Times of Fiesta

These days here in BCN are very important. Tomorrow will be Patron Saint Day, but the celebrations has already started on Friday...
4 days of concerts in the streets, book market, wine taste along the arbour, fireworks, yoga on the beach, Sardana dancing (typical catalan dance), open museums, theatres at half prize, Correfoc (like the feast in Mataro' we went in july) and of course Castellers!
Castellers are human castle: men, women and also small chidren participate to it. The youngest children are about 4 years old and climb 7 or 8 levels of people... It might be almost 9 or 10 meters high, like a 3 floor building... And the only protection only the 2 little girls have is a crash elmet, compulsory since some years ago, after a baby died.
You now understand how much difficult, risky, and spectacular it is... We were very close, in the middle of them, and we could see their faces concentrated, their bodies trembling, while this small girls climbed to the top fast and easy like a spider.
Amazing.
We also saw a tower falling, people crushing in the inside of the construction, while the two little girls fell several meters in thin air to the bottom floor where other people cought them. It was such a fear...
Then Gabriele went to help making a tower, on the lower level, people climbing on his head and shoulders, pressed like sardine in a can... But it was great and exciting, and that tower was the tallest and the most beautiful.
Enjoy the pictures below...

Dizionario tascabile di catalano

Ebbene siamo qui e anche se non vuoi il catalano lo impari. Devo dire che in tre mesi il mio livello di comprensione e' incrementato parecchio pur non impegnandomi. Certo ascoltare una conversazione per strada e capire piu' di un paio di parole e' impossibile, parlano troppo veloci.
Pero' alcune parole piu' o meno utili, e che sicuramente ritornano spesso nella vita quotidiana le conosco. E a volte le uso pure.
Ma che sono strane...
Eccovi alcuni esempini:
Catala' / Castellano / Italiano / English
Molt ben / Muy bien / Molto bene/ Very well
Entrepan / Bocata /Panino / Sandwich
Pernil / Jamon / Prosciutto / Ham
Teva / Tu / Tua / Your
Bon dia / Buenos dias / Buon giorno / Good morining
Adeu / Adios / Ciao / Bye
Gos / Perro / Cane / Dog
Tancat / Cerrado / Chiuso / Closed
Sortida / Salida / Uscita / Exit

Per oggi e' tutto. Seguira'.

Diada (second part)

Today is National Holiday for Catalunya. It's also the first declared holiday after the re-establishment of the Parliament of the region in 1980. Historically today remembers the fall of Barcelona to the Borboni during the secession war of Spain in 1714. It's quite anti-Madrid...
This means that I could work from home!

This is the only important news I have in these last days. I'm still working for the website and I like it very much, it's interesting. Then I'm still enjoying the beach and the sun, which is a bit strange for me, couse I'm not used to such a long summer... But i love it!

A proposito di libri

Sono nel mezzo della lettura di questo libro (in italiano tradotto come "Lo strano caso del cane ucciso a mezzanotte").
Gia' il titolo e' proprio carino e curioso, ma appena inizi a leggerlo non puoi piu' smettere. Il mondo e la vita vista attraverso gli occhi di un ragazzino autistico che racconta in prima persona. Divertente ma molto profondo, capace di emozionare nonostante l'interpretazione inemozionale del protagonista che filtra tutto attraverso rigidi schemi matematici.

Altamente consigliato!!!!


I'm in the middle of this book, but it won't take much to finish it...
It's a common story of every-day-life but it's told from the eyes of young man affected with autism. And this is what meka thihs book so special and me loving it. It's very moving even if the writing is absolutely un-emotional. Very recommended!
Here is a quotation:

"Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them."

Livin' Washington DC for americans

Well, by now I've seen quite everything this city can offer...
And I'm sorry I've to say it's not much. I liked a lot The National Mall and many museums located there, especially the Air and Space one. I've liked also this Eastern Market, where I bought a nice bag and we had a tasty french-style brunch.
But I'm a bit disappointed there are quite no shops here! Only in Georgetown there are some, I enjoyed especially a huge bookstore... Yesterday infact I bought 6 books, I have to read till the end of this year and even more!
On the other hand, there are plenty of good restaurants! We've tried tex mex, greek, asian fusion and american. This night we'll go for brazilian! This is fun!!!
All in all I don't think I would like to live here.

American Holidays

Here we are, on the other side of the ocean...
We arrived in Boston and we stayed at the YWCA, which was a good choice couse it's near the old town center. So we had the chance to visit a bit of the town, also have dinner out, in the little time we stayed there.
The day after we returned to the airport, directed to the meeting point of the conference for the bus to Newport. The jetlag made a dirty trick! We confused Holiday Inn with Hilton... This H logo.... Fortunetly we realized in time and went to the right place. But now I can say I had lunch at Hilton (I've eaten my crackers in the hall while waiting...).
The trip to Newport has been longer than the need, 'couse we went also to Providence's airport to recollect other people. (I can say that I saw a bit of your origin, Kathy...). Arriving in Newport is very impressive! This nice bay full of boats... very romantic and Sunday evening's summer!
We stay at the Salve Regina University, where the conference is held. It's a nice place, close to the famous Cliff Walk and a few nice Mansions. I have enjoyed the Cliff Walk and the beach on the first day, while yesterday we went downtown to have a look at the harbour and to do some shopping (we bought Newport T-shirts). And today we did have real fun!!! We rented a 3 wheels scooter (that green thing in the picture below), it was very unconfortable, but that was obviously part of the fun. Usually we don't do this very turistic things... But this worth! We drived trough Ocean Ave, overlooking the Ocean and other beautiful mansions. Every hole in the street a jump inside our green trap...
Tomorrow we'll be our last day here, they've promised to serve us a lobster dinner... I'm very curious! Then Friday bus back to Boston and flight to Washington DC!

I have a question: how can you use dollars? how do you distinguish them? They're all green. I'm in big trouble!
Euros are easier and faster to recognize. They have colors. Different color for different amount.
Maybe I only need to get used to dollars...

Scoiattolini

Scoiattolino viennese, grazioso ma molto snob, inavvicinabile.



Vienna's squirrel, so posh and very unfriendly.











Scoiattolino bostoniano, piu' tischi toschi e molto amichevole, ricorda molto Ciop.



Boston's squirrel, much cool and very friendly, he once starred as Chip.

Cinema's in town!

Beh oggi dopo due mesi di rodaggio, ci siamo scontrati con Woody! Ovviamente stavamo facendo giro turistico e la meta era il Parco Guell, e sorpresa sorpresa.... tutta una serie di camion di catering e roulotte-camerini. Transenne qua e la, fotocamere con megaobiettivi, telecamere, bodyguards e un sacco di gente strana, molto bohemienne... e poi da dietro la fontana ti spunta lui in persona. Mostro sacro del cinema, di sicuro il nostro regista preferito e che stiamo scoprendo a poco a poco, vista l'eccezionale quantita' di film che ha fatto.

Con la sua solita divisa di pantaloni color kaki, camicia azzurra e cappello verde, occhiali da vista, passo impacciato e un po di gobbetta... un adorabile vecchietto!


At last we did it! We were taking our parents to see Park Guell, this amusing parc created by Gaudi', and there was Woody with all his troup. Unfortunetly we couldn't see Scarlett or Penelope. I think we were too late for it. But we saw him very well and quite near, when his huge boyguard wasn't in between... And we saw also his young wife and child. He's a funny old man, he has this peculiar way of walking you see in his films... It was fun, even if we couldn't see the best part of the parc nearer....
Nice adventure...

To end the day, we had dinner at a fabulous restaurant in front of the harbour, we ate paellas (rice with fresh fish) in the beautiful terrace overseeing the harbour and th city.... very romantic place.
And guess what! Also Woody went there to it paella when he first arrived in BCN!!!!
Definetly his day....

Turisti a casa

Oggi, dopo un bel po da quando siamo arrivati a BCN, abbiamo fatto ituristi in citta'!
Questo weekend niente mare, visto un improvvisa urgenza di lavoro del mio ometto. Quindi per staccare prima di ricominciare la settimana (prevista piuttosto impegnativa per la mole enorme di impegni) siamo andati perfino a musei... In effetti col caldo che faceva maglio andare a prendere un po di aria condizionata che il calore dell'asfalto!
Cosi' siamo andati a visitare il Caixa Forum. E' un'esposizione di mostre temporanee completamente gratuite, in quanto e' creta e finanziata dalla banca principale della Catalunya: la Caixa (si legge casha, e' catalano!).
Oggi abbiamo fatto il pieno e abbiamo visto tutte e 4 le mostre. La prima era un concorso di fotografia giornalistica. Interessante anche se il vincitore ha fatto delle foto un po inquietanti di una malata di alzaimer (ma come si scrive?)... A noi sono piaciute di piu' quelle reportage in Sudamerica!
La seconda era un percorso piuttosto lungo sul pittore britannico William Hogart, primi 1700, non e' il nostro genere e non ci e' piaciuta molto... alcune cose erano carine, molto ironiche per l'epoca... ma una sfilza di acqueforti sono troppo per me.
Poi nella terza mostra c'era un cartello fuori che diceva che il contenuto poteva offendere la sensibilita' di alcuni... Io sono rimasta fuori!Gabriele invece e' entrato: 3 statue in tutto. Una l'ha descritta come una cascata di fili dorati con del plexiglas non meglio definita, un'altra era un uomo in completo con testa di aquila piumata e una mano nera che teneva in mano una cosa grigia non meglio definita, e l'ultima si e' risparmiato di descriverla... Mah!!! ste cose moderne....
La 4a sala e ultima e' stata senza dubbio la migliore. C'era un'esposizione di arte antica indiana. Pezzi davvero bellissimi lavorati molto finemente nonostante la loro eta', con dettagli raffinati microscopici e molto lavorati. Davvero bella!
La cosa migliore e' che queste mostre sono sempre gratis e cambiano spesso, cosi' se ti viene un attacco di culturite puoi andare a fare un giro senza spendere e vedi ogni volta cose nuove.
Ma in Italia non c'e' nessuna banca che fa una cosa cosi'? A Treviso la Cassamarca organizza delle mostre molto belle ma se le fa pagare un occhio! Cosi' non vale!


Today we did turists in BCN after a lot since we're here... Gabriele had to work for a new project so we didn't have time for the beach. This evening we enjoyed going to museums... We went to Caixa Forum, it's an art exhibition hall completely free financed by this major catalan bank. So we saw all 4 exhibitions...
First was a photograph contest, the winner took some pictures of a woman affected by alzheimer, very spooky. We prefered a reportage of SouthAmerica...
Then we saw a nearly complete and almost bouring paint exhib. of William Hogart, british painter, portraits were nice but this early 1700 painting genre is not really my favourite...
Than there was sculpture, but they were scary too, so I didn't want to see them!
At last we went into this indian art exhib. and it was absolutely the best! I loved this old scupture made with incredibles detailes so tiny and beautiful... I really enjoyed it.

K as Kathy, K as Kiss

I'm aswering to you, Kathy....
I know, I left by my blog's english version. I'm so sorry! I promise I try to write more in english.
I'm happy for your next trip, it'll be great! Guatemala seems to be a lovely place to discover. Have a great time there!!!
Big Kiss to you!!!

Translating now:
We've just finished organising our trip to US!!! We did it all through internet! I really don't remember the last time I went into a travel agency!!!
Flight: bought. Hostel in Boston: reserved. Hotel in Newport: reserved and it also incledes meals.Internal fllights: bought too. Hotel in Washington DC: reserved (and NIST is going to pay it for us, and it's a 4stars cathegory! Nice people you americans!).
I'm very excited. It's my first long journey and my first so far one... i'm planning all the things that I want to see, Newport it's quite little so it'll be easy to see e'thing. For Boston we have only a dinner there, it's not much but it's better than nothing. But in Washington I'll have a full week! Museum and art galleries are free, our hotel is downtown so also shopping will be near... I've already started reading my guide to find out what I won't miss...
I have also a desire (between many others): I'd like to visit Hartford... Obviously only because of 'The Gilmore girls'.... It's not far, but i'm so scared hanging around alone in the US! It's a big country. I can get lost!

Working day

Nuovo lavoro iniziato!
Per iniziare un part time. Dalle 10 alle 14... Ma solo fino a dopo le ferie. A settembre si inizia sul serio.
Non e' male, ma e' ancora presto per dirlo.

I finally started my new job yesterday, it's just a part-time for now. In september I'll start full time working... I like this job but it's too early to speak about it!