Tutti a casa June 8, 2007
Posted by sterte in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
Visto che i pochi (nessuno?) lettori di questo blog sono un sottoinsieme dei miei amici “offline” non c’è bisogno di spiegare che il periodo di soggiorno a Manchester è appena finito e che in realtà non sono più tornato da pasqua in poi per problemi in famiglia, per fortuna ora è tutto ok e ci sono solo i postumi di un enorme spavento e poca voglia di parlarne, visto che ne ho parlato anche troppo quando mi serviva come sfogo.
Come dicono nei film, non sono bravo con gli addii. Quindi la finisco qui. A presto su un nuovo blog che riprende le fila della vita bolognese.
Go Reds!!! April 6, 2007
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I feel ashamed for what happened last wednsday in Rome (qui and here), and I feel even more ashamed hearing the heads of italian football trying justify what happened and to describe it as a minor incident.
I arrived in Italy on tuesday and only had the chance to see the italian side of the reactions to what happened in Rome, I’m very curious to see what the mood in Manchester will be as I’ll go back… I just hope not to be beaten up just for being italian!!!
Giorno preferito March 26, 2007
Posted by sterte in Habits.add a comment
Con gli orologi aggiornati tra sbato e domenica, ieri sera sono tornato a casa alle 19:30. Fuori era ancora praticamente giorno. Mi mancano le giornate calde (e per ora devo accontentarmi di qualche rara giornata di sole) e lunghe. La mia vacanza ideale al momento sarebbe tornare qualche giorno a Bologna. Sono sicuro, conoscendolo bene e sentendomi sempre meno englishman (e comunque casomai da Londra in giù), adorerei il centro italia a patto di andarci nel periodo di primavera quando ancora non è troppo caldo e si iniziano a ritirare fuori le magliette a maniche corte.
Tagliando corto, pur dovendomi accontentare di viverli a Manchester, questi sono tra i miei giorni preferiti dell’anno.
(cfr. Bloggo anch’io)
Deans & Dons March 24, 2007
Posted by sterte in Work.add a comment
In the past two days in the dept. where I’m working now the doctoral symposium were held. Basically phd students presented their present work, and ex student were invited to tell what they’ve been doing since graduation. Just this would be enough to amaze an italian phd student, but there’s much more. I’ll try now to describe what I’ve experienced here and how I imagine a similar thing would be in an italian university.
- Even though it was basically an internal event participants had their tags and many university gadgets were given.
- During students’ presentations many professors were present showing interest and making questions.
- At the end of the first day there was a dinner at a nearby chinese restaurant where everything was paid by university.
- At the dinner people where just mixed up independently from age/sex/race/religion/rank. I was seated in a table with all phd students except a guy next to me that after a while a discovered to be the dean (analogous to preside di facoltà).
- The dean looked at most 40 years old and spent the dinner chatting and joking with students.
Now let’s see what would probably happen in an italian university:
- A couple of handwritten sheets announcing the event would be placed in random places throughout the faculty.
- Most of the student, disillusioned by past experiences won’t show up. Just few naive enthusiastic young students will end up presenting something to themselves.
- In the middle of the event some professor will step into the room for a private meeting asking what the hell’s going on.
- At a (imaginary) dinner guests would self-organize the seats distribution according to the rank: phd students along the walls researchers in an inner circle, divided by an invisible (but undestructible) wall from the centre of the room where al the professers and the don (analogous of preside di facoltà) are seated.
- The don would be 90something (or 60something and considered unusually young) and just won’t show up.
Cibo pseudorandom March 22, 2007
Posted by sterte in Food.4 comments
Date un insieme di ingredienti a un inglese e fategliene scegliere alcuni, troverà, non ho ancora capito se a istinto o scientificamente, la combinazione più assurda, perlomeno agli occhi di un povero italiano che pensa di venire dall’eden della cucina. La cosa strana è che queste combinazioni alla fine spesso, se si trova il coraggio di assaggiarle, sono anche buone!!!
L’altroieri non ho resistito alla curiosità e ho comprato un pacco di apple sausages, un’ora dopo ero a casa a mangiare delle salsiccie di maiale con all’interno dei tocchi di mela belli croccanti. Volevo berci un po’ di birra, ma non ce n’era in frigo (ebbene si, bevo la John Smith, una delle poche birre inglesi che va servita fredda), così mi sono riempito un bicchiere di succo d’arancia. La cosa preoccupante è che tale cena orribile mi è davvero piaciuta!
Ieri ero stanco morto e volevo soltanto tornare a casa a non fare niente, così mi sono comprato dei sandwich con pollo e salse indiane e ci ho bevuto l’unica cosa fresca che c’era in casa: succo di mela! Tutto sommato mi è piaciuta anche quest’altra cena.
Cosa mi sta succedendo!?!?!? Stasera posso tornare a casa tardi, stanco, triste, o qualsiasi altra cosa, ma qualsiasi cosa succeda mi faccio un bel piatto di pasta e ci bevo al massimo dell’acqua!
Weekend in Edinburgh (Pink Floyd haunting) March 20, 2007
Posted by sterte in Places.add a comment
I spent the last weekend in Edinburgh. I really liked the city, but I have to admit I had too big expectations after many people told me how wonderful it was. Anyway I’d be brief and let the (inevitably bad) pictures I did describe the places i visited (they’re at the bottom af the right column as usual).
Other than the city I really enjoyed the company of the group of italian erasmus student I went with, and, silly enough, the thing i remember the best is a strange coincidence…
On saturday night we went to have dinner in a restaurnt and ate a not-so-bad-given-the-circumstances pizza. As we entered, Pink Floyd’s The Wall was on (causing my infinite joy and bewilderment), unfortunately after a couple of songs it was substituted by some 90s compilation, then as soon as we asked for the bill and prepared to get away, The Wall was on again. After a while I went back to the hostel and the guy at the reception was listening to Have a Cigar from Wish you were here, and another customer at the reception started asking me if I knew what album it was, what was my favourite Pink Foyd album (hard to say… I love Meddle but I’d definitely say Dark Side) etc. The day after I found myself wandering around by myself, I went to have lunch in a pub and on the tv the Wizard of Oz was on… obviously it was the original 1939 version with Judy Garland, that a freaky urban legend say to be strictly linked to pink floyd (again). At that point I started to get worried… fortunately on sunday evening the guy at the hostel was listening at Tom Waits’ Closing Time, and on monday morning as we checked out Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited was on… the Pink Floyd haunting was over… but I started worring the reception guy stole my ipod!
Royal Exchange Theatre March 20, 2007
Posted by sterte in Places.2 comments
Last thursday I joined a couple of colleagues to see “Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf” at the Royal Exchange Theatre. I didn’t knew the work, I just heard of it a couple of time, but I didn’t want to miss the chance to go to a theatre in England.
I have to admit I didn’t like the play too much and I even got lost a couple of times, but the theatre itself was simply wonderful! It is a cylindrical structure inside a big hall that used to be the Cotton Exchange in Manchester.The stage is at the centre of the cylinder and it’s surrounded by three floors of seats, the farest of which is probably nearer to the stage than a first row seat in a usual theatre.
As I entered my first reaction was amazement, then as we sat down I started to get concerned we were on the wrong side. Finally when the actors came out I realized I was going to see something totally different from what I was used to. Being the stage circular and being it completely surrounded by the audience the actors continuosly moved and faced different direction, it’s like looking at a 3d performance after years of 2d (or little more) ones. Even if as I’ve already said I didn’t enjoy the play too much, I think the setting worthed the ticket price!
Flavoured crisps March 15, 2007
Posted by sterte in Habits.2 comments
Sono appena tornato dal bagno dell’università. Non voglio nemmeno provare a immaginare come ci sia finito. Ma sopra la macchinetta dell’aria calda per asciugarsi le mani c’era un pacchetto vuoto di patatine!
Weekend in London March 15, 2007
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I spent the last weekend in London with two friends of mine. There are no words to say how much I loved it, and no picture is able to render its wonderful feeling.
About the pictures I put some on flickr (check the bottom of the right column), but they are not so good, in part because I’m not a good photographer, in part because I’ve got a crappy camera!
About the words… I won’t even try to describe it, I can just say that after the disappointment derived from the first days in Manchester and after realizing how much different being a tourist is from being an “inhabitant”, I was afraid my love for London might disappear. What happened is exactly the opposite… if possible I love London now even more than before!
The kindness of strangers March 7, 2007
Posted by sterte in People.add a comment
The flight back to Liverpool yesterday night was the part of the weekend in Italy I was more afraid of. Not that I’m afraid of flying (I actually enjoy it, if it doesn’t last too long), I was simply afraid of how sad and depressing it might have been getting away from Italy after a hard month in uk and 3 wonderful days at home.
The trip was better than I expected thanks to the two other people sitting in my row. When about an hour after the takeoff the seatbelt sign went on i simply asked “are we going to shake or to land?”. From that point on the lady next to me revealed to be extremely friendly and easy going, so I explained her about my staying in manchester, she told me that she and her husband (sitting near her) just bought a home in Corinaldo, that thy love lemarche, and so on.
After a while she get a small notebook out of her purse and wrote her phone number, saying that since people from lemarche have been very kind to them they wanted to return the favor. She explained that they are now living in Manchester city centre but they own a house in the peak district as well, and if I want to spend a weekend on the countryside and get to know “real england and real english people”, I just have to call them and they’ll be happy to lend me their house!
I don’t know if I’ll ever call them, maybe they are just extremely kind, maybe they are serial killers… but probably I’ve just seen too many movies!
