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This week has been very fast as we have been busy with our project presentation today. The day ended well and early for once. Our group presented concepts on the theme of TIME and how to interact with TIME. We hope to push our concepts further.
We are now getting ready for a 10 day trip to Levanto and Riccione for a business workshop and creative worshops respectively. I expect this to be very stressful but a good chance to see other parts of Italy nonetheless.
We had a lovely visit last Saturday to Valle d'Aosta, 1 hour away by train from our current home, Ivrea. Immediately we felt the difference in atmosphere of this independent state. Some stone houses, some structures that were like log cabins also existed. It just wasn't the Italy we were all accustomed to seeing. It seemed like we were in Switzerland or France. (The prices were Swiss-like too) The mountains were so close by and they were already covered with snow.
We did a "semi-serious" hike up a hiker's trail. (I was in my leather boots- hello!) And beheld the mountains with more snow. Very much sound-of-music-like. It was so funny when Tom asked me to turn around and I gasped at all the snow. Turns out he and Simone were asking me to look at a cool red building. That was funny.
Going around town was also lovely in spite of the cold. So many quaint shops waiting to be entered, strung closely together. There was a place where we were able to find a very cheap coffee maker (called Moka) which allows you to specify the number of cups. Then we had our first experience at a real green grocer that had all types of fruit, veggies and other fresh produce.
We sipped all forms of hot drinks afterwards and shared in a platter of biscuits and chocolate fondue!
We ended the magical night with dinner at this cool bar by the River Dora back in Ivrea. The walk home was especially freezer-like. By that time, Ben and I were so covered up- we were ready to rob a bank. Then I saw the sign- 6 degrees!!! And it's not even winter yet.
This is for all you adobo lovers out there! :)
Adobo Recipe
I just make a few modifications of my own. Instead of just 2 tablespoons of white vinegar, I like to put 4. I also like to add more cloves of garlic (around 6-8) instead of just 2. And normally, we serve adobo with chopped tomatoes with some salt on them. Enjoy!!! :)
Here are the new things I wanted to share with you. The first picture shows my new calling cards. Everyone in the institute gets one and its really nice to have one. It seems to make me feel more part of this community.
The second one is my powerbook G4. I am still liking it. Slowly I am getting used to it. Still I can't really say that it is better than a PC. Both have a fair share of advantages and disadvantages.
I have to credit Marga a portion of my title, as "Filippinizing" is her coined word. And Margs, it is great fun to share our culture really! :)
My cheeks were getting so warm yesterday, no, not from the red wine we were having at our potluck party hosted by Ruth and Erez, it was from sincere compliments about our adobo! It was a real hit with a lot of Noel's classmates. We served it along with white rice garnished with fresh parsley and salted tomatoes.
The praise and requests for recipes were made evident by our two plastic bowls being wiped out! Matty even went back to finish up the remains of the sauce and rice!!! "Who made the chicken?" People kept asking. Steven even went up to me with: "The chicken was amazing! You're amazing." It was very funny. Noel and I giggled when I told him. The enthusiastic reception of the adobo, a simple Filipino dish for us, was overwhelming. Yes, it was made with a lot of love by Noel and me- I just never realized cooking could be so rewarding! Mabuhay ang Pilipino! (Long live the Filipino!)
After not sleeping for a day to finish an assignment, we got our well deserved restful weekend. Last Wednesday almost all of us 1st year students had to do some serious overtime work. We had to do 2 collages, 1 photo storyboard, 3-5 person interview. The last two parts were done by groups, I finished this by 2am.
Thursday night we were all very tired. I slept through friday morning. Did only a few essential things by the afternoon like laundry and grocery. Now its sunday and we are getting ready for a potluck over at a students place. It was a nice, restful weekend.
Woohoo! I wanted to share my joy with you as yesterday I finally received my all new 15" Powerbook G4 fully loaded with applications every designer needs. I am still in "break-in" mode and the start was rocky. I had to bring it back in to our tech support as there were minor glitches that came with the RAM upgrade. But now it is running smoothly and I am editing this entry with it.
Would you know of any essential applications that I mite need?
Ciao Ragazzi! (Such a common phrase we exchange amongst one another- literally means, hi or bye guys!) We say it everywhere here, greeting one another hello or good-bye, of course only to those that we are on a familiar basis with. Of course you'd never say this to a store owner or a ticket vendor... just recently we were greeted this way by the bar girl at our fave pizza place, Pizza Montenavale- which we will of course introduce to all of you that make your way out here to visit us! :) This made us quite happy, since they are accepting us as part of their little town. :)
Today I successfully got my first discount card! At fnac! (Which is like our Powerbooks back home, plus electronics, music and videos) It was a success because it was all in Italian! And the cool thing is, I got it at 50% off because I still fall "within" the age bracket of 26 and below. Sigh... the perks of being young which I soon won't have... I also got a gift certificate valid for one year in exchange for the laptop lock we bought which doesn't work. Kensington is still the superior brand for IBMs!!! Before this, I went with the director of my school to the questura (the police) to inquire about the extension of my permesso di soggiorno (permit of stay). They suddenly decided to stop giving out numbers! Hay, so we must return first thing on Thursday just to inquire!!!
And Noel just greeted me with the happy news that he got his brand new MAC today! His toothy grin was infectious! He has a new toy again. :) Till the next time, ciao ragazzi!!!! :)
Just a quick post, I'd like to tell everyone that the first year student bios are now online. It includes my write-up and funny face picture (yes, that was intentional)
I started my first day in Interaction Design Institute Ivrea today. And contrary to what I was led to believe, it started as a traditional class where the proffessors explained the aims of the course and some of its rules. This was good though since I was comfortable in this environment.
But what was different was that the course will be taught by four proffessors with different backgrouds. The course is entitled "The Secret Life of Common Objects." It will be taught by an architect, a computer engineer, a user-interface designer, and an electronics engineer. The goal is for them to work together and teach their different disciplines and have it apply to a final project in the end. Sounds very fun and interesting. I can't wait for tomorrow.
This was the name of the campaign of Apple last year where they tried to convice PC users to switch to a mac. Well remember that I was telling you about how I wanted that Apple 15" Powerbook G4? Luckily one of my classmates, Ethan, wanted to get a PC instead of his original Mac choice. I quickly volunteered to switch. That same day I saw the PCs being installed with new software. And the one that they were currently on had my name on it... scratched out and replaced with Ethan's.
So this seals my fate. I am now waiting for the Macs to arrive. They say it might take 3-4 weeks longer and I don't mind waiting for this lovely machine. My worry is that it's a bit harder to get software. If you guys have any tips, please write a comment or email me.
We went to our fave Hypermart this morning called Bennet. We did some major grocerying which included getting a sampayan rack and handy dustbuster. Horay! We miraculously were able to carry everything back on our 2 bikes. (I had a throw pillow wedged between my knees by this time- really working my power thighs!)
Noel had to just drop me back at home because he was going to be late for class. It was around 3pm by this time. I put the groceries away, put on some music and began ironing! Hay, nakakafagod pala yun! I finished at about 630pm and actually, I still wasn't finished. (But my back and right arm were!)
Joined Noel at school for some yummy apperitivos and then jumped into the laundry. Am so domesticated, it's not funny. = )
Noel and I saw a group of little kids holding a giant green snake again yesterday. Yes, this seems to be a common occurence in Ivrea.
Two teachers were taking their preschoolers for a visit to the train station. So as not to lose any of them, 8 tiny pairs of hands were holding onto a giant stuffed snake as a kind of tiny tot leash. They were so adorable. All the same height with their tiny little shoes and bundled in their tiny, colorful sweaters. One little boy didn't want to leave, he was the one we noticed was always crying. So his teacher had to pick him up and carry him off when it was time to go.
This week is our introduction workshop where we get our hands wet and start designing. The workshop is held every afternoon after our morning Italian classes. It goes on until 10-11 pm.
The objective is to create something with the theme "orientation or disorientation" on a 60x60x60 cm cube. It's fun but it is quite a change of pace from our earlier weeks. So we all feel a bit stressed and tired.. but at least last night we got free pizza. It was the most pizza I've ever seen, 10 boxes of 5 flavors (= 50)
Our team (Steven, Gary & second year Mickael) conceptualized a two sided maze that symbolizes our countious state of disorientation here and outside Ivrea. More about this soon.
One of my worst nightmares came true one carefree, cool Saturday with Noel and 3 other friends, Ben, Oznur and Patray. We spent a nice Saturday afternoon going around Torino's shops, along the popular Via Roma where we found fnac, a popular bookstore-cum-techshop. YAY! There was also a Body Shop so Patray and I were quite happy! We had dinner and gelato around the area, and Ben was happily clicking away. We girls felt like models that night! =)
We were all eager to go home on our 2200+ train. I was even singing: "Little town, such a quiet village..." from Beauty and the Beast. It seemed it was taking us so long to get out of that train... before we knew it, it had started again! We were stunned, nobody said anything for about 7 seconds. Then it dawned on us! We had missed our stop!!! We had no idea where we were going, thankfully someone spoke English on the train, and he was encouraging us to go see his town, Aosta. "It's a lovely place where you can enjoy, book a hotel..." But we just wanted to go home.
So we hopped off the next stop, Pont Saint Martin, and scurried off the train helter-skelter, and did a quick headcount to make sure we didn't leave anyone on the train. We alighted to a town even smaller than Ivrea!
We girls made a mad dash to the nearest bar which was dimly lit and had the faint noises of guitar strings. We were quite shocked once inside as the men literally surrounded us and asked if we spoke English. We just need to go to the toilet, we pleaded- in emergency-toned, high-pitched voices. Once there, we screamed at one another: "Don't leave me!" as we frantically took turns using the stinky toilet. We made a mad dash out of there and were scolding "our men" as soon as we were outside, wondering where they were when we needed them to protect us from those wolves with bad teeth.
The cab we called soon came, thank goodness, for we were all freezing. Sadly, he would only take 4 people in his shiny A6, TOP-OF-THE-LINE AUDI! So Noel and I opted to wait for it to return for us. Our merry band was split in two. We were so grateful to be tucked in our Talponia home after that!