I need to watch that movie when I get back to the US. This is the view outside my window, which is directly across from my bed - what a glorious way to wake up! Especially when I wake up with the birds at 5:30 - they start singing to tell the sun to get up, and me too, I guess. (You all know I'm a morning person.) I'm actually living in a hotel about a km from the lab - LNF (Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati). In any event, the view is waaaay better than the construction site I got to see (and hear) while I was at Oxford. I'm actually in a handicapped room - which is funny because it is on the first floor, only since this is a villa-style building (the name of the hotel is the Villa Mercede), that means that to get to it, I walk in the lobby, up one flight of stairs, down a hall, then down two flights of stairs. There are of course (very small) lifts, but the whole situation is rather amusing. Also because every time I take a shower my bathroom gets slightly flooded (I'm an expert at taking a shower with almost no water now!) I considered asking to change rooms but when I was looking at the floorplan posted for emergency exits, I decided that the position of the window in relation to my bed was worth the price of a slightly flooded bathroom. So I bought some paper towels at the supermercato and am content. You'll notice also in the picture my begonia - I named it Vittoria and practice my Italian on it (and perhaps pretend that I'm like Alice in Wonderland talking to the flowers...) - I bought it my first Sunday here (when I was finally properly awake) at L'Angolo Dei Fiori (The Flower Corner) from a lady who doesn't speak any English (and as I don't really speak any Italian, I'm rather proud of the accomplishment - the little things count!). I also have una televisione piccola with about 10 channels. Only one is in inglese - CNN - so I have been getting caught up on world news. (Which is not a bad thing, since I tend to isolate myself from the news while I'm at school.) It has also been somewhat of a novelty to find The Lord of the Rings on one of the channels - I'm expecting part 3 this coming sabato. Luckily I have watched these movies enough that I basically know what is being said, in spite of the dubbed italiano (one of the guys in my lab group is from Romania - he said that he is impressed that the Italians take the trouble to dub everything; in Romania, imported shows and movies are in English with subtitles). CNN has just finished up a "Going Green"-themed week, and I found two reports particularly interesting. One was the idea (still very much in the idea stage, but with promise for future implementation) of vertical agrigulture - basically imagine a skyscraper that has sprouted corn and you've got the idea. I think it sounds pretty cool, and it will be interesting to see if it actually turns up in a few years (and by a few, I could mean 20). The other is something already in use - pollutant-fighting cement! Actually I really liked this story - the origins of the cement date to the construction of a church commissioned by the pope to celebrate 2000 years of Christianity. The architect of course designed a very modern building, with a concrete and glass exterior. However, he didn't want the concrete to get dirty with time but rather to stay white, so he hired an Italian cement company to work on the problem. Only after creating it and in the process of conducting some tests on it did the company realize that in sunlight, whatever they're adding to the cement reacts with pollutants and breaks them down into nonpollutants (well, I'm tired and not very eloquent at the moment). Apparently a few places in Rome have been paved with it and are under study (obviously damage to all of the old buildings due to pollution is a major concern here). It's amazing what you learn when you watch the news.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
A Room with a View
I need to watch that movie when I get back to the US. This is the view outside my window, which is directly across from my bed - what a glorious way to wake up! Especially when I wake up with the birds at 5:30 - they start singing to tell the sun to get up, and me too, I guess. (You all know I'm a morning person.) I'm actually living in a hotel about a km from the lab - LNF (Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati). In any event, the view is waaaay better than the construction site I got to see (and hear) while I was at Oxford. I'm actually in a handicapped room - which is funny because it is on the first floor, only since this is a villa-style building (the name of the hotel is the Villa Mercede), that means that to get to it, I walk in the lobby, up one flight of stairs, down a hall, then down two flights of stairs. There are of course (very small) lifts, but the whole situation is rather amusing. Also because every time I take a shower my bathroom gets slightly flooded (I'm an expert at taking a shower with almost no water now!) I considered asking to change rooms but when I was looking at the floorplan posted for emergency exits, I decided that the position of the window in relation to my bed was worth the price of a slightly flooded bathroom. So I bought some paper towels at the supermercato and am content. You'll notice also in the picture my begonia - I named it Vittoria and practice my Italian on it (and perhaps pretend that I'm like Alice in Wonderland talking to the flowers...) - I bought it my first Sunday here (when I was finally properly awake) at L'Angolo Dei Fiori (The Flower Corner) from a lady who doesn't speak any English (and as I don't really speak any Italian, I'm rather proud of the accomplishment - the little things count!). I also have una televisione piccola with about 10 channels. Only one is in inglese - CNN - so I have been getting caught up on world news. (Which is not a bad thing, since I tend to isolate myself from the news while I'm at school.) It has also been somewhat of a novelty to find The Lord of the Rings on one of the channels - I'm expecting part 3 this coming sabato. Luckily I have watched these movies enough that I basically know what is being said, in spite of the dubbed italiano (one of the guys in my lab group is from Romania - he said that he is impressed that the Italians take the trouble to dub everything; in Romania, imported shows and movies are in English with subtitles). CNN has just finished up a "Going Green"-themed week, and I found two reports particularly interesting. One was the idea (still very much in the idea stage, but with promise for future implementation) of vertical agrigulture - basically imagine a skyscraper that has sprouted corn and you've got the idea. I think it sounds pretty cool, and it will be interesting to see if it actually turns up in a few years (and by a few, I could mean 20). The other is something already in use - pollutant-fighting cement! Actually I really liked this story - the origins of the cement date to the construction of a church commissioned by the pope to celebrate 2000 years of Christianity. The architect of course designed a very modern building, with a concrete and glass exterior. However, he didn't want the concrete to get dirty with time but rather to stay white, so he hired an Italian cement company to work on the problem. Only after creating it and in the process of conducting some tests on it did the company realize that in sunlight, whatever they're adding to the cement reacts with pollutants and breaks them down into nonpollutants (well, I'm tired and not very eloquent at the moment). Apparently a few places in Rome have been paved with it and are under study (obviously damage to all of the old buildings due to pollution is a major concern here). It's amazing what you learn when you watch the news.
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1 comment:
That's the view from your window?? It's AMAZING. Are you living with other people?
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