Guess What?

2 Fridays ago, I humbled myself before the student body and told them, straight from the heart, why I wanted to represent them. I had written a speech but left it at home and just spoke as I felt.

Four days later, I was elected to the Student Government! I am so happy to report that I am class treasurer and chair of the Career Development committee. Meetings/luncheons/assemblies have dominated my time ever since and it's all just beginning! Still, I have the opportunity to do good things for my classmates and intend to give my all :)

In other representative democracy news, I voted today.

And Happy Happy Birthday to my beloved big brother :) You make 29 look fantabulous!

I realize that I have said almost nothing about my every day life here! I've been in normal classes for three weeks now! The time has flown like nothing I have ever known. I can't stress enough that every second is consumed by my studies and activities.


Where to start? I guess I can say a bit about my classes. They only take up 2 hours each a week, but actually require the majority of my waking moments.

I am taking 4 classes, auditing one, and taking a language course (which isn't for credit) because I must pass a Russian proficiency exam before I can get a degree in my dual concentration of International Economics and Russian and Eurasian Studies, with, if I can make it work, a specialization in Emerging Markets.

My four classes are: Macroeconomics, International Trade (another economics course), Contemporary Russian Politics, and Science, Technology, and International Affairs.

Macroeconomics is being taught this semester by a gentleman, Professor Elson, who is an economist rather than a professor. He is visiting for the semester from D.C. where he works for pretty much every influential economics organization in the District. He is an older man and very considerate. Because he is not a professor by trade, his lectures are absent of the normal banter professors have learned makes their lectures bearable, but his experience in the field brings a great perspective on a course that is so strictly theory (everything we learn is prefaced by "here are the assumptions for this model to work..."). It is a required course of everyone and while not the most enthralling, gives us a grounds to work on and the illusion we have some idea of what's going on with the financial crisis.

International trade theory is taught by an amazing man, Doctor Plummer. He is always on European television. Whenever there is a newsworthy event in the economic world, he is giving a perspective on it to some news source. This course is, again, a requirement of all of us to get our economics concentrations satisfied. It is great to have a course that makes logical sense and isn't solely based on readings and theory. Sometimes you brain gets burned out and you just want to draw an indifference curve rather than read another 50 page essay on the prerequisites for democracy!

Well, that's half of them, I believe I will save the rest for another post as not to bore any of you! Hope all is well and hope to hear from all of you soon :)

Fingerprints and cobwebs

In part of the never-ending buerocratic process of getting permission to live for the year in Italy (the visa is only the beginning!), I was fingerprinted yesterday by government officials.

As a bunch of in-shape students had to trot to keep up with the short, bald nearly elderly man who works at SAIS who was leading the way (he's all business!), we wondered if we would get to do impressions of Iraqi's voting and be covered with ink for the rest of the day. These thoughts were reinforced when we entered the big old building in which the office sits. The waiting area had been inhabited by spiders, who had left their evidence high above on the ceiling and a hole was in the stone outer wall, large enough for a pigeon to enter through.

Here comes the dichotomy of this city- infared machines read our fingerprints while the building crumbled around us. Ah fair Bologna, will you ever let us unravel your mystery?

Oh the plus side, there still is no real international fingerprint database, so I can still commit crimes in most of the world! Hooray!

Pisa Mezza Maritona!

"Pisa is not worth a day trip"

This was the advice I'd gotten from many people about the city known for this tower which, if you grew up in the 80's, reminds you of a V-8 commercial. There has to be some excuse to go here for a little bit... just to see the tower... think... think...

Aha!

I'll con a bunch of my friends into getting up at 5:30 am to run a half marathon through the tiny city! That'll be easy! Actually, after telling people about my fabulous time at the Bologna mezza martitona, it was easy to build enthusiasm.

And, I'll get a friend with a car to sweeten the pot! Enter Henrik, the German who came here from Austria (look at a map) so he was able to bring his VW station wagon and transport 4 ladies (this took an incredible amount of persuasion on my part, let me tell you...) .

Now, as a side note- Italy has rules for everything. To participate in a sport or join a gym, you need a note from a doctor saying you probably won't drop dead. If you want to compete in a sport, you need an exam from an official medical office, along with a urine test and an cardiovascular exam to say that you REALLY probably won't drop dead. Is a half marathon really competitive? According to the people we called a few weeks ago, it's not. According the the man in charge of the event, indeed it is. So some of us had the insufficient certifications and did not know if we'd have the chance to run legitimately. Luckily, when we got there, the staffers there didn't care if we had our proper certificates and gave us our numbers! Success! Our friend who had come the day before wasn't so lucky as he had to face the race official... but two blondes pleading our cases couldnt' have hurt our cause.

Pop! After incomprehensible italian announcements from a fuzzy loudspeaker, the gun sounded and just under 1,000 people set off down a straight tree lined road away from the park and towards the city.

An old stone wall surrounded the city and as we ran in under one of the gates, we were greeted by a baptismal, a church, and one tower most leaning! The rest of the city passed by in a few more kilometers. I ran with two lovely ladies, Kristen and Helena, and enjoyed my role as unofficial cheerleader. It was my first experience of running with an Ipod and I have to say I rather enjoyed it... not sure the girlies enjoyed being serenaded by my Bon Jovi rendition... but we really WERE both halfway there and livin' on a prayer!

After we had no more city to run through, the course took us across the river and through some lovely countryside. We passed some roadside stands, people on horseback, and magnificent views of forests, vineyards, and country homes. The end of the course brought us back to the straight road, which seemed much longer after 10 miles had passed. We crossed the finish line together in 2 hours, 1 minute and ten seconds. Some of our friends were already there waiting for us!

Afterwards, we enjoyed the free cookies, cakes, pasta (!), and fruit and collected our reward: a running outfit with shorts and a tank top with the name of the event. Our medals bear an impression of the leaning tower on the reverse side.

The weather this day was so lovely that we spent the next few hours lounging in front of the tower on the grass. Without a doubt, the best part of this was watching everyone setting up their pictures- trying to use perspective to look as thought they're holding up or pushing down the tower!

Of course, we were above such behavior...

Another reason to love Russia

You simply must watch this, especially if you ever questioned my decision to specialize in Russian and Eurasian studies.

http://edition.cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2008/10/08/rogers.uk.putin.judo.video.itn

Parma

Any city that has its own internationally known cheese and produces the best ham in all of Italy is certainly worthy of a trip. Fortunately, this city is less than an hour away using the train.

Parmesiano Reggiano has been produced in this region for almost 800 years, and it used to take an apprentice 12 years to make his first wheel of cheese. The term "Parmesiano Reggiano" is copyrighted and can only be applied to the genuine cheeses made in this region. To maintain this copyright withing the EU, Italy must be able to differentiate its famous cheese from all others. This has given birth to a need for a parmessiano scientisist whose sole job it is to determine what makes this cheese unique. He must use sensory tasting to structure the feeling one gets when eating Parmessiano Reggiano. Oh, what a job!

Upon our arrival, we found ourselves immersed in a giant flea market all along the street going from the train station into this tiny city. We found ourselves as we stood in the center of a piazza and saw before us a uniquely shaped building which, after we entered and paid admission, turned out to be a baptismal. We then wondered into the church on the which also faced this piazza. I've been in a lot of churches, however there's always some small ceiling or chapel that stands out.

We wondered around a bit and found some other neat buildings, but hungry bellies dictated the afternoon's activities and we decided to discover Parma's culinary delights.

We walked up a street and bought a little of everything that looked good. Including sushi! Rachel got to sample her first Sake (it's also good to travel with someone of asian descent... I'm pretty sure this is why we got good Sake and only paid 3 euro total.











We made our way back to the park to share our delightful little picnic and enjoy the sunshine. Parma also has a wonderful park as well as museums. After making our way around a bit more, we took the train back.


Some other interesting finds included:



A Meat Cafe- ham and cheese plates- dreams do come true.

A Communist Rally

And a medieval festival- complete with dueling knights, old ladies preparing food, prisoners being paraded throughout the streets, and people who like costumes a wee bit too much!

...

Then, tired from all our travel, Helena and I hopped aboard the IKEA shuttle and spent the rest of the evening in nirvana. Being that she's Sweedish, Helena was absolutely giddy as we chose our pillows and drooled over room arangements we want for our future homes. Our trek from the shuttle to the apartment took about twice as long as usual because we were both completely loaded down with things for the household and some goodies from the food market.

Bed coverings and pillow cases made us feel like we were finally making bedrooms truly ours and some much needed cooking accessories- like a dish drainer- made us feel better about our archaic but functional kitchen.

Thoroughly exhausted, we decided to spend the next morning in a cafe having a typical Italian breakfast.

Ooooh yeah.













From there, we had to face the reality of classes beginning the next day and keep up with our readings, but it was a lovely way to spend the last weekend before the rigors of the academic year began.


...


And for the record, a week later, I still have some of that half kilo of cheese left... but I do believe I've found a way to eat some each day. It's fantastic.

A request for prayer

While most of my posts are upbeat, I am afraid I have to bring some reality into this one...

This morning I held my sobbing roommate and had no words. Her mother passed away last night. She had been ill but as far as Anastasia knew, her mom was recovering. Anastasia is Uzbeki but of Korean descent so the funeral is three days after the death, which means she won't be able to get home in time for the service. She is trying to see if she can even make it home before Christmas because of time and financial constraints.

"What am I going to do? I'm only 22. I need my mom." Wrapped up in ourselves and our agendas, it's so easy to forget how much we really need those who are ALWAYS on the sidelines cheering for us and ready to take the field when necessary. She lost one of hers at a critical moment in her life. I would ask each of you reading this to please take a moment and pray for her. After that, take another moment and forget all the crap you have on your plate and be grateful for those who got you where you are today. Then call your mom. I wish it weren't 6am in America because that's all I want to do right now.

Thank you.

Compleanno!

Salut!

Pop! The cork flying in the air elicited applause both from the SAIS group sitting on Piazza Santo Stefano and the locals who were also enjoying a piazza night... the strolling minstrels played their recorders and danced in the center of the area.

But lets back up a bit...

My birthday technically started at midnight, where I salsa'd my way into my 26th year. Somehow word got out and a friend actually stopped the music and announced to the whole bar that my birthday had officially begun and the whole (basically populated by us) broke into song!

The following morning began what was one of the best birthdays I could ever imagine. After class, many amici joined me for a gelatto and I was treated by my two girls from the D.C. study group- the ever wonderful Rachel and Yumna. Nutella, praline, and mascarpone (now THAT'S a neopolitan!) adorned my cone with three colors and made me one happy girl as I sat in the sunlight near the town's famous two towers (one of which is leaning).

After spending the afternoon cleaning and preparing for my weekend visitors, I ventured out to Piazza Santa Stefano, one of the most beloved of the town's many piazzas, and the one I find to be the most beautiful.

Portico's make two diagonal sides to the triangular shaped area. Wine bars allow people to sit outside and enjoy the evening with aperitivi. The last side of the triangle is the old church- while there is a main facade that faces the piazza, four additional churches all join one another to make up the entire structure.

Those who who choose not to patronize the wine bars make themselves comfortable on the cold cobblestone or on the smooth brick semicircle and pathways. The university scene brings in many students who fully embrace a more 'alternative' grunge scene. Some among them fancy themselves as minstrels and play recorders, guitars, or whatever they have in their possession and set an atmosphere that the moonlight enhances. Good spirits abound among all who share wine and hospitality.

Some very considerate friends bought me a plant for my room, and others brought a cake... which was really prettier than it was tasty. Also, a random drunken man presented us with a poem that even the Italians among us couldn't quite make out... but we gave him some wine anyway.

I fell into bed that night utterly exhausted but overcome with gratitude that so many people who were strangers just a few weeks before all made my day so special and have become such blessings.