Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Mar Tirreno!

I've promised a post in Italian, so - after more than one month - here it goes:

Venerdi sono stato al mare, a Tirrenia, per la seconda volta, solo che adesso sono stato veramente al mare! E vero che l'acqua non e cosi pulita come nel sud, ma per me va bene. Io sono abituato ad avere il mare a una distanza di ~8 ore con il treno, ma adesso, ad averlo a mezz'ora con il pullman, l'acqua non mi sembra più sporca!

La sola problema e che anche adesso sono bruciato dal sole di venerdì: cominciando alle 11:30 nella mattina, fino alle 4-5 nel pomeriggio, senza protezione solare, senza almeno un asciuga-mani, credo che per una settimana sarò fuori dal servizio! :D

Qualche foto, anche con Nicolas:

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Piazza dei Cavalieri

The Knights’ Square (Italian: Piazza dei Cavalieri) is one of the most important landmarks in Pisa, Italy, and the second main square of the city. This square was the political centre in medieval Pisa.

Pallazo della Carovana, or Palazzo dei Cavalieri, with its proportions and beauty, dominates the whole square with a noble architectonic structures of the 16th and 17th centuries. Originaly it was called Elders' Palace, but when Pisa fell under the Medici, Cosimo I commissioned Vasari to transforme it. By order of Cosimo I, after the middle of XVI century, the palace became the seat of the Order of the Knights of St. Stephen founded by him to defend and protect the Tyrrhenian coast from the Muslim raids. It has a beautiful façade above the door, animated by elegant graffito decorations and ogival niches containing the arms of the Knights of St. Stephen, and busts of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany. Now it's a centre of education - Scuola Normale Superiore - the institute of higher education founded by Napoleon in 1810. The Scuola Normale is unique in Italy in that only the best handpicked students are admitted to its courses. As far as I know, there are only two of the kind, this being the second after the one in France.

Summer day in Piazza dei Cavalieri

Just in front of the double staircase of the magnificent Palazzo dei Cavalieri stands the statue of Cosimo I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. It was commissioned by Grand Duke Ferdinando I in 1596 to the Franco-Flemish sculptor Pietro Francavilla, who executed it in the elegant Late Mannerist tradition. The statue celebrates Ferdinando's father as the first Grand Master of the Order of the Knights of St. Stephen and is a civic symbol of the hegemony of Florence. The Grand Duke Cosimo is represented in the robes of Grand Master, standing on an high pedestal, in the act of subduing a dolphin, symbol of his domination over the seas. The fountain, in front of the pedestal, was also erected by Francavilla. It has a basin in the form of a shell decorated with two grotesque monsters. Unfortunately, the statue has been damaged in the course of time.

Another remarkable building in Piazza dei Cavalieri is the Palazzo dell'Orologio or Gherardesca, that was built in 1607 for the Order of the Knights of St. Stephen. The building was designed by great Vasari, who joined two separate medieval towers together by an arch, not to break the street. The arch content clock and beautiful small white stone belfry on its top. This building now used as library, was once used as jail.
Here is written a black page of the history of Pisa. In the 13th century, the mayor of Pisa, Count Ugolino della Gherardesca was accused of disloyalty and sent to jail together with his sons and grandsons. He was condemned to death by starvation (the story tells that he has eaten one of his children while in that prison). Like this all the male members of the Ugolino family where exterminated.

Status: work still in progress! ;)

Romania e si aici... si cu bune, si cu rele!

Prima dată când pentru o fracțiunde de secundă m-am simțit acasă, deși în Pisa, a fost când pe lângă mine a trecut o dubiță cu boxele la maxim - Paraziții.

Când am fost la Livorno, am avut surpriza de a vedea lipite pe tomberoanele din zona rezidențială "afișe" cu oferta ATLASSIB pentru transport România - Italia, în format A4. Interesant cum tomberoanele erau folosite ca și panouri publicitare doar pe latura dinspre case/blocuri. Ăsta da marketing target-at! :(

Apoi, a fost episodul în care directorul masterului pentru care fac acum situl m-a întrebat dacă mașina din curte e a mea... Și eu nu observasem că în acea zi, în față, era parcat un VW de București...

Weekendul trecut aveam ceva timp liber în plus, așa că am făcut o plimbare prin Piazza dei Miracoli, să mă pierd puțin printre turiștii. Așa urechea mea a reperat rapid câteva cuvinte românești... Poate sunt eu mai ciudat, poate dorul meu de casă se manifestă mai neobișnuit după 3-4 săptămâni în care nu am mai auzit limba română. Acționând după primul impuls, m-am îndreptat spre cele 3 domnișoare venite să vadă Turnul și le-am întrebat dacă sunt românce. Reacția? Mai, mai să nu îmi răspundă, de parcă se simțeau jenate să recunoască... Până după vreo 20 de secunde când se uită una urât la mine și zice: "Da, si? Care e problema ta?!?" Zic și eu ca omul că vroiam doar să vorbesc, că sunt plecat de ceva timp din țară la care... cică să mai caut, că e plin de români... 8- Nici nu mai vreau să comentez cât de dezgustat m-am simțit în acel moment, cât mi-m putut strica ziua în doar câteva secunde... Ca să îl citez pe Andi,

Ți-au reamintit de casă. Dacă erai în România și îți răspundeau în sictir treceai cu vederea. Așa... ți-au adus România mai aprope de tine; dacă cumva îi simțeai lipsa!

Apoi, cum mă învățasem să mai arunc câte un ochi pe plăcuțele de înmatriculare, am vazut și un Mini One, de Cluj.

Ieri... am văzut o Dacia Logan aici... unul dintre puținele taxiuri pe care le-am văzut în Pisa! :)

***

Am preferat de data asta să scriu în română pentru că o vorbă spune: rufele murdare se spală în familie.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Coaching weekend

This weekend, Vallentina - AIESEC Pisa Coach - came around for a coaching weekend. Really nice girl and flexible in ideas... at least while I took part at the meetings.

In the evening, we went for a kebab, and while we wre eating in a nearby park, I got the chance to see a domesticated polecat. Very charismatic creature, that was easely winning friends allover the place; including the following dog! :D

Challenger

Thursday, July 17, 2008

AIESEC Iasi: OGX News!

In the July '08 newsletter from AIESEC Iaşi there is a nice article about the outcoming of the Exchange Program. Here is an excerpt:

As far as Outgoing Exchange is concerned in May and June were introduced 35 EP Forms in our date base, from the total of 38 that are now available. Also, AIESEC Iaşi has six EPs that are matched: Alexandra Ristariu a friend, Marius Butuc, Nincic Gogu, Cristina Danila, Smaranda Calin and Florina Ungureanu.

  • Andra Ristariu a friend..., a member that was recruited in October 2005, was accepted after a series of interviews and other formalities for an internship at KRAFT FOODS INTERNATIONAL in Vienna, Austria. The traineeship is on Accounting/Finance and it requires that, in 18 months the trainee has to assist the preparation of the financial plans for the EMEA region. This is the second traineeship for Andra who worked last summer for Tomsol Sp.z.o.o., Koszalin, Polonia in a project financed by the Leonardo program.
  • Marius Butuc, a graduate from The IT University from Iasi and an OGX department member since November 2006 is going in a traineeship for about tree months in the Pisa University, Italy where he will have to develop a website for the Post University programs.
  • Another AIESEC Iasi member, Nincic Gogu was accepted for a traineeship in a company from Warsaw, Poland - City Index Limited. Nincic is going to work for an year in developing a new project for this company, promoting and selling the products of City Index Limited.
  • Smaranda Călin is going to work as an Project Manager for Microsoft in Copenhaga, Denmark. Smaranda will still be in the position of Teamleader of the CHANGE IT team, until the end of July where she will fly to her new workplace. Smaranda will take care that the members of her team will
    benefit from exchange opportunities as attractive as the one she is about to have.
  • Soon, Cristina Danilă will leave for her new job in New Delhi, India. It seems that she is the only EP who wanted to go to an exotic destination. Cristina is going to work there for about six months for a five stars hotel, The Maurya Hotel from the cosmopolitan Indian town. She will work in a marketing department and she will have to maintain the connection between the hotel's foreign clients.
  • Florina Ungureanu is the first member that was recruited in Spring and managed to get matched in a very short time. Her determination helped her to obtain a traineeship in Poprad, Slovakia. Starting with September, for an year, Florina will be teaching English to the 15-19 years old students from a Private Highschool.

These are the first EP members that got matched but there are lots of AIESEC Iasi members that are about to go abroad in the Exchange program. We wish the good luck and we hope that in the next months we will manage to come with great news from the Outgoing Exchange department.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Interviewed on Jurnalul de Est

After having an interview with Alina Grădinaru, today the final version of the article was published in the Jurnalul de Est regional newspaper. With a little help from Google Translate, here is a translation of the article:


Marius Butuc, fresh graduate, employed at the University of Pisa, Italy

The days in which the young graduates from the Faculty of Computer Science were leaving to work in America or other foreign lands for Bill Gates seem to fade. With small but secure steps, the perspective of those who graduate the Faculty of Computer Science of Iasi changes, in favor of local business environment. Many of ITs from Iasi see the opportunity of working for a famous company, in a foreign country, as a chance to show foreigners that Romania is not inhabited only by gypsies who go there to steal, but also by really valuable people. Marius Butuc is one of them: left to Italy to work for the University of Pisa through the AIESEC Exchange Program. There he has to develop the website that presents the Masters offered by a department of the University of Pisa.

Although a member of AIESEC Iaşi from 2006, Marius Butuc preferred to begin by engaging more in internal projects and to postpone his departure. "For me, my membership to the OGX (Outgoing Exchange) department of AIESEC Iasi - which I obtained in November 2006 - represents first of all a great development experience! Being in the last year at the University, I knew I am one of those that were supposed to leave soon. Thus I had the opportunity to gain an international culture without even leaving the country and, furthermore, to study how to transform difficulties in learning opportunities, which now helps me a lot! However, I was impressed by both all the serious work opportunities that I could get through AIESEC, and the life as an AIESEC Iaşi member", mentions the graduate.

The offer to work for the University of Pisa came only two weeks before leaving, and it was the ideal opportunity to prove not only the Italian language skills, but also the academic knowledge gained during the Faculty. "First I was looking in the database for a job in Finland or in the Netherlands, but since I already knew how to speak Italian, when I found the description for this job, I thought that I'd love to be hired and to continue to keep the contact with the University environment and even more, to work in a prestigious University such as this, in Pisa", says Marius Butuc.

In Pisa for three weeks by now, the fresh graduate still has to work for the University’s site until the 15th of September when he will return in Romania to lecture at the National Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, RoCHI 2008. "My first plan was that at the end of this three months traineeship I would get back home and start a Master, and then go in a second Exchange through AIESEC. But after I had the first presentation in front of the directional staff, there already was an idea of extending my working-period here, so there is a small possibility that home-made plans are going to change”.

"My plan is to get back, to contribute to local development"

The idea of working for an institution of higher education in Italy hasn’t messed with Marius’ brain, and in the future doesn’t see himself working abroad because, he considers, if someone truly wants to evolve, he can do it in Romania too. What he does is only to get the chance to know other ways of thinking and acting in order to improve his overall vision. He believes in the professionalism of young people like him and also believes in the Academic Center in Iaşi, represented by two strong Faculties on the IT&C side. When it came to wages, Marius Butuc chose to receive a full salary, that is, he explains, "a salary that I manage myself, of this money paying also my food and rent. I said that this way I can learn better how to manage by myself... this being one of the objectives that I’ve set when I came here. "

***

Once arrived in Italy, although this is the first time abroad, it didn’t took him much to accommodate to the people and the situation there. Starting with a particular set of expectations - part of them personal, while part of them gained during the training programs that he attended in AIESEC Iasi – most of them were surpassed, one by one. In his free time, Marius declares himself a tourist with a strong hunger for knowledge, one that does not leave home without his map and camera. In August, the fresh employee has a short vacation scheduled, when he wants to know Italy as much as possible, but he is likely to visit other AIESEC friends that are working in other countries too.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

International Cooking Night

Tonight, Rafael invited me at his place, for a taste of brazilian cuizine! We have been 6 students from 6 different countries:

  1. Brazil
  2. Singapore
  3. Canada
  4. Etiopia
  5. India
  6. România

I didn't go empty handed, so I brought my bottle of țuică (that bottle on Izvorul Minunilor) on the table! I also drank Italian beer (Birra Moretti), German beer, and... last but not least: original cachaça and caipirinhia!

Caipirinha is Brazil's national cocktail, made with cachaça, sugar and lime. Cachaça is Brazil's most common distilled alcoholic beverage. Like rum, it is made from sugarcane. Cachaça is made from sugarcane alcohol, obtained from the fermentation of sugarcane juice which is afterwards distilled.

[Wikipedia]

I really feel sorry that the Erasmus students are going away... :( And most of all I think I will miss Rafael, who helped me a lot!

Monday, July 7, 2008

Is there room for ambassadorship?

When I came to Italy, I knew a thing or two about what's going on... My VP OGX even asked me Are you really sure you want to go to Italy now?, but I thought that it was just one of Simona's akward questions.

The first day here, Michele asked me about how I feel about it, but after a very short chat, the conclusion was that if you are good, people are good to you and if you behave badly, the people around will not br that nice, no matter what country you are in or where are you from.

Then... when the house I was supposed to live in was all of the sudden rented to "some other guy that saw it first", I first raised my eyebrow.

But today I laughed my head off when I saw this:

Poor Roberto had second thoughts to translate what "ti buco" means... but I knew it...

The way I see it, it's just another media thing... I just hope that when I'll leave Italy, at least my friends here will be sure that not all Romanians are the same...

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Capoeira Street Show

Yesterday I went for a pizza with Humberto. I was planning to see the Miss Pisa after that, but our travel started a bit with a walk on Corso Italia. There we discovered a capoeira demonstration in open-air:

After the show we went for a calzone, a beer and a granita... So that's how I missed Miss Pisa... And to think that maybe there were those beautiful women that people keep saying Italy has... :-j

***

To be honest, the Internet connection here is really lousy! And the ISP is called Fastweb... ha! Technology: ADSL... Yeah, it's designed to deliver more bandwidth downstream than upstream, but less than 10kbps upload?!? Pathetic!

Needless to say more, we will have to wait a bit till I'll finish the upload of a 116Mb video from the event!...

Saturday, July 5, 2008

How to: Clothes hanger

Let's assume that you are in a forein country and you need to hang a shirt in your wardrobe, but you are quite low on cash. Here is a do it yourself solution designed and implemented today! :P

Quick trip to Livorno

Yesterday I went for a quick go-and-return to Livorno with Roberto and Juseppe-Daniello. From what I have been told, in the early days, there was a place where the thieves and the whores from Pisa were taken and, step by step, that place turned into the beautiful city that is today Livorno.

Map ©CastelliToscani.com

The only thing that I hated was that until the Mascagni Terrace, to get to the seaside you had to pay... for a very long strip of it.

Their City Park is very beautiful, having even several birds and animals there...

Maybe I will return one day to see it more in detail!

Friday, July 4, 2008

How to: buy a mattress cover

Well, this article is about how I managed to get a mattres cover (among other "new home" shoppings) whithout any prior knowledge:


  1. Find the approximate size of the mattres: for that I used the string from my SanDisk Cruzer Micro
  2. Find the approximate size of that string: I went to COOP Supermarket and searched for a small math notebook... Why? :D I remembered from elementry school that each sqare from a math notebook is 0.5*0.5cm, making in ~20cm tall. This way, the string is ~50cm long and the mattres ~1m*2m.
  3. You might think that the products have the lables written in English also, like back home... c'mon, Italy is more advanced than România, right? Well, it might be, but there is no place for that much English! :(
  4. Find an italian that understands and speaks English! I can bet this is going to be harder than you first thought! ;)
  5. Finally draw the conclusion that the one you need is the Lenzuolo, 1 piaza, con angoli!

What can I say? It was a lot more difficult than I thought, but in the end I have achieved this great objective! :D

Thursday, July 3, 2008

New place to stay!

I finally got a place to stay... after 3 days of phonecalls!

It all started with taking half of the day off from work. Then, I came to the University to make some other phone calls and after that looking at all the announcements from each floor... till I got to this one:

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Changed the canteen, for a day!

As I'm broadening my horisons in Pisa, today I went to another canteen (mensa), the one from via Martiri, near the Piazza dei Cavalieri. I will probably make and post photos from this piazza in another day, because it is so beautiful that it requires a post of it's own.

This one is bigger, 3 levels high... I think I will come back here, since it's the only one opened for luch during week-end. :D