Catalunya: "We are NOT SPANISH!!!"

So this weekend I went to Barcelona, and I had a GREAT time. I had a lot of warm bocadillos and paella. We also went to this restaurant called Kirin. It was "Japanese" but owned by Chinese people. The restaurant was really long with a long two-lane conveyor belt going down the middle with little plates of Chinese/Japanes "tapas." There was sushi, watermelon slices, fried bananas, dumplings, sashimi, etc. It was more fun than delicious!

Barcelona is a beautiful city, but with a more modern feel than Rome. I suppose it only makes sense that when Rome was already a bustling metropolis, Barcelona probably consisted of some canoes and huts on the beach at the foothills of the mountains. When I was there Barcelona was in a drought, but at least the reservoir was at 40% instead of the previous 18%. A medieval city had been uncovered because of the low water levels. The fountains were all dry and the sewers smelled pretty bad. This is sad because one of Barcelona's biggest plazas, called Plaza Catalunya, had a really great ocean theme.

Barcelona also has a bit of a crazy topsy-turvy feel. It's the home of "gaudy" and also legally vends absinthe. I visited the Sagrada Familia, which is a huge cathedral designed by Gaudi early in the 20th century. Some parts of it are old, and after the pollution of about a century looks ancient. The other parts look like Disney World.

You can see the seam between the old and the new parts. The cathedral is built only on "donations," which can also mean tickets. No money from the state is accepted because it comes from taxes. The construction is therefore somewhat slow, and when I was there I could see an enormous hole in the ceiling. I got to take a lift to the top of one of the spires and look down across Barcelona. Notice the balls of fruit on top of the pointed white gables at the top.

The open container law in Barcelona is not in place after midnight, and before then it is loosely enforced. Therefore there are plenty of street venders in the night yelling "cerveza? 1 euro!" Everyone told me Spain had a "drinking culture," and look what could be purchased from Burger King...

I also met some Catalans who were really nice after they opened up. They really adamantly deny that they are Spanish because they speak a different language and only belong politically to Spain because of the defeat in 1714.

Last week I also took a walk around this park that surrounds several villas, including Villa Torlonia. There was lots of greenspace and JOGGERS! I hadn't seen any joggers before then and just assumed Italians walked. But it turns out they don't want to inhale the smog from cars and I even saw someone wearing a surgical mask! There were lots of children playing soccer, a birthday party, fountains, obelisks, statues, and GRASS. I hadn't seem stretches of grass for a while.

I climbed to the top of a hill and looked down on the villa. For a while Mussolini rented the villa from the Torlonia family for 1 lira a year. The Torlonia family is very famous in Rome, and they are named as the commissioners of many churches, chapels, and other architectural structures. Also under Villa Torlonia are some Etruscan tombs, which I will definitely visit in the future.

Yesterday Adriana arrived, yay! I walked to Termini to meet her, and we ran around Rome until we found the tiny street her hostel was on. Then we went to explore Rome. We went to the historical part of Rome with the ancient structures and visited some churches. One beautiful church called San Paolo della Croce (Saint Paul of the Cross, if you didn't figure it out) had a wedding inside and was connected to a convent. It also had ancient frescoes underneath, which we will go see at a different time. The lady at the museum told us that the church was free and we could go "around" to the "bell tower." Well I really wanted to go into the bell tower, and we knocked on the entrance beside the bell tower, but we were turned away because it was a convent. So we went inside the church, watched the wedding, and then walked in the direction of the bell tower. It turns out we were immediately in the convent, and the man threatened to sequester us (or "lock up" in his words) according to the convent's rules. We made it out alright, but we realized that "convent" and "convicted" might have a common origin.

In the middle: my belltower. To the right: the convent. To the left, what we thought was part of a church but actually part of the convent. At the bottom: people attending the wedding.

The getaway car for the happy couple seen through the gates to the ancient Roman foundation of the church. I wanted to go into the ruins but I was not skinny enough to fit through the bars of the fence.

Inside the church where a wedding was going out. Notice how beautiful the church it. The wait to have your wedding takes about....1 year, according to the sign on the door. But you'll get to be surrounded by 8 saints and 4 popes when you get married.

We also climbed up a HUGE hill on the other side of the Circo Massimo (Circus Maximus) to get a great view of Palatine Hill. The ruins are really sprawling and tall. You can see a part of the circo at the bottom of the pictures. On the same note, Adriana made me climb the steepest part of the hill in my white mini skirt. Yes, stairs were available, but instead I slipped and slid down the grass several times.

So everyone knows that in Europe, people drink wine with every meal. No one really thinks of meal-time wine as alcohol, but that it's simply part of a meal. You eat bread, cheese, and have wine. The one problem is: doctors don't tell women to stop drinking during pregnancy. The result? 4 out of every 1000 children have fetal alcohol syndrome, as compared to maybe 2-3 per 1000 of American births (in non-Native American areas). Alcohol prevents the migration of cells during fetal development, so some babies are born with very little or no corpus callosum. Pretty interesting stuff I learned from my friend Vera who helped do an epidemiology study on FAS in Italy.

Also in the lab: there is no such thing as a sharps disposal. You recap the needles and throw them away in the trash can. I think Health and Safety officers at Emory would be screaming if they saw that, haha. Also the surgeries did not begin today as planned, something is wrong with the levers in one of the experiment boxes. They have to be fixed before the surgery because the rats who are tested at "home" will be living in the cages immediately following surgery.

Festa!

Alora, my dad called me and asked me if we had air conditioning. It turns out that my apartment does not...I am SO glad I booked my flight early to avoid all the dog days of August. I don't even remember what it was like not to have air conditioning, but I know it was bad. It's strange how we've been keeping all the windows in our apartment open but no bugs have come in. I hope this applies to mosquitoes in the future.

On Thursday 56 new rats arrived, and we handled them and put them in cages. On Saturday I went in again and petted all 56 of those buggers for about 3-4 minutes each. I must not be doing it right because they are still pretty nervous, but it may be just too early to tell.

On Friday night my PI Dr. Aldo Badiani invited the whole lab to his house for a dinner party to celebrate my arrival. He's a very strong-willed, obsessive, and opinionated person, but he is also one of the kindest people I've known. Dr. Badiani lives in a very nice penthouse apartment with a large terrace, which is where we had our courses that came out one by one. The first dish was a pasta dish with tuna, fresh tomatoes, and two different types of olives. The second was a sweet prosciutto ham with melons.

Back row: Maria Teresa, Michele Celetano, me, Vera Spagnolo, Dr. Badiani (looking fierce). Front row: Ricardo, Daniele Caprioli, Alessandro, and Dr. Michele Millino. Not present: Arianna (who is taking the picture), Valentina, Frederica, Davide, and Stefania.

This is bresaola, a very lean prosciutto (except it's not really prosciutto because it's made of beef), wrapped around goat cheese with horse radish.

Two different types of salami. The one on the right is made of boar meat, which is caught in the forests of central eastern Italy. The salami was served with unsalted bread (a slice is in the background).

This is unsalted bread with goat cheese and raisins drizzled in honey.

This is pecorino, or aged goat cheese. This specific one was aged in a pit. It was served with honey.

For dessert, Dr. Badiani bought two cakes from "the best pastry shop in all of Rome." The one in front has profiterolles, or pastry balls filled with cream and covered in chocolate. The other one is a raspberry torte cake topped with powdered sugar. As usual, Badiani is looking ferosh.

On Saturday, we went to Arricia, a town southeast of Rome, which is known for its pork, or "Porketta Arricia." My friends kept saying, "it's not too elegant" or "it's not very glamorous," but it was a great meal and very cute!

You might be able to make out all sorts of cheeses, ham, salami, jerky, etc. To the left and not in the picture was an entire roasted pig.

This was about half the food we were served. You can see (from top) roasted pork, peppers, fresh olives, mozarella balls, beans, zucchini, pecorino, jerky, salami and prosciutto, bread with filato cheese. We also had sausage links, grilled skewers of lamb, potatoes, spinach, and bread. The mozarella is not real mozarella because it was not made from the milk of a water buffalo.

For dessert some people ordered the tiramisu, but I had the Catalan cream, which is a cream whipped with egg and then cooked and topped with caramel. By the end of the meal we were all very, very stuffed. I slept very well that night, and for once we didn't go for a late-night gelato.

When in Rome...

Wendy, Adriana was just here and we were talking about what to wear or not. 

I decided you need to turn your camera to some local crowds and post some pictures. Help a girl out!

I hope your week is going well :)

Hey guys!!I made it to Thailand last night at 11 15 pm!Can we say humid?!! My forearms started sweating beforeI left the airport lol the food is so flavorfull but I can tell I'm going to stop being a baby about spicy food and learn to love it. Lots of rice and not a lot of meat : ( I'll come back so healthy....the portions are small too so its mandatory portion control! this will be good for me : ) Everyone eats every meal "out". I guess I would too if it were less than a dollar a meal! But seriously...the grad/post doc students don't even have kitchens! I'm still not supposed to eat fruit till my stomach adjusts but the first thing I'm going to try is sticky rice, coconut milk and mango. It's looks SO sweet and delicious.

An interesting thing I've noticed: the definition of air conditioning here is SO different. Forget bringing a sweater inside to protect you from air conditioning frost bite like in the states...at biotec there is just enough air blowing so that you can tell you're not outside but not enough to notice that it's actually on and JUST enough to keep you from breaking out into a sweat while working LOL

My room is good....the sheets are SO ridiculously white. got one channel in English...CNN....I guess I've been talking about getting more into the news huh? Here's my chance!The poeple are nice but not a lot speak English...they smile a lot tho

My mentor is from the UK...he's nice and knows a lot about a lot lol. Straight laced fellow who says things like "whilst" lol he's very helpful tho and I think I'm really going to like my research. My reserch last summer prepared me really really well even though it was unrelated.

That's all for now...I might venture out into Bangkok this weekend...don't have internet so no map and no plan...we'll see if I come back alive or not. Let's hope so : )

Piove

So I got Chinese take-out on Sunday night, just like I would at Emory, but it was the most horrible Chinese food I have ever eaten in my life. The portion sizes were TINY. I bought three dishes and two cartons of rice, but it only came to 2 meals. It was expensive too, which surprised me because everyone has been telling me how cheap Chinese food is. The restaurant owners were very nice, though. We talked about the earthquake, which occurred near my father's home.

In the meantime, I think I will stick to delicious Italian food.

Francesco has been coming over a lot. He has something of an Irish accent when he speaks English, which is TOTALLY random because he has never been there. Eleonora is studying for her upcoming exams. It seems like Italian students get a lot more reading than American students. She says she has to read about 700 pages for each course. I know I do a lot of reading for my classes too but think 700 pages probably covers my entire semester.

So, it seems like the easiest way to put out a lit cigarette is to mash it with your heel, but mashed cigarettes on the ground don't usually get picked up and binned. It's a shame that the streets are filled with cigarette butts.

Today I gave a presentation on my project for my honors thesis. I don't think several people understood, unfortunately, but there were some interesting questions. Two people in the lab are working on a clinical study with disulfiram and alcoholics and other drugs if the subjects are taking them.

Yesterday, we got 8 cabinets from IKEA and we began putting them together for the new rats to come. It's good to actually have something to do while we wait for those rats. It's amazing how many of these boxes I've put together and I still get confused. Michele Celetano and I were putting them together yesterday, and we kept joking that we had to chant the mantra, "Remember, every one is like a new one." Michele has an exam tomorrow, so he was not in today. I finished putting the doors on some cabinets this morning and then put together three whole cabinets by myself! I got better at using the electric drill but I think it will need a new set of drill bits now.

It's raining today and it makes me wish I could have carried 100 kg of stuff with me instead of 50 :( Thankfully I only have about 750 meters to walk back to my apartment, but I can't find my umbrella. On Friday night, if weather permits, there will be a party at my PI's house in northern Rome. I wonder if this is customary, and if it is anything like a BBQ party, haha. Oh yeah, and Michele got me a phone!!!!

For those of you who like pictures, here is a picture of a cat that lives in the temple ruins of Torre Argentina cat santuary. They are fed by the gattare, or "old cat-ladies." If you are asking if it tried to get food from us, the answer is yes.

Pictures

Okay so I didn't know we could upload pictures so easily. I've posted some to facebook, but here are some good ones!

This is the street I live on.

The Spanish Steps on Piazza Spagna. Notice the ton of people on them. Gianguido's kindergarten was the church at the top.

In front of the Pantheon at night. Somehow I appear gigantic.

Piazza Venezia with the Monument of Victor Emmanuel II (unification of Italy) at night.

Domenica

What a weekend! This morning I was woken up by our loud Filipino neighbors at 7 AM. I told Eleonara about it, and she said it was a regular Sunday thing. Oh boy, not good. I wanted to go see the Pope this morning, since he usually makes an appearance Sundays at noon, but he is in Genoa today (I think). I guess I will have to wait until next week.

On Friday night I went to MiccaClub where Eleonara works. Simona bailed, so I kind of shuffled around to get there myself. I was alone but I managed to meet a wonderful cohort of people. We will be hanging out next weekend together. They live in Montagna Rotunda, one guy kept calling "Round Mountain," which is about 20 km outside of Rome. Alesio is a lawyer specializing in injuries involving vehicular accidents. Yes, I should watch out for those cars. Only two people, Alesio and Alesia, spoke English, but they were all very friendly. We did the twist and boogied the night away to the 70s music.

On Saturday we went shopping. We walked to one of the historic districts, with the Trajan Column, and the Spanish Steps, and the Borgia Gardens, and the Victor Emmanuel II Monument in Piazza Venezia. Right now boots are really big in Italy, and she wanted to get some summer boots. I didn't bring any bc they were too heavy :( I ate a pizze with POTATOES and ham on it and no tomato sauce (called pizze bianca). It was delicious. I definitely want some more.

So it seems like the buses and trams in Rome are on the honor system. Eleonara has a monthly pass, which she lets me use. When we ride together, she says to bolt if we see someone in a navy uniform boarding. We went to the tanning salon today after shopping. It's a little different in that there is only one level of ray intensity and you have to stand up (or sit in a chair for just your face), so you can't wear the little goggles. Instead you have to wear the WinkEase stickers, which leave a bigger ring around the eyes. It was an interesting experience but I'm not going back there again.

That night we went with Valentina and her boyfriend Andrea to walk around the Pantheon area. We went to this gelateria that is supposed "the best in Rome." It has a huge variety of flavors. I got the red guava, kiwi, and pomegranate flavors. Also available was chili pepper chocolate mousse. We walked to Piazza Navona, which is a huge oval shape. A small flat around this Piazza would cost about 3 million euros. The Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of Four Rivers) by Bernini in the middle was in Angels and Demons as an "altar of science." Andrea said that in ancient Roman times there were games here in the "circus," and it was filled with water to stage naval battles --thus the name "navona" or large boat. Wikipedia says otherwise, but I'm going to believe Andrea. We also walked by some temple ruins that house fat stray cats. There are supposedly old women who come to feed the cats on a regular basis. Beside the temple were some ruins where the ancient Senate building was, according to the sign--and where Julius Caesar was murdered. Also nearby were Pompey's latrines.

When we got home my feet were pretty beat. I'm glad the Pope is out of town today.

When in Rome do as the Romans

So the Emory students on the Italian Studies program have arrived in Rome. They are staying in a monastery for the next couple of days. I have some friends in that program and we're going to hang out when they come back to Rome.

The door of my apartment building opens inwards, and it's still very awkward for me to open it because American doors open outwards. This way I guess the doors don't open into someone's face on the sidewalk. I went to the supermarket, and guess what? You have to pay for the plastic bags! That's such a great idea to conserve plastic. I bought extra ones because I thought they would be flimsy and break (I had glass jars and yogurt and such), but I ended up just needing two. They were very sturdy, at least for the way home. I live in a very convenient location. The Piazza de Bologna, where the supermarket is, has a lot of shops like the supermarket and the fruit/vegetable market and station. For Italians it also has a large post office and bank. For cars it is a huge headache of a turnabout.

My roommate Eleonara sounds just like a lot of my Emory friends. "I really need to find a boyfriend. No, not a boyfriend, eh..." "You mean, someone to date?" "Yes, a boyfriend is too much work."

I have also figured out that when someone asks you "Do you want a coffee?" or "Do you want something to drink (like a juicebox)?" they are actually asking if you if you want to walk across the building and downstairs and chat with them along the way. I have also figured out that everyone is taking turns at buying afternoon snacks for everyone else. Afternoon snacks are very important. I think today we spent about 30-45 minutes total gathering everyone and then actually having the afternoon snack. In fact, the afternoon snack is called "una merenza" whereas a regular snack is just called "un sputino."

Last night after work, I was invited by a person in my lab to go have drinks. I went with Daniele and Michele, who are in my lab, and with Adele, Teresa, and Roberto to a bar in a bar-ful area nearby called Tiburtina. We sat in some tables outside really close to a huge cathedral. I thought it was going to be one drink, but that price also came with little platefuls of finger foods like peanuts, cashews, salami or prosciutto sandwiches, bize-sized pieces of quiche, falafel balls, cous-cous, and paella (which they were calling paella and I thought it was supposed to be called risotto). We spent about 2-3 hours just sitting there and talking. Adele and Teresa were really angry that their PI was not allowing them to go to Society for Neuroscience even though they were willing to "pay their own way." Michele is a resident in toxicology right now. He is studying antipsychotic drugs which sometimes produce a symptom of excess intake of water (sometimes leading to death). Coincidentally a huge news article came out yesterday on the Washington Post (yes I am still keeping up with American news) about how the US government is using antipsychotics to chemically restrain deportees during transport.

In my lab we're doing experiements with amphetamine and heroin and the topic came to learning. It turns out that Italian students don't pop Adderall for exams like Americans do. In fact it is rarely prescribed. On Tuesday is the lab meeting, and I have prepared a presentation of my current research project at Emory. I put in lots of pictures (like a syringe pointed at a mouse) and graphs, so I hope everyone will understand.

Three great things happened today:
1. While abc.com won't let me watch Grey's Anatomy anymore because I'm in Italy, I still caught last night's new episode because I have a RedLasso account!
2. I resisted the urge to nap last night, so I was able to sleep moderately well. This is a good thing because our neighbor's bathroom flooded and they are hammering in new flooring every morning.
3. I still haven't gotten a phone yet, but Michele (a different Michele from medical doctor Michele, yes there are two Michele's in the lab) says he has an extra phone with an extra SIM card he can lend me. All I need to do is to recharge the SIM card while I am here! I didn't think I needed a phone because I had no friends, but people have been asking me for a phone number so we can go out or to plan events. I love Rome!!!

Grüße von Regensburg

Also, zuletzt bin ich in Regensburg. Am 12. Mai bin ich in München gekommen, wo ich die Bahn nach Regensburg genommen habe. Gestern habe ich mit meinem Advisor im Labor gearbeitet und es war toll.


Auf englisch.... I´m finally here in Regensburg. I´m currently using the internet cafe and its quite an adjustment with the ümlaut kezboard. ( the y is and z have been switched). Although i´m sure Tim and Ben will have a bigger adjustment. I started working yesterday in lab and Robert Lechner my advisor is awesome. I will fill you guys in on more once i can get internet working in my dorm.

Ya so, Bavarians love Bier for the most part and I went to the Dult last night with my chem group (about 20+) altogether. Its a mini oktoberfest just for regensburg and the festivities were quite smashing.

Also, ich muss nach Hause gehen aber ich werde etwas später schreiben. I must go now but I will right more.

Mit besten Grüßen,
Miguel

Intro

So apparently we were supposed to post an intro. Hey all, this is Tim Soo... the rogue kid who never showed up to anything. I promise I did everything you guys did, I just met at a different time :-). I finally got mostly everything ready for Japan and now have to get everything ready for Panama in the fall... which stinks b/c I just found out (dang Panama program moved their dates 2 weeks earlier) that I only have 4 days after I get back from Japan... meaning gotta get ready for it now. Ah well. Life is full of surprises eh? I probably will be posting much from Japan... from what I hear the internet is a million times faster there (more like 3 times) even in the places with the worst connection. Hope all is well.

Tim Soo

Things about Rome I didn't know about

Pros:
Pedestrians are allowed to walk however they want in front of cars
Strangers in the stairway or on the street will greet you
People indulge in ice cream and coffees all the time
No need for a mobile phone (yet)
Lots of people speak English
Product giveaways for students in the quad (like WW!)
SANDALS IN THE LAB

Cons:
A lot ambulances with their sirens on
Tiny hot water tanks
Hard to tell if an ATM takes Visa PLUS, but they are everywhere
Thin walls (like some Emory dorms)
Clean water but old pipes
Drying clothes consists of clothes lines and clothes pins


Updates since my last day in Rome:
My roommate Eleonara and I talked about the Mafia. My Italian phrasebook told me to avoid this subject among others, but she brought it up and showed me this book by Roberto Saviano called Gomorra that talked about the mafia in Naples. She is from a small town outside of Naples and lived in Naples for one year of college. She says that everyone knew what was going on but did not say anything, and Saviano and his family now have 12 police bodyguards.

Eleonara is soooooo awesome. Last night she bought a bottle of wine and invited four of her friends over to hang out. They are very nice and some of them speak English very well because they studied in London. On the weekends she also works as a bartender at a club so Simona, one of her friends who I met, and I are going to go dancing. She is also planning on taking me to Naples to see the city and her home town and to the beach at Ostia, Rome's port city. I could not have asked for a better roommate!

There are tons of smart cars here, but they aren't very safe, driving or parked. Eleonara used to have a car but it got stolen one night.

My insurance was approved today, so I got to handle the new rats that came in. They have to become especially accustomed to human handling because of my project on the effect of the environment. We are hoping to control for the stress of human handling. A lot of the protocols are very similar here as in the United States. I think we might recycle a lot less though. Anyway 60 animals coming next Thursday! In the mean time I will play with these guys.

Salve!

Hey everyone,

I got into Rome last night. My mentor plus a post-doc at my lab picked me up from Fiumicino and drove me to my apartment. My roommate is super nice and has been really helpful. My room is a good size and the apartment is very cute. The only complaint I would have is that there is no 24 hr internet except for the ADSL my roommate subscribes to. However there is only one modem and it is in her room. I really took it for granted how ubiquitous internet access is at Emory. All I want to do at night is surf the net on my computer, which is pretty much impossible now.

My apartment is only about 5-7 minutes walk to the Farmacologia building, so it's not bad. There are little shops and markets located everywhere, which is going to be very convenient. There are a good number of people in my lab, and they are all very nice (so far). The older students speak better English, and oversee the other students. Two girls named Frederika and Valentina don't speak English very well, but they are very friendly and said they are taking me around Rome this weekend. I have picked up some Italian as well through the audio programs I downloaded before I came, so we can get by.

The weather is very similar to Atlanta's. It was raining last night, so it is a bit cooler, but still very hot this morning when I walked to campus. Yet people are still wearing pants and close-toed shoes and jackets.

I got to see the experiment chambers this morning for the project I will be working on, but I won't get to touch anything until I am cleared with the University's insurance tomorrow or Friday. The post-docs are like to play with the rats.

Warning to people who do not have direct flights: I booked my flight to London Heathrow, and then a separate flight to Rome. I have two suitcases, about 40 lb each, which I almost had to pay a 200 GBP fine to get to Rome from LHR. The lady who checked me in let me go, but almost didn't. Anyhow, if anyone else did the same, do not pack more than 20 kg (at most 23 kg) total in all the items you want to check.

Anyway, things are going pretty well. I may be going to take a nap or to walk around Rome some now. Ciao!

Checking if it works....

Check Check One Two One Two....so cool. I have never had a blog before. Hope to hear from yall soon! Safe travels and good luck on finals!

~Adriana