The word umarell is Bolognese to describe elderly men, particularly elderly men who like to observe construction sites with their hands clasped officiously behind their backs. They are often seen peering through holes in barriers or mentioning to workers that they would drill that hole differently. They are also found sitting outside gelaterie and bars [...]
Archive for the ‘year 1’ Category
#29: Umarell; #9: Baking ingredients
Posted in photographic, year 1 on Monday 20 June, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
foreign
Posted in reflective, year 1, tagged foreign on Sunday 24 August, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
(This isn’t written out of bitterness or resentfulness or even a bad evening; actually, I had a lovely evening. But even pleasant conversations can trigger odd realizations.) When I was a freshman at Middlebury, I had several international student friends – from Romania, from Greece, from China, from Venezuela. They spoke English fluently, understood everything [...]
la vita estiva
Posted in reflective, summer, year 1, tagged beach, culture, Italian idiosyncracies, summer on Wednesday 13 August, 2008 | 1 Comment »
For a people with such a fun-loving reputation, the Italians are very serious about some things – coffee, for instance, and food. As it turns out, they also take their summer holidays – le ferie – very seriously as well. Although I’ve been in Italy during the summer plenty of times before, this is my [...]
bitte?
Posted in descriptive, humorous, summer, year 1, tagged Alto-Adige, Bolzano, food, trips on Friday 1 August, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
So you think you know Italy…and then you go to the Alto-Adige. We had been sitting by the river in Verona, preparing to return to Bologna and paging idly through the Let’s Go guide. One of us noted that the description of Bolzano looked lovely. Then we noted that it was only an hour or [...]
In fair Verona…
Posted in descriptive, photographic, summer, year 1, tagged opera, trips, Veneto, Verona on Friday 1 August, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
So Natalie and I bought tickets to go see “Carmen” at the Roman arena in Verona. Since the opera runs late, we decided to make a trip of it and spend the night. So off we went to Verona a week ago, and arrived to find a charming little town (albet one that’s overrun by [...]
seeking WHAT?
Posted in humorous, summer, year 1, tagged job-hunting, the absurd on Thursday 31 July, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I promise I have SEVERAL updates waiting in the wings to be transliterated from paper to screen, but for now I feel compelled to share a couple choice ads from the “Jobs” section of the Craigslist Rome: ——– Cercasi Musa (internet) (translation: Seeking Muse) why not help a poet while helping society as well? do [...]
all my students go on vacation
Posted in regular, summer, year 1, tagged goodbyes, students on Thursday 24 July, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Tonight was my last lesson with two of my students. It’s sad saying goodbye to all these great students who probably would continue with me next year if I were staying. But I will find good students everywhere…including Rome.
too much food and more separation anxiety
Posted in regular, summer, year 1, tagged food, friends, goodbyes on Sunday 20 July, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
It’s been an exhausting couple of days lately–also a filling couple of days, for some reason I found myself repeatedly in restaurants eating far too much food. Julia’s leaving was pretty devastating, as you can read below, but I was distracted from brooding over it by being nervous about going to dinner with Riccardo that [...]
Julia
Posted in photographic, reflective, summer, year 1, tagged friends, goodbyes, roommates on Wednesday 16 July, 2008 | 1 Comment »
So Julia leaves today. All the good-bye festivities were lovely–she and Natalie and I had dinner at an excellent restaurant where they stuff you with food until you’re sick. Then last night Giulio had an goodbye party for her at his house that was meant to recreate the first evening we met them. He made [...]
summer in Bologna
Posted in regular, summer, year 1, tagged Dad, Ferrara, friends, graduation, summer on Monday 7 July, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
From: charlesamurray@comcast.net Subject: not a whole lot of blogging recently. Date: July 2, 2008 To: anna.cox.murray@gmail.com Yours, Disgruntled —– With that kind of fatherly encouragement, I thought I’d include an update or two… PAST – Natalie has arrived! She arrived in one piece last Wednesday, and has already taught her first lesson, to her relief. [...]
