Villasimius

Saturday, June 19th was quite eventful. It started off by going to Villasimius for the afternoon! The weather here has been funky here in Cagliari, and there were thunderstorms and rain throughout the week. On Saturday, we were a little apprehensive to go to Villasimius because it was a little windy and cloudy, but we decided to go anyway since we saw some sun which was a welcome change to the rain. We headed down to the ARST station, which was also conveniently located next to McDonalds! Who knew that their soft-serve ice cream and Big Mac ever tasted so good? We then boarded the bus and began our one and half our journey.

The ride to Villasimius was unexpectedly gorgeous. Cagliari and Villasimius are separated by a patch of hills. Going through this patch of hills was such an awesome experience, and it left me excited for what other parts of Sardinia (and rest of Italy) has to offer. These hills were rocky, and they formed towering cliffs along side the clear blue Mediterranean Sea. The hills were inhabited by Mediterranean vegetation like cacti, low shrubs, and bushes. Almost etched into the cliffs were idyllic summer homes that complemented the color palette of the hills like muted yellow and orange facades and terracotta roofs. Once you get closer to the ocean, we found gorgeous, vibrant orange honey suckles along with bright magenta and yellow flowers. The drive back was even more beautiful because the sun was starting to set, and you could see some of the sun’s rays piercing through the patch clouds. The nearby beach town to Villasimius was also really cute. It was about a ten minute walk from the actual beach, but this town had trendy boutiques and restaurants along with local and touristy souvenir shops. The beach itself was beautiful (not to mention the beautiful life guards) even with the cloudy weather. Soft white sand contrasted with the very clear Mediterranean water. I probably went out into the sea where the water level was up to my chin, and I could still see my feet and the white sand below me! I wish it was sunnier so that the pictures that I took from that day could show how beautiful this beach is. We will definitely be coming back in the future, so hopefully I can show some better pictures! But for the meantime, you can see some below.

After five hours at Villasimius, we came back to Cagliari at around 8pm. We then got ready to go out for dinner. Mimi and I are trying to save as much money for August by staying in and cooking most meals during the week, but we agreed that we can “live it up” by going out to one nice restaurant every Saturday night. This week, we ate at the Tex-Mex place I mentioned earlier called “El Dorado”. The décor of the place deceives how delicious their food is. We bought ourselves a medium (we thought it was a large at first) Sirloin steak for dinner because all we ever cook during the week are light pasta stir-fries, and we were dying for some red meat. The sirloin steak definitely hit the spot, and we came out of dinner feeling very content.

Shortly after dinner, we got ready to go out and explore the nightlife of the town. We started off by checking out the trendy bars on top of the Bastione di San Remey and ended up at Piazza Yenne at the end of the night. We finally met cute Italian boys, and it was fun hanging out with them. We came back to the apartment at 6am, and as a result had a very lazy Sunday. Peace.

Andiamo alla spiaggia!

This week was the most laid-back so far. For one, we didn’t get to work last Thursday and Friday! We were going to take TEM images at the medical campus later in the afternoon on Thursday, but it turns out that the professor who was going to help us take the images landed herself at the hospital! She thought she was able to come back on Friday, but turns out she couldn’t get out. But that was good news for us because we didn’t have to work!!! So on Thursday we finally went to Il Poetto (closest beach) in the morning. It was a little windy and cloudy in the morning, but the heat / humidity balanced out the dreary morning. We arrived to Il Poetto at around 10am and left at around 12:30pm to go to lab (at the time, we didn’t know the TEM imaging session was cancelled). Il Poetto is definitely the beach everyone goes to. Even on a Thursday morning it was quite crowded! Mimi and I didn’t fully enjoy it until Saturday afternoon. It was a sunny, cloudless day and it was also pretty humid. We rolled into the beach at around 2pm, and it was prettier than the first time we came! The Mediterranean beach was blue, and you have rocky cliffs of Cagliari in the background to your right and left. There were people playing paddle ball, sailing, swimming, and definitely tanning. It’s kind of funny because the men here take tanning as seriously as the women! The beach isn’t as pretty as some other beaches I have seen though, but it is sufficient enough to meet our beach needs for the summer. Il Poetto is also where all the discotecas are located, so I feel like we will be coming here more often. Next week, we plan on going to a nearby city called Villasimius. There, the beaches may rival the ones in Culebra, Puerto Rico. Supposedly, there is fine white sand everywhere and crystal blue Mediterranean water!

On Friday, Mimi and I finalized our tour of Italy we will be taking in August! From July 31^st to August 28^th, we will be travelling to the following cities: Genoa (and the nearby Cinque Terre), Turin, Milan, Venice, Rimini (and nearby Bologna, Ravenna, and San Marino), Pisa, Florence, Rome, Syracuse, and Naples (and nearby Pompeii and Capri Islands). I AM SO EXCITED. Planning this trip also made me realize that I may need to go over budget. By a lot. Oops.  

We also have gotten to familiarize ourselves with Italian culture. Here are some things we’ve learned: (1) No on eats dinner until 8pm the earliest, and many restaurants even open until midnight to serve you dinner. We went out to this cute Italian restaurant on Saturday night, and we came at around 8:30pm only to realize that this restaurant was fairly empty. We look over at their hours and it says “Open from 20:00-24:00 for dinner”. Seriously, I don’t know how Italian eat dinner so late! I was starving by 8:30pm! (2) Italians have an EXPENSIVE lifestyle. Not only is a typical dinner quite expensive, but so are the clothes. There were so many times when I really wanted to buy some cute heels or a pair of pants, but I had to refrain myself from buying them. Today (Sunday) when we went window shopping, I purposefully didn’t bring any cash with me so I wouldn’t be tempted to buy stuff. Grr, I hate being on a budget. I just keep telling myself that the money I save now will let me enjoy my August trip more. Can you believe that Mango, Zara, and Miss Sixty are relatively the cheaper stores around here? Seriously?!?! (3) Nightlife does not start around until 11:30pm the earliest. And Cagliari wins the award for having a variety of bars. On Friday we found this pretty cheap, but fun bar called Foghorns. They have these awesome specials everyday (like Mexican Mondays!) and pretty cheap drinks. The quirkiest thing about this bar is that they give you an unlimited supply of peanuts, and they WANT you to through the peanut shells on the floor. Walking through that bar was definitely…crunchy. On our way to Foghorns, we also discovered a cheap American / Mexican place. I almost cried tears of joy. Recently, I’ve been craving either Mexican food or sushi, so finding this place was excellent. Later during the weekend, we also found an advertisement for a sushi restaurant, and I almost cried tears of joy then too. Though I don’t know how well Italians can make these types of food. I say this because we went to another bar last night called the Kubick lounge, which advertised itself as an American bar. We immediately ordered familiar drinks: amaretto sour and a long island ice tea. When we ordered, the Italian bartender just gave us confused looks, and had to look at the menu to figure out what were in these drinks. He did a good effort, but these drinks were definitely not up to par with the ones you can find in real American bars. (4) Bars or pubs are structured a little differently here. There are very few places that are “bars” in the American sense. Instead of a place where many people pack in to buy drinks, hang out with friends, and start a conversation with a random person, here most bars are outdoors and not necessarily conducive to meeting random people. Because it’s summer time, most bars have an outdoor seating areas / tables in the piazza where your party can enjoy the weather and your drink. While this is nice, the only downfall is the meeting-random-people part. However, this wasn’t necessarily a problem for us because (5) most Italians have never seen an Asian person in their life. I don’t know whether to feel like a celebrity or the bearded woman because every time we go out I can always catch a passerby saying “Woahhhh that’s a Japanese / Chinese person!” or the ever annoying phrase “Nee-how!” There were already several instances when we’ve been approached by strangers to take pictures with us and/or ask us if we really did come straight from China. It’s funny to see their faces when we tell them we’re actually from America lol. 

Thanks for reading. Peace.

Shopping

I went shopping near there today :) There is this one street in Cagliari where all the nice shops are, and it's called Via Manno which eventually turns into Via Garibaldi. The street passes by Bastion San Remey, which is pictured above (thanks to Google images). Peace.

L'isola di Gelato

Right now I’m eating a vanilla gelato with coconut, caramel, and nuts mixed into it. This is the fourth time this week I’ve eaten gelato after dinner. I can’t help myself!!! Piazza Yenne is down the street from my apartment and there is this fantastic gelateria called “L’isola del Gelato” or “Gelato Island”. I mentioned this place during my first blog, and that time I estimated 20+ flavors of gelato. WRONG. I actually counted today and there are about 50 different types of crazy gelato flavors you could choose from, including yogurt options for those of us watching our beach figures. I don’t really know how a yogurt gelato is supposed to taste like, but it just seems odd to me. Who wouldn’t want this creamy deliciousness?!?! The unique thing about this place is that all their flavors are crazy…there is no normal vanilla or chocolate gelato in sight. They have nutella flavor, Ringo, Kit Kat, coconut, raisins, gummy worms, and other assortment of sweets mixed into it. I think I’ve gone there so frequently this week that one of the servers even recognizes me. “Eyyyy! You’re that girl from the US! I remember you!” he would exclaim as I order my gelato of choice. If I’m in the mood for a plainer flavor, I go to the place next door.
I haven’t ventured out to try any authentic Italian dishes just yet. Not only am I trying to save money on food by cooking, but I’m also still hooked on the most basic types of food Italy and Sardinia has to offer. Dinky slices of white bread we normally use for sandwiches? They’re for WIMPS. The bread here is so fresh and there are so many different kinds to choose from! They’re so soft on the inside, crunchy on the outside. Any type of cheese is delicious. And when you go to any market, the vegetable selections are (in my opinion) better and cheaper than what you could find in the states. Their pastries, pizza, and sandwiches you find in most bars are also awesome. Interestingly, the more popular type of pizza is called pizza a taglia, which essentially looks like flatbread folded in half with tomato sauce, basil, and mozzarella stuck inside. Oh! I almost forgot to mention that Sardinians, at least, are mildly obsessed with either espresso or nectarine juice. Haven’t tried their espresso yet, but in almost any building I go to, including my lab, you can always find some elaborate vending machine that makes many different kinds of coffee you want. This machine even pours your sugar, cream, or milk, and it even gives you a little stirring stick mix your espresso. I did try their nectarine juice, and it tastes like heaven. They are literally freshly squeezed from nectarine because it’s not as watery as most juices, but thick and awesome. Can you tell I’m eating a lot here?
 Peace.

Il Laboratorio

Working in Professoressa Baroli’s lab for the past three days has been interesting so far. The walk from my apartment to the lab is at least an adventure. The lab is situated on top of a hill next to the Castello district that overlooks the entire city, while my apartment on Via Sassari is pretty much at sea level. This hill can be as steep as those in San Francisco. I would have to walk about ten to fifteen minutes to get to the lab every morning, and during that time my legs are certainly getting a good workout! I forgot to mention that I will probably get hit by a car at least once by the end of this summer. Many major intersections lack traffic signals or signs, so you would have to start walking through a street and hope that cars will see and stop for you. There have been many instances when I almost got hit by a distracted driver or by those darn vespas that whiz past you while you’re walking on Cagliari’s narrow sidewalks.

Once you get to the lab, I try to greet Professoressa Baroli in her office before I go into the lab, which is next to her office. Professoressa Baroli is extremely nice and way too elegant to be a PI. For instance, while I was finishing up some administrative paperwork with her this morning, I noticed how nicely she dressed: nice light blue Chanel blouse with her Chanel reading glasses, YSL sunglasses delicately perched on top of her head, and gigantic sapphire ring that glistened from the sun. Not only is she very elegant, but she is very personable. Every phone call she receives or visitors she meets, she carries out fairly lengthy conversations that are full of laughter as well as business. Professoressa Baroli is definitely someone I had imagined when I think about Italian women. Signs of a researcher can also be seen. She wears the mandatory jeans and close toed shoes, and less noticeable, she is very meticulous, direct, and organized which is the personality I’m normally used to seeing from all my biology professors.

After I greet her, I go into the lab and help Carla or Marianna with whatever they need to get done for the day. Carla speaks better English than Marianna, but both are very nice and try do a great job of explaining what they are doing or making casual conversation. We tentatively set up a system where they would speak to me in English and I would speak to them in Italian, so that we can both learn and become better at speaking each other’s languages. There’s actually more down time than I expected; the Italians really do work slower! But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The people who I encountered with so far really take the time to understand everything that surround the experiment, and are very meticulous with everything…almost a little too meticulous. For instance, we spent the whole day today taking nearly perfect electron microscopy images of nanoparticles. I am so used to having to run, on average, 3 different experiments on a given day for my UROP that sometimes I lose track of what I’ve done or make silly mistakes during an experiment. Then again, I guess it’s a question about efficiency: on one hand, you work slower and will probably produce fewer results over a certain time period compared to someone working faster. On the flip side, the chances of you making unnecessary, maybe time-consuming mistakes are lower when you work slower than when you work faster. This sounds like a 14.01 problem….Anyways, for now, I’m still running on an MIT schedule, so working this slow is slightly discomforting (sadly), but by the end of the summer I will probably welcome the slower pace. The question could also apply to the pace in which we go through life. For me, I guess I never really bothered to stop and smell the roses. I should definitely try it during senior year. That’s it for now- more to come later!