With both the arrival of better weather and a noticeable (but temporary) drop in school load this week, the general mood has improved and everyone seems to be taking advantage of it. Last Friday, after our business game was finished (and in which our team placed third, thankyouverymuch), we had a big celebration in the usual party house. We'd all been cooped up in very close proximity to each other for two whole days, so everyone was eager to unwind a bit and have some fun. It was the birthday of two of our classmates, so we decorated a bit with balloons and such, and cooked up a simple pasta dinner and snacks to go along with it. Oh, and a big ol' pot of sangria, plus all the wine, beer, and liquor that everyone else brought. I was particularly proud of this AWESOME can of beer I managed to find in the grocery store:
The picture itself doesn't do justice to conveying the sheer enormity of the can. Beyond being a whole liter of beer, further awesomeness was evident from the angry viking logo on the can. It was a little more expensive than normal beer, but c'mon - the thing is bigger than my head! It's got its own solar system! So, long story short, we had a great time at the party. Around midnight we went out to the city center to a club, but I don't think we were there too long. The best part was that on the way there we ran into some waaaaaaasted guy who was trying apparently had fallen asleep standing up whilst trying to get into a church at 2am, and he was severely confused as to why the door would not open. Somehow one of us managed to convince him to join our trip to the club, but somewhere along the way he got lost in the shuffle and God only knows what happened to him. We ended the night with my favorite drunk food here in Bologna: a hot dog on frybread with fries, ketchup, and mayo. Mmmmmmm!
Saturday was pretty relaxed. I slept in (obviously!) and went back to the party house to get my backpack, which was left there since we had gone straight from the business game to the house. We did some cleaning up and sat around talking for a while, but that was about it since everyone was pooped from the night before. We were to give a presentation on Tuesday for our Market Regulations class, so I spent the evening working on that. Sunday afternoon our group for that project met, and it was a pretty standard work a little, goof off a lot meeting, which is my favorite kind of meeting. We ordered some food from a Peruvian chicken place and it was pretty good. The sauce it came with was fairly spicy, which made me happy because I can't seem to find much spicy food at all here in Italy. I think it's a northern thing, as some of the spicy foods I have managed to find were of southern origin, but even those weren't particularly spicy. I would give my right arm for some nuclear buffalo wings or a burrito from Filiberto's with some spicy red salsa. Anyways, the chicken was good, but I did feel a little silly eating Peruvian food in Italy.
Monday was our last all-day session of classes, at least for a while. 8am to 6pm is pretty harsh, but we are at least not spending the entire time in the one room with the human-rights-violating furniture. The next day was the last day we had to wake up for our 8am class, and it was also when we gave our presentation. It went really well, and we got the highest possible score, so we celebrated afterwards by going to the park to have some lunch and enjoy the sunshine. I brought a sandwich and plenty of cheap beers with me to last the afternoon, which stretched from about 11am to 4pm for around eight of us. If I tried something like that back home I'd be cooked through to the bone, but the air temperature was probably below 75 and the sunshine, though plentiful, wasn't too intense. I got a little tiny bit of burn, but it's already turned into a decent tan. Once we were finished lounging around the park, there was just enough time to run home, have a quick shower and go back out again for my favorite activity, aperitivo. A bunch of us met up in the center and we went to the default local pub for some excellent food and some beers. There was a big soccer match going on that night between Inter Milan and Barcelona, so we stayed around to watch the conclusion (with some of us not-so-fervent soccer fans making fun of it the whole time, of course).
The afternoon in the park on Tuesday was so nice we decided to do it again on Wednesday. We met at the faculty to do a little bit of work, but we were basically in hurry-up-and-get-it-done-as-fast-as-we-can-so-we-can-go-to-the-park mode. We went a bit later this time, around 3pm, and I brought along a proper picnic lunch; bottle of wine, big hunk of cheese, and a loaf of bread. Yes, it was as awesome as it sounds. Later that night some of us went out for a few drinks, but nothing too crazy. Just a continuation of the unwinding that was going on the rest of the week. However at one point we did end up going to the bar which lights its shots on fire, which is always the highlight of any evening!
Thursday night was really fun too. It was one of those nights that starts off as "Well, I don't want to do too much tonight since we went out last night". Yeah, we all know how those nights end up. The plan for the evening was for everyone to meet up at someone's house and have some drinks, then go dancing afterwards, which I was going to skip. Well the at-home portion of the evening ended up falling through, so we started off with mojitos at a little bar in the center. Someone also had a bottle of gin, which was intended for the party, but thankfully there are no open container laws here so it quickly become a game of finding cups and tonic or lemon soda to drink it with. After a short search, the items were procured thanks to the generosity of some local restaurants that were still open, and we had our little makeshift party in the street. Afterwards I ended up going with the others anyways, and we had a really good time. The music at the club was thankfully NOT techno, and we were doing some crazy blueberry liqueur shots because it was the cheapest thing there, which were of course being poured by an old guy that looked like a pirate. But it was all good clean fun, from what I remember anyways. Tonight I stayed in, since it's been such a crazy week. Tomorrow there there will be some more shenanigans and the possibility of trying some more authentic Bolognese cuisine, but I may be going to Torino (Turin) instead. However, the weather is supposed to be pretty crummy there, so I may just stick around and do it later on in the week now that we have some more free time away from classes. Either way there should be some more pictures next week and another travelogue! Until then, ciao!
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