Buddy Profile #1: Francesco

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Originally uploaded by airicmac.

To give you a better idea of my life here I wanted to share with you a lot of my favorite things about some of my friends here. A friend of mine told me once that any city can be awesome if you have great friends to share it with. I was told this when I was living in Cincinnati one summer. And that statement is so valid. No disrepect to Cincy, but most people wouldn't think of it as the best place to live but having great friends there made me really have good memories of that city. Of course Rome is that nice touristy city in Italy, but without great friends it is just a city.

So today I wanted to talk about Francesco. He is the guy on the right in the picture. The picture also has my co-worker/roommate Yollanda (who is from Spain), and her boyfriend Borca. Francesco is my co-worker in the lab and for all ya'll Materials Engineers, he works on solid oxide fuel cells. We have two Francesco's in our lab so Yollanda and I call him Francesco Alto to designate that he is the taller one. The other Francesco likes to be referred to as Francesco Bello and not Francesco Basso. F. Alto grew up in Rome so he is my insider to Roman life. He speaks very good English and always tries to make me feel comfortable by talking english to me or interpreting things for me that are in Italian. He also happens to be one of the people I'm switching places with as part of my exchange program. He's moving to Gainesville in January. So Gators, look out for him. Ladies especially, watch out! Without a car, I'm really limited in transportation but thankfully Francesco always is willing to drive me around. It's really funny because Francesco dresses very American (including American colllege shirts, Polo, Quiksilver, and Banana Republic). He's one of those that you would guess American when playing the American/European game. Another fun fact is that he perks up when you even just mention the name Rachel McAdams.

Here is another funny story about F. Alto. Last night, He and I went to dinner witih Alberto, another colleague of ours. We were talking in english and all of a sudden this woman walked into the restaurant. I think since we were speaking English he thought that he could say something in Italian without anyone understanding what he was saying, as if we were in America. Even without knowing much Italian, I was able to interpret that he essentially said "Wow, she has a nice set of bombs". Immediately after he said it he realized he said it loud enough for every Italian in our vicinity to hear it. He was very embarassed. Alberto and I proceeded to laugh completely out of our chairs.