Think Tank Day

Alright, so this post comes a little late, but honestly I've been feeling very pessimistic lately and it's been preventing me from wanting to write because I'm afraid that some of my pessimism might come across in my blog posts.  Well, my thoughts are getting in the way of me focusing on my homework, so I'm just going to take the time to get it all out.  That's what these experiences are supposed to do, right?  Get you thinking and seeing your world in a different way.  I'm afraid that even after having traveled abroad before, I'm still experiencing reverse culture shock.  I'm unhappy with how many overweight strangers I see and upset with myself for driving my car.  I'm going slightly insane I think, but I'm going to do my best to explain the photos below, taken during my Slow Food Youth Network Think Tank day, a full day spent with other Slow Food Youth members to work in groups to solve a problem.  Our problem?  Solving the rural-urban gap.

Inside the shared workspace area that we used for the day.

 Terrible acoustics unfortunately.

 Thoughts can sometimes be best organized by sticky notes.  Before even getting to this point, my group of nine, representatives of Kenya, New Zealand, South Africa, Massachusetts, and a couple other countries I can't remember, joined together to try to build the tallest standing structure with a marshmallow on top.  We were given some dried spaghetti, string, and masking tape.  And a marshmallow of course.  We got a little overambitious at the end so our tower ended up falling on the table, but it was a good group effort.  Let me just say that I have absolutely no problem listening to foreigners speak English.  Foreign accents make my heart sing.

 So after a day of not coming to any conclusions, what were my conclusions?

The issues facing my generation are daunting.  Not only are they daunting, but coming up with the most effective one-size-fits-all solution to them is nearly impossible.  Actually, it is impossible.  I left the think tank feeling like my mind had gotten a really good workout.  Yes, there are huge environmental problems in the world.  Working with others to try to come up with a solution is not going to be easy, especially considering the fact that everyone's values are different.  No, I'm not going to save the world.  Yes, I can do my part to feel like I'm making a dent, but its really a matter of working in a local setting.  The more widespread the issues, the less "local" or relevant it feels and the less you feel like you can do.  I think traveling to Italy really gave me a sense that this environmental movement is huge.  Like humongous.  And there are so many people that are working towards these solutions independent of government, but less working alongside government.  Maybe that's where I come in?  :)

Wait.  Eggs NOT in a refrigerator?

 After I left the think tank, I walked to the rail and came across a pretty disturbing scene.  A man was half stuck underneath the car, with half of his body sticking out onto the sidewalk.  There was an ambulance there and people trying to talk to the man, but I found it so scary that I just decided to walk in the direction that I knew I needed to go and hopefully find a coffee shop to study at.  I ended up finding a grocery store.  And fresh figs.

My first and only Italian fig.

 Maybe I'm weird for having walked into a grocery store to buy a single fig, but I swear that was one of the highest points of my day.

Beautiful buildings!

Rooftop grapes!

Big doors.  It's an Italian thing.

 I ended up walking all the way to Porta Nuova and found myself a place to eat with wifi.  Spaghetti time!  One of the most delicious dishes I've ever consumed.  The tomatoes were so fresh it's ridiculous.  And the olive oil in the sauce was to die for.

 My hostel!  It had a balcony and everything.

 So for anyone who's traveled to Europe before, could you explain to me what this little toilet thing is?  Is it a toilet?  Or am I supposed to wash clothes in it?  It had a faucet on it just like a sink does.

 Moving on to...day 4?

 Breakfast, part 2.  I'm not sure what the Italian word for this is, but it was a fried rice ball filled with a creamy spinach center.  Oh. My.  I was in heaven for a brief five minutes.

 I wish I saw more things like this bike in Lawrence.

 You see those cords?  Charging!!!

All this before my first and only forum of the day about women's role in food production.  By far my favorite forum of the conference.  Did you know that 80% of the food produced in southern countries is done by women?  The work day for women in both hemispheres averages 14 hours for those who work in agriculture.  If you ask me, that's way too long.  Yet the fact exists.

The first speaker on the panel was from the Philippines.  She talked about the fact that indigenous females are the ones that face the biggest issues of prejudice there and that their knowledge is incredibly important, especially for transfer of knowledge about seeds.  A solution that she had witnessed to empower women was the formation of cooperatives, which would allow them to get a better price and eliminate the middlemen.  What's missing is governmental support through policies that would protect their rights and the resources.

The next woman, from Ukraine, started farming with no background in the field.  She runs an organic farm and believes that good nutrition for her kids is important.  Even though she was from the city, she decided to buy a house in the countryside and convert it to a farm.

The next speaker was from Chile.  Belgic Navea is the VP of Slow Food in Chile, and she is located in the northern zone.  Her community is unique in that the farmers have been able to advocate for themselves and charge higher prices, essentially increasing their incomes and making it more stable than it once was.

The next speaker from India was outspoken.  She had a way of commanding the attention of the room   as she talked about how she's worked with women to develop specialty products.  She initially couldn't get local support to sell or distribute the products, so she went abroad and made a killing, and only afterwards got recognition from her local government of the company's success.  A lot of farmers don't realize that you can make a lot of money off of value-added products.  That sort of brings me back to a point that was made over and over again at the think tank which I am still mulling over:  How do you make farming sexy to young people?  What will attract them to the profession?  Perhaps understanding more about this value-added note could be part of the approach/strategy.

Botanical gardens in Valentino Park

 A little green in my day!  I spent a couple hours here.  About half an hour looking around at all of the plants and the rest of the time working on my Spanish homework under the shade of a giant tree (pictured below).  I read a message from my sister asking where she wanted to meet up, but my data wasn't working--again--so I just let it go and told myself I would respond when I could get wifi again.

These looked like ground cherries!  

What does this leaf look like?  I laughed too.

Not sure what this was but I would love to add it to my garden.

Another beautiful streetscape

Afternoon gelato

 This was on my way to all the Slow Food exhibits I wanted to check out for the afternoon.  There was a pretty shocking demonstration about animal rights going on while I walked to the Egyptian Museum.  Yes, those are people covered in red food coloring wrapped in plastic and almost nude.  Let's just say they got their point apart.  I wonder what the reactions would be like if someone did that in the States?

Crappy picture of the public displays in the foyer of the Egyptian Museum

 This is where my trip gets a little surreal.  Let me just start off by saying that my sister and I have a very cool way of doing the same things even if we're halfway across the world from each other.  People often say that our voice sounds the same, we have the same laugh, and the same mannerisms in general.  I used to be called "mini-me" when I was younger by my sister's friend because we appeared so similar.  Today, many years later, this trend continues.

 I never responded to my sister's message, yet I knew that she was going to get to Turin at midnight today.  And I walked to the exhibit in front of the Egyptian Museum thinking that I should probably just see it even though I had mentioned to Casey (my sister) that we should see it together.  I felt kind of bad, but when else would I have time to do it with her?  We only had tomorrow morning before we caught our train to Florence.

Yep.  That's my sister.

 And guess who hits me in the shoulder as I'm listening to the intro audio in the museum.  MY SISTER.  Yep.  Sharing the brain, as usual.  Although I feel like the chances of that happening (she lives in Australia, by the way) are incredibly slim.  And we ended up at the same museum.  At the same time.  In Turin, Italy.  Halfway across the world from our respective homes.  Sometimes the "sister bond" is pretty freaking awesome.

 That's me.  And the mummy.

 I'm not much of a history buff, but this museum was pretty awesome.

 You can't quite understand how cool this underground room was from the photo.  It doesn't do it justice, but the statues literally towered over us.

Public water fountain!

Margherita Pizza, 2.40 euros

The Italian key my sister got for here Airbnb

Drinks with my sis

Our evening didn't end here, although this is where I stopped taking photos for the day since my sister could take photos of much higher quality with her phone.  I didn't end up drinking any of what I ordered there.  We walked to Piazza de Castello and I showed my sister around the exhibits.  We listened to a free Slow Food concert, then headed our own respective ways.  I couldn't stop smiling, thinking about our sister moment.    I gotta hand it to ya, sis.  We can be a pretty dynamic duo sometimes.