Thursday 7/3/08

I had to be at I Tatti at 9:00 this morning, and I was going by myself. I am a big boy. I missed the 8:09 bus by about 10 seconds so I had to wait 20 minutes (or 19 minutes and 50 seconds) for the next. Some of the other buses stopped more frequently, but not the #10. The buses make me sick. Motion sickness that is. The only problem I had going to I Tatti alone was when I was walking up the hill to the villa. I got to a fork in the road and couldn't remember which way to go. I guessed left, which was...right. I was lucky that I chose correctly because I could have walked a long way before I realized I was wrong. I ended up being a few minutes late (I am never late), but that was alright because Michael Rocke was a few minutes later.
I worked all day with Angela Dressen, who is a reference librarian and assistant cataloger from Germany. She was really nice. She introduced me to all the other librarians. Sometimes it was kind of awkward because, after a brief introduction I didn't know what to say to these people. Luckily almost all of them spoke English, despite being from all over the world.
Since Ilaria Della Monica is going to be on vacation I am not going to start working with her in the archives until she gets back. In the meantime Angela Dressen and I are barcoding all of the books so that they can eventually be checked out by a computer instead of writing everything down. When I say checked out I mean for library use. None of their holdings leave the library. When Sarah and her fellow researchers check books out it just means that they are leaving them at a desk so that they can use them the next time they come in. The barcoding project also involves looking for problems where books are housed in a different collection that the computer says or the books are catelogued incorrectly.
At I Tatti it feels like you get to work, work for a few minutes, everyone meets for coffee and a snack, you work for a few more minutes, everyone meets for lunch (served family style with wine made at the villa), you work for a few more minutes, everyone meets for tea and cookies, you work for a bit more, then you go home. I can handle that.
When I got home (after almost getting sick on the bus with a bunch of hot, sweaty Italians stuffed in like sardines) Sarah and I left again and walked back the way I came to go to her school for a 4th of July picnic. It was nice, but the hamburgers weren't great, only made more obvious after the amazing burgers at House of Sizzle the day before. It was fun but there were way too many bugs.
After that, Kellin, Dan, Sarah and I walked around the west end of the town center (unfamiliar to me), had a drink at a bar, and went to see a movie at the Odeon Theater. It was air conditioned and there was a lot of room in the comfortable seats. We saw "Wanted" starring Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman (what was an actor of his talent thinking?!), and James McAvoy. It might have been one of the most ridiculous movies I have ever seen. Luckily we went into it assuming that it would be pretty cheesey. Read Sarah's entry for her take on the movie. Days later (when I'm writing this) we are still mocking the stupidity of that movie.