The amazing world of Selma Øye

Northern exposure?

2009-10-29T12:59:00.003+01:00

Late as usual, i just write to inform you that Selma Øye instead of fulfilling her draeam of a northern experience ended up in the south of France for a 3 years phd with teaching contract.

Elle pense que ça signifie la fin de ce blog en anglais, parce que elle a vraiment besoin d'ameliorer son français (avant de donner ses cours!)... à dire vrai, elle etait en train de penser qu'elle voulait écrire un neuf blog en italien, avec toutes ses impressions et tous ses reinsgnements sour la France (et, de tout façon, maintenaint elle habite plus à nord qu'avant!).

She'll keep you posted!

Update

2009-06-24T16:31:00.002+02:00

2009-06-10T12:15:00.000+02:00

Studio Mela

Work in progress

2009-04-04T15:16:00.003+02:00

I haven't been writing on this blog for a while...
Well, nothing new from me!
Just I am waiting for something to happen, to give the right direction to my life.
As there's nothing new to write on this space, i guess i will stop my transmission on it... It could be forever, it could be I will start again, I absolutely don't know nothing about right now!
I am thinking though, to give an italian brother to this blog, not a place where to practice my English and write about me like this one, but a collector of my impressions and thoughts. I'm working on it so, i'll keep you posted!!!

Cheers!

S.

2009-02-28T12:36:00.000+01:00

My new hobby...

Never so sick before.

2009-02-07T17:57:00.002+01:00

To Mr. Berlusconi

Once again you took the upper hand on institutions and law, once again you make me feel ashame to be Italian...

http://www.repubblica.it/2009/02/dirette/sezioni/cronaca/eluana/sette-febbraio/index.html

I'm looking forward for that day when you'll feel ashame of yourself too.

Homesick

2009-01-21T19:30:00.005+01:00

'cause I no longer know where home is...

(Image taken from MisterRob Etsy shop)

As usual...

2009-01-06T19:53:00.003+01:00

Nothing changes in me!!!
Promising almost a daily post and writing just twice!!!
Canada is almost coming to the end... Just a remaining week...
It could be I'll find time for a post when i come back home!!!

Ciaoooo

From the library

2008-12-19T18:33:00.013+01:00

I'm sitting in front of a desk of the bibliotheque de Génie de l'université de Sherbrooke... Today is -17°C but i don't feel so different from when it is 1° or 2° at home... We spent some calm days exploring Sherbooke, doing shopping, working (for Hamed only, time goes slow and I love it's like this!
Tomorrow we'll wake up at 5.00, walking to the Uni, taking a bus for Ottawa: yuppieeeeee!!!

Some pics of the Magog river and the town:

Snowmen and other stories!

2008-12-16T20:52:00.004+01:00

Canada seems a happy place!
Right in front of the bus central station of Montreal there's one of the biggest library I've ever seen!!
Houses are little: wooden or in little red bricks. In front of one of them i've seen a family of inflatable snowmen stuck there for Xmas period: father, mother, a child, a baby!!
Most of all, while i was looking for my nose; lost because of the cold, I've seen a squirrel in a garden!!
Italy is so far away!!!

Selma au Quebec!

2008-12-13T12:50:00.003+01:00

I spent many of the past days trying to write a post about all the things which made me sad in the last months, starting from my work on the thesis, finishing with my PHD without grant that made me angrier than happy...
After the last news, yesterday evening -My boss failed the contest to select the new Medieval Archaeology researcher, because someone, who never came here before, never worked with us before, never studied the subjects concerning our excavation area, seemed to be more qualified than her- i decided to stop writing forever about this kind of Italian magics and shift to nicer facts!
So i am here to announce you I'm going to spend a month in Sherbrooke, Quebec -With some days in Montreal and Quebec city too- starting from Sunday the 14th, as it was the furthest place from Italy i had the possibility to go: if it's possible, I'll take an almost daily diary of my experience, if not, I'll try to tell you all about Quebec when i come back in January!

Cheers!

S.

Oooops he did it again!

2008-11-07T14:56:00.003+01:00

From New York Times on line, by Rachel Donadio
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/08/world/europe/08italy.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=berlusconi+obama&st=cse&oref=slogin

November 7, 2008 (Published also on the November 8 printed edition)

Obama Joke by Premier Has Italy in an Uproar

ROME — Italians never quite know whether to laugh or cry at Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi But many reacted with incredulity and outrage after the prime minister, visiting Moscow on Thursday, amiably called the first African-American president-elect in United States history “young, handsome and suntanned.”

Mr. Berlusconi made the remark while meeting President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia, saying that Senator Barack Obama’s good looks, his youth and his so-called suntan were “all the qualities” for Mr. Medvedev and the future president to “develop a good working relationship.”

Many Italian newspapers gave the comment nearly as much front-page attention as Mr. Obama’s victory itself. The journalist Curzio Maltese wrote in the center-left La Repubblica that “bookmakers wouldn’t even take bets” on how long it would take for Mr. Berlusconi to let slip another of his famous gaffes. “Mr. Berlusconi never fails to live up to our worst expectations.”

Mr. Maltese added that just when Mr. Obama’s victory was “inspiring billions of people” to consider “democracy, the most extraordinary triumph of humanity after centuries of bloodshed and intolerance,” Mr. Berlusconi instead contributed “a miserable, vulgar and racist remark, for which he didn’t even have the courage to take responsibility or the dignity to apologize.”

A billionaire populist, Mr. Berlusconi excels at deflating such lofty talk. He said that his remark had been “a compliment” and that his critics lacked irony. “If you want to get a degree in idiocy, I won’t stop you,” La Repubblica quoted him as saying. “I say whatever I think.”

He said the Italian left was wrong about everything, “including their lack of a sense of humor.” He added: “Too bad for them. God save us from imbeciles.”

The center-left opposition leader, Water Veltroni, had earlier called such “cabaret one-liners” unworthy of a statesman and asked Mr. Berlusconi to apologize.

In Brussels on Friday, when Mr. Berlusconi was asked by a reporter if he would apologize, he said whoever had asked the question should be added to “the list” of imbeciles, Bloomberg News reported. “You should apologize to Italy,” it quoted him as saying.

Later on Friday, Mr. Obama, who has been calling world leaders, had a “long, cordial” telephone conversation with Mr. Berlusconi, according to the Italian news media. The two did not discuss the gaffe, the ANSA news agency reported.

The furor over Mr. Berlusconi’s remark has raised a question: Why, of all the problems Italy is facing — a weak economy, higher mortgage rates — would Mr. Berlusconi get more attention for his off-the-cuff remark than for his political program?

“Because it’s the last straw,” said a political commentator, Beppe Severgnini. “By now, Berlusconi isn’t a political case; he’s a psychological case.”

Mr. Berlusconi’s remark “wasn’t racist; it was infantile and untimely,” he added. “He has such a high opinion of himself that he thinks it’s acceptable to say anything to anyone.”

On Friday, Italy’s leading daily newspaper, Corriere della Sera, ran an illustrated display of Mr. Berlusconi’s most infamous gaffes. In 2002, he said that Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark was “so handsome I’m thinking of introducing him to my wife.”

In 2003, he compared a German in the European Parliament to a Nazi concentration camp guard. In 2005, he caused a diplomatic commotion after hinting that he had persuaded the Finnish president, Tarja Halonen, to back Italy to host the European Food Safety Authority by wooing her. “I had to use all my playboy tactics, even if they have not been used for some time,” he said.

Yet Mr. Berlusconi’s latest gaffe seemed to tap into a deep well of anger at him, which is at least as strong as his high approval ratings. A brief report on NYTimes.com abot the comment drew nearly 1,600 responses, most from upset Italians.

A reader named Alberto wrote, “Mr. Berlusconi’s stupid joke is a further demonstration of the racism and intolerance that grow inside Italian population, helped by the embarrassing attitude of Italian politics.”

On British Media:

From Times on line, by corrispondent Richard Owen from Rome
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article5100973.ece

November 6, 2008

Silvio Berlusconi in racism row over 'suntanned' Barack Obama aside

Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's gaffe-prone Prime Minister, today found himself accused of racism after calling Barack Obama "suntanned".

Speaking in Moscow at a joint news conference with President Medvedev, Mr Berlusconi said Mr Obama's election had been "hailed by world public opinion as the arrival of a Messiah".

He added: "I will try to help relations between Russia and the United States, where a new generation has come to power. I don't see problems for Medvedev in establishing good relations with Obama, who is also handsome, young and suntanned".

Mr Berlusconi said he had intended the remark as a compliment and those who failed to understand this were "imbeciles".

Earlier Mr Berlusconi, 72, had said he would be in a position to offer Mr Obama advice on politics because of his age and experience. The Italian leader himself boasts a perma-tan, and has had plastic surgery in an attempt to make him look younger.

Dario Franceschini, a centre left deputy, called on Mr Berlusconi to apologise to Mr Obama and to avoid embarrassing Italy in future with remarks "in bad taste".

He said the flamboyant Italian leader and media tycoon "forgets that his words affect the image of our country in the world". He added: "To say that the US President is young, good looking and suntanned will sound offensive to many and charged with dangerous ambiguity."

Walter Veltroni, the opposition leader, said: "A statesman cannot allow himself to make cabaret jokes while abroad. Berlusconi is seriously damaging the image and dignity of our country." Massimo Donadi of the centre left Italy of Values party said Mr Berlusconì's "unhappy" remark had exposed the centre right's "creeping racism".

Mr Berlusconi's previous gaffes include remarking to businessmen on a trip to the US that Italy was a great country to invest in "because we have fewer Communists nowadays and beautiful secretaries, superb girls".

Meeting the Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen in 2002, Mr Berlusconi described him as "the best-looking Prime Minister in Europe" and suggested he should have an affair with his wife, the former actress Veronica Lario.

In 2005 Helsinki demanded an explanation when he said he had used "playboy tactics" to persuade the Finnish President Tarja Halonen to back Italy as the site of the European Food Safety Authority.

And other examples here: http://tv.repubblica.it/copertina/l-abbronzato-fa-il-giro-del-mondo/26102?video
and here: http://www.repubblica.it/2006/05/gallerie/esteri/gaffe-berlusconi/1.html

No, we can't!

At least now I understand the reason of all my failures: it's because i voted some "imbecilli" "coglioni"!!! (yeah... sadly this is partly true...)
(http://www.repubblica.it/2008/11/sezioni/esteri/italia-obama/berlusconi-imbecilli/berlusconi-imbecilli.html)

New born

2008-10-05T18:19:00.004+02:00

Help me to find a name for her!

Besides my new daughter, there are many news in my life... I'm gonna tell you all at the right time... which is supposed to come after the 20th of October: finally it will be HOLIDAY!!!!!! Yuppieeeeeeeee

Nantes

2008-07-26T16:02:00.002+02:00

"Well, it's been a long time, long time now
since I've seen you smile...
And I'll gamble away my fright
And I'll gamble away my time..."

Nice band from New Mexico with a very young frontman (twenty-two years old... It always strikes me the fact that smart people could be younger than me...)...
They cancelled their European tour schedueled for this summer...
Luckily they didn't arrange for any italian date!

Take a look!

Speechless

2008-03-17T14:47:00.002+01:00

Something in Italian this time... Any comment to do...

Le torture a Bolzaneto e la notte della democrazia

Giuseppe D'Avanzo

La Repubblica, 17 marzo 2008

C´era anche un carabiniere "buono", quel giorno. Molti "prigionieri" lo ricordano. «Giovanissimo». Più o meno ventenne, forse «di leva». Altri l´hanno in mente con qualche anno in più. In tre giorni di «sospensione dei diritti umani», ci sono stati dunque al più due uomini compassionevoli a Bolzaneto, tra decine e decine di poliziotti, carabinieri, guardie di custodia, poliziotti carcerari, generali, ufficiali, vicequestori, medici e infermieri dell´amministrazione penitenziaria. Appena poteva, il carabiniere "buono" diceva ai "prigionieri" di abbassare le braccia, di levare la faccia dal muro, di sedersi. Distribuiva la bottiglia dell´acqua, se ne aveva una a disposizione. Il ristoro durava qualche minuto. Il primo ufficiale di passaggio sgridava con durezza il carabiniere tontolone e di buon cuore, e la tortura dei prigionieri riprendeva. Tortura. Non è una formula impropria o sovrattono. Due anni di processo a Genova hanno documentato - contro i 45 imputati - che cosa è accaduto a Bolzaneto, nella caserma Nino Bixio del reparto mobile della polizia di Stato nei giorni del G8, tra venerdì 20 e domenica 22 luglio 2001, a 55 "fermati" e 252 arrestati. Uomini e donne. Vecchi e giovani. Ragazzi e ragazze. Un minorenne. Di ogni nazionalità e occupazione; spagnoli, greci, francesi, tedeschi, svizzeri, inglesi, neozelandesi, tre statunitensi, un lituano.

Studenti soprattutto e disoccupati, impiegati, operai, ma anche professionisti di ogni genere (un avvocato, un giornalista...). I pubblici ministeri Patrizia Petruzziello e Vittorio Ranieri Miniati hanno detto, nella loro requisitoria, che «soltanto un criterio prudenziale» impedisce di parlare di tortura. Certo, «alla tortura si è andato molto vicini», ma l´accusa si è dovuta dichiarare impotente a tradurre in reato e pena le responsabilità che hanno documentato con la testimonianza delle 326 persone ascoltate in aula.
Il reato di tortura in Italia non c´è, non esiste. Il Parlamento non ha trovato mai il tempo - né avvertito il dovere in venti anni - di adeguare il nostro codice al diritto internazionale dei diritti umani, alla Convenzione dell´Onu contro la tortura, ratificata dal nostro Paese nel 1988. Esistono soltanto reatucci d´uso corrente da gettare in faccia agli imputati: l´abuso di ufficio, l´abuso di autorità contro arrestati o detenuti, la violenza privata. Pene dai sei mesi ai tre anni che ricadono nell´indulto (nessuna detenzione, quindi) e colpe che, tra dieci mesi (gennaio 2009), saranno prescritte (i tempi della prescrizione sono determinati con la pena prevista dal reato).
Come una goccia sul vetro, penosamente, le violenze di Bolzaneto scivoleranno via con una sostanziale impunità e, quel che è peggio, possono non lasciare né un segno visibile nel discorso pubblico né, contro i colpevoli, alcun provvedimento delle amministrazioni coinvolte in quella vergogna. Il vuoto legislativo consentirà a tutti di dimenticare che la tortura non è cosa «degli altri», di quelli che pensiamo essere «peggio di noi». Quel "buco" ci permetterà di trascurare che la tortura ci può appartenere. Che - per tre giorni - ci è già appartenuta.

Nella prima Magna Carta - 1225 - c´era scritto: «Nessun uomo libero sarà arrestato, imprigionato, spossessato della sua indipendenza, messo fuori legge, esiliato, molestato in qualsiasi modo e noi non metteremo mano su di lui se non in virtù di un giudizio dei suoi pari e secondo la legge del paese». Nella nostra Costituzione, 1947, all´articolo 13 si legge: «La libertà personale è inviolabile. È punita ogni violenza fisica e morale sulle persone comunque sottoposte a restrizione di libertà»

La caserma di Bolzaneto oggi non è più quella di ieri. Con un´accorta gestione, si sono voluti cancellare i «luoghi della vergogna», modificarne anche gli spazi, aprire le porte alla città, alle autorità cittadine, civili, militari, religiose coltivando l´idea di farne un "Centro della Memoria" a ricordo delle vittime dei soprusi. C´è un campo da gioco nel cortile dove, disposti su due file, i "carcerieri" accompagnavano l´arrivo dei detenuti con sputi, insulti, ceffoni, calci, filastrocche come «Chi è lo Stato? La polizia! Chi è il capo? Mussolini!», cori di «Benvenuti ad Auschwitz». Dov´era il famigerato «ufficio matricole» c´è ora una cappella inaugurata dal cardinale Tarcisio Bertone e nei corridoi, dove nel 2001 risuonavano grida come «Morte agli ebrei!», ha trovato posto una biblioteca intitolata a Giovanni Palatucci, ultimo questore di Fiume italiana, ucciso nel campo di concentramento di Dachau per aver salvato la vita a 5000 ebrei. Quel giorno, era venerdì 20 luglio, l´ambiente è diverso e il clima di piombo. Dopo il cancello e l´ampio cortile, i prigionieri sono sospinti verso il corpo di fabbrica che ospita la palestra. Ci sono tre o quattro scalini e un corridoio centrale lungo cinquanta metri. È qui il garage Olimpo. Sul corridoio si aprono tre stanze, una sulla sinistra, due sulla destra, un solo bagno. Si è identificati e fotografati. Si è costretti a firmare un prestampato che attesta di non aver voluto chiamare la famiglia, avvertire un avvocato. O il consolato, se stranieri (agli stranieri non si offre la traduzione del testo). A una donna, che protesta e non vuole firmare, è mostrata la foto dei figli. Le viene detto: «Allora, non li vuoi vedere tanto presto...». A un´altra che invoca i suoi diritti, le tagliano ciocche di capelli. Anche H.T. chiede l´avvocato. Minacciano di «tagliarle la gola». M.D. si ritrova di fronte un agente della sua città. Le parla in dialetto. Le chiede dove abita. Le dice: «Vengo a trovarti, sai». Poi, si è accompagnati in infermeria dove i medici devono accertare se i detenuti hanno o meno bisogno di cure ospedaliere. In un angolo si è, prima, perquisiti - gli oggetti strappati via a forza, gettati in terra - e denudati dopo. Nudi, si è costretti a fare delle flessioni «per accertare la presenza di oggetti nelle cavità». Nessuno sa ancora dire quanti sono stati i "prigionieri" di quei tre giorni e i numeri che si raccolgono - 55 "fermati", 252 "arrestati" - sono approssimativi. Meno imprecisi i «tempi di permanenza nella struttura». Dodici ore in media per chi ha avuto la "fortuna" di entrarvi il venerdì. Sabato la prigionia "media" - prima del trasferimento nelle carceri di Alessandria, Pavia, Vercelli, Voghera - è durata venti ore. Diventate trentatré la domenica quando nella notte tra 1.30 e le 3.00 arrivano quelli della Diaz, contrassegnati all´ingresso nel cortile con un segno di pennarello rosso (o verde) sulla guancia.

È saltato fuori durante il processo che la polizia penitenziaria ha un gergo per definire le «posizioni vessatorie di stazionamento o di attesa». La «posizione del cigno» - in piedi, gambe divaricate, braccia alzate, faccia al muro - è inflitta nel cortile per ore, nel caldo di quei giorni, nell´attesa di poter entrare «alla matricola». Superati gli scalini dell´atrio, bisogna ancora attendere nelle celle e nella palestra con varianti della «posizione» peggiori, se possibile. In ginocchio contro il muro con i polsi ammanettati con laccetti dietro la schiena o nella «posizione della ballerina», in punta di piedi. Nelle celle, tutti sono picchiati. Manganellate ai fianchi. Schiaffi alla testa. La testa spinta contro il muro. Tutti sono insultati: alle donne gridato «entro stasera vi scoperemo tutte»; agli uomini, «sei un gay o un comunista?» Altri sono stati costretti a latrare come cani o ragliare come asini; a urlare: «viva il duce», «viva la polizia penitenziaria». C´è chi viene picchiato con stracci bagnati; chi sui genitali con un salame, mentre steso sulla schiena è costretto a tenere le gambe aperte e in alto: G. ne ricaverà un «trauma testicolare». C´è chi subisce lo spruzzo del gas urticante-asfissiante. Chi patisce lo spappolamento della milza. A.D. arriva nello stanzone con una frattura al piede. Non riesce a stare nella «posizione della ballerina». Lo picchiano con manganello. Gli fratturano le costole. Sviene. Quando ritorna in sé e si lamenta, lo minacciano «di rompergli anche l´altro piede». Poi, gli innaffiano il viso con gas urticante mentre gli gridano. «Comunista di merda». C´è chi ricorda un ragazzo poliomielitico che implora gli aguzzini di «non picchiarlo sulla gamba buona». I.M.T. lo arrestano alla Diaz. Gli viene messo in testa un berrettino con una falce e un pene al posto del martello. Ogni volta che prova a toglierselo, lo picchiano. B.B. è in piedi. Gli sbattono la testa contro la grata della finestra. Lo denudano. Gli ordinano di fare dieci flessioni e intanto, mentre lo picchiano ancora, un carabiniere gli grida: «Ti piace il manganello, vuoi provarne uno?». S.D. lo percuotono «con strizzate ai testicoli e colpi ai piedi». A.F. viene schiacciata contro un muro. Le gridano: «Troia, devi fare pompini a tutti», «Ora vi portiamo nei furgoni e vi stupriamo tutte». S.P. viene condotto in un´altra stanza, deserta. Lo costringono a denudarsi. Lo mettono in posizione fetale e, da questa posizione, lo obbligano a fare una trentina di salti mentre due agenti della polizia penitenziaria lo schiaffeggiano. J.H. viene picchiato e insultato con sgambetti e sputi nel corridoio. Alla perquisizione, è costretto a spogliarsi nudo e «a sollevare il pene mostrandolo agli agenti seduti alla scrivania». J.S., lo ustionano con un accendino. Ogni trasferimento ha la sua «posizione vessatoria di transito», con la testa schiacciata verso il basso, in alcuni casi con la pressione degli agenti sulla testa, o camminando curvi con le mani tese dietro la schiena. Il passaggio nel corridoio è un supplizio, una forca caudina. C´è un doppia fila di divise grigio-verdi e blu. Si viene percossi, minacciati.
In infermeria non va meglio. È in infermeria che avvengono le doppie perquisizioni, una della polizia di Stato, l´altra della polizia penitenziaria. I detenuti sono spogliati. Le donne sono costrette a restare a lungo nude dinanzi a cinque, sei agenti della polizia penitenziaria. Dinanzi a loro, sghignazzanti, si svolgono tutte le operazioni. Umilianti. Ricorda il pubblico ministero: «I piercing venivano rimossi in maniera brutale. Una ragazza è stata costretta a rimuovere il suo piercing vaginale con le mestruazioni dinanzi a quattro, cinque persone». Durante la visita si sprecano le battute offensive, le risate, gli scherni. P.B., operaio di Brescia, lo minacciano di sodomizzazione. Durante la perquisizione gli trovano un preservativo. Gli dicono: «E che te ne fai, tanto i comunisti sono tutti froci». Poi un´agente donna gli si avvicina e gli dice: «È carino però, me lo farei». Le donne, in infermeria, sono costrette a restare nude per un tempo superiore al necessario e obbligate a girare su se stesse per tre o quattro volte. Il peggio avviene nell´unico bagno con cesso alla turca, trasformato in sala di tortura e terrore. La porta del cubicolo è aperta e i prigionieri devono sbrigare i bisogni dinanzi all´accompagnatore. Che sono spesso più d´uno e ne approfittano per "divertirsi" un po´. Umiliano i malcapitati, le malcapitate. Alcune donne hanno bisogno di assorbenti. Per tutta risposta viene lanciata della carta da giornale appallottolata. M., una donna avanti con gli anni, strappa una maglietta, «arrangiandosi così». A.K. ha una mascella rotta. L´accompagnano in bagno. Mentre è accovacciata, la spingono in terra. E.P. viene percossa nel breve tragitto nel corridoio, dalla cella al bagno, dopo che le hanno chiesto «se è incinta». Nel bagno, la insultano («troia», «puttana»), le schiacciano la testa nel cesso, le dicono: «Che bel culo che hai», «Ti piace il manganello». Chi è nello stanzone osserva il ritorno di chi è stato in bagno. Tutti piangono, alcuni hanno ferite che prima non avevano. Molti rinunciano allora a chiedere di poter raggiungere il cesso. Se la fanno sotto, lì, nelle celle, nella palestra. Saranno però picchiati in infermeria perché «puzzano» dinanzi a medici che non muovono un´obiezione. Anche il medico che dirige le operazioni il venerdì è stato «strattonato e spinto». Il giorno dopo, per farsi riconoscere, arriva con il pantalone della mimetica, la maglietta della polizia penitenziaria, la pistola nella cintura, gli anfibi ai piedi, guanti di pelle nera con cui farà poi il suo lavoro liquidando i prigionieri visitati con «questo è pronto per la gabbia». Nel suo lavoro, come gli altri, non indosserà mai il camice bianco. È il medico che organizza una personale collezione di «trofei» con gli oggetti strappati ai "prigionieri": monili, anelli, orecchini, «indumenti particolari». È il medico che deve curare L.K.
A L.K. hanno spruzzato sul viso del gas urticante. Vomita sangue. Sviene. Rinviene sul lettino con la maschera ad ossigeno. Stanno preparando un´iniezione. Chiede: «Che cos´è?». Il medico risponde: «Non ti fidi di me? E allora vai a morire in cella!». G.A. si stava facendo medicare al San Martino le ferite riportate in via Tolemaide quando lo trasferiscono a Bolzaneto. All´arrivo, lo picchiano contro un muretto. Gli agenti sono adrenalinici. Dicono che c´è un carabiniere morto. Un poliziotto gli prende allora la mano. Ne divarica le dita con due mani. Tira. Tira dai due lati. Gli spacca la mano in due «fino all´osso». G.A. sviene. Rinviene in infermeria. Un medico gli ricuce la mano senza anestesia. G. A. ha molto dolore. Chiede «qualcosa». Gli danno uno straccio da mordere. Il medico gli dice di non urlare. Per i pubblici ministeri, «i medici erano consapevoli di quanto stava accadendo, erano in grado di valutare la gravità dei fatti e hanno omesso di intervenire pur potendolo fare, hanno permesso che quel trattamento inumano e degradante continuasse in infermeria». Non c´è ancora un esito per questo processo (arriverà alla vigilia dell´estate). La sentenza definirà le responsabilità personali e le pene per chi sarà condannato. I fatti ricostruiti dal dibattimento, però, non sono più controversi. Sono accertati, documentati, provati. E raccontano che, per tre giorni, la nostra democrazia ha superato quella sempre sottile ma indistruttibile linea di confine che protegge la dignità della persona e i suoi diritti. È un´osservazione che già dovrebbe inquietare se non fosse che - ha ragione Marco Revelli a stupirsene - l´indifferenza dell´opinione pubblica, l´apatia del ceto politico, la noncuranza delle amministrazioni pubbliche che si sono macchiate di quei crimini appaiono, se possibile, ancora più minacciose delle torture di Bolzaneto. Possono davvero dimenticare - le istituzioni dello Stato, chi le governa, chi ne è governato - che per settantadue ore, in una caserma diventata lager, il corpo e la «dimensione dell´umano» di 307 uomini e donne sono stati sequestrati, umiliati, violentati? Possiamo davvero far finta di niente e tirare avanti senza un fiato, come se i nostri vizi non fossero ciclici e non si ripetessero sempre «con lo stesso cinismo, la medesima indifferenza per l´etica, con l´identica allergia alla coerenza»?

I wonder...

2008-02-13T16:28:00.002+01:00

...Why the desk i'm sitting in front of, in the library where i can find all the books i need for my thesis, is infested by ants?!

Stockholm

2008-01-22T18:12:00.000+01:00

As you know, because I've already posted about, I spent some days in Stockholm the last week of October.
My habit is to write a travel book for every trip i took, a short one, to note dates and experiences and names which could fade away from my mind.
Finally, for the first time in my life, i found time (during these days of holiday and illness for me), and feeling of turning this travel book into a post on my blog! Enjoy it and please tell me your impressions!

First Day: 25th of October 2007.

As a good beginning we found that flight from Pisa to Stockholm was really late! Damn Ryanair... But, as we say "Costo poco, godo poco!"
We arrived to Stockholm at around 3.00 a. m.
We were supposed to leave at 8.35, instead we left at 10.40. The flight usually takes around two hours and forty minutes.
Fortunately Swedes are really well organized and there still was a bus to get from Skvasta (the airport in Nyköpig)to the central station in Stockholm. Claudio doesn't speak so much English so I bought tickets for both. In the queue for the tickets Italians were quite hotheaded, one of them minaced to make a big mess if the bus would have left without him... Maybe someone should have made him noticing that the ticket seller was also the driver of the bus so no way for the bus to leave before he had his ticket!
Autobus to Stockholm passes throught a wonderful landscape, unfortunately it was too dark to see it and we were really dead tired.
Johan has been kind enought to come to the station and drive us home through the town, in the meantime showing us some important places we are too sleepy to see. He parked his car a bit far from his house. To get home we passed in front of the Italian-Swedish cultural institute, SVT which is the national television and radio and the American Embassy: the street of the embassy is blocked by renforced concrete blocks, Johan told us they put them there the 12th of September 2001 and they still are there locking the way to everyone who needs to pass there.
When we finally arrived home his family members of course were all sleeping but the cat which said to us "welcome" in a very polite way.
They arranged for us in Karin's room. Karin is Johan's younger sister, she's 23 and lives in Uppsala. We had not chance to meet her unfortunately, but it seems she has the right half of her head black-haired, and the left part red-haired...
We met instead a real swedish cat, the one which said us "welcome": Spokkien, who's half black and half white and not so strange as Karin!

Second day: 26th of october 2007.

We woke up at 10 o'clock. and Johan's mother arranged for us a typical swedish breakfast with salty butter and prästost.
Then we, finally, had the first walk along Stockholm's streets. From Johan's quarter, we went to Djungården, as he wanted to show us Vasamuseet. The Vasa was a warship, made built by king Gustavus Adolphus which sank in 1628 during his maiden voyage. Marine Archaeologists recovered it in 1961 together with a lot of objects and remains of sixteen people (out of one hundred and fifty which probably died in the shipwreck). Impressive in my opinion the quantity of findings perfectly dated, and the ship itself, so well preserved....
...About the mountaing of the exibition: I suggest to many italian scientists of musealization to have a look on this one! Ah Swedes! Better even in museums! eheheh:)

-Johan in front of the museum

-Me doing the italian inside it! (By the way the strange face is the reproduction of one which decorated the ship!)

After having a short walk in Djungården we went by ferry to Slussen and ate there, at a kiosk, Strömming, Johan said it´s a kind of herring which lives only in the Baltic Sea... yum!! I really like it!

-Gamlastan from the ferry boat:

Then we continued the visit of the south part of the town, passing through Götgatsbacken, seing during our walking the mosque and the catholic church: it seems everyone has his space here in Stockholm!
Finally we stopped to have a coffee and a cake in a café (again eating!) which was full of people. I noticed a great deal of places like this one where we stopped, with great windows and people drinking, chatting or studying like showed in a shop-window! Swedes enjoy their breaks and they are proud of it!

-People at the café:

Finally, with the stomach full of sweet food (I tasted a Kanelbullar, Claudio a Morotskaka!) we went to Gamlastan. Unfortunately we had few time to visit it but we planned to go back there again one of the other days. We saw Riddarholmen church and some alleys there while getting to one of the swedish pillars: the Systembuloget (in our case the one into the NK shopping centre.)
Entering I took a free guidebook and having a look on it later i noticed it was full of advices like “are you tired? Come to NK and sit at a cafe drinking a coffee” or “Is it raining? So do shopping in NK!”...
But the systembuloget! Ah the systembuloget!!! Shelves and shelves of wine, spirits and beers, ordered according to kind, origin, price! I think I`ve never seen a so neat wine shop in Italy, not so many information on a shelf, even if these kinds of shops are lacking in the familiar air which a wine shops have in Italy, with the owner suggesting wines with strange names in bottles covered in dust...
Going outside of it, Claudio kept open the door for a man, apparently 50 years old, an act we usually do, he didn`t even notice he did it, but the man almost run after us to say ”Thank you”!!
Ah: Sweeeeeden Sweeeeeden!! To say it with Neil Hannon of Divine Comedy:
” I am gonna live in Sweden
Please don’t ask me why
For if I were to give a reason
It would be a lie
Tall and strong and blonde and blue eyed
Pure and healthy, very wealthy
Sweden, Sweden, Sweden, in Sweden…:
Anyway, booty of our visit into the systembuloget: two bottles of Italian wine Claudio chose and a cherry flavoured swedish ”wine” i firmily wanted to buy (Alcohol with cherry sirup! No one wanted to taste it but me, neither the swedes!)!
We needed to buy all those valuable stuff as we were invited to a real swedish student party! First of it we went to visit Johan`s cousin, Robert, who showed us his house and his great vocals singing loudly while pissing in the bathroom, close to the bedroom/sitting room/dining room where we were waiting for him. He insisted with us on eating again so I had to order a pizza! Fortunately I had eaten so much during the day that it didn’t seem so strange to everyone I ate just a piece of it! Robert`s a nice guy anyway, he studies for being a tenor, in the meanwhile composes piano music and takes interests of american politics… He reminded me a lot of a friend, my collegue on Montescudaio excavation, who had an affair with Ilaria, and we used to call him “Lady D” for his tragic tendecy to call the attenction of people on himself in every situation, even when he wants to be unnoticed!
He told us about an italian girl from Rome, Flaminia, whom he met in Stockholm the past summer. He told us he almost fell in love with her and thought it was exactly the same for the girl but when he went to Rome to visit her, she hid him to his friends and lovers, confessing she was not so ”free”... Eheheh!
The party Robert invited us to was of a girl who used to study together with him, in a student house in the north west area of Stockholm...
Sweden air made me even loose my usual shyness and I talked in English with a lot of people, including a guy from a place I can’t remember the name in Dalarna, Håkan, who, as soon as he discovered I was italian, started to talk about italian football telling me all he thinks about Totti and Del Piero, I managed to stop all this only after an hour, when he said to me he`s a metallurgic engineer so I started to talk about all the friends I have who are engineers too, and he suddenly decided he had to go to see his friends in the room nearby!
Anyway, swedish parties are not so different from the italian ones: tons of alcohol (but in Sweden everyone brings his), tons of people you`ve never met before who infiltrated like spies, loud music (maybe a bit better than the one I usually find at parties in Italy)… Cool!

Third day: 27th of October 2007

We woke up a bit dazed… We had the usal breakfast with Spokkien (the cat!), then we went with the tube to the townhall. Passing on a bridge close to the townhall we saw a couple of fishes doing a sort of ballet in the water… No way to find out which kind of fish they were, maybe two salmons as dazed as us!!

-the fishes in the water

Johan told us about the building, but we had no chance to enter and visit it. One of the most famous places in the world, where every year Nobel prizes are given to the ones who`ve been enough engenious to deserve it!

-the three crowns:

We took some pictures outside on the Mälaren, including the only one I have of us three together, as we asked it to some east asian tourists hanging around there.

-Me,Claudio,Johan:

We spent the hour waiting for the train to Uppsala in a sort of bar which really looked like a cruise boat restaurant: wooden tables and wall-to-wall carpet everywhere, old women in casual Sunday outfit eating things which are surely forbidden to diabetics.
And finally the train: with 58SEK (almost the same price for a Pisa/Florence ticket, quite similar distance) we travelled on a very clean very nice on time train, furnished with a table every four seats (science fiction furniture for a regional train in Italy!): I`m really starting to love Sweden!
We arrived to Uppsala around 4 in the afternoon passing through some nice little settlements, a lot of birches and other kind of trees everywhere, everyone of them with leaves of different colours: finally I managed to see again the coulours of the autumns, as the italian leaves, because of all those hot autumns of the last years, pass straight from the bright green of the summer to the dark brown of the death when finally at the end of november a bit of cold arrives!
First stop in our Uppsala day was the exhibition at the “Carolina Rediviva” library, we did`t even leave our baggage home: together with many edictions of Linneus classification, masterpieces in the collection of the library are the Silver Bible of Wulfila and the Charta Marina by Olaus Magnus, great sources of reminescence of “paleography” and “history of geography and chartography” exams I sat for some time ago. I bought a reproduction of the Charta, which represents the scandinavian area, with all those funny sea monsters with boats in their belly!

- Carolina Rediviva:

We had a walk and a coffee in town, in a place called Hugo, vintage furnished with old swedish newspapers and magazines as decoration all around, then we went to the cinema. That week-end Uppsala put up the “International Short Films festival”.

-Hugo:

-International short film festival:

I have to admit: I mostly can`t understand swedish films!
We saw two sets of shorts. The first one was a selection of fantasy-horror movies from various countries, It was not so bad actually! I enjoyed mostly two cartoons, but the one which I will never forget almost shocked me, it was a story of a man who has a shop of dolls. One day he sees in a circus a girl without spine used by a man, her father maybe, as an attraction. The doll-maker set her free, and everyone thinks that it`s why he fell in love with her, on the contrary, he transforms her in a human gothic doll working on her face with a chain saw: a CHAIN SAW… I wonder why!!
Anyway, the second set was the worst. They were the winners of the prizes, out of four categories, three were won by swedish films. I can`t say which was the plot, nor there was a sort of impressionistic work on scenes… One of them was even made by Kim Hiorthøy, a good electronic musician (norwegian though!) I used to like! What a disappontment! Yeah... I know... It's more probable that it's me who has problems in understanding as all the people there were enjoying the films so much...
Right after the films we went to the party arranged by the organization of the festival, Per and Ebba, Johan's brother and his girlfriend, invited us to go as they are into the organization... But arrived there the bumpkins at the door told us that the place were too full as they counted the people entering and we would be over the largest number good for the place! They invited us to be patient and wait for three people to leave the party!!! WHAT? Another science fiction thing for italian!!!
We decided not to wait so we had the chance to be introduced by Johan to one of the thing i liked more and I would like to import in Italy: the nationer.
Johan told us that as Uppsala is the oldest university in Sweden (in fact it is the oldest in Scandinavian Countries, founded in 1477) so every one who wanted to study had to move there and students most of all in the past centuries, tended to join students from their home region. So slowly they formed some student associations which have the name of the place of origin of the members, called "nationer". It seems the biggest one is the Norrlands nation, which is the one who reunites the regions of the north, as in the past only few people came from there to study, and now that people move from everywhere all the students of more than a region are reunited in this only nation.
The thing I like is their today's organization: they are opened to everyone!
For example, Johan comes from Stockholm which has is own nation but chose to join the Kalmar Nation. One of the former Kalmar nation's student was Astrid Lindgren, the author of Pippi Långstrump. Students have to write in the inscription paper which nation they prefers, before starting the university. And also after the choice of one of them, the nation centres are open to every student of the university of Uppsala. Every nation has many rooms where to study, where on fridays and saturdays parties and concerts are organized, a sort of cheap bar or pub where to eat and drink, and everything is conducted by the student members of the nation.
So, instead of waiting we went to the Kalmar nation to drink a beer and Johan told us about what all i've just written.

-Me and Johan outside the Kalmar Nation:

Fourth day: 28th october 2007

After a good sleep in Johan's student room and another swedish breakfast, at late time I have to admit, we went out to do a tour of the town:
we went to

-the botanic garden

I expected something more from the town where Carl Linnaeus studied and worked, but it could be that the best things were at the Linneaus garden which is closed during autumns and winters.
We saw the castle too and the nice view of the town from this top place with the Domkyrka in the foreground

Domkyrka that we also visited inside, seeing the grave of Gustav I Vasa and above-mentioned Carl Linnaeus...

After all this intensive program we went to Kalmar nation to eat: I have to admit I had lunch with a piece of morotskaka and one of a chocolate cake!!
We decided then to go to Gamla Uppsala. Our little absent minded Johan forgot the right bus to get there so we decided to try the swedish taxis: wrong move!!! 12€ for 5km!!! But it's been a good experience anyway.
Gamla Uppsala seems to be the former site of Uppsala, where nordic Kinges used to live in pre-historic period. Of course the museum which shows findings of the several excavation in the area had just closed when we arrived.
So we had a walk in the middle of the hills which actually are a lot of basoons of pre-historic age.

Right in front of this area there's a large space which, the tradition says, was used to celebrate sacrifices. In the middle of it a stone to remember the fact... But at a closer sight:

...the infesting papacy ruined the memory of the past here too!
We visited also the church in Gamla Uppsala, few steps far from the graves. While getting there we crossed the path of an old man, almost 80 years old, with a walking stick and a coat too large for him. He asked Johan in Swedish if we were tourist, he answered that we were from Italy, so the old man suggested us to visit the curch adding some info about it in a perfect Italian!
There was a service inside the curch, with a female minister. I decided to remain outside while Claudio and Johan entered...
In the church, as a remployment, there was a runic stone with written on “Siguiðr [ræist] i stæin þenna ænglandsfari æftir vidiarf faður”... Not ideologically so different from roman columns on the façade of Pisa's Santa Maria!!

The curch is of XIII century, but it is built over the remains of a XI century
stavkyrka which probably was on an old pagan temple, or anyway and older building...

-two friends very interested in such historical notes

As it was the coldest day so far, we decided to go somewhere to dring something. There's a bar very close to the museum which sells Mjöd, a drink which is made i don't know with, following a recipe of XVIII century, pretending to reproduce the original traditional drink of vikings!! Eheheh: disgusting cinnamon scented "bacardi breeze" but at least served into "real" viking horn!!! We were tourist: forgive us!!

-Akta Miöd från Odinsborg, Gamla Uppsala!

On the bus coming back to Uppsala we asked to Johan the reason of something we already noticed the days before: every window in private house has a light, a candle or an electric light, which becomes switched onas soon as the dark arrives. According to Johan it's a matter of public spirit: keeping the light on in front of the window contributes to light up the streets having a bit more of light during the dark nights, and days, of the winter...

At home Johan cooked for us: rotmos (mashed "roots" litterally) and meatballs of elk!!
Poooooooooor Elk!!! ...But it tasted good!

And after our abundant dinner guess what? Again to the cinema to see other short films!!! Yuppieeeee!
We didn't have the heart to tell Johan it was an awful program for us... Well, it gave us the opportunity to see the Slottsbiografen, the cinema where Ingmar Bergman used to go during his youth...
We chose a set of classic short movies and this allowed us to survive! There were a couple of animation films very nice including a one from former Czechoslovakia of 1989 called "Darkness-Light-Darkness", made with plasticine technique, in which a huge body of a mand slowly recomposed in a small room, one piece at the time...

Fifth day: 29th october 2007

We left Uppsala, going back to Stockholm!
We went straight to Slussen to eat a souovasrolle, a sort of Kebab made with meat of reindeer...
Like the elk: poor poor reindeer! Eheheheh...
We had no particular plan for today... Just wanted to spend a bit of time hanging around!
So we went to do a bit of shopping, we liked in particular a shop called "Designtorget" with a lot of useless funny design object, like a banana-shaped-box to take your banana safely in you bag or a gum octopus to hang shower foam bottles... if you are curious you can see them here!!
Anyway my favourite objects were them:

-Kiss

-and Bajs

litterally "pee & poo": divine!!! Unfortunately they costed more than 30€ so i decided to leave them on the shelf... But sometimes i still think to them and sob!
We also visited Johan's grandma. She lives in a luxury old people's house in the centre of the town. We went to visit her because she felt over in the street and broke her wrist: at more than 80 she was running back to an autobus... Running!!!
She arranged an "italian cocktail" rolling up some Parma ham slices to breadsticks and talked to us in a perfect english (my 81 years old granma sometimes has little difficulties with italian words too). When Claudio told her he comes from Lucca she interrupted the conversation suddenly and made a phone call, then came back to the sitting room and announced us that we were invited to the little aparment of another guest of the house who comes from Lucca too!!!!
How small is the world!!
So we knew Donella. She moved to Stockholm in 1937 together with her family. Her father worked in the building of the Blue Hall of the Stadhuset, then he came back there with all the family.
She talked about her life there, she comes back to Italy every summer but she wants to remain there, where her son lives too and where she feels that home is... She got married with an italian man. They bought an house near Lucca because they planned to come back to Italy... Unfortunately her husband got ill and died after a few time. So she decided to remained in Sweden, where her son wanted to stay, but she goes to the house she still owns to spend the summer in Lucca every year.
After this amazing meeting we went back to Johan's home.
His parents invited us for the last evening of our holiday.
Johan's mother, Elisabeth, cooked for us reindeer and roast vegetables and a cake of meringue and artic blackberry (litteral translation from the italian name i know... I ignore the name in Swedish: shame on me!!!) and we ate all together while his father, Stefan, dazed us with 3 hours of monologue about computer science (he's a professor of theoretical computer science at the universtity of Stockholm).
Our evening ended with a monopoly game: instead of the usual Parco dei Giardini or Vicolo Corto, there were the names of the most famous places in Stockholm. Spokkien played too!!!

Last day: 30th of october 2007
It's our last day here. Johan cooked for us a special breakfast this morning, a sort of pudding made of rice and milk which traditionally children leave on the Christmas eve in front of the window for Santa Claus... Unfurtunately again i don't remember the name!
Our last walk in Stockholm was to go the Nobel museum. Actually I think it's been the less interesting thing we saw in all the trip. The main room houses a temporary exhibition of a famous photographer of whose (guess!) i don't remember the name, nothing to share with the Nobel subject though!
The rest was a couple of showcase with objects formerly owned by famous nobel prize winners. I have to admit i was thrilled by the shoe of Selma Lagerlöf...
Then we went back to the Slussen to eat strömming again. I had a meeting there with a canadian guy who's been living in Stockholm for some years, Kevin. I met him on mylanguageexchange some months ago, when i was still trying to learn some words of Swedish; as he is interested in learning Italian we started to write each other sometimes. While waiting for him we took these images from the top of a building in front of the area:

Kevin was so late that we had to go to the station without meeting him, but he was also so kind and reached us there, only ten minutes before our bus left.
This allowed me to do not get extremely sad at the moment of saying goodbye to Johan...

At the airport there was already an italian air: we met the same belligerent italian man of the outward journey... His wife was running after one of the autobus: she left her bag on it!
Eheheheheheheheh

I'm back!!!!

2007-12-20T18:30:00.000+01:00

Today i sat for my last exam!!!!!!
Woooh ooooh!!!
After a hard month of studying on books, touching bones and learning strange names by heart i sat for the exam of anthropology and it was a success!!!!
I'm going to spend this holiday completely free from engagements of every kind:

(and in the pic how i starded for this!!!)

-computer: finishing to write my trip report about Stockholm: i swear i'll do it!

-reading: I started some time ago a book of over 1500 pages about the nordic mithology, "The thousand nights and a night" in honour to my special special special more-than-a-friend Hamed, "a journal of the plague year" by Defoe. My plan for this holiday is to resume the reading and finish at least Defoe and "the thousand nights and a night" but i needed to start from something easy so i bought as a bonus for myself after the exam this morning, the first book of Philip Pullman's "This dark materials" trilogy: "northern lights". In fact, I saw, while having breakfast soma days ago, the trailer of "the golden compass", film inspired to this book and i decided it sounded nice. But as this kind of movie usually sounds to me really low quality even after all those millions of dollars, i decided without any hesition to buy the book.

-Visiting people: I think i'll go to visit my friend Sabina and her family before Chrismas, i have some little presents for her, her husband and her delicious girls. I hope to see there Cristina too... Cristina's mum is ill... I feel a bit guilty for not having her in my mind in these days so I really hope to meet and comfort her a bit!
Then on sunday i'm planning to go to Montescudaio: we booked seats at the restaurant which host us for the excavation... The sad thing in this is that there everyone of my friend will be in couple, everyone but me... Ah... Dear far Hamed!!!:*

-Relaxing: my last chance before the hard months of the thesis which wait for me since the 7th fo january...

But for now:

I want to wish you a special Christmas to the ones who believe and a wonderful wonderful new 2008 full of joy and great news to everyone!

(With special hugs to Colores apologising for my long delay and an "Hello" to Verdefoglia who was kind enough to leave a comment even if I, unpolitie as usual, didnt find time to answer!!)

(thanks to Doxione and her/his? wonderful dogs for this picture)

When the house becomes silent....

2007-11-12T23:45:00.000+01:00

Finally everyone went to sleep here...
I got used to go to bed late in the evening when i started the university.
During every period before exams I used to keep on studying until 3 or 4 a. m. to make the most of the night calm and sleep until late the morning after.

My house is hardly quiet.
My brothers spend their time arguing, my mother keeps the telly on with loud volume even if she's doing something else in another room, the flat is surrounded by noisy neighbours and far 15 mt from my room's window there's the railway.
Only during nights every one calms down, my family sleeps, telly is off, the neighbours too...

Slowly my way of studying changed but i kept this habit to enjoy the silent of the early night. It's my personal moment, when i stop thinking to serious things and my mind wanders where it likes most... Sometimes helped by a good book, sometimes only with imagination.
This evening i decided to share my special moment with you, after trying to finish writing my post about Stockholm.

...Time for my daily rest has arrived: Good Night.

French Class

2007-11-06T00:06:00.000+01:00

As usual excavations take me away from this blog: when i arrive home after an hard day of pick and showel I have to work on documentation and time which remains before, dead on my feet, i fall asleep on the desk is for checking email and say hello to special friends...
Surely a post about my trip to Stockholm will follow, I don't know about one on the excavation as it made me get only so nervous, looking forward to see the end of the job...
Anyway, I think the experience of my first lesson at the french class deserves his own post!
I went there this evening for the first time after i missed six lessons.
I arrived five minutes earlier to have the chance to talk with the prof. So when he finished the lesson before mine, I knocked his door, introduced myself and asked him about the opportunity to buy a book for the class, the title and the cost of it... Instead of answering, he assaulted me asking "Why haven't been attending the class for all this time? Do you think it is still timely to start now?" and I replied, a bit irritated: "yeah, it is timely because you asked me to pay for it a lot before the starting of the class and because i wrote you an email telling about the fact i was working far from Pisa, asking about any book and the subject you were supposed to
teach during these lessons to study it by myself... But I'm still waiting for an answer..."
So he calmed down and said: "I see... Maybe i misunderstood and thought you email was spam!"
WHAT?!
Anyway, there are eight lessons left and i should buy a book which costs almost the same price I paid for the class... All the other students have been studying for three weeks more than me, they now know a lot of words which i don't know. The prof made them talk all the lesson, turning to me only once, not pronouncing my names but saying "Toi, là bas!"...
Honestly I don't know if I'm going to continue!
...Maybe someone else could help me to improve my french...^_^

Some little news

2007-10-08T18:29:00.000+02:00

My boss called me this morning.
She said she's going to be home sooner than when she expected and that an excavation she proposed me to take part to will start on monday.
Fortunately the professor is really kind and allow me to take these two week of "vacation" even with so short notice.
So from 15th to the morning of 25th i'll be pickaxing and showeling in Marti on etruscan rubbish!
I did the test for the french class: the professor doing it said me i would be an upper intermediate, but she suggested me to enroll for an intermediate course as I haven't been speaking french since I finished school in 2001 and probably in need to recover vocabulary and grammare i've been loosing in all these years.
The class starts next week for every one, in two weeks for me because of the excavation, and it puts me to work every tuesday and every thursday from 18.00 to 20.00 in the evening!
Maybe some posts in french will follow! Who knows!!:D

My wonderful moment!

2007-10-06T17:07:00.000+02:00

Another time I steal the idea of Colores!

I think i have many many wonderful moments in my life but there is one which is a bit more "special" for me... At least because I think about this one almost everyday when I wake up. It needs an introduction before to be told.

I always dreamt, when i was i child, to have got a dog.
Every time i saw one walking in the streets i had to stop to look at it. My first sentence every morning was "Dad, mum: why don't we have a dog?". I forced them to buy me "the encyclopaedia of Dogs": 200 weekly parts at the newsstand close to our home!! I was super-informed about breeds, builds and coats.
But there was no hope. My mother had a dog when she was a girl,and when the dog died she promised herself that she will never suffer again for a dog in all her life.
Then I grew up,I stopped asking about to my parents, but didn't stop to desire a dog, promising myself that i would have gone to a dog's house to adopt one as soon as I would move to my parents house.
I don't know what changed.
Maybe that's why I was particularly sad in that period. Maybe because my parents wanted to have a proof of my patience... I really don't know.
But an evening my mother told me to go in front of the door to wait my father as he had something heavy to bring home and needed an help. It happened five years ago. I found myself very very surprised when i saw his hands completely free. Then he unbottoned his jacket and opened it: the smallest hairy head I had ever seen was peeping out of his breast pocket, a big red tied ribbon around his little neck, terribly scared and trembling. He was so little to enter in a breast pocket!

I think about this moment every morning, when Ghigo comes to nestle close to me in my bed after my parents wake up, usually half an hour before me. He "kisses" my nose, then hits gently it with his paw because he wants me to have the blanket up and slides under it clucking his tongue showing he's satisfied...

Back to Tandem!

2007-09-28T21:51:00.000+02:00

It's been raining since wednesday evening...
The end of semptember... New classes (but i have any of them to attend), new people around...
I thought it was the right time to look for a new friend to speak a bit of english together with and learn something about a new culture...
So, i went to the erasmus office to renew my card and while being there the guy writing on the card, when heard about my willing to find a scandinavian friend, asked me "is an estonian fine anyway? At least he lives on Baltic sea!"... And I said: "Why not!?"...
So my new tandem's Endrico from Estonia!!
We're going to meet next week, as soon as he knows his classes time schedule!!
Yesterday I went with Ilaria to Guardistallo to bring the pottery she needs to study for her thesis.
I drove all the way by myself under the rain!! My driving skills finally are growing!!
As usual, every time we go to Val di Cecina it rains!!!

I feel so strange in these days... I'm a bit more energetic than usual, but at the same time i feel frivolous in an insane way...
I don't want to have a confrontation with real life!

Helene came to Italy few weeks ago to visit her boyfriend Matteo and gave to Ilaria a Cd with the picture she took of us: finally I have the proof sometimes I work!!!

Thesis

2007-09-24T20:12:00.001+02:00

I've talked five times with my boss about my thesis as she will be my second supervisor for it as the professor who'll help me is a historician and i need also an archaeologist as a supervisor...
First time we were still excavating. I asked her about a possible subject telling her about my old idea of continuing the research I started for the first level degree thesis, working on Medieval Castles of Val di Cecina, but she said that it would have been good for a phd thesis and a too big job for a second level one. So I told her: of what where you thinking?
And she answered that i could write something about monasteries starting from the one in Montescudaio and she suggested to discuss later about, after the end of the campaign of this year.
So we finished to excavate, I started to do my part-time job, I sat for some exams and decided to contact her again the at the end of july. I went to visit her on another excavation and while eating, she repeated exactly the same evenescent speech adding some notes for texts to read about monasteries (male, female, in Tuscany, in north of Italy, excavated, known by written sources and so on...) to choose by myself the subject.
I called her the first week of september to tell her what i had thought after reading what she suggested to me: my idea was to do a geographical survey about monasteries in Val di Cecina, no matter if female, male, from early or medium middle age... She agreed with me, suggesting as a comparison for the Badia of Montescudaio, to have a look about S. Paolo di Pugnano which is, even if a bit far, a good example of female monastery.
So I went to talk with my supervisor who told me in her opinion, there are not enough written sources to do an historical research about Val di Cecina, and gave me to do a comparison between the monastery of Montescudaio and two other monasteries already studied by other people...
Not so happy with this, i wrote an email to my boss about this subject and we met, for the fourth time, the day i sat for my medieval topography exam. She said she was going to meet the professor and talk with her about.
So today I called her, and she said she had no chance to do a proper talking with my first supervisor so she'll meet her when she'll be back from Corsica, after the 12th of october...
Moral of the story: we started to talk in may, I've been reading for it some months to define the subject and we won't know nothing more about until the half of october if I'm lucky!!
Do u think I'll be able to graduate in July?

...I think no!

Northern Exposure

2007-09-23T15:30:00.000+02:00

I'm supporting the international web piracy in these days downloading all the episodes i can find of an old american tv series called Northern Exposure.
*Unless the peer-to-peer program I've installed on my notebook keeps on working! As it can't work in a proper way and my "good-for-nothingess" in this kind of problems doesn't allow me to act for solving all this*
I totally forgot about this serie for years. I'm a huge fan of american tv series. I haven't been missing an episode of Emergency Room since its beginning, the same for Lost, even if i still miss to watch the last series already seen in U.S.A. as they usually arrive later in Italy, I think because of royalties and dubbing...
*and I haven't been trying to download them because of the peer-to-peer problems expressed before... I'm really envious for my friend with computer scientist boyfriend who already watched all the third serie of Lost!!!*
...So I wait patiently for the italian television to broadcast them.
My last discover is the series Numb3rs, good "filler" of many summer sunday evenings. One of the main character of this, agent Don Epps seemed to me so familiar, until suddenly i remembered where I had already seen his face: in the "Northern Exposure" series!
It was broadcasted in the early '90s when i was around 10-12, this one during the summer too, and I used to watch it every day after doing my summer homework every morning. It is set in Alaska, where Joel Fleishmen (Rob Morrow/Don Epps, that's it!) is sent, after taking his degree thanks to a study loan of this state, to work as doctor.
It's been so strange noticing how i manage to forget completely this tv series I used to like so much. After remembering about, i found in my memories that i used to wait impatiently the right time to watch it, collecting small pictures and plot summaries from the tv magazine my mother used to buy at that time. Maybe I was unconsciously already so attracted by surreal situations and snow and polar bears and small north villages!!
So now, as it hasn't been broadcasted in Italy since 2005, I'm trying to find some episodes and understand what was there of so attractive for me!

If i would be:

2007-09-21T21:12:00.001+02:00

I borrow this from Colores:

A month: December

A day of the week: Saturday

A planet: the Earth

A time: 6.00 p.m.

A drink: a Zoccola (a long drink created by the best barman of Pisa, Yuri)

An instrument: transverse flute

An animal: a polar bear

A fruit: a Mango

A flavour: sweet

A cake: an apple pie

A food: every kind of pasta

A body part: the eyes

A CD: "Quiet is the new loud" by Kings of Convenience

A song: "Confessioni di un malandrino" by Angelo Branduardi

A school subject: History

A sport: cross country skiing

A number: 7

An age: 25

A color: Green

A town: Stockholm

An invention: the internet

A film: Le fabuleux destin d'Amelie Pulain

An actor/actress: Audrey Tatou

A job: the vet

A country: Iceland

A feeling: love

A virtue: patience

A fault: acting on impulse

A musician: Jens Lekman

A work of art: L'Empire des lumière by Magritte

A book: Livlakände besök by Per Olov Enquist

Rome

2007-09-21T13:09:00.000+02:00

I spent yesterday afternoon reading my old posts on this blog.
The first ones are only pictures, i used to upload them here just to have an url and posting them on forums...
Then I started to write... At the beginning with posts once or twice a week... Then less often... And in these last months I've been litterally in hiding!
In the post of 2006 i kept on repeating I was going to write a post about my journey to Oslo... But i realized I've never written it!
Now, i could write about my impressions, but not about the trip, more than a year has passed and there wouldn't be any particular reason after all these months.
But, becoming aware of this, I've decided to write more punctually about trips and visits.

So it's my time to talk about Rome.
I know it's pretty strange for an archaeologist but I had never been to Rome before the short trip I took with Claudio the 8th and 9th of September for the "Notte Bianca".
I perfectly know we chose the worst week-end to see the town: an incredible crowd outside at every time of day and night, nervous people working, unpolite people in shops and bar after a sleepless night! I keep on ascribing the bad impression i had of the town to this special situation even if I'm conscious that's not the truth.

The 8th of September
-1.45 p.m.: I took the train for Florence, Claudio was already on it. He booked two seats on a Eurostar from Florence to take the trip together with his friend Manfredo.
-5.15 p.m.: we arrived in Rome, Manfredo had his friend Ilaria waiting for him so we separated. I and Claudio went along via Cavour to via dei Fori Imperiali and here started hour long long walking through Rome: the imperial forums, the roman forum, Campidoglio, the Colosseum, via del Corso, palazzo Chigi, Fontana di Trevi, palazzo Madama,the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Montecitorio, Castel Sant'Angelo and Piazza San Pietro: all this until 9.00 p.m.!

-9.15 p.m: we ran back to Piazza Navona and waited for Manfredo and his friend Ilaria to go to eat in a nice place called "La Danesina" not so far from the square.

The 9th of Semptember
-00.00 a.m.: After dinner we went back to Piazza Navona and spent a little bit of time watching a marionetta's performance. Then Manfredo and Ilaria went with us to the Campidoglio where we separated again. I and Claudio stayed there to see the Battiato gig. The crowd was terrible, noisy and extremely unpolite. The concert wasn't one of his best, he sang only old and famous songs and crowd didn't stop crying for all the time.

-1.30 a.m.:after the gig we decided to have a tour of the town again: we went to Trastevere, then to Circo Massimo, then we tried to visit the Sinagogue, but it was going to close (it was around 4.00). So we had another walk in the centre, seeing Piazza di Spagna and finally on the Pincio to see the Dervish tourneurs... It was a pity that we misunderstood as at Pincio there was a gig and not them!
-5.00 a.m.: Exactly like homeless we laid down on the blanket of Claudio with heads on our backpacks, covered with my blankets and slept a couple of hours!
-7.00 a. m.: Ready to go, with feet like sausages and empty heads we went down the steps of Piazza di Spagna, had a walk, then we went to visit Santa Maria in Cosmedin, and finally again the Sinagogue, we saw the beginning of an hebrew wedding too!
-12.00 p.m.: we went to Feltrinelli in Largo Argentina, i bought the guide book of Paris and we ate something there, then back to Termini and finally i sat on the train trying to sleep... Unfortunately doing the ticket at the machine i forgot to take the proper ticket and took only the reservation...

Ah well!!
I hailed to the end of this trip!
But what i promised to myself is that i want to go there again as soon as possible, trying to see everything with a bit more of time, and trying to find roman people more calm and well disposed to listen to other people!

just trying...

2007-09-20T19:28:00.001+02:00

It's the third post for today, i know!
Well, I have to be honest with myself: I suddenly remembered this afternoon that i
own a blog I hadn't been writing on since a long
time...
I've been staying here writing and deleting and writing again since 2
o'clock p.m. and I've just discovered I can post from my email box...
This is only a test to see if i'm able to do it!!!
By the way: with clockcounter I've just discovered a nice spanish girl
found by chance "my amazing world" and decided to put it in her links,
it's a so lovely thing!!! So, I had a look on her blog and linked it
too!:)

Two posts a day keeps the doctor away...

2007-09-20T18:19:00.000+02:00

I'm really so confused in these days!

the irrefutable proof of this is that i wrote two posts today!
Usually uploading this space three times a year, and now...
Sbepps called me less than two hours ago to propose me an excavation in Trentino... It would be great!! Unfortunately the professor i've been collaborating with in these months proposed me to renew the contract for part-time collaboration and of course, not knowing about this possibility i said "Yes"...
I hope there will be another chance too...
Now, i keep on staying here pretending to do things like studying... I Haven't even been reading any page today until now!
Anyway, I demanded for news about Nantes before, and without any hesitation they came: my special friend received a letter saying that he shouldn't be demanding asking so often about news or the professor could become annoyed of him...
I really don't know what to do!

Another strange period...

2007-09-20T14:50:00.000+02:00

Everything's always the same here... Still waiting for the biggest casuality of my life but nothing i was expecting for happens!!
My dog's turning into a lizard, loosing again his hair and doing anything but sleeping under the sun.
In the meanwhile i booked a flight for Stockholm.
Ryanair set a Pisa-Stockholm direct flight which starts travelling since the half of october and I booked a seat for the 25th of the month, spending there only 5 days though.
I can't wait to meet Johan again, he found for me and Claudio, who'll come with me, a little very cheap flat in the centre of the town.
In the meanwhile I booked a flight for Paris too. With Ryanair too!! I think they should pay me for fidelity!
Kika is going to spend there three months.
The reason of this decision is mostly because the Malta affaire went wrong.
This needs an explaination, i know.
Well... It's pretty easy to say: i was afraid! I was afraid to spend all alone a week with a nice guy who I had never met before. Most of all i was afraid to enjoy the week, already knowing to have only remote difficult possibilities to be together after that time. So I gave up.
Then my special friend told me about his chance to go to Nantes for a PHD and suddenly i decided to go to Paris to visit Kika... I've never been to Paris before!!!:D
The problem is: he hasn't, or doesn't give me, any news about this PHD and now I'm really really afraid that there won't be any Nantes... So I risk the suddenly coming back of the problem of July which could leave me breathless...
What to do?!

-Me and Fiaba in Fosdinovo for the medieval performance

EDIT few seconds after publishing it: i'm so dumb in these days i didn't even notice I wrote a short post in August already talking about Stockholm and Paris... So, again, you can notice that nothing new happened in my life... And I'm still absent-minded as usual! Well, at least in this one there's a little explaination!

Again after months!

2007-08-21T20:51:00.000+02:00

Any excavation this summer...
I've been studying for my last two exams...
Katha went back to Germany and Simon went back to Denmark... Johan came to visit us in July and I've booked a flight for Stockholm from 25th to 30th of October.
I didnt go to Malta, but I'll go to France in December!
Please friends cross fingers for me!!!

Pictures will follow!

S.

Home&Work!

2007-06-09T15:02:00.000+02:00

I swear i'm still alive!!!

How many times i wrote these words on this blog?! I can' count them!

What I've been doing since January?
I sat for a couple of exams, I went to Valencia to visit Claudio, i excavated for one month and an half in Montescudaio, i started my part-time collaboration with University.
Johan left at the beginning of February. Now i'm doing a tandem with a danish guy called Simon, but any curiosity for danish language... Only english with him this time.
Ilaria introduced me her german friend Katharina and we've been spending a lot of time together in these last months... She's the best cake backer i've ever met!!!
Finally i miss only four exams... It is useless to say that I dont feel like studying at all... The next one will be the 20th of june... I've only read the books once!!!
I should swot a lot as usual this week! But it is almost the last time!!
I talked with my boss about a possible subject for my thesis and she suggested me something about feminine medieval monasteries in Tuscany... Nothing is defined yet though!
I think my interrail wont happen...
Ilaria told me she doesnt manage to graduate in july... Most of all she stopped to talk about it like she does every time she doesnt want to remind a subject to someone... And with a bit of disappontment i stopped to talk about it too...
I would like to go to Malta, possibly in august... Actually no particular interest in the isle. But i met a nice nice person in a strange way and Malta would be a perfect place to share a little bit of time and situations with him.
I think i'll go to Valencia again in July, to share this experience with my brother as Claudio will be enough nice to host him too.
Then surely a period in Sweden to visit Johan... I really miss him and his naiv way of behaving and i'm very curious to see Stockholm in person... But i still dont know when: I would like to sit for my last exam in september, so maybe if Johan agree, i could go there at the end of semptember and then the hard final work will start!!!

Some pics:

-my "studentmössa". Johan sent me the pics... I'll get it as soon as we meet.

-Me and Irene after seeing our trenches flooded after three days and three nights of rain... (we emptied them handling with baskets...:-/)

-me, Johan, Per his brother, and Federico (the passer with handy on the right...)

-Katha, me and Ilaria @Katha's

-Ilaria and Sara's self made pic out of the "Science's city" in Valencia

-Claudio & paella (Vegan?! who is vegan?!)

-Meeting Simone Cristicchi with Lisa in Volterra

-Malta

What I've been doing since september...

2007-01-13T13:19:00.000+01:00

Finally here I am writing again on this space!!

After Montescudaio I worked hard to arrange all the documentation about the excavation with my collegue Michele: for the first time I did a "Matrix" by myself (a sort of pattern of the stratigraphy we excavated), for the first time I wrote an essay about "my area", for the first time I corrected a stratigraphic layer cards and for the first time I did all those nasty things real archaeoligists do after they've played with picks and showels in the country!
Unfortunately after all these efforts I still have to be paid!!! (Someone says it could happen at the end of this month!! Cross fingers for me!!!).

Then I took part to a survey in Fosdinovo and to the second campaign of excavation in the garden of the national museum of San Matteo, here in Pisa.
And we have plans for many other things: new survey near the place where I live in March, two months of excavation in Montescudaio in spring, a month in La Brina and a months in S. Matteo in summer.

Besides my job I took the two parts of the modern history exam, for the first one I got a 30. I'm still waiting to know the mark of the second one and now I'm studying "history and culture of the Islamic countries" which I'll sit the 6th of february. If everything will be like I would like it to be I'll sit for my last exam in September and in spring-summer 2008 I'll be finally a "senior graduate" which means I could start to think seriously about a job outside Italy!

Since October I've been doing a tandem with a swedish guy called Johan who's been spending some months in Pisa to study our language. He's a nice nice nice guy, teaching me Swedish and helping me a lot with English. Unfortunately he's going to leave Italy at the end of February and I'm already sad for this! (even if for Xmas he gave me a book of funny stories about Norwegian people!:-/)
Anyway I'm planning an Inter rail for August with my friends Ilaria and Claudio: Munich and Berlin (To visit Michi, the former tandem of Ilaria, and Mark, the guy she's been doing a tandem now and who in august will be back home), Copenaghen, Malmö, Göteborg, Stockholm, Uppsala (To visit Johan who usually lives there) and then Oslo and Bergen in Norway! Hoping to have enough money to do all this!!

Ilaria broke off with her historical boyfriend after nine years of relationship. Now we see each other together with Claudio very often and I'm a lot happy with them, we are the three "morituri"... One day I'll tell you all the story about this!

I went to Lisbon with Claudio the first week of December. A wonderful holyday except the fact that someone stole my wonderful bag, the big brown leather one that my friends gave to me for my graduation, together with my camera, my mobile, my agenda, my mp3 reader, my visa, my identity card, my university card and all my money!!! Grrrrr.... That's why I haven't taken any pics...

Anyway here some other images from all these months of silence:

-My collegues playing a medieval game during the medieval party in Vicopisano in September (me taking the pic).

-From right to left: me, Claudio and Ilaria the day Claudio took his degree (please notice the wonderful big brown leather bag on the right and sing a requiem for it!).

-Me and Johan being stupid in Volterra. (probably me more than him!)

-Me and my lillebror at home.

I swear...

2007-01-03T11:16:00.000+01:00

...I'm still alive!

Simply many things to do and many things to think of...

New exam in few days, the 10th of january exactly. Then I think I'll have just a bit of time to write about all I did in these long months!

Merry 2007 to all of you!!!

2006-09-10T15:25:00.000+02:00

Montescudaio excavation finished saturday the 2nd...
This week I've been studying for the exegesis exam I'll have monday the 18th.
Then a week of new classes and again far from home for the Fosdinovo survey. I decided to go there, even if I have not a pay for it, just to spend two other weeks far from my family...
Maybe also to spend two other weeks with someone.
I met him last thursday and it has been one of the best "not-so-special" evening of my life.

This is a very strange period. I'm not sad, I'm not happy. I feel I'm growing old but at the same time I don't (Blaaaaack caaaab, black caa-a-a-ab...).
It's been a long time since I don't write a long post. I'd have the time to write it... But I prefer writing for myself in this moment of my life.

Cheers to all of you!!

Matt, how's it goin'?!?
Haven't been seeing you on the net since a long time...

Psychogirl will be back soon...

2006-08-27T11:58:00.000+02:00

...The last week of excavation is going to start tomorrow.
These last days have been a sort of nightmare, maybe because I'm so tired...
But I think I will be sad saturday saying good-bye to my collegues. I discovered there is a very special person between them, I ignore if he notice the same about me, anyway he seems to be busier with other thoughts...
Sadness and pessimism are already approaching to me!
Aaaaaaargh!!!

Mmmm...

2006-08-12T15:51:00.000+02:00

You Are 89% Indie

You're so indie, it's kind of amazing that you actually found your way to this quiz.
Generally, your tastes are genuinely indie... but sometimes you like something just because it's weird!

How Indie Are You?

Excavations are killing me...
My brain now is able just to do these stupid tests!!!

I hope I'll have a bit of time to write something here this week-end!

30 again...

2006-07-10T15:52:00.000+02:00

Woooooh oooooh!!!
The prof has been sooo sweet... I got the best mark again, even if I mistake Kostans the second and Konstantinos the fifth!!!

After the match yesterday evening I went to Pontedera by car... There were people everywhere with flags making a lot of noise!!! I'm not so much into the football stuff but I have to say I'm sooo happy for our victory!!!
Someone on the KoC forum wrote something about our team which imho was not so much on topic but made me think a lot all the same...
Are we really "Pizza mandolino and Mafia" or it is a matter of media?
To be honest what people can see of us is exactly this: Mafia! And this thought make me become sad about my country!!

Sooo to keep my spirit up I think I'll go to fight with my legs hair and then to pack for the excavation. Tomorrow evening I'll be in Santo Stefano and Wednesday let's start to work guys!!!

Thanks Matt for the visit!! Have a nice time in Australia&New Zeland!! I swear I'll post soon something about Oslo!!!

Exam in two days...

2006-07-08T12:58:00.000+02:00

Monday I'm going to take the last exam for this session...
Bizantine History!! I've never been so afraid for an exam before as I've been studying it for an entire month and I still have problems remebering dates and names: I know the facts but I absolutely can't remeber when they happened and with whom!
That's why I've been very quiet here for this period, busy for the exam...
Wednesday evening I met my friend Julia. She's German but she lived ten years in Italy and then moved to England and has been living near Brighton since 2003. Now she's here for the whole summer but, unfortunately, I'm going to work far from Pisa until the 2nd of September...

Of course I didn't write anything but the description of a couple of days in Oslo. I hope I'll have the time to finish my famous post during the excavation in july!! Be patient with me please!!!

And most of all keep finger crossed for my exam!!!

Sensational news from Norway again!!!

2006-06-20T23:01:00.000+02:00

Man battled moose with slipper - and won
A Norwegian who thought he'd be spending a quiet weekend at his cabin near Kongsvinger ended up battling an angry moose with the first weapon that came to mind - his slipper.

Ivar Smedstad was relaxing at his holiday cabin (called a hytte in Norwegian) when his uninvited visitor suddenly appeared on his property.

"The moose was furious," Smedstad told local newspaper Glåmdalen. "Its ears were pulled back, the moose was snorting loudly and seemed to rear back on its legs."

The object of the moose's anger was Smedstad's dog, a seemingly innocent Leonberger named Shiba. Smedstad had no idea why the moose, a fully grown male, targeted Shiba or what prompted the moose to bound onto his otherwise peaceful retreat near a small lake called Bruntjern at Lunderseter.

"I was scared to death," Smedstad said. So was Shiba, and Smedstad did his best to save his pet.

"I screamed and yelled, trying to scare off the moose, but it was only focused on the dog," Smedstad said. "The moose didn't pay any attention to me at all."

In desperation, Smedstad took off his worn felt slipper and threw it at the moose. It hit the huge animal, known in Norway as "The King of the Forest," right in the forehead.

That was apparently enough to startle the moose, who calmed down, turned around and wandered off.

Check it here on Aftenposten!!!

I love Norway more and more!!!

Egg kills hen...

2006-06-15T23:26:00.000+02:00

A hen from Molde managed to lay an egg roughly twice the normal size.
The Sponås family in Strande, Molde had a hen that managed to lay an egg weighing 122 grams (4.3 oz), compared to the norm of 50-60 grams, newspaper Romsdal Budstikke reports. It was the last thing the bird did.

"I couldn't believe my own eyes when she laid an egg that was more than twice the size of a normal hen's egg. It looked completely unreal, with a 122-gram egg," Solveig Sponås told the newspaper.

The hen, a Loman Brown, came from Erlend Aarskog's poultry farm, and he has never heard of an egg like it.

"It is at least extremely rare. With eggs like this you would only get eight eggs to the kilo, and normally you get 16," Aarskog said.

Sponås wondered if diet, as well as talent, was behind the record production, saying her hens are fed much fruit and vegetables in addition to their feed.

The story ended sadly. As the newspaper put it, it is no joke laying an egg twice normal size, and the hen suffered injuries so serious that it had to be put down.

From
today Aftenposten on line edition

Poor hen!!! At least Aftenposten gave her a day of glory!!

It's time to change...

2006-06-10T11:10:00.000+02:00

... And I've started with a new haircut!!!

...Keeping up writing that long long post about my trip, thiking if I could manage to go to Urbino and see Mr. Øye and his Whitest Boy Alive again!!

30 plus Shit!!!

2006-06-05T19:15:00.000+02:00

I got a 30 this mornig for my medieval latin exam!!
But after the exam I lost my smile discovering that someone stole from the library the book I need to study for the next exam... Stupid asshole!!
So now I can’t take it on the 16th of may as I have to search for someone who could lend me the book... Maybe I should order it (waiting until it comes!!)...

Well... At least today afternoon I managed to practice with my bow... And now I'm here, ready to write that famous post about Oslo!!!

Tomorrow...

2006-06-04T11:50:00.000+02:00

Medieval latin exam!!

I need to say I haven't been studying sooo much in this period and today for the exam... But I think all will go in the right way!! Or at least I hope so!!
Anyway finally tomorrow afternoon I'm sure I'll have the time to post something about Oslo!!!

I've just noticed...

2006-06-04T11:43:00.000+02:00

...that Marcin during the gig in Modena wore the same t-shirt Erlend's wearing in this video!!! (taken from WBA myspace profile)

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

I couldn't wait...

2006-05-29T19:19:00.000+02:00

...To write here that I've just received "Dreams" by Whitest Boy Alive!!!

I think I'm going to sacrifice an hour of swoting this evening to listen to it carefully!!!
The tee is not that good, I think I need to cut it as it is quite long for my taste!!

...Ok! I admit it: I'm already listening to it!!! "Borders" seems to be a very good song!!
Oh my!! I'm so excited!! Finally new stuff!!!

By the way: tomorrow I have the final text of my English class, keep finger crossed for me please!!!

Unfortunately...

2006-05-28T12:14:00.000+02:00

...I came back from Oslo last sunday...:-[
I took a sort of trip diary but now I'm sooo busy and I'm working slowly to post it later. Anyway some pictures will follow soon!
I'm having an exam in few days and I'm swoting on it in this very moment. Then I'll take two other exams in june and july.
On tuesday we had a meeting to organize the summer excavations: I'm going to work again for the whole season, until the 2nd of september... But this years it seems I'll get an entire pay (at least for the Montescudaio excavation)!!! Woooh oooh!!
Yesterday evening I spent just a bit of free time having an Erasmus party to celebrate the birthday of Michael, the german guy who helps my friend Ilaria with her German!! Nice crowd and a german guy called Fabian who danced YMCA in a very "Mr. Øye" dancing way!!!
As soon as I can I'll post my review about the week in Oslo, pics and other photos taken @the party yesterday evening!!

Enjoy this beautiful sun if you can!!! I'm not allowed to do it today!

Edit--> the 5th of May 2006, 7.59 p.m.: Here the pictures of the Party I promised!! Ilaria Kjøkken, my official photographer took them...

From left to right: Eleonora, a nice history student I met at the party, me and the Kjøkken.

Michi, the guest of honour, risking his life being threw up and down by his friends!

And last but not least: Fabian, the german guy with Øye-dancing-style, completely drunk while he complained because of Ilaria taking the pic!

As I promised...

2006-05-13T19:18:00.000+02:00

...A short report about my weekend in Bologna.

The day after the gig we spent the morning and the most part of our afternoon sleeping. After a breakfast at 5pm with pasta and cheese I and Federica, my hostess, went to the theatre to see "Delirio" a piece inspired to Ionesco which was quite good. After it we went to eat something (San Daniele ham and mushrooms yum yum!!!)and finished our night in Piazza Santo Stefano talking with a guy from Morocco who tried to give us some marjuana.
There were so many people out I asked Federica if it was a special evening... But she answered it was an evening as many others in Bologna: why Pisa is so fucking dead?

Saturday was the shopping day: I bought over 50€ of books (including a book-dvd by Daniele Luttazzi as a present for Federica and the Snorri Sturluson's Edda)and clothes at H&M (trade not so much fair though!:-/). I visited the Sala Borsa (the biggest library in Bologna) and then we went to the cinema to see the last film of Nanni Moretti, "il Caimano"... Great stuff!! Moretti came back to his golden age with this one!
On the evening we went to see The Liars in a place called "link" at the outskirts of Bologna. They asked me for money to buy another card different from the one I had to buy to be admitted to WBA gig. I had never heard about that band and I do admit that I appreciated more the band who started the concert: I didn't know their name but they sounded like Port Royal which I really like. Liars were not that bad but they are not really my cup of tea...

Trip to Oslo is drawing on... I'm going to pack my clothes!! Wooh ooh!!!

The Whitest Boy Alive in Modena 27th of April 2006

2006-04-30T22:56:00.000+02:00

Woooh ooooh!!!

Finally I'm back from my long Emilian week-end. I start with a post about the gig and another one about Bologna will follow soon.

Sooo... It was a really enjoyable gig!!
I went there with my friend Federica and her friends Enrico and Emanuele... Both of them had never heard speaking about Erlend Øye and were quite sceptical about, as they are a sort of visigoths, but after the concert they couldn't stop thanking us for this unexpected discovery and appreciated in particular the nice interaction of Erl&co with the crowd.
The gig had to start at 22.00 so we arrived in Modena around 21.30 but the guys of the spot told us they were going to open just few minutes before the concert... Actually we noticed there was not so much crowd waiting out there.
Anyway at 22.45, about 45 minutes after our entrance, I counted the heads of the people inside who were only 38!!
*and I counted also the two guys of the bar and I'm not sure but I think I counted twice a couple of heads!!*
I think around midnight, when they started to play, there was no more than 45 people!!
Maybe that's why this gig was so nice!!
They played about 10 songs, all the ones we already know and new ones of which they told the titles... But I can't remember none of them!!! They did a couple of covers as encore including "Music sounds better with you" by Stardust in a "nice electric guitar version"...
Marcin took some picture of the crowd, as we all could enter in the small screen of his camera!!! And then asked us if we wanted to listen to a "Pizza song" or a "french fries song" explaining that the first one is a slow song as a Pizza which is round and large, the second one is a full-of-rhythm song as french fries which are straight and thin.:-D
Erlend got down off the stage to play in the middle of the crowd and dance with us...
While he disappeared after the gig, Marcin Sebastian and Daniel went out in the garden of the spot to smoke a cigarette, drinking a beer and talking with fans!!

Here some pictures...

I took many pics but these ones, taken with Erlend down off the stage, are the only four quite good (plus one of Marcin leaving the stage...)
I took also some video but their quality is sooo low I'm quite ashamed of them!! It's a fault of my old HP 4.1 pixel camera!! Sorry!! The video is really dark and the audio recorded just the low tones so Erlend voice almost disappeared in that great noise!!!

Again...

2006-04-17T18:58:00.000+02:00

I repeat: hey guys, your comments are really welcome!!!...And, most of all, also your corrections on my English are welcome!!!:-)

Thanks to all the italian people living abroad

2006-04-11T16:02:00.000+02:00

they are the only reason for I could try to wait some other years to leave this county!!!

Sadness...

2006-04-11T11:21:00.000+02:00

It seems we Italians are not enough "coglioni"!!!
I can't believe he's going to win again in senate...
What can left parties predominate with majority just in deputies chamber?
I can't stand to live anymore in a place where the chief of the second bigger party owns three tv channels and keep on with laws to save himself from jail!!
I'm disgusted by Italy...

Italians...

2006-04-09T15:17:00.000+02:00

...Please: vote!!!
...And vote for the right candidate!!!
(in this case right doesn't mean the opposite of left!!!;-)

Me, Claudio, Lisa, Davide and Martina in front of the fake castle of Querceto.

2006-04-08T15:20:00.000+02:00

two dressed playmates in Querceto!

2006-04-08T15:17:00.000+02:00

Strange snakes the ones in Querceto... isn't it?

2006-04-08T15:10:00.000+02:00

What are u doing guys? uh?

2006-04-08T15:06:00.000+02:00

three crazy persons in fron of "my" former tower.

2006-04-08T15:02:00.000+02:00

Martina and Lisa in front of "my" church in Libbiano.

2006-04-08T15:00:00.000+02:00

self-timer pic from the roof of the car... (that's why we all are leaning!)

2006-04-08T14:54:00.000+02:00

On the street to Libbiano...

2006-04-08T14:50:00.000+02:00

Claudio in Pomarance doing his best "troio" expression!!

2006-04-08T14:46:00.000+02:00

Ladies and Gentlemen

2006-04-08T12:55:00.000+02:00

Tadaaaaaaaa!!! ...My new bow!!!

You can see:

-on the centre, the red riser "Winstar" by "Win&Win"

- over it two "Kap" limbs "Evolution II"

- in the small white bag on the right the shock-absorber button

- in the dark, on the left, my second-hand sight with a new dioptre

-on the top of the pic the arrows and the stabilizer

soon a picture of all these pieces assembled will come!!!

Some pics from our short trip in "Val di Cecina" countryside will follow after this post!

Back home...

2006-04-01T15:25:00.000+02:00

good week!!!
...But Monica muttered against us because of our poor knowledge of pottery datations...
Michele gave me the pictures taken this summer during the excavation...

And by the way: here some pics from Nicola's party...

-Me and Claudio:

-Me, Claudio, Lisa, Martina and the new graduate Nicola:

-Me and Lisa kissing Claudio (unfortunately this pic is not so good...):

And then... From the last week in Montescudaio:

-"The Italian National flag" starring Lisa, Irene and Martina!!!

- a plantation of human bones:

Montescudaio again...

2006-03-25T16:02:00.000+01:00

I'll spend next week washing 600-years-old dishes in Montescudaio...
...At least this time we are not going to sleep in a gym!!!!
Yesterday evening I talked with my trainer, Corrado, about my bow! On monday he will order it: Wow!!! I can't wait to have it and use it!!! Maybe next time I'll do my trainig session it will be already here!!!:-D
This evening I'm going to take part to Nicola's graduation party in Suvereto... A river of wine has been preparated for us!!! I think I'll sleep there!!!;-)
Woah.... See u next week!!!

Redhead...

2006-03-18T15:21:00.000+01:00

A moment of the last gig in Singapore taken from this site...
I do love his amazing red hair!! He wore the same t-shirt he had on in Genoa!!!
Can't wait to see him on the 27th of april in Modena with "The Whitest Boy Alive"...
I've already asked to my friend Federica, who lives in Bologna, a couch for sleeping that night... Modena-Bologna takes only twenty minutes by train!!!
After reading what someone wrote on the guestbook of Puce's KoC website:
"guess what? YOU GUYS ARE THE BIGGEST JERK OF EM' ALL!!! why? fine, i'll tell ya. Last night after the show, a friend's of mine asked you to signed my KoC CD since she is an employee of the concert. to my surprised, she said that ONE OF YOU TOLD TO HER "I ALREADY SIGNED 100 AUTOGRAPHS" what the heck???? is this how u treat your fan? all she asked for bloody sign that take less than 10 seconds to complete!!!!! YOU GUYS ARE NOT MY NO.1 FAV. BAND ANYMORE AND I DONT WANT TO BUY ANY NEW ALBUMS FROM YUO GUYS ANYMORE. GOODBYE"
I started think about our experience in Genoa...
Actually at that time I was not so happy with it... But you know: meeting your music hero is always disappointing after months of "romantic wild groupie" dreams. Now I've the lucid mind to say that, at least after only two annoying request from us, Erlend signed with a huge smile our silly autographs!
After the gig I forgot my disappoinment in few hours listening to KoC albums again.
I like their music, I think Erlend's hair is amazing, I usually get annoyed after signing once a day the admission register to the library at Uni and I usually avoid to chat about silly subjects with people I don't know just to say something 'cos I hate it so: I really have no right to complain about a stupid autograph not signed at the speed of light!
And after reading the comment above: i think these claims are pretty stupid!!!

Syttende Mai

2006-02-27T00:23:00.000+01:00

Oh là là!!! A post once a month is a good average, isn’t it?
I’m tooooooo lazy!!!!

I woke up this morning just in time to see Giorgio Di Centa winning the cross-country skiing 50 km competition!!! A great gold medal to finish our olympic games!!
I’m pretty happy I managed to see the final ceremony of these Games… I couldn’t see the opening one as it took place at the same time of the fist act of what has made this February the worse month of the year for me… (Actually I’m worried about the rest of the year as it is only the second month of 2006 e “Al peggio non c’è mai fine”!!!)
To cut a long story short: I woke up on the 9th of February and I saw double. At the beginning I thought I was really tired for a bad night and few hours of sleep… But the diplopia was still there on Friday evening and when, watching the opening ceremony of the Olympic game, I saw clearly ten olympic circles instead of five I asked my father to drive me to the hospital in Pontedera.
The doctors decided to admit me for some tests and took me there for the entire week, until the 18th of February. The reason of diplopia was a paresis of the third cranial nerve which makes the right eye move; it lasted until few days ago, and passed off as it came, in a sudden way! After tons of tests we still don’t know what was the reason of this annoying problem. The only thing doctors found with a magnetic resonance was a tiny imperfection on my brain. I've been told by them that diplopia and tiny dark points on brain are symptoms of scary disease like sclerosis...:'-( They have no elements to say that’s the cause but they also have any elements to say that’s not! I have to wait some months and do again all the tests. If this tiny imperfection changes, gets bigger or inflames “So’ cazzi”!!! (Sorry: I won’t translate this expression as it is quite rude!!)
So guys keep finger crossed for me!!!

This annoying experience made me delay to attend the new classes of the second semester. Fortunately I’ve changed the plans I did at the beginning of the academic year and two of the three courses, which were supposed to start on the 13th of this month were postponed to the 20th.
So I’ve just started the classes of “History of medieval architecture” and “ Medieval History III” (This one as a substitute of the “history of the medieval church” class which is abolished for this year because there’s no professor; the old one won a challenge for the chair in Milan and left the one of Pisa few months ago). I missed the first three lessons of “Byzantine History”.
The other two class I’m going to attend, “medieval latin” and “exegesis of medieval sources” will start in March.

I keep on with the English course; the third, and last, part of it will start on the 2nd of March.
Andreas, my german “friend” with good knowledge of English completely disappeared. Last time I saw him was the 11th of January. He always says he’s tooo busy @work… But I really can’t believe he can’t find an hour for practicing his bad Italian! He doesn’t even move to Pisa! I’m always the one who has to drive there to meet him!!! Yeah! I’m angry!!!

Finally tomorrow evening I’m starting my course of archery!
I was very curious about archery, then some months ago I discovered there’s an association which organizes courses very close to where I live. So I wrote to ask for a free lesson and I did two of them between the last week of January and the first of February. I would have started the course the Monday of the week I spent at the hospital... So now I really can’t wait til tomorrow!! My bow is really impatient!!

Last, but not least, entry of this post: Maybe that’s all because of the strange sensation I’ve been feeling since my admission but I realized I cant’t keep on wasting my time saying I’m sad, I have no money and no future and no love and so on…
So the same day I came back home I did a plan for my uni exams and with it I think I can manage to take all them between June and September. Then I surfed an entire afternoon on the net managing to find a very cheap (60€ single ticket!) flight to Oslo!!!
I’ve already booked my hotel too! I’ll be there from 16th until the 21st of May, which means I’ll spend together my first time in Norway and my first “Norwegian Constitution Day”!!
Me i Norge on Syttende Mai!!! I still can’t believe it!!!

(Real) last entry for Matt: I couldn’t stop laugh when I heard that the new James Bond can’t drive the Aston Martin!!! I can drive with a manual shift which means that also a boiled fish can do it!!!
And, after seeing this pic, I’m even more convinced he’s not the right person for the role!!
Is he made with plastic? Or has he been inflated by someone?

Cheers!
Sarina

Degli uomini spenti.

2006-01-23T13:48:00.000+01:00

...First post of the new year!!

On the 16th I took my Manifacture Archaeology exam and got the best mark!!
But it is a sad period for me... I can't find a reason to fight! I don't know why I'm keeping on with Uni! I don't know what to do with my future!
Maybe I'm one of the "uomini spenti"!!!
This is the title of a film I don't know anything about... Matt used the poster of it for the cover of his "Captain Øps" cd which made my day when it arrived with the Inflation song by "The Whitest boy alive"!!!

Anyway I've just discovered this guy:

his name's Giovanni Allevi, he's a great Italian pianist
and my next goal is to save money for buying all his works!!
He's definitely worth of listening!!

^_^

2005-12-29T11:37:00.000+01:00

Hi friends!! I just want to remind you that your comments are welcome!!!:-)

O_O

2005-12-29T11:33:00.001+01:00

Finally snow!!
After 14 years from the last time!!
It is not so much but it is enough to throw snowballs with my brothers!!!
What a great day after weeks of terrible boredom!

2005-12-29T11:33:00.000+01:00

Snow again!

2005-12-29T11:29:00.000+01:00

The agave under the snow!

2005-12-29T11:28:00.000+01:00

This morning from my window...

2005-12-29T11:26:00.000+01:00

Yesterday evening!

Moderator!!!

2005-12-27T20:51:00.000+01:00

Woooh ooooh!!
Ric has just promoted me as "moderator" of the Italian Kings of Convenience forum!!
I think now I should suggest you to visit us!!
So Italian fans of KoC come and bring your contributions to our topics!!!

Poor Rudolf!!

2005-12-24T14:25:00.000+01:00

Merry Christmas to all of you!!

2005-12-05T22:53:00.000+01:00

Me in a "south park" version!

Money... For dope?

2005-11-21T18:53:00.000+01:00

Finally my pay for Montescudaio excavation has arrived!
What can I do with these 400€?
- A trip around the world?
- Opening a drink stall on Copacabana beach?
- Making up the Italian finances?
Naaah! A new pair of Birkenstock is enough! The rest will incraese my "Norway fund"!

I keep on with my English class... Mr. Phillips is a very good teacher but I'd like to study more grammar instead of doing conversation everyday!
He's the only native speaker between us who are all Italian mother tongue speaker... He corrects every grammar or pronunciation mistake we do but we always use few words for communication! I don't think these kinds of lessons could be enough to learn English!
Fortunately I have my "parallel conversations" with Andreas even if we haven't been meeting since past wednesday because he's under stress @work!

Wednesday evening I'm going to see "Waiting for Godot" (in Italian:-/) @ Jerzy Grotowski theatre in Pontedera and Thursday will be time for Sigur Ros gig!!! I can't wait!!!

Tons of different things are in my head now... Maybe this is the reason why I can't study anything! I have been preparing a stupid exam since September, an exam which I could prepare in few days before my degree... But it seems that now my brain is irremediably fried!!
Oh my!

P.S. About the title of this post: I've not gone crazy... That's only a little refer to my beloved Daniele Luttazzi!!!

Life...

2005-11-07T00:31:00.000+01:00

... Is always the same here in Fornacette!
Every day I go to Pisa to attend my classes...
Tuesday and thursday I have the english course (But past thursday I missed it because my friend Matteo graduated in the afternoon @the same time I had my class: WOOOH OOOH!!! A new unemployed archaeologist!!! Congratulations Maaaatttttyyyy:-D LoL!!!), some meeting with friends, my turn @La Tienda (the fair trade shop in Pontedera)...
The newest (Oh Matt please tell me: does this superlative exist or I've just invented a neologism? Is it "most new"?:-) thing in my life is Andreas...
We meet twice a week for practice our english and italian... Well, he usually starts his speach with few italian words and then finishes always in english! That's good for me, not so much for him!
It's really difficult for me to speak english. I always miss the right word or when I have it I make mistakes with verbal tenses and other grammar stuff...:-(
We met today in the afternoon for the third time... We have to speak about everything we want, but, considering my usual shy behaviour with people I'm not in familiar terms with, he has to do a hard work trying to keep the conversation, finding new subjects to talk about and so on because I don't collaborate so much:-/...
Anyway I'm sure that keeping on with our meetings I'll be more communicative and his Italian will get better!
Besides our "linguistic affair", he seems to be a funny guy...
...And last but not least he's cute, blond, with blue eyes...;-) LoL

Friends if you read:
-Ilaria-> look @ the "just three words" thread on the Koc forum, someoene is missing you!!!
-Matt-> why haven't you told me that "yard" is a very old fashioned word? I used it lots of time writing to you!!!

Fair Breakfast

2005-10-22T18:05:00.000+02:00

After our "Fair Breakfast" of this morning:
- about 150€ earned (that means the takings of two days in 4 hours!!)
-18 new membership cards done (but 16 of them are renewals of old members!)
-1 question: what's wrong with us? Why can't we attract new costumers?
In spite of conferences, meetings, fair breakfasts, fair dinners, distributions of leaflets there's never a new face between us!!
Nobody is interested in fair trade...:'-(

Again @ home!

2005-10-19T22:29:00.000+02:00

Finally I have some free time to write something here!!
The survey in Guardistallo came to the end. This year we made all the time line walking that means walking through fields at regular distances from each other and staring at the ground trying to find pieces of pottery or coins or fragments of building materials.
We usually choose fields for line walking because ploughing brings up lots of above mentioned archaeological stuff. On the base of quantity and size of this archaeological stuff we understand if there is a buried settlement or a single buried building or...
Anyway the whole week I was there it always rained!!!
The second day of our survey me and my friend Lisa got bogged down in an area that was so wet to seem quicksand. To get out from there we had to take off our shoes and then recover them with sticks: Oh My! Ten minutes of panic!!
In spite of this kind of "pleasant entr'acte" we found a couple of interesting sites: an early imperial roman farm an an etruscan settlement!!
Any trace of my beloved Middle Ages:'-(.
I'm keeping on with hebrew, manifacture archaeology and excavation technique classes but I've left the one of industrial archaeology: it was soooo boring and I found it really useless for me!!!
-Well, ancient hebrew is useless too for me but it is a wonderful subject!!-
On tuestay I started my english class. I was a bit worried about the level
-I've just descovered that it's named "upper-intermediate" and not "high-intermediate" O_o-
but @ the course there are people who speak a worse english than mine!!LoL!!!:-P
My teacher is a man who comes from London and has been living in Italy for 20 years... Tomorrow I'll have the second lesson.
Maybe I've found also a guy english native speaker to practice my spoken language but I'll talk later about him here.
Last thing to say now:
For Tuscan friends: remember that in the morning of 22th and 23th of october all the fair trade shops of Tuscany organize the "Fair breakfast".
La Tienda will be in Pontedera, piazza della pretura from 9 o'clock!!
We're waiting for you!

2005-10-17T23:07:00.000+02:00

A funny quiz for girls and boys who think to know girls!!
Kinds of girls

I'm an hybrid of Indie and Progressive girl!!!:-)

Death cab for cutie!

2005-10-16T00:39:00.000+02:00

In these past weeks I used to listen to this song every day!

Title and Registration

The glove compartment isn't accurately named
And everybody knows it.
So i'm proposing a swift orderly change.
Cause behind its door there's nothing to keep my fingers warm
And all i find are souvenirs from better times
Before the gleam of your taillights fading east
To find yourself a better life.I was searching for some legal document
As the rain beat down on the hood
When i stumbled upon pictures i tried to forget
And that's how this idea was drilled into my head
Cause it's too important
To stay the way it's been
There's no blame for how our love did slowly fade
And now that it's gone it's like it wasn't there at all
And here i rest where disappointment and regret collide
Lying awake at nightThere's no blame for how our love did slowly fade
And now that it's gone it's like it wasn't there at all
And here i rest where disappointment and regret collide
Lying awake at night (up all night)
When i'm lying awake at night.

Classes again!!

2005-09-29T00:12:00.000+02:00

Monday morning I was in Pisa walking through Dante square and thinking about the thousand things I had to do that day when I met Ric. He said to me:
- Oh Oh Dottoressa! Do you start to attend courses for your specialization degree today?
And me:
-Do I start to attend WHAT?
This is the way I discovered that new classes were beginning!!
After a short thinking (from 9.35 to 10.10 on Monday morning: LOL!!) I chose to attend for the first part of academic year:
- Ancient Hebrew language and literature
-Excavation technique
-Manufacture archaeology
-Industrial archaeology
And for the second part:
- Medieval Latin II
- Exegesis of medieval historical sources II
- Byzantine history
- Medieval Archaeology II.
Hebrew is awesome!! I’ve started to attend the class on Monday afternoon and I’ve spent the rest of the week trying to learn the alphabet and today (Thursday!) I can correctly read a text (only if it has vocalization marks!!): I’m sooo proud of myself!:-D
But I’ll have to miss the next three lessons because of the shitty survey in Guardistallo: again a week in the middle of fields staring at walls of farmhouses dated, if you are lucky, second half of XIXth century, writing on a formulary if other buildings cover them, if there is plaster on them and so on…<_<
And I can’t refuse to go because it could be a very stupid “diplomatic move” with my boss!!
Today I had a meeting with her and the crew to talk about Montescudaio excavation: she still has to deliver our bill to the sponsor, that means that probably we’ll be paid MAYBE at the end of October.
I have no more words!!!
I haven’t gone yet and I already can’t wait to be back home!!
Partly because next week probably my new adsl connection will be activated… I’m waiting it to work a bit on this blog adding links and other things!!
שרה (That means obviously Sara!!)

What does the water feel like to the fishes?

2005-09-29T00:10:00.000+02:00

Like the fur of a chinchilla. Like the cleanest tooth. Yes, the fishes say, this is what it feels like. People always ask the fishes, “What does the water feel like to you?” and the fishes are always happy to oblige. Like feathers are to other feathers, they say. Like powder touching ash. When the fishes tell us these things, we begin to understand. We begin to think we know what the water feels like to the fishes. Bet it’s not always like fur and ash and the cleanest tooth. At night, they say, the water can be different. At night, when it’s very cold, it can be like the tongue of a cat. At night, when it’s very very cold, the water is like cracked glass. Or honey. Or forgiveness, they say, ha ha. When the fishes answer these questions – which they are happy to do – they ask Why? Why do you want to know what the water feels like to the fishes? And we are never quite sure. The fish press further. Do you breathe air? They ask. The answer, we say, is yes. Well then, they say, What does the air feel like to you? And we do not know. We think of air and we think of wind but that’s another thing. Wind is air in action, air on the move, and the fishes know this. Well then, they ask again, what does the air feel like? And we have to think about this. Air feels like air, we say, and the fishes laugh mirthlessly. Think! they say. Think, they say, now gentler. And we think and we guess that it feels like hair, thousands of airs, swaying ever so slightly in breezes microscopic. The fishes laugh again. Do better, think harder, they say. It feels like language, and they are impressed. Keep going, they say. It feels like blood, we say, and they say No, no, that’s not it. The air is like being wanted, we say, and they nod approvingly. The air is like getting older, they say, and they smile their big fish smiles.

From Dave Eggers, Short short stories, 2004.

Floris chocolat!!

2005-09-25T18:03:00.000+02:00

Friday evening I saw Tim Burton’s “Charlie and the chocolate factory”… Funny movie!!!
Now I'm totally and irrimediabily sick with chocolate and because of it yesterday in Livorno I had to choose this Belgian chocolate flavoured beer… (we went in a pub with tons of importation beers)!!!

2005-09-25T18:02:00.000+02:00

Floris chocolat

2005-09-25T14:49:00.000+02:00

me and my friends in Livorno yesterday evening...

2005-09-24T16:32:00.000+02:00

Locandina

LE CONSEGUENZE DELL’AMORE

2005-09-24T15:51:00.000+02:00

I suggest you to see this Italian movie.
My friend Sabina showed it to me an evening of the past week and I still think about that story… A sad story!!
Anyway it has a really good and various soundtrack: from Lali Puna to Ornella Vanoni!!!LOL o_O

REBIRTH

2005-09-24T15:42:00.000+02:00

…Of my blog!!
I’m living one of my usual ”particular moment of my life” during which I usually start to keep a new diary!!!
Hoping this time it will be luckier than the past one!!! (I deleted all my written posts after few weeks…).
Ilaria gave me the idea to write it in English… Well, It’s better to say that I’m copying her idea because she usually writes her own blog (http://aslipofthemind.blogspot.com/) in English!!!
I think it’s a good way to improve my knowledge of this language… And finally I hope to have more readers using it… I used to complain because I didn’t have any comments about my post!!! (BTW I think that it was because of their light content and not for the language in which they were written…)
Sooo for all the readers: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave your comments and (if English is your mother tongue or you know it very well) correct my grammar and my expressions!!!

2005-09-19T17:36:00.000+02:00

hattori hanzooooo

2005-09-09T11:59:00.000+02:00

Ahahaha!!!

2005-09-08T22:50:00.000+02:00

L'unica foto di Genova dove compare anche Eirik

2005-08-28T20:59:00.000+02:00

2005-08-28T15:31:00.000+02:00

People@work

2005-08-21T14:50:00.000+02:00

sigurros

2005-08-15T16:50:00.000+02:00

the civil war

2005-07-16T15:52:00.000+02:00

vi begynner..

2005-07-08T21:34:00.000+02:00

E&E a Umbertide (thanks to Scheggia80: http://audiovideodisco.splinder.com/)