Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Spring Fever

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Well, it's been a while since the last update! Sorry for the delay. I really have nothing to say for myself other than I was studying for a test and, when not studying, making the most of the social scene. I definitely had some adventures I want to share with you guys.

Starting back a couple weeks ago, after the last update, I had an interesting Thursday night. After classes were over for the day, some of us went for a beer. The weather has more or less finally decided it wants to be pleasant out, so sitting out on the patio of a pub or cafe for a beer is at last a viable and enjoyable way to spend an evening. Well that night classes ended a bit early for us to enjoy the aperitivo hour after our beers, so we decided to head to someone's house for a homemade meal and to watch a movie (and some more wine, of course). We downed the wine while cooking up the meal and discussing some favorite Italian topics: politics and the mafia. Places like Napoli in the south are infamous for their mafia ties, but some people say that even here in quiet Bologna a lot of the businesses and the real estate trade is ultimately answerable to the mob. I find it hard to believe, but I guess you never know! In the south it's much worse though; I've been told before that it's not uncommon for dozens of gangsters to waltz into a restaurant en masse and have a meal on the house; that is, as long as the owners don't want the place burned down the next day anyways. I just wonder if they do it wearing fedoras and smoking stogies like back in the old days. Well we didn't have to worry about any mafiosi barging in on our little party, so we enjoyed our meal of farfalle pasta with cream sauce, radicchio, and pancetta (like a thick cut, cubed bacon). Needless to say, it was delicious, and afterwards we watched a film that enjoys a cult status in our class: Galaxy Quest. Yes, the one with Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver that lampoons Star Trek. The reason it's famous amongst our class (besides being a pretty funny film) is that one of the goofy alien characters uncannily resembles and speaks just like a professor we had earlier in the year. I'm not going to say which one, because a) this is the internet , b) I don't have a diploma in my hands yet, and c) mama didn't raise no fool.

I took it pretty easy the weekend following that. There is a big convention center in Bologna so there is always some trade fair or the like going on, and that week there was a big music festival with lots of events around the city. Well Saturday night there was a free concert in the main square with a lot of pretty famous musicians (including some from the States), and I really wanted to go but the weather decided it wanted to throw one last crappy day at us and it was 55*F and rainy all day, so I didn't end up going. Sunday was pretty relaxed too; all I did was go to the big open-air market in the square to buy some much needed stuff on the cheap, and then I had to write a short paper for my soon-to-be-ending strategic accounting class, so that was pretty much it for the weekend.

The next week started off kind of slow. I was up early and off to class on Monday morning, but there was some kind of confusion with the scheduling or something and our teacher never showed. I had to go to the college anyway to use the printers in the computer lab, so it wasn't a total loss, but still - annoying. Our big scary test for the strategic accounting class was the next day at 4pm, so that night and the next afternoon were reserved for studying.

Well the test came and went on Tuesday, and it wasn't so big and scary after all. When it ended it was the perfect time to go out for the aperitivo hour, so we had ourselves some beer and spritzes (a typical aperitivo drink made with fizzy Italian wine and a bitter alcohol) and some delicious food. We decided to check out the nightclub in the public park later that night, as it was 'Erasmus' night, which is the name of the European student exchange network. There's an awful lot of Erasmus students from all over Europe in Bologna, so the bars will often have special nights just to lure the foreigners in for some cheap drinks. So later on, we all met up in beautiful Piazza Santo Stefano to have some drinks in the open air first, then continue on to the club. Here are some pics from in the piazza:

The piazza; pretty empty on a Tuesday night


Our merry little band. Hooray for no open contain laws!




After we had sufficiently gotten ourselves lubricated, it was time to head to the club. Like I mentioned before, it was Erasmus night there, and even though there were only a few of us who were not Italians, all of the Italians speak perfect English. So, we managed to work our way through the Erasmus student line without having to pay, thanks to a convincing portrayal of not speaking any Italian on behalf of the natives. Being an international student has its advantages! We had a pretty fun night there, and even better, we didn't have to wake up for any classes the next day. We even spotted Gandalf, or at least some old guy with a big beard that looks exactly like him. What an old man like that was doing at the club I don't know, but one thing's for sure, there is no lack of weird characters in Bologna (remember my story about the Contessa from a few weeks ago?)

The next day was more or less a continuation of the activities. We met that night at the main party house, Riccardo's place, for a big communal dinner; this time, nearly everyone was there. A few of the girls cooked up a great big batch of pasta, a couple of nice chocolate cakes for dessert, and we had more than enough wine to go around. A few pics of the dinner:





Notice the (empty) bottles

I know what you're probably thinking: this is a bad idea


Well, you'd be right

After that, we all went back to the nightclub at the park again, because it's free to get in on Wednesdays and free is any student's favorite word. It was a pretty raucous night, with all of us there together as a big group. The clubs here shut the doors pretty late, and we definitely closed the place out. But no matter! After that, it was back at it again on Thursday, since there were still no classes the rest of the week and it was our classmate Birgit's birthday. A few of us got together in the park for the afternoon to enjoy the sunshine, and then around the hour for aperitivo we went and had ourselves a bite to eat at a nice little cafe. We stayed there for a while, then grabbed some bottles of wine and beer just as the stores were closing for the day. We headed back to the main party spot, Riccardo's house, once more. We ended up playing Kings all night long; if you're not familiar with it, it's a drinking game that is, shall we say, very effective. It was another uproariously good time with good friends; I'll be sad to see a lot of them go home over the summer, since most of the students will be returning to their hometowns once classes and exams are over. Unfortunately a lot of them won't be coming back to Bologna after the summer, as many are taking advantage of the international nature of our program and transferring for six months to schools abroad. But that's later; for now, it's just time to enjoy the company while we're all here. 

Friday I stayed home, as Saturday there were big plans again. There was an important soccer match being played that night, and our classmate Saar had a few of us over to watch the game and also use the opportunity to make some fresh pasta from scratch. It was definitely a lot of work, from mixing the flour and eggs to stretching out the dough in a hand-crank machine and finally cutting it. But it came out pretty darned good, and Saar also made a tasty ragu (meat sauce) to go along with it. Some more pics to illustrate the night:


Sir Mixalot?


Stretchin that dough!


The definition of multitasking

Soccer intensity

The house we were at was a ways from the center, out towards the hills, and we ended up at a big villa nearby that's been turned into a weekend party venue. In the spring they set up big tents and lawn furniture on the rather large grounds of the villa, and we just spent the night there relaxing and soaking up the fresh air.

Well it's been a pretty exciting weekend so far, right? But wait, there's more! My housemate Maria and a bunch of other students from her class were going out to a park in the hills for a barbecue on Sunday and she invited me along too. I'd slept in a bit from the previous late night, but woke up just in time to catch her before she left and went along with her. It was really nice - a beautiful day, TONS of food, nice shady trees, and lots of entertainment. There were about 40 students there, all doctors in training like Maria, and they brought guitars, soccer balls, rugby balls, frisbees, and other assorted items to help us entertain ourselves under the sun. The park was pretty full of other big groups, doing the same as we were, but there was plenty of room to spread out. There was a large community grilling area with four grills and a giant smokestack, under which we grilled up pork ribs, sausage, bread, veggies, and guanciale (a kind of pork-cheek bacon). It was all incredibly delicious. Still tuckered out from the night before and now with a filled belly, I elected to spend a good deal of the day napping under the shade of a tree, to the sounds of people playing singalongs on the guitar (in English, of course; Italians are crazy for English music) and others having a kickabout with a soccer ball a little ways off. It was incredibly relaxing; not that I'd had much stress that week outside of the test or anything. Pictures you ask? Why, of course!



Gotta rep the ASU


Live entertainment


Doing what I do best


It was a really nice day. Unfortunately, I paid for it the next day when my allergies kicked into full gear. I skipped my classes the first two days this week because I haven't been able to sleep well at night from an alternating stuffy and runny nose, plus I can't stop sneezing to save my life. It took spring six months to arrive here in Bologna, and now that it's finally here it's kicking my ass. I'm not too worried about the classes I missed because I can't take the exam the first time around anyway. I guess I should mention, in case I haven't before, that on the Italian system there are usually anywhere between three and eight opportunities a year to take the final exam for any given course - which is also usually the only exam you have for the course. And I can't take it next week because Alee is coming to visit me, which I am RIDICULOUSLY excited about. We've already got some plans to get out of Bologna and see some stuff, so I should have a lot of great photos coming up next week. Until then, take care gentle readers!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Ravenna

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It’s been a while since the last update, and I’ve got a lot to tell! The previous week started off strong. Monday after class a big group of us partook in my favorite pastime, the aperitivo hour. We went to a really nice little place in the Piazza Maggiore which was surprisingly cheap for the atmosphere and the location. You’d think it would be a ripoff right there in the main square, but it’s only 5 euro for a glass of wine or beer and all the food you care to eat. It was a nice, relaxed, very Italian evening. We were there for about three hours, just sitting, munching, and talking, while the world passed by in the piazza. The weather was perfect, and the twilight lasts until almost 9 o’clock, after which the square and all the medieval buildings lining it are beautifully illuminated in spotlights. 

We had a few projects to turn in last week, so a lot of time was spent working in groups. Of course, this doesn’t mean there was no time for fun too. Working on a group project in Italy is kind of like going to a paid lunch meeting on the company credit card –you spend about 25% of the time actually working, and the rest is spent eating, having some wine and beer, socializing, goofing around, and at the end deciding that you need to meet up another time to finish it. It’s not a bad way of doing things, and that’s basically how it went on Tuesday. The next day was similar, but we got quite a bit accomplished - that is, before we decided to call it an evening so that we could all go get ready to go out that night. In the public gardens there is a big bar that opens during the warm summer months, and Wednesday evening was the grand gala event to kick off the season. We met up at our friend Riccardo's place and pregamed a little before heading out. It was Cinco de Mayo, so of course I tracked down some bottles of Corona and brought those along. Later we made our way to the garden bar, which was really nice. It's a kind of big tent, but with a bit more structure to it, and they had DJs, a couple bars, and tons and tons of people there celebrating the arrival of "summer"; FYI, it was 57F and raining when I woke up today. But you have to work with what you've got! We had quite a bit of fun, as evidenced by this photo:



The faces are a reaction to the drink. Called 'quattro bianchi' (four whites), it is basically a long island iced tea without any of the stuff that masks the taste of alcohol. It was probably the worst drink I ever had in my life, and I couldn't even finish it. Now THAT'S saying something. It was a pretty late night for us, which was unfortunate because we had to wake up early the next day and continue the project that we'd abandoned in order to join in the festivities. But, being the superb students that we are, we worked through the hangovers and got it pounded out and turned in on time. Even better, it came back as an A, thank you very much! I was pretty pooped after the long night, short sleep, and hard work, but after class things started right back up. We headed back to Riccardo's place (the default party house, if you hadn't noticed) for an evening of good ol' fashioned board games and wine. We started off with Risk, but as anyone who has ever played Risk knows, after about an hour it devolves into people throwing tanks at each other, stealing your opponents' units when they aren't looking, and surreptitiously putting extra units on your own countries. So after World War III was settled, we broke out an Italian edition of Monopoly. Yes, all the names are different; Via Roma, Piazza Accademia and Corso Magellano instead of Boardwalk, Vermont Avenue and Park Place. It was an older version too, so all the money was in thousands and thousands of Lire. Now, I don't know if you've ever been in a room full of business grad students playing Monopoly, but if you haven't, it's just about the most vicious and cutthroat scene you can imagine. Closed door meetings, back room dealings, theft, accusations, even legal counsel; this game had it all. When confronted with the inevitable stalemate, lines were drawn in the sand and, being excellent business students, several strategic joint ventures were formed to attempt to gain an upper hand. At the end, my business partners and I prevailed, and the vanquished were relegated to a life of poverty and renting houses. Such is a Thursday night in Bologna. As we were leaving, around 2am (it was a long game!), we were passed by about fifteen vintage cars - we're talking 1950s and 60s Porsches, Ferraris, Alfas, and a bunch of others I didn't recognize. It turns out the Mille Miglia was passing through town that weekend; back in the old days, when the auto industry was still in its infancy and Italian manufacturers were the pride of Europe, it was a huge (thousand mile, hence the name) auto race from one end of the peninsula to the other. Nowadays it's more of a vintage car saunter through various cities, but it was still really cool and unexpected to come across a gang of them as we stepped out of the house in the middle of the night.

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful. It was another weekend where all the Italian students stayed in and studied, so I decided that rather than remain cooped up in the house the whole time I would take a trip on Sunday. The night before was spent making my gameplan, and then I got up early to catch the train for my next adventure.

Ravenna is an ancient city, like most places in Italy. Not far from Bologna, about an hour and a half by slow train, it's situated practically on the Adriatic coast. Much like Rimini, a short canal links the city to a port on the sea. This strategic location served the city well in the past. After the split of the Roman Empire, it became  the seat of the Eastern Empire for governing its Italian possessions. This links it with other Eastern cultures like Venezia, Greece, and Byzantium instead of Rome and the Vatican. There are tons of World Heritage sites in Ravenna, as many important buildings with stunning works of art from the time period have been miraculously preserved over hundreds of years. Most of the places I would visit on this trip were built at the time of the Eastern Empire seizing the city, around the 5th and 6th Century AD. It's well renowned for the many beautiful mosaics from this era. I am huge sucker for mosaic artwork, and fell in love with the city because of this when I first visited it five years ago. This time I got to see a lot more than I did in the last visit, and I felt like a kid in a candy store.

Modern Ravenna is bike crazy. Huge groups of bikers roam the streets, creating virtual two-wheeled traffic jams from the sheer amount of them. Everyone everywhere is going by bike, or walking alongside their bike. Piazzas and storefronts are full of places to lock up the bikes. Wherever you go, you are dodging them left and right. Young and old, businessman and hooligan, people are attached at the hip (hah!) with their two wheelers. As I stood in the piazza outside the train station, staring at a posted tourist map trying to get my bearings, a nice old man cruising the sidewalk on his bicycle noticed my lost look and stopped without me asking  to offer some helpful advice. Italy is like that; everyone is ready, and happy, to give you their opinion from the mundane things to the most polemic topics (whether you asked for said opinion or not). I've noticed that it's very rare to get a one or two word reply to most queries. Well, after taking the septuagenarian's advice, I headed off to my first destination, the Arian Baptistery.

Unfortunately, once I got there, I saw that the tiny building was backed up with tons of tourist groups, so I decided to come back later and proceeded to the next spot: the tomb of the poet and scholar Dante. First, I passed through the town's main square, Piazza del Popolo:


On the way to Dante's tomb, I passed through another scenic piazza which was hosting a little organic products /  eco-awareness fair:


A little ways down the street was Dante's tomb. Although he was born in Firenze and is one of its most famous sons, he was exiled for political reasons during the turbulent end of the 13th Century. He spent the last few years of his life in Ravenna, and is now interred there, much to the chagrin of Firenze who realized their error many years later. The tomb which holds his remains is a later structure, 18th Century, but the bones were previously kept in the nearby church.


Inside is the sarcophagus with the remains and a relief from the 1400s showing Dante at his desk. He is considered one of the most important medieval poets in history, and one of the father's of the Italian language; his works were some of the first to be published in an Italian dialect, not Latin. Notice the rose someone's left on the tomb. Also, did I mention Dante is a University of Bologna alum?


The people of Firenze have been trying to get Dante's remains returned to the city for centuries, but Ravenna steadfastly refuses. As a token, the Fiorentini began supplying local Tuscan olive oil for use in a lamp in the tomb:


Just behind the tomb is the church of San Francesco. It's a simple church, famous for being the place where Dante's funeral was held.


After that, it was off towards a museum housing a lot of artifacts from Ravenna's past. On the way I snapped a photo of a typical family outing in Ravenna, with mom, dad, and three kids biking through the piazza:


Inside the museum were a lot of stone carvings, metal processional crosses, and other various items (like a set of medieval bishop's vestments, including a ring with about twenty diamonds the size of peppercorns and a ruby as big as your thumb).

This was a rare example of a calendar used to project the phases of the moon for use in determining the date Easter would fall on between the 6th and 7th centuries.

This is a 6th century bishop's throne made entirely of ivory and covered in biblical scenes

The museum, housed in a church complex, is famous for a chapel used exclusively by the bishops of Ravenna and decorated in exquisite mosaics from the late 5th / early 6th centuries. Now that we're getting into some of the mosaics I saw on this trip, I *highly* recommend clicking on the various pictures to enlarge them. You'll catch some more of the details and really appreciate the artistic labor and workmanship that went into them.






As seen here, Christ was often depicted without a beard in early Christian art



A rare depiction of Christ as a warrior triumphing over evil (the lion and the snake)

The chapel is as much a political work as artistic; its motifs emphasis the orthodox beliefs of the church at the time, contrary to the Arian sect of Christianity that was dominate in Ravenna prior to the Empire taking it over. In the mosaic above, there is some implication that Arianism is one of the evils Christ is conquering (as Arianism was deemed heretical under orthodox belief).

There were also several mosaics from some older churches scattered about Ravenna, now housed in the museum:



The Virgin Mary, praying (people used to pray in this pose; later it became common to place the hands together as it is less tiring)



After that, it was off next door to the Neonian Baptistery and its beautiful 5th century mosaics.






After that, I stopped briefly in a privately owned garden that is open to the public, which offered a nice quiet view of the nearby basilica. A round campanile (bell tower) is somewhat of a trademark of Ravenna.




The next stop was the Basilica of San Vitale, across town, so I had a decent walk ahead of me.


Old and new


On the way, I stumbled across something else I had seen while looking into sightseeing in Ravenna, but I had forgotten to put it on the gameplan. Back in 1993, there was some construction going on near a church and in the process, the remains of a small palace were discovered, which is always an issue when you're digging in Italy! The Byzantine era home was richly decorated with floor mosaics, now on display in a small museum beneath the church.



The ceiling here is actually the street above







Some plexiglass panels in the walkways above the floor allow you to see the mosaics in situ. Also, I desperately need to get some new shoes! Italy is hard on the feet.



When I am a rich businessman, I will pay some starving student like me to decorate my home in mosaics

From here, it was back on track to San Vitale. Finished in 548AD, it's unique for its architecture and the amazing artwork found inside. Deviating from the usual cross-shape, the church takes on an octagonal pattern:






In the courtyard: this sarcophagus is NOT zombie proof



Inside: replete with marble, columns, alabaster windows, and splendid mosaics



A unique upper story found above the main floor. Frescoes are much later, from the 18th century



Plenty of mosaics to go around. Their simple elegance fascinates me



Another young, unbearded Christ; flanked by angels, the patron saint of the city, and of course the bishop who commissioned the building



Emperor Justinian (hmm, that has a nice ring to it...)



The Empress Theodora, on the opposite panel






One last view of the interior architecture

In the courtyard was the mausoleum of Galla Placidia, an Empress during the late 4th century. It is a small, simple, yet beautiful building.



Simple exterior



Inside, the only light when the door is closed comes through these windowpanes made from very thin slices of alabaster (ok, and a low-watt lamp or two, but they didn't have those in the 4th century!)




After the San Vitale complex, it was time to head across town again to the next stop: a fort built in the late 1400s by the Venetians. But first some more sights along the way:


This is what new home construction looks like in Italy



Ravenna is mosaic crazy, even in modern days. You'll find contemporary mosaics all over the city: on public institution signs, private home decorations, even on the city garbage cans.

Finally, I arrived at the fort. It's a bit less imposing nowadays, as things tend to sink into the ground in Ravenna because the water table is very close to the surface. 




The main entrance, previously a drawbridge over a moat



Within the outer walls there was also an inner keep







While walking around the inside of the fort, which is now a public park, I slowly began to realize that this is every little boy's dream: a full size, true to life, functional military fortress. There are tons of little nooks and crannies to explore, and you can even get inside the main turrets that form the corners of the complex. Where the heck was this place when I was 8 years old and building forts out of couch cushions??






I thought it rather poetic justice that this former military complex is now home to a children's playground

From here, it was a decent walk to the next stop: the mausoleum of Theodoric. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the mid 5th century, Eastern Emperors exerted influence through whichever barbarian kings they could buy at the time. Theodoric was sent to retake Ravenna, and ended up succeeding. The period immediately following this is the one in which most of Ravenna's historic buildings were constructed.



A big open green space in the city, with Theodoric's mausoleum on the right



It looks to be a fairly simple structure from the outside; however, amazingly, the upper part of the roof is one gigantic piece of stone ten yards across weighing over 300 tons!

From here, I headed back to the very center of the city again to retry a visit to the Arian Baptistery. Luckily, all the tourists had cleared out by this time, so I got right in to the small building. Seen from the outside, it is pretty plain. It, like many other heavy stone buildings in Ravenna, has sunk into the ground a few meters.






Inside: the amazing ceiling mosaic



The interior of this baptistery did not survive completely intact like the Neonian one



The only other visible artwork in the building that I could find



A detail of the ceiling



Apparently the Beatles were some of Jesus' disciples 

By this time, I was famished, so I headed deeper into the center to find a place to eat. I finally landed on a nice, authentic looking piadineria (sandwich shop). The piadina is the typical bread of the entire Emilia Romagna region (Bologna and Ravenna included), and it's typically filled with some kind of meat and cheese as a lunch. Here in Ravenna, the style is of a very thick bread, in contrast to the almost tortilla-like piadinas we often get between classes at a place near our faculty building. Well, this was definitely the right choice, as it was the best piadina I've had yet in Italy. I had mine filled with prosciutto crudo (raw, cured ham) and pecorino romano cheese (a buttery-tasting variety). Words cannot adequately describe how delicious it was, so here is a picture of the sandwich before I tore into it:


I sat outside in the fresh air of the piazza and enjoyed the piadina for a good twenty minutes before heading off to the next stop, the church of San Apollinare.






A neat view of this church's campanile. The windows get bigger as it goes up to save weight


While it has a pretty plain exterior, the interior (contemporary with the other Ravenna monuments) is filled with - guess what - more awesome mosaics!



My ol' pal Emperor Justinian again



Massive mosaics cover both sides of the church for virtually the entire length and width of the walls.



A view of what Ravenna looked like in the 6th century. Notice the port on the left (which was closer to the city 1500 years ago - the sea has receded somewhat since then)



Theodoric's palace as it appeared in ancient times, part of which still exists today



A procession of female saints. It still amazes me the amount of detail that can be realized simply from arranging tiny bits of stone and glass in a particular way.



The marble stonework of the altar was not something to be missed either

From here, it was a short walk to the final destination for the day, the city art musuem, which was putting on an exhibit mixing some pre-Renaissance and late 19th century art. On the way, I passed by what little remains of Theodoric's grand palace:



Think the White House will look this good in 1500 years?

Next door to the museum was this really nice church:






A detail of the facade

In front of the museum, a pretty typical Ravenna street, and some decidedly more modern art:




The art exhibit was pretty cool; it gathered a handful of pre- and early Renaissance art together with artwork that it inspired in a school of English painters of the mid to late 1800s . There were quite a few people and a lot of museum attendants roaming around, so I didn't get to take too many pictures. However I felt compelled to snap a picture of the painting below because A)  it reminded me of a really cool art exhibition of Elihu Vedder that I saw in the Phoenix Art Museum before I left for Italy, and B)  it was at the end of the exhibit so what could they do, kick me out?




I couldn't believe after all I'd seen in Ravenna that I'd manage to check everything off on my itinerary and still have time to take the early train home at 6:30pm. I was pretty darned proud of myself, especially considering all the things I didn't make it to in Torino the week before, so I treated myself to some really nice gelato after I made it back home to Bologna. It turned out to be a good weekend after all!

Monday was another one of those days that started off pretty slow and ended up fairly eventful. After classes from 10am to 6pm, a few of us decided to grab a drink and a bite to eat, but it was too early for the aperitivo hour so we just went to a convenience store (which are called 'pakistani' here, because just like back in the States they are largely run by Indians and Pakistanis) and got some supplies, then headed to a nearby piazza. We posted up on the pedestal of a statue (seen below) and just sat there for about two and a half hours, chatting, drinking, munching on snacks, and watching the world go by. 




That night we witnessed what is for me the funniest thing I've yet to see in Italy. As we sat there, watching the foot and car traffic go by in the intersection, another non-Italian and myself would cringe at the chaotic mess of cars and the frequent near misses that don't seem to phase the locals at all (another reason I've vowed to never drive here). At one point, an old man driving a tiny little car pulled into the intersection, looking for a parking spot. There was one legal parking spot, designated by a box painted on the pavement, but it was already filled by another small car except for a bit of leftover space big enough for the front tires of another car to fit in. So naturally the Italian driver decided this was a perfect place to park. However, there was a scooter randomly (and probably illegally) parked nearby as well; this presented a huge problem to the youth-challenged driver, who proceeded to make a 75-point turn trying to parallel park into the space between the other two vehicles. We four, already being slightly lubricated, alternated shouts and wild gestures of encouragement and warning to the driver as these proceedings went on. The old man would occasionally exit the vehicle, see how much space he had, then go on to almost smash the poor scooter, which he surely would have if we weren't there to provide some arbitration. Finally, at one point he got out and, with the assistance of one of us, physically picked up the scooter and moved it over about a foot. Problem solved! He made it into the space after that, which was met with fervent acclaim on our part. At this point I was holding back tears of laughter and it was everything I could do to not laugh in the poor old guys face. He  was standing there for about 30 seconds, admiring his work and the sweet taste of victory, when up walked the clueless owner of the scooter, hopped on, and rode off. I lost it. It was the perfect little drama for such a night. After that, we crashed in unannounced on the house of a friend that lives nearby to say hi; he'd been in Spain for more than a week, stuck there the last few days because of the volcano. He'd been home barely ten minutes by the time we showed up on his doorstep with a bunch of beers, but I personally think that's a great way to be welcomed back home. We ordered up some pizzas and played some video games, but didn't stay out too late as we had class again early today. I was a little slow getting up and out the door, if you can believe it, so I skipped breakfast; but somebody up there must like me, because lo and behold, when I arrived in class the teacher's assistant had brought a bunch of cookies for everyone! I had five and decided I'd never stay in on a Monday night again.