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!

Salad Dressing

Fruit and vegetable stands are a dime a dozen in my neighborhood. There's one directly below my apartment and another one across the street. However, while vegetables are easy to access, I haven't been eating much of them here. As every American knows, vegetables are just platforms for dressing and unfortunately, Italy is a dressing desert. I've searched high and low for a bottle of ranch or blue cheese, only to find a whole lot of nothing. Today, I finally decided to give up and assimilate. 

The local version of salad dressing is a mixture of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I learned this only by attending a cocktail party at which carrot sticks and celery were served next to bowls of olive oil and balsamic. I actually asked the bartender if the carrots were intended for the oily fluid, just to be sure. He assured me that they were, and it was typical of Italian cuisine from Emilia-Romagna. Armed with this knowledge, I prepared to make my own this afternoon. I already had olive oil in my cupboard, but I needed to trek to the supermarket for balsamic vinegar.

At the market, there were a dozen different kinds to choose from. I initially resorted to my cheapskate decision-making method of calculating the per-unit cost of each brand, but then it struck me. I live in Italy, the home of balsamic vinegar. Modena, where it has been made for a thousand years, is just down the road from me. This was not the time to out-cheap myself, it was an opportunity to buy something unique and unavailable in America. I forgot about economizing and went middle of the road. I'm so glad I did. I made my "dressing" and it's amazing. I've been snacking on lettuce for hours. I just might have to visit Modena for some food tourism. Who wants to come?

Designer Dog

Since my preterm courses are finished, I had this morning off. As much as I wanted to sleep in, instead I joined my roommate on a quick shopping jaunt. Shopping in America usually means a trip to the mall, but not here. My roommate took me to a boutique on the outskirts of Bologna called Clara. This was the classiest place I've ever set foot in. The racks were filled with proper Italian designers, and signs asked customers to not touch the displays or disturb folded garments. The staff was impeccably dress and all spoke rapid-fire Italian. Prices, of course, were astronomical. It would have all been terribly intimidating but for one thing. 

An obviously well-heeled customer entered the shop with her dog on a leash. The dog was clearly a mutt, and an ugly one at that. It was small and black with teeth that jutted out. The owner, a woman, didn't carry her dog. Instead, she let the dog's dirty paws clack across the marble floor. While I expected the staff to reprimand the woman for bringing her dog with her, they greeted her warmly. When the woman reached down and unleashed her dog, they just smiled. In a shop where the customers aren't allowed to touch the clothes, a dog off the street is permitted to roam at will. 

As it turned out, there was a sale section at the shop that offered some seriously deep discounts on clothes from past seasons. My roommate got a gorgeous black and cream dress by Valentino, and I got a silly polka-dot frock by PennyBlack. We plan to be extra-vigilant about our electricity consumption for the rest of the year!