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.

Scholarship MONEY!!!

Last Friday we received our first and second Scholarship payments. Yay! I had been waiting for a whole month to get the first payment! We were supposed to get the first payment of 1600 Euros the first week that we were here. There was some problem and the University of Padova couldn't get us the money. The University of Minho, the coordinator for the whole program then took responsibility for getting us the payment. For some reason it takes a really long time for international transfers to take place so we were waiting for our money for a whole month. Since it took so long to get everything worked out they sent the second payment of 1200 Euros with the first. Finally I have some money to buy some things I have been waiting for a month to get!

Lago di Garda

Last Tuesday, the 21st, most of the class went to Lago di Garda for the day. Lago di Garda is the cleanest lake in Europe and one of the largest and deepest in Italy. It has a very nice Mediterranean atmosphere to it and has long been an area of resorts. Even the Romans came here and made villas to enjoy the beautiful scenery and escape the pressures of city life. Our first stop of the day was in Desenzano di Garda on the south western side of the lake. The train took about an hour and 20 minutes to get there from Padova and cost 6.20 Euros. Right after exiting the train and heading for the town we were joined by a couple from the US who was also visiting Lago di Garda that day. They were actually from Minnesota! It was fun to talk about Minnesota a little bit before we parted ways. We saw them once more later in the day too.






We all walked down to the water first and took some pictures of the beautiful lake and town. Then we split up for a while to climb up to the castle on the hill and visit the Villa Romana on our own. The Villa Romana has some of the most extensive mosaics in Northern Italy. After visiting these sites and grabbing a bite to eat we took the ferry over to Sirmione.





Sirmione is a beautiful little town on a penninsula that juts out from the center of the southern side of the lake. The number one site in Sirmione is the castle. Once we got into town we looked for where we could get bus tickets for our ride later to Peschiera di Garda. We wanted to make sure we got them before the ticket stand was closed and we would have to pay more for them on the bus. While looking for the ticket office some of us enjoyed delicious gelatos. Next we visited the castle and took lots of pictures of the town and beautiful surroundings. It was interesting to read the descriptions about the castle too because I knew that I would be learning about these things in my classes to come.




From the castle we were able to see a path along the eastern side of the penninsula that lead to the tip along the beach. We decided to walk along this path next. Along the way we took some time to walk a little in the clear clean waters. Afterward, I felt my feet were so clean. A swan and some ducks joined us on the beach too.




We continued down the path and up a little hill with olive trees on it. Antigoni told us about how her Grandfather in Greece grows olives and takes them to a place to make them into olive oil so they never have to pay for their olive oil. At the end of the peninsula there is a beautiful lookout where we took pictures of the setting sun. There are also the Grottos. We had to make our bus to Peschiera so we didn't have time to visit them but we did have a few minutes to talk with one of the guys at the gate. He was a very entertaining guy who took a liking to Naida. Unfortunately we forgot to get a picture with him.



On the way back to the bus we took a few more pictures of Sirmione in the setting sun.




In Peschiera we walked through the town to where some Roman ruins were but not much else was open anymore because it was getting late. Some of us found a restaurant to sit down and eat a nice dinner at before leaving on the 10pm train. Since the area was known for its olive groves I had a pizza with olives on it. The olives were good but the pitts are a little annoying. All in all, a very nice day at Lake Garda!

Class

Yesterday was the first day of the official courses of the SAHC Program. I really liked the first lecture on the History of Construction and Conservationa and on the basics in Architectural Heritage and Conservation of Structures. In the afternoon we got our first assignment. It is a group assignment to write a report about the comparisons between historical constructions in a few different countries. I am working with Naida and Chris. We will be comparing a UNESCO stone arch bridge in Mostar, Bosnia with the oldest stone arch bridge in Minnesota (the one I have been doing volunteer work with in Stillwater) and with a timber bridge in Victoria, Australia. This is going to be fun!

Today's class is really interesting too. We are learning about ancient building materials like brick, stone, and Adobe, about building methods, walls, cementitous materials, foundations, columns, and various other building examples. This is exactly what I want to be studying! I am so excited!

Money Coming

Yesterday I got an email saying that they have transferred the first scholarship payment to our accounts. I checked my account but there wasn't anything in it. We were told before that it takes 3 days for the transfer. This morning I heard from Elisa Trovo that it will probably take a week for the money to get to our accounts. I hope they transfer the second payment soon too otherwise that one will be weeks late too!

INTERNET (repost)

So, the last post didn't work so well. Here it is again.

I have internet in my dorm right now. I don't know if it will last. Naida tried it on Friday and had it for a while and then it cut her off and she couldn't get back on until Monday. We got the passwords for the internet here but I think they are still putting in lines and working on the whole system so that may be the reasons for the outages. Some of the people in the flats don't have the internet ports in the walls yet and there isn't any wifi here. We were so happy that we had some internet last night that we were jumping up and down and yelling down the hall to each other. It will be so nice to be able to use Skype in the dorm room whenever I like and do personal computer stuff there.

INTERNET!!!

I have internet in my dorm right now. I don't know if it will last.
Naida tried it on Friday and had it for a while and then it cut her off and
she couldn't get back on until Monday. We got the passwords for the internet here but I think they are still putting in lines and working on the whole system so that may be the reasons for the outages. Some of the people in the flats don't have the internet ports in the walls yet and there isn't any wifi here. We were so happy that we had some internet last night that we
jumping up and down and yelling down the hall to each other. It will be so nice
to be able to use Skype in the dorm room whenever I like and do personal computer
stuff there.

Off to Austria!

Tomorrow morning I will be off to Vienna, Austria to visit my friend Martin. Thus, probably no more posts until I get back on Monday morning. Ciao!

Peanut Butter!

I found Peanut Butter and Jello!

This morning on my way to the Immigration Office for my appointment for a residence permit, I went by an international foods grocery store. I didn't have time to look in the store at that time but on my way back to the dorm after the appointment I stopped in the shop to have a look. They have all sorts of stuff. Mostly Asian food but also some American food including Jello and Peanut Butter! I have never found Peanut Butter in Europe before. People had told me that you could get it but I hadn't seen it. It is a little expensive but not too bad. They also have lots of spices and ingredients that are in English. Once I get my Scholarship payment I plan on coming back to this store to get some things necessary for cooking some American food! Mmmmm....

Scholarship Payment...

We got an email today about the first Scholarship Payment. We are supposed to get it by next Friday. The discussion this morning in the classroom has been about what "Next Friday" means. Does it mean the Friday in two days or does it mean the one a week and two days from now. Javier sent an email to get clarification. Hopefully we will find out soon.

Italian Classes

Yesterday while we (most of the class) were away visiting Lago di Garda, we got an email telling us how to register for Italian Language Classes. I registered today. Because I don't speak a Romance language and I don't know any Italian, I don't have to take the entrance/placement exam. They will just place me in the beginner class. The classes will be twice a week for 3 hours. We have to go to the classes 70% of the time to be able to take the exam at the end of the course. If we get 60% on the final exam we can move to the next level I think. The courses are 10 weeks long and we get 3 credits if we pass the final exam. They don't cost anything for Erasmus students so that is really nice. Elisa Trovo will be talking with the registration people to try to get our courses in the afternoon when our study time is and not in the morning when lectures are. Courses will be starting on the 11th of October. Wish me luck!

Nice day for a stroll through Padova

Sunday was a very nice day for a stroll through Padova. I figure that I have to take advantage of the nice weather and (sort of) free time before classes start and the weather gets cold and rainy. The first part of my walk took me down Via Ospedale Civile (Hospital is on this road). A picture of the street is shown above.

To the left is a picture of Via San Fancesco.


I found a bunch of tourist shops and quite a few restaurants on Via Del Santo, which leads off of the Piazza in front of St. Anthony's Basilica or as the locals call it, Il Santo. I think that the old columns that hold up two or three stories above the sidewalk are very interesting. Who knows how old they are.





St. Anthony's Basilica in Padova is where St. Anthony's tomb is. It is a very beautiful marble tomb elaborately carved and decorated. Also there are relics from the Saint including his tongue. People come from around the world to see this church and pray to St. Anthony. There is a place next to his tomb where people put up pictures and boxes to put prayers in. On Sunday there are Masses every hour and a constant stream of people circulating around the church to the tomb and relics. St. Anthony's is usually the first stop for those on a pilgrimage from Eastern Europe. As you can see from the picture above, there are lots of little carts set up each day in the Piazza outside the church where people can buy candles and other religious tokens, icons, etc. Inside they don't let you take pictures so I can't show you any. You will have to come visit to see for yourself.



Inside St. Anthony's Basilica complex there are a number of courtyards or cloisters with beautiful flowers, trees, and statues. In one there are picnic tables were people were having lunch and students were studying.


Only about a block away are the Botanical Gardens. I didn't go in because you have to pay but I will definitely try to go soon. I think that they are only open through the end of October. The price is very reasonable for students, 1 Euro.


Next I made my way to the Prato della Valle. This is a huge elliptical square, in fact the largest in Italy, near Il Santo and another very large church, Basilica of Santa Giustina.


On the weekends there is a market all around the track on the outside with different themes on different days. Yesterday there were mostly antiques being sold... furniture, rugs, lamps, silverware, dishes, clothing, etc.

The area is very busy with shoppers and it is difficult to walk anywhere very quickly. There are also African guys who lay out sheets with purses and toys to sell. I believe that it is illegal to do this but there doesn't seem to be very many police trying to shoo them away.



On the inner part of the square there is a moat with pretty white statues all around and bridges going to the center. There was a band setting up a stage for a concert later that night but I didn't stick around long enough to find out more. At the very center of the ellipse is a fountain with benches all round for people to sit. Many people come and have picnics on the grass or just hang out with friends.

On my way back to the dorm I walked by Il Santo again. I had to take a few more pictures and note that there is a sightseeing bus the goes around all of the major sites in Padova.