Thanksgiving in Rome!

"Do not be anxious about anything,
but in every situation, by prayer and petition,
with thanksgiving, present your requests to God"
Philippians 4:6

Today I got to celebrate Thanksgiving with some friends from the Campus Crusade Stint Team in Rome. I haven't really talked about them in this blog but these friends of mine here are a true blessing. I met them through a friend of a friend of a friend of mine named Andrew Lisi who did a Stint with Crusade in Salerno, Italy. The Stint Team are here for a year sharing the Gospel with students at University of Rome La Sapienza (uniroma1). Many of you know I go to University of Rome "Tor Vergata" (uniroma2).

I've gotten the chance to hang out with these guys and girls from the Midwest region of Crusade a few times and gotten to go to church with them a few times as well. I feel somewhat connected to them because as many of you know I spent a summer in Cincinnati on an internship with G.E. Well they invited me to have Thanksgiving dinner with them and they prepared a really really great meal including Turkey, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, Green Bean Casserole, Sweet Potatoes, Cranberry Sauce, Pumpkin and Apple Pie, and Jello!(See below) I couldn't believe they found a whole Turkey because they aren't so common around here. They found one but had to shell out 55 euro for it. To even make the holiday even more authentic, Joel had American TV streaming via a slingbox and we got to see snippets of the Macy's Parade in NYC and some of the Turkey Day Football Games.

On this Thanksgiving, I was thankful to be able to share it with Americans and to enjoy many of the American parts of it. I was especially thankful being able to share it with other Christians and to have the chance to thank God for everything in prayer while holding hands around the food (as I love to do!).

Buddy Profile #2: Corrado

"It's like Karate or Colorado"

So this is another one of my friends from work, Corrado. I think you can decipher from the picture which one he is. This was taken at a party my roommates and I had for my co-workers. Corrado insisted that he take a picture with my family, who was visiting at the time. Funny thing is like all the Italians wanted a picture with my family. You can see those on Flickr. When I first met Corrado, I had some difficulties pronouncing his name. He then told me it's like Karate, and in another time he said it was like Colorado. Funny as it seems, it makes it really easy to pronounce. For all intensive purposes, he works on developing polymer scaffolds for tissue engineering. Crazy eh? Ok but on to the fun stuff.

Corrado is from just outside of Rome, but far enough to where he says he cannot be called Roman. As Francesco seems to be characteristically "American" by the way he dresses and acts, Corrado to me is the epitome of Italian and I love it. When he met some of my American friends he kissed them on the hand AND gave them a baci. I was like "whateeeever...come on!". :) Corrado and I both really like American music and he sings really well, with an American accent. Che bello! One of my favorite stories was when I first met him I asked him if he liked soccer and if he ever went to a game at Stadio Olimpico. He said he's only been to the stadium once, but for a Depeche Mode concert. I was like..."Depeche Mode...that must have been ages ago??" Crazy, but it was just this past summer. Who knew Depeche Mode was still around? Corrado also writes music and is in a band. He said he was going to hit me up to make sure his english lyrics make sense.

Corrado is also known for getting a bit crazy at the discotec. I have the pictures to prove. Anyways, someone in the lab asked when I will go back to the States. When I responded in September, Corrado asked how long I was going to visit the States at the time. I had to explain I was moving back in September. See, most Italians stay in a Ph.D program for 3 years and Corrado thought I was just starting my 3 years here and staying the whole time. When I explained that I was only here for one year (my 3rd year of Ph.D), I saw a little disappointment in his expression. That actually made me feel good that I know I'm going to be missed when I leave.

Anyhow, one last fun fact about Corrado. He visited Gainesville with Francesco last december to visit the lab of one of the professors in my department. Sadly, I didn't know them back then. Corrado claims he saw the most beautiful girl on the bus in Gainesville on the way to the UF campus.

The Haircut Experience

I keep up with my family pretty often through the video iChat and because of that my mom (Hi Mom!) noticed that my hair was getting a little long and encouraged me to get my haircut. She likes to see her son groomed so whenever it's time to get a haircut, be it in italy or florida, I get constantly reminded to get one. My initial thinking was that I would grow out my hair without ever having to cut it or just shave it off myself to avoid going to a Italian haircutting place.

Anywho, seeing how my hair was getting out of control I decided it was time to venture off to get a haircut. My first option was to cheat and get one of my Italian friends to come with me to translate, but the timing never worked out. Next option: I checked the internet to search for "English Speaking" Beauty Shops in Rome. I found one on a listing and it was in Piazza Del Popolo (a pretty big tourist area). So last Saturday I made the trek over there. It was a few metro stops away from here but it still took about 45 minutes travel time total. When I got there, I figured it would be easy to find since it was a Plaza (meaning a circle) and I wouldn't have to search for a street (which is sometimes hard to find). But no, I ended up circling the plaza like 4 times to find the right building. And by the time I found the building, there was no haircutting place to be found.

So feeling a little defeated, I went on my way back home. I finally decided I would be brave and just walk into a place near my apartment. I haven't been this nervous in some time, but I asked the lady at the reception table if she spoke english. Thankfully she said yes and called her Mom over. From this time on, I knew it was a nice family business. I told her in my best italian that I wanted a haircut but I spoke very little italian. So she introduced me to her son Allesandro and assured me that he would take care of me. That he did! Ok so the place I go to in Jax to get my haircut is a pretty hoity toity place (I would call it yuppy), but I go to the same girl (hey Val if you're reading this!) that my Mom and sister go to. I never really tell Val how to do it...I describe it a little but she just does it. So what was I to do? Luckily my Uni ID has a picture with the way I like it so I showed it to him and he did his thing. It ended up being perfetto and I only had to pay 15 euro. I'm really glad I found a place in my neighborhood because I go back when I need another haircut and I also get to say hello to them when I pass by. I for sure told them I'd be back!

My Italian Research Group Family

So here is a picture of most of the guys and gals of my research group at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. It is a really fun group. So for the technicalities, we work on things such as fuel cells for alternative energy, sensors to detect harmful gases, membranes to produce hydrogen gas, and even materials for biomedical purposes. The group is composed mainly of Italians but we have a little bit of an international mix with one from Egypt, another from Tunisia, one from France, and the two most recent additions Milan from the Czech Republic and me from good ole America. The group has a bunch of intelligent people in it who are at the same time a whole lot of fun to be around. Sometimes I wonder how they ever get any work done because people stay at the lab less than in America, coffee and smoking breaks are a huge part of the day, and there is always conversing going on. Everyone has been really helpful in helping me to transition, especially with speaking Italian. It's awesome because I've already seen an improvement in everyone's English and they say they've been seeing an improvement in my Italian. Milan and I are currently the only ones who can't hold a complete conversation in Italian. We're determined to change that! (if i could only properly say 30 so people stop getting confused that I'm saying 100)

Graduate student "life" is totally different around here. In America, it's not that untypical to see lots of students working in the wee hours of the night and a lot of hours on the weekend. Here the labs close at 9 at night, you need special permission to get in the building on Saturday, and the lab is absolutely closed on Sunday. It gives me a nice chill perspective on doing research and keeping my priorities straight. We do a good bit of hanging out after work too, except for this week which is like our off week since we've been exhausted from hanging out in the previous weeks. In addition, the Italians are busting their butts to finish their end of year reports for our research adviser.

My first trip outside of Italy (Germany baby!)

So this was actually my third trip to Germany in my life. The main reason for this trip (November 3rd to the 6th) was to get out of Italy for the weekend and visit the two cool people seen in the picture, Matt and Ellen. Matt is one of those friends that I've never really lived in the same place with except for the summer (2003) we met and both interned at good ole GE Aircraft Engines in Cincy, Ohio. After that summer we've managed to meet up in random places from Indianapolis, Naples (Florida), Baton Rouge for his wedding to Ellen, and now Germany! Matt is a pilot in the Air Force now stationed in Germany. So I flew up to visit their city, Kaiserslaughten (I knew I messed up that spelling so as the Americans do I'm just going to call it K-town). Ellen, even though we only met once at their wedding, was kind of enough to pick me up at the airport. Once we arrived at their really cool house, we had a quick lunch and packed up to go to Bamburg. Matt has another friend, Joe, from Notre Dame that is in the army stationed up there and his unit just got back from a year Iraq. We took a 2.5 hour drive to Bamburg. One of the reasons we went was cause Joe's unit was having a Halloween party. It was pretty cool, Matt and Ellen had some great costumes. I was a red neck, mullet and all. One of the soldiers even had his parents and younger sister in town so they partied with us. It's nice having Halloween in the middle of the week because you have an excuse to have a party the weekend before, the day of, and weekend after Halloween. It was really cool also meeting a bunch of soldiers and hearing about their experiences in Iraq. I was also asked if I was in the military. :). I think they wouldn't let me have my long hair in the army. We stayed in Bambrug overnight. Other highlights included going to a really good Croatian restaurant and just walking around Bamburg which was like a smaller version of Munich.

The rest of the weekend we all just hung out in K-town. Matt and Ellen took me to their favorite restaurant where I had jagerschnitzel and some good ole german beer! They also took me on base where I was able to buy american groceries and use an atm without an international fee (suck on it Wachovia). I shared a little Italy with Matt and Ellen by making them Bruschetta and Carbonara the way the Romans taught me. Stephano also gave me a bottle of Chianti from his family's winery to give to them. I also was glad Matt had a sling box setup so we could watch american tv at his house. Ellen watched her alma mater LSU beat up on Tennessee. Although I didn't think much of it then (I fell asleep), I failed to realize that the tiger victory allowed UF to clinch the SEC East. Go gators! One final mad props to Ellen for driving me to the airport Monday at 3 o'clock in the morning.

I met the Director of "Swingers" and "The Bourne Identity"!

So I'm on the metro minding my business on the way to school, and I noticed there is one empty seat next to these bunch of people speaking English (with an American accent). When you hear Italian and English with an Italian accent all day, you can here American English from far away. I call it my Englishdar (English radar). I also noticed one of the girls was carrying quite the nice video camera. So I was like, "uhhh what are you guys doing here in Rome". They responded filming a movie. I'm like OK, must be some small indy film. So the attention got switched to what I was doing in Rome. "I'm an engineer at an Italian University...ya da ya da ya". I finally asked the guy next to me..."is this like a big movie". He's like yeah it's called "Jumper" and it comes out in 2008 because there are a lot of visual effects that require post production. That made me think that this film was legit. So that made me then ask...who is in it? The guy responded "Sam Jackson (as in Samuel L.), Hayden Christensen, and Rachel Bilson from the OC". One of my first thoughts was "whoah, is Samuel Jackson on this motha f***in metro?" So the whole time I still figured it was some of the random crew members because there were just filming behind the scenes clips around rome. The guy who I was talking to actually told me that the guy sitting across from us really liked to ride trains. That should have hit me that if that one guy wanted to ride the subway instead of everything else and made the rest of the crew go on it too (the metro isn't the most luxurious ride around Rome)that that guy was important.

So I get to school all excited that I met Americans first of all, and then 2 that they had something to do with a film. So I found info on the movie through Wikipedia and IMDb. It made me more excited that I found more info on it. Then I decide to click on the director. It comes up with this. I literally shouted out in my office "It's the dude that likes to ride trains!". And then I realized he had also directed "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", "The Bourne Identity", and "Swingers!!!!". OK, most people who know me know that I LOVE "Swingers". The director Doug Liman is lucky I didn't recognize him cause I would have jumped and given him a big hug for giving me "Swingers". Sad thing is I also for some random reason had my camera on me, but didn't know that it was him so didn't think to take a picture. They just got of one stop before mine at "Cinecitta", which is the film studios in Rome. I just casually said "Take it Easy and Enjoy Rome". That made my day though!

Trip to a Winery in Tuscany

So this post is a little overdue, but nevertheless will be one of my favorites. Last Wednesday, November 1st, was an Italian holiday which was All Soul's Day. This is typically a day when Italians go to the cemeteries to pay respect to their lost love ones. It goes back to the Catholic holiday.

Since we were off this day, Francesco told me that his friend Stephano was inviting us and a few others to his family's country home in Tuscany. I thought maybe it was just like a nice small house in the countryside but I soon found out that it was in fact a property that his family owned for the family wine company. This winery was in fact started by Stephano's grandfather and is now run by his Uncle. So Francesco, another friend Massimo, my Spanish roommate Yollanda, and I all drove in a car to this place. It was about a 2 hour drive from Rome, and as we got closer to the house Massimo started pointing to all these grape vineyards and said "Look this is all Stephano's". I was amazed at all the land. We then get to the house on the property and it was so big I started referring to it as the estate and not a house. The place had a nice rustic countryside Italian feel to it. Two of my favorite things about it was the 19th century piano and the sit in fireplace/oven. We spent the day just relaxing, drinking all of Stephano's wine (Chardonnay and Chianti), falling asleep, playing pool, walking around the estate (btw I ate it on some damp cobblestone), and eating dinner at a restaurant nearby for dinner. My favorite part of dinner was that we had to buy Stephano's own wine from the restaurant. Isn't that pimp? By the time it was time to sleep I kept on discovering additional hallways of the house. I kept on saying in my head "where does this house end". It almost had that "Shining" creepiness to it. It truly was a good break away from the city. I even got to bring back a bottle of Chianti for Matt and Ellen, who I visited in Germany the following weekend (subject of next post). The pictures from Tuscany can of course be seen on Flickr Here.

Coke Light and Mentos

Many of you might have seen the ever popular videos on YouTube of what happens when you mix Mentos with Diet Coke. So the Italians have seen these videos and wondered how it worked. So before we went to Francesco's house on the Med, we stopped by the supermercato to pick up some food. When we were at the drinks, Massimo was holding a bottle of Coke Light (we don't have "Diet" Coke here) and asks me "is Coke Light the same thing as Diet Coke in America". And I was like, "I don't know but I prefer regular coke". Massimo then said "Have you seen the mentos thing?" My thought was, "YES! LET'TRY IT!" Actually my 31 year old sister (yes 31 year old adult) had already done the trick and so I wanted to see it, too. It didn't work this time but this video documents the fun we had messing up. Actually my sister gave me the proper directions for the next time cause yes there will be a next time. :)

Download the Video Here