December to January

Sorry for not writing for so long. As you can imagine, I have been very busy for the last few months. I have not even had time to update my blog. The courses on Structural Analysis Techniques and Dynamics were very difficult and the work time consuming. I finished the Dynamics course right before Christmas. The last week before Christmas we started the fourth course, Diagnosis and Investigation. This course was very interesting but also a lot of information to study. We learned all about different types of damages that can occur in all types of structures, the process of the historical survey and investigation, diagnosis of damages, non-Destructive and minor-destructive testing, dynamic identification, and monitoring of structures. We had the exam for this Diagnosis and Investigation course on Monday.

The day of my last class before Christmas break my mother and two brothers arrived in Padova. They stayed in Italy with me until Dec.31st, when they flew back to the U.S. During that time we were very busy traveling to Venice for two days, Bassano del Grappa one day, Verona one day, touring Padova two days, going skiing in the Dolomites one day, and touring Milan on the last day.

When my family returned home on Dec. 31st I flew to Frankfurt, Germany for New Years Eve. I joined some friends there for celebrations and amazing fireworks on the river. We spent three days in Frankfurt seeing the sites.

On January 3rd my friends and I flew to Egypt to join a German tour. We paid extra for our own guide in English and we got two wonderful guides, one in Upper Egypt on our cruise and the other in Cairo for the last two days. We spent four days on the cruise that went Luxor, Edfu, Kom Ombo, Aswan for two days, and then back to Luxor. Then we flew to Cairo for the last two days to visit the sites in Cairo, Giza, and Memphis. We saw so many ancient sites and they were all so amazing! Our guides were so great, making sure that we got to see everything that we wanted to see, waking us up at 3am and 5am most mornings to get to the sites, and even patiently waiting for us when we were late.

On January 10th we flew back to Frankfurt from Cairo. I enjoyed one more night at a hostel in Frankfurt and went out to a nice German dinner with a traveler I met at the hostel from Australia.

On January 11th I flew back to Venice and took the bus back to Padova. As soon as I got back I went to class to find out what I had missed that day and started to catch up on studying for the Investigation and Diagnosis Course.

Just now am I getting a few extra moments to write about my trip and to post some of the pictures. I have also been working on getting the necessary documents together for getting the VISA for Portugal. Next week I am flying to Rome to apply for the VISA at the Portuguese Embassy.

Today SA5 started, Repairing and Strengthening Techniques. We had a lecture today by Professor Modena about repairing historic ordinary reinforced concrete structures, mainly focusing on some case studies on RC bridges in Italy built after WWII. Professor Modena will also be organizing a trip for the whole class to L'Aquila in February to see the historic structures that are being worked on there. It will be a great opportunity to learn from Professor Modena who has so much experience in analysis of historic structures and repairing and strengthening of these structures.

The weather here in Padova has been mild as compared to Minnesota winters. It has been around 0 to 7 Celsius (32-46F) most days. We had snow one day in November but no sign of the white stuff since then. I am sad that I am missing all of the snow in Minnesota (but not the cold). I really love snow and, of course, this is the one year that Minnesota really gets a lot of it.

This weekend...

Sorry I haven't written in a long time. I have been extremely busy with homework, etc. Hopefully I will get some time soon to catch up a little with writing. I have a lot of things I want to write about.

Anyways, here is a short update about my weekend.

Yesterday I was able to do a few
things that I have been wanting to do for a while now. I went shopping at
the market in the morning and bought three types of Italian cheese,
mushrooms, bananas, and salami. Naida made pancakes, the thin crepe ones,
for lunch and we had the cheese, mushrooms, and meat for that. After lunch
we went back to the city center for more shopping and I found a scarf and a
belt. Now I can keep a little warmer and have a little of the Italian
fashion with the scarf. The belt is really nice too and is made of Italian
leather. In the evening I went to St. Anthony's for the Mass (you can
almost go anytime because they have so many Masses) and then went to try
out McDonalds by the train station. I was a little surprised that it tasted
exactly the same as at home! Even the fries were the same. They do have a
burger made with Italian cheese though so I want to try that sometime. They
have two McDonalds in Padova so maybe I will try it at the other one. Last
night I went to an Erasmus Party with a big group from the dorm. That was a
lot of fun too! I went to church last night because I knew I wouldn't have
time today. This morning I went to an orchestra concert where they had a
guest pianist and played Pergolesi, Schumann, and Chopin. It was really
good and the student ticket was only 6 Euros! This concert is part of a
series and there will be one every Sunday in November as well. I hope I
will have time to go to more. Now I need to get back to studying.

Bike!

I got a bike! I have been trying for about a week now to find a second hand bike that was not too expensive or nice. It is actually better to have a bike that doesn't look very nice so that it is less likely to be stolen. Bike steeling happens a lot! Even if you have a lock they can work to cut it. There are so many bikes and little identification so it would be impossible to find your bike again and even if you did it might have been sold to an unsuspecting individual. Here is my bike, which has new brakes, a working bell, a rack on the back, working front light, and new peddles. I hope I will still have it at the end of my time here so that I can sell it back to the shop. It cost 55 Euros and hopefully I can get about 30 Euros back at the end. The lock cost 10 Euros. Mine is the blue one with white stars.

Octopus

Eating at the Canteen has been great! It is really close to our classroom and everyday they have different foods. I still haven't tried everything! On Fridays they have crepes!

In the picture on the left is Javier and Carolina. They are both from Colombia. On the right is Matteo and Antigoni. Matteo is from Italy and Antigoni is from Greece.


They have some things that I don't think I would ever get at a canteen in MN. For instance, the other day I had Octopus! It was pretty good too. They often have calamari, eggplant with cheese, risotto, and always pasta.

Graduations in Padova

In Padova that have some unique ways of celebrating a person's graduation. The time of the graduation ceremony/party is scheduled and friends and professors are invited. At that time the graduate dresses up in strange clothing or maybe cross dresses. Most wear a wreath of some kind and maybe balloons, hats, other objects hanging from them. They must stand where their poster is posted and read from it. I think their poster has a cartoon of them on it. Then the surrounding people throw food at them or other items to get them all messy. At one there was colored smoke, another had whipped cream, another had eggs, and another had some chalk like stuff. Then the graduate walks around to the canteen or other public places while his or her friends follow and sing a song loudly. I was told by Matteo that this song is pretty vulgar. At one party the graduate had to go and dance in a fountain. I think I am glad I wont be graduating here. :)

SA7- Integrated Project

I know what I will be doing for my integrated project for the Masters Program. We
chose our topics last Thursday. I am in a group with the same two people as I
worked on the first paper with, Christopher Potter and Naida Ademovic. The
integrated project will be the Experimental and Numerical Assessment of the
San Domenico Church. The San Domenico Church is in L'Aquila, Abruzzo, Italy
which is about an hour from Rome. L'Aquila was hit by a very large earthquake in
April 2009 that destroyed most of the town and many historical structures. The San
Domenico Church has out-of-plane deformation of the facade, transept and apses;
overturning of the upper part of the main facade; damage to the central nave,
transept vaults and connections between the roof and walls of the apse; shearing
mechanisms on the transept and apses; and horizontal cracks in the lantern. As
part of this 6 month project we will do a Geometrical Survey; Damage Survey;
Follow the In-situ experimental tests including Flat-jack test, termographic test,
Sonic pulse velocity test, dynamic identification test, radar test; Perform Analysis
including FEM Analysis and Limit Analysis. There will be a final report and
presentation. I believe this project will be similar to the Senior Design project that
I did at the U of M but instead of design we will be doing analysis of this historical
church. If we get far enough we may even get into recommendations for
stabilization or repair of the church. I'm not sure.

SA1- First Assignment

I finished my first report for my class on Sunday night. It is a 35 page comparison of three historic bridges; the Stone Arch Bridge in Stillwater; The Old Bridge in Mostar, Bosnia; and the Barwon Heads Bridge in Australia. I worked on it with Naida and Chris. The point of the assignment was to compare 2 or 3 historical structures from different countries and focus on materials used in the structures and the cultural significance of the structures. Once I get the final report approved by the owner of the Stone Arch Bridge in Stillwater, MN, USA, I can share it with people. If you would like to get a copy of the report you can send me an email or message.