oh yea! oh yea! oh yea!
simone found me wandering the halls of school today, trying to force myself to go downstairs to study, instead of running outside into the hot sun and throwing all of my clothes off and asking the god of miraculously hot weather to eat me whole. he and the other scientist, gabriele, had just returned from lunch, and they grinned when they saw me, as i grinned at them.
"what in the hell is that around your neck?" simone asked, and grabbed at the tiny plastic camera which i wear like a cross: is a toy from rome, a mini slide show, and when you look through the lens to the light you can flick through pictures of roman landmarks, photos from the 1960's, all retro cars and sunshine on the pantheon. i keep it on my heart, around my neck, at all times.
"it's rome!" i said, and simone groaned, gave an "oh, god, you and rome", and smiled (he pretends to hate rome, as a good southerner would if someone were wearing say, new york city around their neck).
i went up to his office to get my notebook (have been using his office like my locker), and he told me that tomorrow he and gabriele are going to Vinitaly. Vinitaly is a huge wine festival, the most important in italy. it is specifically for italian wine, and showcases region by region all the important producers. all of the kids from my dorm are going, as we are all viticulture and enology students, and it is a huge deal. i wanted so badly to go, but tickets cost 80euro. simone said that he and gabriele knew someone who could get them in for free, and that i was welcome to come with them if i wanted to! i squealed and clapped my hands and cried, "oh, yes, please!" thinking evily that i could not wait to brag to the kids at my dorm that i get to go for free, and, more importantly, with simone and gabriele, who are two of the best viticulturalists in the region and at our university. am so excited i might die! hoorah! hoorah!
all that lab work with the grapes, by the way, the grape peeling work, turned out awesome. simone and i have been in the lab anayzing the samples and inducing them with radioactive chemicals and reading the microparticle outputs with beams of light rays (i'm making this up, i am really not sure exactly what the utensils have been called, but its something similar and v. impressive). he entered the data, and it turns out that his thesis is being proven, and that the results are exactly what we needed to find and prove, so far, that the size of the grape does directly correlate to the color. this is important for wine producers because obviously they want a wine with a good color. simone then gets to take this proof and use it for his straegies of stressing the grapes to make them a smaller size (basically abusing them?) which will be able to make a good profit for producers without neglecting the sugar contents and flavors. this is a very inadequate and quick version of what has been explained to me repeatedly in much more complex words, also with an accent. the bottom line is, my work is awesome, and when we finish simone gets to use this in his work which will be published and my name gets to be on it! the eleanor parker project it is called. huzzah, am a scientist! my astrology teacher was right when he told me, "sounds like you're pretty good at science!" which, aside from simone merely patting me on the back and saying "brava, eleanor!", is the best compliment i ever got. all that work, by the way, was worth it for that: a pat on the back and a "brava" from simone.
so lets see, what else...went to slovenia, was a blast! the party was so much fun and i wore moms 5lb sparkle shirt and danced and ate slovenian delicacies (way too many). the next day we all lounged around the house and goldian, the cute blue eyed one who speaks italian, played DJ and put on wonderful music to accompany the rainy day. tried to take a train back to trieste, but turns out the trains dont run on sundays (luka laughed and was like, god, its like barcelona all over again, you're trapped!). smiled and, instead of getting frustrated, realised that if i hadnt missed my flight in barcelona and gotten trapped i never would have met these wonderful people and wouldnt be in slovenia, so getting trapped in slovenia was the obvious next step and something to revel in. rode with them back to ljubjlana, the capital. was a beautiful ride, through the hills and forests, rain and mountains. stayed with goldian and his extremely nice and funny hungarian roommate in his dorm, which was designed by a famous artist who did alot of the architecture for the city. it rained so hard sunday night that we stayed in and watched movies, and monday we walked around the city and he showed me the sights. caught a train back to nova gorica, the town right on the border of italy. the train ride was incredible: we went up into the mountains at dusk, and the trees were black and spiky and there was snow on the ground and it seems so spooky, like wolves were prowling and dracula was near and the sky churned and i got chills. when i got to the train station i walked outside and it was deserted. i knew i was really close to italy and that it was supposedly just a 10 minute walk, but i didnt know which direction. ended up running up to some lady and attempting to ask her, in italian, english, and broken german, "where is italy? which direction? is italy there? is it behind me? where is itay?" all the while making a mime of italy, a shape of the boot, in the air with my hands. she in no way understood and i gave up and just started walking in the direction my gut told me. about 10 minutes later, i saw the italian border, and i walked across and let out a sigh of relief, home again.
ok, time for ecologia agraria, got to go
love, boo