Wine, tie-dye and playing battle-bots? Yeah, sometimes school is rough. Ok, so, not really. At least not today. We started the day off finishing our mini soils project and then presented them. It was only 11:30 when we finished but there wasn't a whole lot to do that could be done before lunch so we turned in our top three choices for our independent projects and headed out into the sunshine. After lunch we were told to meet back up at 3 because it would take some time for them to put everyone in groups. At 2ish Laura (professor) came around and told us to wait until 4. Now we were suppose to write a proposal up once we found out what we were doing. Finding things out at 4 would have given us a half hour to write something up so they decided to cut that from our to-do list. Pretty sweet, right? At four we met down in our classroom area. We were just sitting there waiting for Laura and Sandro when one of the other residents of the town came in and told us that his family has a tradition of giving gifts to every group of students that come in when they are there. It was awesome. We went outside and saw tie-dye shirts everywhere. It was crazy. They told us where each size was and to go ahead and pick one. It was so much fun. Mine is a lime green shirt with a radiating swirl that kinda looks like daisy petals or like *, kinda. We took some pictures and then decided to put a shirt on the dog. You really can't beat a black dog with a rainbow tie-dye on. We sat in the piazza for a little while to find out what we were going to be doing for our "independent" projects and really are not so independent. Lauren and I are doing a project to see if there is a correlation between the ionic chemistry of bottled spring water and the rock formations that the water is flowing through before it gets bottled. I think it could be a very interesting project.
The next exciting part of our day was wine tasting but that wasn't going to start until six. So, what do a bunch of college kids do in their spare time? We play Battle-bots. Basically you have groups of two. One person is blindfolded and is in the center while the other person is on the outside being the eyes. There are balls and pool noodles (in our case balled up t-shirts and rolled up sleeping pads) in the center. The idea is for the blindfolded person to grab one of the objects and either throw it at someone or swing and hit someone (ball and sleeping pad, respectively) and the eyes have to lead them while doing this. If you get hit you are out, simple as that. It was so much fun. In some cases the match ended in a tie. In those cases we had a face off. Blindfolded, three steps away from each other, turn and throw. This was one of those games where it was just as much fun to watch as it was to actually be active. At half past six we headed to the classroom/ dining room/ multipurpose area for wine tasting to taste the difference that the soils make in the taste of the wines. Of course, we forgot that in this case we were on Italian time rather than American time so at seven the guy that was going to talk to us about tasting wine showed up at the door. An hour and 8 kinds of local wine later, we had learned all we could for the day. The wine tasting was very interesting. As most of you know, I really don't drink so I had to make a decision. I didn't have to do the tasting, it wasn't going towards our grade, but I thought it would be interesting to actually taste what we had been talking about. Luckily, I was able to follow the lead of our wine master. I took a small sip (enough to get the flavor on all parts of my tongue) and then was able to dump the extra wine or give it to my neighbors. I knew there was a secondary reason for sitting next to me. It was interesting because I was actually able to tell the difference. I think one of my favorites was a oak matured Verdicchio from the Castelli di Jesi region. It actually had a woody background/after-taste. It was really cool.
Tomorrow is another day off but it is a shortened one because we are headed to Croatia in the evening. As of right now my plan is to pack a lunch and just start walking. When lunch hits I will stop and eat and then turn around and head back for home. That way I will be tired for the boat ride that promises to provide an uncomfortable sleep at best.
My next post will probably be from Croatia! (Assuming the internet works.....)
P.S. The internet stopped working last night so this is from Tuesday
The next exciting part of our day was wine tasting but that wasn't going to start until six. So, what do a bunch of college kids do in their spare time? We play Battle-bots. Basically you have groups of two. One person is blindfolded and is in the center while the other person is on the outside being the eyes. There are balls and pool noodles (in our case balled up t-shirts and rolled up sleeping pads) in the center. The idea is for the blindfolded person to grab one of the objects and either throw it at someone or swing and hit someone (ball and sleeping pad, respectively) and the eyes have to lead them while doing this. If you get hit you are out, simple as that. It was so much fun. In some cases the match ended in a tie. In those cases we had a face off. Blindfolded, three steps away from each other, turn and throw. This was one of those games where it was just as much fun to watch as it was to actually be active. At half past six we headed to the classroom/ dining room/ multipurpose area for wine tasting to taste the difference that the soils make in the taste of the wines. Of course, we forgot that in this case we were on Italian time rather than American time so at seven the guy that was going to talk to us about tasting wine showed up at the door. An hour and 8 kinds of local wine later, we had learned all we could for the day. The wine tasting was very interesting. As most of you know, I really don't drink so I had to make a decision. I didn't have to do the tasting, it wasn't going towards our grade, but I thought it would be interesting to actually taste what we had been talking about. Luckily, I was able to follow the lead of our wine master. I took a small sip (enough to get the flavor on all parts of my tongue) and then was able to dump the extra wine or give it to my neighbors. I knew there was a secondary reason for sitting next to me. It was interesting because I was actually able to tell the difference. I think one of my favorites was a oak matured Verdicchio from the Castelli di Jesi region. It actually had a woody background/after-taste. It was really cool.
Tomorrow is another day off but it is a shortened one because we are headed to Croatia in the evening. As of right now my plan is to pack a lunch and just start walking. When lunch hits I will stop and eat and then turn around and head back for home. That way I will be tired for the boat ride that promises to provide an uncomfortable sleep at best.
My next post will probably be from Croatia! (Assuming the internet works.....)
P.S. The internet stopped working last night so this is from Tuesday
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