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!!