after one month or so

As you can see, I did some exams these days.
Informatica per le scienze umane was kind of easy. I had to do a powerpoint presentation(I did a powerpoint presentation on "The events preceding An Lushan rebellion") and a text in the language we are studying. I study chinese and it was no big deal to do one page of text in chinese. We talked a bit and i had a 30/30 cum laude.
The next two exams were the literature part of Chinese II and History of Religions. I did a paper on Li Qingzhao; a really bad one, with a lot of information copied from websites in english and no translated poetry. The professor was mad with me and I answered bad to some questions on Qin Shi Huangdi.
I had 24/30. not bad, really.
History of religions was interesting though it didn't have any close attinence to my studies. It was a discourse on the history of christianity in late Roman Empire and the hebrew people of Alexandria. I had 27/30 because I was interested.
The next two exams are still 2nd year ones. I have geography (5 credits) and History of East Asian Art II. I wish there were exam dates in december but there are only in january.
fuck.

exam done

On october 16 i did my exam. Not bad: 26/30.
We talked about internal policy of Yuan dinasty, about esternal influences in Tang China and neo-confucianism in Qing intellectual world. She said my work on An Lushan was "non malaccio" that means "not a complete shit".

help

I've been so bad these last 7 days. I didn't study a lot, but I sent my paper on time, and the professor looked kind of happy with it. The only problem is that I have to study about 6000 years of chinese history in 3 days.

三天

well.
On saturday every library was closed because of some dumb catholic festivity so I went to a small park in the university area, in Via San Leonardo, and studied on a small and old History of China the periodization of pre-republican China.
time of study:about 3 hours.

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On Sunday I woke up kind of late(about 11 or so) but then I studied a lot and my paper is now this big. I also realised that I had to get the Cambridge History of China about Sui and Tang dinasties.
time of study:3-4h

2 days in Bologna

2 october
Just arrived in Bologna, I didn't study at all. I was either on a train or in Rome or in my bed. I just tried to finish "This is your brain on music" by Daniel J.Levitin and I didn't succeed. Not very productive day
3 october
I studied about 4 hours, I'm kind of proud of myself. I almost finished my paper on An Lushan rebellion.

Centro Anziani day

Today my morning was not very productive, but my afternoon was.
I kept writing about An Lushan's rebellion, and I'm writing lots of stuff that I will surely eliminate soon. But I decided that this is my strategy: to write a lot of useless informations about Emperor Xuanzong's life and palace intrigues so that I'll make the paper smaller in the end.
I even started an account book where to write all my unpretentious economic moves.
Today's hours of study: about 2.
P.S.: that teacher still didn't answer my mail

frowning day

Today I was kind of busy with my father(and with Romance of Three Kingdoms III), but except for that, I think I've been almost productive enough.
I started my paper, bu there is no link between the poem and the stuff I wrote. The link between them will be clear as I will write about An Lushan rebellion ecc.ecc.
you can download the .txt file from here if you are interested.
Today's hours of study: 1,50 ca.

Quiet day of incostant studies

oday I discovered I still have some time before I'll reach the deadline of the assignment(one week before October 15).
I found a new way to learn about chinese history: these amazing documentaries!

I even sent to my professor a mail, proposing her some ideas about the work I'm doing and asking her which ones does she like the most (between a work on the story of Xuanzong of Tang and the An Lushan rebellion or something about Zheng He and the maritime explorations made by the Chinese).
The only problems are:
-here is kind of difficult to obtain informations about the history of China on paper, and professors really like to have "real" books in the bibliography. This is why I'll go to Bologna as soon as I can.
-that professor wants people to study the stuff written on the photocopies she wrote...and I don't have that photocopies.
Hours of study: not sure about that, one or two, but I was not concentrated

Grape Harvest day

Fuck! I'm tired. It's because of the grape harvest, you know.
Time of study: 0h

In a hurry

Alright
I'm only going to tell you that today I studied 1 hour and I produced a .txt file about "Song of unending sorrow" by Bai Juyi.
Tomorrow I'll wake up early so
goodnight!

2nd day of preparation

Today it was a strange day.
A bit cloudy (it rained also, but just for 2 minutes) but still pleasant. The clouds resembled me the ones in G.B.Tiepolo paintings, and I was expecting something like this to come out of them.
But it was also a productive day: I took a 2008 calendar and signed all my future exams, like this:

I also started to find informations about Emperor Xuanzong of Tang(唐玄宗) and his favourite concubine Yang Yuhuan (楊玉環), because I've been told that that professor really likes gossip.
My next exam will be "Storia e Geografia della Cina"(History and Geography of China) and here you can find the link to the exam description.
Today's hours of study: half an hour (I'm making progresses)

Zia Rita: A New Hope

You all know that, due to
-the financial crisis,
-the increasing power of fascism in my country,
-the low quality of italian universities,
-the fact that I want to start a band and/or be an artist and fuck as many underage girls I can before I get too old to do that without legal consequencies
and
-the fact that I hate northern Italy and italians in general
I decided to quit the university and either find a job or play music or be an artistoid escort in some "northern european rich country".
So I told my parents about my decision and they were pretty much convinced that
it was
-as always in this period of the year an over-intensification of my existential problems
-that they had enough
and
-that I could do whatewer I wanted, but that I always choose the difficult and wrong way and that I am never satisfied, I never finish things, etc.
After some hours of fear and loathing I was still pretty sure about that: go somewhere (possibly the Netherlands), find a job and then study music.
But I didn't realize the Zia Rita factor.
Zia Rita is my auntie.
She kind of raised me, because my mom was often working and had no time.
She loves me.
So, the morning after the harsh argument with my parents, she opened my room door and said, after a long pause, that she was going to give me 5000€ in case I would graduate before my 22nd birthday.
I was really excited and moved for that, and after some 5 minutes I told her to write this will on a sheet of paper, with this result.

This made me change my mind. Immediately. With 5000 euros I can live in the Netherlands some time and keep studying music.
So, I only have 70 credits. I need 105 more credits to succeed, as shown in this chart(the exams in green are the one I've already done).
These are the dates of the exams.
To obtain 105, I need severe discipline.
That's why I'll count the hours I spent studying in one day.
Today's are 0.

sgabuzzino

I have just found a guitar.
I just found a decent internet connection.
I'm very happy.
Soon (when I'll have a camera)I'll post some photos.

good news:
-I'm alive
-I don't have diarrhea
bad news:
-there is no toilet in my room
-the toilet outside my room is chinese-style.
What else can I say... I feel like being in another planet ecc.ecc.
There's everything I can find also in Italy, but it's different. It's chinese...The oven-dried fava beans I bought yesterday were absolutely like italian ones, but they had a fancy plastic bag and their skin was cut in stripes...I'll find images.
Everything is really dirty.
A lot of restaurants, supermarkets, teahouses and shops don't close at all. Nothing has fixed timetables, except for the internet office of the university, that is ALWAYS closed...that's why I didn't write a lot...
Teachers are great! Food is amazingly cheap and various. I'll stay one month here and never eat the same stuff! I went to a Hui restaurant, to a really cheap one near Minzu Daxue, to one near Xizhimen that sold only balls of stuff...and snacks!!!
snacks everywhere!!! dried spicy beef meat snaks!!stinky tofu snacks!!!chocolate snacks!!!Snack paradise!!!
And it's full of pretty asian girls!!!!!! From american born chinese(perhaps the hottest) to pale koreans, to tanned Hongkongers to northern china ones, with wonderful legs!!!
So, as you can see, I'm kind of happy here. My only problem is to find a place where it is comfortable to shit.

china girl

China?

looks like I'm going to Beijing. Tuesday.
I got all I need. Chinese VISA, plane ticket and no stuff to declare at the custom.
And, I have some tasks to accomplish:
-Meet Ekber, my Uighur friend
-Buy some traditional chinese medicines to a chinese shopkeeper in Colleferro*
-Learn chinese
-Play in a band
*This deserves further explanations: I got into that shop(the average cheap Wenzhou family owned shop, that sells anything except food, from psychedelic Jesuses to mugs to electronic stuff) to buy me a pair of headphones as my old ones sucked. The shopkeeper(1,50m and strange teeth) tells me she's got two different kind of headphones and that one is rubbish and the other is not.
I finally decide to buy the most expensive ones(2.50€) and then start speaking chinese...
It was not properly mandarin chinese: I'm italian and I know only a few words and she is from Wenzhou and only speaks Wenzhou dialect...
We end up speaking about how cheap the food in Beijing is, and in the end she takes a chinese magazine and tells her daughter(金意晓) to write something on my notebook.
She explains me it's some medicines she's asking me to bring. From Beijing. The medicines are:
-鑫男受丸
-强精补肾丸 classified as 药
-猛龙壮阳丸
She tries to explain me what they're for, but I really don't get it... then I head to the door, but she stops me, and sais something incomprehensible about something that will make her thinner<>, but she doesn't remember its name. She calls her husband, that gets in with a little girl, and after having yelled something at his wife tells me something in heavy Wenzhouhua. After a while, 金意晓 starts writing.
it's the 瘦身汤, something like a herbal tea, and it's a 中药... The woman tells me that If I'll get her the medicines, she'll get all my money back... I said goodbye, everybody smiled a lot, and I got home.
While I'm walking, I notice something funny on the Sanwei headphones pack. Figure it out yourselves:

As I got home, I looked for all of the medicines on www.alibaba.com but the 强精补肾丸 costs some 78€ and I won't buy it to that chinese lady.
A friend of mine told me that Beijing will change me.
She also told me that in Beijing I should avoid jerking off and fuck girls. I always appreciate fiends' advices!