The End

What an amazing trip this was. And we ended it on a great note! On Sunday, we spent the day at the Feast of Santa Catarina in Orroli. We arrived at the country church where the procession would be starting from. We arrived and checked out the inside of the church and then were immediately given refreshments thanks to the great hospitality of everyone there.

From there, because it was going to take a little while for the procession to make its way to its final destination, we made a stop at a nearby Nuraghe structure. We did not have tickets so we couldn't go inside, but we did admire it from afar. 

From there, we headed to Orroli to enjoy the festivities. We spent a while hanging around the town enjoying the nice weather and waiting for the procession to arrive. Then the procession came with cookies being tossed from the tops of tractors and many many people in traditional clothing leading the way. We followed the Saint to her final stop at the church down the road and then came back to the center of town and took a few of the braver of us took part in some of the traditional dancing. 

The next day, Monday, everyone had the morning to finish up their final projects. Then on Monday afternoon all three groups gave their final presentations. One group designed a landfill, one designed a waste to energy facility and one designed composting and anaerobic digestion. All three groups did a really great job. After that we all had a couple hours before dinner for packing and last minute shopping.

We had a great final dinner that night at 8:30 with delicious food, the announcement of superlatives and the most enthusiastic musician any of us had ever seen. It was a great wrap up to an amazing trip.

And the next morning everyone sadly parted ways, some heading back home and some on to more adventures in Europe.

Thanks to everyone who read this blog. It was such a wonderful trip that I felt so privelaged to be a part of. I can't believe that being the TA is an actual job for how great it was. Thank you so much to Annalisa, you really made this trip a once in a lifetime kind of experience. Thank you to everyone in the class for being so fun and amazing. Thank you to the island of Sardinia for truly feeling like a home for the last month. I couldn't have asked for a better way to finish my college career. And now off to more adventures!

Sympathy for the Devil

On Friday, the class participated in a mock town meeting. Everyone was tasked with coming to a decision about what should be done in a community where people were getting sick due to contamination that was most likely caused by mining and military testing in the community. Each person was given the role of a member of the community or a consultant that was brought in to give their professional opinion. Some people got very into their roles and Audriana, the concerned parent, even showed up with a fake baby bump. It was really interesting to see the meeting take shape from everyone coming in with clashing opinions but eventually being able to come to an agreement in the end.

That night, a group of us went to a restaurant at the top of the hill to watch the sunset and eat a delicious dinner.

On Saturday, we had another free day for most of the day. Everyone did their own thing, but I went with Cat and Mike to finally see some of the more cultural sites in the city and to wander down some of the beautiful Italian looking back alleys. Our first stop was The Tower of the Elephant, where we climbed to the top and got an amazing view of the port side of the city.  Next stop was the Royal Palace where we wandered around and contemplated whether we would actually want that type of decor in our house. Next we went to the Tower of San Pancrazio, which we also climbed to the top of. It was very similar to the tower of the Elephant, except that its perched even higher up on the hill so we got a 360 degree view of the surrounding city. Finally, we stopped at the archaeological museum before heading back down to meet the class for our hike on the Devil's Saddle.

The Devil's Saddle is a really cool cliff type formation that resembles a saddle. The story goes that it was formed when God and the Devil fought over control of the Gulf of Cagliari, the devil was knocked off his horse in a mid-air battle and his saddle fell to earth and turned to stone. Whether or not that truly is the case, it was a great hike to end the day on and had some amazing views of the city.

Are These Beach Posts Starting to Bore You?

So are these posts about beautiful Sardinian beach days getting tedious to all of you at home? Too bad here's another one.

Due to our three technical visits in one day earlier on in the trip, on Wednesday, what was once scheduled to be a technical visit turned into another day on yet another beautiful beach near Pula. The water was beautifully clear, Annalisa brought her kids as well as some amazing snacks from her mom and we spent the day in and out of the water, tanning (some in a more burning fashion), playing games and snorkeling around. It was yet another fantastic day that sadly is reminding us how few days we have left in this magical place.

Beaches Ain't Ships

After a crazy day of tests and group presentations on Friday, everyone was very ready for a break. Thankfully, Saturday and Sunday were our first free weekend. On Saturday, while two members of the group went to Rome (Divya and Lauren) and one brave soul went scuba diving (Kestral), the majority of the group headed to the Poetto for a day at the beach (with a pit stop by some of the group to the one McDonald's in town).

We spent the day relaxing on the beach, sleeping, frolicking in the clear water, combing the beach for seashells and of course working on our forearm tans. We also discovered that starfish are apparently very plentiful in the Mediterranean when Eli collected at least ten of them from the water.

We finished the day a little bit hangry and a little bit exhausted from the sun and ready for a good night's sleep. The next day, the group split up a little more. Some went to a nearby town called Pula, some explored Cagliari but some of us could not resist the pull of the Poetto for a second day. This time, after a more harrowing bus ride than the day before, we got to the beach and did a lot of the same activities as the day before, but this time added stand up paddleboards and a waterproof camera into the mix, which I think we all agreed were excellent additions. 

(photocred to the lovely Audriana)

This beach day was followed by the worst bus experience any of us had ever had which resulted in the group getting separated, a three hour wait for some, and Maggie, Dylan and Eli walking the 5+ miles back from the beach. After an exhausting end to an otherwise fun day, everyone went to bed pretty early.

Today, for my third day in a row spent on the water, we went on a mini-cruise in Villasimius. This included a lot of jumping off the boat, water up the nose, snorkeling, pasta cooked on board a ship for lunch, scrambling over rocks on various islands, stormchasing, seagull feeding, and several Titanic impersonations. Needless to say, it was another really terrible day in Sardinia (just kidding).

Contrary to what these pictures show, we did go to shore occasionally, I just swam to shore every time so my camera couldn't come. 

So there you have it, another end to another weekend in paradise.

Busy week, no time for creative blog titles

Its been a while since I posted last, which is because we have had such a busy week with a lot of work and a lot of fun activities.

Monday was a busy day for school. In the morning, we had a lecture from Stefano Milia on remediation of contaminated sites. Then in the afternoon everyone headed back to the guest house to work on the second project.

Tuesday was a busy day in the fun activities department. We woke up early and headed down to the waterfront at 8:00 for a morning of sailing. We had a quick lesson on land and then split up into three boats to learn how the boats worked first hand. We spent the beginning learning how to steer the boat and then stopped and tied our boat to a mushroom shaped rock and jumped out to go for a swim. Ted sacrificed a little skin to the rock and everyone got a little bruised scrambling back on to the boat afterwards, but it was definitely worth it for the cool, clear, perfect water. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures, partly out of fear of losing my camera to the sea and partly out of enjoying the view too much.

After Audriana steered us safely to shore, while the rest of us napped on the bow, we got  lunch at a nearby snack bar and headed to the beach to enjoy the water some more and bake a little bit in the sun. Everyone ended the day exhausted and ready to pass out.

On Wednesday we had our final technical visit to the Villaservice Plant, which encompasses landfilling, anaerobic digestion, recycling and landfill gas cogeneration. Our amazing tour guide, who had really great English, despite having only spoken with English speakers a few times before, gave us a great overview presentation about the plant and then a tour around the plant.

After that we headed to a nearby park for a picnic lunch (that the majority of us ate on the bus beforehand) and to hang out by a waterfall (which ended up being more of a trickle). Nevertheless, we still managed to find some fun and climbed some rocks, hiked up the mountain, relaxed in the shade, and of course as always ate some ice cream.

We came back after another tiring day and everyone spent a little more time blogging and project doing.

On Thursday morning we headed to Campidano Ambiente for a presentation on door to door collection by Professor Massidda, one of Annalisa's former professors. 

They then gave us a nice lunch and we headed back on the city bus, but not before working on forearm tans while waiting for the bus to arrive. The rest of the afternoon was spent back at the guesthouse, getting work done on the project.