Rome Rain in Room

What?!

Yes, in Rome it Rains in Rooms.

Our room, our two housemates’s rooms, and one of the bathrooms, to be precise.

It happened like this.

I woke up and heard a dripping sound. *Ploop* …. *Ploop* it annoyed me and I couldn’t get back to sleep bfore I knew what it was.

I nudged Gaby, who growled, “I hear something weird, can I turn on the light?” *Grumble* “Yeah…” *Sleep*

So, I got up, turned on the light and… it was raining in our room!

Changed into clothes, opened door to hallway, found two housemates standing there, mouths agape. I went “Che cosa..” A finger pointed to the room next to ours… It was coming down like the Niagara falls…

It was also… 6 in the morning…

We moved our beds from under the rain and tried to get back to sleep, Gaby succeeded. I, however, did not. I asked Maria Cristina what happened and she told me.

They woke up about the same way I did, although I believe the Niagara falls might have been a bit worse than my rain.. So they went to see what the hell was going on.

They rang the upstairs neighbour’s bell for a couple of minutes before finally, they heard someone shouting “Ma che cazzo succede?!” (Roughly translated into: “What the f*ck is going on?!”So they knew they were at the right house. She came to open the door and water was up to her ankles. The entire apartment was flooded… She’d slept through the whole thing. Eventually they found out that some piping had sprung and it was all a big mess.

This is now about a week or more ago, and since then the room has smelt and tasted like a mineshaft. Every morning I wake up coughing and every night when I come home from work I walk into a wall of brickdust. It’s quite depressing, though I must say, the last days have been better on the amount of dust in the room…

Today a man came to see what should be painted over.

WoW it’s been ages

Hm.. I just can’t be bothered to update this thing much… Such a shame..
Moments often pass where I think “This would be a wonderful addition to my blog..” but then they slowly fade from memory, and I start asking Gaby things like “Do you remember that one time when this thing happened and I said I should put it in my blog???” she goes.. *sigh* and I let it die off in a dark corner of my wardrobe.

Quick update and on to more serious stuff, or well, other stuff..

Uhmm lots went by, Eric and Idzi had a brief stop-over, about 5 days, well 7 in the end, because public transportation was striking and Ryanair crashed some stuff…

My parents came by as well, onnnn Thursday, I think, we had fun, but on Saturday my mom fell down and had a lot of trouble walking for the remainder of the trip..

Uhm…. oh I made a website proposal for the Roberto Wirth Fund, if it gets accepted I’ll have a job here for the last months of my stay, pretty good, hope it works out.

Sign language classes are still awesome.

We ate some very good mozzarella today.

Almost Sinterklaas, we’re celebrating with Inge, Vasiliki (?), Kate, Gaby and uhmmm me.

What else…. Ooh, Kate got kicked out of her apartment because she couldn’t pay rent because she hadn’t been paid in forever, so last night she stayed at the Hassler hotel, which is Roberto Wirth’s hotel, and tonight she’s secretely sleeping in her own house and tomorrow she will be bunking with us.

I’ve been playing World of Warcraft, when the expansion hit the stores I vowed not to get it that same day, but voilà, we went out into the rain to find an Italian game store, the guy went “Did you pre-order?” I raised my eyebrows and shook my head.. “Well…. let’s see if I can find one…” And behold! We got us the last copy

I bought a leather jacket, Gaby bought a fake fur coat… It was all my dad’s fault…

She now wants to give it to homeless people.

Which brings me to the heartwarming fact that the other day, there were people at the Tiburtina train station, close to our house, feeding the homeless. A big pan of Spaghetti, big doesn’t quite cover it though… Warm drinks and… new clothes! They all looked like unwashed rich people!

Also, every morning, before I start work, I go to this bar. We call it “the corner bar” due to lack of creativity… So every morning I go there, have a cappucino, sometimes a cornetto (a croissant, but sweet… Some have glazing which is called “semplice” and some have stuffing… I usually have one with marmalata, which is jam really…). I sit outside and watch people rushing around me. Then every morning, this lady comes by and asks for a cigarette, so, a couple of days ago, I figured I’d buy her a pack of cigarettes! Why not?? She was always a nice beggar and never rude or pushy… So I bought her the pack and a lighter, but for the life of me I haven’t been able to find her anywhere…

Errm, let me think…

Oh, today I got scolded during sign language class… I understood nothing of the story my teacher was telling because I couldn’t get some of the Italian words… So she told me “I should practice my Italian more.” She’s right of course, so when I returned to the office, I wrote her a lengthy e-mail in Italian, telling her that she was right. I hope she thinks that’s enough practice.

Secret Santa next week, bit of trouble with that, I’m supposed to write a poem and buy a gift, but… omg… a gift up to €3…. So yeah, dunno what to buy, but we’ll see…

There’s probably a lot more to tell, but I’ll leave you with this:

We bought tickets to return to Holland for the holidays, don’t call us we’ll call you, no not really, please do call, I feel so lonely! We’ll be flying in on the… 18th, Eindhvoen Airport, be there or be square, please bring a car so we won’t have to do the train ride.

Byebye

Up and down, back and forth

So My mother’s aunt, Tante Jet passed away last week. May she rest in peace.

Yesterday I flew back to Holland and was just in time (read: 3 minutes late) for the service,
due to a badly timed purse-loss in the Burger King that was on the way from the airport to the service.

It wasn’t a bad service. Or well, I did have some trouble with the last speaker. There were three speakers, her brother, who is just not a very good speaker, my aunt, who has taken care of her for the last years, and her niece, who surprisingly decided to end her speech with a prayer, while all who knew Tante Jet, know that she would not have appreciated that.

Anyway, it was a good enough service and we shared some great memories.

Today I’ll be flying back, packed with Dutch foods, Halloween and Sinterklaas stuff. I hope I can get the food through customs. I think it’s a load of crap that you can bring whatever you want if you drive your car there, but are restricted if you fly. I mean, it’s not explosives or anything, it’s just cheese and bread…

Picasso and IKEA

So, yesterday our day consisted of two major events.

#1: Yay, Inge took us to IKEA

We bought a green table and bedsheets and yay. The whole thought of coming to IKEA was gained from the day before when we had dinner at Inge’s place, it was great, thanks , and after we had Tiramisù which was amazingly good, but also way too much to have after dinner..

Anyway, uhm here are the new acquisitions:

To show off the beautiful colors!..and the table

 

And the little table

#2: We went to see the Picasso exhibition at the Museum Vittoriano or something quite similar.

Now I have never much cared for Picasso, but I am open to new experiences… somewhat..
The thing is though.. Abstract is not my thing, unless it has some esthetic value to me and then I really don’t want to know what it was meant to be. A will list a few things I derived from this exhibition:

- I really don’t like Picasso.
- I now realise why bestiality is so wrong.
- Picasso had a weird, weird view of women.
- …and of Minotaurs…

So yes, to comment on the women thing:

Woman in black and grey...Yes. Woman in black and grey.

Then the bestiality/Minotaur thing:

Picasso's Minotaur...

And..

Just to emphasise..

So yes… did I mention I think Picasso’s art is a little weird?

Anyway..yes well that was it..

Oh and a different note.. I just noticed how messed up the layout of this blog is, I don’t know why… I’ll look into it..

Of housemates and stuff..

So, it’s been ages since I updated this.

Here’s the deal, I’ve been having a ball doing my sign language class!

My Sign Language Class

So that’s great, I’ve been learning common language like ‘How are you?’ and animals and sports and all types of words. It’s good fun, the teacher is great and the group is enthusiastic.

Then, we’ve also had some more time to get to know our flat/house/room – mates, which is cool, except for them moving out November 1st… Anyway, here they are:

And then uhm all of us together, of course.

Trastevere

Ok, so last Sunday we went to Trastevere, to experience the Porta Portese and go on from there.

It was quite interesting, mostly because some of the people at work had said that it was soooo crowded… But when I got there I didn’t think it was that bad, it reminded me of Koninginnedag or ‘braderie’ which is like a street sale. It also reminds me of De Haagse Markt, but it was less crowded than that because there was more space. There were some sales people who sat or stood up on the tables, shouting out bargains:

Then after we went there, we were just so tired, but we went on!

We wanted to see La piazza della Santa Maria di Trastevere.
Where the chiesa della Santa Maria di Trastevere is situated, obviously…

Anyway, we took a random bus, which got us completely lost. But we managed to get out at Trastevere station. Here, seemed unfriendly and just not interested in conversing. But we managed to get a woman to point somewhere, while mumbling some random Italian words. From that we derived the fact that we should go that way. Which we did.

If we had walked on, that would’ve been the end.

We ran into a tram stop though, it had a little map and showed us that we should wait for the tram to come and be on it before it left again. So we went on the tram, and my excellent map skills got us off at the right stop.

Then I saw a little tourist booth and knew we should take that street.

By this time we were both fairly hungry, so we decided to look for food. This street was full of little restaurants, but those were completely crowded.

Then we came to this sign:

It was intrigueing and the prices were right. So we walked the 20 metres and were surprised by a lovely little restaurant. The inside was interesting, it was obvious that the owners wanted it to remain like it was, but with the benefits of modern technology. So they had the original, very cute, brick oven but it was connected to a lot of metal pipes and things. The waitress was amiable, but not intrusive, which I find to be the perfect mix. The pizza was just delicious. I was shocked by the mere taste of it. I would like to eat that every single day of my life.

This is the place it was at:

So yes, go there and rejoice. (Oh, I almost forgot, it cost us less than 20 euros for two pizzas, a bottle of water, a coffee and a bruschetta)

So after wonderful, wonderful pizza.. We went to see the chiesa della Santa Maria di Trastevere.

I didn’t realise I had been there before until we went in.. but yes it’s quite a wonderfully overly decorated and way too shiny church. Interestingly commercial too. The altar at the end is wonderful, but it’s only lit when you put money in the little box next to it, hehe, behold:

At some point it seemed like mass was going to start, and the signs had politely asked us to leave during mass, so we did.

Then we almost bought stamps, but the woman was out of international stamps, meh..

We walked around a little and wanted ice cream, so we found this gelatteria, which, for a change, wasn’t called blue or red ice… The chocolate ice cream was just delicious, but crema… I will never have that flavour again.. :S So this shop was run by a funny Asian man, and I got his picture.

I asked him to smile, and he tried…

Do the monkey with me!

Johny Bravo theme

So, the other day there was this man in the metro.

He had a bag in a bag, he took the bag out of his bag and put it into his bag.

I had to share that.

Yesterday I had my first ever lesson in sign language. It was the better part of awesome.

I learned how to ask someone for their name or someone elses name, als I was granted my own sign, everyone in the class got their own sign, somewhat like a name, but based on a physical mark or some had their last names translated into something. It was good fun.

I hope I get to do more lessons.

The skies of Rome cry loud and bitter tears

“Bellissimo!” Cries a halfdrunk Roman when the sky breaks into pieces and all but our two tables run inside for shelters. “6 Mesi! 6 Mesi!” Yes, six months, he tells us, it’s been six months since it last rained like this. He is very happy and his friend who’s taking shelter is summoned to come sit with us.

They talk to us like we’re native Italians, I’m just as happy, not one person here apart from Cristina speaks actual Italian to me.. No, I lie, there is one more.

Today, Gaby came to my work so we could go out for lunch. We went to the little bar across the street, I drink my coffee there every morning and have lunch there as often as not. So we eat our panini, and sip our acqua. Gaby had herself uno panino al tonno e pomodori, and me, I’m not sure, but I think it was uno panino caldo  al prosciutto e mozzarella, yes, it was quite good, a little bun with mozzarella and some kind of smoked ham which was then toasted for my eating pleasure. After the meal I had a caffè, since that’s just awesome here.

So, after you eat/drink you have to go to the cassa to pay.

It’s quite an ordeal for me, usually, because frankly, I’m scared to speak up.

Today however I went: Due panini, un….caffè, e uhm… due acque…liscia (not sure if that’s correct but whatever).

And this woman, who is there everyday, seeing me stumble, brightens up, laughs and shouts: “BRAVA!”

So that was definitely one of the greatest moments this week

And yay it rains! The two guys who joined us were both kind of drunk, and were very happy with the fact that we were Dutch but could understand Italian. Oh and one of them had a dog, called Breadcrumb, so awesome.

Anyway, so they’re talking about politics and Amsterdam and crap like that and I just sit there and nod and so does Gaby mostly, and then out of nowhere, this Italian guy who has never met me before starts badmouthing the Pope!

Well I’ve never..! But really though, what the hell?! He’s talking about how bad it is to have a German Pope, and that the former Pope was so much better and really quite like a superhero. Then he says the weirdest thing… He says something about him touching small children… I was just sitting there like: ‘o_o

I mean geez, I thought Italians were like the uber-Catholics, purebred and stuff! So yes, after that we decided to somewhat exit stage right.

So I went: “Mi dispiace molto, ma dobbiamo andare.” I shake his hand and go “Piacere. Ciao!” So yay, I kind of did some Italian right, I think, I’m not sure, at least he understood…

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy..

 

So, I started my internship on Monday, as did Gaby her school.

I basically work from 9 till 5 on my project, which is fine really, because it’s a lot of work that needs to be done. There’s this whole Italian athmosphere of taking things slow and easy that just doesn’t seem right to me though.. I can’t quite put my finger on it.. I’m pretty sure 9 to 5 means 9:30 to 5 here though…

Anyway, to get into the more technical part of what I’m doing *WARNING: BORING*
I’ve been looking into some way of directing people through a closed space by object. Now I’ve looked into several ways of actually giong about doing that.

Basically, there’s gps, which is really just made for outdoor use, but with a lot of hassle and receivers and amplifiers and that kind of crap you could probably find a way to apply it. Which brings me to the fact that if it could be done, which I’m doubting due to the nature of museums. It wouldn’t nearly be accurate enough to actually be able to pinpoint the exact location of an object you are bumping into and simultaneously informing you about it. Furthermore, it would take a great deal of bullshit to actually get it installed. I don’t like messing around with that…

Then there’s infrared, which works, but due to battery life and range isn’t really that effective. Plus, it’s somewhat like using your Wii, it just beeps your location all the time, it just doesn’t seem useful in terms of information sharing..

There’s node mapping, using the SVG mapping technology that is used in gameplay, which is based on nodes leading to different nodes leading to nodes.. and stuff. Which is interesting, but really hard to make, for me at least, and not that easy to apply for someone with limited compy savvy..

 

Node mapping..

And there’s some more ways I forgot, but anyway, I chose RFID chips.

Which, in terms of navigation in general might not be the easiest/most profitable choice. But.. in terms of navigating through a museum, based on objects, not on route or whichever, it is quite interesting. It doesn’t actually lead you in a specified direction, it’s more like a handy information sharer/tracker of where you are. Basically, you have these RFID tags, which carry an ID#, they are passive and do nothing but contain this number. Very cost effective, I’ve seen them for about 40 cents each on the net. Then you get to the part where you’re gonna want to read the tag numbers to actually make use of them. There are readers to do this.

My actual plan in terms of applying this to my project is simple. You tag every object in the museum, which is inadvertently a very good way to map the museum and make an online catalogue. Plus if the objects are moved, they already have their tag applied.

You then apply readers to several PDA’s. When someone carrying a PDA steps in range of a tag, the tag ID# will be sent to the reader, which will enter the number into a php page, which in turn will be opened in the PDA browser. Because all tags are unique, every tag ID# has their own little space in the database, which contains, say: the name, location, description and a picture of the object the tag is connected to. The page that opens is a generic page that has a layout in which it projects all the fields connected to the tag ID#.

This way, to add new objects would be as easy as to add some information into a database.

Another benefit from doing this through a database is the fact that this is basically an online catalogue of everything the museum has to offer. Which could be used for a website or for archiving.

One thing I’m still working on is how to actually write the source code, and, how to apply some sort of sign language into this, by means of a videoguide or something:

Ok, so I’m still working no the removing of blue screen… I just started working with video programmes today… (not including windows movie maker). Also, I would like to have subtitles in it, I have made an easy to understand paint image to make you understand:

So yes, that would be awesome..

So that’s as far as I’ll go today.

*BORING ENDED*

So yesterday we went out to dinner with Inge and her friend whose name I just keep forgetting… Sorry!
It was fun, a nice little restaurant with an old man reciting the menu at your table so you couldn’t order anything that was on the menu but not in the kitchen. I understood about half of what he was saying and he understood about nothing I was saying, well, he understood pera… but not my funghi e prosciuto, which is indeed hard to comprehend, although Gaby understood me..

What else, oh yes, we talked about all kinds of things, including, somehow, me being lazy and accustomed to a luxury lifestyle. Which, I have to agree to, since I do like an easy life with easy going people doing easy things. Preferably none at all. Still, I think in my defense, I do at times try to work and earn money and clean and stuff… Not like some people who moved to Italy with me…

Anyway, we also talked about some poets and Inge was fascinated by the old man and his wife in the kitchen, and uhm we had some caffè so yeah, it was all good.

Uhm.. oh, today Christina will help us pick out the best anti-musquito deathray. Which I’m really looking forward to, since I have developped quite the allergy to this specific type of mosquito, photos will be shared shortly.

Well, I’ll keep it at that for now, I will write some more about the workings of Final Cut Pro later…