Still not tan but getting closer

We have been very busy this weekend. The first taste of it came on Thursday when we had our first free day. Although the afternoon was consumed with homework, but we spent the morning wandering around the San Benedetto Market. There were two floors with farm stands selling fruit; fishermen selling all kinds of fish, most still with eyes; butchers selling apple stuffed pigs and chickens with the fur (with the fur**); and all the bakers bread you could imagine. It was magical. I spent €5 and got days worth of fruit, bread, and cookies... that lasted me 3 day... I feel silly, but I was so in awe that I forgot to take pictures. I will definitely be returning and will be sure to post some then.

We were back in the classrooms on Friday. We began with a lecture then spent a few hours in the lab before lunch, which was followed by a guest speaker. In the lab, we practiced collecting a representative waste sample. Solid waste engineers take samples of waste and need to make sure these are representative of the entire population. To do this, they basically mix it up, quarter it, mix it again, and quarter it again. You have to do this a few times until you can begin other calculations, but I will leave you with that. Other cool things about the lab: we got to wear lab coats, rubber gloves that went up past our wrists, and there was a sweet view... Check it out!

Future doctors of engineering

Our wonderful TA, Anna Murphy!

The world famous Annalisa Onnis-Hayden

The view from the lab is not bad at all... Much better than Snell Basement

Friday night we did laundry for the first time. I got delicious kebab from and the owner was so nice he gave me free french fries... He will have our business tomorrow night for dinner if we can find him again...

This weekend was our second cultural excursion. We were picked up from where we were staying Saturday morning and went to the mines. I didn't know I was afraid of heights until this weekend. We came around a bend in a rickety, old (ok not that old) coach bus onto a cliff with a SPECTACULAR view of the west coast. Dad, for real, you could have done some work on that beach. There was a beautiful chest high set rolling in, great break, and not a soul in the water. Apparently it is too cold for people here, but not us!

A little blurry but here you go, Dad.

Our first stop was a geomining park called Porto Flavia. We got a tour of the mine with more spectacular views of a rock called Pan di Zucchero, which translates to "bread of sugar." I can't say I was tempted to taste it but it was beautiful. On the tour, we learned about the mines and some specific history of Porto Flavia. We learned the Flavia is the daughter of the engineer who decided to make the mine a port for easy transport of the mined minerals. We also learned that this decision, which put many workers out of a job, also caused the first strike in Italy to spread nationwide. We ended this stop with some pictures by the water for good measure. 

Pan di Zucchero

And again...

It was a hard walk back from the bus.

Hair flip...

The entrance to the mine.

The view from inside the mine.

I think this picture rocks.

The second stop of the day was for lunch somewhere else on the west coast of Sardinia. There was also a surfer paddling out in a wet suit when we arrived but by the time we got off the bus and to the front door he had turned back. We had a delicious X (X=unknown because it was so many) course meal followed by my second cappuccino ever. I like them which is scary because I have never liked coffee before. 

The third stop of the day led us to doing handstands on an ancient Roman temple. The photos are on someone else's camera so hopefully I will find them for you later. There was an adorable puppy there as well that Audriana tried, unsuccessfully to take home.

Some ruins...

...that got ruined..

Audriana's almost puppy...

The final stop of Saturday was where we spent the night. We stayed Agriturismo Sa Perda Marcada, a beautiful farm not too far from the west coast. It felt so good to unplug a little bit. We had a delicious meal and spent the night chatting with our professor, star gazing, and playing camp games... what more could you ask for?

This morning, we had eggs for the first time since we've been here. I am disappointed I didn't have a nice brunch before I left the United States because they are hard to come by here. The wonderful people of Agriturismo Sa Perda Marcada used fresh eggs from their chickens and scrambled them up just right. There was also fresh oranges and marmalade... Eating is a major theme of this trip. We also met another guest of Agriturismo who was an architecture professor from the Netherlands! He is from the Haag which I will be visiting in July. I love when small world connects.

After breakfast, we packed up and got ready for our main activity at the agriturismo: cooking! We made malloreddus, which is Sardinian gnocchetti, and seadas, a traditionally Sardinian dessert. I saved the recipes to bring home so we can try it out again State-side! The best part is we ate our creations for lunch, followed by delicious cherries. I may or may not (hint: I totally did) fill my plate with pits because they were so good.

Meme, there are geraniums year round here!

SWINGS!

Seadas before...

...seadas being cooked...

...seadas after!

This afternoon we went to the Piscinas sand dunes (cheers in the background). I have never swam in stronger waves. There was a crazy undertow that we got beat up by. Fortu-neat-ly, we had Matt Knapik with us to save anyone that got swept away. Everyone made it back ok and the biggest casualty was a suntan, or slightly rosy cheeks and burnt lips. I also did not get any pictures of this... but there will be more to come.

We are back now working on a presentation for tomorrow. Things were getting a little heated so stay tuned to the Matt Murders Ted Murder Mystery...

**Mr. Matthew James Knapik has reminded me that birds do not have fur, however, I refuse to make this change so it fits with the song "Low" by Flo Rida

I Threw it in the Trash

Because this class is a solid waste class, we spent the week wandering around Cagliari looking for trash collection bins. Cagliari currently collects waste every day in public bins located every block or so. The bins are somewhat inconsistent, but nevertheless we love them all the same. That is until they are taken from us in September (settembre) for a curbside collection system. We are having an engineer talk to us about this system upgrade, but the basic idea is to require households to separate their waste before bringing it to the street for curb collection. By making sure waste is properly separated, the city will increase its overall recycling, improve the quality of the waste being recycled, and decrease the amount of waste going to landfills. I will let you know what the engineers have to say after we meet with them but in the meantime below are some basic enhancements this new system could provide.

It is important to consider the quality of the recycled waste. For example, if you have a heap of all the same type of paper to recycle and one piece of plastic gets mixed in, the final product will have a lower purity and will be less desirable for resale. The goal of recycling is to ensure that the recycled goods are able to be reused and a low purity can reduce these chances. Additionally, the separation of waste will allow for less of the recyclable or compostable goods to end up in landfills. This reduction of landfill space prevents landfills from quickly filling up and also promotes good recycling. Way to go, Cagliari!

Here are some of the photos I found of Cagliari's collection system, enjoy!

The first set of bins we found are brown and are used for organic collection, such as food and yard waste...

...But they are also used for paper (not including cardboard)...

....Or for undisclosed materials...

Then we found yellow bins that were also for paper (carta), which was a little confusing.

General conclusion: brown and yellow bins can be for both organics and paper and it depends on the bin in your region that you will use.

There are also blue bins (modeled by our resident model, Ted Stimpson) spread throughout Cagliari. 

The blue bins are typically used for plastics and located next to other bins. I did not see them labeled as anything different.

There were also metal bins. These were the most common and found all over the city so I believe they are for mixed refuse.

On small streets throughout Cagliari you can find a few waste bins per block or so for different waste.

Even the streets with the best views had waste bins.

Bigger streets or streets with more restaurants had a few more bins.

And the main streets had a ton of barrels!

In Cagliari, there is definitely mixed waste in public locations. Some areas have different bins for waste but it is also common to see recyclables, organics, papers and other waste mixed together.

There are vending machine rooms every so often that have the option for separated waste.

(another example)

There are also historic trash bins in the shopping regions. This example is in use by our professor, Annalisa.

And yesterday evening exploring we found waste collection in action! At about 10 pm at night. Typically, collection occurs in the morning and in the late evenings, when people aren't out and about.

Also in Cagliari, there is a surprising amount of litter.

And smoking adds to this litter significantly.

 Finally, this is a different version of waste around Cagliri. You can see a deck here is collapsing into a pile of debris. We asked our resident structural engineer, Ted Stimpson, but are still awaiting an estimate.

Along with this deck however, there was construction and demolition waste that is required to be managed a little differently. Also notice the catch basin for rainwater next to this pile... someone needs to get on that!

Thanks for reading I'll get back to you all soon!

School's (not) out for the Summer

Monday we finally started classes, not before seeing our Italian friends Sunday night. We spent the evening overlooking Cagliari at Caffe Librarium Nostrum. This bar is a beautiful outdoor patio overlooking the western half of the city, absolutely gorgeous. Best part: no one was late to class the next day!

Monday was a full day of class with some city exploration during the lunch break. We found an amazing art museum, I Musiei Civici di Cagliari. I took some pictures of the public garden it was in but am having technical difficulty accessing them so hopefully I can post them at a later date. After class we took some time exploring the city, found the supermarket, replaced my forgotten leather jacket, and had some dinner.

Tuesday we were assigned our first homework assignment (which requires another post soon) and project. For lunch we wandered to the other side of the city and discovered an Irish pub called Murphy's. Our server didn't speak English and we don't speak much Italian so it was very interesting but we ended up with beef from the USA! In the afternoon we worked on our homework then went exploring with our professor, Annalisa. We first visited a beautiful overlook of the city where Matt tried to throw Ted off the balcony... From there we visited Palazzo Regio then to Cattedrale di Santa Maria. Both were stunning and I have posted some pictures below.

Beautiful artwork on the ceiling of the palace.

 The great hall of the palace where there are still some functions.

This is one of the many beautiful chandeliers in the palace.

Cattedrale di Santa Maria

 Saint Elizabeth, I love you mom!

 Annalilsa Onnis-Hayden, PhD in Environmental Engineering, Unofficial City of Cagliari Tour Guide.

Torre dell'Elefante, great views.

People of Cagliari.

Quaint alley where I am dying to go for a dinner.

Today, Wednesday, we visited a recycling, composting, and incineration (with a small wastewater anaerobic digestion) facilitates.

The recycling facility was completing a special batch of recyclable materials today. There were creating a newspaper like paper to resell. In general, there are two types of paper, high quality paper and lower quality paper. High quality paper mostly comes from offices and universities but the mixed qualities of paper tend to come from residential. Depending on the paper input, there is a different output and effects what you will produce. In general, the paper is sorted then put into an assembly of machines to remove any impurities, create a pulp, then create a final paper. The steps of this process that we saw today are located below.

Paper, baled and unbaled.

Paper being baled.

Pure paper bales ready for today.

Annalisa!

Paper pulper.

Pulper in action.

Cyclone to separate impurities from the paper.

Early example of paper.

Beginning to look like something!

Almost there!

TADA!

Recycling logo with the Sardinian flamingo.

Next we went to the composting plant. Here the composted material consists of organics such as food and yard waste. The waste is held here for at least 90 days, and let me tell you it STANK. I thought the most interesting part of the plant actually came from the business side: 1 ton of waste is sold for 2 euros. This facility is funded by the municipalities and tax payer dollars. From here the waste is sold to agriculture, not in individual packages. Another interesting thing was that the first 30 minutes of rainfall is collected and treated in the onsite wastewater treatment plant. That way the beautiful surrounding lagoon is not polluted from the runoff. There was also a resident dump dog that everyone was concerned was underfed. He seemed really happy though so I am going to hope he is ok.

Finally, we visited the incinerator. Today the plant was shut down due to their detection of radioactive waste (the tools are built to detect really small limits, such as a diaper from someone taking medication with low radiation doses). We were told we were completely safe, much safer than the man who had to dig through the waste to find that radioactive diaper. This was a loud plant and somewhat difficult to hear the tour but I immediately recognized some aspects of the plant from an Air Pollution class I took this past semester. The air control measures included electrostatic participators (ESPs), bag house filters, and other particulate matter control devices. For me, I learned how to design these systems in other classes and it was very exciting to see them in real life. We also learned that shredded tires can be burned but full tires cannot, which I did not know before. In general, this plant generated the energy to power itself and still have energy to sell back to the public.

My camera unfortunately died for these last two plants but if I can figure how to get photos off my phone I will upload them.

I think it the biggest takeaways from today is that important to consider recycling and waste to energy solutions as an alternative to letting our waste sit away in a landfill forever. I hope you read this and will recognize the importance of waste separation and next time choose to compost, recycle, incinerate, or anything that prevents us from filling landfills.

In other news, tomorrow is our day off so I am venturing to do laundry... until next time....