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.