Break

Final exams end this week. I had my last one this morning. I wrote several pages on the emergence of customary law, the Palestinian quest for statehood and the legal debate surrounding the Bush Doctrine, and then that was it. I was done. I put on my coat and scarf and hurried home in the snow, more out of habit than any actual reason or need. I've been studying so hard, for so long, that now I have all this free time I don't know what to do with it!

The SAIS campus is effectively abandoned. My classmates are much more organized and forward-thinking than I am. They all made plans ages ago to travel to exotic locations, from Morocco to Vietnam. I suffered from finals-induced tunnel vision to such an extent that I made no plans at all. How sad! Hope is not lost for an enjoyable break, however. I am going to Sarajevo on a study trip at the end of next week. I'm thinking now of leaving a few days early to travel around the Balkans. Any recommendations?

It has been snowing here in the past couple days, but slush falling from the sky would be a more accurate description. I'm looking forward to a change of scene. I can't remember the last time I saw a blue sky!

Holiday Wrap-Up

After giving a quick glance to past posts, I've realized something rather embarrassing. While I now blog from my fancy laptop instead of ancient cellphone, and have all the conveniences of a true full keyboard and mouse, my spelling and grammatical errors have not been dramatically reduced on this blog. I hereby declare, as my New Year's resolution for 2013, to spend just a few more seconds reviewing my work before I hit the every-tempting "Publish" button.

Regardless, I'm just back from my holiday adventuring and I'd like to share a bit with you before I retreat into piles of case studies, problem sets and lecture notes in advance of my impending final exams.

I really didn't have any special plans for the holidays. Really. No plans. I was going to stay home and study. Alas, my roommate thought that plan pathetic and sad, so she invited me along with a friend to her home for Christmas. We intended to take the train down and back, but our hasty preparations were foiled when we realized all the cheap tickets were taken and our only options were to spend 9 hours standing or pay a quarter of my rent for a one-way ticket. "No thanks," said we. But did we stay home? Hardly. We found an Italian ride-sharing site on the internet, called up a stranger and met him on a street corner. He was an hour late, but aside from that, we had no problems. He drove us 800 kilometres to Lecce and we booked into a guesthouse at 3 a.m. (my roommate's house was crowded and her village boring, the guesthouse belonged to her friend).

We slept in the next day, then hit the town to explore. Lecce was gorgeous. The sun was bright, the sky blue, the weather warm and the buildings dated back to ancient Greece. It was heaven. It also featured some interesting juxtapositions of Italian history. For instance, one piazza was home to an ancient coliseum bordered by a giant block from the Fascist school of architecture from which Mussolini used to give speeches. Perhaps even more disconcerting was that the coliseum was playing host to the town creche scene, complete with tiny houses and large, creepy dolls. In terms of holiday decorations, I much preferred the standard strings of lights that hung across the alleys.

My roommate fetched us early the next day, on the morning of Christmas Eve, to bring us to a family volleyball tournament in her hometown. I've never had so much fun getting hit in the face. Her family quickly realized how poor my hand-eye coordination and upper-body strength are, so I was relegated to the back row to serve. I managed this position reasonably well, but by the end of the tournament my right hand was red, swollen and felt broken. I was happy my team emerged victorious, but I was more happy that the whole debacle was over and my injuries were limited.

The game was followed by a trip to my roommate's country house, in the olive groves just outside of town. She and her American boyfriend (from, unbelievably, Buffalo) made a Mexican feast for a huge crowd of friends and family. It was great fun to get to know everyone, play some parlor games, ride around on a mini-ATV, work on my Italian and share a few hearty laughs over all the things that get lost in translation. All that was almost as fun as sunning myself up on the roof. It is so cloudy and foggy here in the north, I had almost forgotten what the sun felt like.

Back in the city that night, I went to midnight mass at the duomo (main cathedral). It was all in Italian, so I barely understood it, but the beauty of Catholicism is that the mass is always the same, so regardless of the language barrier it was still pretty familiar. The building was also spectacular, so much so that I didn't really mind having stand way off in a corner. That just gave me more freedom to look around and inspect all the amazing artwork.

Christmas Day was spent back in Veglia, my roommate's hometown. We had an enormous lunch at her grandmother's, followed by some very bad caroling and other shenanigans.

The next day, I could practically hear my textbooks calling out to me, so we left the pretty city of the South to head north. Again, we hitchhiked. This time it did not go as smoothly as hoped for. Our first lift was just a terrible driver, so we abandoned ship. Our second failed to stop at our destination. Our third and final ride was lovely. They have a daughter in America right now, so we bonded a little bit before they dropped us off in home, sweet Bologna.

I was back in town for just a couple nights before I got a call from the same woman I had just traveled to Lecce with.

"Want to go to the mountains?"
"Sure. When?"
"Tomorrow."
...
"Okay."

And that's how I found myself in the Dolomites. We wised up and took the train this time. A friend of hers met us at the station and took us to his home in Predazzo. My friend wasn't up for skiing, but I thought it might be fun. In fact, it was more terrifying than fun, but I'm glad I did it. I'm a terrible downhill skier, but I finally graduated to the red trails on this expedition. Maybe if I don't wait another decade between ski trips in the future I will someday advance to the black. Maybe. Maybe I'll fall off a chairlift before I get the chance. One disconcerting element of the ski trip was a patch of blood on the snow directly underneath a main lift. Thank heavens it wasn't mine, but it was good reminder that skiing is really a dangerous sport and people are crazy to do it. Crazy.

Back at the ranch in Predazzo, we had homemade pumpkin tortelli that sorely tempted me to stay in the Alps for another day or so, but once again, finals lured me home to Bologna.

I spent New Year's Eve in Piazza Maggiore, watching a giant mechanical monkey burn. It was bizarre, but apparently an Italian tradition. Actually, the tradition is to burn a witch. Bologna burnt a monkey. There are some things I cannot explain.

To back up a bit, my birthday was right before all the holiday madness. It was lovely. I got dressed up and went to a fancy dinner the night before with some good friends, then had a delightful lunch the day of with another friend, gave a presentation in my international law class, feasted on a homemade pumpkin pie from yet another friend, attended a lecture and then skedaddled off to the opera house to see Verdi's Il Trovatore. The day ended with wine, prosciutto and chocolate at a nearby ostaria. Each year is becoming more and more difficult to top!

Review

Ciao a tutti!

Once again, I've dropped out of the blogging universe for a while. I will likely drop out again in a few weeks when final exams come around. However, I a few minutes at the moment, so it's time for a quick update. Where did we leave off?

The Sala Borsa! I got my library card and never used it. I don't have time to read books for pleasure, although Schelling's Arms and Influence wasn't quite as boring as my other required readings.

Halloween! We had a big school-wide party at a palazzo. My friend and I got some cardboard and built a portico-headpiece, dressed up as columns and went as a side-street in Bologna. We thought it was terribly clever, but we failed to place in the costume competition. SAIS is more of a creative hotbed than we anticipated.

Midterms! They happened. They're over (for now).

Thanksgiving! I cooked my first-ever turkey (which had to be special-ordered because Italians don't really do turkey), and it turned out edible! I had more people over to my place that I had chairs, forks, glasses, napkins or any one utensil, but we all had a good time. There was a ridiculous quantity of food. I made the turkey, pumpkin pie (from a pumpkin), apple pie and my friends brought everything from mashed potatoes to Chinese-style chicken. It was all delicious, but I've never spent so many consecutive hours in a kitchen before and I need a long break before I do that again.

Trips! I went to Venice for a day to meet a friend. It rained, it poured, and I had no umbrella, but in spite of it all, we had a really good time. We took a vaporetto (water taxi) across the lagoon to the island of Murano and watched some glassmaking before taking a rainy walk along the canal and doing some serious window-shopping. Of course we were sure to get some super-touristy shots in St. Mark's square before we left. I hope to go back when the weather is sunnier. I also went to Florence on an art history class field trip. We saw Michelangelo's David and visited the Uffizi. The day started beautifully and ended in rain. Winter weather in northern Italy is a bit of a letdown. It's cold and rainy, pretty much all the time. Still, the Florentine streets were all lit up and decorated for the holidays. That and a cup of hot chocolate (pure, liquid chocolate) put me in a very cheery mood, despite the weather.

Summer! I got an internship at the US Mission to the UN Agencies in Rome. It looks like my adventures in Italy are really just beginning.

Extracurriculars! I started volunteering at a local middle school with a fifth grade English class. It's an hour week and a nice break from the seriousness of my own academics. Also, I finally found a french horn and any mysterious noises emanating from the basement of Via Belmeloro 11 can generally be attributed to me practicing. It's been a long time, but it's a fun hobby to revisit.

I'm on my way back to school, so that's all for now folks. Tomorrow, I leave for a conference in Geneva. Ciao!

Sala Borsa

In Bologna's main square, Piazza Maggiore, there are a whole lot of old, semi-famous things. There is the basilica where the coronation of the Holy Roman Empire's Charles V took place, the palazzo that became the prison of Prince Enzo, a stone eagle carved by a young Michelangelo, and the list goes on. Much newer is the Sala Borsa. Its outer shell is suitably medieval, but inside, it is a modern library that just opened in 2001. In fact, it is the largest open-shelf library in all of Italy. It is also one of my favorite places in Bologna.

When you walk into the main hall, it's a bit like walking into a train station from the late 19th century. It's one big open space, like a modern hotel atrium, ringed by walkways on three levels, all framed by elaborate ironwork. The ceiling is a combination of woodwork and colorful painting. It's hard to tear your eyes away, but the best architectural element of the Sala Borsa is actually beneath your feet. The floor is clear glass, through which you can see the ancient Roman ruins of the city. It's amazing to get such a close-up, birds-eye view. Living in a medieval city, I'm no longer impressed by anything new enough to have four digits in the date, but walking on top on Roman ruins is surreal.

The Sala Borsa is usually crowded. While that's not always ideal for my personal use, I think it's nice that people actually use the library. Bologna is a huge university town, and students flock to the Sala Borsa for their study rooms, but pretty much every age group is represented in the comfortable chairs scattered throughout the collections. In addition to all the Italian reading material, they also have a large English language collection. I only just got my library card Saturday night, but I can't wait to start using it!

Also, thanks to everyone who has sent me so much mail lately! I love it, and my blank wall is filling up, slowly but surely, with your lovely cards.

Blogging: Bigger and Better

While I may not have been blogging much here, I did manage to squeeze out a post for the SAIS Bologna admissions blog. The writing is a bit over the top. That's what happens at 2 am after a night of studying structural realism.

You can read it here.

There's also a picture of me petting a lion. That's getting to be a theme, although Ravenna is a far cry from the banks of the Zambezi.

Oh, I was also in a film a while back.

You can watch it here.

Author, film star, to what corner of internet fame will the SAIS BC admissions blog take me next?

Everyday Surprises

As a matter of expediency, I take the same route to school everyday. By now one would assume I was intimately familiar with the neighborhood, and yet it never fails to surprise me. Walking home today, for example, I saw something that I had never noticed before.

 I was stopped at a crosswalk, waiting for the light to change. The scene was familiar. Lots of concrete, a few rogue leaves blowing in the wind, cars, scooters and bikes all whizzing past rows and rows of post-war apartment blocks (sorry to ruin your romanticized image of Italy). The ground level of the apartment buildings are all taken up by shops, their names prominently displayed on canopies. I glanced across the intersection I was at. The apartment building looked better suited to mid-century Miami than medieval Bologna, and a large, cosmic mural screamed nineties. I looked away. The light was still red. I looked back. White letters spelled out "Macelleria" on a navy blue background. There was a butchery inside, fine, nothing to get excited about. I stifled a yawn. "Equina" the letters went on. "Hmm," I thought. That's unusual signage. There are macellerias and trattorias and lavaseccos and tabacchis on every corner, but equina? What could that be?

A large window display explained it. There, next to the entryway, was a life-size photo of the backside of a zebra. "Macelleria Equina" is a horse butchery.

Steak, anyone?

Pagliaccia at Pagliacci

By now, you're probably aware that when I go long periods without posting I'm not actually dead, I'm just busy. Schoolwork keeps me occupied from dawn til dusk these days (only slight hyperbole), but I left Via Belmeloro 11 before dark yesterday because I had another obligation. My roommate's boyfriend got us all tickets to the opera!

It was my first ever opera performance, and it was spectacular. I was really lucky, because there were English subtitles, played on a large screen above the stage. So even though I hadn't had time to read the synopsis beforehand, I was still able to follow along. It was a bit of a trick to balance the time I spent reading with the time I spent actually watching and enjoying the performance, but I managed well enough. Besides, I would have been just as happy to listen to the music and ignore the story entirely. There was a full orchestra, and the music alone was worth the trip.

Anyways, the performance was actually two short operas, Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, separated by an intermission. As is typical of Italian opera, they were both high on drama and tragedy. As my roommate pointed out, everyone dies in the end. And so they did, with great music. I can't wait to go back!