pastaperdue's blog english edition

2007-08 autumn-winter season

2007-11-29T15:39:00.000+01:00

As you know, since our arrival in Torino we have eaten like if tomorrow the world ended. (we are preparing a post about it).
The fact is that after eating, we feel bad and we have to go running.
Because the weather is getting cold we have had to buy new clothes and we found meshes at decartron that suit us perfectly.

Showing legs at Carmen's house.

Spanking Ramon.

And remember...
... it's not the same to go running hot that going hot to run.

Case 2: Torino's McDonalds (I)

2007-11-26T13:16:00.000+01:00

Study number: 2
Placement: Torino (Piemonte). Italia
Address: Piazza Statuto 16, Torino (TO)
Experiment day: 22/11/2007
Experiment time: 13:11
Crime probe:

'Cause one cheese is not enough.. to give better results, we bought 8 cheeseburguers. "S. Benedetto Nat" is the mineral water. You may call us fat bastards but over this things we eat healthy. The next picture shows the McDonalds facade...

Let's start the study:

EXTERNAL FACTORS

Building: Small: we didn't find a place to sit and we had to ask a couple (very romantic to bring your girlfriend at McDonalds) if we could sit next to them. The building and it's spacial distribution were normal. Punctuation: 5
Placement and parking: Well located in a good neighborhood and accessible with public transportation. Maybe a little far from the center of the city. Because it's located under porches it is difficult to see while your are walking. Punctuation: 6,5
Decoration and cleanliness: All the walls were full of pictures. When we closed our eyes while bitting the cheese it seemed we were transported to a parallel world. Punctuation: 8
Bathrooms: Small and dirty. We haven't punctuate them with a 0 because they were modern.. Punctuation: 4
Fast service: We have seen faster services, even asking for more food. Punctuation: 4,5

INTERNAL FACTORS:

Price: as seen in the first picture, the cheese costed 1,50 €. Following the price valutation rules exposed previously, we will give the maximum mark. Punctution: 10
Symmetry: They didn't know the symmetry concept... when we opened the cheese for visual inspection we find a big mess. Punctuation: 2
Temperature: After taking a long time for serving and on top of all that it wasn't at the perfect point! Punctuation: 7
Texture: Soft as a baby ass. Tender as a bean. Juicy like honey. A cheese. Punctuation: 9
Ingredients: All the ingredients were inside... like when God created the universe. Maybe the proportions weren't the best. Punctuation: 8

OTHERS:

+0,2 we add to the final mark for having Ronald's statue. Because we don't won't to fail in picture redundancy wit sir Ronald, in the photo there are two nice girls that joined us: Carmen and Alba.

+0,2 for having Playland

EXTERNAL FACTORS:	5,6
INTERNAL FACTORS:	7,2
MEDIUM:	6,4
OTHERS:	+0,4
FINAL MARK OF TORINO'S MCDONALDS	6,80

Heli-visit

2007-11-23T12:58:00.000+01:00

Because we made the mistake of giving the link of this blog to the ones that are paying our fantastic holidays (hey mum, how are you doing?), we should let them know that sometimes we do something useful. It's true that yesterday we visited the Politecnico air museum but today we have visited a real company: Air Green

We know you are thinking... "oh yes.. visiting a company.. what a hard duty guys..". So well little grasshoppers, the objective of the visit was to clarify the things taught in class.

What you have to watch is the helicopter! (not Ramon's ass). It's an AB-412 for civil use (firefight, heliambulance,...) or military use (tactic transport, surveillance, ...). A better picture of the helicopter (without getting distracted by men like Ramon) would be:

We also have seen an old Lama aka SA-315B Aérospatiale Alouette II. Well known between the industrials because of the demonstration we did the last year at the ETSEIB...

Doro and Johanna trying to understand how the tail rotor works.

So.. we have had a good time and we have learned a looooot. Because in the next picture there isn't Ramon, we give you another one with him and his concept of the helicopters.

And remember...

... it is not the same Eduard than Ramon. (Some people said they look the same in this one)

P.D. Happy birthday to Monné, he's 22!!

A party night (from Alba's point of view)

2007-11-22T15:00:00.000+01:00

We take this opportunity to tell some news. Since today, we can publish your post for free. You just have to send it to us. We will censure it and if we like it (it's so easy to write better than us) we will publish it.

The first participant has been Alba. Future doctor from Madrid.

We situate you: the post explains yesterday night. The only problem is that it has been wrote after not sleeping and after deciding to go with us in the helicopter flight mechanics class.
We have maintained the original language of the narration to do not lose the sensibiliy of its words. We also add some photos to make it more understandable.

Todo empezó la semana pasada, cuando Josep llegó a la mensa y dijo:
-La semana que viene el martes no se sale porqué el miércoles tenemos que ir a LA GARE que me han dicho que está muy bien.

Ahora mismo, habiendo estado allí soy incapaz de decir si estaba bien o no porqué como la mayoría de las noches de este Erasmus desde que entro hasta que salgo de cualquier bar, garito, discoteca o lo que sea... ¡NON MI RICORDO DI NIENTE!
Al tema, el martes no salimos (muy a mi pesar) y el miércoles prometía... Como iba tan sobrada con psiquiatría, por la tarde decidí hacer un juego.

Todo lo que se me ocurría eran ideas guarras pero como sabía que nadie iba a querer hacer nada, cambié "follar" por "bebe 1 vaso" y unas cuantas cosas más.
Como de costumbre, las rubias
Bea = Rúbia 1

Patri = Rúbia 2

y Alba = Rúbia 3

(grupo en el que no sé muy bien porqué estoy incluida) llegamos tarde al botellón, y mira que sabíamos que teníamos poco tiempo para beber.
Del rato en casa de Ramon y Josep...destacaría lo bien que le quedan a Ramon las camisetas de mujer,

lo bueno que está el "vino da tavola" y lo malísimo que está el limoncello.

Ah!! y lo tramposa que es la gente! Porqué si pone BEBER 1 VASO, es 1 vaso y no medio! Y si es un vaso de la mensa, pues te jodes!
A Patri y a mi nos queda pendiente porlar a Josep un día sin ir borrachas y con tiempo. Y luego él tendrá que porlar al resto de las mujeres. ¡ Prepárate Josep porqué, como puediste ver anoche jugando a Furor, somos todqas duras de pelar. Qué grande aquel "España, patria queridaaaaaa" o el "cara el sol, con la camisa negra??!!"
Del camino a la Gare poco puedo contar...que llovía, que fuimos a "paso Paloma" y que Elena, incluso con su nuevo corte de pelo,

sigue con la misma facilidad para beberse a tragos aquel limoncello asqueroso sin poner ninguna cara de me quiero morir!! Sin embargo, Josep es incapaz de beber ni 1 gota sin poner cara de ???!!!
La parte de la Gare no la cuento porqué non mi ricordo di niente!! Sólo de una plataforma y de bailar sin parar.
No se muy bien porqué pero hoy he dormido en casa de Josep y Ramon, y eso que llegué a estar en la puerta de mi portal!! Cuando digo dormir, me refiero a 3 horas porqué hoy había una clase de helicópteros importantíiiiiiisima, la cual yo no me podía perder!! Y aquí estoy, rodeada de piezas de helicópteros y de italianos frikis que no paran de tocarlas.

y...¿¿PQ??? ....porqué NELLA SPAGNA SI FA COSÍ!!
Que pasará ahora??No se...porqué Ramon y Josep tienen clase y Carmen y yo ganas de desayunar y de saber que coño pasó en la Gare!!!

Well, well, well, we won't comment anything about the magnitude of this narration... about la Gare, we let you with some pictures in order you know it...

From here, our thanks to Alba for such an unselfish act. Kisses and thanks!!

Case 1: Padova's McDonalds

2007-11-20T14:37:00.000+01:00

Study number: 1
Placement: Padova (Veneto). Italia
Address: P.zza Stazione Ferroviaria 5, ang. C.so del Popolo, Padova (PD)
Experiment day: 10/11/2007
Experiment time: 16:52
Crime probe:

After days without sleeping, finally the results have arrived!
The first analyzed McDonald's has been the Padova one.

After an exhaustive study, here are the results:

EXTERNAL FACTORS

Building: 2 floors, big space, few people, renewed building but a little bit collapsed of tables and chairs. Surely it's oversized for the people that may go there. Punctuation: 7
Placement and parking: if you arrive in train it's the first you will see when you get out the station. But, the square in front of McDonald's was full of bad look people and you really didn't want to eat a Cheeseburger there. Punctuation: 5,5
Decoration and cleanliness: nice, with yellow walls that relax you and let you travel with the erogen sensations of eating a hamburger. Punctuation: 9
Bathrooms: when getting to the bathrooms we find this:

More or less it says that to go to the bathroom you have to ask for the keys to the manager. When we asked for them, he told us it was been cleaned.. we get really deceived. Punctuation: 0
Fast service: we have mentioned there was few people. They didn't do the mistake of having the hamburgers done (and cold). They served us in 10 seconds and the cheese was ok. Punctuation: 10

INTERNAL FACTORS:

Price: as you can see in the bill , the cheese was 1,50€. Following the price valoreation rules exposed before, we have to give the maximum punctuation. Punctution: 10
Symmetry: we searched for the perfect symmetry but we didn't find it. Punctuation: 5
Temperature: as we said, even delivering very fast, the cheeses weren't cold. We have eaten them so fast that they couldn't get cold. Punctuation: 10
Texture: as you can see on this picture, Josep is enjoying the cheese. It's consistent without being so hard and at the same time, when it's beaten it melts like butter. Punctuation: 8

Ingredients: we paid for all of them and we didn't get onion!! We get really angry.. please, do not to this again. Punctuation: 0

OTHERS:

+0,2 we add to have Ronald's statue.

EXTERNAL FACTORS:	6,3
INTERNAL FACTORS:	6,4
MEDIUM:	6,35
OTHERS:	+0,2
FINAL MARK OF PADOVA'S MCDONALDS	6,55

Excursion to... (I)

2007-11-19T14:31:00.000+01:00

Alta Valle di Susa - Beaulard

This Sunday I did my first official excursion to the Italian Alps. Ramon stayed at home...

Of all the routes we find on the Internet, the only one possible on Sunday by train was:

Partenza: Beaulard, stazione 1144 m.
Arrivo: cappella di San Giusto 1820 m.
Dislivello: 800 m.
Tempo complessivo: 4 ore

The excursion was so good. Better because of the company than because of the landscape. We also saw snow!! :)

I was accompanied by:

Carmen, Helena and Alba

Ludovic and Raquel

Quim and Josep

Walking in an abandoned ski resort.

Never pa amb tomata without oil tasted so well.

And to finish, a picture of one of the several frozen rivers we found:

Visits (II)

2007-11-17T14:16:00.000+01:00

After Kim and Loes, Júlia decided to visit us.

Julia and her friends arrived friday morning from Genova.
As good hosts we take them to have lunch at McDonalds and later, we visited the city. (We still have to tell you about the monuments and interesting places in the city)

The three from Perugia over Po river.

We were lucky and there wasn't any smog so we could enjoy the alpine skyline.

At Teatro Regio's door.

Because we know they would get tired, we prepared an aperitivo they would not forget. We can explain what is an aperitivo but we think it deserves a full post; when we get more photos we will write about it.

And after aperitov.. let's drink. We were punishing the kidney from 8pm to 1am, we laughed, danced, singed, told cruel jokes and we also checked the fame of Hermanos Carrión.

We went to Murazzi until 6am and we returned home (don't know how). This morning surprisingly nobody had hangover so we have taken advantage of the fantastic weather and we have done another city tour.
It's hard to recognize that a city is better than yours, it's even harder when this city is as unknown as Torino. Before leaving they've said. They have had a good time and they may also return! We have promised to visit them in Genova.

And what you were waiting:

How the hell did Josep get dirty his t-shirt?

Here you will find the answer...

McDonalds study

2007-11-14T22:03:00.000+01:00

In 1948, brothers Richard and Maurice Mcdonald opened a restaurant in San Bernardino (California) introducing the new concepts of fast food with quality products and low cost.

It's hard to find words to describe the sensations produced by eating a hamburger in McDonalds. It's well known that the flavor explosion of eating a Cheeseburger is better than the best wank/poo/...
For this reason we want to make a study to search the best place to eat a Cheeseburger (cheese for friends). The simple fact of sharing with you our results is enough to make us get up with a smile on our faces :)
We will try to make an objective study of all the McDonalds we will visit in our stage in Torino.
Our study is divided in two fields: internal and external factors of the hamburger. Because it won't be very rigorous to put a simple punctuation, we have divided every field in sub-categories. The punctuation will be over 10.

EXTERNAL FACTORS
Those factors that, without being properly of the hamburger, affect in the final marks:

Building: we value the situation of the restaurant with aspects such as modernity, ambient, distribution,...
Place and parking: our slogan would be: "when we are hungry we would like to have a McDonalds near us". Obviously we are not asking for a restaurant every 100meters but a well located restaurant
Decoration and cleanliness: if you see white walls you will feel like being in a hospital. White gives you relax sensation but we think that a well decorated local needs something else..
Bathrooms: as good gourmets, before eating, we need to wash our hands to let them feel in the best conditions the hamburger texture.
Fast service: by this we mean the time between you ask for food and they put it on the plate.

INTERNAL FACTORS
Those of the hamburger.
To have a reference, our internal factors will be based on the famous Cheeseburguer.

Our sub-categories will be:

Price: We have taken 1,50€ as the basic price. So, if a hamburger costs 1,50€ we will give it a 10/10. Every 10 cents increasing it's price we will subtract 2,5 points. For example, if a hamburger costs 1,60€ we will give it a 7,5/10.
Symmetry: it's scientifically demonstrate that the symmetry is an important factor that determines the election and the attractive of everything. It's signal of health and wellness. Hamburgers must be symmetric.
Temperature: Not burning not cold, at the perfect temperature.
Texture: the facility of you teeth penetration inside the hamburger without breaking it is essential.
Ingredients: 100% veal meat, Cheddar cheese, onion, ketchup, mustard and prickle in it's correct proportions and placements.

OTHERS
Because life is not black or white, there may be other factors that affect our meal in a McDonalds. For this reason, we will add 0,2 extra points if McDonalds has the statue of Ronald McDonald and also 0,2 extra points if it has a park for the kids.

We hope you like them. All the suggestions will be well received!

And remember...

...it's not the same I'm loving it than I'm loving eat!

Trip to... (VII)

2007-11-14T16:56:00.000+01:00

Verona

This city closes the weekend trilogy.
Verona (260.000 inhabitants) also belongs to Veneto. We are so ignorant that we didn't know it is also world heritage site by the UNESCO. It's known by it's amphitheater (Arena for friends) the 4th bigger in the world. It's also known by Giulieta's imaginary house (the one fucked by Romeo).

We love wiquipedia panoramic views! Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Everybody talked good about Venezia and it didn't disappointed us. Some people talked bad about Padova and it surprised us. But we didn't know anything of Verona.
After visiting it we must say that it's the most beautiful city we've seen in Italy by the moment. We even liked it more than Venezia!.

We don't know anything about architecture but the buildings remind us the city of the channels. The ochre color of it's façades contrasted with the blue of the sky (we had excellent weather). Briefing... we get tender while walking on it's streets, it was like a movie..

Some pictures of our visit:

Arena di Verona. When the weather is good there's opera inside.

Piazza dei Signori.

At the top of Castel San Pietro.

The river Adige and Ponte Scaligero at the back.

Searching the symmetry in the walled bridge.

Piazza Dei Signori again.

Balcony of Giulietta's house. Just in case you don't know, they never existed.

All the walls of the house are full of love signatures ^^

As always, the best at the end:

We think all the day how to improve.

If you could stop time... molesting Giulietta.

Trip to... (VI)

2007-11-13T16:39:00.000+01:00

Padova

Saturday afternoon we finished the tour in Venezia, we took a train and 30 minutes later we arrived in Padova.

Padova with 210.000 inhabitants also belongs to Veneto region. Is the less touristic city we have visit till now but you may know it's Antonio di Padova and it's famous university (founded in 1222) where Galileo, Copernicus or William Harvey had studied or taught.

First image of the city just getting out the train.

Kim is doing her Erasmus in Padova and said it was the worst city she had ever seen. We don't know if it's because we have little expectations but we think it's a nice city. Maybe it helped the fact we arrived in Saturday and there was a nice atmosphere.
We liked it's monuments and narrow streets. The party ambient there remind us (in small scale) Bologna.

We let you with some pictures (from Google, 'cause we arrived by night and ours are not very good) of the best places we visited:

Piazza della Frutta, Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza dei Signore respectively. In every square there's a market. Very charming.

Pratto della Valle, 8th biggest square in the world and first of Italy with 90.000 square meters.

Basilica of Saint Antonio di Pàdova. We are the ones that think that seen one church, seen all. This would be an exeption. A pitty that inside you will see the tongue, teeth and the vocal folds of the saint... ~~nasty~~.

When we finished the night city tour we drank an aperitivo. The typical drink of the Veneto and concretely of Padova is the Spritz: Aperol, prosseco (sparkling wine) and soda with a lemon slice. A little bit bitter but ok.

Drinking Spritz. From left to right: Ramon, Kim, Coralie, Josep, Sarah and Loes. The two new faces are from two German friends of Kim. They nicely let us their room to sleep.

As yesterday, we let you with the alternative pictures of the trip:

There was a laurea party and a lot of giant lizards were on the streets.

Before going to sleep it was cold...

But in the morning it was worst! First picture of frost in Italy.

Trip to... (V)

2007-11-12T16:20:00.000+01:00

Venezia

After a nervous week we had a prize. Just finishing the lessons on Friday, we took the train to Venezia, the city that starts the weekend trilogy.

What can we say about this city you don't know. Is the capital of Veneto region with 63.000 inhabitants. It's world heritage site by the UNESCO. It's formed by 120 islands joined with 800 bridges and it's well known by the gondole, the channels, the carnival, the Biennale di Venezia (where there's la Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica whith it's famous golden lions), Murano glass or, simply, by the charm of the city by itself.

Canal Grande panoramic view, click on the picture to enlarge it.

420km, 30€ and 5 hours after leaving from Torino-Porta Nuova we arrived at the city of the channels. By the way, we picked up two friends you already know: Kim and Loes.

Just getting out of the train we were surprised by the cold weather. A transport strike also surprised us and the frequency of the boat-buses was random. So, it took us more or less the same going from Torino to Venezia than Venezia's railway station to the hostel.

The hostel very good: classical building at 5 minutes in boat to Piazza San Marco, 20€ bed and breakfast and nice "backpack" atmosphere.

Because of the strike, we arrived late at the hostel and we had dinner there. In the picture you can see some typical food.

Saturday in the morning we were ready to visit the city. We have to say we like it A LOT and we recommend you to visit it ~~before it sinks~~. Even being very touristic it hasn't lose its delight. We let you with some pictures of the day in Venezia:

Nice views from the hostel (we were in an island in front of Piazza San Marco).

At SM square. In this city there's a plague of ~~winged rats~~ pigeons.

We like this photo (even that the 50% of the blog writers have the eyes closed).

Another typical postcard photo.. We love this city!

As we know that a big amount of our readers ask for something else than postcard photos, this section is for you:

Paying tribute to the ones that pay the Erasmus.

Autoreferent picture??

Fractal tribute for the geeks.

Italians also cheat

2007-11-08T16:10:00.000+01:00

After a nervous week finally we had the premiere.

The exam type has been a bit different than the other years and we needed like 30 more minutes to finish some details but the sensations have been good. We think the exam was so good.

As we've heard and we have proved, the exams are more theoretical than in ETSEIB.
The HP images could be of any resistència exercise, the problem is that the distances, forces and torques are letters and you've to suppose the signs and more things and everything is much more longer...

We were full loaded of crib shits (like Italian students), but at the end, we just used the HP to check some results...

From here we want to thank the ~~small~~ support samples we've received.
We seize to say goodbye until Monday. Kisses for all ;***

Yes, yes, yes the first exam is here...

2007-11-05T16:03:00.000+01:00

So... Thursday 8th of November we have the first exam at the Polito. It's about costruzioni aeronautiche (more or less like resistència de materials).

Cons:
-Language
-It's our first exam in Italy

Pros:
-Erasmus joker
-Viga for HP megabonus joker
-The class should be full so we'll be able to do the exam together

We will be a little bit absent till Thursday, but we are preparing a nice surprise for the following week.

Blog news

2007-11-04T15:50:00.000+01:00

Because pastaperdue's blog is extending around the world, we thought it will be good to change a little bit the blog structure and add some personal information about us. We think you'll think that we have no work and that we are scratching our balls all the day.. you know it's not like this hehe
Hope you like the new style!

ULEB CUP in Torino

2007-10-31T15:24:00.000+01:00

As the title says, the first "final eight" of ULEB's CUP history is going to take place in the marvelous, modern, avant guarding, enterprising... city of Torino.

In this picture there are the "big fishes" of Euroloeague and Torino's city... just say that the second from the right is the catalan Jordi Bertomeu, actual president of the Euroleague.

So.. between 10th-13th April of 2008 it will take place in Torino such spectacle. Just to say that our mansion is booked for that week.
About the tickets I think that are assigned to the final teams... if you have some contacts, the catalan teams playing in this competition are:
- DKV Joventut
- Akasvayu Girona
- "Pamesa València"

A little bit of history... the last year's winner was Real Madrid. The next two pictures show the catalan side of the team:
His trainer (Joan Plaza, of cal Seré) beating the champion medal.or his base Raül López.
For the Lleida's basket nostalgics, in 2002-2003 Ruffin-Álvarez-Grimau delighted us with european basket in Lleida:

And remember...

...it's not the same to make a 1000km trip, pay hotels, pay tickets, get lost in a new city you don't know, get drunk in the street, sleep in the parks to see an European final that, simply, see the final because you live next to it!

*ULEB CUP: like the basket UEFA.

Impressions from ETSEIB

2007-10-29T15:37:00.000+01:00

I know that my visit to Barcelona has been short, but I think it has served to know if you are, or not, loyal to our blog...

Almost all of you proved that you are up to date of our progresses asking me more information about the facts exposed in old posts like: the hat party, my Barracuda Basket or if it is as cold as we say.

But what I complain about is that you visit it but you never comment! It's effortless to say what you think about our white asses, the cake hat or eating burguers in McDonalds.

To promote your comments... in a few days we'll publish the necessary conditions to be accommodate in our flat (requirements only for men of course, girls for free). Apart from bringing us typical catalan food, ETSEIB gossip or 5th course notes, you will have to post a minimum of comments in order we let you in!
Even that, I liked to see you all!!

Picture while going to el Paso party (Mèxic). I'm sorry you are not in the photo...

And remember...

... it's not the same to have no idea of Infinitesimal Calculus but have passed it than have no idea of it but do not have passed it.

Trip to... (IV)

2007-10-27T15:16:00.000+02:00

Cinque Terre

The day after visiting Genova we planned to visit the well known parco nazionale delle Cinque Terre, UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997. Briefing, this park comprises a 10km coast zone with 5 villages: Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore, here comes the name of Cinque Terre.

After a nice breakfast at the hostel we took the train and an hour and a half later we arrived at Riomaggiore..

Waiting the train in Genova. Once the white beard man wake up we talk a long time. I think he has the honour of being the person which I've talked more time in italian.

The train follows the Ligurian coast. In certain moments I had the feeling of being in the Lleida-Barcelona train but it's punctuality returned me into reality.

Everyone said very good words about this park and, as it usually happens, when you expect a lot about something you get disappointed. Just getting out of the train, we had to pay 5€ to use the track... like a toll. The famouse cinque terre are 5 little villages linked by a ruined track.

The villages are like the ones in the postcards, but what you can't see in the postcards is that they are exclusively focused for tourists. They are full of shops for foreigners that make you feel like being in Salou.

I'm looking at the landscapes and I prefer them now than when I was there... if the villages (even they are beautifull) remind me Salou, the landscape reminds me the Costa Brava.

We get tired of walking all the day to see a clonic village like the previous and athe the "cuarta terra" we decided to quit. At the photo you can see that we sweat the t-shirts.

Checking the endurance of the walls with Rodrigo.

And that has been my weekend. Maybe if nobody has talked about this place we would enjoy much more so I'll make you a favour and I'll say it just was nice, maybe then, if someday you arrive here they will surprise you.

Trip to... (III)

2007-10-26T20:20:00.000+02:00

Genova

Last saturday I visited the city of Genova with Patri, Bea, Raquel, Carmen, Enric, Dani, Ludovic, Rodri and Jorge (I will introduce them in the pictures). Ramon couldn't come because he had to "study" guinyo guinyo.

Some basic things you should know about Genova: it's the capital of the region of Liguria with a population of 615.000, it's the second most important harbour in the Mediterranean sea after Marsella's, it has the second biggest aquarium in Europe after Valencia's oceanographic, it's the born city of Cristòfor Columbus and gastronomically it's well known by the pesto genovese (you'll surely know it), focaccia and farinata.

Nice panoramical view of the city, click on the picture to enlarge it.

After two and a half hours of train, we arrived at Genova at lunch time. As you know, apart from apreciating the typical gastronomy, Ramon and me like to frequent certain place...

They served really fast in detriment of the cheeseburguer freshness that was done about 5 minutes ago and consequently was a little bit soft, the presentation was correct and there wasn't missing neither the onion or the mustard that lots of times they forget to put.

After 2cheese and a HappyMeal I ended my mission in Genova, I had all the day free for tourism.
This city is said to be ugly and decadent, in my opinion, it's so nice (at least the part I visited). When you walk through it's narrow streets you have the feeling of being in an old city, the facades are old but nice, the city is not very clean but the dirt and the smell of the streets gives you the sensation of being in another epoque. The fact that it has sea adds a lot of points. But what I really loved was that it's a no-touristic city, more than Torino but far away from cities like Rome or Florence. And to say something negative.. the streets are uphill (and downhill).

Some pictures of the city:

At the left Enric, at the right Raquel and from front to back Patri, myself, Jorge, Ludovic and Carmen.

The no-spanish: from left to right, Ludovic (french), Dani, Enric and a server (catalan click). By the way, Dani and Otger (today is his birthday) were school mates.

Passeig marítim.

Enric and Rodrigo at the hostel room (15€ the night). The only hostel in the city it's very far from the center so if you want to return after party, or you come back before 1am or you have to wait until 6am.

And to end, a panoramic view of the city with sunset.

Until here today's post. I will return to Genova with Ramon and we'll visit Julia, the girl we met in Perugia that is doing her Erasmus there (this saturday she wasn't in the city).

And remember...

...do not confuse Genova (Italy) with Geneve (Switzerland).

The less expected return

2007-10-23T20:07:00.000+02:00

As the title says, it's time for returns. Ramon will be in Barcelona and Lleida unitl 2th of november.

The true is that I'm sorry for leaving Olivart alone. Because of the weather in the city he will be so cold. Don't worry man.. I'll be back soon. I hope you explain me all the news and upload the blog with some superficial posts, hehe.
I don't know how I'll distribute my days between Barcelona and Lleida but if you want to include me in some basket session, invite me to dinner or pay me a drink.. you know!
That's all folks, see you soon!

And remember...

...it's not the same return that turn two times

HamilTON-TO ALOoserNSO

2007-10-21T19:53:00.000+02:00

I think this will be the first time that we give our opinion about something that can affect the majority of our readers...

Raikkonen's today victory has pleased almost everyone. Let's explain it: we don't know why, but since Hamilton arrived at F1 he has been treated like a king. We can think about lots of reasons: Alonse is a fool and can't be the icon for child, someone wants England to win again, someone wants a black guy to win the championship... In front of this, people have positioned against him cheering Alonso or, because lots of people also hate him, cheering Kimi.

And remember...

...every pig has it's Saint Martin

Barracuda Basket

2007-10-19T22:59:00.000+02:00

Barracuda Basket is the team that has recently got my services. I have choose the most crowded team in the zone (about 20 players...). I would like to play in a team with a more "italian" name but well, San Giuseppe di Moncalieri can wait for the next year.
Yesterday, the championship started...

In the picture you can see the initial jump of the match. A new season has started with it's new refereeings, news team meals... For the ones that know about this, I can say that I play in a similar level as Lleida's provincial tournament. Here I list some things that shocked me about the italian way of playing basketball:
1- In the lower leagues, the matches are played during the laboral days of the week. So, when we play at home, one of the two training days is used to play the match.
2- Referees are much more permissive. You can defend with the hands that they don't say anything. For the tactical players like me, this is not good.
3- 10 players are called to play (not 12 like in catalonia). Obviously, if there are 20 players... someone gets out.
4- The level is lower than in Lleida. They replace it with playing at 200% all the match.
5- Referees are as bad as the ones in Lleida.
6- My debut, once finished all the paperwork, is expected for the 5th november.
7- We loose the match of 10 points.

We let you with some pictures of the match...

In this last photo... Lebron James is trying to dunk.. not in my house looser!

And remember...

...it's not the same to **maxacar-la than **maxacar-te-la

**Some kind of joke in catalan using a dunk-wank word

Helen's birthday

2007-10-18T22:54:00.000+02:00

Yesterday it was Helen's birthday (at the left of the picture) and we went out to celebrate it.

We spent all the night drinking and dancing with a nice spanish and catalan group.. photo at Murazzi, party zone next to Po river.

Without knowing how, suddenly it was time to go to university and at 8.30am we went directly to theorical aerdynamics class..

... but in 10 minuts we surrender.

And remember...

...it is not the same to go *empalmat at class than to go of *empalmada at class

*So hard to explain xD

The party of the hats

2007-10-13T22:38:00.000+02:00

Against our willness, yestarday we were forced to go to a party.
To enter it we must wear a hat so we went to Carrefour to search some inspiration. Two hours later we returned home with lots of alcohol and an idea in mind. We had to mix the concepts of birthday party + hat party. Finally this idea was borned...

We know you don't know what to say... it's normal.
The party was so good and, as obvious, our performance was the best of the night and every time they fire us...

...people get mad and surrender at our feet with a "Tanti aguri a te".

To detach that the party was in a students flat a "little" bigger than ours and the respect for the neighbours sleep shined for its abscence.
The time passed as fast as the alcohol ended and at 3am we leaved the flat. We ate something and while we were returning home, some italians called us from a balcony where a loud electronic music could be heard.. another party in a flat?? what about the neighbours??
Because we do not know how to say no, we enter..

This was the entrance.. this time the party was just for italians and nobody wear hat so everyone looked at us with a wtf face. We let you with two videos in which you can see the reaction of the people when watching a walking birthday cake.

And remember...

... to go to a hat party is not the same than make a party in a *hat house.

*Hat house = whore house in catalan

Wanted: Ramon

2007-10-12T22:21:00.000+02:00

As the title of the post says, Ramon is wanted for the italian police. He's heavy built (about 1,80m and 120kg), he dresses casual. All the neighbours said that they weren't expecting him to do something like that. The neighbourhood is shocked because of the magnitude of the acts of an italian guy with catalan origins. Now, they consider him an italian naturalized catalan. He's also known as Ronaldo and is specially dangerous when eating. We show you some photos provided by the local police department:

His crime has been to swindle the public transport authorities. It seems that he was absent-minded after spending all the day with useless paperwork. With a huge security device, he was finally arrested and one of the worst panic episodes in the city ended.
His flat mate told us that for the moment, he won't be able to play basket because he still has not his legal documentation. So, it seems that the motive of his acts could be the incompetence of the italian burocracy. The complaint of the delict is shown in the following picture:

The guy is devastated and, since now, he will be more carefull.

And remember...

... not for taking a lot the TRAM, you can TRAMitate faster your paperwork.

Someone is spying us?

2007-10-11T21:30:00.000+02:00

So yes little grasshopers... here in Torino we also have the censure that sisquet imposed time ago. After spendind a lot of time updating the blog we finally went to bed and, when we woke up, which was our surprise??

You should click on the picture to see what we mean.

Taking advantage of the new technologies, we've put a webmeter in the blog (a little blue square at the right bottom of the web...). Without knowing how or why, yesterday we had this "honorable" visit". From here we apologize because our original text has been completely manipulated. Fearing the reprisals, not of the defense ministry but the attack ministry, we will have to reduce the bald contents of the blog.

We apologyse if someone has been offended.

And remember...

... it's not the same to have visits from Torino that to be visiting Torino. So you know, visit us soon!!

Trip to... (II)

2007-10-10T18:40:00.001+02:00

Bologna (3 of 3)

The party ended and about 6am we returned to the base camp. We were almost in the bed when, don't know how, the spanish guys who lived with Patri started talking about catalans.

Before going to Torino we told to ourselves to do not talk about politics with spanish people under no circumstances for abvious reasons. We are here for a month and, until that night, we had been able to smartly elude the spanish attempts to talk about it. I won't enter in details of the 2 hours conversation we had, but I wondered to see which side would Chueca&co. support... we went to sleep at 8am after confirm the popular phrase "it's better to shut up and people think you're an asshole than open your mouth and demonstrate you're". We are tired that spanish people mess with us without any reason.

Well, rage away, let's continue with the story..
After sleeping about 1 hour, we were at 10am in the railway station. We've met with Kim, Loes and some friends to visit the city (the weather this time was nice :)). The only contact we have with spanish people is in parties and botellon, we've never seen them in the university or doing some sport. We let you with some photos that resume the day.

We didn't agreed which one to put so we've put both. Photo at the top of the tower.

Freak photo at the tower.

A Neptunos piazza fountain.

And yes, we've write this lines to provoke. We are really tired.

And remember..

.. if you don't want to see spanish peaople, go to the library

*All the text is a joke, viva España y viva el Rey!!
**Ramon has censured half of the text..

Trip to... (II)

2007-10-09T18:13:00.000+02:00

Bologna (2 of 3)

And well, when we went to sleep it was Saturday.. but we wake up at 2pm. Even the photo camera had hangover and didn't remember the photos it take. Maybe it's better like that. Under this lines you can see how we sleeped in a patera-erasmus appartment. The answer to the horny minds question: NO

With the excuse that Ramon wanted to see the Fortitudo di Bologna stadium, we leave the appartment. Like if the planets aligned, the stadium was in front of Patri's appartment!
In Ramon's opinion (he has lots of experience in stadiums), is one of the best he has ever seen:

In 20 minutes we finished all the outlooks of the day. To celebrate, we give us a present, a good meal:

As if destiny wanted that we did not do anything, it started raining. Suddenly we understood why the streets were covered. How smart are this italians!
While we were delighting with McDonald delicatessen under a biblic rain we realised that there was a big police deploy (we supposed they were there to control a demonstration that didn't success because of the rain).

The plan was to visit the city, but ~~thanks~~ because of the rain we couldn't. We had to resign with typical stupid photos.

It's difficult to see but the tower is inclined (like the one in Pisa).

'Cause we are always thinking about you, we dedicate this photo!

So.. we returned home, a shower and like new! We lay a bit, some pizzas and we were ready again to give everything. The second night in Bologna was far better than the first one (we remember!) the true is that we had a great great time. We let you with this pearls that resume the night:

Always thinking about you...

Everything pointed that this night will end in the same good way it started but.. tomorrow we 'llexplain.

And remember..

..the new Bologna plan doesn't plan to attack the italian city, it plans to attack students

Trip to... (II)

2007-10-08T17:38:00.000+02:00

Bologna (1 of 3)

Friday 5th october, 15:00, Torino.
-Josep: Ramon, we should go to Bologna this weekend to see Patri.
-Ramon: Uff, no way, ain't no money and I'm tired..

Friday 5th october, 23:00, Bologna.

But well.. let's start with the beginning.

This summer, as you know, we shared an appartment in Perugia with 7 guys, one of them Patri from Cuenca. She is doing the Erasmus in Bologna and, because Kim & Loes where visiting the capital of Emiglia-Romagna, we thaught.. why not?

5 hours, 16,1€ and 335km later, we arrived at Bologna.

Ramon preparing "some" food in the train. Understanding some as 20 crackers with a grinded tomato can xDD

'Cause we know you don't go to the wikipedia links we put, in another chance of culturize this blog, we'll explain a few things you should know about Bologna.
It has the second biggest medieval old part of town in Europe (after Venezia). It has the oldest univeristy (1088). It's the center of the social and alternative movement in Italy... every week there are demonstrations. It's sadly known by a fascist attack (1980) in the train station (85 kills and 200 injured). Parmesan and Grana Padano cheese, aceto balsamico, mortadela or Lambrusco are typical products of the zone (the excelent cuisine is responsible that in Italy is known as Bologna la Gorda). Lamborghini, Ferrari, Pagani, Maserati and Ducati have their factories in Bologna and suburbs. We've been told that it's also known by the blowjobs of their inhabitants but we still have to verify the veracity of the new.

Now that you're situated, we'll continue..

Patri was waiting for us in the station. While walking towards her appartment we were surprised because all the streets where covered (34km) and also because it was full of junkies hehe.
We had dinner, some more than others you know.. and then we start drinking. I won't describe what or how much we drank, I'll just say that we don't have any photos and we can't explain anything about the night because of the first phrase of this sentence.

We leave until tomorrow with a few photos we take that night before going out.

This nice girl in the photos is Patri, pop fan from Cuenca, lover of good cinema and anime (and parks ;))

State of the kitchen after preparing dinner. We say hello to our mums and, don't worry, we are cleaner!

Ramon in a fucker position.. you remind me your sister..

And remember...

...in Italy the sauce known in Catalunya as bolonyesa is called ragu

The river Po

2007-10-03T18:53:00.000+02:00

When we are doing a crossword and we read "Two letter river ending with o", you must be so freak to do not write Po. So, as we know that you love fluvial geography, you won't surprise if we tell you that the river Po surrounds Torino.

The first impresion we had when we saw the Po was.. "wtf, for being so famous we thaught it would be bigger!".

C'mon, a bit of history.. we want you to learn things in this blog! It seems that 4th may of 2007, in a mafia capo's meeting, it was declared the emergency state in the north and center of Italy. The draught was caused by the few snow in the Alps. (By the way little locusts, the source of the Po is in the Alps!). Briefing... the last winter was the hottest in Italy since 200 years ago. Will it be because of global warming?? No, don't worry, this will never affect us.. or yes?? And well, if you've read all this bullshit, you deserve some nice photos of the river:

And remember...

...it's not the same the river Po that Po smiles**

** this joke only has sense in catalan.. we apologize

Torino-Juventus

2007-10-01T20:53:00.000+02:00

Yesterday it was played the local Calcio derbi: Torino-Juventus. As every derbi deserves, there were fights between the two fans. The final scoreboard was 0-1, Trezeguet scored at minute 93.

When we arrived in Italy, before finding appartment or doing any academic gestion, we asked ourselves:

"Shall we support Juventus.....

....or Torino?

We heart that Torino is the people's team while Juventus is the bourgeois one. To confirm these rumours we made a research. Our mission to bring Torino to your hearts hasn't got limits and we started as soon as we can with the research. The choosen place for it was the bathroom of a disco. Here it is where people express their deepest and sincere feelings. The opinion poll was clear and almost everyone supported Torino. If someone answer Juventus we must put in the middle in order they do not kill themselves.
But we were not really convinced with the results.. and because we think that Torino will never reach Champions zone to play against Barça, we have decided to do not support any of those teams and we will continue being culés!!

WTF of the day (II)

2007-09-30T14:18:00.000+02:00

WTF: What the fuck

Waiting the start of Lost 4th season at the end of january, these days have started the new seasons of Heroes, Prison Break and Family Guy.

We are so trapped that we are always seeing signals refering to these series. Aren't we confusing casualty with destiny?

ATTENTION!! the following lines may contain spoilers.

What to say about this photo? We can see two clear signals of the existence of polar bears in the building..

I bet they do not save her..

And , to finish, a detail of our home bell. Ours is the one with Somma.. not Sona.

See you in another life, brotherS!

Internet @ home

2007-09-28T21:29:00.000+02:00

Until today, to surf the web we had to go to the university with our laptop with the consequent backache for all the day. Today, 3 weeks later of our call to Fastweb, we have internet at home. A nice guy had come and installed everything in less than one hour. Internet access will let us be nearer from all of you.

By the way, yesterday we make some changes in the web presentation. We are so exigent!

Sun sun, come to visit me 'cause I'm cold!

2007-09-27T09:03:00.000+02:00

31st of august conversation, just before going to Torino:
Ramon: Because...will it be cold in Torino? It is so near from the Alps!!
Josep: Bah, as a lot, at the end of october it will be a little cold.

It seemed that sun would come with us until december and that we would be able to show nice legs with shorts all the autumn, but it won't be like that! Sun abandoned Torino. Thanks to god, until now it only rained by night so we must leave the discos running. It gives you by the as*, but the fact that you are drunk helps.

27 days after that conversation:
Ramon: Fucking Olivart!

I think that the weather forecast is wrong and Josep may still be right. Even it's been raining for three days I trust his words.
To ilustrate you, this picture will help you to understand this day:

And I'm sure you'll say... ohhh, you complain for a single day that rains and the sun doesn't shine. Here you have a 10 days weather forecast. You can start laughing about us if you want...

And because all the cities have kind citizens.. once it starts raining, there's people who appears from under the stones (a lot of Torino's streets are cobbled) and sell you umbrellas. Que majos eh!

Visits (I)

2007-09-26T17:20:00.000+02:00

A lot of peolpe have mentioned their intention of visit us. Now, you can't be the first of doing it!

Kim and Loes, two dutch girls we met in Perugia last summer, have kept us company, have laughed our bad jokes and they also have gone to Aeronautic Construction classes with us during these days.

In the days they have been in Torino, we have shown them all the city and they have commented the idea of returning to Torino (although, only for seeing a soccer match…) because they really like the city!
We left you with some photos we took these days:

Searching the nearest McDonals from the University. It could be useful if one day, we want to go there with our "fat" friends (Pere Rúbies or Dani from Bilbao or Lluis Biosca o....).

In this cathedral took place one of the worst accidents in the italian sport. From here, our condolence and our support to Torino's tifossi.

That's all, thanks for your visit and see you soon!!

Turin half marathon 2007

2007-09-24T11:09:00.000+02:00

To don't break the tradition of no sleeping on sundays.. this weekend I made a half marathon.
Ramon after thinking a lot, decided to don't participate but, as a good friend, he got up early and took some photos and videos of the event.

Following master Torrell's advices, I woke up at 7am, I had a light breakfast and went to bed again. At 9.05 I went to the start line, some stretching but no sprints because I would have enough time to warm up at the start of the race (the first km you can't really run because of all the people). Following master's advices, I place at the end of the queue. 1730 participants. Starting shoot at 9.30, a minut and a half later I was crossing the start line.

km0-km8 Until km 8 I overtake a lot of runners trying to do not tire myself too much.

km8-km12 The overtakes stop, my calves hurt a bit but I can continue without problems.

km 12-km17 I am overtaken by some runners I passed before with the obvious moral decrease.. I look at my rate and it is lower but I'm still under 5'/km which was my objective.

km 17-km19 We enter again in Valentino's park, where I usually run, and I motivate myself because the end is near, I increase my rate, I do not overtake any runner but I'm less overtaken, the moral also increases, legs are tired. To detach that I'm overtaken by two or three old old mans.. mix of admiration and frustration.

km19-20 Increasing more, I am overtaking again after 7km.

km 20-21,097 Las km and I decide to run with all my energies.. km 21 never arrives.. at this point I am glad to do not sprint earlier because I am exhausted. Finally, I can see the arriving line, 1h38'38" later I cross it again. Mission accomplished. I realise that I need more training and, for the moment, the marathon will have to wait.

Before the start.

The winners from Alcarràs sportive club. The winner, a 17 years old "kid" with a time of 1h2'4".

Torino 2006

2007-09-20T16:01:00.001+02:00

More than one year has passed since the winter olympic (and paralympic) games take place in Torino. Even they were very succesfull; Torino is still a non touristic city.
Because we weren't there at 2006 to know the medals Spain won (spoiler: 0 medals) or Catalonia (they didn't let it participate), we had to enter the olympic museum...

We started the visit feeling the sensations of bobsleigh runners:

Just to say that we didn't know if we could come inside the vehicle and a big crack sounded when we did.
After that, we play some Curling:

And at the end of the day we draw in the first place:

And as good sportists, new generation idols and sexual icones of the femenine public, we had to take some photos with our fans:

Beach volley.. in Torino

2007-09-18T13:27:00.000+02:00

Yes yes, you've heard it right. This sunday we woke up at 7am to play a beach volley championship in Torino. The problem was that it was a mixt 3x3 championship and there weren't any girls in our team.
We talk with the organizers and they told us they would try to find us a femenine player. After 30 anguish minutes, a girl agreed to play with us. We told her that we didn't play very well and Ramon added that he had only seen volley through the TV.. the girl rested ¬¬' and went to talk to the organizers because she didn't want to play with us 'cause we were very bad.. we didn't know what to say.. Ramon with a face of "yo no he sido" and Olivart couldn't believe what was happening.

We layed on the ground as a basketball national team that loses an european final match until the stars smiled at us and Valeria (that was her name) accepted us again (after the organization let her play with their original team and ours).

First match: we play against an allstar and we lose 11-21 with dignity. Valeria realises that we are not as bad as we said.
Second match: ra-ta-ta-ta we win 21-11 unfolding our best play. We end as seconds in the group and we have to wait until the other matches end to know if we classify for the next round.

And obviously, squadra e cartabon (the name of our team) classifies for the next stage. Curiously, Valeria's original team lose all the matches and didn't classify. Since this moment, Valeria talks more with us.

Third match: we play against the championship winners and we resist 21-13 (with their permission). The spectators cheer us and we say goodbye with good impresions.

Team photo

To finish, we want to thank Valeria to trust us.

WTF of the day (I)

2007-09-13T13:33:00.000+02:00

WTF: What the fuck

Today we had a meeting with our Erasmus coordinator to clarify which subjects were we going to study this year. While we were waiting at his door we have seen this:

We couldn't talk with Di Cicca professor but we'll have to visit him 'cause we need an explanation.

Finally, we find our coordinator and he has cheated us to make just 4 subjects!!

11-S

2007-09-11T11:41:00.000+02:00

Today it is the 293th anniversary of the defeat of Barcelona's resistance against Phillip V troops.
For both of us today is a special diada because it's the first in 22 years we spend out of our homeland and is for this reason we want to dedicate this short lines. We don't want to extend this post more to do not hurt any type of ~~fascist~~ sensibilities.
Here you will find some photos of our little tribute to Catalunya ~~in evangelist mission~~ in Torino.

To emphasize the two radio towers at our backs.

Over this lines you can watch us after a one hour ride to Pecetto, from where we wanted to make a panoramic view of the city but we couldn't because it was full of villa's (italian people also do not escape from urbanistic sPPeculation).

Here you can watch us with the Mole at our backs (Torino's standard and obverse of the italian 2€cent coins) which we will talk in following posts.

Estelades waving at our flat balcony.

Catalanizing the Politecnico...

Now we can say that Torino is half catalan. Good diada!

Trip to…. (I)

2007-09-10T22:00:00.000+02:00

Aosta's valley

Once we have finished the homework (find flat and fill forms and more forms..), we have a lot of free time...
Because it was sunday and Pamesa Valencia was playing a friendly match at Gressoney-St-Jean (Gressoney for friends) where we had an infiltrate in the orange team, we decided to go there and watch the match.

As you can imagine, make this trip with everything planned wouldn't be exciting. So, we only had train ticket to Pont-Saint Martin, a small village at 26 km of our objective. As anyone would do wanting to spend no money... we did hitchhiking!

Once in Gressoney, and before watching everyhing, we went to the Pamesa's hotel and we reencounter with Pere who was waiting for us with a pair of nice Pamesa's t-shirts. We talked about our lives and, obviously, about pallacanestro* until it was the match time.

For the ones you don't know, Pere was Ramon's coach in his junior year.
Before going to the match we make a short tour around the village. Players needed concentration and with us there they weren't calmed. Talking with the local people, we knew that we were in front of the Monte Rosa: the second highest mountain of the Alps awith about 4600 meters height!

And well, there's not much to talk about the match. Pamesa beat them up.

Ruben Douglas was physically over the rest of his team: rebounding, assisting and shooting 3p (5 or 6) further than 8 meters!
Because they were more relaxed, Albert Oliver (Caprabo Lleida ex-player) and Rubén Garcés wanted to take a picture with us:

We won't talk about the size of "angel" Garces biceps. You just have to compare it with the size of our heads.
The return way was easier... we asked a family if they mind to let us to the train station. And then it's said that italian people aren't nice...

And well, for being the first trip it was so entertaining. Thousands thanks to Pere whot treated us like if we were at our own home. In fact, it is becoming...

Note: We apologize if we have hurt someones feelings dressing up with a Valencian warm up t-shirt. We are conscient that a lot of times we have not talked well about valencian people, sometimes, they have an unreasonable point of view against Catalunya. The fact of wearing this t-shirt doesn't change our way of thinking against this neighbour colective.

*pallacanestro: basketball in italian

Politecnico di Torino (Polito)

2007-09-08T12:48:00.000+02:00

It is time to speak about our true trip motivation: the University!
Even some of you won't believe it, we are in Torino to study. The university that has gained our services (like if it was a football club or a slave traffic association)has been the Politecnico di Torino.

It is not as beautifull as our friends university Toni and Pau which are in Tulús... but at least it is in the city center, lol. C'mon, we know you like we think about you.

As anecdote of the Politecnico di Torino (we repeat so much because we like how it sounds) we can say that:
-The Politecnico is older that Italy; while our university was fund in 1859 the kingdom of Italy was stablished in 1861.
-There are 3 politecnicos in Italy: Bari, Milano and Torino. Obbiously, the Torino one is the best.
-You have to cue for everything! We are up to there of the italian burocracy!!
-It scares the big amount of african, chinese and east european students. What's sad is that their italian is better than ours.
-There are more girls than what you should think... we've seen 4!

Over this lines you can see a nice interior court from where we connect to the web (in a few weeks we should have internet at home).

Our kelly

2007-09-07T10:23:00.000+02:00

Because we have a flat so hard to find we are going to make a detailed resume in order you have a good idea of where we sleep, eat, take showers, try to make dinners, where...

Photo of the entrance of our home... a welcoming place for everybody.

We have showed you the frontage of our home yesterday. It gives it a modernity air that, when you are inside, you search but you can't find it...

The building has 4 floors, we live in the 3th one. This means that we have neighbours over us that will fuck and neicghbours under us which we won't be able to disturb. We will explain in the following days but, for the things we have seen, Torino is a city where buildings are not higher than 3-4 floors. Taking into account that it has a population of over 1 milion... the city is as big as Barcelona! (if we compare it in extension).

And well, our rooms are exactly the same: two wardrobes, two tables, two sits, two beds.. we cannot complain about our rooms! Only that Olivart's room has a balcony and Ramon's a windows. For the moment they are not decorated. We hope to tune them up with the cards and things you send us.

Over this lines, Olivart's room (even there's Ramon laying down showing his legs).
Down, Ramon's room a little bit more messed up.

The kitchen-dinning-living room is hospitable (to do not say small). The kitchen is formed by stoves, cupboard, etc. And the living room is formed by a table with 4 chairs that are at the same room in the opposed side of the kitchen. So, if one day we prepare dinner, from the living room table our guests will discover our culinary secrets...

And the bathroom... it accomplishes its function to eat everything you throw... nothing else.

And that's all folks. If you want to discover the smell, the noise of the street you can hear through the windows or if there are beds to sleep.. you'll have to visit us and we will be waiting for you.

And remember...

If you come to eat at our home, there will never be missing a piece of meat in your mouth.

Yes, yes, yes we have flat at Torino!

2007-09-05T15:57:00.000+02:00

A lot have been written and we have been called nuts for going to Torino without anything and... you weren't wrong. You cannot imagine how hard has been to find a fucking habitable place with two single rooms in all the city (Torino+suburban = 2exp6 of inhabitants!).

We have visited the most marginal zones in the city, we have walked two ironmans, we have eated and have done our necessities in public parks and things that we will never explain to finally find un appartamento con due camere singole* .
As a greeting sample towards the nuns that received us to the cottolengo we dedicate the following photo of our dinner: a not good looking spaghettis, but they go down so well that will be always grateful.

Once you've seen our misery, we will descrive our home:

It's located at San Salvario neighbourhood next to the Porta Nuova railway station and the Po river. Almost all the city guides that the university gave us recommend not to live in San Salvario or next to any train station... even that we thaught we have done a good election because we have near kebabs, locutories and a mosque for anything we need...

Here you can see the meeting point of the muslim comunity.

Below the frontage of our future home: meeting point of the erasmussian comunity.

In the next update we will show you our little "palace".

*Flat with two single rooms

See you soon!

2007-08-30T22:00:00.000+02:00

It seemed that this moment will never arrive but the time to leave it's here. There have been a lot of moments shared with you that hardly we will forget you. Even we're far away we'll still thinking in all of you and we wish you also think of us.
Deppends on who you speak it seems that you're going to the other part of the world... ok, Torino is not as near as Massalcoreig or Albatarrec, but it's not really far!!! Looking at this map you can appreciate how "near" we'll be.

Little dettails like comment some posts, ask us how is it going by the msn or some mails will be to thank, really. We don't want to write so long but just want to say that we are not leaving for 2 years and we'll return more often than you think.
And nothing else... we will miss you all, queens!!

Eating people undestand each other

2007-08-26T22:00:00.000+02:00

Like if you were my grandma, you told me your preocupation if I will maintain my weight once I'm in Torino, if I'll get leaner to seem more italian or, with a 80% of the votes, I'll gain more mass until I seem an authentic engineer, the ones that control everything from their home sofa...
For me, some conditions must happen to keep on eating as I do.. being conscient that if I keep on at this rythm I'll have to run two times each day!!

Suficient and necessary conditions to do not stop eating....

1. Live with a good cooker that doesn't stop to cook and recook all type of delicatessens. This condition for the moment is accomplished! At the photo (it isn't a fake...) you can see how I'm proving if the pasta is al dente!).

2. If by some reason one day I've not had my breakfast, lunch or.. if I am simply hungrier, there must be enough food for 2-3 more people. What cannot happen is not enough food. The food must adapt to you, not on the contrary. What can't happen is that you have to stop eating because there is not enough food....

3. In relation to the point number 2, a sufficient food quantity must go with it's sauce. Enough sauce must be done! Understanding enough sauce the one you will put over your food plus the one you will carry with the bread over the frying pan. At the photo there are 6 pasta plates like ~~God~~ Ramon deserves with the basic ingredients to prepare pasta a la Gorgonzola".

4. Also in relation to the point number 2... a lot of food garantise the breakfast for the following day or a post dinner after arriving late at night from a party. So, again, there are evdidences to cook a little more quantity of pasta.

Obbiously this photo is after coming from a party. Some pasta and to sleep like an angel!

5. A good presentation helps to start what surely is the most important moment of the day (over great moments like going to the WC or getting up later than your flatmate). Once you start.. everything enters!
Sometimes you can be nervous and not hungry. With a good presentation there are no excuses!

6. If the cooker is delaying, some chips or almonds or anything else is valid to palliate your hungry.

7. Eating with good people is always easier. Even that, this people must accomplish some requirements. Not entering in sexual comparisons, it's important that there are womens (in this dinner we beguiled Julia and Patri). It's known they will eat less and they won't finish the food that has benn cooked with so much love. Once you have finished your plate, nobly you will finish their plate and you will tell them they have let the best. To not seem a fat bastard there must be another one like you. Dani accomplished that secundary role, sometimes being even better than his mentor (me). The third man will be a person that eats betweem the normal limits. I want to seem a supermen, not a sick one, so it's always good to have a reference of what a normal person eats.

7b. Special mention to the burritos of the upper photo. They accomplish all the requirements exposed since the moment!!!

8. To accompany this moment a good wine is a good option. In this photo you can see our fridge: 'cause we are thoughtful we bought 3 wines... but one of them brake! If you are very bored you can observe other details of our fridge:

Because we have eaten... we don't waste the capacity of the fridge in food, only in drink!
The plastic glasses (stolen from the university dinning room) are working as ice makers.
For the most greedy we have candys and chocolate (stolen from the chocolate factory).

More or less what I ask is this... I'm not so exigent, don't you think??

What worries me more about leaving is to start again.. normally when you start a new think you make some proposals. I have made one. From here I'll explain it and will give all type of compensations if I do not accomplish my word:

"I AFFIRM THAT WHEN I RETURN HOME THIS SUMMER... I'LL WEIGHT THE SAME OR LESS THAN NOW!"
In front of a notary (my mom)has been proved that my weight, with only a basket shorts, is (only) 83,4 kg. If someone want to bet anything.. just tell it!!

Georgio

2007-08-25T22:00:00.000+02:00

We still have to introduce 3 more inhabitants of the flat.
Today we have Georgio from Georgia.

Here you can see the placement of this country, often mistaken with the homonimous state from the USA.

Georgian flag with saint George cross, patron of the country.

When we arrived 5 hours late to the Roma airport, Ramon and me went to buy the train tickets to Perugia. When we asked for them, when hearing the word

Perugia, a guy came towards us and asked for another ticket. That is how we met Georgio.
While the train trip told us he belong to a georgian terrorist group and he was coming to Italy to buy some Pu-239.

At the photo, Georgio with uniform going to work.

At the train we met his link, a nice napolitan guy called Nazareno (the one with the black hat) that gave him a full loaded cocaine case in order to make the interchange.

Team photo at the train, to detach Georgio's face after trying the case merchandise.

Georgio's case (the brown one), one of the tourist attractions of our flat.

Because he didn't know anyone in Italy, we decide to act as godfather to him.
We shared good moments with him, I remember with special affection our english conversation classes and the wide vocabulary he taught us, spank, bukake, goatse et alter... We correspond with advanced spanish lessons and now he knows the meaning of expresions like mirar a Cuenca between others.

From here we desire you the best!

Gerogio's photo with his unforgettable smile ;)

La bella Italia ( I )

2007-08-15T22:00:00.000+02:00

Today we'll start a post series in order to know better the country that will host us the next two years. We hope we'll enjoy great moments and better girls: ITALY.
The first post is related on what we've to hold when people know that we are going to study away. Obviously, after listenning to the same question 200 times, the answer degenerated to what we really want to do in Italy.

What are you going to do in Italy? What have you lost so far?
We are going to study a couple of years of ingegneria aerospaziale ja que a Barcelona no ho fan.
because we can't study this in Barcelona.

Ok, but what are you really going to do in Italy?
By the way, we are going to study italian, deutsch, sweden girls.. everything that moves will be studied. We will have parties; we'll do stupid things and nobody will tell us anything because nobody will know us; we'll meet "genta" (girls); live without preocupations; to ESCAMPAR the catalan feeling across Europe...

And where are you living? Because we'll come to visit you!
By the moment we have nowhere to live but we promise we'll get a 23 people flat in order you can come whenever you want. Part of the emotion of this trips is the adventure. If we find flat without any problem and everything was perfect, what will we explain to you??

And how is the food? I've heard that you can eat very well..
Eatting is always good..

And you know italian?
We know for three months we're going to study away.. we've done everything we could! The answer to do you know italian is NO. But we'll make understand.. and if someone wants more, we'll make the effort to learn it.

To demonstrate that italian people is a little bit strange we let you with this two guys (they are typical from there..)

"Barreño's" love-hate story, or how we had the first sexual experience at Via della Cupa, 7

2007-08-13T22:00:00.000+02:00

The dictionary defines basin (barreño in english) like a round glass not very high, wider from the top than the bottom, used to clean the dishes and other things.
Other things.. how much luxury in so few words..

To situate you: the architects that designed the appartment where we survived lived didn't take into account that people swet, and they didn't put a shower. The owners, after the neighbours complained abbout the noise stink they do, decided to dig a hole in the floor and install a shower, but they didn't think that the inclination of the ground lead all the water to the living room. What did they do? Photos talk by themselves.

Here we can see Dani, taking a shower before he finished to fill all the forms.

To detach:

- The height of the shower

- How the curtain is closed with a peg.

- How the curtain fits to the body, like a glove.

- The vicious face of this man while he touches his ~~moro~~ hair.
Aquí podem veure al Dani, prenent una dutxa després d'acabar d'omplir els formularis que tenia pendents.

This girls that smiles timidly to the camera is Júlia, pamploñica enthusiast of drink and roll tobacco.

To detach:

- The height of the shower (to compare with Dani photo).

- She is not using the patented peg system to close the curtain, with the following water mess over the floor.

This character you already know him, there is not much to say about him.

To detach:

- Satisfaction face by unknown reasons, it is said that this deflected man liked to take showers here and he take the curtains as a souvenir.

- How the curtain fits to the body, like a glove (after fitting the bodies of all the flatmates).

- Uses the patented peg system.

You also know this other character, frustrated basket player, engineer project and poet in his free time.

To detach:

- The only person who holds the shower with his hands, several interpretations.

- Face of: shit, they catch me while I was touching myself.

- USes the patented peg system.

We don't have photos of the other inhabitants but they were also lucky to take showers here.

Erasmus 2007-08 and how easy is to study out of your country

2007-08-10T22:00:00.000+02:00

Certificates, documents and imprescindible "things" you need before being able to leave:

DNI photocopy; Erasmus marks certificate sealed by the secretary of your home university; curriculum vitae in català, spanish, english and the official language of the destination university; study contract signed by any responsable of International Relations; 2 card size photos + 2 full body photos (one with full dress and the other with swimming costume); academic file in catalan, english and georgian; parents authorization or, in his abscense, of someone older that apparently seems more responsible than you; certificate of languages; motivation letter; bank data for the great Erasmus grant scolarship (30€ per month!); 2 additional card photos with cleared corners, of 4,32 x 5,01 cm where your face must be between the 52% and the 49,81% of the total area of the photo and they should be signed by the back with you DNI number, the diet you should follow in the destiny university; blood, orine, saliba, digital tracks and DNA samples; bistoury you would use to kill-torture-hurt and let the animals smell the blood and later eat somebody of the Erasmus organisation; skull radiography; radiography of the hand you don't use to touch yourself; report of the illegal substances you have take in the last 4 years, signed by the family doctor; cusbebet certificate; oral exposition of "how to study to pass in order to pass studying"; complet report of the last bitches you have fucked; mathematical demonstration of why answer trying to respond correctly the electrotecnia exam is useless.
If I've left anything, don't hesitate to tell me before 00:00 of the day before the delivery day.

Here at the photo we can see Dani. A 2 meters character we met in Perugia. He didn't finish to fill all the Erasmus forms. We hope he has finished yet! Nora zoaz?!

Inflection point

2007-08-08T22:10:00.000+02:00

One of the best moments of our vacations in Perugia (joke in spanish):

-Saben el chiste del hombre entre dos vallas?
-Puesss va a ser que no
-Valla hombre valla .

Pronunciation classes

2007-08-08T22:05:00.000+02:00

After 3 unforgetable weeks in Perugia we are waiting for Torino. In Perugia we have met fantastic people searching for group sex. Going to sleep every day after 3am, knowing that you must wake up before 7.30 for lessons is a probe that we want to have a good time! Oh yes, we have also improved our italian!

Night of goodbye at la Sal

2007-08-08T22:00:00.000+02:00

It seems unbelievable but tomorrow will begin a new adventure for both of us, from left to right and from top to bottom: Ramon and Josep.

I'm loving eat

2007-08-08T00:12:00.023+02:00