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!

Class and Technical Visits

The past few days has been all class and technical visits. Monday, we gave our presentations which turned out pretty well. The day was just really long. After an hour and half presentation about mining in Sardinia from a Cagliari professor, we grabbed a speed lunch and began practicing our presentation on recycling glass and plastic containers in the US and EU. There were 5 groups of us altogether and each gave about 30 minute presentation. Following that we had another final presentation on landfills in preparation for our landfill visit Tuesday. Despite being really long, the presentations were very eye opening. The US really is incredibly bad with sustainability, and we have almost no federal legislation for recycling or waste management. Then you look at places in the EU like Germany and Belgium who really have their shit together, and it's just like "Damn, it isn't even that difficult for them. We Americans are just seriously slacking." Its been worked into their culture, so it's just something they do now. We seriously need that in the US.

Tuesday, the technical visit to the landfill was pretty interesting. It wasn't what I was expecting. I was expecting a kind of junkyard filled with heaping piles of trash like the pictures you see online of US landfills, but it wasn't like that at all. It was actually far more contained then that. There was almost no trash in site actually. This was because no municipal solid waste gets dumped there, but regardless I was still impressed with how clean it seemed. Rather then being heaping piles of trash, there were just lots of hills of dirt. It was also contained with a few different barriers to prevent chemicals leaching into the ground water and hooked up with pipes to collect methane from the decomposition in the piles. This methane was then burned to create energy and redistributed into the grid. I am certainly not a fan of landfills because they are unsustainable, but this landfill had a far lower environmental impact then I was expecting. I was thoroughly impressed with how they managed it.

Some pictures of the landfill. 

The building where they convert the methane to energy.

Dylan glazing over.

Today, we had a bunch of lectures and had our 2nd group project assigned. My group got stuck with Nashville, TN, so now we have to go and research their recycling, land-filling, and recovery operations to make recommendations for changes to become more environmentally friendly in a feasible way. Should be interesting, but finding data on waste has already proved to be very difficult. 

Took a nice long walk around the city again today, first heading up the hill and than back down into the heart of the city. It was really cool just walking through the streets and seeing everyone go by. This was the non-touristy area so I got a real feel for their city setting.

Here are some of the better picture from the walk.

Going out to bar for some fun tonight so maybe some stories for the next post. Ciao!

Weekend Travels

A bunch more has happened since my last post. Beginning from Thursday, we had a day off and I slept in late. When I finally got up and finished with breakfast, everyone had already left for the fish market, so I ended up hanging around the dorm most of the day snoozing and catching up on my computer. Later though, I went for a really nice walk around Cagliari. There were a lot of really cool pictures and sights, but unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera on the walk so Ill have to retrace the root again to get pictures. The first thing I did was walked to the very top of the hill that Cagliari is on. Our dorm looks out over one side of Cagliari but the top of the hill looks out over the other side, so it was a beautiful new perspective of more of the city. After that I walked back down, weaving through the city towards the water before looping back around to home.

In class Friday we went to the lab and learned how to analyze a sample of waste (municipal solid waste, refuse-derived fuel, food waste, and mature compost). This analysis would let us accurately estimate the water content, energy potential, and even the carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen levels in the sample. By taking a sample of a larger source of waste you can determine its potential value and use. Later on that day I skyped my parents back home for the first time.

Men of the lab.

Mike teasing a class napping.

Saturday morning, we got up early to leave for Porto Flavia, a Geomining park on the southwestern coast of Sardinia. This park was right on the water and there were some absolutely incredible views. The mine itself was merely a long tunnel that ultimately popped out of the cliff face overlooking the water. Apparently they used to mine silver and lead there though I'm not quite sure why they stopped as it didn't appear to be a very big mine.

Pictures of our view on the walk from bus to Porto Flavia.

Entrance.

View from the opposite side of the mine.

Upon leaving the mine we went to a small restaurant close by and got another huge Italian meal. Boy do Italians know how to cook!

View from the restaurant.

Mike <3

After lunch we went to an old Nuraghe temple ruins. It was cool seeing more of the living past and to go to another scenic place with the crew. There were some adorable wild cats and a dog there. They were all very cute, but despite all being comfortable with us, the cats very clearly didn't like the dog. When it got close in a sort of mellow trundle, the cats attacked and sent the dog racing back. We also found a tree that we were all trying to climb for the longest time. It looked easy but the bark was extremely sharp. Eventually, a few of us made it up it, however a few scrapes and bruises were incurred (totally worth it).

Nuraghe temple ruins.

Tour guide explaining temple while Mike looks cool.

Wild dog.

Nearby, Sheppard.

Proceeding the temple visit, we took the bus ride to the farm where we were staying for the night: Agriturismo "Sa Perda Marcada". On the ride I caught a few sleepers... payback. :P

The farm itself was so cool. It was a very quaint set up with a nice view of the mountains, and plenty of space to explore. On the farm they had more cats, dogs, chickens, ducks, horses, a turkey, and lots of crops. We had another big meal that night before going outside to look at the stars. Despite the clouds, the view was great, and I saw a nice shooting star. The following morning we received  an Italian cooking lesson. We weren't given too much to do, but we did learn how they form the shapes of their pasta and how they make one of their tasty deserts.

Lounge area in our room situation.

View from the balcony.

One of the many Cats on the property.

Horses.

Erika and Divya swinging.

More views of the grounds.

Danielle.

Chickens.

The "blue" crew.

Puppy being adorable.

Young Italian boy being adorable with Eli and Dima.

After relaxing in the warm sun for awhile, enjoying the company of the cute boy, puppy, and cat combo we left for Piscinas Sand Dunes. This is a beautiful beach on the southwestern side of Sardinia with giant sand dunes and ripping currents. The water looks tame when your out of it, but jump in and your realize how wrong that assumption was. Just getting out twenty yards, in shallow water, was a struggle. Every step forward you took the waves would knock you back a few more. After "attempting" to swim we walked along the beach. And along the beach, we found the most perfect skipping stones I have ever seen. And there weren't just a few; it seemed like every stone was made to skip. It made for some nice rock skipping. Down the beach, a few of us hiked up the top of a dune to see the view. It was a tough walk but well worth the view. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera at this time but the view was stunning. Camping out under the stars up there with a nice fire pit and friends would be the absolute coolest thing.

Views of the beach and the dunes.

And now, I'm back in my room finishing up my blog. In a few minutes I'll go grab a delicious Kebab dinner before tackling our first big project due tomorrow. Hope you enjoyed the pictures! Ciao!