Just keep bouncin' -- Sardinia dance style

As our trip is coming to a closing, I can't help but be unbelievably sad. I've made so many great memories on this trip that I know will remember forever. I've also learned a lot through my school work and meet a bunch of awesome people. However, I still have one more day, so I will try and cherish it!

On Thursday, we had two guest speakers come and talk to us. The first, Giovanni De Giudici talked to us about the environmental impact of military testing in Sardinia. The second speaker, Giovanna Cappai, came and talked about her research, which was on waste-to-energy. 

After the speakers, were we given our assignment for the "Mock Town Hall meeting" we had on Friday. The Mock Town Hall meeting consisted of each of being assigned a role, and we had to argue given our viewpoint on the military testing in Sardinia. In the southwest of Sardinia, a large area is devoted to NATO military testing. From the testing, the surrounding civilians have been getting leukemia and various other cancers/illness's due to the military testing. However, no remediation of the land has taken place. I was a high schooler, eager about remediating the ground and returning the area to its former glory. 

On Friday, we had this Mock Town Hall meeting, and then we had free time to work on our third project, which we will be presenting tomorrow. Our third project is about implementing an RDF waste-to-energy incinerator in Boston, MA.

On Saturday, we had most the day off, so Erika, Lindsey, and me wandered around for a little bit. Then, we hiked at Sella del Diavolo, which was an old Roman lookout post near the ocean. On Sunday, we worked mostly on our project and then went to Orroli, were we saw a traditional Sardinian festival. In the parade, they kept throwing us cookies! I swear I ate about a dozen. Every time I finished a cookie, another one was thrown at me, and I couldn't stop eating them--they were so good! At the end of the parade, they carry a statue Saint Caterina into a church. Then, there was lots of singing a dancing! A older gentlemen grabbed me into the circle and tried to teach me the traditional Sardinia dancing style--it seemed like it was just a lot of hopping around!

All the ladies went out for a French themed dinner at Zoppasofia Wednesday night

A beautiful sunset

An interesting church Erika, Lindsey, and I ran across

The lighthouse on the walk to Sella del Diavolo

The Roman lookout temple

A newer lookout temple from WW2

The view to the water

The church at the beginning of the parade that held Saint Caterina

Saint Caterina that is carried at the end of the parade

The bulls carrying Saint Caterina

A quick execration to a Nuraghe (Sardinia ancient indigenous population) temple near by the parade

Horses in the parade! 

More horses

People throwing cookies at the parade watchers

Cute little boy in a decorated tractor

A band in the parade

Does Sunscreen SPF 5 billion exist?

This Monday, we went on a beautiful sailboat in Villasimius. The boat was a long sailing boat, and held about 35 people comfortably. In the morning, the sky was blue, the sea was crystal clear, and it was very warm and beautiful. However, as the day progressed, a small thunderstorm happened while we were on the water. Despite not being very warm, the beach was still amazingly beautiful--one of the prettiest beaches I've ever been to. We climbed to the top of the rocks (pictured later) and took in the most beautiful view. For lunch, we were offered fresh Sardinia pasta, bread, cheese, salami, and yummy desserts. Honestly all the types of food I need to be happy! 

Later that day for dinner, we went to a cute vegetarian soup place. The waitress there was so nice, and talked to us all about her experiences going to school here, and her hopes and aspirations. The dinner we had was equally as delicious: caprese on a screwer, fruit and vegetable salad, potato and rice soup, and two cheese plates! However, the company was what really made that dinner enjoyable.

The next day, we had two guest speakers come and talked to us: Tiziana Lai, about end-of-life-vehicles and Alessandro Murgia about "Management of contaminates sites from mining activites in Sardinia". I found Murgia's lecture interesting as he also talked about the military testing activity in Sardinia. 

Today, we went to Teluda, a beautiful beach not too far away. It was a pretty relaxed day--I just went snorkling, swam around, played mini badminton, and remembered how fun it was to do flips and handstands in the water. A good day spent at the beach! 

Some of the sailors would feed the birds pecorino cheese!

The lighthouse we climbed up to.

The boat we were on.

The calm before the storm

Stormy weather

Me and Erika

The beach today!

Annalisa's adorable son, Thomas, who came to the beach with us today (she has another equally adorable son, Nico, who is not pictured)

Great day at the beach

What a crazy four days it's been since I last blogged. I've been on another technical visit, presented our second project, took an exam, went to the beach, saw flamingos in their habitat, and went to Rome! 

To begin this span of days, on Thursday we went to Campidano Ambiente for a presentation on door-to-door collection on different Municipal Solid Waste fractions. We had this cute little old man talk to us for the presentation, named Luigi. Afterwards, they served us a light lunch of sandwiches and pastries (one of the sandwich options with mayo and mushrooms--can honestly not imagine a worst sandwich). However, the other sandwiches were very good and the pastries were delicious. For the rest of the day, we worked on our second project, which for us was researching the current waste management system in Krakow, Poland and using the WARM model on the EPA website to make suggestions for the direction of Krakow's waste management.

The next day, Friday, we presented our group project. This project was very interesting, as we got to research a country that had little infrastructure for municipal waste management, that just got granted funds to build a huge waste-to-energy plant. We talked about our suggestions for the next piece of infrastructure the Krakow government should built, given their political and social standings. Other groups did different cities, such as Portland (shout out to my hometown!), Rotterdam, Stockholm, Nashville, etc. Later that day, we had Giorgia come talk to us about composting, and then took our exam in the afternoon. 

The next day, Divya and I woke up at 4am to begin getting ready for our 6:45 flight to Rome! We arrived in Rome at around 8am, and got to St. Peter's Square by 8:30am. We headed straight to St. Peter's Basilica, where we could take in the amazing architecture. 

Outside St. Peter's Basilica

Inside St. Peter's Basilica. 

Another photo outside St. Peter's Basilica. Truly amazing.

The dome in St. Peter's Basilica after hiking to the top of it!

The view from the top of the Dome of the Vatican City. Truly spectacular. 

Next, Divya and I headed to the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. Every room was spectacular--Michelangelo's next to Raphael's. It seemed that every Pope had to add a room during their term, and were determined to make it more splendid than the last. 

Inside the room of maps--my favorite room! This photo doesn't capture the beauty of it.

Found the Sardinia island on the wall! 

Raphael painting.

Next, we headed over to the Colosseum, where the Imperial forums and the Arch of Constantine also are. 

Imperial Forums--absolutely beautiful. 

Me at the colosseum!

Inside the colosseum.

Arch of Constantine. 

We flew back late that day, only to end the day in a sprint to the train station from the Cagliari station. What an amazing day though!

The next day, I went to the Santa Maria church in Cagliari and poked my head back in the King's Palace (I'd already been here before, but one of my friends wanted to see it). Still amazed by the Venetian sconces. 

Chandelier in the King's Palace

A view into Santa Maria church

Later that day, we went to the Flamingo national park! I've always loved flamingo's, so it was really cool to see them in their natural habitat. We then headed to the beach, where we spent the rest of our day.

Landfill with a View Number Two

On Monday, we had a guest speaker, Stedano Milia, come and talk to our class about Remediation of Contaminated Sites. His objective is to eliminate risks for human health and the environment by either removing the containments or controlling the containments. He also talked about sources of contamination being from natural catastrophes, anthropic activities, and from agricultural activities. After he talked to us about contaminated sites, he then had us do several problems to determine thicknesses of the wall, hydraulic permeability, and other various factors to contain the contaminated areas.     

Later that day, we had time to work on our second project. My group worked for a few hours, and then went to the Botanical garden in Sardinia! It featured several plants that grow commonly in Sardinia. 

The first picture depicts one of the pretty cactus plant, and the other picture shows me and Divya in front of one of the waterfalls in the Botanical garden.

 

There were other pretty fountains, and some funky looking plants!

Right next to the Botanical garden is an old Roman Amphitheater. Unfortunately, we did not go in, but some of the tunnels and caves from this amphitheater are in the Botanical garden. We thought those caves might be were the lions were hidden for the gladiators to fight, but the sign told us the caves were actually waterholes. However, they were dark and scary, and we didn't like going in them!

The next day we went sailing in the morning. I found this really cool and interesting, as I had never sailed before. Our instructors taught us the basic ways to sail, and some of the terminology associated with a sail boat. However, there was not that much wind that day, so we didn't go to quickly. At one point, we went to go swimming, and Ted, our human anchor, had to leap on a sharp rock to anchor, and fell in and cut his back! However, the water was fun to swim in, despite the fact that I am a little freaked out about swimming in open water were I can't see the bottom very clearly. 

For the rest of the day, we hung out at the beach. The water was almost like being in a pool--clear, no waves, and pretty shallow. When I got out of the water, I accidentally feel asleep on the beach and burned the whole front of my body! (In horrible patchy blotches, as some of the sunscreen hadn't come off yet). However, the beach still really fun to relax on. 

Today, we went to Villaservice, which is an anaerobic digest/landfill/sewage plant. The landfill was created in 1993, which is when they started their first landfill. This landfill was capped, and now the second landfill is in use, and is almost full. They are now starting to prepare land for the third landfill. The first landfill extracts biogas, which Villaservice started doing in 2009. They expect to be capturing biogas until 2039. They will also be collecting biogas in their second landfill when it is closed. However, they believe there will be a lot less biogas because Italy passed a law that makes households separate their organic fraction. The separate organic fraction is used mostly to make compost, but is also used for anaerobic digestion.       

This shows the garbage being compacted. This garbage is placed in a special area of the landfill, and is expected to be extracted sometime in the future. Villaservice wants to eventually build a incinerator, so they will extract this compacted garbage to use as fuel. 

Villaservice also has a wind and solar farm. They are looking to put new solar panels on their landfills when they are capped for additional energy.  

After the landfill, we went to a hiking trail in Villacidro. There was a beautiful waterfall and river, which we hiked along. A part of the hike included some intense rock climbing! The hike was quite steep, but the views were amazing and the river was beautiful. One of the regazzis had to jump into the water, of course.