Bologna Baloney: February 2013

Ciao Ciao,

I'm going to get my Venice post up soon, but first I just wanted to tell a quick story today about a weird experience I had in class. The moment was so small and insignificant that you all are probably going to think I'm silly for even posting about it.

Instead of my regular contemporary history class this afternoon we had a special lecture given by Arundhati Virmani, an Indian historian who lectured about a historical atlas of India that she created. Besides being a really cool lecture, it was also given in English, because Virmani is not fluent in Italian. (Fair enough, I say, as her book is in French and she already speaks both English and Hindi fluently) So, as you can probably imagine, our professor gave short summaries of the key points in the lecture in Italian after every few minutes or so. I'm sure the constant switching of languages is what caused this super small and seemingly insignificant event.

Part-way through the lecture I looked down and skimmed the notes I had been taking, which as far as I knew, had been completely in English. Besides my usual trouble spelling words like "exercised" and "ideology" I was pleased with my notes. They seemed pretty good for having attended only Italian lectures for a semester-plus. However, one phrase I wrote stood out to me immediately. It goes something like this:

Ideal representations of India
--representing territory nella forma of a woman eg.

As you've all probably noticed, the phrase I wrote starts out in English with the words "representing territory" then switches to Italian at "nella forma," (meaning "in the form") only to switch right back to English with "of a woman."

Weird, right? My brain just decided to switch to another language right in the middle of a sentence. The weirder part? I didn't even notice until a bit afterward.

This occurrence is actually not that uncommon in the reverse. For example, if I'm in an Italian lecture and I don't know how to spell a word, I'll sometimes write it's English equivalent in my notes. This, however, is much more conscious. My brain recognizes the fact that it can't spell the word in Italian and then I consciously decide to write it in English instead.

It's also not that uncommon when I'm speaking. Here in Bologna, especially amongst my American friends, we speak a lot of Ingltano, (pronounced ing-ull-tah-noh) a made-up language that is mostly English but uses Italian insertions. For example, in Italy people say "boh" to signify "I don't know" and it's usually accompanied by a shrug. I use the word "capito" a lot, which means "I get it," and sometimes I'll say "secondo me" which means "according to me." These words have become so second nature to use (even in English conversations) that I sometimes don't notice when I do it anymore.

I don't really know anything about how the brain works and I'm a believer that it's a part of us that we still have a lot to learn about. I just think sub-conscious occurrences like these are weird and cool so I thought I'd share mine with you.

I last left off with a post about studying. Before Christmas I took 3 out of the 4 exams that I needed to take to finish fall semester. I took the last of the 4 at the end of January, and did fine, despite having caught the Italian flu the week before. So, fall semester? Check! Mixed feelings of relief from being done with oral exams and panic in realizing that I only have one semester left in Bologna.

On December 18th my mom and brother arrived in Bologna. I've realized that having visitors here is great because not only do I get to show off my Italian, but I get to show them around and in the process remind myself what I love so much about Bologna and Italy in general. This can be easy to forget when caught up in the stress of studying and exams, so having my family here around the holidays was very refreshing.

In Bologna, some of the highlights included the Teatro Anatomico, which I discussed in an earlier post, the 7 churches of Santo Stefano, and caffè affogato (espresso poured over gelato) at the Sorbetteria. My mom and brother also climbed Asinelli, the taller of the famous two towers.

I couldn't join them because of some ancient myth that if you climb it while attending the University of Bologna, you will never graduate. Let me be clear: I'm not a superstitious person. In fact, I've stepped on this bad boy more times than I can count:


The University of Chicago seal. The legend goes that if you step on it, you won't graduate in four years.

I'm not trying to mess with any Italian superstitions, though. Here's Mom and Ollie at a cafe near Santo Stefano:

After a few days in Bologna, we traveled together to the small city of Bolzano. Bolzano is so far north it's almost in Austria, so we got a taste of winter wonderland while we there, which was nice so close to Christmas.

The real attraction of Bolzano, however, was this guy:

Otzi, born circa 3300 BCE (photo from Wikipedia)

Otzi is a prehistoric "natural mummy" who was found all well-preserved in the icy mountain-scape between Italy and Austria. The actual location of his recovery has been largely disputed over the years. He has a whole museum devoted to him in Bolzano, only part of which is the actual mummy. The rest is theories about his death and reconstructions of what his life might have been like. Look at the juxtaposition of Ollie and Otzi right there. That turned out quite nicely.

After Bolzano, it was just Mom and I for Christmas. I'm going to share more about Christmas in Venice with another post. Before that though, Mom and made the pilgrimage up to San Luca, a church in the hills of Bologna. Ecco le foto:

The portico that leads up to San Luca is the longest in the world.

Wow this is getting long! Good thing it's mostly pictures. I hope you aren't tired because we have a ways to go.

I've never been to New Years Eve in Times Square, but I imagine that Bologna matches up pretty well given its size. Piazza Maggiore on New Years was like a mini Times Square, but without the police presence. Everyone was drunk, there was broken glass everywhere, and people were packed in all to get a view of one of Bologna's strangest traditions. Each year, they burn a giant statue that symbolizes the past year as a sort of "out with the old, in with new" kind of thing. This year the statue was of a wind-up monkey, intended to symbolize how as a people in 2012, we were too controlled by society and our surroundings. So, it stands to reason that the robot monkey had to be burned in a huge public demonstration, right?

Video! Guaranteed to make you dizzy!

The rest of January went by very quickly. The new people for BCSP spring semester arrived, which resulted in the rest of us getting all the free dinners that we got the first time around in the fall. I think I've mentioned this before, but when BCSP feeds us, they FEED us. My roommate Monica moved out in order to make room for our other roommate Elisa, who came back from study abroad in Belgium. Monica is still living down the street right now though, so we still see her every so often. I got the Italian flu, which sucked majorly, but I recovered nicely with a 28 (A-) on my lit exam.

Right at the tail-end of January I went to Rome with Noelle and Margaret. I've been to Rome before, on a high-school trip. I loved it then obviously, but it was cool to see these things again without being in an enormous group following a lady with a blue pom-pom on a stick. I'll let the pictures do the talking, but among the highlights for me were the catacombs, the spring-like weather, and the view from the top of St. Peter's.