Paolo blog: Ramblings on Web2.0, Trust, Reputation, Recommender Systems, Social Software, Free Software, ICT4D and much more

It is already 2 weeks since I came back to Italy but I haven’t had time to realize it.
I have spent the past 3 months at the Computer Science department of University of Maryland and it was a very useful and interesting period.
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As I already written, Saturday night I was in New York at a party. It was an Halloween party and everyone was dressed up. I didn’t have a costume but was wearing the shirt you see on the left.
I was speaking with some guy who asked me “So you’re what? A communist?”.
I replied “Well, kind of…”.
At this moment another one came in with “So why didn’t you go to study to Russia?”.
It was not said with bad mood, just with simplicity. This made me wonder what this guy thinks about Russia.
We spoke a little bit about what we think communism is and capitalism is but eventually we shortly ended up drinking more beer.
So the lesson is clear: don’t wear “communist costumes” at Halloween parties in US. ;-)

This is a funny truck I pictured in New York.
I noticed that here in US you can find US flags everywhere. Someone told me that it is so after 9/11. I guess the flag has become the symbol of “United we stand”.
In Italy luckily we try to stand united behind the peace flag.
According to bandieredipace.org, in Italy 2.500.000 balconies were exposing the peace flag at 03/17/2003.
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I’ve been to New York over the weekend. [Thanks Cristina for wonderful hospitality! You are almost a NewYorker but I'm not sure this is a compliment! ;-) ]

NY was less dirty, chaotic and dangerous than I was expecting.
In 2 days I’ve seen Chinatown, Time Square, many skyscapers, Financial district and Wall Street, took the free ferry until Staten Island to see the Statue of Liberty. Friday I’ve been to a party in a gay club until 5 am and Saturday to an Halloween party in Queens.
Saturday I almost run the NY Marathon … it was a tour de force but I enjoyed it a lot.

Some picture can be found here. As you can see I still need to practice with my new, extracheap camera.

I just moved to the house I’ll be living in during these 3 months. I found it thanks to HousingLink and many emails.
You can see more pictures. My landlord bought it just 1 week ago and so it is a mess, but I like it!

Yesterday I created my bed, bought by my landlord at Ikea.

I just realized that I’ll stay in USA in a period plenty of holidays.
I’m curious about tipically USA holidays such as Halloween and Thanks Giving Day and also about how common holidays (Christmas and New Year Eve) are lived here.
I cannot wait to go to some Halloween parties and parades!

As part of my PhD program, I’ll spend the next 3 months at the University of Maryland. I’ll stay here until January 17, 2003.

I also opened up a photo gallery in which I’ll post photos taken here.