link to pictures

I've just met my colleague from the Netherlands, she is making a blog too, with lots of pictures, If you want to have a look at our house you can have a look at her site
http://fwoukje.blog2blog.nl/

new places, new pools...

first day, a subscription to a swimming pool. One of the tranferable ingredients of my daily life. Five miles, going north, (here road signs remind you which compass direction you are travelling, one of those little differences...) to west hartford. Very nice recreational complex, with golf and other amenities and a pool. No locker goes stably with the subscription, sniff :( , but I can go everyday , it is very nice and neat. Luxury: at the end you can relax in a giant jacuzzi for about 20 people, with soaped warm water massaging your back (no girls washing your shoulder).
I went for a drive towards north, beautiful landscape, ligtly ondulated, with farms and forests, and water, all covered in snow. I stopped by a couple of used cars places, just to check. To get a car for a reasonable price seems feasable. One interesting comment from a seller, he asked me , "you want american or foreign" after I answered I did not care, he continued, "you know american cars come second, people want foreign". I stopped to get gazoline. With the tank quite low, I went to the counter for prepaying (it is the case if you pay cash) I had an automatism from Italy, I asked for 30 $, fortunately she did not have change for the 100 hundred bill (very hard to get one of those changed). I put 17 $ and gallons and gallons poured down, and the tank is almost full. Now I understand the strange look of the girl when I said 30 dollars!!!

on the road (briefly)

a white nissan sentra, this will be my car for february, neat car, we go through it with the company employee, a small scratch on the lower right side ( I had not seen it, but she played fair). then on I go.

The street condition are excellent, I basically proceed north on route 10 till my destination, I pass various centres, Hamden, Cheeshire, Mildale, Southington, and so on. The density of houses increases, then it decreases again. From time to time, a river, a wood, a pond of water. There is a lot of water in New England. If one looks at the map it is a little disconcerting to see the name of the places: Durham, Portland, Bristol, Middletown, New Britain, Oxford, then an indian name Quinnipac that has survived somehow reminds you that we have crossed the atlantic. The speed limits shift by the 5 miles, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, I managed to see briefly a 45 that's all. Near schools signposts warn that "fines are doubled". Around Cheeshire there is a large place of used cars, I could go back one of these days to have a look. The most striking features are cemeteris, they are not like grove street cemetery, a walled cemetery, they are just lying there, on the side of the main street, looking at the street, with hardly any fences. I will watch a zombie movie tonight. I pass at least 5 donuts, I have to check if I can watch the Simpson online...

It takes about 90 minutes to get to Farmington. I register, I settle in. Here is my new house and my car, parked in front of it. good night.

Sally's pizzas

Yesterday evening, for our last evening in New Haven, we went for Sally's, the most famous among the pizza places. New Haven's Little Italy is conveniently located in Olive street. There is an arch with red green and white neon light, a several restarurants and shops,

I will post a couple of pictures taken by my colleague as soon as I will get them. Anyway, Sally's Apizza is shabby, like those rosticceria's that one can find near train stations in Italy, with benches and wooden table, it has been kept with a similar to its 1938 outlook as a photo testify, probably renovated last time in the 1980 and never since. There is nothing to it Italian, not a flag, not a picture, not a map, not even a photo of Sophia Loren!!! This felt reassuring!

No wine, only beer, or sodas. One can choose the ingredients, from a list of about 10, and the pizza comes in three sizes. We were 5, 1 Italian, 2 french, 2 Americans, we ordered 2 medium pizzas to be divided, as instructed, one pizza decided by the "Europeans" -sliced tomatoes, mozzarella and olives (they added the garlic), the other by the "Americans", tomato sauce, mozzarella, mushroom, sousage, pepperoni (which is not peppers but a a kind of salami) "it's good with two meats" they said. The place was not filled, however it took half an hour to get our pizzas, They were of the thin sort, cooked in brick oven, both very good, perfectly cooked and tasty!!!!!!!!

consumer culture, material boy

How much stuff do we need (and not) to just live our lives? I have been in the US for exactly a month now, as I am packing my stuff to go to Farmington this afternoon, I am looking at what things have added themselves to my belongings. How much was I able to collect in one month? what went lost? here is a complete list to the use of future historians: * = things I have received

more durable items

netbook
electrical transformer from 110 t0 220
I swimming pants
a pair of snickers
a cellphone
two sim cards
cable vga
cable audio
1 2gb flashdrive *

consumable

4 blank dvd discs ( I needed one but the smallest was a 5 pack)
I shower gel
adesive tape
a lighter
1 packed roll of toilet paper
washing powder
cough syrup (when I arrived I was a bit ill)
a copy book

Edible stuff I bought and am taking with me

tea *
salt 1 pound
vitamin c tablets
soya lecitin tablets
curry powder
cloves
ginger powder
soya souce
2 bananas
fresh onions
5 onions
6 lemons
tahinna
garlic
olive oil
rice 1/2 pound
black beans 1 pound
lentils 1 pound
green beens 1 pound
4 carrots
Peanut butter *

other

an SSN Social Security Number
two envelopes of printed research paper
I folder with paper stuff from the YCBA *
I passport size leather folder from Yale university *

things that have hitherto left my belongings

2 or 3 pairs of socks
1 t-shirt
1 towel (misteriously disappeared from the laundry room)
1 scarf (I left it somewhere)

items on hold

a 9 cell battery fo my netbook (not yet arrived)
my EZLN boots from chiapas, (to a repair shop)

Art in Context

AiC day is over, the day of my talk at the Yale Center for British Art. It was in one of the galleries of the museum where Canaletto's views of London are displayed. They added a table with the material I had chosen, (see post of a couple of days ago) and then a little crowd of about 30 people gathered. I was quite relaxed, and I think that did not go too bad.

Two day only are left in New Haven, Today, I've received the reservation for my rental car for february, on friday I will pick it up and drive toward Farmington, my destination ( in the carabinieri's sense of the word) for the month of february, not very far, like going from Florence to Pontedera. however, adventure, adventure....
here is the link to the map
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=new+haven+ct&daddr=farmington+ct&hl=en&geocode=&mra=ls&sll=41.517345,-72.812675&sspn=0.490471,0.878906&ie=UTF8&ll=41.517345,-72.812675&spn=1.961851,3.515625&z=8
Before leaving however I still need to do -and to write- some more things in New Haven, I need to talk about the libraries here and I have discovered that from all over the state they come to eat Pizza here. So thursday, the last evening, we will go with my colleagues to eat the famous new haven pizza.

lap-top love

Ok. I've reharsed the talk enough, I feel like I am ready for tomorrow performance.
Before going to bed I can write about my new netbook while using it. I had to leave in Italy my new Lenovo laptop and take with me the old faithful Presario. But the illusory power of the € has taken hold of me and I bought online after long (s)considerations a MSI Wind U 100, 10 inches wide (small) screen. It comes with 1.6 gzh processor, windows xp and 160gb 2.5" harddrive. The smaller ones being too small, and the larger ones being too expensive I decided that this was the best deal. I got myself the transparent stickers for the keyboard so that I can have the italian keyboard signs in yellow on top of the US keyboard keys. It is only few days that I have been having it, the screen still seems pretty small, but the keyboard is large enough to work without problems.

So now I've got two computer, the presario doesn't look jealous, quite happy of the new company, maybe it doesn't feel challenged because of the larger screen?

they get along pretty well, don't they? maybe too much.

before... during?... after? What is this? some kind of photo taking lapsus?

I better go to sleep now.

more tension, of the good kind

Sorry folks I have not written anything yesterday, I am busy preparing my Art in Context talk. Tomorrow I am going to talk at 12 30 eastern time, about my research here at the Yale Center for British Art. The talk will be short only 25 minutes and focus on two images: a panorama of London (cosmoramic view, that is the original title) and a comic "picture of london" with pickpocketing, false auctions and other dangers of the metropolis.

here they are:

a politics of horror

to watch a politically loaded movie in the US you might also head for the horror s(h)elf. The Nightmare in Elm Street series is fantastically political in its depiction of suburban white middle class values and lifestyle, Wes Craven has gone even further with The People Under the Stairs. And one should not forget that Romero's Dawn of the Dead, with the wonderful scene of the zombies banging on the doors of the mall because they remember feelingt happy there when alive.
Tonight I've found another example of this thread. Joe Dante's Homecoming, a TV movie waving between grotesque humour and classic zombie scenes: dead soldiers from the Iraq's war are back in the street of America. Why? They want to vote at the national election, and then rest in peace. But the republicans steal the results and ...

Any suggestion for other titles in this list? comments? I am inclined to think that this thread developed in the 1980s; maybe horror consents to sidestep politically correctness and allow a more radical gaze to be displayed..

more real than the real thing

First Italian restaurant, courtesy of the Center, Scoozzi, it is a rather cool place, no pictures of vesuvio or mandolini hanging from the wall, just to set up the scene. With the help of my neighbours I set up for my first italo-american experience.
The menu is quite and interesting item of cultural hybridization, it is divided in sections, with the Italian heading : "primo" and "secondo", but really it is a distinction between entree and main course dishes. with the pasta and the risotti being placed under the "secondo" together with the beefsteak.
Second little difference, olive oil, of very good quality is provided right before the meal, from the bottle into some small bowls spread on the table. To dip the bread, I am told this is an usual feature in Italian restaurants.
I set for a "bruschetta", of toasted bread with cold crab spread, I am not enthusiast. For my main course I went for the dish with most garlic in it, I want to check on the urban legend about garlic, fettuccine olive oil and garlic. When they arrive they smell strongly of garlic, but then the taste is just fine, quite mild. there seems to be turnips tops, and lots of cubes of meat about, a little tomato, overall quite good. There is not grated cheese on the table, and no pepper either, both come with the waiters. The lady on my left is having a mushroom risotto, a waitress arrives with a grater and offer some fresh parmesan, (a blasphemy in the highly normative italian cooking etiquette. It was offered only to her, not to me, I had some pecorino cheese on my pasta.

day after

It was all very composed, almost restrained, they clapped they hands with sincerity and measure. We were in the lecture hall, the screening was on, as the ceremony proceeded towards its climax the room filled slowly with people, not just from the administration, but also visitors, and a couple of classes of school kids aged about 5 or 6, well behaved.

Most faces were serious, some smiled openly. The faces of black people on the screen (there is but a few in the hall) remind me of the what is political joy, and my mind goes to 1996, in italy, the first victory of the left after 130 years of history of the italian parliament, after more than 50 of republican regime. This transition, for african-americans, as they are called here, is even more dramatic.

I cannot judge Obama's speech, a political speech need to be weighted against the other speeches of the person, and the other speeches in that occasion and I do not have that sort of knowledge. In the Yale News, the university paper they have interviewed three political science professor, they all agree that the speech was a down to earth one, lacking the memorable phrase, that it evoked american values and past, that marked a shift from the past as it did not use the word freedom and democracy when addressing the international scenario.
It was felt undoubtedly as an event, it seems that the stopping of normal business, the large screens put up in public offices, the television screens being set in coffes, all of this is quite extraordinary as they explained to me.
But I do not think that it was the somewhat plain tone that kept the lecture hall so quiet, it was the spectatorial position that everybody unspokenly agreed to keep mixed with that sort of institutional framework that makes people more reserved. Thus they did not raise for the anthem, and few murmured it at low voice on their own, two or three clapped their hands at the passage about terrorism but the others did not follow. Not one hand moved for Bush when Obama thanked him. They only cheered for Aretha Franklin.
And they laughed at the only humorous moment of the ceremony, the one when the reverend -known I think for not being a liberal- jockingly referred to races:

"Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around -- (laughter) -- when yellow will be mellow -- (laughter) -- when the red man can get ahead, man -- (laughter) -- and when white will embrace what is right.
Let all those who do justice and love mercy say amen. "

even Obama, who was very tense, smiled.
Among us we commented that the grandiosity of the ceremony and the gathering reminded us of the kind of celebrations held in the ancien regime. The difference, I add, is that at time the sovereign would distribute money to the populace, and here it is the followers who collect money for the leader.

This morning one colleague told me, "it was so good to wake up and think : Obama is the president"

seaside adventure

New Haven stands in a bay that made it an ideal site for an harbour. The G bus line takes you from downtown right to the Lighthouse Point Park some 5 miles from the center. At the bus company stand, they do not give you tickets, but you get tokens (like when you are a kid at the fair) that you insert in a machine when you get on the bus. They look like this, the hand is Marieanne's

We were three on our walk, Viccy, Marieanne and me. They are also visiting fellows at the YCBA. The park was deserted, beside the small lighthouse, there is an old carousel inside a large building. In sheltered corners one could see the seawater turning into ice.

We walked back all the way to the city, along other parks, a military base, this picture was taken from a fort that resisted English vessels during the revolution. It was an idea of Viccy to try to catch the light, and it did not came too bad.

Suburban streets filled with middle class housing followed, then motorways and railway junctions and the harbour, overall a very industrial area smelling of oil and exhaust fumes.

a sunday walk

Today is a beautiful snowing day, the roofs from my window once again dressed in white. I say again because the snow on rooftops melts overnight, a sign of the bad insulation. I set off around 10 toward the New Haven Historical Museum, for a morning of learning and education before setting for the Sunday opening hourse of the YCBA (Yale Center of British Art). The museum is at the confluence of Temple street and Whitney Avenue, the same way I took a week ago to East Rock Park (see post Jan 13thHowever The museum is closed on Sundays. No erudition (But if you desperately seek a crash course about New Haven's History you can browse the new Attaliano's slideshow). As I was heading back, thinking on how to spend the following two hours this sculpture appeared in front of me.

Where to go? Looking at the map the Grove Street Cemetery is close by, a dear friend of mine had mentioned it (thank you, Galina) and so I decided to pay a visit. How perfect, a cemetery in the snow. It is an historical cemetery, where people from the city and from Yale are buried. There are many stones that are almost or completely illegible; mostly they are from the last two centuries. The tombstones are usually very simple very often with indication for a husband and wife. Some carry the information on the profession, such and such, professor of xy, Yale class of xxxx. One president of Yale got his burial surrounded by a fence embracing him. One striking feature are the small American flags planted on many tombs. It seems to me that some of them were somehow connected with military merit. I you have managed to survive the carnage, and died in your bed (otherwise you would not find yourself in this cemetery) and are not buried along with your buddies in a war cemetery, you get however a little flag. Part of the nation’s respect for its –dead- veterans? I may be wrong. And were all of the flags for military? No academic got a flag, and no women, however, this need further investigation.


From the cemetery gate, one can head toward the WWI memorial, a building called Commons that still I have to undestrand what is it there for. (left picture) The courtyard was strangely free of snow after a night snowing, how did they do that, do they heat the couryard from below. there is also a rotonda in memory of the American revolution and the civil war. Close by also the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library ( the modern building at the back of the picture on the right, at the forefront the Book and Snake building). I will visit it on thursday.

Louis Kahn and art in New Haven

In the middle of this campus all built in neogothic style there are two building of the early period of postmodern architecture, both were projected by architect Louis Kahn, one is the Yale University Art Gallery (top picture) and it is one of his first projects, the second lies just across the street, (Chapel Street) and is the Yale Center for British Art, (bottom picture) the center I am a visiting fellow of for this month of January, and it was one of his last projects. Thus in the space of few hundreds of metres one can play with the illusion of being able to grasp the entire life of this outsdanding architect. If you want an introduction to his life and buildings you can watch My Architect, a son's journey, a documentary made by his son. Not bad. Together with two friends who have come up from New York, we have spent the day in these two museums. Kahn always worked with reinforced concrete. The two buildings are quite different, the Yale Art Gallery, built in 1953, is symmetrical, geometrical, its quadrangular façade on York street is very beautiful, especially in the evening when some of the square elements, the windows, get lighted from the inside and produce a checkers effect. Inside the triangular shaped staircase is also very impressive, however the vast spaces of the museum are dominated by the ceilings, a thick ceiling made of a repetitive hexagonal element made of pyramidal elements some open and some simply void. The overall effect is that of an regular repetition of triangular shapes that hang over you. It made me feel in a place designed to mimick an obsessive and disturbed mind. Some galleries were closed and we could not visit the contemporary and European art sections, however, the ancient Americas rooms, the African art and the Oriental section were open and are mindblowing as you are thrown from one set of forms, of faces, of shapes to another, from ritual masks covered in antelope's skin to deities in the course of shifting sex, to a 2 century a.d. sculpture of a football game, complete with spectators. And you keep wondering how to make sense of all this otherness and displacement.

Across the road, to the Yale Center for British Art you feel in another dimension, either for the building and for the art. It was completed in 1977, three years after the death of Kahn.The façade is not at all impressive, quite anonymous. However inside great spaces, two quadrangular courtyard one containing a cylindrical staircase. Light coming from large windows on the side, your gaze able to reach across the building through the windows over the courtyards and more light from the roof windows over the permanent collection hosted in the fourth floor. The museum hosts the collection by Paul Mellon, collector of British art who hired and payed Kahn to project this building. It is almost entirely dedicated to British painting of the xvii and xviii century. Gainsborough, Reynolds, Hogarth, just to mention some names. Maybe because of all this natural light coming from everywhere, of the whole collection I particularly enjoyed Turner's landscapes with their fantastic rendering of sunlight.

a long weekend

Sorry to bother all of you with the Obama day, just some local considerations, I will surely write about it next week. Monday is a Federal holiday, everything will be shut for the Martin Luther King day, but the country will be on hold till Tuesday morning at the moment of crowning. In the center where I do my investigation, they will screen the presidential speech live in the big conference room at 11 30. There are no meetings or lectures, if there was anything scheduled it got postponed (this actually happened to me). Everybody is expecting a great speech, it seems he made a spectacular one on race last March and people are waiting for something like that. We shall see, tv mediation being suspended for few minutes. My goodness, CNN is so silly! it is like the MTV of the news. Skipping among all the usual self-serving journalists' chats ( security, traffic -autos and mobile phone-, dresses, parties, celebrities) I managed to listen to a couple of interviews in which Obama spoke plainly about the situation, basically warning that economic situation is serious and it will probably get even worse. It seems to me a significant rhetorical shift from what we have grown to be accoustumed in recent and less recent years. The presidential speech will probably be set on higher notes.

Amanda

Who I see on ABC's Good Morning America? Amanda Knox's face. The trial is starting today and the family was convened, so how do they look like? Father, overweight white all dressed in black, a short beard, shirt buttoned till the neck, mother black hair shoulder lenght, and three other blonde daughters, all younger than Amanda, poor things. The rest is the usual: she is innocent, how terrible must be for you? were you able to talk to your sister? etc.

It is a beautiful sunny day, the temperature is about - 12 but it does not feel it.

"Sicilians are great liars. The best in the world. I'm a Sicilian."

I was looking for a quote, one about watching tele in other countries, it seemed to me from the movie True Romance, anyone remeber? when the two are thinking about fleeing abroad and she says something like, "I always wanted to watch other countries' tv" I wanted to use it for a post on tv. Instead I found this one from the same movie, from the scene when they argue about sicilian being niggers. I am not a great liar anymore though, just a clumsy one ;) little hope. It's a lie!

life's routines or , the joy of the locker

as a friend made me notice, I managed in just two weeks to tranfer some basic elements of my life in the new location, a library, movies, a swimming pool, in two weeks, I have not managed to make Hummus yet ( it is hard without a kitchen mixer or whatever is called) but I am eating beans and bleuberries, as in florence. Isn't this a little sad? What is the point of travelling if you keep doing the same things? Because of the little differences? maybe. is that so that by repeating the known that we discover the unknown? or at least the new? the unexpected? or even the desired?

This is Payne Gym building, the central sport facility of Yale University, I joined on Monday and since then I've being going to swim every day. The building is gothic but it was built in the 1930s. It hosts many sports facilities, among which 2 or 3 swimming pools. The one I go is a 5 lane olimpic lenght one at the 3rd floor. The third floor! a full size swimming pool?!! and somebody told me that there is another one on the 5 th floor. This is really grandeur!! Imagine the structural infrastructure of the building to sustain that weight.

The Yale Center for British Art got me a deal, and, oh wonders of american administration I got a locker with my one month entrance fee! A LOCKER, quintessential icon of adolescentials' american dream. Like Bart and Lisa I have a locker! I am actually more happy about possessing a locker at the swimming pool that having a flat!! I can leave my swimming gear sitting there. The lock is number operated with a turning wheel, like the one that safes have in movies, and from time to time you can actually hear the "tick" when you turn it and it hits the right number. They've cut the pool in two, so you have to swim in less than half the lenght. But one get used to it, as to the water that is not warm.
There is a scale, old fashioned style one, with the large round wheel-shaped display in front of you, and the hand that turns.... I weight 175 pounds, who knows how much is that in kg, a little too much, that I know.

not too cold

This is a picture taken from a webcam on the net. Diary of a southerner: Wow! it is beautiful outside, the net says light snowing, but it feels like serious to me, temperature at the moment around -9 - 10. Walking on fresh snow is such a magical thing with your feet advancing in soft crystals. It seems it will remain like this only for a couple of days, then it will be back around -2, zero celsius. I can understand that when it snows for a week everything gets impossible, it is incredible how this thing piles up quickly in huge amounts.

a positivist explanation

Observations of a provincial boy: I knew that there were many varieties of garlic, but when I opened the garlic bulb yesterday, a normal sized bulb, I was surprised to get these giant cloves. Ah america land of largeness... Hey! now that I think of it, this could also be another factor in the explanation why Italian cuisine in the US has so much garlic, (still have to check if it is true), it is not a matter of cultural identity, it is not that one connotating ingredient and taste, became totemized by a community, finally, it is not to scare off everybody else off from the lips of Italian maidens and young men. Nope, recipies remained the same, it was the garlic that was bigger.... as simple as that!

One day I should go around collecting the name of the churches, until now one noticeable thing was a quote from Tolkien written in giant letters just outside one of the Churches on the Green. But the most striking thing was to see the painting scatching off the façade of the Church of the Reedemer of the -United church of Christ-, motto: "The wise still seek him". The building is in made of brick with a front roughly neoclassical -should I say newclassical?-. The cracks in the painting revealed to my lazy and naive eyes that the entire greek temple like structure was actually a decoration made in wood! Talk about little differences! This is really bewildering, how strong their faith in the Reedemer must be to trust wood looking like stone!

Better to climb up the top of the hill (the one at the background of the pictures of the Green) away from the sins of the world, and enjoy the view. East Rock Park is about half an hour walk from the city centre, (by the way, it is true that americans don't walk, but street are not deserted of people, there are those who run), climbing up is not too hard, and for few second, looking up to the tree and the untouched snow one can even go back to Jack London's novels. If you look down, a beautiful river , picturesque bridges, snow and trees.



Once you got on the top, the view of the city is interesting, with the few towers around the central square and the suburban area spreading around. Just a little on the right and the light over the sea is making a beautiful reflection over the harbour.

New Haven Green, a Forum?

Yesterday I bought some light walking shoes, my EZLN mexican (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional) boots had their soils broken and I brought them to get new gear. Thus I was left with my sort of elegant shoes quite unfit to walk around after the 5 hours snow of yesterday.

Above was the view from my flat on my arrival, yesterday it became like this.

anyway today I went for a walk and the first thing was to go round the Green that today could be rather called the White. Rather than a city square where a church or a palace are located or a park it reminds me of the ancient forum of an ancient city, the open space at the centre of the urban area where all major public building were located, the temples, the market, the sauna, the tribunal. Around the green there are the Ct financial centre, the city hall, the post office and city court, the city public library, all located on two sides towards the east. Another side is occupied by shops set under an arcade. On the green itself three churches are located.

going food shopping

the supermarket we were advised to get a taxi to is a 15 min walk from where we (the jolly fellows) live. It is at the entrance of the urban area. It is not gigantic, however larger than an average supermarket in Italy. The fresh vegetable section is placed at the entrance as in supermarkets in europe, a sign that the marketing literature and experience in this matter has reached a final agreement. Talking about little differences, it would be pointless to ask a specific question such as, "where are the spices?", or the salt, or olive oil. Because food is not organized by genre but by genre and cuisine. Thus one find directions towards mexican, chinese, pudding, tea and coffe, european. This creates lots of redoubling, but possibly space is not a decisive variable. There are at least three spots for vinagre, two for olive oil, four or five of spices, two for fresh orange juice. I think I've seen another doubling like in europe with a gourmet section where you find high quality product that you find again in the general product. Anyway, I got my tahinna, olive oil, one ananas that smells strangely. Legumes where hard to find, only in one place and in very limited choice, garbanzos (chickpeas in spanish), black beans, red beans, white beans, one kind of lentils, that's all, however I admit not having cast a single look to canned products. There are no house appliances or kithen utensils, and no alcohol. The compartimetalization of shopping is a little different.

a quiet week

New Haven is small, and allegedly unsafe, we receive terrorizing mail from the administration relating the last assaults in the campus area. I did not feel unsafe for one second in New York, in New Haven I have little possibilities to experience, spending all my day in the British Art Center and the evening I am so tired I just have a nap on the sofa. Today, big event, we will go shopping with the fellow(s sic) colleagues. It seems that the only supermarket is far enough that we will need to share a taxi. The few grocery and food shop near the campus area have no fresh food. They may have some apples, pears and lemons, hard like stones and so polished with silicon spray that one may even think back with nostalgia to esselunga's fruit section!!!
Food is not cheap as the received image of the US tells, it is at least as expensive. On the other hand, it is possible that food is cheap, but it is not the one I am able to understand.

My experience with NYU has been very useful in these first days at the centre, the performative side (yes) of american institutions, the tours, the presentations, the clapping of hands, so overdone for an italian (european?) were familiar to me. On the other hand, everybody remembers my and my colleagues first names, it is part of their professional requirements. Very impressive.
Why then, in tv series dr House, they use surnames? I thought that in professional relationship, in the east coast, they might adopt surnames. But no. Any opinion?

netflix

Netflix in the US is the new video rental system that is killing local video-shop. It is a company that works through the net and the post. 100.000 titles available on disc, some 15 000 on direct view through the web. By paying a monthly subscription you can have the movies of your choice sent over to you, when you send back the disc the next one on your list will be send to you. In the meantime, you have limited access to the one that are available through the web. I got a subscription yesterday and I am watching, as I write this post, "playgirls and the vampire" a 1960 Italian comedy.

train to New Haven

I take the 9 07 metro north train from Grand Central to New Haven, off peak time, I choose a vagon in the middle, the train is a commuter with rows of 5 seats, there are only 10 people with me.
You emerge in harlem in the midst of what in Britain would be called council housing, sky is grey, temperature is 45 I see on an announcement, so much for the cold winter of new york , it is more than confortable. Few people on the train however the ticket woman made me move my suitcase from the raw of seat across the aisle. She took my ticket and added a signpost to the seat to mark my presence,
Immediately after Harlem she is back to check new passengers, will she be doing that for every stop?
North of Manhattan we seem to travel in what seems to me a urban periphery, trees in the midst of roads, 4 to 10 levels buildings, a cemetery.
From time to time we cross, poorer areas, or what they would seem so. And industrial districts filled with trucks, and cars
Than rows of two, three levels houses starts, in wood and in bricks,

The four lines railtrack runs along a motorways not much traffic, on both directions. Some of the trucks look really like the one in duel. , after 30 minutes we are clearly out of a urban area althouth it is still densely builld, how far are we from the sea? I cannot tell, looking east, one cannot see the sea.
Rare patches of snow here and there remingind the traveller, that 10 days ago there were few days of serious cold. Apart from abeti and some cypressis all trees have lost their foliage, again as a reminder that this is a serious winter area. In fact as we proceed northwards, there a little more snow around.
The train stops often as you would expect from a commuter train.
A strange feeling is taking possession of me as I look out of the window, where are people? Houses and houses, without a light turned on, thousands of parked cars, trees, but no people. It is monday, mid-morning, and there seems to be no one out there. It is like if people on this train, and the few that are getting on and off are the only human beings left over. I spend the rest of the journey concentrating on this. On the railtrack there are for time to time some workers, near stations, then nothing, nobody. Looking further, one man on a bike, an elbow leaning out of a truck-window, a lady walking toward her parked car, other road or rail workers. The train approaches New Haven, in the last half-hour I will have seen not more than fifteen people.

service oriented society

NY is less crowded than I expected, after my arrival, I have not gone to the underground but used my feet and taxis, thus I cannot confirm my experience on the 30th. But for the tourist area -which surprisingly is not the skyscrapers area- sidewalks are hardly crowded. It is the effect of the holiday. Compared to Italy public space is much more service oriented (where in the world would that not apply?), not only there are lots of employee in all shops, but in museums there are people who help you around, direct you to the right cue etc. Is labour so cheap? I remember noticing the same thing in Moscow, for shop assistant and museum employee...

arrival

At the passport check and at the custom, they take your fingerprints (just the index) and a new photo, do they check with those they have from the visa, or they just like to accumulate data on separate databanks? From JFK to NY there are various option, I took the more public, airport train + metro. The system at the airport seem to take into account the derangement of the visitors, there are many people whose job seems that to help people getting around. The metro is another thing. It is not easy to understand which way the train is going, and more lines are running on the same track. Moreover maps are relatively rare. Vagons, on the day of my arrival, December 30 were empty. How is this possible. Are new yorkers on vacation? I took line E till Lexington /53rd, there only staircases on the way out, a little effort with my two suitcases, then fresh air. New York feels like New York. Vapours from manholes, skyscrapers, yellow taxis. I walk till my host's building.