Ramil Blog

Since the Super Bowl is today, I went to Florence's big calcio, or football, or soccer, game. I just got back home, and I'm still getting the feeling back in my fingers since it was so cold tonight. The game was between Fiorentina (Florence) and A. C. Milan. Both of the teams were really good, and quite evenly matched, which unfortunately made for an unexciting game. Most of the game was scoreless, and Fiorentina ended up losing in the end.

Even though we lost and I was cold, I'm still really glad I went. It was my first professional football game, and it was cool to watch it with 50,000 other people. All of the fans seemed really excited, and they were chanting across the stadium. I learned that, in Italy, whistling is like booing, and booing is like cheering. I also learned many, many Italian curses. Most of the curses were directed at the opposing team and their fans, who were kept in a small, caged section of the stadium and protected by a barrier of security guards.

Another thing that I learned is that it's extremely difficult to film a football game. It's so hard to follow the ball around the field, especially when they kick it very far or when the ball goes airborne. I tried my best, and I made this video of the football game:

So, in an attempt to be better Florentine citizens, my roommates, Walter and Tash, and I decided to do some sight-seeing around Florence. This might sound simple, but seeing all the sights in Florence is actually a very, very daunting task. As the birthplace of the Renaissance, the home of Michaelangelo and the Medici family, and the current art capital of Europe, Florence is densely packed with historic paintings, sculptures, and buildings. There's so much art and history, that you couldn't avoid it even if you tried. Around just about every corner you turn, you're bound to bump into a museum or a statue.

And I'm being quite literal. If you walk down my street, Via Ricasoli, you'll hit three of Florence's most historic landmarks. If you walk north, you'll pass by the Galleria dell Accademia (home of Michaelangelo's David, and Piazza di San Marco. Walking south, you'll run into Florence's most famous landmark, which the rests at the center of the city, the Duomo.

You can actually see the Duomo from my apartment. It's kind of cool. I look at it every morning. So, seeing as how we live right next to the Duomo, we decided to make it our first stop on our tour of Florence. There are four parts to the Duomo experience: the cathedral, Brunelleschi's dome, Giotto's campanile (bell tower), and the Duomo museum. We decided to do the cathedral and the dome.

It was cool visit, and I would definitely recommend doing at the beginning of anyone's trip to Florence, because you can see everything from the top of the Duomo. I believe that it is the highest point in Florence, and the view is breath-taking. Since Florence is packed with three-story buildings, it's easy to pick out the major sites and piazze. See for youself:

So, I have this roommate Tash (who you met in "Ramil Climbs to the Top of the Duomo"), and she has many, many talents. Among singing and hula-hooping, she also has many cool gadgets. The other night, we had fun playing with one of these gadgets - a flaming wallet! Yes, it's a wallet that can spontaneously combust. It's nothing really groundbreaking, but I made for a cool short video, "Ramil Plays with Fire:"

Also... here's something I like on the internet. But first I have to introduce it, because it has come to my attention that not everyone goes on YouTube.com as much as I do. So, there's this internet creation called the "Lolcat" (LOL + CAT), and it's just funny pictures of cats with captions in a cat language called "Kitteh," which is how cats would speak English if they could talk. The lolcat phenomenon was initially popularized by a website called icanhascheezburger.com, and has since spread to not only different media forms, but also to include other animals.

Another thing that I like is the "Yes We Can" video by will.i.am supporting Barack Obama. I know it's very cheesy, but it makes me feel good inside.

So, people began using their own skills to show support for Obama, as well. And apparently, many of the lolcat image creators are also Barack supporters. As a result, some political websites were created, following in the footsteps of will.i.am and barely political (the Obama Girl studio), to express support for Barack Obama in their own way:
Yes We Can Has
Lolbama
I Can Has Nomination

To help further illustrate the development of the lolcat/lolbama phenomenon, I've created a flow chart:

UPDATE: The creators of the site, Yes We Can Has "had not made a single lolcats image before [they] made this site, and lolbama.com actually came a couple days before [their] site." While this new information does affect the accuracy of the flow chart, I will not be publishing a retraction.

As I am becoming more and more immersed in Italian living, I decided to dive deeper into the culture through food. I took the cooking class through NYU, and it was held on campus in Villa Sassetti. The instructor was the owner of a local restaurant, although if you asked her about it, she wouldn't call it a 'ristorante,' but a 'club' -- which is a sort of private restaurant. Italians have many types of eateries.

Anyway, in the cooking lesson, we made homemade pesto and tiramisu. I already knew how to make both of these things, but it was cool to learn how to make these popular Italian dishes authentically and from an real live Italian chef. She seemed to really know her way around both dishes, and was very versatile in the kitchen. She let us help at every step (and taste every step), and she gave us the recipes to take home.

It was a cool lesson, and we got to eat everything that we made. For the next lesson, we're making pasta! Everyone says it's really easy, but I've never done it before, so it should be fun. A presto!

So, I've finally given in and decided to take my first trip away from the city of Florence this weekend, and Rome seemed like a good enough place as any. I feel like I'm the only one at NYU in Florence who hasn't stepped foot outside of Florence yet. All my friends have been everywhere already: Paris, Venice, Lucca, San Marino, Switzerland, Germany... I didn't want to go at first because I didn't want to spend the money, and also because I didn't want to fall behind in schoolwork. Please don't make fun of me.

But I guess I realized that I have so few opportunities to travel so freely to all these different places, and I should take advantage of being here. It'll be expensive, but I guess it's the experience that matters more.

I'm really excited to be going to Rome. All the guidebooks and websites say that there's so much to do in Rome, you'll never be able accomplish it all even in a lifetime! I hope this is an exaggeration, because we will only be spending two nights. The guidebooks also said that, at any given time, there are more tourists in Rome than there are Roman citizens. Isn't that funny? It should make for a fun weekend. Ok, I'm going to take the train now, and I'll vlog you when I return. Ciao.