The Last Hours

Friday we had a fake town hall meeting. Sardinia has been victim to contamination by Italian military bases in the past. For our town meeting, we were all given a role to portray. As a group we had to come up with a solution to the military contamination that was supposedly causing "Querra Syndrome". We had moderators, goverment officials, consultants and townspeople rolls. We discussed the facts, different options and finally settled on creating national policies for military base activity with later funding for remediation.   

This weekend has been full of last minute cultural experiences! Saturday we hiked up to the Devil's Saddle of Cagliari. We had gorgeous views of the Poetto and mountains. Not to mention got in a pretty good workout!

Today we were able to see a festival! We headed into the countryside where we saw people of the town of Orroli preparing a parade. The parade consisted of townspeople in traditional clothing riding horses, then families in decorated trailers tossing cookies to onlookers, people walking in traditional clothing and lastly the cart containing the statue of the saint. The parade ended at a church that the saint was relocated to. There was later some dancing and feasting!

My time here has been incredible! I wouldn't change my experiences here for the world. Thanks for reading everyone!

Audriana

Wherrrrrreeeeee's the stress?

So far my experiences here have only gotten better! Monday we went on a sailboat cruise to Villasimius. We made two stops - one at an island and one on a beach. At the first stop some of us jumped off the boat (almost losing our bottoms in the process) and swam on shore for some rock climbing and exploring. When it was time to head back to the boat a thunderstorm rolled in! Luckily it didn't rain more than a short sprinkle, so we were able to enjoy the booms and flashes with little bother. This was best with some vino and freshly made pasta onboard the sailboat! Unfortunately, the new cloud coverage meant we couldn't work on our tans at the beach stop. That didn't stop us from enjoying the beach though. 

All of our hair was standing up from the electricity.

The storm rolling in

Mags and me on the boat 

Tuesday it was back to class! We had a guest speaker come in and talk to us about mining remediation. Sardinia used to have many mines. This has affected the soil and surrounding environment of the mines. The guest speaker showed us pictures of a couple of the sites he has worked on and various remediation methods used. As of now, he is the sole engineer in charge of managing mine remediation - we were lucky to have him present for us. 

Today it was back to the beach! We spent the day swimming, hanging and eating. It was quite wonderful, but now it's time to get back to business. There is a homework assignment and project due this week!

 

Not too shabby, right?

Audriana 

Beach Lyfe

And the vacation continues! Crazy to think only 9 more days until the trip is over. Thursday in the morning we visited a door-to-door waste collection facility. We learned about how they have implemented separate stream garbage collection programs in different cities. It was great to have a question and answer session afterwards. We discussed how some neighborhoods had difficulty getting used to the new system and how the facility handled these issues. Afterwards, we enjoyed a sandwich lunch at the facility. 

Once we got through school on Friday we had the weekend entirely off! Saturday morning I went souvenir shopping, and in the afternoon hit the beach. The Poetto is Cagliari's beach. You can walk at least 200 yards in the turquoise water before it gets too deep. There are no waves (which is a pro and a con) and gloriously soft sand. It's next to a mountain range and across from downtown Cagliari. Basically, it's heaven. It's fairly easy to take the bus from our dorm to the beach. Unfortunately, the way back is horrible. Unless you're leaving at an off time from the beach every bus is slam packed. It is nearly impossible to squeeze a group of 15 people on one packed bus! We have definitely been spoiled on this trip with private buses to every technical visit. 

Today was the Poetto again! This time we rented out some paddle boards and paddled out around the beach. 

Paddle board wars!

The bestest and me

Paddle board yoga!

Waterproof camera pro

So in case you didn't get this from my photos, don't worry about me I'm doing just fine.

Audriana 

Fart Vader Masks

I have almost achieved my tanning goal! We have gotten quite a bit of time in the sun. On Tuesday we woke up bright and early to go sailing. We had three boats split between our group with a teacher on board each. It was a gorgeous day, but not very windy. We sailed to the right of the Poetto beach each switching off steering the boat and managing the jib. I'm proud to say no one on my boat was hit by the boom during a tack! Yes I'm showing off my sailing lingo because that's pretty much all I learned that day. We stopped twice for a swim in the beautiful water and headed back around lunch time. The rest of the day was spent on the beach. A very sunburnt group returned to the dorm in the evening. 

Today we had another technical site visit. This site has three landfills, an anaerobic digester, composting, a sewage plant, photovoltaic power stations and a wind farm within its boundaries. One landfill is filled and closed, one is almost full, and the last one is ready to be used once it is needed. All those white dots above the landfill? Tons and tons of birds. 

The biogas collected from the landfill is stored, the methane is extracted and then converted to be sent to the grid. The biogas is stored in these awesome ginormous bouncy balls. I'm pretty sure that's the technical word the chemist used. 

 The anaerobic digester receives organic waste and uses leachate and wastewater that has been processed to produce methane and carbon dioxide. The methane is extracted from the water, converted and also sent off to the grid. 

This company sells all of the energy that it produces and buys back whatever they need because it is more economical to do so. The composting area was similar to the site that we have already seen - except we received dust masks to help with the horrific smell!

 Unfortunately, the sewage plant was under construction so we were not able to view it. 

We ended the day by visiting some mountain hikes and grabbing ice cream! I guess you could say it was an alright day. 

Audriana 

Destination: Paradise

This weekend has been unreal. Friday we left for another overnight adventure. We started out at a museum in Nuoro where we saw the traditional clothing that is worn for festivals. These dresses and jewelry were very ornate and beautiful. 

There were also costumes that are worn during the Carnival festival. The purpose of these costumes is less to show off beauty and more to cause havoc and induce fear. Carnival is when the world is supposed to be turned upside down. Therefore, the people all dress up with masks and skins to make themselves look like animals. 

Next we visited the Church of Solitude where the first Italian author to win a Nobel prize is buried.

Of course we then had food! We went to a lunch that was prepared for us by shepherds. It started out with wine, bread, cheese and sausage then moved to two different kinds of meat. Lastly, an orange and almond paste filled pastry was served. The shepherds proceeded to entertain us with a song that was mimicked after a sheep call. 

After we were stuffed we went to explore the town of Orgosolo. There are murals all over the town depicting the public's view on politics. The picture below is of the old city hall. The windows and doors had been shot out during a time of public unrest towards the government. 

After all the fun we headed to the hotel perched on a beautiful lookout point. The hotel was backed by another huge mountain so of course we went exploring. 

We were rewarded with a delicious meal at the hotel and an early (ish) bed time. For some of us it was a needed early night as we woke up at 5 am for a sunrise hike. 

On Saturday we left early in the morning to catch our boat. We visited a beautiful cave where the elusive Mediterranean monk seal used to habitat and breed. The cave goes back for 8 kilometers and within the sea meets with an underground river.

Next we visited two beaches that are only reachable by boat. The color of the water was stunning and the water and weather were perfect. We did some cave exploring at the first beach and rock jumping at the second beach. The boat day finished up with some gelato and a sleepy bus ride home. 

It was a wonderful day but I couldn't help wishing I was home to celebrate my grandmother's 80th birthday. I love you and miss you so much Abuela! We will celebrate again when I'm home. 

Today is a much needed day off as we have a project, paper and exam due this week. Hopefully there's time for the beach or a little shopping!

Audriana 

Resident Sardinian

Our first project is over! And we were assigned the second project today just three days later... I guess that's the price for living in beautiful Cagliari. Some of us celebrated Memorial Day by trying a Tex Mex restaurant near our dorm. I am not exagerating when I say they had the best fajitas I had ever had! And their sangria came in adorable mini pitchers. Yay America!

On Tuesday we went on a technical site visit to a landfill. The site had six landfills out of which only one was still open. The open landfill used to be designated for municipal solid waste, but new policies with certain requirements were enacted that the landfill was unable to fulfill. Thus, the municipal solid waste that was already in the landfill was covered and the landfill began to recieve leftover incineration ash. The leachate produced was sent back to the location where the ashes were sent from to be treated. 

This landfill site collects and converts the biogas that the landfills create into energy. This process is done on-site, so we were able to view the machinery. Once the methane has been extracted and converted, it is sent to the grid. The landfill company recieves payment for the amount of energy they contribute to the grid. If the machinery to convert the methane is not working, the gas will instead be flared. There was also a solar panel farm at this location as well as a greenhouse.

We had the rest of the day off! I went to a delicious lunch and then walked to my favorite gelato place. We hit the supermarket on the way home, then worked on a homework assignment due on Friday. We were bummed the weather wasn't good enough on Tuesday to head to the beach, but this weekend we are going on a cruise to an exclusive beach! Try not to be too jealous. 

Audriana 

Farm Life

Thursday was our first free day off! Unfortunately, for most of us that meant working on our projects for school. Some headed to the food market with any extra time they had that day - Cagliari has one of the largest indoor markets Europe. I went for a run in the morning which was my second cultural mistake of the trip. I ran down towards the water to run along a walkway. Not only did I get stared at by everyone I ran by, but I got mimicked by more than a few Italians. While I was jogging in place waiting for the light to turn at a crosswalk, I looked back to a teenager exaggerating my movements and laughing with her friend. Needless to say, it was a short run! Keeping up with the Italian do's and don't's is proving to be way more difficult than I thought...

Friday we had morning class, a compost lab, then a question and answer with an engineer from a small firm that deals with solid waste management. After school most of us continued work on our projects. That night we went to check out the Friday night life. We ended up at an underground pub listening to a live band that played a lot of Bob Dylan. Clearly we tried hard to branch out...

Saturday began our cultural weekend! We drove two hours to visit a mining town. The mines have since been shut down but there is an underground museum that we were able to visit. The town was on the coast line so we had stunning views to boot. 

After a wonderful 10-course seafood lunch we visited temple ruins before heading to the bed and breakfast which would be home for the night. 

We arrived on a gorgeous farm at sunset. 

Walking around we found many friends consisting of geese, turkeys, horses and cats. We then enjoyed another fresh and delicious meal! Afterwards we stargazed and had a rousing game of cards.

Today we woke up to fresh eggs, homemade yogurt and pastries. Have you gotten the picture we are absolutely spoiled with food? In case you're not convinced let me tell you aboutv how we had a Sardinian cooking lesson. We were taught how to handmake pasta and make a traditional dessert. The dessert was a pastry with cheese and lemon that was fried and topped with honey. Next stop was the beach! (Because I really felt like getting into a bikini after multiple helpings of fried cheese with honey...) The weather held up for us which was wonderful - I was finally able to start working on my tan! We played in the gorgeous turquoise water then headed back to our home in Cagliari. Tomorrow we have our projects due, so it's definitely bustling around here. Fingers crossed for another beach day this week!

Audriana 

Trash, trash, trash....TRASH!

Assignment: Take pictures of trash!

Professor Annalisa asked us to take pictures of all the trash receptacles we can find in Cagliari! We are going to be hearing about the future trash reformation in Cagliari and our pictures will be used in a year or so to compare.

This is a picture of trash separation in a local restaurant.

Above is a (very) small trash receptable inside our tour bus

This is an example of basic trash cans in the streets of Cagliari. The different colors on the tops of the cans represent what type of trash should be placed in it. 

Gray represents waste.

Yellow references paper.

And green means glass.

Above is a usual trash receptacle on the streets that does not separate different forms of trash.

The different colors of the trash cans represent different waste streams. This was at an industrial location.

Above is another example of separated waste at a commercial location.

This smaller trash can is used to collect organic waste to go to the composting center.

Above is a picture of the paper mill. This is where recycled paper ends up (both high and low quality).

This pile of trash is located at an incineration site.

As you can see from the above pictures there is good and bad waste management in Cagliari. The businesses and industrial locations seem to be aware of trash separation and doing a decent job of representing the difference in their trash receptacles. At the University of Cagliari there is not a single recycling bin to be found. This is a huge flaw, as a university would have a large amount of high quality paper to recycle. It will be very interesting to see the changes made to the waste management in Cagliari. 

How to school?

It's so easy to forget that I am here in Cagliari to attend school and not roam around the city or hit the beach every day. School on Monday morning was not exactly easy - it took me until Tuesday to finally feel caught up on sleep. We had three lectures and had time to get started on our first project of the dialogue. It was nice to have a two hour lunch break (which is considered normal in Italy). We explored around the University of Cagliari and had a great lunch overlooking the water. After classes, a few of us went to a supermarket about a 20 minute walk away. The produce here is really fresh and extra tasty (ugh, America). I also learned on Monday that Italians absolutely do NOT wear shorts unless they are headed to the beach. No excpetions. It was an 85 degree sunny day and every Italian was in closed-toe shoes and pants. I was asked by many people how the beach was (even though I did not go that day) and was simply laughed and pointed at by Italian students at the univeristy. Needless to say I wore pants on Tuesday...

Tuesday I had morning classes then the afternoon free to have lunch and work on our project. It was definitely the most academically oriented day I've had in about two weeks! I'm still adjusting to the academic life again. 

Today was more learning! But through field trips - our first stop was a paper mill. There we saw how paper comes into the mill or is bought to be used to create cardboard or high quality paper (printing paper). From what I understood, the recycled paper is shredded, watered down and removed of all things not paper (plastic and metal). It then gets formed, dried and rolled. Next we saw a composting center. It was rediculously smelly. But interesting to see how organic waste gets sorted and put through the composting process in such large quantities. Plus I had the pleasure of meeting this adorable puppy!

Lastly, we visited a site that contained an incinerator as well as a waste water treatment plant that used anaerobic digestion. This specific incinerator produces enough energy to charge one million Ipads. The waste water treatment plant supplies at least all the water used in the incineration process. All in all, not a bad day. Tomorrow is my first day off! It's about time for my first Italian laundromat experience...

Audriana

 

Grazie!

A seven-hour flight, three-hour layover, three gate changes and a forty-five minute flight later we made it! Most of us were unprepared for the 75 degree weather that greeted us, but no one complained. Our quarters are perfect - beautiful views of the water and brand new amenities. We're still trying to figure out how to fix the 5 minute maximum of hot water though ....

Our first day started out strong. We walked to the University of Cagliari and met with the professors and students there. There were also students from the University of Padua around for the weekend. We had a day of ice breakers and a couple lectures on waste water management. To finish off our first full day, we were treated to a 13-course dinner at one of Cagliari's finest restaurants. 

Thankfully, we were able to sleep in the next day! Unfortunately, it did not make too much of a difference because most of us were not able to go to sleep until around three in the morning. But lazy mornings are wonderful, and that's what we had. In the afternoon we were invited to go to a beach house in Geremeas that belongs to the professor from the University of Padua. We had a little time at the beach and then a delicious cookout with a bit too much wine and beer.

And today we were tourists! We visited a few Nuragic complexes, which required quite a bit of squeezing through caves and some claustrophobic moments. Next we went to Parco della Giara where we spotted some cavallini. Cavallini are wild horses that can only be found in Sardinia. There are only 700 of them, which encompasses the last wild horse species in Europe. It was a long but wonderful day of exploring.

We still have not started the school portion of the trip just yet. Tomorrow that adventure will begin ...

Audriana

And So it Begins!

Today is the day I leave for Cagliari for five weeks! I am really excited to get this plane ride over with and start the big adventure. My bags are packed – I was able to fit everything in carry on luggage! Let’s hope I appreciate that later down the road.

I am expecting the native Italians to be very animated and friendly. I am also guessing the culture will be more laid back than Americans in terms of work. I have heard that Italy is very touristy, but I believe Sardinia will not fall under that category. Because of this, I believe Cagliari will be more welcoming than other Italian cities.

I am hoping that knowing a substantial amount of Spanish will make the language barrier a little easier. It is a little nerve racking to not be able to ask a question on the street, especially if an emergency happens. I am so glad that Professor Annalisa speaks the language. And for times when I am not with her, it will be a challenge to try to speak to natives who do not know English (but a great time to practice my Spanish!).

I think it will take a large adjustment to immerse myself in another culture. Small things such as different times to eat meals are going to take time to get used to (because of course all I can think of is the amazing food we're going to eat!). I am excited to learn about the different culture and try to adopt it. It will be interesting to see how the culture in Cagliari actually differs from the American culture.

Throughout the trip my professor will be assigning prompts for me to respond to on this blog. I’ll try to add in some stories about what I have done so far as well to keep you guys in the loop!

Audriana