Work at the library – the lost post


Work at the library – the lost post

Saturday, May 24th, 2014

This post must have been written in early April and somehow I lost track of it. I didn’t want for Marco to get lost or the photos of the military club where he’s a member –  so here it is.

Tuesday the 8th was a busy day. I went to a gym (the same one that I went to a year and a half ago) to inquire about a short term membership. It’s not too far from where I live and is inside of the soccer stadium. I don’t have a bicycle this time so it’s a bit of a trek but what the heck. It’s not very expensive by Italian standards so I plan to start my membership there next Monday. After that I did some shopping at the nearby COOP (supermarket) and trekked back home. Then I went to have coffee with Marco, another person with home I had talked via Skype.

Marco - banker and yoga master

Marco – banker and yoga master

He’s an interesting guy. By day he’s an investment adviser for Banca UniCredit in Bologna and in his parallel life he’s a yoga and tai chi teacher. An interesting combination. He took me to a private club to which he belongs. It’s one of the oldest buildings in Bologna and now a club for ex-military. He was obliged to serve in the army for a period after college so is now a member. It’s quite a place. An interesting fact is that it was Nazi headquarters in Bologna during the war.

Official Army club (not sure about plural of "ufficiale")

Official Army club (not sure about plural of “ufficiale”)

One of the extravagant rooms in the club

One of the extravagant rooms in the club

The card room

The card room

ceiling of the card room

ceiling of the card room

Ceiling in another room

Ceiling in another room

After that I met my friend Vittorio who I have known since my first trip to Bologna and then headed over to the Biblioteca Salaborsa. It’s right in the center of Bolgona just a few steps from the Fontana Nettuno. This is an amazing library and is worth an entire blog post by itself. There I am doing volunteer work on Tuesday afternoons from 4:00 until 6:45 having english conversations with whoever wants to improve their english and reserves one of the the three time slots.

Part of the library

Part of the library

I was not done yet. Marco had told me about a Meetup for English conversation at MAMBO (Museo di Arte Moderne a Bologna) and I thought that it would be interesting to go at least once. I know that at the meetups I attend in California it’s always nice to have a native speaker there. So I went there for aperitivo and left without paying for the beer – so embarrassing. I called the bar and they said not to worry, I could just pay the next time I was there. I want to go to the museum anyway so I told them I’d pay them on Thursday.

A full day. I’m writing this on Wednesay the 9th and today is my first day for another volunteer gig. It’s an after school program where I will assist in an english class for middle school students. That should be interesting.

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