Final Log of this Voyage

Its the final log of our voyage, star date 6-14-2015. Tomorrow is our last day here then we are off to our lives in America again. It has been a fantastic time! Though I am sad to go, I am so glad I came! It has been an unreal time filled with incredible experience that I can't even begin to fully appreciate or understand how truly blessed I am. All I can do is be as thankful as I can be and remember all that I have done and seen for this is a very memorable chapter in my book.

Thursday kicked off my last few days here with a.............. BANG!!! And yes, there was a big pause there. Thursday morning my alarm went off at 8:10am as I set it. However, groggy me was uncertain if class was starting at 9 or in the afternoon. I thought I'd heard Annalisa move class back to the afternoon and that Matt was planning to use the morning to work on the project. I listened to footsteps going past in the hallway and only heard one pair of feet over a 10-15 minute period. I figured it was just Matt that was up early and getting something to eat, so... I went back to sleep.

10:35am comes around, I yawn, stretch my arms, and slowly get out of bed thankful for the extra sleep. I get out of bed open my computer and log onto the internet and check Facebook. I go to my messages and see a message from Maggie, "Hi Neil! We are in engineering building Code 5566 Let me know if you need help getting here" (sent at 9:14). I stare at my screen for a  few seconds in disbelief before the alarm bells go off! WEEEEEEEEEEEUUUUUUUUUUUUUU WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEUUUUUUUUUUUU WEEEEEEEEEEEEEUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!

I throw my clothes on, sprint to the bathroom, put my contacts in, grab my wallet, key, and backpack and book it. I sprint out of my room, down the stairs, and out the door. I toss my key to the security guard, turn the corner out of the gate, and go full tilt up the hill, weaving past people and cutting across the street. And I don't stop, not even when I finally get to the top of the hill. I just keep going and going and going, past people, cars, and shops. I make it to school in record time... too bad I was 2 hours late. I rushed into the environmental engineering building, raced up the stairs, and trudged into class, sweat dripping down my face.

I get a sleek smile from Annalisa "There he is" and a background of laughter from everyone in the class. I was too tired at that point to even care about the embarrassment thankfully, but I'd missed a lot of important stuff. I made it through the rest of class completely wired with adrenaline, apologized to Annalisa the best I could, and spent the rest of the day trying to catch up on what I'd missed and preparing for the town meeting the following day. I was assigned to be an engineering consultant for the mock town meeting, so I had my work seriously cut out for me. With this role, I needed to build a strong background on the problem at hand and remediation techniques. By the end of my preparation I'd read or skimmed all of the documents provided, pulling out all of the most useful information into 7 pages of my own personal notes.

The next day, the Mock Town Meeting started at 10:30, not wanting to be late again, I got up early, through back a few coffees to ensure that I stayed awake and got to class by 9:20 where I compiled some final notes and reorganized all of them. The meeting ended up going for over 2 hrs and by the end of it, we were all just ready to go. The whole meeting was constantly just turning in circles, addressing ideas, forgetting them, then readdressing them again. It got so confusing and circular at times I lost track of what was happening. However, my preparation allowed me to adequately fulfill my role, providing technical information and professional advice that helped move the debate forward. I think my performance of my role in the debate helped to make up for my sleepy blunder the previous day just a little bit.

After the meeting, we were all free to enjoy the Friday. I went to grab some quick lunch before bouncing down to the barber shop to claim my souvenir taglio di capelli (haircut). They only took appointments, so I set my appointment for 9:15am the following morning, and headed back up to the dorm. I worked on our final project due Monday for a bit with Divya before Cat, Lauren, and I went out for some souvenir shopping. Didn't end up getting too much, but saw some really cool stuff and might try going back to some of the shops tomorrow for a final look. When we got back, most everyone had gone out to dinner, but we weren't hungry quite yet. I hung out for a bit before heading back out to try to find where people went. Some people were at Za Za's Doner Kebab (one of the usual joints) and they said everyone else was on the top of the hill at some restaurant there, so I walked up to go see them. Sure enough I found them at restaurant overlooking downtown Cagliari, so I sat down to join them for awhile.

Around 10 I started to get really hungry myself, so I went back to Za Za's for some quick food before heading back up to the dorm to see what everyone else was up to. Everyone else was just hanging out drinking and playing card games. After a bit of time here, we hit the streets. The crew on the hill was out infront of a church just down the street chillin' so we went to join them. We kicked around there for a good bit of time before deciding to go to the usual bar, Republik. I sat down with Dylan and one of his Italian friends, Marco and chatted for awhile. He ordered us some hot Tabasco shots which knocked me back a little bit with surprise. A good change of pace from the usual drinks though. After chatting for awhile I switched tables to talk with some other people and to meet some new Italians. Many of them were excited to have Americans with them, so they ordered some wine to share around. I met quite a few different guys, I cant remember all of their names, but Matteo sticks out. Really cool guy, very friendly, and he had good English. Everyone there was so friendly though and it was just such a fun atmosphere to be in. We didn't head back until 3am, but I made sure to add Matteo on Facebook so I could catch up with him and some of the other guys again later.

The next morning my alarm went off promptly at 8:40am, and I muscled my way out of bed, threw on my clothes, grabbed a banana for breakfast, brushed my teeth, and hazily trudged my way down to the barber shop. I sat down in the chair and let the barber go to town. I showed him a picture of kind of what I wanted, said a few words to try to clarify it further, and then I just let him go to town. Definitely came out as a very Italian haircut. Not quite what I was expecting, but I'm happy how it turned out. Only difficulty with this cut is it kind of requires some gel to look good, so I might need to invest in some better stuff.

The cut.

After the cut, I went back to the dorm to hang out for a bit before grabbing a real meal at the cafe. I ate with a few crew members before heading back up to crash. I slept for 4 more hours, getting up right before it was time to leave for our hike "Sella del Diavolo" (the devils saddle) right by Poetto beach. It was a really nice hike with more beautiful views and surprisingly nice cloud cover. It was a very calming hike and great to get out. I could have stayed up there for awhile just meditating, 'twas very therapeutic.

From the hike.

When we got back we grabbed Incognito Pizza for our final purchase dinner. I was starving so I grabbed a small appetizer at Za Za's beforehand. Usually the pizza takes awhile to arrive so I want something to tied me over, but surprisingly it arrived very quickly, so I got my fill of food I'd been craving. We all went back to the dorm after this and just hung out for awhile. Everyone was exhausted so most worked on the project for a bit and then went to bed.

Matteo, who I'd met the day before, invited me to a party, and Id already told him Id stop by, so I coherence Dylan into joining me there. It was just a short walk up the street. I didn't have too much energy that night either, but I am really glad I went. I met and talked with a bunch of really cool Italians who all seemed to have some sort of background in English. Some spoke more then others naturally, but I was able to communicate with everyone using simple words and lots of hand motions. It was so much fun to talk to more Italians and to find out more about their lives and culture. The people here never cease to amaze.

We got back, once again, around 3am, so I naturally slept in today. I got up a little after 12 and went to work finishing my parts of the project (which I actually have to go and fully finish after this blog). I worked 'till around 3pm then we left for Sagra di Santa Caterina in Orroli, a festival in honor of Saint Caterina. I thought my time here was over and there wouldn't be too much new left to see or do, but boy was I so wrong. The festival was so incredibly cool. There were tons of people and a parade with horses, tractors, oxen, and tons of beautiful hand-made garments. Its really hard to express in words how cool this was. The best I can do is show some pictures and say its a beautiful thing to be truly immersed into a culture, its traditions, and its festivals in a setting where very few tourists can be found. It is so authentic that it just leaves me with awe. I'm sorry that we weren't able to stay past 9:30pm because up to that point it had been so much fun and the real party was only just beginning.

From the festival.

I sit back in my dorm now, writing this final blog, and I'm certainly sad to say good bye. Sardinia is an absolutely amazing place filled with a very wealthy people, maybe not in riches, but in heart and soul. I highly recommend for my fellow friends to come here someday, and I hope that one day I might have the blessing of returning. Until then, this is Neil Fachon signing off! Arrivederci e Buonanotte!

Il Mare

The past few days have been all about the sea. On Monday, we went on a mini cruise in Villasimius. We were on a really nice wooden ship with 2 masts and 3 sails. However, there was not a lot of wind, so in order to get to our destination we had to motor-sail. The day started out quite sunny with all of us lounging around the boat enjoying the scenery. We arrived at our first destination relatively early in the day: a small island with a light house just off of Villasimius. A bunch of us immediately jumped in and began swimming to shore while the remainder took a dingy in.

The boat and everyone preparing to leave (sun blocking). Unfortunately, I dont have any pictures at the destinations themselves because I was swimming the whole time.

The water was unbelievably clear; I could see over 40 feet away under water and the bottom with all its little fish crystal clear. 'Twas absolutely gorgeous. We all swam to the rocks and climbed up, so we could get over to the beach and/or explore a bit of the island. Eli, Dylan, Dima, and I all tried to climb up the rocks to reach the highest point and to get the best view. The rocks were some tricky business to navigate though. They were extremely sharp under foot, uneven, and sporadically placed. Trying to navigate around the thorny brush was a difficult task to start, but trying to navigate the bird poop crust on the rock was quite literally impossible. And damn, those birds eat a lot of olives!

About halfway up, Annalisa, called for her snorkeling gear which Maggie had given me to hold onto. So now I'm stuck trying to navigate back down with the stuff, losing all the ground I'd just made up. This typically wouldn't be that big of a deal, but those rocks really hurt. I ended up getting stuck, unable to move further without trampling through the brush, so I had to throw the snorkel as far as I could down to Annalisa. I didn't risk throwing the other stuff because they would have easily broken on the rocks. I headed back up trying to catch up with the crew ahead and got to them right as they were turning around to leave from the top. So my enjoyment of the view was short lived, but the adventurous nature of the climb made it worth it.

When we got back down we dove into the little cove of the island relishing in the soothing feel of the cool water. We swam around, jumping in, looking at the aquatic world for a little while longer before heading back to the boat for lunch. Lunch was a tasty assortment of pasta, bread, cheese, meat, and wine (as per usual). We all drank and ate merrily while we headed off to the next location. At this time, clouds had rolled overhead and a little bit of thunder could be visible in the distance. It was cool to see, but a little bit chillier (none the less beautiful out).

We arrived at the second beach a short while later where we all jumped in and swam to shore again. This destination was actually a beach with fine sand, which was refreshing change. We explored a little of the area over some rocky outcrops, but it was nothing in comparison to the previous. It was fun just hanging out, swimming around, climbing rocks, but most of all just enjoying the scenery. Both locations were so gorgeous it was nearly impossible not to enjoy it. We all went back that night very satisfied with our excursion that day.

Tuesday, we got up at 10 to meet for our group project, just talking through the different things we were each going to do and getting a general understanding and plan of actions set. At 2 we had our first class of the day, which was a short lecture on the end-of-life vehicle recycling. And we had a second lecture at 3 on mining debris and the manners in which it is taken care of on the island.

After this I went back to the room for awhile, relaxing and getting a little more work done. Then, a bunch of us went out to dinner. We ended up as a kind of small place on a side street a little ways down the hill. It was pretty nice at first, they served lots of bread, and the pasta I had was good, but then they served the main course... mixed fried fish. You'd think this would be tasty, coming from a land of fish and chips that are to die for, but it was anything but. All of the fish were cooked with their bones in place still and heads attached. I tried to eat through it, but after awhile I was gagging too hard and had to stop. This was a fairly nice restaurant too, I don't know how they could possibly get away with serving something as trashy as that. Though I was not wheres near full, it ended up ruining by appetite and my mood. Never thought Id pay so much for crap. We were also sitting at the restaurant for 3 or so hours, so even though I really wanted to get up and walk around towards the end, we had to sit and wait another hour for the waiter to bring the check.

From there I took a walk down to the sea to take a look out at where those fishy friends I''d been eating should've been. Was nice to clear my head and get some fresh salt air. However, when I got back to my room, the fish was not sitting right with me. Took me hours to fall asleep because I was feeling queezy for the longest time... definitely not eating at that place again.

Today was much better, we went to Tuerredda beach and enjoyed the day the sunny day there. We spent the time sunbathing, swimming, fooling around, and walking along the beach. It was beach for a good ways, but there was a very rocky region Cat, and I walked over  in pursuit of retrieving the blown away beach ball and sea glass. Definitely no wheres near as tough on the feet as that other beach though. When we got back we snacked a bit on some food Annalisa had, thank you Annalisa, and tried to get out for the sun for a bit. It was really windy, so setting um an umbrella was a failure. I ended up just lying the umbrella down on the ground over myself, holding onto it to keep it from blowing away. This worked, but the umbrella helped direct wind under itself causing a lot of sand to fly up in my face. Still better then getting more burned though. After awhile longer relaxing, playing some chicken, and other beach games, we headed back. Now I'm here knocking my blog out of the way before I get to the rest of my homework. So Im gunna say ciao!

Pictures at Tuerredda Beach.

Just Another Day in Paradise... Whats new?

The past few days have been a lot slower and with less to report than usual. Thursday, we had a presentation from Campidano Ambiente on their door to door collection systems for different municipal fractions. I was a bit on the tired side, so I was fighting sleep for the whole presentation. Anna even had to bark at me once, sorry Anna. It was good though, and they fed us a nice lunch there, so it was worth it. :p When we got back I immediately took a siesta before using the rest of the afternoon to finish up our project.

The next morning we got up early to practice and then we went to class for presentation time. We were last group to present our findings on Nashville. Everyone's presentation was really good and thorough and gave a bunch of nice points of comparison for recycling in the US and Europe. However, these presentations lasted a few hours and if it weren't for 2 cups of coffee I couldn't have made it through the day. After lunch we had our exam which wasn't too difficult but was really tricky. It was open notes so we could use all of the power points from the different class presentations, and they had basically all of the answers, but a few questions were a bit sketchy. I still disagree with the answer to 2 of the questions, and I'm not about to budge on my stance, but I guess I'm not the grader. It was good to say its all done though. Made it possible to wipe the sweat off my shoulders so I could just enjoy the weekend. So we all took our hair down and went out to party the night away.

Didn't get up the next morning 'till after 12 (felt amazing). Everyone else was in a similar boat, and most were hung over. We left for the beach around 1, stopping at McDonald's for burger breakfast (don't ask me why, my vote was discounted when making the decision). It was surprisingly expensive and surprisingly packed with people. I can't imagine why, it was so not worth it in my book. Once everyone had their fat filled breakfasts, we went to the beach. This time I wasn't about to burn again so I covered up with sunscreen. We pretty much just tanned the day away, intermixed with some swimming. I wasn't to happy about wearing sunscreen, but I have to admit it was nice leaving the beach without tender red skin.

Some pictures from the beach.

We got back, showered off the salt and went out to eat at the usual pizza place. Had a nice view of a TV from where I sat so I could watch the finals between Barcelona an Juventus. Barcelona took it 3-1 with some classic goals. After dinner we grabbed some drinks and walked out to the pier. We hung out and talked for awhile before heading back for an earlier night.

Despite the earlier night, I still slept in to around 1. I woke up much earlier, but just didn't want to get out of bed. Been awhile since I've relaxed in bed for so long felt nice. By the time I actually got up everyone had already gone to the beach, so I used the day to work and get some chores done, or at least... I tried. I studied up on Italians barber shop phrases and went to get my hair cut, but all the barber shops were closed, so I ended up walking a long ways for not. I also was going to wash clothes but forgot someone else had the soap and it was locked in their room. So hopefully, Ill be able to get that from them soon, so I can go to the laundromat because I need clean clothing. So yeah that's about it, pretty low-key. Now to continue working on homework and readings. Ciao!

Bakin' in the Sun

After Sunday's roasting in the sun, I did my best to stay out of the sun Monday. In the morning we had a guest lecture by Stefano Milia regarding control and remediation of contaminated sites. This topic wasn't quite what I was expecting it to be. A lot of this control of contaminated sites consisted of placing some sort of barrier in the ground to contain a spill or to purify it as it pass through the ground water. There were a lot of different solutions to pollution that were presented, but what struck me was how the greatest priority was on reducing costs. In many situations it is more economic not to clean up a spill but merely to contain it to a location or away from human activities. I was personally expecting these clean up efforts to be taken with utmost concern for the environment. I didn't imagine them being handled in quite this way. There still certainly is a great advantage to these re-mediating efforts, but I don't think this is the angle I personally want to come at the environment with.

After this lecture, we all headed out to lunch and back to the dorm for the day because or second guest lecture for the afternoon was postponed to later this week. We all did our best in staying out of the sun and spent most of our afternoon time working on our project. Later on after the sun had fallen lower in the sky, I went for a walk around the area to get some groceries and buy some souvenirs. When I got back, a bunch of us went out to grab dinner at the usual Coccodi café, and we shot the usual shit.

Tuesday, we got up bright and early to go to Poetto Beach. We were all planning to go sailing because many people in the group had never been before. I was a little worried when we first got there because the water was still as a pond. It wasn't until we got out a little ways and the sun rose a little higher that the wind picked up. Then, it slowly but surely got windier and windier until we were moving at a pretty decent pace. It was really interesting because 6 of us were out on a J24 with an Italian who couldn't speak almost any English. He say something trying to communicate and we'd all look at him with blank faces. After awhile we all started using a lot more hand gestures to communicate and we actually ended up doing okay. It helped the Erika and I both sailed so in given situations we'd already have some sort of idea what to do, so whenever he made motions in different directions and with different tones of voice we could gather what he wanted us to do. The whole trip was actually really cool, and it turned out to be a great time! We got a different view of Cagliari and the surrounding terrain which was an interesting new perspective and now we can all say we've sailed in the Mediterranean.

View of Cagliari from the boat.

After boating we grabbed some lunch at a close by stand and headed out to the beach. We'd already spent 4 hours out in the sun so I was baking. I really didn't want to use sun screen so I layered up with my t-shirt and hat. I would have been okay, but I didn't realize how long we were spending at the beach. I was expecting maybe an hour or 2 max at the beach and than we'd take the bus home, but no, we ended up spending a few more hours at the beach... roasting my body like a turkey dinner. It was a nice day on the beach and the water was beautiful, but by the time I left there, even though I covered up with my shirt, my sweatshirt, and my hat, I got burned kinda bad. First thing I did when we got back to the dorm was take a shower and throw aloe on that shit. Following that, I finished my reflection on the Sardinian culture and a bunch of us went down to Incognito Pizza, the first dinner place we went to Cagliari. We all got pizzas and lamented over our sun-dried bodies.

Wednesday, we went to another landfill, Villaservice Plant. This one was much more like what we were expecting a landfill to be. This was a municipal solid waste landfill so there was lots of trash, swarming seagulls, and ripe smells. This plant was actually pretty cool though, it had a section for anaerobic digestion, compost, bio gas, wind turbines, solar panels, and the landfill itself. The tour guide we had for this visit was also really cool. He was the main chemist for the plant and he only had been speaking English for one week prior to our arrival! For all that his English was impressively good, including a good accent, and the ability to make jokes. He was very well put together, fun-loving, entertaining, and intelligent individual. Despite the smell, this turned out to be one of our best technical visits.

The crew at the landfill visit and our guide in the yellow hard hat.

Wind turbines.

White sphere is a bio gas containment zone.

After the visit, we took the bus to a location in Villacidro and ate lunch. There was some good hiking here, and small stream of water coming down the mountain so we hiked up to see where it all was coming from. We came out to a few different with small pools of water. It was an interesting challenge trying to get up this mountain and past this water to continue our hike. Eventually, it appeared there was no way further forward, so I took off my shoes and jumped in the adjacent pool of water. It was a a beautiful refreshing temperature as it was 38 degrees Celsius outside (100+ Fahrenheit). I was the only one to go swimming and I had a wet butt all the way back on the bus, but it was totally worth it.

I managed to stay out of the sun most of the time on this trip, so my burns didn't get any worse thankfully, but nonetheless, I took tap when we got back because the heat still takes the energy right out of you. Now I'm heading off to dinner, so ciao!

Shepherds and Beaches

The past 4 days since my last have been quite the adventure. Beginning from Wednesday night, we all had a lot of fun at the bar. We went to a place called Republik where they were playing lots of American rock and roll songs. It was pretty fun just hanging back, chilling with the crew and listening to some good old rock n' roll knowing that I could sleep in late the next morning, which I did. Class didn't start until 2 so, I woke up just before 1 finally getting that full night of sleep Id been longing for awhile. Class Thursday turned out to pretty pretty interesting. We had a guest speaker, Prof. Aldo Muntoni who shared with us his research on hydrogen, methane, and alternative energy generation. The material was really interesting got both my chemistry and engineering mind to geek out a little. These renewable sources still don't appear to be viable in current market yet, but thinking about the various processes and technicalities with each is still just really cool!

After class I took a small detour up to the top of the hill again. (I love the view there, one of my favorites from the trip still) I finally have pictures of it to show, though its too bad I cant take panorama pictures with my camera because my pictures just don't do it justice. I also took a sort of back alley root back home which was a new and interesting perspective of the city. The street was really tight and the buildings looked a bit dark and desolate, yet only one street away was a brighter area with sunshine and shops.

View from the top of the hill.

View from the hill of one place I went walking through the day prior.

Back streets.

Friday morning we departed for Nuoro to have lunch with some shepherds in the mountains. Though this group of shepherds wasn't quite what we were all expecting because they catered to tourist groups such as ourselves, it was still loads of fun and a very cultural experience. We all sat on long benches facing each other with a big group of other older people. They served us bread, cheese, traditional meets, sheep, and roast piglet along with plenty of wine. Everyone got a bit on the tipsy side, especially the other group of older Italians. The Italian women got especially drunk and even started hitting on us American dudes. Eli was especially getting cougared by and much older Italian woman who had far more then her fair share of wine. It was quite entertaining to watch.

Food in the shade.

After, there was a small vocal performance from some of the shepherds. I'm not sure whether to call it singing or yodeling or lot because it was very strange, but it sounded really cool! It was a deep and throaty sort of chorus between 3 men and a 4th man chanting.

Following this we visited a small local town in the mountains. This town had intricate paintings on almost every wall. Though I couldn't understand most of the words that accompanied each painting, I was well aware of the political connotation that they had.

After mulling about here for awhile taking pictures of the street art, we got back on the bus and headed towards Hotel Enis Monte Maccione. It was right at the base of a mountain so we went hiking up it to try and catch the view. After taking a wrong path, we found our way back and up to the top of a certain rocky outcrop and the view was stunning. Once again, pictures have a hard time capturing the scene, but ti was breath taking. However, the sun was setting making the horizon line a bit hard to see so we opted to get up early the next morning to hike back up the mountain before the bus left.

Matt with the cutest wild kitten we found at the hotel.

Unfortunately I only took video from the top of the mountain so here are my pictures of the view from the hotel balcony just after sunset.

So a bunch of us got up at 5 o'clock and hightailed it to the top for sunrise. Though we could actually see the sunrise because of a mountain in the way, we did see the sun light up the valley and the sky which was even more breath taking then the view the evening before.

When we finally got on the bus, we headed for the Gulf of Orosei. We took a boat trip out and toured through a a very old cave system filled with stalagmites and stalactites before being taken to a few different beaches that practically carved out of the cliff face.

Here are just a few pictures from the boat ride.

The only feasible way to get to them was by boat. The beach was a lot of fun and the water was a beautiful turquoise color. After a day in the sun though, I got a bit burned. I was thankful when we got home after the 3 and a half hour bus ride. Twas a very exhausting day/weekend, and I was ready to crash. 

This next week now has a ton of work in store for us. Today is blog day, Tuesday we have to turn in our cultural reflection, Thursday is our second big project, and Friday is our big exam for the trip. So back to work now, ciao!