Joe's Blög

I’ve arrived in Italy. Highlights include:

Watching the taxi man wave his hands at the screen telling him the plane is late (as Italians are prone to waving their hands in disgust).

Listening to the taxi man complain about how cold it is (about 5 degrees celcius).

Seeing stars in the sky.

Silence.
Hearing dogs break the silence (as opposed to dogs being part of the background noise in the city center of Frankfurt).

Searching for a restaurant that’s open on Sunday at 2pm.

Being bored…
Reading a lot!

I can’t access personal email, so if anyone needs to write me you”ll have to use the work address.

ciao!

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I leave for Italy on Sunday morning and it will be only the first trip out of the country for me this year…I think last year by this time I had been to 5 other countries…

The dollar seems to be weakening again…Makes me think of a visit to the States….hmmmmm….Eric’s wedding is in May…can I still crash at your mother in laws

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Something about the bloody Oirish!

http://www.slate.com/id/2213884/

…and now that I’m in europe I have to wonder if that greenish spectacle of grade school sexual harrasment exists anywhere outside of the states…I wore no green today yet noone tried to pinch me…anyone else grow up with that tradition?

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My weekend…

Friday night…Wine Market for 2!
Saffa: I know you well enough to know that when you say no you mean it!

Sat: Watch Liverpool embarrass Maamchester.
Watch “Short Circuit 2″ with Berger. Blast from the past…

Watch Flight of the Concordes  – “Formerly New Zealand’s fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo a capella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo”
Great show! I recommend for anyone that hasn’t seen it.

Watched ‘Feels like going home’. The Martin Scorsese documentary re: Blues. This was a disappointment. I was looking forward to this, but nada…

Sunday: Went to the restaurant Louisiana…This was sort of an accident as the first 3 places we wanted to go were closed…but I’m glad I went because the chicken sandwich was amazing! I’ll have to go again just for that…

Attempting to go to the Senckenberg museum to the the deep sea animals exhibit, but due to the massive line and mass of children decided to go to the Schirm instead to see the Darwin exhibit. I was quite excited for this, but it was a bit of a letdown. Focusing less on science and more on the reaction to Darwin and his theories as told through editorial cartoons, art…but then the Schirm is an art museum not a natural History or Science museum, so I was obviously ill prepared.
It was still interesting, but overall a rather small exhibit. Most amusing was some of the early religious reactions to Darwin. Reminded me of the earth is flat arguments…

…basically spent the rest of the weekend avoiding the protester, avoiding the cops (who kept eyeing me like I was one of the protesters – which is weird cuz the cops here are really lenient and ignore pretty much everyone unless you bother them…), spending time with Julia, and playing my guitar…
the only thing left to do is scan my passport and work permit (as requested by the Italian HR people), eat dinner and then I shall consider myself a success

and today wandered the city taking pictures…

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Robot ethics???

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17912_3-10192761-72.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1

and two stories on Lucca…which is near to my new probable home…The first story has pics of a bunch of Italian Goth wannabes (wtf!!!!!!) sitting on the steps outside a church that I visited for about 2 seconds….
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/world/europe/13lucca.html?_r=1
http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/travel/24LUCCA.html?fta=y

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Random out of context quotes from dinner?

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Julia: OK, your knowledge of beer prices scares me a little bit…

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Julia: 10 years ago when I was like 12….

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Joe: How much is a 100 ml haagen dazs?

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Julia: it’s like a pretty girl that gives you a massage and then leaves……..

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and if you get to the bottom there is more interesting reading…

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090323/ehrenreich_fletcher

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We had one of those weird Frankfurt thunderstorms where it pours like crazy for 10 minutes (so the Germans are hiding in any doorway they can find). Followed by sunshine 5 minutes later. I’m sure this happens all over the world, but it’s still rather cool for me cuz I don’t recall it really happening quite like that in Oregon. I think these are the only times it really rains in Frankfurt.

and since I’m always making fun of people who call Obama a socialist…http://www.slate.com/id/2213040/. Just another perspective…

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So apparently Eric had to go to the hospital after having tobasco and pineapple…there’s a lesson in this. Sorry Eric! Glad you are still among us

I ordered a guitar today.

I spent today watching ”Dexter”, and ”Flight of the conchordes”. All good!

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I’m not obsessed with buying a stone house in Italy…what could possibly go wrong?

http://www.immobiliare-massacarrara.com/immobile.asp?i=a_circa_8_km_dal_centro_di_aulla_bellissimo_terratetto_in_pietra_semiindipendente_in_piccolo_borg_fivizzano&id=1425

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