Here in Berkeley – as well as in the other top American universities, I guess – there are a number of super cool things that I would import to the Italian universities. Among these, there is not what happened today, though. Seminar on Robust decision making and deep decarbonization. Towards the end, a University employee comes in and gives an alert from the Berkeley Police to the seminar responsible: apparently, an armed robbery suspect is moving around Unit 1 (one…
After a sunny working week, I was really looking forward to enjoying a… rainy weekend! Apparently the Californian weather conditions keep on boycotting me and preventing me from having a tour in San Francisco. OK, the rain is not a physical obstacle, but since I am staying here for one entire year, there is no hurry to go on days where I can’t fully enjoy it. So, I think for the 45th time since my arrival, I say: “OK, no…
After the Super Bowl that I watched three weeks ago, the last weekend was again dedicated to the American sports (obviously watched and not played, for the moment!), and in particular to the NBA. This time I wanted something much more engaging, though, and so… … I decided to attend a match of the Golden State Warriors (Dubs is their nickname)! I am not a super fan of basketball – I follow this sport quite superficially – but I have…
When I posted the picture showing the 18°C temperature that we had here in Berkeley on January 30, I knew that I would somehow pay for it… In fact here it keeps on raining as if we were in Edinburgh. Accordingly, the last weekend has again been characterized more by housework and similar stuff than geographical explorations in the Bay. However, I wanted to do something interesting all the same. Finally, I thought that going to the cinema could be…
In the past days I finally managed to (almost) complete all my duties regarding my accommodation, bureaucracy, pending work activities, etc., so I thought that this weekend could be a good occasion to visit San Francisco for the first time (of many!). This morning I still had something to do, though, so I eventually decided to postpone, also considering that the sun still sets quite soon: I will go when I can spend the whole day beyond the Bay. However,…
Although I’m not too interested in the American footbal, the Super Bowl is The Event in the US, and so today I absolutely had to go somewhere to watch the match between the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons (obviously I ignored the names of the two participating teams until the beginning of the match). You might have heard that the match was really exciting, with an incredible comeback by the Patriots which led them to a last-second draw…
It is often said that anywhere you go, you will find Italians. And naturally Berkeley can’t be an exception! In the past months I had signed up in the Facebook group and I had already gotten in touch with some of the Italian guys here, asking for some advice or just to introduce myself. As far as I can understand, they often organize dinners, aperitivi, showings of Italian movies and so on – also through the Italian Society at Berkeley…
As I had rapidly mentioned in one of my previous posts, my initial accommodation here in Berkeley was booked for the first weeks only. In fact I had planned to find a temporary solution on Airbnb until the end of January and then look for the definitive accommodation once arrived on the spot and once become acquainted with my new town. Of course in the past months I had signed up in the various Facebook groups where people offer and…
Finally I can start working in a real office! My department is officially the ERG – Energy & Resources Group, however my office is located in the RAEL – Renewable & Appropriate Energy Laboratory, which is directly managed by my Supervisor, Prof. Kammen. RAEL shares a wide open space with other research centers working in the climate and energy fields. The location is colorful, young, informal and multicultural, just as one could expect. There is a bike park, too! Above…