first day of facoltà

The anticipation has been subsided. We have met our class of 25 students and had our first day of classes today. "Team Zinzani" walked over to the Reggia together (there are 6 of us in our building: Samara from Vancouver, Kalliopi from Greece, David from Taiwan and Jules from Belguim. We also met Lauren from Chicago, Katherine from Boston and Diana from Italy last night who came over for some wine and cheese so we knew some familiar faces today). We had a presentation from the directors and tutors and then a quick tour around the sensory analysis lab, the main classroom, main hall and library of over 10,000 food related books (the ones in english were only in one corner though). Of course, but of course, we all had to stand up and go around saying our names, where we were from, why we were here etc. I wasn't too nervous, surprisingly for my shy self as I guess I assumed in a few days we'd all know each other and completely forget this first introduction, however, I think I blacked out while talking rapidly and sat down and thought to myself, that's not at all what i had planned out to say in my head. oh well. awkward and typical. Some people seem to have more experience working on WOOF, small farms or delivering food, some had education or law backgrounds, some had desk jobs they weren't passionate about and everyone was very international - a couple americans, france, germany, japan, israel, canada, mexico, australia - a good mix of relatively young people who we all seem to have the same interest and passion in food, whether or not we know what we'll do with the degree at the end of the year or not. there are only 5 boys in the program which will be interesting since the majority of the people i hung out with in portsmouth were boys (xoxo kyle, marie, beka). everyone seems nice though, and most of them seem to live in parma. it's kinda annoying, but at least we'll have couches to crash on over the weekends. arina and i also seem to have lucked out on the amount of stuff we had already in our apartment - some people didn't have cleaning equipment or kitchen utensils left for them.

<-- the Reggia di Colorno aka the Ducal Palace was once a fortress and then turned into home of Maria Louise, the wife of Napoleon. This is a shot taken from the bridge, walking over from our apartment. The University of Gastronomic Sciences is on the top floor.

our first class was molecular science. yikes. it makes sense though since we can't study gastronomy without chemistry as food is basically a make up of molecular compositions and it is important to understand the reason why we eat is to introduce energy-producing compounds into our bodies that we can't produce ourselves (do i sound like i just literally reiterated that or what?). our teacher doesn't believe in molecular gastronomy, a popular trend chefs are following these days, but thinks its just food science rather than anything fancy that deserves a different name. minus all the complex chemistry formulas and words like solvents and solutes, dissolve vs melt, polar and non-polar, positive and negative and neutral, fatty acids and lipids, osmosis and semipermeable, fermentation and oxidation, autotrophs and endotrophs, catabolism and anabolism, ATP and ADP, pH and pOH, polymers and monomers......it was actually pretty interesting (thank goodness because that's why i'm here studying gastronomy). Did you know that:

• We actually eat polymers (a link of monomers joined by removing water) but in order to digest them we need to add water through a process of hydrolysis which is why when you eat a lot, you feel thirsty because your body is unable to digest the polymers without the presence of water?
• Mold grows only where air is available which is why you see mold only on the top of a jar of food, not at the bottom?
• Protein is one of the most important foods because it is the only source of nitrogen that we can introduce into our bodies, not like plants who absorb it naturally from the soil?
• When we eat food we are actually eating cells which are still alive? aka biting into an apple. heeeyyyy vegetarians.
• Why we don't eat hay? i don't know scientifically why...but i think we might find out tomorrow.

At least that's what i have in my notes.