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.