A year in Italy

Living in Italy has been a truly remarkable experience; the culture, the people, and the lansdcape. Italians are very close to their family. Out of town students go home almost every weekend even when they have to take 3+ hours train ride. During the week, they would also call home almost every day. There also aren't many big stores like hypermarkets and department stores here because Italians encourage entrepreneurship. So there are lots of little stores everywhere. A lot of buildings in the town area consists of shops on the ground floor and apartments above. In Naples, I've seen shops selling fresh fish on the ground floor and there are people living above! I wonder how the residents can stand the stench. The banks are also different here. One cannot just walk into a bank. At the door entrance, an employee will have to buzz the bullet proof glass door open for you to walk in. Some banks even have double doors where once you entered the first door and it is closed, then you can press the bell to get the second door opened. The type of transactions the bank perform is quite surprising too. My friend actually bought his ticket for a football match from the bank. I'm glad I managed to travel around a bit here and see the country. Each region is quite distinct from another. When I move to Germany next week, I'm really going to miss the gelato, the pizza, and the mountain view.

Cooking tortellini



Sometimes people add extra ingredients to instant noodles make it more like a proper meal. An egg, a few strips of vegetables, some meat, etc. Well, the same can be done with the ready made stuffed pastas that I mentioned earlier. I've added broccoli and strips of fried spam to the mushroom stuffed pasta. I'm just using what I have in my kitchen at the time. If it were to be a true Italian pasta, then sweet peas and speck would be used instead. I'm sure the Italians will scorn at me for using such ingredients. Maybe that's one of the reason how fusion food comes about; lack of ingredients. Haha.

Italian instant noodle

Stuffed pasta: Tortellini and Ravioli. These ready-made stuffed pastas available from the yogurt, cheese, etc section in the supermarket is the closest counterpart to asian instant noodles. In a way, they are quite similar to dumplings or wantons. The stuffing include mushroom, spinach, cheese and prosciutto (uncooked dried cured ham). They take about 2-3 minutes to cook in boiling salted water. After the pasta is cook, drain the water and just coat well with olive oil and top with grated cheese. It taste a lot better when coated with the mixture of melted butter, olive oil and cheese but that means having an extra pan to wash. Hehe. Buon Appetito!

Blank mind

I've finally finished my project for the last exam. When I showed my work to the prof, he was satisfied with it and said that's all. I'm going to get my grade for it tomorrow morning. So, all that's left now is my thesis. This is the toughest part. I don't know what I want to do. I realised that I have lost interest in this field. I'm no longer curious about how things work, how things can be made better, or what is missing. I don't even have motivation unless wanting to graduate soon is counted as one. Since it's pretty much impossible for me to propose anything, I'm just looking for something easy, interesting and can be finished by the end of the year. I hope I'll find one soon after I start putting some effort to look for it.

Skiing in the Dolomites

I've only skied 1-2 times before and after I got home from skiing last night, I realised that the last time I went skiing was in the winter of 99/00. And it's 2008 now! How did time go by so quickly? Anyway, the view up there is just magnificent. We took a cable car up to the 'base' where there are restaurant, playground, a small slope for true beginners, plenty of space for sunbathing (bring your own chair) and ski lifts to the ski tracks. I started with the small slope and I felt that I was going very fast and ended up quite far away from the automatic ramp and takes people back up the slope. Then it was a challenge for me to ski/trudge back there since the ground is pretty much flat.

When I finally got back up the slope, I met my friend who somehow managed to convince me to try the blue track (beginner). At first it seems doable and I was fine. As I was skiing down and at one point, a section of the path was not visible because the slope is steep. I got scared and fell. Took some time to get up and continue skiing down as there is no other option. This time, I felt that I was going too fast and wouldn't be able to stop and then hit the trees at the end. I got scared and fell again and slided the rest of the way down. Hahaha! Took the chair lift back up and I just stuck to skiing in the little baby slope, learning how to turn.

By the end of the day, I got better at moving in flat surfaces and uphill. I got a gist of turning but still wasn't able to do consecutive turning. AlsoI think got better at controlling my speed when skiing down. We had a great time and hopefully I get to go back again before I move to Germany. Both my upper arms are so sore this morning!





From Skiing in the Dolomites

Recently

Haven't been feeling too well lately. Although I can still go about with my daily life, I feel like I needed more energy to perform them. I think I'm going to fall sick soon since it's been almost a year since I was ill. Feeling half sick is worse than being sick itself coz I can't take medication or sleep for long. Not having internet at home also means that I have to come to school to check my emails and get my dose of entertainment. I tried to download some videos to watch at home but wasn't able to because someone else had already downloaded a huge file from those megaupload, rapidshare, etc sites. (same IP since everyone have to use proxy). Sigh! I finally went to the library to borrow a book to read instead. Anyway, I showed my project to the professor and he suggested a few enchancements which are quite simple to implement. I should be able to finish them tonight and showed it to him again tomorrow. Next, I have to start planning how to move back to Germany end of the month.



Naples & Pompeii

I quite enjoyed this vacation even though it's a little tiring. The best part is the view of the ocean. Been about 5 months since I last laid eyes on a sea and I really miss sitting by the sea. The weather was also excellent being in the 60s and super sunny. I've been told that the southern part of Italy is very different but I never expected it to be such a huge difference. Naples is a big and very densely populated city. The city streets are dirty, with litter everywhere and plenty of dog shit on the sidewalk. It's also the first time I've seen stray dogs and cats on the streets. Above the streets, laundry are hung out from many windows and balconies. Pretty much every inch of the walls are filled with graffiti, even on the ground! People cross the streets whenever they want and young adults zip through the tiny streets in their vespa scooters without wearing helmet. Cars are double/triple parked on the the side, even at bus stops. While we were there, we were told that they found an old WWII bomb while digging for the subway line and everyone in the area had to be evacuated. We spent the day wandering around other parts of the city and since it was a Sunday, almost everything is closed including pizzerias.

Naples along the coast

The Pompei exavation site is very interesting. I had expected to see just bits of ruins here and there but surprisingly, the entire layout of the city is intact. We spent about 3 hours covering three quarters of the city. The audio guide we rented gave very good commentaries on the buildings. Most of the time, blocks of walls (numbered) lined the streets. These are usually shops or houses. One of the most facinating spot is the brothel. The drawings of various sexual positions are still visible on the walls and some graffiti can be seen in the walls of the rooms.


Street of Pompeii