Travel Virus

My addiction to travelling is not getting any better, you know, there is no cure for the travel virus!

Tomorrow I’m going to India!!!!!! Yes, it was so amazing the first time that I really felt the need to go back and discover more of it. As I told Ralph today, I should go to India once a year to update my Karma

I’m flying to the capital first and then I’ll go to Kerala, God’s own coutry! Altough it is not sure which god we are talking about, Kerala is a real paradise and one of the most developed, rich, healthy and educated states of India. In fact much has been written on Kerala “miracle” (see eg. Amartya Sen, Indian development). The miracle is probably consisting of the gulf money coming from the expatriates, but more romantic people (like the italian journalist  Rampini) prefer to attribut all the success of Kerala to the communist goverment freely elceted by the people, ignoring the exogenou factors influencing the overall economy.

Beside all this political and historical issues, Kerala is awesome and I was totally fascinated by the backwater scenaries…  and here I am, ready to go back and explore more in deep!

Wish to come with me? then see you tomorrow morning at 4:30!

Today I would like to draw your attention on a crucial cross-cultural issue: food.
Tonight me and Rahel were cooking very different kind of food, which mirror quite well our cultures, as you can see in the picture.

Now tell me: which one do you prefer???? The italian torta salata di zucchine or the egg&bacon?

Yesterday there was a big party in the University of Lugano, called a tutto campus, to celebrate the new builings of the campus. It was a nice event, with food from the five continent, shows, dancing, art expositions and a disco party. Here in the pic you can see the performance of a musician and singer called “a world of sound”.

For some time I’ve been thinking about posting pictures of food and recipes: I think that learning about other cuisine traditions can make us discover different cultures, too! I was also inspired by Ms Adventure in Italy, a blog of an american girl, posting italian recipes, mmm… maybe I can learn some southern dishes from her!

Here’s only a part of the food that we tryed to eat in only four peole: bruschette, brad with ricotta and dryed tomatos, salad, caprese, spinach and ricotta pie (torta salata di ricotta e spinaci) and pinzimonio, and of course… pizza! Plus four kind of sweets that are not in the pics… happy birthday Sibylle!

Some people have been asking me how it is to live on the sixth floor…
mmm, when you have a nice scenary of mountains all around (and the elevator) it’s actually nice!
Beside when there are hearthquakes like a couple of years ago. I can also see the university, but luckily non my office, that would have been too much! The nice old-looking building with flowers and trees is the library of the University of Lugano.

In the last few weeks the critical situation in Tibet has gained public attention, thanks to the focus on China for the Olympics. china has attibuted the violences in Lhasa to the monk protest: I will not make any futher comment than this very insightful image depicting the cause of the violences!!!!