Just a quicky

Just to let you know I am working hard, starting to make some real hours today (10.00-21.00 today) in order to finish writing a draft version of my paper before halfway January. This is when I have some deadlines for conferences (I enjoyed Cordoba so much, I want to go to more conferences... I have sought out 3 for this academic year).
I will not bore you with any explanation of what I am actually doing, but I will show you this picture of the Naviglio Grande in Xmas style.

Xmas is really starting to break loose now in Milano: I cannot wait to put up my decorations, but I have to wait until December 1. Maybe I will get Lilian to assist me in doing this, because she and Jorryt will be arriving tomorrow. As they have been to Milano before (xmas last year), we probably will skip many of the standard things-to-do. Instead, we will rent a car and visit Pisa, Lucca and Cinque Terre this weekend... I can hardly wait!!!
Ciao,
OJ

Cordoba Conference

Tuesday last week, I got up at 3.15AM in order to make my journey to Cordoba. The journey was not easy, as Cordoba does not actually have an airport. So therefore, I had to go Milano-Malpensa-Malaga-Cordoba and after nearly 12 hours on the road, I arrived at the hotel. I arrived mid-afternoon, so I could take in the sights of Cordoba that same day. Unfortunately, I was not very lucky weather-wise, and for all the days I was there it was kinda cloudy, with the occasional shower in between. However, this obviously didnt stop me from visiting the Mezquita (on The List, number 57), which was an absolutely amazing sight! A cathedral built in the middle of a church, does that sound odd to anyone? Well, it was rather peculiar, but an absolutely amazing sight! Unfortunately, the photos do not do it all the justice it deserves:




At night, I went out for dinner, which was of truly miserable quality. On the way home to the hotel I ran into two of my fellow PhDs from Milano.

The next morning, we walked to the venue where the Winter School was taking place together. It turned out there were about 15 PhDs from all over Europe and the Winter School was quite interesting. Quite a few of the things that were treated I already knew, but it was still interesting. Of course a large beer- and wine-filled lunch was also included in the middle of this long day (9-19). At night, we went out for dinner and drinking with a group of people, which ended up in a rather late night out... The next morning was an early start again, but there were so many interesting people and presentations that I had suprisingly little trouble to stay awake. Another great lunch and at night, an official reception by the City of Cordoba in the Castle of Cordoba. Lots of tasty nibbles and lovely wines, made this a thoroughly enjoyable night. At the end of it, we found another local bar where we enjoyed some more drinks until we got kicked out again.
The next morning was even tougher, as you can understand, but once again, the fascinating presentations were absolutely worth it.
After a luxurious dinner (in addition to the copious lunch), we ended up for a real night of going out which ended at about 4.30AM.
Unfortunately, this did mean I missed a little part of the Conference on Saturday morning, but those presentations were not the most interesting ones anyway. When the Conference officially ended, we decided to have a last lunch with our group of people. There was a really fun group of people I spent a lot of time with and I hope to be seeing more of them in the future. Halfway the afternoon, I returned to Malaga where I managed to see a little bit more of the city. Not enough, I guess, because Malaga seemed like a very nice and beautiful city that deserves a few days on its own...
I went back to Milano, however, the following day. I was happpy to go home and see Fedor again, who had missed me badly... (isnt he a darling?). Fedors father was also visiting that weekend so I had a chance to have talk to him before he left this morning.
Well, that was my quick update on the conference. Conclusions: a lot of fun, a lot of new people and, most importantly, a LOT OF new ideas!!!

Ciao,
OJ

Goodbye Niels & Marielle

On Friday, my brother Niels and his wife Marielle arrived. Marielle had not been to Milano before and also for Niels, our house was still new. It was great to see them both, although they unfortunately brought some bad weather along....
Friday afternoon, after a bit of a rest and a cup-of-tea, we went for a bit of a walk through town. In the evening, we were doubting between our 2 favourite pizzerias. One is hip and funky, while the other is traditional and has huge pizzas. Thankfully, the decision was made for us when it turned out to be raining badly. We simply went to the closest! We enjoyed a lovely meal there and came home afterwards. The next morning started out with (as always) the Cimitero Monumentale. By now, the weather had not actually improved, but for the Cimitero this is not such a big problem. After all, it is a cemetary and a bit of fog only adds to the atmosphere there...


After lunch at Corso Como, we went on to Hightech, Brera, the Castello and the Via Dante Photo Exhibition. A nice little tour that has been perfected by a lot of practice. It is amazing that I actually still enjoy making the same tour. I simply love showing people around! (maybe I should have become a tour guide after all). After the Duomo and enjoying some anti-war hardrock music on Piazza Duomo, we went home again to rest before dinner. Dinner consisted of Aperitivo at Le Trottoir, which was enjoyable as always. This morning, Niels and Marielle left again...
Fedor is obviously very happy, because his laptop has now returned from being repaired and it works again! So we have spent our sunday the way it is supposed to be spent: doing nothing important. Filing photos, updating our blogs, laundry, sewing (damn, do I hate sewing on buttons... seriously!). And tonight we will go for aperitivo to celebrate Idil's 30th birthday!!!
Tomorrow will be my first official Italian class (as I missed the real first one, being stuck in the Police station) and my last day before going to Cordoba on Tuesday. I will actually fly into Malaga Tuesday Morning, from where I will take a train to Cordoba. On Saturday, when the conference has finished I will return to Malaga and on Sunday I come back to Milano. I am looking forward to it, although it would have obviously been nicer if Fedor could have come along.... Oh well, nothing I can do about it now! And besides, I expect to be very busy there anyway, so it would not have been much fun for him...
Ciao,
OJ

Not Lazy, just busy

Ciao Dudi,
finally I have time to update my life again... As I wrote last time, I was about to go to the Police Office to renew my Residence Permit. Obviously, this was, once again, unsuccesful. After waiting for 2.5 hours, it turned out I had arrived 5 minutes too late and didnt realise (I thought everyone was simply waiting for the office to open, but apparently the office had already opened and closed again). This was rather unfortunate and I wasnt happy.
The rest of the week consisted of working, visiting seminars, et cetera. Many many things. Thankfully, we did have time to enjoy a little Aperitivo every now and then, as well as a beautiful sunset (from our apartment window):

Friday afternoon, we went to the Airport in Bergamo to catch an airplane to London. The roads to the airport were incredibly busy and at one point I gave up hope that we would be in time. However, as I had decided to take an extra hour in case of security issues (and surprisingly: there were none), we did make it to the flight and arrived at Stansted in the rain at about 20.45. For an unclear reason, no buses were departing from Stansted until 21.45, so we stood in the rain for about one hour. We then paid our 21euro return tickets (21 euros each) and made it to London to meat Fedor's ex-flatmate Marike, who lives in London (and whose weblog can be found here). By this time, it was already extremely late in London (23.00: everything was closed), so we did not get a chance to meet Marike's friends. We did however spend a lot of time catching up with her, which was obviously enjoyable.
The next morning, we went to the British Museum, which I must say is one of the most impressive museums I have ever seen! It is absolutely stunning (and also important, it is free and it is on The List). After a few hours of strolling through the Egyptian, Greek and Japanese sections, it was time for lunch and shopping. In the evening, Fedor and I took a train to Coventry, to see our friends Matt and Anthony. It was great to see them and we thoroughly enjoyed a lovely Libanese meal had that night.
As always when we visit them, Matt had arranged something to do the next day. We took a train to Oxford, where neither Fedor nor I had ever been before. This was an excellent idea, despite the very English rain that came down occasionally.


A lovely lunch, some shopping and then it was time to go back to Coventry again. Here we rested for a short while, before taking the train back to London, where we were met by Marike again. She stayed up with us for another few bottles of wine, until we went to catch our 3AM bus back to Stansted. By the time we arrived home, at 11.00, Fedor and I were both "a little tired", and Fedor went to bed straight away. I did not however, because I wanted to use the opportunity to return to the Police Office. After waiting in the cold outside for 3 hours, it was finally my turn. REQUEST DENIED: FILE INCOMPLETE.

Excuse me?

What?

The

FUCK!

Yes, apparently between now and the time I filed my request a month ago, something has changed, because I can "obviously" not get my Residence Permit extension if I do not hand over a copy of a bank statement. What?!?!?! When did they make that up? But I was too tired to go into a discussion and disillusionedly left the police station again. What to do, what to do...
First, there was meeting Maartje and Eden: Fedors Nijmegen friends. Fedor was at work by this time, so I went for Aperitivo with these new arrivals who had already spent a week in Italy elsewhere. On Tuesday, after a good night's rest, I was able to work again and enjoy anther aperitivo, with Fedor and his friends. Unfortunately, their visit was a short one, because they left again this morning...
Ciao,
OJ

PS VOTE D66: KAJSA OLLONGREN (5) or MARK SANDERS (7)

photos etc

Well, I finally managed to post photos. These are just a few of them, of course. The first picture is a picture of us on the Cimitero Monumentale. Don't we look like a boyband?
The second picture is from La Trottoir, the place where we went dancing on Fedor's birthday. It was very cool, as you can see. Finally, there are two pictures from the top of Duomo. An absolute tip for any Milanese visitor: climb Duomo during the sunset: it is absolutely gorgeous at that time...
Finally, just a quick picture Henning took on the Antiques Market. The weather was gorgeous, as you can see...
 
 
 
 
  

This week, the weather significantly worsened. Well, at least the temperature plummeted. By now the daytime temperature is around 12-13 degrees, but as long as it remains brightly sunny, we cannot complain I guess!
I also finished (actually started and finished) an abstract for another conference. It was accepted straight away, about which I am obviously excited. Now I have to actually write the paper that belongs to the abstract and send it in before february 1. The conference organisers will then decide whether they would like me to come to the conference and if they do, I will have an all-paid-for conference in Izmir in April!!! It would be really awesome if that would be succesful, but we will simply have to wait... For the rest, Fedor and I are enjoying our free visitor-less weekend. It is a nice to be able to be at home cleaning, reading a book and not having to do anyting else for a while. On Friday we went to see our friends Nina and Antonio. Poor Antonio has just returned from hospital after breaking his leg a while ago, so we went to see how he was doing...
Tomorrow, I hope to receive my Permesso di Soggiorno!
Ciao,
OJ