Days 7-9

Ciao!

The last few days have been fairly busy, or just long, so I haven't posted. Instead, you'll get a bit longer of a post to make up for it, including a video!

I pretty much always take the metro or bus to where I'm going. On my way to work, I saw these guys get on the bus while little speakers on a trolly and their violins. They started playing to Michael Jackson and I just had to record it. I don't really know how the video/sound quality is, but enjoy!

On Monday, I met my boss for the first time. Each day since then I've gone to the office for a few hours and started both the research portion of my job, and I've started typing up his teaching notes. Let me tell you, felt tip pen should NOT be your first choice for teaching notes. Still, they are really well organized and interesting to read and type. It does make life more interesting when the keyboard is for a foreign language because almost a quarter of the time is spent looking up shortcuts for arrows, the delta symbol, accents, etc. On the bright side? They have a Nespresso machine and plenty of coffee. So far the Dulcao blend is my favorite, but only when hot. Tomorrow I'll see my boss again and be able to ask him some of my questions from research as well as check some handwriting interpretations from his teaching notes.

Yesterday for lunch I got some sandwiches on the way to the office. There was a minimum charge if you used a card, and I was maybe 0,50 EUR short, so I needed to get a tiny bit more. The lady at the counter recommended these to me, and they're great. I don't know their name, but there's similar to mini pizzas. They're the size of your fist, flat, cheap, and tasty. Overall a yummy combination.

On the topic of food, a tried/invented a new recipe. First I'll give you some background information. The food at the grocery store is either really cheap or really expensive, with meat being on the expensive side. Because of this, last time I was at the store I bought a big bag of dried chickpeas to have a protein and overall tasty snack. My roommate Lauren showed me how to cook them, and then made a chickpea soup out of it. She made hers the day after she made the beans, so it was pretty much beans, water and salt. However, I made the soup with the beans, so I was able to add the stock created from cooking the beans. Here's the recipe in vague terms for the soup I made.

Simple Chickpea Soup

1/3 small bag of dried chickpeas

1 full carrot, cleaned

salt

pepper

mysterious dark green Italian seasoning

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1. First you have to prepare the chickpeas. Start by soaking the beans in a pot for between 4 and 12 hours. When that's done, scoop the white foam off the top. Be aware that the chickpeas will have at least doubled in size.

2. In the pot the chickpeas are in, pour in enough water that the chickpeas are covered plus about an inch or too. Then put the pot on the stove and set it to boil.

3. Keep cooking the beans for at least 2 hours. (Lauren prefers about 1.5 hours, but that's really al dente) As the beans cook, white foam will form. Just scoop it off. It's the starch from the beans, and less will appear as you keep cooking the beans. Also, keep refilling water so the beans are covered.

4. When you have about 30 minutes left, cut the carrot in 2 or 3 pieces and add them to the pot. 

5. When the beans are done, pour them into a food processor with the carrots. Then add the stock from the pot. I put about 3 ladles full, but you can add more or less for the consistency.

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P.S. It might not look that great, but it was fantastic. And after coming home hungry from work and a lot of walking? Nothing in the fridge looks better. It stores well and reheats in about 3 minutes.

Last night was very eventful... First a few of us from the apartment, including our CA, went to a bar in the park. On of the girls, had gone earlier in the evening with her date and said that it was great, though overpriced, so I figured it was worth it at least to see. On the way there we passed by the massive dinosaur statue that you see above. I had no clue why it was there, and the only sign present that not to climb it, but it was definitely odd to see a massive dinosaur as you approached the center of the park. From the dinosaur area, we could see the bar. Lighting was weird so that's the best picture that I have. Anyways, we went to the bar, ordered drinks and had a seat with some of the other CA's. I got a glass of wine for 5 EUR. It was expensive, and not the best wine, but it was a good evening. However, a word of warning to the asthmatics out there. Italian bars are your lungs worst nightmare. They will launch a protest with a level of determination that would make Italian workers proud. Needless to say, I let early as some of the others went to Le Colonne, a young adult nightlife hot spot. It took awhile to get to bed when I got back because someone had a guest over, but all went well and it was a fun night. However, I ended up getting back around midnight, so no post for y'all then.  

 Probably around once a day I end up near the Duomo, or Milan Cathedral. Today was beautiful weather so I took a few pictures while I was there. At first when I looked up photos of the Duomo on google, they all looked similar to this, and I didn't get it. The angles of the shots all looked the same, which seemed odd to me. However, now that I've been there and tried to take photos of the Duomo, I see why. There's literally no way to get at least most of it without getting it from that angle. The Duomo is huge and you definitely have to see it.

These are a few other pictures from the Duomo Square. I just wanted to point out the massive statue of Vittorio Emmanuelle II, the first unified ruler of Italy, and the tons of pigeons in the square. They were everywhere. It didn't help that a massive group of Indian tourists were feeding them all in one place. Normally they're fairly spread out, but today they were very localized and flew about in massive groups above people heads (as in inches above).

I have no interesting plans for tonight, but two of my roommates are enjoying the grand opening of a Tommy Hilfiger pop-up bar. One of their bosses invited her and friends, so they went. They got all dressed and look really nice. I'm sure they'll have a lot of fun. Instead, I'm listening to music in the kitchen with Marta, our CA. It's nice =D

Until tomorrow, hopefully!

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2 days until I go to the Expo.