Buon giorno genti!
(C&P-Like my Friends-esque titling system now? I ran out of Italian words that I knew...)
It doesn’t matter how interesting the topic is- technical writing is boring. I had a meeting with one of the grad students this morning (who is a professor in Romania in real life- he is here on a research grant as well…I have a feeling he has been more productive with his time here than I have), in which he basically gave me a lecture in the theory behind earthquake engineering (it was a very good lesson, he’s a good teacher. It tied together all the bits of information that I have acquired over the past 3 months so that they are actually knowledge in my brain, rather than random bits of information that are inapplicable because I know what they are but not what they mean.). Anyway, as he was talking, it hit me that this is really significant stuff that I get to work with- it literally saves lives. I get learn about emerging technologies that will impact history, saving lives, from the sources that are creating these technologies (btw I found out that my metallic structure professor was the designer of the first earthquake engineering applications in Italy- which were among the first in the world…he’s a pretty big deal. And today in class he gave us the CD copy of one of his books- a two-volume, 1800 page reference book. I should learn how to do technical writing from him…he pumps out these giant books all the time.). Despite all of this, I still can’t focus long enough to write anything about it! I have to bribe myself to pay attention.
In reference to bribing… it’s a beautiful thing. My new tactic: “Okay Hope, if you actually focus on your work for only two hours, you can watch half a movie when those two hours are over..” or “if you can focus for one hour without stopping to check your email or facebook, you get to go get a snack” (I’m like Po in Kungfu Panda. How embarrassing.). Also, a new idea which I have recently implemented.. testing. I give myself half an hour to read everything I can on a subject, then I close the article and give myself 15 minutes to write as much as I can about it without peaking. This is an excellent anti-plagiarism technique. I should be doing my research paper on the research I’ve done on how to write a research paper!
So, life has continued. Slowly. I’ve kept myself cooped up mostly, forcing myself to be productive when I can manage it. Some of the girls have been telling me not to leave Italy every time the see me- it’s quite sweet and almost makes me want to stay.
I helped a girl study English this morning for the test that she has coming up. She had to read all sorts of articles which were incredibly interesting for me- a good way to learn what other countries think about your culture is to find a book that is trying to teach the people from that country English- it’s full of articles that are meant to help explain the culture your country. All the English classes here teach British English so I got to see what Italians think of England, but the English are similar enough to Americans that it still hit home. There was an article explaining about the Brits being quiet, even when they’re all packed on a train together. <“Just because they keep to themselves doesn’t mean that they aren’t friendly, you just may have to get to know them first!”> Also, <“they use the words ‘please,’ ‘thank you,’ and ‘I’m sorry’” often. For example, they might say ‘I’m sorry’ after you’ve just stepped on their foot! Or, ‘I’m sorry, but this soup is cold.’”> So true, and so funny after being in Italy for awhile. I honestly have not heard “per favore” come from a single one of them, and when I tried using it once they asked me what I had just said. Later I looked it up on the internet to make sure I was using the right words for please, and I was, they just aren’t used to hearing it! Not that they aren’t polite or grateful, they just express themselves very differently.
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Welp, I just got back from another meeting with the Romanian. I found out why he’s been so helpful (if I were in his position and I had my own work to do, I would certainly not be as eager to help a silly little foreign undergrad with her paper which no one will probably even read). It turns out he’s an advisor to students doing their senior design projects back in Romania, and I think he’s having teacher-withdrawls. He actually enjoys helping me. Cool, I’ll take it. His biggest criticism of my paper so far is that I’ve written it like a literature piece, rather than an engineer’s report. He said that engineers like things simple with lots charts and equations to explain what you’re talking about, not words. The problem is my brain isn’t as engineer-y as I thought when I chose my career path. He told me my mind should work like an engineer because I am an engineer- can you make your mind work a different way? Oh dear…
I baked some really awful lemon cookies yesterday. I made them to sell at the “Fete Chiesa” we had today at church (it was a fundraising bazaar). I worked the drink stand. My only customer was a little girl who literally came 5 times to buy a diet coke each time. I hope it was okay of me to sell her that many… But a note for the future- if you buy baked goods at a church bazaar, be sure to say nothing but good things about it if you eat it while you’re still at the bazaar. I had to watch the people who bought my cookies eat them in front of me. Luckily, none of them seemed to be displeased, although one woman gave her cookie a very solid stare-down before and after each bite she took with a confused expression. The new pastor’s wife came by to offer me one of my cookies which she had just bought and I respectfully turned her down saying that they were terrible and she should have picked something else. Is that rude?
I’m going to miss living here when I go. Now that the end of my trip is in sight, I’ve been very torn between the feeling that I just want to be home now and I don’t want to go. The wanting-to-be-home-now feeling has been more prevalent over the past week, but that’s probably because I spent the whole last week doing school work… I have another one of those weeks coming up, so I will be wishing for home again.
But I am sure I’ll be happy to be here tonight; I am finally going to see the famous opera house! Tonight is the only event going on there before I leave, so I’m going to try my best to get in. I didn’t go buy tickets beforehand, so I hope they are still available at the door. Anyway, it’s a performance by the Naples school of ballet- they’re performing Troy Game, which I think is about gladiators? The translation of the description could have been better. I’m kicking myself for not going to see an opera while it was still opera season. What is wrong with me? I’m also sad that I never made it to a soccer match. Opera, soccer, pasta, and wine…the only necessities to experience while in Italy; I’ve been here for 3 months and am only batting 500. (Did you like my football references Dan?? ;) (I’m juuuuust kidding, I know it was a tennis reference.)) It would have been really perfect if I had been able to get tickets to the final soccer match that happened to be when Dan was here. Oh well… more excuses to come back to Italy.
Okay! Time to go get in line at the opera house for what should be a very interesting ballet! Maybe I’ll post again soon, but I am very unreliable, so who knows.
Ciao!
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