Friday, July 25, 2008

Lab Day Three

Today's lab day was pretty uneventful. For some reason, Julian decided he should take an hour and a half to show us stuff like how he takes attendance at his school in France. I think his point was to talk about data management but it was boring as all get out so it wasn't a great start to the day. After the coffee break at 11, we learned how to use a computer-quiz-making site sort of like Quia, which could have some use for me in the future...maybe. Lunch was risotto-stuffed tomatoes with green salad and roast potatoes. They are really laying on the carbs at lunch! Plus the woman who makes most of the food also owns a bakery down the street so her dolce (sweets or desserts) are very good and you can't not eat them lolol. After lunch we FINALLY got around to being able to work on our own pictures for a bit. I figured out how to get them from the camera onto the lab computer and then onto my flash drive, then played around with some editing tools we learned on Wednesday. By the time the workshop day was over, I felt like I had actually accomplished something, but after taking the bus home, I really made some strides in the area of Italian living. I had bought a product called "Santa Lucia Croccarelle Extra Croccante Mozzarella e Proscuitto Cotto." Now, I think you can figure most of that out, especially if you pronounce the 'cc' in 'croccante' as CH. How good does that sound?!?!? It's basically fresh mozzarella cheese with bits of prosciutto in it, breaded with crispy rice, then you cook it "4 minuti in padella." Luckily there was a picture of a frying pan since I wasn't sure on padella. I decided that was going to be today's afternoon snack, but first I had to figure out how to turn on the gas, then how to turn on the right burner, then how to light the gas stove without blowing myself and/or my roommates up. And I was successful!!! Yay! Unfortunately, I should have put some oil in the pan but we didn't have any, so the outer parts got a little burnt, but hey, what can you do? Since I was on a roll, I decided to try to do a load of laundry. The washing machine is a tiny little front loader. There are two settings: one is a picture of what looks like a cloud, and the other has two pictures - a chemistry beaker and a leaf. I went with the cloud, thinking maybe it means cotton. The dial had a 'rapid' setting so I went with that, and then I pushed at the three buttons in the middle until a light came on. A mere 20 minutes later, and I had clean clothes that are now drying on a rack in the cool Roman breeze. Tonight a bunch of us are going to see an outdoor play called "The History of Rome Part One." It's in English, and from what I understand, it's pretty Monty Python-ish so that should be fun. We'll grab some dinner after that and have an early night since tomorrow we have to be at the bus station at 7:15 as we are off to Pompeii for an overnight. I'm not bringing the laptop along, so I'll be out of touch until Sunday night. Hope everyone has a great weekend!!! Ciao! Oh, PS to those who are interested, I've had a little time today so I added some links to the blog if you want to go back and check them out!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You write very well.