Pasta, Caffè e Vino

The food so far has not been impressive. We eat lunch at the Lab cafeteria, which is pretty expensive (U$8 a day), and at night we usually have pasta at home. It's really difficult not having pasta at every meal here, especially since I haven't had the chance to go to a supermarket to shop. I am going to have to watch what I eat really hard.

Last Wednesday (second day in Italy), I had my first coffee! It was not as bad as expected, and I will certainly be trying it more often. The thing is, I don't drink coffee. I haven't even tasted it in years, because just the smell tells me I am not going to like it. But I had a cappucino at the Lab Cafe and it tasted all right. The second coffe I had, a machiado (coffee and milk) wasn't so good, though.

On Thursday we had dinner at Alfredo's parents house (he is an Italian post-doc). The meal was amazing. It was a six course meal - SIX COURSE! It had appetizers, cold cuts, soup, pasta, main dish (rabbit!), and dessert. Also plenty of wine, which I tried (I usually hate wine). I think my experience with this wine was opposite that of most people - I liked the first glass, but with each subsequent glass I liked it less and less, and by the 5th I thought it just tasted terrible. It was a really fun night, everybody from XENON here in Italy was there.

This weekend I had to work, and couldn't go to Rome. The first week here in Italy is over, and I still haven't seen Rome :(

The worse is that I didn't really have to work during the weekend, but Elena (Columbia's PI and the XENON Project leader) insisted that we get the work done in the weekend, even though everybody else was of the opnion that it could wait. Because of the way she has been pushing things, everybody is pretty stressed and unhappy, and looking forward to when she leaves today. We actually toasted to her departure on a dinner last weekend.

I am a bit mad at the fact that I didn't see Rome this weekend, and at the fact that a few people still took off and had their weekend, but I am more mad at myself for not simply hopping on a bus and going to see L'Aquila (the larger city of the region), even if for only a couple of hours before having to go in on Sunday. Today I went there with Peter to run some errands, and it looks nice enough, with old churches and squares. I have to keep reminding myself that I am here for 3 months, and I still have plenty of time to see the sights. Hopefully.

Although I have been stuck in the Lab and at Paganica (the village where I live), I can't complain too much. I am still living in a charming Italian village, with an amazing scenery. We are situated in a mountain range, and Paganica is close to the bottom of the valley, so we are surrounded by spetacular vistas. Even at the lab the view is great (click on the picture above to see more photos).

Another thing that has made the work more bearable is Roman, a Texan Grad student. He is incredibly funny and cracks dirty jokes non-stop while we are working. He is older than all other grads and postdocs, but has put us all to shame with his energy. He has even made Elena blush, and she usually swears like a trucker!

Italia!

 I'm in Italy!

I arrived yesterday at Rome and went directly to the lab, without time to see the city. Just as well, since it was raining. The Gran Sasso lab is in a small village next to L'Aquila, the larger city of the region. From the airport to L'Aquila it is about one and a half hours. After we leave the Rome area, we drive through some very pretty scenery, with mountains, valleys, little villages perched on steep mountain walls or peaks, and the odd little castle here and there. The lab itself has a great background: the snow coverd peaks of the Grand Sasso mountain range, which is breathtaking at clear weather (it finally cleared at end of the day).

I am sharing an apartment with Peter (the oher grad student from Brown) and Rick (the boss) at the nearby village of Paganica ("town of Pagans", apparently). The apartment is spacious enough, although my room is pretty cramped, and it can't be much more than 2x3m. At least the view from my window is awesome! (See picture above)

I will write more about first impressions and details later, right now I don't have a decent Internet connection, neither at the apartment nor at the office. I haven't been assigned an IP address yet, and I am on a borrowed connection.