Met Erasmusvrienden op roadtrip door Toscane, hier op het Piazza dei Miracoli in Pisa.  Bo helemaal rechts . Foto | Privéarchief Bo Drummen

And how are things in Ancona?

The decision where to go for the international semester was harder than expected. But as I have been staying here now for about two months, I can say that I made the right decision.

In Ancona, I follow courses of the Biomedical Engineering master at the faculty of Information Engineering. I have a lot of math, especially to model the physiological processes of the body. Most of the teaching topics I studied the basics in Eindhoven already, but never studied this detailed. The courses are quite diverse but I think all of them are really interesting.

Regardless of the fact that I wanted to get 30 credits, I still have time to do fun things besides studying. Ancona is not the most booming city in Italy. If you know the right spots to go, you can have a real good time. The region of Marche, in which Ancona is situated, has beautiful old cities on the tops of the mountains, and a lot of nice seaside’s at the Adriatic coast.

Strange traditions

Besides the beautiful environments of Italy, I already experienced some strange traditions. During the carnival each city has its own celebrations. The inhabitants of Offida are driving a fake bull through the small city streets for hours. In Fano thousands of people come together to watch a parade six times pass by, but more important is the no holds barred battle fought for candies.

They also have some specific Italian routines, especially related to food and coffee (of course). It is very important that you take your time during the day for lunch, as I learned from my university friends. Most of the times they bring a huge lunchbox filled with pasta or rice, which will be eaten at ease. And then the most important part, after the lunch you take time to get a good real Italian coffee (which is cheaper in the bar than at the machine). After the whole ritual of about an hour, you are ready to rock the rest of the day.

Pasta, pizza, mama mia!  

This video, made at the first day of the Introduction, features Bo a few times.  

 

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