Weekend Excursion 5/29-30

After a week of classes, we left Friday morning to go towards the eastern portion of the middle of Sardinia. First, we stopped at a museum that displayed old traditional Sardinian clothing in area. It was interesting to hear about the clothing and the influences from different parts of the world. After the museum, we visited an old small beautiful church nearby. A few of us ran up a small hill near the church afterwards and climbed some rocks on the top.

We then took the bus up winding roads to the top of a mountain where we were greeted by shepherds for a lunchtime feast. The food was amazing! The meal started with bread, cured meats and a smoked sheep cheese. Then, we were served goat cooked with potatoes and onions. Last was the smoked pig. The shepherds came around about every 5 minutes refilling everyone's wine cup and concluded the meal with "firewater" which was an incredibly strong grain alcohol.  There were large groups of older Italian men and woman also there for lunch- after too much wine and firewater, they began taking particular interest in us and wanted to take pictures with everyone. Also after the meal, the shepherds performed a set of shepherd mountain songs, which were made up of harmonized throat singing. Afterwards, they taught everyone traditional group dances. 

We spent the night at a hotel. When we got there, some of us decided to hike up the mountain right near the hotel. The view was so incredible, we decided to wake up at 5am the next morning to catch the sunrise at the top of the mountain. We spent the next day visiting several beaches and a coastal cave in the area. The beaches and the cave are surrounded by massive cliffs and mountains and are only accessible by boat.

Site Visit 5/26

Yesterday, we visited a landfill and a cogenergation plant. Having never been to a landfill, I found it incredible how large the site actually was. It was interesting seeing the different old landfill sites compared to the landfill area currently in use. Below is a picture of one of the old landfills that was covered with an impermeable layer of clay.

Right next to this old landfill, there was a site that was just covered with soil. This hill just had much less vegetation:

At the base of the landfill was a system that collected the biogas to convert to electricity.

We then drove over to the landfill site that is currently in use. From the top, we watched the daily routine of the landfill- spreading waste and covering the waste in soil. One of the environmental engineers explained that the biogas is collected from both the top and the bottom of the landfill. This way, the system is much more efficient in collecting the biogas produced from the waste. At the bottom of the landfill, leachate is collected in pipes along with biogas. We also were able to see the geomembrane at the base of the landfill.

After the landfill, we went to a cogeneration plant where we learned about the facility that converts biogas to electricity and heat. Overall, I enjoyed visiting both sites and seeing first-hand how waste is disposed and how energy is extracted.

Weekend Excursion 5/24-25

This weekend, we travelled to a few areas in the southwestern section of Sardinia. On Saturday morning, we travelled to an old geomining park. We drove on winding roads past old mining towns and sites to the coast until we finally reached a beautiful area on the west coast in the mountains. The view was amazing- I'll add pictures from the whole weekend at some point tomorrow. At the old mining site, a guide took us through an old mine gallery in the side of a mountain that the miners used to transport silver, zinc, lead, and other minerals to the coast where they would be put in boats for shipping. After the mine, we went down the coast for lunch at a restaurant where we had a several-course, seafood[and wine]-based meal. After lunch we visited the ruins of an incredibly old Roman temple called "The Temple of Antas" The temple was built around 500 BC and dedicated to the god Sid Addir. I really enjoyed how quiet the area was; we appeared to be the only people there. It was very different other ruins I have visited in Greece and Mexico, where the areas are crowded with tourists. After spending some time walking around the area, we went to an agroturismo called "Sa Perda Marcada." The farm was beautiful, and the food was delicious. We spent a lot of time outside relaxing and spending time with the loving, energetic 4-year old boy Eniro (?) who lived on the farm with his equally adorable lab puppy. We had a cooking lesson on Sunday morning where we made a Sardinian gnocchetti pasta called "Malloreddus" and a traditional desert called Seadas, which was essentially a large ravioli filled with Pecorino cheese, deep fried and covered in honey- it's just as tasty as it sounds. After that, we went to the dunes on the coast to spend the rest of the day at the beach. Dylan, Sean, Mike, Neil and I hiked up a huge sand dune and got some really great pictures- pictures soon.

Site Visit 5/20

Over the past few days, I've collected pictures documenting the life cycle of trash in Cagliari. The picture above shows the various trash and recycling containers in the city. Similarly, the images below show different trash collection containers that I came across while exploring the city.

This picture shows a typical garbage collection truck in the city.

Here's the first picture I took at the recycling plant we visited. This front loader was organizing the waste and feeding a machine that bound the trash into rectangular, easily-movable clusters.

This is the process engineer who gave us a tour of the facilities. Here he is showing us the properties of recycled cardboard and how you can tell if cardboard is recycled by examining the layers.

After being bound into rectangular clusters, the paper waste was stacked in a large warehouse.

The other side of the warehouse. In the back there is a machine called the "pulper" which broke down the paper into a soupy, liquid pulp to be processed. 

A forklift organizing the warehouse.

This is one of the machines that dramatically reduces the water content in the pulp to create the paper.

This machine ran the paper sheets through a dryer to further reduce the moisture content in the paper and send the finished product to a roller on which the paper is collected.

This shot shows the roller which collects the paper after exiting the dryer.

The composting warehouse.

The massive composting pit.

This picture is from the waste-to-energy facility. This particular photo shows the rotating incinerator that burns the trash.

A worker collecting ash from the machine.

Just outside the building.

The cooling tower.

Inside the waste-to-energy plant.

This last picture was taken just outside of a huge room full of trash that is ready to be moved into the plant. It was by far the most trash I have ever seen in one place, and it was awfully smelly. To put it in perspective, the claw that collected the trash (much like one of those claw games in arcades where you use a joystick to control the claw to pick up toys) weighed 5 tons and could pick up 5 tons of trash with every grab.

Immondizia

After an unbelievable start [free of schoolwork], classes have begun. While it was great having a few days to adjust to the time difference and explore the city, I'm excited to begin studying waste management and gain first-hand experience visiting treatment facilities. 

Today, we visited a paper recycling plant and waste-to-energy facility. In the paper recycling plant, a process engineer walked us through the building and showed us how the recycled paper was processed, sent to the "pulper," gradually treated to remove the moisture content, and ultimately turned into paper. It was amazing to see how much paper the facilities produced and how efficient the entire process was (about 95% of paper products that come into the facility are recycled into paper). Similarly, the waste-to-energy facility was incredibly interesting (and smelly). One of the engineers took us around to see the different composting processes as well as a separate facility that managed anaerobic composting to produce biogas and convert other waste to energy. This facility was incredibly intricate and made me truly realize the complexity of the process of creating energy from waste. I found it particularly interesting that they were able to sell their compost for 2 euros per ton. During the tour, the engineer said that it costs them over 130 euro to create each ton of compost but the company makes money from taxes and subsidies. As a whole, the site visits were very interesting. I am excited to learn more about waste management and continue to explore the city as well as the rest of the island.

Prego

The first few days have been amazing. It has been surprisingly simple communicating with the Italians using a combination of English, hand gestures, and the little Italian words and phrases we have learned. There have been quite a few words in the past few days that we continue to hear in everyday interaction. I quickly learned the word "prego," which is commonly said after someone says "grazie" or "thank you" in Italian. From the context, I assumed the word meant "you're welcome." I began to hear the word in places in context I didn't quite understand.

During the second day, I was walking out of a bathroom in a small restaurant and ran into one of those awkward situations where someone is trying to go through a door that you are walking out of but the doorway is too small for you both to walk through. After juking left and right, the woman turned to the side, and said "prego," gesturing for me to walk through the opening. Confused, I said "grazie." It seemed incredibly condescending- "you're welcome."

On the second night, we went out to eat at a restaurant for a traditional Sardinian meal. As I was walking into the restaurant, the waiter held the door and said "prego" with a big smile on his face. That's when I knew the word must mean more than "thank you." I quickly learned that the word can take on a few different meanings, like "please" and "after you." This began happening with more words, and I started noticing patterns and taking note of common phrases and social interactions.

The Sardinian dinner was amazing- wine was plentiful and delicious, and the food was spectacular. As a whole, I really enjoy the food here. Yesterday, we went to one of our professor's colleague's house outside of the city to go to the beach, eat, drink and hang out with students from the University of Padova, a school in northeastern mainland Italy. We had a great time talking with the students and eating delicious meats, cheeses, breads, and other Sardinian favorites. Overall, I can tell already that this trip is going to be an amazing experience.

Pasta

When I think of Italian culture, I think about the Italian-American families from my home town: family-oriented, warm-hearted people with a love for pasta. I love pasta. While I'm confident that my preconceived notions about Italian pastas will live up to the hype and certainly exceed my Ramen-based, college-distorted pasta standards, I imagine that my thoughts on Italian and Sardinian culture will dramatically change over the next six weeks. 

Over the past month, I've been doing my best to do as much research on Sardinia as I can. From reading articles and watching videos, I quickly discovered that Sardinia is very different than mainland Italy. Having never been to Italy but having travelled in the Mediterranean, my first thought was that the island must be much like other islands in the area- filled with nonchalant, laid back, happy people with an affinity for seafood, sunshine, and nightlife. After doing a bit of research, I realized I really have no idea what to expect. With Cagliari being a much larger city than other island cities and having so much historical influence from surrounding areas, I began to think of Sardinia as this mysterious melting pot of Mediterranean culture mixed with hints of Italian and other European nationalities brought on by historical political turmoil and war. Still really having no idea what to expect, I imagine the people of Sardinia to be very laid back, strong-willed, and cheerful.   

While I'm excited to be traveling to a new place, I am still not entirely sure what to expect from Sardinians or the students at the university where I will be studying. Will they speak English? Will they judge me for not speaking Italian? I'm not worried about not being able to communicate; that seems to always work out okay- hand gestures, trying to pronounce words you know you're not saying correctly etc. What I am more concerned about is how people will view me as an English speaker and as an American. Nonetheless, I am hoping for the best and I am looking forward to a new experience visiting a truly unique area of the world.