Where I Live

I think it is about time to actually talk about where and how I live here in Bologna. Not that knowing where in Bologna I live will mean anything (as maps of strange cities usually mean very little to me), but below is a map of Bologna. With Microsoft Paint, I have attempted to show where I live, where my school is, where the city center is located, and where most other SAIS students reside. As you can see, school is in the eastern part of the city, while my apartment is located in the southern part, closer to Piazza Maggiore and the center of town. Also, highlighted is the section of town where most SAIS students live. I still live with SAIS students and in a building that only houses SAIS students, but the crowd where I live is a little older and a little quieter. This is evidenced by the very mundane party we threw last week. So, that's where I live.

Now for how I live....This is my street:

One neat thing about Bologna are the kilometers of porticos that line the city and insulate the walkways and sidewalks from the outside elements. Below is the portico directly outside my front door:

This is front hall of my apartment building. It's funny, if I saw something like this in the States, I would be shocked and horrified at the deteriorating state, but because it's Italy, this can be passed off as quaint and rustic. Don't worry--my actual apartment doesn't look anything like the front entry.

This is the living room:

This is my bedroom. I have a ridiculously large king-sized bed and some crazy matching 1970ish furniture:

That's pretty much it. Nothing too flashy. Although I do have a kitchen, which, for someone who lived in an apartment in DC that lacked this feature, is pretty luxurious....

See, I Do Work....

I have received a few e-mails that all ask the same question--why is it that you appear to do no work, yet you claim to be in school? It is a good question. I had intended to take Italian and an Intermediate Macroeconomics class during the month of September, before my real classes start. I am still taking Italian, but I decided to drop my econ class during the first week for reasons that I will not get into on this public form. Let's just say that as the rational person I am, I decided my financial resources were best spent in other ways. Instead I have been studying for an exam that will allow me to test-out of the class. I already took the class at Cornell, so this material is nothing new. My knowledge just needs some refreshing. Anyway, the exam is next Wednesday, so between now and then I will probably do little but work. In fact, I am even giving up a weekend trip to stay home and study. So, see, I do work. And if you still don't believe me, here is the photographic proof:

Post Parma

On Saturday night, I met some SAIS friends at an Irish bar (I know, it is so wrong to visit an Irish bar in Italy) called the Celtic Druid. It was truly eerie how much the bar reminded me of Fado, the Irish bar in DC where my cousin Billy works....Anyways, I just liked this picture of my roommate Megan and me, so I thought I would post it:

Parma Baby!

On Saturday, Natalie and I took a train to Parma to have lunch and experience the prosciutto and Parmigiano Reggiano for which this town is known. Seriously, some of the best cheese I have ever tasted.....

It was a beautiful day, so that made the journey all the better. Parma actually turned out to be a beautiful city. It is smaller than Bologna, but has a lot of pretty clock towers, churches, and streets. One clock tower featured a clock-face that had most of its numbers worn away:

Natalie and I had a lunch at a lovely little place, off a side road in town. It was a great, non-tourist place, complete with menus featuring only Italian, as opposed to other places which have English translations. Here we are having lunch, drinking a local bianchi fizzante called Malvasia:

I also have a funny picture of me and a donkey. Or at least a picture of a donkey. For some reason, the city of Parma currently has a large display of donkey pictures in the center. I thought it would be funny to have my picture taken with one. Doesn't it look like I am actually petting it?

We also had a funny visit to a bookstore. Where in the States can you go into a bookstore and be handed a sample of a new walnut-based liqueur? Nowhere I have ever been....Maybe I should send Barnes and Nobles the suggestion....

Our First Party

A number of people in my grad school program have held small, controlled get-togethers for their friends. My roommates and I thought we should reciprocate, by inviting about 30 of our friends to our apartment on Thursday night.....What started as a simple affair turned into a full-out party, with well over 100 people showing up. Apparently our party was "the party" that everyone somehow just knew to show up for. I even met one girl who had arrived in Bologna only hours before. Luckily nothing broke and no one got hurt, so all was a success. Here are some pics from the fete:

I don't remember the name of the person on the left, but in the center is Kurt and on the right is Natalie. This was before the entire school showed up....

This is Megan, one of my roommates, and Liam, who actually lives across the street from me back in Washington

Me

Kay, Reza, and Noah (who lives upstairs)

Shay (who went on the trip to Amalfi last weekend), a person whose name I can't recall, and Stephen (who lives with Natalie in the apartment building next door)

The Aftermath....I think there were at least 20-25 bottles of wine and a few empty liquor bottles. People went a little nuts....

Yeh, so that was the party....Pretty crazy....

More Photos from Amalfi Trip

Here are some more photos from the Amalfi trip, stolen from my friend Shay's blog....

The travel crew walking up to Tiberius' castle, on Capri. I am eating banana gelato. Actually, there is a good story behind this banana gelato, but I will save it for a future post on gelato (yes, once school starts, I am going to have to rely on tales about inane things such as gelato to keep this thing going!)

The travelers--from left, Shay, me, Natalie (fellow Cornell grad), Adam, and Dan

The pasta that we had for lunch in Capri. It's a little weird to take pictures of food, I know, but some of the food here is so different and interesting. Just look at the size of these ravioli. They were larger than the palm of my hand....

The Amalfi Coast

September 20, 2005; Bologna, Italy; Tuesday noon; SAIS Cafe

I promise that I will post about Bologna next, but right now, I thought I would write about the little trip I took this weekend. Late Friday afternoon a group of us decided to head to the Amalfi Coast for 3 days. Along with Amsterdam, the Amalfi Coast is one of the places that I HAD to visit while in Italy, so I jumped at the chance to go....

We decided to stay in Sorrento and then go visit the coast and Capri from there. After a 5-hour train ride, we arrived in Napoli and then had to take another train about an hour to Sorrento. Of course, when we checked into the youth hostel, the front desk informed us that we had been moved to their other hostel, a bit outside the city. Don't worry, they said, there is a very dependable van to bring you back into the city. Right.....When we tried to get back to the city, we waited for an hour for the van driver, who we nicknamed Pepe, to come get us. Finally, some friend of the hostel had to drive us back into town.

So, Saturday night, after getting back into town, we headed to Positano, which was my number one destination. It is probably the town, with its buildings perched precariously on a hillside, that people most often think about when they think of the Amalfi Coast.Of course, by the time we got there it was dark out. But we still walked around and had a nice dinner.

This is a picture of Positano during the day.....

On Sunday, we traveling to the Isle of Capri, taking a very fun hydrofoil that sailed through the largest ocean swells I've ever seen in real life. The day was so beautiful--warm, sunny. Apparently Bologna was cold and rainy on Sunday, so Capri was the place to be. Unfortunately the seas were too rough for us to visit the famed Blue Grotto, but of well. We hiked up to the former home of Tiberious, which dated to 200 BC, and visited Anacapri, where I went on the most amazing chair-lift ride. The hike up to Villa Jovis, Tiberious' home, was especially interesting, because you walked along a narrow paved path, right past the gates of what looked to be some incredible houses.

The Grand Marina in Capri.......................................... The hustle and bustle of Capri......

The Church I visited in Capri on Sunday............. Kiwis growing from the ceiling......

(Above)The most amazing chairlift ride.....

(Left) Me atop of Monte Solarno, after the chairlift ride

The last ferry from Capri back to Sorrento was scheduled to leave at 7 PM. This time was posted EVERYWHERE. We arrive at 6:45 to buy our tickets and find out the last ferry left at 6:30. This was listed on a small sheet of paper posted in the window of the ticket booth, where you buy your tickets to go back. NOT in the ticket booth in Sorrento where we bought our tix in the morning. So, by the time you learned of this schedule, you had already missed the ferry. Good times....Instead we took a ferry to Napoli, which took twice as long, and then had to take a train back to Sorrento, which took another hour. All told, the trip to Sorrento that should have taken 25 minutes, took 4 hours. What fun!!

On Monday, the rest of my group headed to Pompeii (which I have already been to), while I headed back to the Amalfi Coast, to see Positano and the other towns in daylight. Of course, it started to pour. I decided to just see Positano from the bus and travel straight to Amalfi, hoping that the rain would stop by the time I got there. Lucky for me, it did, so I had a great 2 hours in Amalfi....

And that was pretty much the end of my trip. I hopped a train back to Bologna and was home by 8:30 PM. Oh, wait, I do have one more thing to share.....My lunch in Amalfi....Yes, that really is a slice of pizza with french fries on it. I saw it and had to try it.....

I am sorry if this is a tad long....I suppose the fact it is mostly pictures helps a little, right? And I will make sure the pictures are a little more organized in future posts.....

My Journey to Italy

September 16, 2005; Bologna, Italy; Friday Afternoon; Cafe at SAIS

I had intended to start this blog a little earlier in the month, but lack of internet access has prevented me from doing so. However, my friend Naveen has shamed me into getting my act together, so here we go....

My trip to Italy 3 weeks ago was a great experience. I mean this sarcastically. The things I will do for a free plane ticket! I left my apartment in DC at 3:30 AM. American Airlines has a 70 lb weight limit for suitcases going to Europe. The weight of my suitcase? 69.5 lbs!! I was so proud....

I first flew to Boston and then to London (my first international commuter flight; no frills, no fun, no free drinks). I knew I was going to have to spend the night in London, but I had planned to just camp out in Heathrow for the night and then be there for my flight out the next morning. However, not only was Heathrow not open all night, but my flight out the next morning was from a completely different airport. So, it was then 9 PM and I had no place to stay and an early flight the next morning. This was my first international trip traveling with a wireless-capable laptop computer. So, I opened up my computer, found a network, and 35,000 Hilton points later, I had a great place to stay in a nice downtown Hilton in an executive suite.

The next morning, I caught a cab at 5:45 AM to the London City Airport. From there, I flew to Basel, Switzerland in a lovely Swiss Air prop plane. Then I caught another flight to Roma, Italy, where I spent an afternoon and evening in Rome. The pictures are still in my camera, so I can't post them now....

Now we are at Sunday. I had been traveling for 2 days and I was still not in Bologna. Finally, I went to the train station to catch my train to Bologna. At this point, I was so sick of lugging my suitcases around, I wanted to just set them on fire. Plus one the of wheels on my heaviest bag was broken. But I got on the train and 3 hours later I was finally in Bologna. Of course, I was staying at a youth hostel way outside the city, so there was a lovely hassle of trying to get my cumbersome luggage on a bus and to the hostel. But this is a boring story that involves me whining a lot, so I will just end my first blog and the story of my trip to Italy here....