Parade and last days

Well, it is my last full day in Sardinia. yesterday and last night was a perfect send-off from the island. We all went to a parade and festival combination in a small town that was beyond anything that I expected. Between all of the horses and floats that passed through the streets to the candies and cookies that all of the townspeople threw as well as all the wine that was handed out, it was hard not to have an amazing time.

I’m definitely sad to be leaving. I guess I have become accustomed to the delicious pasta, beautiful landscapes and abundant beaches and I can’t believe how much we packed into four weeks, both culturally and academically.  While the food, people and cultural experiences were amazing, I also can not wait to be headed home to be with my friends and family again. One month in Italy has felt like half a year or longer and I can’t tell if it's from the long nights paired with early wake-up times, or sheer amount of things we did that filled our time here so well. Probably both. We are wrapping up class today and heading to the airport tomorrow. I’m happy to have been here and happy to be headed home.

Blue water

Since the last blog, we have seen and swam in a lot of water. On Monday we took a really cool, mostly wooden, boat out on the water on the eastern coast of the island and made our way to a few islands and got the chance to swim and snorkel around the ocean and also explore the island (which were not fun to walk around on barefoot). The entire day was tiring but so worth it, the views, both above and below water, were wild.

On Tuesday we had a guest speaker come in and talk about contaminated old mining sites on the island that are still an issue to date. It was really interesting to see how one period in the island’s history was still having such a large impact on it now. Also, it was mildly concerning that one of the pictures that the presenter scrolled through was of a stream that we had walked through to get to some really cool sand dunes, oh well.

Today was another amazing beach day. We went to a fairly uncrowded beautiful beach and basically had the water to ourselves. While the wind on the beach was pretty strong the sun was definitely stronger! Between swimming around in the crystal clear water and eating so much ice cream, it’s safe to say that I’m exhausted.

Just a few pictures

Lazy weekend

There were no wild trips to the mountains or sand dunes this weekend.  Just a lazy couple of days in the city and on the beach.  We visited the beach twice this weekend and although it was just 10 minutes outside of the city, the landscape was beautiful mountains and palm trees for miles. I’m not exaggerating either, the strip actually went on for a couple of miles! The only daunting part of the weekend was actually getting to the beach. The buses were not terribly hard to figure out and the ride to the beach wasn't bad but the real issues started when we were trying to get back to the city. We usually left the beach around 4 or 5pm and walked to the nearest bus stop. As we were walking towards it we could tell that at least 40 other people had the same idea we did! Since the buses come pretty infrequently, when one does come, it’s a mad dash to try and squeeze in, and by the time we got in one today we had waited almost 2 hours and missed about 5 buses. The waits and crammed rides was still worth the amazing beach days. Nothing but sun, salty water and starfish.

Boating and biogas

Since my last post only a few days ago, the group and I have learned a lot and experienced even more. And it’s only Wednesday! On Monday, we had class and a guest speak that came in to talk to us about the management of contaminated waste sites, something that I find particularly interesting. After a thorough and detailed lecture, we were given time to work on our projects that are due later this week. While we did work on the project during this time, I couldn't help but be so excited waiting for Tuesday to come. Tuesday turned out to be an amazing day filled with boating, swimming, beach lounging and plenty of sun. We arrived at the harbor and were given very brief instructions, filling with boating jargon, on how to navigate and sail a boat. IT turned out that we really only did need a few minutes of instructions because with the help of our guide we were able to move and turn where we wanted to when we wanted to, which was somewhat of a surprise! We boated around, stopping to swim and just relaxing in the sun for hours. You can imagine how exhausted we were when we got back to the dorms and I’m almost positive that everyone passed out early.

Today we took a bus on another technical visit to a plant that does anaerobic digestion of waste, composting, recycling, landfilling and recovery of landfill gas for generation of heat and electricity. The facility was managed by Villaservice s.a.p. and they even had a wind turbine farm and solar farm on their site; it was really amazing to see all of these facilities in one location. We were given rundown of what the whole facility did, from when they receive the waste to when they place it in a landfill or produce a waste slurry after digestion and treatment. I was particularly excited to see some of the intermediate steps up close such as the trommel screen and the digester tanks, since we have learned about them in numerous classes in the past. It was also really interesting to see how, as regulations change for waste (such as what can and can't be land-filled), the plant had to adjust their processes and what they expected as products from their work, such as the collection of gas from the landfills. An example of this, which was told to us by our guide, was when the amount of organic (or food waste) lowered drastically from about 45% of the total waste down to 10-20% of the waste stream; this consequently changed how much gas they would expect from the land-filled area of their facility and was due to the mandatory separation of food waste at everyone’s home.

Overall, this week was the perfect combination of exciting and educational experiences, and it is still on Wednesday. Only one more full week here on the island and then it is back to the states!