Random by Lance

Random by Lance 1

Just a typical Saturday at Piazza Maggiore, here in Bologna, Italy. My roommate, Leo and I just hanging out in the sun and listening to some street-music. A few minutes after this we went and had ourselves a nice gelato.

26 February 2011 · Comments

Pasta, Pasta and more Pasta

The other day I put up a question on facebook asking, ‘It’s ok to drink wine everyday.. right?’

I should also be asking the question, ‘It’s ok to eat some form of pasta everyday.. right?’ Haha, I’ve been in Italy now for about 5 weeks and I think I’ve had either pasta or pizza at least once.. everyday. I mean, it could be that I just love pasta that much - but I think the truth is that, pasta is just so stinking cheap here.

I buy 3 boxes of pasta for about €1,80 that lasts me about a week and a half or so. Then I buy some tomato sauce, some bacon, and boom - I’m set on dinner for the next few days. It’s incredible. My roommates started making fun of me for making pasta with tomato sauce everyday - so I decided that starting about three weeks ago - I would make a ‘different’ type of pasta every Thursday for the rest of my time here.

The first Thursday was pretty awesome. I went online and learned how to make pasta carbonara and it actually turned out really good. As you can tell from this picture - I was extremely proud of myself.

Oh man, look at that beautiful pasta

Anyways, after that first Thursday, I started to get pretty excited about the next week. My confidence took over and we invited a few people over to our apartment and me and my buddy Martin, from Sweden, cooked up some classic Fettuccine Alfredo. It didn’t turn out too bad, and the good thing was we were able to cook dinner for about 6 people.

Here’s some of the leftovers

So after word got out of ‘Pasta Thursdays’, people got pretty excited about the upcoming dish of some homemade lasagna. Now, the stuff that I made was one thing - but homemade lasagna is a whole different ballgame. Anyways, Sebastian, my buddy from Colombia, who is training to be a cook - came over and basically did the whole thing himself, which turned out to be a good thing, because the lasagna came out incredible - and I got to learn how to make it myself for the next time. I didn’t take a picture of the lasagna, but basically we had about 10 people over and we enjoyed some incredible dinner and about 8 bottles of wine together. Stay tuned for this next Thursday, when we come up with another round of pasta.

Well besides pasta, I’ve also been introduced to the most incredible pizza place ever. Basically, you order a €6 pizza, and you get the most giant thing placed in front of you. It’s just about impossible to finish it in one sitting, and I always make sure to get it ‘da asporta’ - so I can enjoy the rest for lunch the next day.

Here’s my favorite pizza: ‘La Messicana’ and there is my roommate Eva, with a Calzone.. yes, that is one Calzone.

It might seem like all I do is eat… which may be true. But, I’ve also done a little exploring of the city that I live in.

Bologna, is one of the oldest and was one of most important cities in Italy. The Towers of Bologna, are just about at the center of city, and are the place that everyone meets before going anywhere.

You can climb up the giant structure on the right and look over the entire city. I thought it sounded like a good idea - but, unlike in Germany, there isn’t an elevator to take you all the way to the top. This may not seem like THAT big of a deal - but if you are afraid of heights like yours truly, seeing stairs like these… kind of make you think twice..

Anyways, after what seemed like forever - we finally made it to the top and just look at how excited we are: Sophie (Norway), Eva (Sweden), Sebastian (Colombia), Me, and Charlotte (Germany)

Oh my other roommate, Felicity (England), was also there. So ya, it was a good time, and looking over the city was pretty incredible. In this picture, you can see the center (with the main church, San Petronio Basilica, on the left)

Well, ya. I think that may be it for this post. Hopefully the loads of pictures made up for the fact that I haven’t written anything in 3 weeks. I’ll try to make this a typical Saturday afternoon thing. I’ve got to make sure to keep track of my last two months here in Italy! Ok, well, until next time - God Bless!

19 February 2011 · Comments

2 Weeks in Italy.. complete!

Well, my first two weeks in this new city have passed, and everything is finally in order. Originally, I had only booked 2 weeks here in Bologna - because I wanted to be able to possibly find a cheaper apartment and/or school. What I wasn’t anticipating was that there would be a bazillion other students trying to do the same thing as me right now. I don’t to bore anyone with details, but basically I searched non-stop for the two weeks without finding anything and then had to wait on my landlady until yesterday to make sure I would be able to stay here in this apartment. I also signed up at the school to start afternoon classes starting on Monday, and well basically should now be set for the next 3 months here.

Oh and that’s another thing. I may be coming back sometime in the middle of April, and finally end this ridiculously long vacation/incredible experience. So, I’m going to be buckling down and putting everything into learning this language and coming back quad-lingual.

Ok, enough - so how did my first two weeks go? Well, I would say pretty awesome. I use internet for usually less than 3 hours a day, which has helped up my ‘life-productivity’ - and has forced my to study even more than I’ve been used to. Usually, I study this language for maybe 2-3 hours per day, which I feel is starting to show a bit. As far as last weekend, on Friday I went out with a friend that I met who was from Norway - and on Saturday, I went to the Italian National Baseball Convention which was taking place just outside of Bologna. Stefano from Minelli Next, picked me up and took me to their booth and let me meet a couple of American teacher/ex-baseball players, which was really cool.

Here’s a picture at their booth, which was burning a name with a laser into a bat that they sold

Here’s one of the Americans, using this program they created to help correct swings, demonstrating on stage (Italian translator on the foreground)

So that was a lot of fun, and after the workshops, the convention put on a typical Italian banquet. I’ve done a few banquets in the US, but this was such a better experience, basically because food was included the whole time. Instead of eating and then listening to a speaker for 4 hours - we just ate while listening to a speaker for 4 hours. There were 5 courses (salad, pasta, lasagna, veal, dessert), and unlimited red wine and water included. I fully enjoyed this ‘typical Italian banquet’, and came back home at about 2am ready for some nice sleep.

Hmm, so what about the city that I live in? Well, Bologna is a beautiful city with a big student-feel to it. The oldest university in the world (c.1088) is here and is home to thousands of students doing an abroad-program and a lot of people doing some kind of language course. But besides that, the city is wonderful - I need to take some pictures of the city, but all I can say is that it is so different from Hamburg and most German cities that I visited. Hamburg was enormous and the metro-system was necessary in getting around, it was green with lots of open spaces, lakes and an airy feel to it. Bologna on the other hand is all cement, and surrounded by hundred/thousand year old buildings. It is has feeling that you are walking through the same streets that people centuries ago did. It also has the typical piazza in the center of the city with their enormous church and old statue/fountain for all to see.

Anyways, the city is putting together a self-tour of the city for the next month or so, and it shows off a lot of the city’s most interesting things to see. I’ll have to go through it and take pictures at all the places they say to. I went last night to do the tour with my Swedish roommate and an English girl that was in our class this past week. There are supposedly 16 points and we only made it to 5 before ‘having’ to stop and have a glass of wine. It was nice seeing these somewhat hidden spots in Bologna and I took only a pair of pictures in spot#5.

This was in an art gallery (no, that is not my flash on the painting)

Here’s Eva, my Swedish roommate checking out the sweet mural on the ground in the art gallery.

After having a glass or two of wine, we went out to a little bar for a while and hung out there for a few hours. Here is Reena, the girl from England, and me enjoying ourselves in this Bar.

Hm besides that, there is not too much else that I know to explain. I’m enjoying my time here and I’m ready to make the most of the next 3 months here in Italy. Once again, I need to say how thankful I am to have a family that can provide me with the opportunity to do something like this - as well as a God that allows me to have this incredible life. Ok, so I’ll update again hopefully next weekend - and ya, until next time - God Bless!

30 January 2011 · Comments

Goals for 2011

Well I had a great time with my brother here in Germany, and it was sad to see him leave on Saturday, but it’s time to start the New Year! Unlike most people, I usually don’t like to throw out ‘resolutions’ for the New Year. Instead, I try to set goals that I want to achieve this year. This habit comes from my parents forcing us to list out our goals every year when we were younger. I’ve always loved goals, and making them every year helps you live more in this moment. Anyways, I encourage everyone to make a list of goals that they hope to achieve in this upcoming year - and work as much as possible to work towards those goals. So..

Goals for 2011

-Learn Italian and retain the German that I’ve learned.
-Apply, get accepted, and begin classes on a Masters degree
-Put aside 30% of any money I earn. 10% for future purchases, 10% long-term savings, 10% to the church
-Blog, journal, and take lots of pictures
-Stay in shape by working out at least 3x p/week
-Find a part-time hotel job while I’m getting my Masters degree
-Read biographies of Gandhi (Gandhi, an Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth), Dave Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius), and Conrad Hilton (Be My Guest)
-Start training for a half-marathon to take place in Spring 2012
-Learn two new piano songs
-Take up either boxing or some form of karate classes
-Be there for our family whenever needed
-Say ‘Yes’ more

Well, I think that’s all the things I’ve come up with for this next year. I’m moving to Bologna, Italy next Saturday - so wish me luck starting over in another new country, haha! Anyways, this post is ultra-short - so here’s a couple pictures from NYE here in Hamburg.

The NYE crew (except for Stephanie)