Just to let you know: I've been busy, moving to my new flat and enjoying life in South Italy.
Until April 8th, two of my best friends are visiting me here in Bari: Anna and Daniel. :-)
I'm sure we'll have a great time and I'm also sure that I won't have much time to write stuff.
I'm doing really well!
Talk to you soon :-)
2010/03/27
2010/03/17
Moving on.
This morning I passed another exam - studied day and night just to hear once again "So, what would you like to talk about?". I talked for 2 minutes about some nonsense and got the highest mark there is. Sometimes I like being treated better just because I am foreign and nordic-looking, although really it is a form of racism.
And now I am moving to a new flat! I am finally leaving my "never-there, never-talking" flatmates behind and going to a better place to live with one of my friends for a while. The new address is:
Via Emanuele de Deo 19
70126 Bari
Italy
In a few minutes will come a friend of mine with her car to move all my stuff, so talk to you later!
(Óh and I might be without internet for a couple of days)
And now I am moving to a new flat! I am finally leaving my "never-there, never-talking" flatmates behind and going to a better place to live with one of my friends for a while. The new address is:
Via Emanuele de Deo 19
70126 Bari
Italy
In a few minutes will come a friend of mine with her car to move all my stuff, so talk to you later!
(Óh and I might be without internet for a couple of days)
2010/03/16
A new approach to Italian culture.
Completely forgot to tell you, we celebrated my birthday a week ago. It was awesome, I got to listen to "Happy Birthday" in Italian, English, Spanish, Polish, and German. =)
But above all ;-) my friends gave me a wonderful gift: a voucher for Europe's crappiest (and thus cheapest) airline. No name-calling, but their concept is to sell very cheap plane tickets and charging you for every little bit of extra you might need. Example: ticket 10 Euros, credit card fee 10 Euros, one piece of claimed baggage 30 Euros, food 8 Euros, a small coke 5 euros, get a smile from the staff -priceless-, life vest under your seat! please insert 2 Euros, using the bathroom 1,50... and so on (ok, 2 of these I invented). During the flight, you don't get a single minute of silence because they permanently try to sell you all kinds of stuff (lottery tickets, food, duty free items and much more).
Bottomline: if you don't have any baggage and can psycologically put up with the most aggravating people ever, it's a cheap way to travel.
I wasn't sure what to use my voucher on. But yesterday I was convinced by four Italian friends to go with them to Amsterdam. And I booked... with the voucher I paid almost nothing.
Amsterdam is a strange destination. I wanted to use the voucher to travel in Italy and now I am going to a place that's close to my home.
But I thought about it for a while and concluded:
1. I have never been to Amsterdam.
2. I have already travelled in Italy (quite a lot), but I have never travelled with Italians.
3. I would love to spend a few days with those 4 Italians (3 girls& 1 guy), they are my best friends here in this city (well not all 4, two of them).
4. We will probably have a place to sleep (for free). "Probably" is what is making this trip more exciting. I heard there's a lot of nice bridges in Amsterdam that we can sleep under.
So... let's go!
(We're going on April 24th)
But above all ;-) my friends gave me a wonderful gift: a voucher for Europe's crappiest (and thus cheapest) airline. No name-calling, but their concept is to sell very cheap plane tickets and charging you for every little bit of extra you might need. Example: ticket 10 Euros, credit card fee 10 Euros, one piece of claimed baggage 30 Euros, food 8 Euros, a small coke 5 euros, get a smile from the staff -priceless-, life vest under your seat! please insert 2 Euros, using the bathroom 1,50... and so on (ok, 2 of these I invented). During the flight, you don't get a single minute of silence because they permanently try to sell you all kinds of stuff (lottery tickets, food, duty free items and much more).
Bottomline: if you don't have any baggage and can psycologically put up with the most aggravating people ever, it's a cheap way to travel.
I wasn't sure what to use my voucher on. But yesterday I was convinced by four Italian friends to go with them to Amsterdam. And I booked... with the voucher I paid almost nothing.
Amsterdam is a strange destination. I wanted to use the voucher to travel in Italy and now I am going to a place that's close to my home.
But I thought about it for a while and concluded:
1. I have never been to Amsterdam.
2. I have already travelled in Italy (quite a lot), but I have never travelled with Italians.
3. I would love to spend a few days with those 4 Italians (3 girls& 1 guy), they are my best friends here in this city (well not all 4, two of them).
4. We will probably have a place to sleep (for free). "Probably" is what is making this trip more exciting. I heard there's a lot of nice bridges in Amsterdam that we can sleep under.
So... let's go!
(We're going on April 24th)
2010/03/14
The funniest thing.
Bari, Saturday, March 13th:
I went to the university main building because I needed to get some paperwork done. Here they have forms that you have to turn in before an exam, during an exam, and after an exam... and I was in need of a form (modello 100) that has to be turned in during and after the exam... oh well, forget about it.
I entered the building and, after two foot steps, was stopped by a scary looking security guard. "Stop!". Startled and not understanding, I looked at him... how had he discovered the bomb I was carrying with me in order to blow up the university?? No, he couldn't have, so I pretended to be a harmless student.
"I can't enter?". "What do you want?". "Well... this is the university... I'm a student...". I didn't know how to explain myself, the situation could not have been any clearer.
"Well, you cannot enter, it is Saturday.". I looked around. The entrance door was widely open, there were people walking around. "But...." I made a gesture towards the other people. "It is Saturday. Students cannot enter the university today." "I just need to get a form." "Come back monday.".
Hehe... awesome... I found a country where students are not allowed to enter their university! Might stay here for the rest of my life.
I went to the university main building because I needed to get some paperwork done. Here they have forms that you have to turn in before an exam, during an exam, and after an exam... and I was in need of a form (modello 100) that has to be turned in during and after the exam... oh well, forget about it.
I entered the building and, after two foot steps, was stopped by a scary looking security guard. "Stop!". Startled and not understanding, I looked at him... how had he discovered the bomb I was carrying with me in order to blow up the university?? No, he couldn't have, so I pretended to be a harmless student.
"I can't enter?". "What do you want?". "Well... this is the university... I'm a student...". I didn't know how to explain myself, the situation could not have been any clearer.
"Well, you cannot enter, it is Saturday.". I looked around. The entrance door was widely open, there were people walking around. "But...." I made a gesture towards the other people. "It is Saturday. Students cannot enter the university today." "I just need to get a form." "Come back monday.".
Hehe... awesome... I found a country where students are not allowed to enter their university! Might stay here for the rest of my life.
2010/03/03
Internship part 2
I've been meaning to tell you about the other day that I spent in surgery - the day when I learnt a LOT of new cursewords. The day, when a surgery table crashed with a pregnant woman on it and an old lady (already in spinal anesthesia thus conscious but benumbed) had to wait hours for her surgery because the professor couldn't find his instruments. Oh yes, it was also the day when a woman getting a cesarean (C-section, German: Kaiserschnitt) had her bladder, well, "drilled" (they accidentally cut the bladder instead of the uterus). Oh yea, that day was quite interesting. But if I told you more about it, you might just never step foot in a hospital again - trust me, these things don't happen exclusively in Italy.
So instead I will tell you about today: the day when I learnt a new receipe for lasagna with squash and mushrooms. Food is one of the major concerns of every Italian, if not THE major concern. Thus it happened this morning that two doctors, while carrying on a quite complicated examination (during which the patient was conscious and suffering from pain), started chatting about the receipe mentioned above. A pity I don't have a video of that, but imagine it like this:
Doctor 1: "Soo... what did you have for dinner yesterday?" (Typical beginning of a conversation in Italy, by the way)
Doctor 2: "Oh, I tried this new receipe - lasagna with squash and mushrooms."
D1: "Without tomatoes?"
D2: "Yes."
D1: "But how can you make lasagna without tomatoes?"
Patient: "Oouuuuuch!"
D2: "Well, it's a very good the receipe... even without tomatoes. You should try."
Assistant: "Do you put bechamel sauce in it?"
D2: "No, I don't like bechamel sauce."
Patient: "Ouch, ouch, ouch."
Professor (comes in): "So what do you use as a liquid? You need some liquid to make lasagna."
Patient: "Is my tumor benign?"
D2: "The juice of the squad and mushrooms and some cream or milk, as you like."
and so on...
Another major concern of Italians is their cell phone. Everyone has at least three ;-) and keeps using and playing around with them all the time. In Germany, cell phones are forbidden in hospitals. In Italy, they probably don't let you enter without. At least so it seems... everyone, no matter if doctor, nurse or patient is constantly texting or calling people or they even surf the internet! Openly, without going in a separate room, in presence of their boss or a patient. All that during working hours, of course. Today one of the nurses was even taking pictures of her colleagues with her new iphone while an examination (ultrasound of a pregnant woman) was carried on. Now imagine you're the pregnant woman and someone is taking pics of the people examining you!!!
Another thing I've noticed (but if you're not a medically inclined person you might not find it exceptional): In Germany, every 2 metres there's disinfectant, and you use it... a million times a day. After every little move you make, you have to disinfect your hands. Here, I haven't seen any disinfectant. Nowhere. Nowhere, nowhere, nowhere.
I asked for it yesterday, and was shown where I could find a sink to wash my hands (there was soap, at least), but no disinfectant - and we all know washing your hands is not the same as disinfecting them. Even in surgery they don't have disinfectant (liquid), just disinfecting soap.
Everyone, keep praying that you and I will never get hospitalised in bella Italia.
So instead I will tell you about today: the day when I learnt a new receipe for lasagna with squash and mushrooms. Food is one of the major concerns of every Italian, if not THE major concern. Thus it happened this morning that two doctors, while carrying on a quite complicated examination (during which the patient was conscious and suffering from pain), started chatting about the receipe mentioned above. A pity I don't have a video of that, but imagine it like this:
Doctor 1: "Soo... what did you have for dinner yesterday?" (Typical beginning of a conversation in Italy, by the way)
Doctor 2: "Oh, I tried this new receipe - lasagna with squash and mushrooms."
D1: "Without tomatoes?"
D2: "Yes."
D1: "But how can you make lasagna without tomatoes?"
Patient: "Oouuuuuch!"
D2: "Well, it's a very good the receipe... even without tomatoes. You should try."
Assistant: "Do you put bechamel sauce in it?"
D2: "No, I don't like bechamel sauce."
Patient: "Ouch, ouch, ouch."
Professor (comes in): "So what do you use as a liquid? You need some liquid to make lasagna."
Patient: "Is my tumor benign?"
D2: "The juice of the squad and mushrooms and some cream or milk, as you like."
and so on...
Another major concern of Italians is their cell phone. Everyone has at least three ;-) and keeps using and playing around with them all the time. In Germany, cell phones are forbidden in hospitals. In Italy, they probably don't let you enter without. At least so it seems... everyone, no matter if doctor, nurse or patient is constantly texting or calling people or they even surf the internet! Openly, without going in a separate room, in presence of their boss or a patient. All that during working hours, of course. Today one of the nurses was even taking pictures of her colleagues with her new iphone while an examination (ultrasound of a pregnant woman) was carried on. Now imagine you're the pregnant woman and someone is taking pics of the people examining you!!!
Another thing I've noticed (but if you're not a medically inclined person you might not find it exceptional): In Germany, every 2 metres there's disinfectant, and you use it... a million times a day. After every little move you make, you have to disinfect your hands. Here, I haven't seen any disinfectant. Nowhere. Nowhere, nowhere, nowhere.
I asked for it yesterday, and was shown where I could find a sink to wash my hands (there was soap, at least), but no disinfectant - and we all know washing your hands is not the same as disinfecting them. Even in surgery they don't have disinfectant (liquid), just disinfecting soap.
Everyone, keep praying that you and I will never get hospitalised in bella Italia.
2010/03/02
How to make coffee:
"Screw the coffeemaker and place on low heat."
(Instructions in English on the package of a coffee machine).
For picture click here
(Instructions in English on the package of a coffee machine).
For picture click here
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