Family

O.K. The past week has been crazy.

As you know, my family is in town and I have been showing them around. We were planning on going to Paris for the weekend but when we went down to the train station, all the trains to Paris were booked. So, we made a split second decision to go to Rome instead. And my 82 year old grandmother could not have been more excited about this. Actually I think they were all excited. The only problem: I JUST WENT TO ROME. But there were some things that I didn’t see the first time around that I was still curious about.

So Friday morning out train was departing at like 8 in the morning. No big deal right… well I missed the train. And until about eleven that morning I had no clue that the rest of my family was having just as crazy of a morning as I was.

I’ll start with my story: I woke up late that morning and knew that there was no way I was going to make it to the train by eight. I don’t know what happened. I’m pretty sure I just slept straight through my alarm. So I was debating whether or not to even go. I mean I JUST WENT TO ROME. But it did not take me long to come to the conclusion that I would get the next available train out of Torino to Rome. By 1:30 I was on my way to Rome to meet with my Aunt Helen and Meme around 6 Friday evening in the Roman train station – Termini.

Meanwhile, my Aunt Helen and my Meme had arrived in Rome around 2 and went straight to the hotel. There they had some drama about the room they had booked. In the words of my Aunt “It was a flea bag.” Also, the people running the “flea bag” wanted my 82 year old grandmother to climb four flights of stairs. When my Aunt told them that she read on the internet there was an elevator they all the sudden couldn’t speak English… convenient. Well, after arguing with the managers of the hotel about their cancellation policy and whatever else (I have no clue because at this point I was still on the train on my way to Rome) they finally got in a decent hotel with no fleas and an elevator.

Now I bet you’re wondering… what happened to Mom? Well, Mom woke up Friday morning to an email from Dad saying that her dad and my Papa – who has been in hospice for the past week or so – was being put on oxygen. So she made a split second decision to go to the Torino airport Friday morning to do whatever it took to get the next flight back to the states. She needed to be home to support her mother, my Nana, through this hard time. When she got to the airport, from what I have gathered so far, it was almost impossible to find anyone to speak English. And after a conversation with someone in broken English but mostly hand gestures, she managed to find out that the first flight she could get on was the next day. So she sat at the airport for around 24 hours, reading and people watching I’m sure. But before she could make it back her dad had passed away that Saturday morning. She arrived in Jackson Saturday evening at 8:30.

I can’t speak for her but I am at peace with the whole thing. He lived a very long life and he had been sick for quite some time. Also, while I was living at home in January and February I got the opportunity to spend a lot of time with him. I had also discussed with Nana what I would do if this happened while I was gone. She told me that there was nothing that I could do by coming home and that she would prefer I stay in Italy. So by her wishes, I will stay here in Italy and remember his influence in my life in a very positive light.

Back to my journey to Rome: As I was sitting on a bench waiting for my train to Rome (basically in tears about the information I had just received about Mom and Papa) I came to the conclusion that I would maintain a positive attitude in Rome, despite Mom’s absence. I mean this was Meme’s first time in Europe and I wanted it to be a good experience.

And Rome was beautiful…. again.

I almost have the audio guide for the Vatican memorized now. I got to see the Castelo S. Angelo and the Paletine.

Right now I am on my way back to Torino via high speed train. Tomorrow I will spend some more time with my Aunt and Grandmother then they will leave on Tuesday morning and I will lock myself up and study for my exams the next six weeks. I am hoping I can pass them all the first time so that I have the rest of July to travel around Europe to visit some friends.

Study, Study, Study, Family, Study

School got real real fast.

It just hit me that my first exam is in about three weeks. I have been doing nothing but studying the past two weeks (and of course a trip to Venice last weekend and a trip to Paris this coming weekend).

School is not easy at all. When I got back from Easter break in Sardegna, it all the sudden was not easy anymore. But I think I'm all caught up in Metallic Materials and in Thermodynamics.

I am getting really nervous about exams. It's just one exam to test our knowledge on a whole semester's worth of information. Kind of intimidating now that the exams are getting closer. But I think that I can pull it off. I have actually enjoyed learning from a more theoretical view point. I think it will help me develop a more full concept of the things taught in the classroom.

Oh. Also, my mom, aunt, and grandmother just arrived here yesterday and will stay until next Monday or Tuesday. I'm not really sure which. Them being here is taking away from my studies but I am really enjoying it. Today we went around Torino.

Exploring the city with them gave me the chance to see the city from a different viewpoint - through the eyes of a tourist. We did a lot of things that I have not done like go to museums and look at pretty old buildings and so on. It gave me a new perspective on Torino that i really enjoyed.

I also got the opportunity to practice my photo taking abilities. I think I am getting a little better. I have uploaded some pictures to my picasa web album that you should be able to access here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/108131129850421160436/TorinoThroughDifferentEyes?authkey=Gv1sRgCJLk5v_MgLSalQE&feat=directlink

Been travelin'

 

Sorry I have not updated in a long time. I have not been in Torino much the last month. In the middle of the month i spent four nights in Rome and over easter break I spent 8 nights traveling around Sardegna. To be honest, there has not been much time for my studies but as soon as I got back from Easter break, I've been hitting the books hard. 

Oh also, a little warning, my thoughts about all of this are pretty disorganized because sooo much has happened it’s hard to keep it all straight. So forgive me if I get sidetracked.

Anyways... Roma! I don't even know how to put Roma in to words but I'm going to try my best. We got to Roma on Thursday night and checked into our hostel: Alessdrando Palace and Bar. When we got there we were told that all five of us were going to be sharing one room and one bathroom, which was fine with me. The hostel was pretty cheap for Roma so I wasn’t expecting luxury or anything. We were given the key to the room, carried our bags up the stairs, and opened the door to our home for the next five days to find one desk and two twin beds. I instantly thought “Oh perfect, the people at the desk got confused and forgot to give us the key to the other room that must have three beds.” So I returned downstairs to inform the nice Australian receptionist of his mistake. He looks up at me said he would be up to our room in five minutes. I returned upstairs to inform the others that our problem was in the process of being resolved. As soon as I was finished explaining what happened, the energetic Australian come bouncing in our room, went straight to the closest bed and simply lifted up the mattress to convert the normal twin bed to an unstable looking bunk bed. He did the same to the bed then he left again to bring us one more mattress and bed frame because there were five of us. OK…now we are all getting settled in our new home.

That night we went out for dinner (Roma’s kebabs are nothing compared to Torino’s) then back to the bar at the hostel to have a little wine before going to sleep.

The next morning we woke up very early to go to the Coliseum before the crowd. The Coliseum was much more impressive than I thought that it would be They had a special exhibit there all about Nero’s reign over the Roman Empire and burning the city down and what not.

Sidenote: Nero really caught my interest and the rest of the trip I paid extra close attention to any information that I could find about Nero. I remember learning a little about him in my high school Latin class but learning about his life in Rome was so cool for me. As I was walking in the same places he walked I was picking up little tid-bits of information about his life and seeing artifacts from his time and putting all the puzzle pieces together as I explored Rome.

The Coliseum took up the whole morning and after we went to Carl’s “bar” to grab a bite of lunch.

Sidenote: Carl is one of my coworkers from Southern Company.

Lunch was nothing like what I expected it to be. For those who don’t know, a typical bar in Italy is a place with coffee, a few sandwiches, maybe some wine but nothing fancy. However, Carl’s “bar” was a bar but with a real Italian restaurant added on to the bar part. And we were given the VIP treatment. The food was absolutely delicious. It was a real treat to be fed so well because I thought I would be eating mostly kebabs the whole trip.

Some of the food we enjoyed with Carl: Sea bass and potatoes

After our amazing three hour lunch with Carl, we went to the Roman museum:

then on to our hostel for the night as none of us were hungry for dinner. The next day, we walked to Vatican City, stopping at the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, and Piazza Novana on the way. 

It was actually a really long walk to Vatican City and I wish we had taken the metro instead because once we got there we had to walk all over the Vatican Museum and I got really really tired. Here are some of the pictures I took inside the museum: 

 But once I was inside the Sistine Chapel, my energy was some how restored because I was so overwhelmed. I really cannot put into words everything that I thought about the Sistine Chapel. It was the most beautiful and complex art I have ever seen. I was inside the actual Chapel for at least an hour and a half trying to see and understand everything that was painted on the walls and the ceilings. However, I don’t think it was enough time to see everything. I would post a picture but photos were not allowed inside the chapel.

After the Sistine Chapel we made a quick stop in St. Peter’s Basilica:

Outside was set up for the pope to give mass on Palm Sunday, which was the next day.

However, we would not be returning to St. Peter’s for Palm Sunday mass.

Instead, we attended mass in the Coliseum. Carl had told us about this mass service that he had been attending while he was in Rome. It was a very small group of Italians (about 30-40 people) who were allowed to hold mass in a chapel inside the Coliseum each Sunday.

When Carl mentioned it to us, I was pretty hesitant to go. This service would be in Italian of course, so I wouldn’t understand much of what was going on. I’m not Catholic so I wouldn’t even be able to take communion. And I was not sure how well we would be received going to this mass service as tourists. But at the last minute, after thinking about it almost all day, I decided it would be a once in a lifetime kind of opportunity and I would probably regret not going. So we woke up early again on Sunday morning to go to my first ever Catholic mass. We met Carl at his “bar” for coffee then we ventured down to a side entrance to the Coliseum. What I assumed was a guard for the Coliseum came to open the door for all the Italians to enter to the chapel, we crossed the place where all the normal tourists are, stepped over a barrier and followed the Carl to a very small Chapel on the ground floor. There was room for about 15 people inside the chapel and the rest sat in chairs right outside. This was the second time Carl made me feel like a VIP.

Even though I couldn’t understand everything that was going on, I could instantly tell that this mass was much different from an Methodist service I had ever been too. There was a lot more reciting what was printed in the bulletin, there were nuns speaking, and it was much more somber that your typical southern church service.

That afternoon, we went to the Forum – which was kind of boring – I mean once you’ve seen one ruin, the rest look pretty similar. But I wouldn’t suggest skipping the Forum if you are in Rome. 

Our last day in Roma (Monday) we had until 4 in the afternoon to explore, then we had to catch our cab back to the airport. The plan was to go to the Catacombs. To be perfectly honest, I was not even sure what the catacombs were or where they were. But our navigator led us in the right direction. On the way, we stopped to explore the Pantheon – amazing. This is where Raphael’s body was placed when he died (a famous painter from the Renaissance who painted many things in the Vatican). Also Vittorio Emanuel II’s body was place here (the first king of Italy).

So after the Pantheon, we were ready to see these Catacombs. We had to of walked for about two hours to where they were. Once we got to the area, we stopped and had lunch around Circus Maximus. Then, I was looking at the map and discovered that the area we had to go to to reach the Catacombs was not on my map. At this point, I was exhausted from walking so much the past few days, overwhelmed from all that I had seen in Rome, and a little frustrated with our failure to find the Catacombs. So I just gave up on them. I was not that interested in going there in the first place.

Instead I found an awesome place in the park to fall asleep for a few hours and get a nice sunburn. After my nap it was time to return to Torino, and not that I didn’t love Rome, but I was so ready to get back to a place that was familiar to me. I was exhausted from all that we had done and I was starting to get annoyed with the tourists everywhere. It was almost strange to me to walk down the street and understand what people were saying. We saw so much in Rome and it was so overwhelming by the last day that we were there that it was definitely time to return to my "home" in Torino. 

Classes and things more fun.

Sorry it’s been so long since my last post. Classes started almost three weeks ago and I’ve been very busy trying to keep up with classes and friends at the same time. These two things leave me almost no free time. I am taking four classes(all in English): Thermodynamics I, Electrical Basics Course, Fluids, and Technology of Metallic Materials. The professors are pretty good, sometimes they teach from slides and sometimes they work problems on the black board.

One of the main differences I’ve noticed between classes at MSU and classes here at Politecnico is the style of teaching. At MSU, and most other universities in the USA, most of the class time is focused on practical application of theorems and principals. On the other hand, here at Politecnico, most of the class time is devoted to the theory behind the application. 

Also, the professors are a little different. Three of my classes are in the same room with the same people in each of the classes and the professors come to us. And I’m not sure how most of them feel about setting up appointments for help and questions like the professors at MSU do, but my Fluids professor already said that he wouldn’t mind that at all. He seems really eager to help us because there is not a text book written in English that follows the same curriculum that he will be teaching. Another aspect that will take some adjustment is that three hour classes here are very common. After sitting in classes for no longer than one and a half hours my whole life, these three hour classes can seem like an eternity. Luckily there is a break in the middle and a coffee machine not far away.

One of the more interesting classes I’m taking right now is Technology of Metallic Materials. I say that it is interesting not because of the coursework but because of the type of class. This class is taught by Firrao, the Dean of engineering here at Politecnico. There are only four students in the class: Ben, Joseph, Justin, and me. The small size allows for a more intimate setting than typical 30-40 person classes. It also gives us the opportunity to ask plenty of questions and spend more time on the subjects that we are interested in.

As far as the other three classes go, so far Thermo has proven to be the class that will require the most work; but I wouldn’t be surprised if Fluids begins to compete with that position soon. 

On another note, since my last post, I have been really enjoying Torino. I visited the Egyptian museum here. It is supposed to be the 2^nd best Egyptian collection in the world next to the one in Egypt. I also celebrated Italy’s 150^th birthday. There were thousands of people in the street Wednesday, March 16^th.

That night there were fireworks over the Po River and everything was open until late into the night. The next day was a school holiday and St. Patrick’s Day. So that night we went to the local Irish pub to celebrate.

This past weekend, I went to Bologna for two nights. Not that I don’t love Torino, but I really wanted to get away for a few days. When I first arrived in Bologna, it looked exactly the same as Torino and I was a little disappointed. However, after spending half a day there, I realized that the culture was completely different. Everyone there was much more bohemian than the people in Torino. There are also a lot more young people there because there are so many Universities. 

Some of the highlights of the trip were the churches

and the Musemo Civico. The Musemo Civico was a collection of artifacts from different time periods that were mostly found in and around Bologna. My favorite part of the museum was the jewelry

It was very impressive and made me realize just how rich the history of Bologna really is. Anyways, that’s all I have time for tonight….off to study Thermo!

Orange is my favorite fruit

A week ago from yesterday, we started talking an Italian language class. We are in class about 4 hours a day and 5 days a week. The class seems to be a bit harder for me than for the other students in my class because most of the other international students have learned at least two other languages. But I am working hard at it. I am still too nervous to try to speak it but I’m hoping I will gain some confidence soon. I hope to have time this week to do more independent studying. I just need to figure out what the best process is for me to learn this language. The professor’s name is Elenora and she is one of the best professors I have ever had. She made the class very fun and even social. She tells us to get up and walk around the room repeating the phrases we learn to our classmates. This was very helpful in the speaking and the friend making process. Ben and I have been hanging out with a few of the other international students in our class almost every day. I love having friends from all over the world. It is so much fun to sit around and talk about what it is like in everyone’s respective country. 

Yesterday was probably the highlight of my stay here so far. Joseph, the boys from Arkansas (Justin, Grant, and Chris), and I skipped Italian class to travel about two hours north east to a small town called Ivrea to observe their orange throwing festival. I had heard about this festival from my Italian friends and it sounded like such a unique event that I could not miss it. So, after last minute planning the night before and still not exactly sure what to expect, we woke up at six in the morning to get to Ivrea around nine thirty. 

And oh my goodness, I am so glad I did not miss this. When we got off the bus in Ivrea, there was a man standing at the stop who introduced himself to us when he heard us speaking English. His name was Darin and he was from Canada. Hoping that he could help us get to the festival, we began walking with him to the center of town. However, it turned out that he was almost as clueless about the festivities as we were but he was happy to spend the rest of the day with us. For the rest of the morning, we just aimlessly walked around exploring the town. Since it was early, the festivities had not started yet and there were not many people in town yet. Only the occasional local walking around in what looked like his team uniform and small groups of visitors wearing a sock like red had. It was obvious though that the town was ready for something huge to happen soon:

Oh, and the town of Ivrea is absolutely beautiful:

We learned that the red hats were for people who did not want to have oranges thrown at them and immediately went to the first street vendor we could find to purchase one of these hats for 5 euro. 

After walking around a little more, we finally found a local who could speak a little bit of English. We began to question him about the festival. He told us the best places to stand as an onlooker and did his best to explain the rules of the festival to us in broken English. He told us how there were many different teams of people, some on the ground and some in carriages pulled by horses. The teams in carriages would ride all around the town while the teams on the ground stay in the same place, the whole time throwing oranges at each other. Then he let us get in his carriage and pretend to throw oranges. I think that was a pretty special thing especially as tourists. 

After talking to our new friend “the local,” we continued exploring the town. Then we heard a drum and a band playing music. When we turned around, there was a procession coming around the corner so we followed it to a piazza that was lined with countless cases of oranges and all the buildings had nets going all the way up the walls to keep the oranges off. This is when I knew they were serious about this orange throwing festival.  

Then someone dressed as a king spoke and we got free food.

This happened in every piazza where the battle would take place. Then, it was finally time for the battle to begin. Because I can’t explain what happened at this point, I took a video but for some reason I cant upload it here. I'll try to post the video on facebook. This pic will have to do for now:

During the middle of the battle, we all took off our red hats and threw a few oranges at the carriages. The ground was covered with squashed oranges and we all got it all over our shoes. I got hit in the arm by an orange and I’m pretty sure it bruised me, but it’s hard to go into battle and not come out with some battle wounds. After the festival was over, I found out I was pretty lucky because I saw several people walking around with black eyes.Then, finally it was time to go home. We got on the train back to Torino at 5:45. All of us were exhausted and covered in oranges. 

This was without a doubt an experience that I will remember for the rest of my life.