Unfortunately, I cannot add photos to this message. Which is unfortunate, because I have a lot of nice photos to accompany this message.... I hope to be able to add them later.
On Friday, my friend Stephie, whom I have known for years, arrived with her boyfriend Henning. They flew in from Germany, where she lives and came to stay for a few days. I hadnt seen them for more than a year, so it was really nice to be able to welcome them. Especially because they brought some lovely weather along with them. 23-25 degrees and bright sunny days! On Friday, we made our first little walk through town and went for Aperitivo with my PhD mates. We ended up, as many times before, in the beer-bar La Fontanella, where we drank a bit much. As always. But as Stephie and Henning actually had quite a lot of time available in Milan, we were able to sleep late and do things slowly. So on Saturday, Fedors birthday, we got up very late before going to the Cimitero Monumentale. A beautiful haze created an absolutely mystical atmosphere there (again: the photos are awesome). After lunch and Hightech, we decided to return home again. In a bit of a change of plans, we had pizza at home and went to a bar to go dancing. We were joined by Fedors colleague and friend Bellinda and her husband, as well as my PhD mates. An absolutely amazing and fun night ensued. On Sunday, we got up late again for the thing I have been trying to do since I moved to Milan: the antiques market. Once a month our area (including our own street) turns into a huge antiques market with about 150.000 visitors... But I never actually managed to visit it (for various reasons). And it was absolutely amazing. Gorgeous weather again and an amazing collection of items for sale (yes, we did buy a little something for on the wall). The next thing we did was return to the city center and climb on top of Duomo. We did this during the sunset and once again, the photos are gorgeous...
After another little walk, we ended up at the Bento Bar for sushi aperitivo and finished the night at home playing a card game. An absolutely lovely weekend, it was.
Unfortunately, I had to do some work today, so I left Stephie and Henning in Fedors hands and he made sure they would manage to get back to the airport and fly bank home again. At the same time, I did some work and participated in an experiment for a fellow PhD mate. Unfortunately for her, the experiment got completely out of hand and exposed a very serious design flaw. As a result she was going to have to pay out approximately 800 euros (incl 60 euros to me) for 45 minutes of work. So when the experiment had finished, she decided to cut the pay-out ratio by 2.5. Oh well, I still received 24 euros, which is a nice little bonus! And tomorrow, I get to participate in another one of her experiments... See if she manages to remove the flaws out of her research design....
Now I am at home, waiting for Fedor to come out of work so we can eat dinner (he usually comes home around 22.30 on Mondays).
Ciao,
OJ
Monday, October 30, 2006
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Visitors.... from outer Space!
I am sorry for not writing anything recently. I think I deserve to be expelled from the blogosphere. The reason is twofold: As people have noticed recently, the arrival of Fedor has decreased my number of posts significantly. This should be taken as a positive thing though! We enjoy spending time together and are busy doing many different things. Unfortunately, this does mean that the amount of time I can spend on my blog is decreased a bit...
The other reason, specific for the current long absence was an enormous number of visitors that we have had recently. I have therefore been unable to post, because visitors tend to take up quite a bit of time. But I can give an overview now of the past week or so. First, last Wednesday I made another attempt of renewing my Permission to Stay. I waited for 2 1/2 hours (the advantage of having an appointment: you wait for such a short time!), and I can return in 2 weeks, hopefully to pick up my renewed Permesso: We will see...
On Thursday, Fedor's mother, brothers and sis-in-law arrived. Wow, that is certainly a lot of people! We had a gorgeous dinner in the restaurant Antonio showed us a few weeks ago and continued on to go to the Birreria. We ended up with Fedors mother and little brother at home drinking a lot of wine. As a result of this, Friday was a rather heavy day on my account. Of course we had to show everyone the city, which we did despite the horrific weather. Unlucky people, those who came to visit us during the past week. The weather was terrible and from today on, it is sunny and warm again.... Anyways, Friday night was another eating and drinking fiesta, but I was in a significantly better state on Saturday. Good, because my parents were due to arrive in the afternoon. Waiting, waiting, waiting, but no word of them. An sms sent, but no response. A call to the hotel brings no relief. But by the time I was really getting worried, I received a phonecall of my mother saying they had arrived at their hotel. However, not without any problems on the way. Not only did their telephone not work (I had noticed that already), they also lost their way in Milan (not strange, without a map), but they also ended up with a flat tyre in the centre of Milano (deja vu!!! I had the same car with me 2 months ago and had a flat tyre too!). You can imagine they were happy to finally have reached their hotel. So I went to collect them and we made a little walk through town. At night, my parents and Fedors mother went to a lovely restaurant and ended up drinking rather copious amounts of wine and beer. Sunday, however, was a dry, reasonably nice day, so we managed to get a good look at the city. All the sights: Duomo, Galleria, Cimitero, Hightech, Brera, Castello in one day... And at night, we enjoyed another aperitivo of course. By that time we had also been joined by my friends BarD and Marlous, who arrived from Rome Sunday morning...
On Monday, I got up early to take my Father to a garage to repair his tyre. Of course, I was "lucky" enough to actually know a garage where they would be able to temporarily repair a broken tyre, having been in the same situation only 2 months ago... So after that was done, I continued to Uni, where I followed an embarrasingly bad class in Income Inequality (where it turned out that my ancient, Indian Professor really, really has no clue what he is talking about anymore... Rather unfortunate that I have spent 20 hours in his classes!!!)
At night, Bard, Marlous and I ended up in a restaurant and later a bar and got quite drunk again. This strongly (and negatively) influenced my ability to get some work done the next day, so we had the good intention not to drink much last night. We succeeded a little bit in our objective, but getting up at 6.45 this morning to make sure BarD and Marlous would make it in time to to the metro was tough. Fortunately, I could go back to bed again for another few hours afterwards. When I finally did go to Uni today, I was able to do some reasonable work. And now I got home to clean up the house a bit and enjoy one of our two nights alone... Friday, the next visitors will arrive...
Ciao,
OJ
The other reason, specific for the current long absence was an enormous number of visitors that we have had recently. I have therefore been unable to post, because visitors tend to take up quite a bit of time. But I can give an overview now of the past week or so. First, last Wednesday I made another attempt of renewing my Permission to Stay. I waited for 2 1/2 hours (the advantage of having an appointment: you wait for such a short time!), and I can return in 2 weeks, hopefully to pick up my renewed Permesso: We will see...
On Thursday, Fedor's mother, brothers and sis-in-law arrived. Wow, that is certainly a lot of people! We had a gorgeous dinner in the restaurant Antonio showed us a few weeks ago and continued on to go to the Birreria. We ended up with Fedors mother and little brother at home drinking a lot of wine. As a result of this, Friday was a rather heavy day on my account. Of course we had to show everyone the city, which we did despite the horrific weather. Unlucky people, those who came to visit us during the past week. The weather was terrible and from today on, it is sunny and warm again.... Anyways, Friday night was another eating and drinking fiesta, but I was in a significantly better state on Saturday. Good, because my parents were due to arrive in the afternoon. Waiting, waiting, waiting, but no word of them. An sms sent, but no response. A call to the hotel brings no relief. But by the time I was really getting worried, I received a phonecall of my mother saying they had arrived at their hotel. However, not without any problems on the way. Not only did their telephone not work (I had noticed that already), they also lost their way in Milan (not strange, without a map), but they also ended up with a flat tyre in the centre of Milano (deja vu!!! I had the same car with me 2 months ago and had a flat tyre too!). You can imagine they were happy to finally have reached their hotel. So I went to collect them and we made a little walk through town. At night, my parents and Fedors mother went to a lovely restaurant and ended up drinking rather copious amounts of wine and beer. Sunday, however, was a dry, reasonably nice day, so we managed to get a good look at the city. All the sights: Duomo, Galleria, Cimitero, Hightech, Brera, Castello in one day... And at night, we enjoyed another aperitivo of course. By that time we had also been joined by my friends BarD and Marlous, who arrived from Rome Sunday morning...
On Monday, I got up early to take my Father to a garage to repair his tyre. Of course, I was "lucky" enough to actually know a garage where they would be able to temporarily repair a broken tyre, having been in the same situation only 2 months ago... So after that was done, I continued to Uni, where I followed an embarrasingly bad class in Income Inequality (where it turned out that my ancient, Indian Professor really, really has no clue what he is talking about anymore... Rather unfortunate that I have spent 20 hours in his classes!!!)
At night, Bard, Marlous and I ended up in a restaurant and later a bar and got quite drunk again. This strongly (and negatively) influenced my ability to get some work done the next day, so we had the good intention not to drink much last night. We succeeded a little bit in our objective, but getting up at 6.45 this morning to make sure BarD and Marlous would make it in time to to the metro was tough. Fortunately, I could go back to bed again for another few hours afterwards. When I finally did go to Uni today, I was able to do some reasonable work. And now I got home to clean up the house a bit and enjoy one of our two nights alone... Friday, the next visitors will arrive...
Ciao,
OJ
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Cordoba, here I come!
Today I heard some great news!
Last month, I applied to go to a Winter School (the cold equivalent of a Summer School) and following Conference about Polarization and Conflict. Today I was told that I have been selected!!! So next month, at the end of November, I will go to Cordoba, Spain, for 4 days to learn more about this fascinating topic. All the specialists from the field will be there and I am sure I will learn so much!!! I am really, really excited about it. Especially because it will also be mostly funded. The accomodation and food is paid for by the conference and I hope Bocconi might be willing to assist in funding the flight... It is not that expensive, anyway, but it would be nice to get the flight reimbursed. Woohooo, I am totally excited about it!!! And of course, a secondary advantage is the presence of the Mezquita of Cordoba, which is yet another item on the List of Wonders...
I discovered another cool thing about Italy today. Apparently, the government decides when you are allowed to heat your house! Even though our flat is termoautonomo (own heating), as opposed to building-based heating which most flats have in Milan, we still have to wait for the government to sanction the use of central heating. Since the 15th of October, we are allowed to use our heating. Or, in fact (due to our heating arrangement with the neighbours), it is compulsory to use the heating! We had a little fight with the "termostato" today, but finally managed to convince it to switch on the central heating at certain hours...
Finally, I have managed to upload the picture of Our Naviglio that I wanted to show you:
Ciao,
OJ
Last month, I applied to go to a Winter School (the cold equivalent of a Summer School) and following Conference about Polarization and Conflict. Today I was told that I have been selected!!! So next month, at the end of November, I will go to Cordoba, Spain, for 4 days to learn more about this fascinating topic. All the specialists from the field will be there and I am sure I will learn so much!!! I am really, really excited about it. Especially because it will also be mostly funded. The accomodation and food is paid for by the conference and I hope Bocconi might be willing to assist in funding the flight... It is not that expensive, anyway, but it would be nice to get the flight reimbursed. Woohooo, I am totally excited about it!!! And of course, a secondary advantage is the presence of the Mezquita of Cordoba, which is yet another item on the List of Wonders...
I discovered another cool thing about Italy today. Apparently, the government decides when you are allowed to heat your house! Even though our flat is termoautonomo (own heating), as opposed to building-based heating which most flats have in Milan, we still have to wait for the government to sanction the use of central heating. Since the 15th of October, we are allowed to use our heating. Or, in fact (due to our heating arrangement with the neighbours), it is compulsory to use the heating! We had a little fight with the "termostato" today, but finally managed to convince it to switch on the central heating at certain hours...
Finally, I have managed to upload the picture of Our Naviglio that I wanted to show you:
Ciao,
OJ
Monday, October 16, 2006
Another week without news
Well, no news is a bit of an exageration. I worked on my research, followed some seminars and classes, but overall, there was not too much to do. On Saturday, apart from our weekly groceries, we also went shopping for real. Unfortunately I was not very successful and only managed to buy one pair of desperately needed trousers. I dont even really like them. Italians might be known for their fashion industry, the main street fashion (especially with respect to trousers) is absolutely horrendous. So it was quite a frustrating bit of shopping I did. On Sunday, we had another day of relaxation and quiet. Of course we did clean the house, as we do most Sundays.
Last week, I also discovered that Bocconi actually has a Faculty Council. With Student members. I was highly amazed, because it was the first time I had even heard about the existence of this council. We are currently working on the elections for the Faculty Council and of we are all hoping to be able to elect our Economics Representative Marianna. This is my second encounter with Italian democracy (after the municipal elections a few months ago), and this is yet another interesting experience. We are supposed to vote anonymously so we are provided with an anonymous white envelope in which we are to put our voting papers. However, in order to hand in the vote, we have to put this envelope into another envelope which has our name stamped on it. This way the University can safely claim that votes are cast anonimously, while actually being able to check who voted on whom... Am I the only person thinking this kinda defeats the whole purpose of the elections?
Tonight, the house has been a little instable. Or at least, the electricity supply. So I am now sitting with a few candles on, just in case the electricity switches of again. It reminds me of Athens, where it was extremely common that the electricity would switch off for a while (occasionally hours)... A lovely flashback, it is...
Now I wanted to end with another gorgeous picture of Our Naviglio Grande, but unfortunately Blogger is having some issues and it therefore it refuses to upload any new pictures. So no picture.
Ciao,
OJ
Last week, I also discovered that Bocconi actually has a Faculty Council. With Student members. I was highly amazed, because it was the first time I had even heard about the existence of this council. We are currently working on the elections for the Faculty Council and of we are all hoping to be able to elect our Economics Representative Marianna. This is my second encounter with Italian democracy (after the municipal elections a few months ago), and this is yet another interesting experience. We are supposed to vote anonymously so we are provided with an anonymous white envelope in which we are to put our voting papers. However, in order to hand in the vote, we have to put this envelope into another envelope which has our name stamped on it. This way the University can safely claim that votes are cast anonimously, while actually being able to check who voted on whom... Am I the only person thinking this kinda defeats the whole purpose of the elections?
Tonight, the house has been a little instable. Or at least, the electricity supply. So I am now sitting with a few candles on, just in case the electricity switches of again. It reminds me of Athens, where it was extremely common that the electricity would switch off for a while (occasionally hours)... A lovely flashback, it is...
Now I wanted to end with another gorgeous picture of Our Naviglio Grande, but unfortunately Blogger is having some issues and it therefore it refuses to upload any new pictures. So no picture.
Ciao,
OJ
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Parma, senza Parmegiano
Friday, we went out with some of my friends, for Aperitivo. We went to a new, Spanish, place, which I really liked. However, not everyone completely agrees with this... We didnt stay out too late, because it had been a busy week already.
On Saturday, it was time to do our things-to-do for the week. Go to the supermarket, clean the house, that kind of stuff. And at night, we stayed in and enjoyed a lovely lasagna dinner...
Today, finally, we went to Parma. It was AMAZING. Such a beautiful city and, different from many other Italian cities, not swarmed by tourists. We also had a lovely day for it, with about 25 degrees and Sun. An absolutely perfect day in an absolutely perfect city. Most interestin in my thought, were the residential buildings. Absolutely lovely houses and Fedor and I had more than a few "oooohhh, I would love to live there!!!"-moments. Of course there are also the great churches and shops et cetera, but the houses were the best!
Unfortunately, our lovely lunch there, did not include any Parmesan cheese OR Prosciutto... Too bad, but Fedor had has share of Prosciutto when we came home, so he didnt mind so much after all.
Finally, a few pictures from Parma.
Ciao,
OJ
On Saturday, it was time to do our things-to-do for the week. Go to the supermarket, clean the house, that kind of stuff. And at night, we stayed in and enjoyed a lovely lasagna dinner...
Today, finally, we went to Parma. It was AMAZING. Such a beautiful city and, different from many other Italian cities, not swarmed by tourists. We also had a lovely day for it, with about 25 degrees and Sun. An absolutely perfect day in an absolutely perfect city. Most interestin in my thought, were the residential buildings. Absolutely lovely houses and Fedor and I had more than a few "oooohhh, I would love to live there!!!"-moments. Of course there are also the great churches and shops et cetera, but the houses were the best!
Unfortunately, our lovely lunch there, did not include any Parmesan cheese OR Prosciutto... Too bad, but Fedor had has share of Prosciutto when we came home, so he didnt mind so much after all.
Finally, a few pictures from Parma.
Ciao,
OJ
Friday, October 06, 2006
Don't Worry
Dont worry, I have now reached the end of my blog-fiddling. I promise to keep it like this for a while. There are now 20 different banners, which should be coming around randomly (as a matter of chance, it seems my computer actually has a preference, but oh well), and there is one non-Italian picture involved...
Of course, I do not actually spend my days playing with my blog. I do work as well. However, my primary research project has kinda reached a bottleneck, where the bottleneck consists of a particular book that I need. And even though the Bocconi Library is supposed to be the Largest Economics Library in Italy, it doesnt have the book I need (only 2200 citations according Scholar Google... Why would you need such a book!). They promised to order the book for me, but I am kinda stuck while waiting for it. Fortunately, I have had another idea yesterday (while sitting in an extremely boring lecture) of a theoretical model, which could also lead to another paper. The only major question I now face is whether there actually is empirical evidence for the fact that I am trying to prove. So I have spent my day on doing that. And of course I also take time for other important matters, such as having lunch and entertaining first-years...
Tonight, I have had a quiet night at home, while Fedor went to the cinema with a colleague. It gave me the chance to completely finish everything I wanted to do with my blog. So I can now officially get on with my life! Btw, I will just add another picture taken 100 meters away from our house, next to the Naviglio (one of the banners is based on this picture)
Ciao,
OJ
Of course, I do not actually spend my days playing with my blog. I do work as well. However, my primary research project has kinda reached a bottleneck, where the bottleneck consists of a particular book that I need. And even though the Bocconi Library is supposed to be the Largest Economics Library in Italy, it doesnt have the book I need (only 2200 citations according Scholar Google... Why would you need such a book!). They promised to order the book for me, but I am kinda stuck while waiting for it. Fortunately, I have had another idea yesterday (while sitting in an extremely boring lecture) of a theoretical model, which could also lead to another paper. The only major question I now face is whether there actually is empirical evidence for the fact that I am trying to prove. So I have spent my day on doing that. And of course I also take time for other important matters, such as having lunch and entertaining first-years...
Tonight, I have had a quiet night at home, while Fedor went to the cinema with a colleague. It gave me the chance to completely finish everything I wanted to do with my blog. So I can now officially get on with my life! Btw, I will just add another picture taken 100 meters away from our house, next to the Naviglio (one of the banners is based on this picture)
Ciao,
OJ
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
New Blog, again
I am getting the hang of this personalising-my-blog thing. I have changed a few things again (making it look less LateX, I hope). Please note the banner in the top. It changes when you reload the page.... (yes, I do think this is a cool feature. And no, I dont care if you call me a nerd for this). I hope to be adding more and more banners, so they will always be a surprise. For now, the banners are made by me, based on photos in Italy, made by me, or by Jorryt (for the visually impaired, I am not sure whether the contrast is actually still visible, with the red-on-purple for links. If it is not: sorry)
Ciao,
OJ
Ciao,
OJ
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
No More Alcohol, Please... Ever...
Well, this certainly was an interesting weekend... On Friday, I went out with some of my PhD mates. I hadnt seen some of them for ages, so it was good to be able to go out together again. Of course we ended up at La Fontanella again and drank huge beers. At least this time, I didnt get extremely drunk, but we did end up in a thorough discussion on Italian politics etc. Fedor was out with his colleagues that night, so I finally went to bed alone. Of course he had returned by morning (after a long nite of dancing)... We had a very relaxes Saturday: groceries and chilling. Saturyday nite was the birthday party of our friend Antonio, who lives with Nina in the outskirts of Milano. This certainly was a fun party: Many new faces and some time to catch up with Nina and Antonio. We ended up extremely drunk, though, and walked home at about 4.30AM. The walk home was gruesome, but at least we were able to have a looooooooong sleep afterwards. Today, I had a class and a seminar, and tried to get some work done in between... This didnt really work, but at least I tried. Fedor, by now, has a nearly full schedule with classes as well, and he will be working nearly fulltime this week: woohooo, this makes me very happy!!!!
Ciao,
OJ
Ciao,
OJ
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