April 2008

Leaving Italy: The Practicalities

April 21, 2008

On March 31st, 2008, my residence in Italy was officially revoked. This was easy to accomplish. A few days before, Enrico and I had gone together to Lecco’s Ufficio dell’Anagrafe (I guess a reasonable translation would be “Population Records Office”). This is where you go to record transfers of residence (within Italy), births, deaths, and marriages. To [...]

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Coming “Home” to America

April 14, 2008

^ spring blossoms at Sun’s Menlo Park campus So I’ve returned to live (and work) in the USA. A number of people, particularly US immigration officers, have said: “Welcome home.” I am grateful for their friendly intentions, but “home” is not what the US represents for me. I’ve lived here only about a third of [...]

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Owls

April 11, 2008

Today the owls are sitting on a window ledge outside an office in BRM05. Apparently they aspire to careers in engineering. Or else, as a colleague said, they’re keeping an eye on the mouse…

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Learn Italian in Song: Dieci Ragazze per Me

April 8, 2008

Ten Girls for Me Another Lucio Battisti classic, this has been part of the Italian pop lexicon for decades, as illustrated in this clip from the film Bianca, starring Nanni Moretti. Ho visto un uomo che moriva per amore,            I saw a man who was dying for love, ne ho visto un altro [...]

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The Perfect Snow

April 7, 2008

Yesterday we had the perfect snow: it fell very prettily for hours, coating everything in white – except the roads. But I didn’t know it wouldn’t stick to the roads, so I went home early (I don’t know very well how to drive in snow yet, and try to avoid it) and participated in a [...]

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Learn Italian in Song: Con il Nastro Rosa

April 7, 2008

With a Pink Ribbon Lucio Battisti Inseguendo una libellula in un prato  un giorno che avevo rotto col passato quando già credevo di esserci riuscito son caduto. Una frase sciocca un volgare doppio senso mi hanno allarmato non è come io la penso ma il sentimento era già un po’ troppo denso e son restato [...]

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Everyday Italian: Newspaper Headlines 20

April 2, 2008

Clamorous: Videocameras and ZTL [zona traffico limitato - "limited traffic zone"]: the justice of the peace annuls the [traffic] fines Molests a girl: band leader arrested (the photo) Parking: Mayor Faggi “We’ll do the Serpentino” [?] Scandal: young girl has sex at school in exchange for cell phone recharges Albanian severely beats the owner of [...]

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