Pictures

Eva and Marice - the professors girls. Eva sweet and funny. Marice naughty, naughty, naughty. Guess who I adore???

Nick doing what he called "man work" he obviously doesn't get to my  house very often if he thinks tending the pizza oven if man work. Cleaning, laundry and poop pick up, that is man work!!

View of Bolsena from halfway up the hill to the convent (that was poor sentence construction, Mrs. Happy would be sad)

Bolsena is on the 2nd largest volcanic lake in Italy. Whitney, Nick and I like to sit on the lake, drink beer, play cards and in Nick's case smoke cigs. It is not a hard life here.

The day we went to Orvieto Nick, Whitney and I found this little gem that was either an opium den or a whore house we couldn't tell which, maybe both? Either way it seemed like a good idea to make Whit pose in front of it.

Not a great photo but it gives you an idea of where we consume the copious amounts of food Domiano puts in front of us. It's outside at one long table. It overlooks the gardens and one day we saw the mean stray cat kill a baby bird while we ate lunch. Classy.

This is Nick's hand. Something seems to be missing.

This was a picture of one of the most delicious lunches ever. I got so excited about it I forgot to take a picture of it before I chowed it down. It was fresh fish from the lake that the fisherman sell illegaly over the side of their boats, asparagus, caprese. YUM!!! That day Domiano told me he likes to pick the vegetables out of the garden no more than 4 hours before we eat them. He doesn't want things to taste old he said. The fish he bought for this particular meal had been caught in the lake within that window as well. He is NOT messing around when it comes to a short food chain.

Nick and Whitney, just because they are cute.

This is my other friend - Alex. We do all our group work together because she is also a nerd and likes to make sure our work is done long before it's due so there is on staying up late crap. I love her. She is a sweet Christian from Alabama. Don't be nervous.

Domiano wears his chef hat whenever we have a guest speaker who stays for lunch. Here he is talking to one of the guest speakers from the World Food Program.

What's that you say? You want a giant Domiano made ravioli with the most delicious cheesy business ever inside of it? OK, here you go:

Domiano making said ravioli:

Or perhaps a tray of cheese from the next farm over and some pepperoni from a friend of the convent?

Lake Bolsena at sunset:

The church in the largest piazza in Bolsena:

Lying in one of the many hammocks at the Convent.

I could go on and on for days with the photos. I'll add a bunch more this afternoon from Rome, Brindisi and Otronto. 

Blog Link

Nothing here yet but this is the link to what will be the blog for the class: http://foodsecurityandgender2011.blogspot.com/

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

I'm back bitches!
It is busy times around here. We left our sweet convent and went to Rome for three days, Brindisi for two days and then Otronto for two days. A little background: the convent is run by a family and the husband of wife of the family teach the courses. They spend 8 months a year in Italy and 4 in New Orleans. They have two extraordinary little girls - Eva and Marice.

When we went to Rome, Sabrina stayed home with the girls and Nathan came with us. He took us to the U.S. Mission in Rome which inclues USAID, State Dept and some other thing. This visit helped to confirm my decision that I will NEVER work for the U.S. government in a "humanitarian" capacity. They were disgusting. I was so embarrassed for them as they clearly had NO idea how gross they were. They were totally comfortable telling us that since the U.S. gives the most money to the World Food Program (WFP) that our values need to be instilled in the populations that receive food aid from the WFP. They didn't seem to recognize in any way shape or form how gross that sounded. Also, one of the speakers (an older man) kept calling one of the other speakers (a woman) a puppy that has grown into a big dog. Probably not the best analogy to use.

That evening Nathan walked around the neighborhood we were staying in and negotiated with various places until he found what he felt was a fair deal for dinner. Of course Nathan negotiated for antipasti as a first, pasta as a second, a meat/veg option for the third, salad for the fourth and then dessert. Also, in Italy wine and water are just automatically included if you are with Nathan. That seems to be a sticking point in his negotiations. We hogged the F out!

Next morning we went on to the Food and Agriculture Organization. We got to sit in the room that was donated by Malaysia. All the countries who are donors to the FAO donated a room in the building. It was super fancy. Everyone had their own microphone and translation headphones. The room was dripping in gold dipped items. It was awesome. It was also air conditioned which the U.S. Mission was not. Security was really  high at FAO but I'm not sure why. We weren't allowed to walk around the halls unattended even to go to the bathroom. The security getting in was like the TSA - bags through X-Ray machine and people through metal detectors. I'm not sure anyone would actually be interested in what they do, it's a bunch of economists who don't get involved in any sort of controversy. Maybe they are nervous economists, it's hard to know.

The last place we visited in Rome was the WFP - World Food Program which is a UN program. This place was amazing. The security was much lower there which was interesting because they are actually very politically involved and running programming that is VERY controversial for some people. They run lots of sexual violence programming, education for women, programs to free women up from the double burden of care work and paid work etc. There are lots and lots of places where the men don't like this yet walking into the WFP was like walking into any office building except that it looks like IKEA.

At WFP we talked with a woman who is in emergency response - she deploys for 30 day periods immediately after an emergency. She was really interesting and listening to her speak about being the only woman dealing with a bunch of sheiks who don't really love the ladies, it was hilarious and fascinating

We also talked to a guy who has helped the WFP develop a car that has a panoramic camera on top and measures the distance between and the heights of buildings and other structures. After a natural disaster this car is deployed to photograph damage and see what has been damaged so the WFP knows where to target their aid first. He also talked about how the WFP has moved from a food aid framework - i.e. just delivering food to people who are hungry, to a food assistance framework - working with the whole community to solve whatever the root problem is causing the food insecurity.

That night Nathan negotiated some insane dinner place for us. There were lots of traditional italian foods like veal with a tuna sauce on it, sounds horrifying but I would have slapped someone if they tried to take it from me. SO delicious. Also, a specific shape of pasta local to the region made primarily by older Italian women it looked sort of like a cross between orchiette and tortellini. We also had this local bread stick thing they make that is crunchy but full of olives bits. I just feel like I can't do any justice to the outrageous deliciousity of the food.

Thursday morning we hopped a train to the Southern part of Italy. We rode the train for a little over 5 hours and ended up in Brindisi. We stayed at a hotel that might as well have been the W. It was bizarre. Techno music in the tiny elevator, a blank key card that you just hold in front of your door to open, blue disco lights in the bathroom. It was bizarre after staying at the convent and a really homey hotel in Rome.

The next morning we went on to the UNHRD - United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot. This was the piece that was originally cancelled because of the trouble with Libya. The UNHRD is on a military base and since you could pretty much swim to Libya from there we weren't originally going to be allowed to go there. Thanks to the persistence of one of our guest speakers we got on anyway.

It was by far the coolest thing we did during the last week. We got to see the area where emergency responses are simulated. We also got to see examples of all the first response equipment that hits the ground immediately following a disaster. Offices and housing units that are 20x20 feet that just have to be plugged into a generator and they have A/C, heat, electricity, internet, satellite connections etc. We also got to check out the WHOs cache of medicines and medical supplies. We got to talk to the head of the UNHRD there and pick his brain about logistical operations. It was so awesome. Plus, they have espresso for .5 euro on the base.

Friday my new friends Nick and Whitney and I decided to abandon the rest of the group and rent a car to find a spot where we could decompress for a few days. We found a great spot about an hour South of Brindisi called Otronto. It was right on the sea and had a whole maze of walled areas within it. There were lots of sweet little restaurants and cocktail spots along with ZERO Americans. Literally no one spoke a word of english and we didn't see a single American until we dropped the car back off in Brindisi. It was lovely. We ate, drank, beached and slept. We did not have any interest in going back to Brindisi to meet the rest of the group.

The plan on Sunday was to meet the larger group in Brindisi, take the 5 hour train ride to Rome, layover for an hour there then take a 1.5 hour train ride to Orvieto where we would be picked up by a couple of taxis and brought back to the Convent which is just a few miles away. Had it happened this way we would have been at the Convent eating dinner by 7:30. Not so much. Our train had some sort of problem and we were stopped for awhile on the tracks. We missed the train in Rome and had then missed three more trains after that because there weren't enough seats on them. We ended up finally getting another train at 9:45 and getting in to Orvieto at about 11:15.  WE arrived back at the convent around 11:30 to discover Domiano (our chef) had made our dinner, set the table and set out all the food and wine for us. When we didn't come he just covered it up for us and we chowed it down when we got back.

Monday morning the new class started. It's the food and gender class. The lab for this class includes going places like farms, gelatarias (gelato places), prosciutto producers, cheese producers etc. I'm going to do my lab project on the gender difference between cheese producers who make cheese for sale and those who make it for personal consumption.

This will be the website for this class:

https://sites.google.com/site/foodsecurityandgender/

There will also be a daily blog for this class written by students. Each person will take a turn talking about what we did that day so if you are interested in following along with the class you can do so. I'll post that as soon as I have it.

I'll try to be less of a slacker about posting now.

Sad times

The convent seems to be having some internet issues. While it seems like I can still skype with Sally every day, I am unable to upload pictures. Rest assured, I am still eating my face off, it's still sunny EVERY day, and tomorrow we are going to another little city for a field trip. That's right, I said field trip. 

I feel like I don't have much to report if you can't see pictures of the food since all we do is eat. I can tell you one thing, tonight we had ricotta and cinnamon gelato and it was like eating heaven. Apparently, there is a gelato shop in town that has won numerous national awards for this particular flavor and it is NO joke. 

Also, I ate veal, how do you like them apples?!?!

Even the classes are about the food

I am doing a little background since folks have asked what I'm doing here in Italy. As many of you know, I'm working on a graduate degree in International Development at Tulane. I did my first semester completely distance based while living in VT. This summer I am spending 4 weeks in Italy, 2 weeks in Rwanda and 5 weeks in New Orleans taking classes. I feel like the order of things is sort of backwards for my taste. I start out in the safest, most delicious place, move to a place that is slightly less safe and full of malaria and end up in New Orleans in July and August where there is more crime than most developing countries and the weather will be hideous. For those of you who may not be familiar with NOLA, it will be like living in an oppressively hot swamp. 

So, back to Italy! The class I'm taking here right now is called Food Aid in Humanitarian Settings. It's the first class I've taken where I am learning something that feels like it will teach me applicable skills. The professor is incredibly smart but can also teach. My experience in academia thus far has been that the two are mutually exclusive, so I'm incredibly grateful to have a professor that is both bright and can teach well. 

We spend all day talking about food aid, how it's delivered, what it is, the logistics of delivering it, the policies and procedures of various regions, the development of agricultural technology, hunger periods, malnourishment vs. under nourishment  etc. Then we march to  our outdoor eating pavillion (as I've taken to calling it) and eat our faces off. The irony is not lost on me!

That being said, here is what we've eaten recently:

Pasta first at all meals. This one was a tomato sauce with tuna, olives and basil:

Then salad:

There was another course before this next picture but I got confused in my altered (food coma) state and forgot to photograph it. It was some kind of tender cabbage which was just lightly salted and cooked in oil. It was delicious and I'm not a girl who favors cabbage!


This is was a really delicious plate. They were little eggplant/bread balls covered with tomato sauce.

This is Domiano - one of our chefs - explaining what we were having for lunch and where it came from.

 This is the most insanely delicious, velvety custard with strawberries. Yum!!

And that was just one meal. It's insanity.

The Food

This wasn't meant to be a food blog as there is already one of those in the family (www.gruelfordinner.blogspot.com - check it) but it seems like while I'm in Italy it will be. Starting tomorrow I'll be photographing the food, it is unbelievable! 

We have two chefs - Alfredo (also knows as Italian Tim) and Domiano, both of whom own restaurants in Rome. They were hired to be our chefs for the duration of our stay here. Both Domiano and Tim subscribe to what they call the 0 kilometer food theory. They believe all the food we eat should be sourced from within a kilometer of where we are. The convent has gardens so plentiful I'm not sure they are gardens anymore or if it would be more accurate to call it a farm so it seems like this won't be a problem for them.

This morning for breakfast we had yogurt made by Domiano, bread made by Alfredo with honey sourced from a farm next door and strawberry preserves made at the convent. I just finished lunch - the largest meal of the day - and it was insane. We started with bruschetta -bread made by Domiano, olive oil made on site and tomatos and basil plucked from the vines this morning. Next was vegetable risotto made with vegetables from the garden. We then moved on to vegetable ratatouille made with vegetables from the garden here and ended with fresh fruit from the orchards on the property. Seriously, who lives like this?!?! 

Oh yeah, there was a class between waking up and eating lunch but really, it was the least substantial thing we've done today. It seems like going forward there will be class from 10-1:30 and then again from  5-7 pm. The introduction to today's class made me think pretty seriously about whether gender based violence is what I really want to focus on. I think these two classes will give me a good idea of whether or not I might want to shift my focus to food aid. 

We were supposed to go to Salento for a few days during this course to visit one of the food aid organizations but because of the crisis in Libya it has been closed to anyone who is not a government employee. It is run on a military base and for security purposes we were locked out. Instead, we will be going to Rome for a few days.

Between last night and this morning the rest of the students arrived. For the most part they seem to be children with the exception of one other grown up. When I say children I mean early to mid 20s, remember what you were like in your early to mid 20s? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Gruel for Dinner asked for a minimum of one blog post per day and I'm going to aim for that with not guarantees. 

Below are a couple of pictures of my room so you can get an idea of what the place looks like on the inside.

Delicata Squash

I am delicate. Sometimes I call myself a delicata squash because I'm so delicate. You can imagine the hot mess I am right now as I haven't been to sleep in 29 hours and am trying to stay up for another 4. Bear with me for this first post and if you must judge, do it silently!

I left BTV yesterday on time, then sat in Newark on the tarmac for 2.5 hours. First there was mechanical trouble then we had to wait for a thunder storm to pass. Luckily, I had my fancy new kindle - that's right bitches, I said KINDLE, not book - so I was entertained. The flight was fine for about the first 30 minutes but the last 7.5 hours were not so great as there were two very unhappy babies screaming their heads off. Needless to say I did not sleep a wink.

I got off the plane and was met by a very nice man named Paolo who ushered me and two other Tulane students to his fancy Mercedes for the ride to Bolsena. It took about an hour and a half and Paolo pointed things out as we went along, it was lovely especially since Paolo likes Lady GaGa and Akon.

Once at the convent we realized the three of us were the first ones here and got to choose our rooms first. Mine has this incredibly beautiful view:

It also has a king sized bed and a sink. No toilet or shower but those are just down the hall which is fine for me. Some of the other rooms have windows that look out over the cloister and have single beds, sad times for those people!

Three other students and I decided to walk into town and then down to the lake so we wouldn't be tempted to nap before tonight. The walk was stunningly beautiful and everyone here has flowers all over their terraces and front steps:

We walked down to the lake and found a place to eat by the water which was a great idea since there was a nice breeze and the sun was shining. We had a long luxurious lunch - 3ish hours- and then walked back up to the convent. The weather is absolutely perfect and it couldn't be more beautiful here. I'm now just trying to stay awake past dinner time so I might get on track a little bit with the time.

Is this thing on?

Oh hello! Instead of presuming that everyone is interested in what I'm doing and sending everyone a bobillion emails about my trip, I'm blogging yo!
I leave May 21st but before that I'll try to figure out how to post pictures and other fancy things like that. Any tips on how to use  blogspot  would also be welcome.