Life’s like a Milkshake, just to stick a little more on the American stereotypes.
Or at least, life has being like that this month in Cornell.
You take a good base ingredient, strong. Then you start adding flavors, more or less chemical, because the shake has to have the taste you expect. But you also mix by accident or by chance  some nice stuff: “may contains peanuts”, and if you are not allergic, you enjoy. Unless the plus ingredient is Tapioca, it’s obvious!
And of course, you mix. Shaking is the secret, gives you the… shake  you need, creates little bubbles, smooths the ingredients.
How does all of this connect with me? In these weeks, I have searched for the TrueAmericanExperiences. I wanted to leave my personal American dream; which may of course not correspond to the actual America [is anyway a campus-life ever close to real life, even in Europe? We may discuss about that..], but for sure is a big mix of everything.

In my journey, I have an old friend playing along with me, showing me  the path. To the most careful readers, that could sound as a quote of Alice in the (US) Wonderland following the white rabbit; I had already met him in my previous visit to Cornell, remember?  But I am afraid I will disappoint you. I am not so poetic today. Rather, this looks to me more like a crossover in a tv series! you know, when just to increase the audience the scriptwriters make a character from one show going to play in another one. So, here I am in Cornell, playing (well, for sure ) inside Ale’s show.

Being him a good real ingredient, I have added a bit of everything.
I went to watch the Superbowl match, in an American house, bothering people by asking explanation about the game. We had tacos and Doritos, apparently the perfect chips given that they were one of the game sponsors. You may not know, but actually the favourite activity is not  really following the game, but having fun watching the tons of crazy ads they transmit. Astrophysicist friends, you should enjoy this one, btw.
And I tried the Apple-Pie, and the stuffed-with-everything-you-can-ice-cream. And of course a couple of time we had dinner with big Big burgers (forget McDonald’s and co, those are for children).

And I went to a tropical house party. Where the landlords put their heating to the maximum value, and the guests dress as if they were on a beach; and all together they have to play beer-pong; one of the classic drinking games so popular in colleges, of course!
The college life involves also having meals in the canteens surrounded by undergrads, walking in front of the brotherhoods mansions; pretend to study till late in one of the libraries to see which kind of population is there. And tries to reach the top of the list “106 things to do before graduating in Cornell”.

Now that I’m back, my show must go on. Pictures are left behind as “the best of”, and what else can I say…I know I do not leave you with a cliffhanger, but still… the plot is open, remember…

They say one images says more than thousands words.. So look at these: on the left a picture I took yesterday. On the right, how it was today. It started snowing in the evening, just so you know…

and  then, that you have appreciated how much is snowing –  it is still snowing right now! – you can enjoy this last cool picture:

New experiences in Cornell. The kind of fun ones you say ” I’d do again if I went back in time… but only without knowing what I am going for!!” …

Late evening, after laundry and a bit of work. Outside is snowing a lot, but because of that the temperature is surprisingly warm. I have worked the whole week, I had to prepare a talk in the evenings. So when the idea of walking toward Collegetown just to take a tea comes out, it’s actually welcome! Let’s get out from these rooms!

So, we step outside. It’s snowing cats and dogs right now (I do not see why I cannot extend this idiom to the snow, if I am leaving in a place where the snow it’s the only things that comes down from the sky). It’s nice, after few minutes my scarf and hair are encrusted. And with my snow boots nothing and no-one can stop me! I am finally enjoying the TrueIthaca™ experience I was prepared for… ;P

We even take a (long) shortcut trough the wood…during the night…scary…if it wasn’t just a path parallel to the main road, a couple of meters below. But I have to admit, was pretty impressive…
So we arrive at “the Old Tea House”, a small small shop where you can choose among tens of different kind of black teas, green teas, milk teas… with taste of almond, peppermint, chocolate, lychees (Ema! a moved thought went to you in Paris..)… there is only one feature they have in common: they are extremely sweet! Or at least, most of them are, but when we tried to ask the (probably) normal one, we were discouraged by the seller “I’d rather suggest you to choose something else, this is a bit salty”… Americans love sugar. So much.

And the surprises are not ended. The tea is  actually known as “bubble tea”, you know why? An hint: read the title…a second hint: they give you LARGE straws..I mean, more than 1 cm of diameter…
ok, I bet you cannot guess, especially if you are Europeans. They put TAPIOCA bubbles inside the tea, that you suck up while drinking. So imagine. First sip, it’s quite sweet, maybe not your favorite but you still think you can handle it until the end. Second sip, here it is, unexpected, a jelly slimy dark bubble stop right at the beginning of your throat. I know it’s dark because I couldn’t resist to check what it was [see picture 1, among my tooth ]
And after that every sip just adds a sweet taste to your mouth, and tapioca bubbles in your stomach, and you cannot do anything else than start laughing and continue to drink, and laugh.. you start to be disgusted but you cannot stop, because it’s fun in a weird way.. that why I sad I would do again, if I had to go back… but not again now that I actually know.

But it’s not all. The end is still far; when you think you’ve reached the bottom, when you believe your tasting sense cannot be tested anymore, they offer you a Japanese cookie. The texture is like foam, the taste like.. I do not know, I am not even able to explain..and inside there is a sesame black thick sticky paste… oh, gosh! Look at my face to try to imagine how it was [last picture, I am holding the cookie]… the tea seemed suddenly desirable!

And that why I took another huge sip…Unfortunately because of the hurry – I wanted to delete the awful taste from my mouth with a less worse one – I drank from the straw  but the cup hole was directed toward me, not on the opposite site.. So, here is the deserving ending for that evening…tapioca tea straining over my scarf and sweater and shirt… Enjoy, Silvia!

Cornell! Again!
I left less than one year ago. It was warm, green and pleasant, but  almost empty. Now it’s cold, withe but alive.
And I know places and people, and I have the feeling I am not a total foreign.
Plus, it’s fun to try a different life style for some time, pretending being a college student … I am not betraying Munich – I swear! – but there are some things you cannot get.

Like that one for example! Something I was pleasantly surprised to find out. Once a week, in one of the campus canteens, few Italians meet few people who want to speak Italian. They sit and chat and eat…for free! So, what is better for a student to have a meal with nice new people? And meet young and not-so-young fellows who think about your country with the same mixture of excitement and misunderstanding you feel for their homeland. The retired Opera singer who has travelled all around Italy, the law student who went to Rome for an exchange. The young Italian couple whit their baby which everyone likes.
Here we are again, ready for another melting-pot of people and ideas!

We have been quiet for quite a long time. But things were moving underneath.
We were busy preparing for the next trip overseas. You know, stuff you need to check and work on. Study the winds, decide the course, collect the pantry. Select the crew.
Which translate, in a matter-of-fact way, into organize the work you are going to do, collect tickets and house reservations, prepare fresh work to show. And pack!
You see, how focus we were looking into the horizon…

So, still another damn week (is that a “sailor spoken”, right?), and we’ll be ready to weigh the anchor. A new trip, crossing old friends and facing new challenges.
If next saturday you will see a small ship becoming even smaller far away, that’s will be us…

(C’mon, you are not really thinking that I am going to US by ship, aren’t you!?!? )

Images: Hugo Pratt

Here we are, jumped in the next decade; ready for other amazing years around the world?
Who knows from where I’ll write when the second digit will turn again…

Anyway, up to know and for few months at least, I am in Munich, where I spent New Year Eve!
I did nothing special, actually, but I enjoyed MY town, with friends and fun and cheer. Which is nothing more you want to start a new year…
if I have to be sincere, I also felt a bit of fear.. but shh, so not tell around. And it could be kind of exciting at the end. Some time before midnight, we went outside right in Munich center to take part of that tradition called “fireworks”. Which in Munich could sounds more like that:

Watch the reportage! NOW!

we exit our refuge and walk carefully down the street. We look around, and we start to see the friendly fire in the distance. So we decide to reach that place. While approaching, we have to avoid enemy’s trap [crowds of people in the middle of the street, dense enough not to feel the cold and not to let others come across]. It tries to stop us with loud noise too [rap/pop music loud outside]! We finally reach the battlefield, and we settle our camp: we have army, we are ready! At that point, everything gets confused. We are in the middle of crossfire, but we HAVE to launch our rockets, the life quality of next year is going to depend on that! [for every rocket we fire, we express a desire..so sweet...] So, brave and [almost] fearless, we get to the firing line and start..nobody can stop us. We launch, and launch, the smoke around is getting thick but we do not care. We have to be better than the enemy! [but we kind of failed... the Germans around us were so munch into that, that they didn't even stop to countdown at midnight! We were the only few people trying to shout louder that the noise] …better before that civil war ends…

around 1 am. When people run out of fireworks, and started to walk away for a party, or a bed. As we did.
I mean, walking and searching for a party, of course!

But besides my  overemphasized description, it was rally fun. I guess next year I’ll train myself better, so to be able to launch even bigger rockets.. Munich be prepared.. ahahahah

which I associate with family, Italy, with old lost friends; which is beat by  melancholy and a lot of laughs.

Holiday time, represented by  sleeping until late, thinking randomly about work, sitting few minutes in front of your pc and then going out. And thinking again about work late in the evening: “crap! I did nothing today, again..”

Winter time, when the cold outside makes you desiring warm feelings and friends hugs. When it snows and you only want to sit with a soft blanket. And keeping your friends hands, you like chatting about life and wishes and  video-games and trips and the latest stupid thing you have done; and you need to (re)discover that people far in space and in time share the same fear and braveness and joy and confusion and excitement.

Christmas time, when you have to deal with the year just gone and the one approaching, just because a date on the calendar decides something is gonna change.

So, to all of you who recognizes in something above,

Enjoy these days, and Christmas and New Year

and let’s come: a new year is going to start, and to be honest  I should admit the premises are not so bad this time.
What the plot will be, that’s up to me, and blind Chance, and Luck, and you, and most likely me again.

.

By the way, I am not the only one who feels every other days to have the world in my hands, and the next that the world is squashing me, right?!

saying by to the mountains.. with this intense look at…

It’s impressive how fast you get used to one place, how fast you stop thinking to new acts but just feel comfortable with new people in new situations. If you like something, it’s easy to get “addicted” and search for repeating it ; I would say that’s nice… but maybe I am wander too much now!

We are at the telescope from Tuesday, and we are leaving tomorrow, and seems a long nice time has been passed… Life here is beat by the observations.
Lunch is at 13:30 and dinner at 20:30. The food is amazing, kind of traditional Spanish cousin, muy rica and really strong..maybe the cook thinks that high in the mountain you need energy, even if you are an astronomer sitting all the day in front of a computer! And without even using the brain so much..
Today we had  paella, yesterday sword-fish and empanadillas for lunch ..ahh, soo good!

Besides eating, you have to observed, of course! We are six people here to run observations, which are supposed to be 24h/day…supposed to, because we had pretty bad weather the first day, and tonight up to lunch time..usually the sky clears when we all decide to go to bed! let’s see what is going to happen today..

Ah, right, Montgomery  itself helps now to schedule the time at the observatory. It comes right after lunch time, and waits patient and with experienced touching eyes.. someone is going to feed it soon. (for who hasn’t get yet, Montgomery is the fox on the left).

And then of course other things happen, like going outside for a walk at sunset right after the snow has stopped. You enjoy the sun, take amazing pictures, and you can even manage to fell on the only squared meter with cement in the whole mountain!
Or you can organize on the spot a “bi-lingual scrubble match” to keep you away while observing at 3 in the morning. And to make it easier, you play against a German, with the Spanish alphabet… and you poor italian are allowed to use only german words and vice versa..
[We didn't go very far..]

Oh! As I said, we have routines, and since it’s almost half past eight, good food smell is coming up from the kitchen.. see you!

FIRST PICTURES HERE! CLiCK Here, I Mean!