Supermarket Success

I don't like the metric system, the euro, every clock going on military time, the way people write the date (day/month/year ex. today is 24/2/10) and every other thing about Europe which seems to be backwards. However, over the course of past month and a half I've become quite adept at converting euros to dollars (even though I still get pissed every time I look at my online statement), kilometers to miles, etc. So, the first time I went up to the deli at the supermarket I asked for a quarto kilo thinking I had correctly asked for some portion of meat. Five minutes and a lot of confusion later, a passerby kindly ordered me "un etto" of proscuitto. I was thankful and later looked up the word in my Italian phrase book to find out that "un etto" means quarter of a pound. For a country that does everything in metric system, why on earth does Italy use quarter of a pound to order sandwich meat? Turns out that it's pretty much equivalent to 100 grams so they actually haven't deviated from the metric system but the phrase book puts it into American deli shopping terminology so we can understand. Since my breakthrough on how to order sandwich meat I have successfully ordered a different "etto" of salume nearly every day. I actually had about a five minute conversation with the deli lady the other day because she knew I was American and wanted to know where I'm from and how I like Parma. In addition to my success in at the deli, I've learned how to deal with the ladies at the register now... Always say no. While I don't understand word for word what they are saying, I know the three questions they are asking me and no I don't have a COOP card, no I don't want a bag, and no I don't have correct change.

Rugby

Today we took the train fifteen minutes to a nearby town to see Colorno v. Florence in a professional rugby match. I know absolutely nothing about the sport except for the parts I picked up from the movie Invictus. Nevertheless it was a strange feeling going to a sporting event actually clueless to what was going on. A couple things I learned from my rugby experience...

"Die Colorna" does not actually mean that the fans want them to die. In fact these are Colorna fans supporting their team because "die" means "come on" in Italian.

Italian rugby is not like American baseball. When the ball is punted into the stands, the person must throw it back. I learned this when I caught the ball in the stands, held onto it and looked at it for a little then got yelled at by everyone to give the ball back because I was holding up the game...

Food Critic

The other night I went out to dinner with my tandem partner, Andrea. The first time we met we made comparisons between the US and Italy. He spent last summer in Cambridge doing research at Harvard on something that was way to complicated for me to understand (He's probably the most down to earth aspiring brain surgeon I've ever met). For dinner, he wanted to take me to a restaurant where they serve (in his opinion) the best hamburger in all of Parma to see what I think. Now... During orientation in Parma, our program coordinator was talking about restaurants, food, etc. and she gave only one warning "All the food here is wonderful but don't eat the hamburgers". So naturally I expected the worst going into this meal. Andrea was friend's with the owner so he told him all about how I was an American and was here to try the hamburger. Sure enough, the owner comes out with two double cheeseburgers for us to eat...

Several critiques (Most of them Andrea warned me about before we ate)

1. The burgers were very thin. Unlike the US, none of the burgers are thick pieces of meat.
2. All burgers are cooked through. Not sure if it's a law but there is no option to get a burger cooked rare, medium rare, etc. As I explained to him they completely eliminate the juices of the burger.
3. On a positive note, the bread they served it on was far superior to your average hamburger bun.

Overall rating... I'd definitely put their burgers above a fast food chain, probably at the lower end of the spectrum of a Chili's, TGI Fridays type of restaurant with the difference being the burger itself is inferior but the condiments and bread brought the overall taste up.

I'll shutup and go back to eating Italian food now...

Weekend in Munich

Sorry for the delay, I've been very busy studying?

Last weekend I traveled north to meet my Dad in Munich. A little apprehensive about my ability to call a taxi and get to the airport, I woke up very early for my 6:50 flight. Luckily, I was successful in calling the cab driver and was picked up at 5 o'clock. Ten minutes later I was dropped off and ready to go. Only one problem (don't worry I remembered my passport)... The airport wasn't open. I quickly learned that regional airports don't open until about an hour before their first flight of the day. So I stood outside and greeted all the airport employees as they entered the building at around 5:45.
After an uneventful day of travel, I arrived and met Dad at the airport in Munich. On Friday, we saw the Residenz (home of Maximilian I) and walked around the city. We enjoyed a couple of pints at the the Hofbrauhaus and ordered soft pretzels
the lady walking around. We then walked across the street to the Augustinerhaus to try the Augustiner (voted the number one beer in Munich by the travel books my Mom loves).
Saturday was a bit busier. We started the day by going to Olympic Park and going to the top of the Olympic tower. Unfortunately it was cloudy but on a nice day the view overlooks all of Munich and extends out to the Swiss Alps. After wandering around Olympic Park, we headed to the nearby BMW Museum. Despite neither of us having much interest in cars, we found the museum very interesting. Here's some pictures from the museum...














The last stop of the day was at the Deutches Museum for Science, Technology, Anything you could possibly imagine. If you very interested in this stuff (Which Dad was... a lot of it just went over my head), make sure you go early in the day because we were there for nearly 2 hours and only saw the smallest fraction of the museum.

Back in Parma now... Get ready for my huge critique of Italian food.

Switzerland

Last weekend I traveled to Interlaken, Switzerland and rather than formulate a paragraph I'm just going to list the top ten things of the weekend...

1. Going on a hike in up a hill overlooking Interlaken.
2. Ice skating at the local rink and being challenged by 12-year old Swiss kids to a hockey game.
3. Eating the local speciality of hash browns, pears, eggs, and cheese.


4. Beer... Italian wine is very good but it was nice to try several different Swiss beers
4. Hooters Interlaken. The menu called it the "Soon to be famous Hooters" because apparently no one knows what it is.

5. Cheese Fondue
6. Day trip to a beautiful mountain town called Murren in the Swiss Alps. We took a gondola ride up to the town and ate lunch overlooking the Swiss Alps. The view was incredible. However, I learned the most important thing of the trip... When you are going to a town overlooking the Swiss Alps make sure you check your camera to for batteries before you go... Luckily I got a couple pictures in before it died.



















7. Night Sledding... On Saturday night we went to one of the nearby mountains and went sledding. We would take the train up to one checkpoint and sled for nearly 3 km. down the mountain through a lit course. Highly recommended but wear boots because the only way to stop is using your feet.
8. Best chocolate milkshake I've ever had.
9. Hot chocolate... They don't use Swiss Miss
10. The hostel's dog. It was bigger than most of the girls on the trip.

Super Bowl Cont'd

If the announcers are shaky on pronunciation they simply identify the player by last name or even number.

The announcers have a clear bias towards the kickers... Never heard such inflection in someone's voice over a field goal.



Despite speaking a different language, the announcers are very rousing and generate a lot of energy at big moments... they simply need to work on which moments are actually the most important.

Super Bowl In Italy

I've decided to blog during the Super Bowl because we are watching it with Italian announcers...


So far I've heard nothing but Peyton Manning e molto molto bene (because they can't offer any further analysis)

On Joseph Addai's latest twenty yard run they simply yelled "ADDAI ADDAI ADDAI ADDAI ADDAI ADDAI ADDAI"

Based off the announcers I'm not sure whether I'm watching soccer or football.

Also, they don't have commercials here...

Cooking Class

Remember when I said that everything in Italy is small... I stand corrected. I learned that the only thing that comes in an extra large in this country are the portions at dinner. As part of the program, I'm automatically enrolled in a cooking course once a week at this woman's house. Our 70 year-old teacher, Anna, is a 4 foot 10 larger than life chef who hosts three separate groups of BC students once a week. Last night's lesson was spaghetti carbonara. Despite speaking only in Italian (even though everyone knows she speaks fluent English as she refuses to admit it), I was able to understand process quite clearly. I also learned that spaghetti carbonara is one of those dishes where you're much better off not watching it be made as you might think twice about eating it. While this was the only dish we made with her, she also served us chicken marsala, then leeks, then salad, then cheese, then apple cake, then chocolates, then a second round of chocolates. While I knew to pace myself, I had no choice when it came to Anna. For each course she always served my roommate Tommy and I first to be sure that the boys had enough to eat (our spaghetti dishes were at least three servings). The food was incredible and can hopefully replicate it. I learned how to make spaghetti carbonara but more importantly not to eat lunch on cooking class day.

Tandem Partner

Today I met my tandem partner, a University of Parma student. We are supposed to meet once a week to practice our Italian/English. My first impression was that his English is twenty times better than my Italian. I fumbled through a couple phrases but we will continue to practice. In our five minute introduction, I learned today something a little more interesting than just a simple Italian phrase. His name is Andrea (An-dray-uh, for those who read this the American way). After introducing himself he said he was very confused why Americans use this name for women because according to him it comes from a Greek word meaning manly... Sorry Mrs. Patrina.


Just to be sure I crossreferenced it with Wikipedia and while it comes from the Greek word "aner" meaning man, it is used as the feminine form of Andrew in English so you're in the clear Mrs. P and I will clarify this with the Italian Andrea next time we meet.