Ridiculousness

So today was kind of an odd day. I don't know why but it just seemed like there was one odd sequence of events after another.

Usually I dont have classes on Monday (nice!) but today there were 2 make-up classes for my international trade and economics class, which was cancelled all last week. So i had to get up at the crack of dawn to go to school. My earliest classes are usually at 10, which is also nice, but today i was out the door just after 7:30 and it was like a ghost town! i guess Italians hate Mondays too. I was nodding off in class, again, which amuses my classmates to no end. I can't help it if guns n butter put me to sleep. That class is amusing because it's taught by an American professor, and pretty often the international students lean towards me and ask me to explain something or how to spell something. I feel like a superhero from The Tick or something; Spelling-Man! Today's class was held in a different location on the outskirts of the city-center, which happened to be located directly next to the train tracks. The first time one went by, the professor made a comment to the effect of "...... Really??" and I laughed, because that was exactly what I was thinking. I don't think any of the Italians even flinched though. That is actually par for the course because nearly every single day there is some kind of construction noise coming from right next to the school, either in the courtyard or the rooms next door. Really? You guys can't come back at like 6pm when there's no class? It is what it is, I guess. The universe is balanced though so I had a stereotypical Italy moment on my way back from class; someone had there window open and was playing the violin, serenading me as I walked under the porticoes. And then a typical Bologna moment; I came to an intersection, and while waiting for the walk signal (dead giveaway that I'm not Italian, by the way), I heard a commotion. When I looked up, a gang of students had jumped out into the stopped traffic and were hollering, waving batons and juggling clubs, and of course asking donations from poor entrapped drivers. At least it's more entertaining than a guy with windex and a newspaper.

I had left class early to go to my appointment at the Police/Immigration Office for my permit to stay stuff (read: more bureaucracy). It actually went smoother than I was expecting; from the research I had done I was expecting complete pandemonium, but it was fairly organized, I only had to wait around for about 10minutes instead of the 2 hours I was told I'd probably wait, AND the minor error on my previously submitted paperwork I was worried about didn't turn out to be anything at all. There was another Bologna student there, a girl from Turkey, and we were obviously the only ones who weren't coming from a developing country for work, so we chatted for a bit while we were waiting in line. She didn't speak Italian too well and the authorities aren't permitted to speak anything but, so I even ended up helping her out when it was her turn.

On my way back, I passed what appeared to be a Star Trek merchandise shop. And by appeared to be I mean was stocked to the roof with all things Star Trek. And what really made me laugh was a model in the window, the EXACT same as one I once glued together, painted, and submitted to the State Fair when I was like 8 years old. And I don't mean it was just the same ship from Star Trek - the damn model kit in the window was at least 17 years old! They must not be moving a lot of Star Trek merch here in Bologna...

Another ridiculous occurence that made me laugh: As I walked further down the street, there was a mother strolling around with her two kids, maybe about 6 or 7 years old each. One was dark haired, and the other had almost crimson-red hair. Guess which one was misbehaving and needed reprimanding??

Since it was still pretty early I headed back towards the city-center on my continued search for allspice - I'm trying to make a traditional pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, and it's the only ingredient I can't find. I already checked all the markets in my part of town, so now I'm branching out. I stopped by a big supermarket in the center, but they still didn't have any in the spice aisle. But what did they have?? ELVIS! Love me tender was playing on the store radio as I perused the selection. Jealous Aunt Sue? Italy did have a king, after all...

Online I'd found out there was market downtown called 'The Herb Market', so I figured it would be a sure bet and I headed there. On the way, I ran into the professor who heads our program, which was a nice little coincidence since we were nowhere near the university. I continued on the market, which was really nice, and there was tons of fresh produce like I've never seen in my life; heads of iceberg lettuce the size of a basketball, something that I SWEAR was a Bartlett pear but was as big as my head, and a bunch of other stuff I can't even describe. BUT NO HERBS!!! Why is it called the market of herbs?? So I called off the search, and headed home. And what did I encounter on the way home? Jehovah's witness #2 in Italy! Is there a CONVENTION or something?! Thankfully this one was just walking around with their little copy of "Il Torre di Guardia" (the Watchtower), so I could see what was coming from a mile away and I just peaced outta there. I made my way back home, relaxed for a bit, and even had some roasted chestnuts that one of my roommates made. Pretty full day, if you ask me.

The weekend had been pretty fun too. The University has graduations three times a year (Fall, Winter, and Spring), and similar to how students at ASU can walk in May even if they need to finish up some credits over the summer, the students here can follow masters programs starting in September even if they don't finish their undergrad thesis until October. So, several of my classmates were celebrating their graduations, which called for some partying. Highlights of Friday and Saturday nights:

-walking 5 miles in the freezing rain

-discovering secret stash of breadsticks at a restaurant

-party cups = dixie cups

-best pizza ever at 3am, at the only place left open in the city

-alcohol consumption and ability to speak in Italian become directly related

-our group destroying 4 bottles of wine in about 5 minutes. no more wine? well, time to go!

-awkward people watching at Brazilian dance club

-9% beer on tap

-Italian hip hop concert? AND it's BYOB?!?! Why not, it's only 2am!

-returning home decidedly tipsy + daylight savings time taking effect in the same night + cell phones that don't automatically adjust the time + laptops that DO adjust = MASS CONFUSION

So those were a few of the highlights... Exams are coming up this next week so there may or may not be shenanigans to report later on. Only time will tell.

And PS - the photo above is from the day we spent in the Giardini Margherita. Lucky we did it that day too cuz it was just about the last nice day to be outside!

Total Peanut Butter Consumption: 40%

Referring to a Costco sized jar of peanut butter that I brought along with me. I think I'm actually rationing it pretty well, thank you. After all it's now been a month since I left American soil. It's weird to actually think that!

It's been a while since my last entry here. Sorry for the dead air! But not a whole lot has happened. No interesting trips, etc. Last week and this week were spent with my nose buried in books and doing research for a presentation in my antitrust class. Pretty boring stuff. Over the weekend I didn't even leave the house. Practically everyone I know had gone out of town so there was really nothing much to do anyway, and it was F-R-E-E-Z-I-N-G cold here (at least for an Arizona boy), so I holed up at the casa underneath the blankets. It was about 10 degrees... celsius, that is. It was getting down into the low 40s F at night though. I think my blood's been thickening up though, ever so slowly. And yesterday was cold AND rainy... so THIS is why people move to Arizona! Now I get it.

Where was everybody? Well one of my flatmates is from Verona, and she usually spends the weekends at home. My other flatmate was in Imola, a nearby city where her family lives, for a wedding and other stuff this weekend. One of my friends from class was in Paris visiting friends (sidenote - you can get flights on an Irish airline, Ryanair, for as low as $10 to some places in Europe. Cha-ching!). Another one of my friends from class went home to Seborga, a town in the North very close to the border of France - in fact he was showing me some pictures from his home, and from the balcony you can see Monte Carlo. He was also telling me about the international curiosity that is Seborga; for all intents and purposes, it is Italian, but most of the citizens claim to be of their own separate nationality. They have their own prince, coins, and even license plates. Founded 1000 years a go as a sovereign state, it seems that in the many geopolitical changes that occured in Northern Italy (between France, Austria, Italy, and the Roman Empire) Seborga was sort of lost in the shuffle. They make an interesting argument for independence: Italy (as we know it today, the Republic) was founded in 1946 from the Kingdom of Italy, itself founded in the 1860s, which was ruled by the House of Savoy, under which Seborga was a protectorate but expressly sovereign (granted in the middle ages by the Holy See). So when the King of Italy peaced out in 1946, the lands he ruled became Italy - but he didn't actually rule Seborga! Interesting stuff.

Yesterday was pretty notable. After we gave our presentation in class, a bunch of us went to have a drink. Our group was about half Italians, half internationals, so there was another fun session of dirty-expressions-in-Italian-that-you-need-to-know. Then after that I hung out with my roommates. There was a student fundraiser going on that one was helping to put on, so we all went. There was cheap booze and a live band playing American music. I am thoroughly convinced that my Italian improves as my alcohol consumption increases, and I think I was speaking pretty well last night. Today, however, was not so fun, as you can imagine.

So that's the bulk of what's happened in the last week+! Hopefully there will be some shenanigans this weekend to talk about.

This last week wasn't quite as exciting as the previous. School is kicking into gear and I'm keeping occupied with about 6 hours of classes Tues-Weds-Thurs, and another 3 on Friday. I'm still trying to get used to the Italian student's way of life. It's quite different from what I experienced at ASU.

Classes are structured to be centered around theory. There's an awful lot of reading but almost nothing in the way of homework, projects, quizzes, etc. The Italian system favors one big test at the end of the course instead of periodic exams and projects, like a typical class at ASU. So the students tend to spend a lot of time reading at the library.

Also, from what I've observed, Saturday doesn't really seem to be considered part of the weekend in Italy (stores list hours, for example, as Mon-Sat, 9-7, and Sun 12-6), and many of the students I've encountered don't really go crazy on a Friday night - they like to *study* on a Saturday morning.

This concept is the epitome of 'foreign' for me.

So, Friday night wasn't quite the debaucherous evening it would have been back home. I did end up going out with my roommate Maria and some of her friends. The most exciting thing was that I found out some of her friends play football - AMERICAN football! Needless to say I stuck to these guys like glue for the rest of the evening, asking them all about it. They told me there are 3 teams in Bologna, and they play 9 players to a side. They asked me if I'd like to play with them sometime (!!!) but they all live and play at a field in Imola, which is a city about 15 miles away. Fail! Still, it's good to know for future reference. They were all very excited to find out I was from Arizona - the first thing they said was 'Oh, CARDINALS!'. I couldn't believe it! That is kind of par for the course though - Bologna is big on basketball (even other Italians call it 'Basketball town'), so whenever I meet someone and say I'm from Phoenix they say 'Oh, the Suns! Charles Barkley!' Cracks me up every time.

Saturday was pretty relaxed. Some of the students from class decided we should meet up at Piazza Santo Stefano for a drink that night, at 11. I was going there by myself to meet up, and I tried to account for Italian time by arriving around 1120. However, I underestimated and I was still too early for Italian time. There wasn't anybody at the square yet and when I called my mates they all said 'oh yeah, we'll be there in like 20 minutes!' So, I walked around for a bit. There was a big to-do in the piazza in front of the Two Towers, a light/video show, interpretive dancers, people dressed in historical costume doing something. It was all very avant garde, and I needed a beer, so I kept walking. Eventually some classmates started trickling in to the area and we met up, had some drinks, wandered the city. We ended up at an Irish pub off the main drag and some other friends of one of my classmates showed up, one of them wearing an old school Charlotte Hornets tshirt, so I immediately started talking to him about Grandmama and Mugsy Bogues. The evening went fairly quietly as well, since we all had plans together the next day for a class picnic in the park.

The park, Giardini Margherita (like the pizza - both named after Italy's queen), is a huge expanse of greenery in the southern part of the city. About a dozen of us from class got together, brought snacks and drinks and some balls to hit around, and just had a lovely day in the park. I've never seen so many people in a park before - granted, it's usually 105 with cancer inducing levels of sunshine in the parks at home. But it was fun to see tons of families outdoors, each with their own little stake of land. We sat around chatting about everything - classes, sports, what it's like back home --- the program I'm following, International Management, unsurprisingly lends itself to an international class of students. Just at our little picnic were representatives from Estonia, Russia, Ukraine, Denmark, Lebanon, and of course myself. Once the sun set, our mini United Nations packed up and went home, and I had a relaxing end to the weekend trying to figure out how to get Skype to work for my parents, from 6000 miles away (kudos to Dad for figuring it out!) If anyone else wants to find me on Skype, my username is akamillertime.

Watch later for some pics of our picnic!