They're Sending Me a Picture of the Moon

This weekend was pretty fun...

On Saturday we had a tour of the city, well, a few of the sights of Bologna.  It was rather short, and I had seen some of them, but it was interesting nonetheless.   It only lasted about 2 hours.  We visited a few of the churches and cathedrals as well as a couple of the older libraries of the city.   It's hard to believe how ancient this city is -- it's hard to fathom, coming from a country that is less than 250 years old, and "civilized" not much more than 500 years that there where I stand (or more appropriately, sit) twenty-seven centuries ago there was thriving city. 

Afterwards I had lunch with a new Russian friend, Irina, from Moscow.  We weren't in the mood to hunt for a place to eat, so we settled for McDonalds.  Jesus it's expensive.  Well, everything is expensive here -- we were both under the impression that Moscow was soooo expensive, but we agreed that this place was MUCH more expensive.  For instance, my 6 piece chicken McNugget meal was 6.80 Euro...or $9.65.  I'm serious... and that's with no free refills.    I don't recall them being that expensive in Moscow.  The only thing that was good is that they have seasoned curly fries here (or what they call... Potate Vertigo or something like that.).

Afterwards I pedalled home and took a short nap.  I had to leave my clothes out to dry because they were drenched from Friday night's storm.   When I woke up, I met up with Maurizio.  We went to the Anti-MTV festival which was exactly what it sounded like.  It wasn't my type of music -- pretty much like a bunch of hardcore revival bands and a few metal acts.  That's not bad, in fact, I enjoyed it for the fact that it reminded me of Corpus like... 2002/3.  Just like I didn't fit in then, I don't fit in now, but at the same time, just like I fit in then, I fit in now.  I know that doesn't make much sense to those who didn't know me then, but I suppose for the few that read that and did, they'll know what I mean.  I had a good time meeting a bunch of new people and whatnot.  We left a few hours early and hit up a bar to have a couple of beers.  I left home sometime around 3.  Good times.  

On Sunday I tried, unsuccessfully, to sleep in.  I immediately got to work on studying for my midterm.  Maurizio called me around noon and asked if I wanted lunch.  He was making carbonara.  I couldn't refuse... I mean, who would?  Had lunch and it was great.  Real carbonara (like most Italian cuisine) is much different from their American counterparts -- there is no cream in real carbonara -- atleast according to my friend.  He said adding it is sacrilege...well, that's not entirely true, he just said it's different and not a part of the original recipe.  Maurizio is infatuated with post-apocalyptic movies so we watched The Happening, and as expected, we were both disappointed.  

Afterwards I went home and studied.  I made the mistake, on Saturday, of not getting groceries -- pretty much everything is closed on Sunday, so there was nothing to buy or eat.  I had to resort to eating what I had in my cupboards... potatoes, onions, and garlic.  Wonderful.  So I made some awesome french fries.

Today I got to school, classes...etc.  Nothing much to report about that.  One good thing, though, I found a place around the corner from the university that has pizza for 5.50 Euro, and it comes with a free coke.  I know where I'm going everyday now...woot!