found the apartment that Sara and I were going to stay at. She had actually arrived on Sunday morning and was staying with her friend from highschool, Pelham. I found the apartment easily enough, and Sara was inside waiting for me! She had picked up a bottle of wine and ingredients to make dinner. We made dinner and drank the wine and since Sara was still jet-lagged we stayed in for the night. I watched a bad, dubbed, film called "american special forces" or something like that. It was dubbed into french, and it was american special forces unit involved in bad action sequences. It was pretty bad and yet somehow entertaining. Sara was asleep already, so I didn't even feel guilty about watching it. Ha!
So the next day we went to the Louvre and the Musee du Quai Branly. The french prime ministers have a history of creating public works before they leave office. For example, le Defense, the Grand Arch, the Glass Pyramid to the Louvre, etc. Jacques Chirac got Jean Nouvel to design a museum for non-western art and artifacts along the bank of the Seine near the Eiffel Tower.
I forgot to mention that we went inside Sainte-Chappelle as well. It's a small chapel within the French Judicial complex (which houses their supreme court amongst other things). It was originally built to house the crown of thorns.
Sainte-Chappelle is renowned for its stained glass windows. The pictures and stories displayed are not that impressive by themselves. However, the collection and the sum of all the stained glass is quite impressive. There was scaffolding over the main altar unfortunately.
After the Musee du Quai, we were so close to the Eiffel Tower we decided to visit and take a few pictures. My camera is pretty nice.
So from there we walked down Rue Cler. It's a nice little street with markets and open air stalls with people selling shit to you lining the street. We got there around, hmm, I'm not sure. But it was dark and the markets were closing. However, thanks to Rick Steve's guidebook we went to Cafe du Marche. Sara had a pasta with cream and truffle sauce, and I ate a chicken. It was all good and very cheap (for Parisian standards at least). Dinner was good and then we walked slowly and made our way back to the apartment.
On Thursday, we tried to go to the Georges Pompidou but they were on strike (and they stayed on strike for the rest of the week) so we couldn't go inside. That was a bummer. We ended up going ot the Musee du Orsay. On the way there a van ran into the temporary barriers that surrounded the wet concrete that was being poured for the sidewalk. The barriers ended all over the street, I ran in the street and through the barriers on the wet concrete and stepped in it by mistake. Hopefully my Sperry's will be immortal. Anyway, the Orsay was nice. We then walked down the Champs Elysees where they were having a christmas fair. I got some hot wine and Sara got hot chocolate. It was fun. We went form the Louvre towards the Arc de Triomphe. We climbed up the Arc and took pictures and it was all quite nice. Yada yada yada.
The next day we went to Versailles. In Versailles town we found a market that was giving us whole chickens. We got a chicken, a shish kebab, and a load of potatoes for 10 euros. We ate most of it. After we saw the chateaux. It was really cold and windy in the gardens. But, the chateaux was outrageously large and obnoxiously baroque.
I feel like I'm forgetting to tell you guys things... I'll have to re-read this in a day or two and edit it and add stuff. I still have a few more days of Paris with Sara to tell you guys about.
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