Peace and Quiet

After a few days of work, during which I finally got some stuff done that needed doing, in between all these random holidays, I have also been able to enjoy some sun occasionally. My camera was unfortunately delayed a lot (why did I even think the Italians would be speaking the truth if they say 1 working day? Obviously that means 1 week....). Today it arrived!!! And it is absolutely awesome! I am very happy about it, although the rest of the office was getting rather annoyed by my insistent photo shooting. For some examples, go to My Photo Album. There is also a video there of the mini-ping pong table that Lars and Rachel brought when they came to visit.
As the camera didnt arrive until today, I unfortunately was not able to spend the weekend taking pictures. This is particularly unfortunate, because the weather was amazing and there was another lovely antiques market, which always warrants some photography. Today, instead, the weather turned bad (there was even a little bit of rain: the first time in quite a while). But I did manage to relax a lot this weekend. We had two visitors from the Netherlands, one of whom was a friend of Fedor from Uni. The other, her boyfriend was...well...."young", and I was glad to be able to spend time on my own for a few days.
They have left now, which means that Fedor and I will be able to celebrate our 2-1/2 year "anniversary" in peace and quiet tonight. Me Happy.

Ciao,
OJ

Odd, odd, odd

Past weekend was our Official Free Weekend, during which we had planned no visitors. Of course this was a lovely event, but it did result in the fact that it was completely full of other social activities. On Friday there was a party of one of Fedor's bosses, where we drank way too much and ended up taking a taxi home; On Saturday we went to Brescia, to celebrate Astrid's birthday in her Lovely Mother's Lovely House:


We got a ride back to Milan that night and went to bed exhausted. The next day was a day of Rest for Fedor and a day of Cooking for me: at night we had Felix and Annaig coming over for sushi. I spent all day in the kitchen preparing the sushi and I must say I was quite satisfied with the result. And so were our guests, so that is a good sign. They actually came to see us as part of a deal during which they helped me to proctor an exam on Friday morning 8.30, for the course I am Tutoring... Which reminds me: Why do people think it is a good idea to organise exams at 8.30AM? Especially if they are only 1-hour exams? That is just annoying, isnt it?
In other news, we decided to buy a new camera. I cannot wait for it to arrive (it should have been delivered this morning, but this is Italy, so it wasnt), because it is totally fantastic!

And the best thing is: It is a present from Fedor to me. Isnt he absolutely lovely??? (he was also completely sick oh my whining about my old camera which has been broken since I dropped it last year). So expect many lovely pictures soon!!!

Ciao,
OJ

Lots of different Things

I have so many things to tell, that I should start with an abstract:
1) I came back from a conference in Izmir: it was fun
2) I finally got students in my office hour!
3) I have a new online photoalbum, where I will uploading some photos
4) They abolished the Permesso di Soggiorno (WTF????)

Now, for the real thing:
On Thursday morning, I flew from Malpensa to Istanbul, on my first-ever Alitalia flight. Nothing special, except for the interesting response to my "I am a vegetarian": "No, that is impossible". huh? What do you mean, that is impossible. I am telling you it is true... Well, not in Alitalia flights, apparently... Anyway, after arriving in Istanbul, I spent a few hours on the airport, reading a book and waiting, before my evening flight on Onurair to Izmir. In Izmir I was picked up and brought to the University. The next morning was the actual conference and I was absolutely and utterly nervous. However, my presentation went miraculously well (considering that I knew there were some significant errors. Nobody else realised, though). In fact, a lot of people were very enthusiastic and I received a lot of requests for copies of the paper. As I am rewriting, I decided to politely decline these requests. AFter my own presentation, I was able to relax and enjoy some of the other presentations. And when I say "some", I really mean some. Because a lot of the presentations were either boring subjects or just really, really bad presentations (hint: no moving objects and just black on white. No red on blue or black on ochre). At night there was the celebration of the 6-year existence of the University and a great buffet dinner afterwards. In the evening, we met up with Idil, who happened to be in Izmir and we went to downtown.
The next morning we had an organised tour, as part of the conference. First, we went to the house of the Holy Virgin (yes, apparently, she had a little mountain house in the mountains near Izmir).

After the Holy Virgin's house, the trip continued to the historical site of Ephesos. Absolutely stunning, really. Especially because of the season: there were many flowers and a stunning scenery.

After this great site, we continued to a little mountain village to taste and drink local wines. They were excellent... And the village was gorgeous as well.
At night, we went out to an Anatolian Restaurant (lots and lots of meat: not the best place for a vegetarian, I can tell you).
On Sunday, I moved to a hotel downtown and spent the day with Idil. She showed me the entire city, from ancient elevator to the ferry and the sunset. It was very enjoyable.


On Monday, finally, I took an early flight to Istanbul, where I arrived at 9.30AM. I then spent the day visiting the Topkapi Palace and the Grand Bazaar.

Unfortunately, the weather in Istanbul was not great, so I could not work on my tan anymore. Late afternoon I caught my flight to Rome, where I transferred to return to Milan the same night. A busy weekend, all in all, but quite a lot of fun. Met some interesting people on the conference as well and got a few new research ideas. So it was good.

After this trip, on Tuesday it was time for Office Hours again. And I finally received some students! After having office hours for a few weeks now, where never anyone showed up, I received 2 students this time. Possibly, this has something to do with the fact that the midterm exam will take place on Friday, so people are stressing out. Me too, because it turned out that there are also people doing the entire exam on Friday. So I had one student coming with questions from the second half of the course, which I had obviously not prepared at all. In fact, I didnt even know what the second half of the course was about! I managed to save my face quite well and solve most of his problems. But it was quite a shock. Oh well, tomorrow 2 more office hours and then the exam. Let's see how they do!

Just now, I discovered a new feature. I use Picassa to upload pictures and thanks to my sister-in-law Marielle, I discovered that this same programme has actually got the possibility of just uploading pictures to a web-album. So, I will upload some more pictures soon, and for now you can watch some more pictures of Turkey.

Today, I also found out that since April 11, the bastard-Italians abolished the Residence Permit for EU-citizens!!!!! Finally, after so much time they have apparently listened to the European Commission saying that they are not allowed to ask for this. But seriously, I cant believe that I have just spent 7 months on getting a Permesso and 2 weeks after receiving it, they abolish the entire thing!!!!!!!
Oh well, I guess I should be happy about not having to apply again next year. And I am. Really.
Ciao,
OJ

Visitors etc.

So, last weekend we had Fedor's friend Coby coming over, with her boyfriend Peter. While I didnt know them very well, we did have a lot of fun that weekend!!! It included drinking a lot and playing a lot of games! Of course, one of the best things was the fact that these were not my direct friends! So I was excused for not participating in the day programme. Nice for a change. I had a lot of time to do some things or myself and think about my own things for some time.

 

During the week, I spent a lot of time on my research. I found some significant errors in my research and I am having some trouble with my results (don't break open my beak, to put this in a Dutchism).
However, I dont want to get into that. On Friday we went drinking with Fedor's friend Sebastiaan, who happened to be in town for a few days with his rugby team. Together with Idil and Bjoern, we had a really fun night going out!
Of course, on Saturyday we did have to get up quite early, in order to prepare our house for the arrival of the next visitors: Joost and Kim came over from The Hague to visit for 2 days. The weather was absolutely lovely during their visit, so our walk through town was gorgeous on Saturday. The evening with pizzas and the Johann Sebastian Bar was even more lovely! On Sunday, it was Easter, which strangely resulted in the closure of nearly all bars and festivities.... Maybe I could have figured this out in advance.... We even didnt make it to the Cimitero Monumentale!!!
At least, we did climb the Duomo:

 

 

Another interesting thing is the piece of Art that is in front of the Palazzo Ducale, next to the Duomo:

 

This morning, Joost and Kim left again and I went to University to get more work done. (dont break open my beak, still)
Just two more days to clear up my research mess before going to this conference in Izmir... (yes, I am freaking out. Really.). But let's focus first on things more close at hand: office hours at 9AM tomorrow morning.
Ciao,
OJ

Baltic Journal of Economics

Just a really quick post: Today I received news that my article has been accepted for the Baltic Journal of Economics!!!! This was an article I wrote on basis of my Master Thesis and it will be published in the Summer edition of the BJE!!!!

I am really excited about this, in part because this is a paper that I wrote completely on my own, whereas the paper that is forthcoming in the Review of Income and Wealth was a collaboration with two others.

I am so happy about this, I just had to post it here, quickly...

Ciao,
OJ

Me-time

Last weekend, my friend Marie arrived right on time on Friday. Unfortunately, she also brought some bad weather, but we made the most out of it. Friday night we went out with my friends. To Brera, for a change: a part of the city that is famous for its bars and nightlife, but where we never usually go. Until now. And it was quite nice there, but we ended up going back to our side of town in the end anyway. The next day was filled with Shopping. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the absolutely amazingly fabulous shoes Marie bought: they are fantastic. She also found some other things and was quite satisfied with the shopping. At nite sushi-aperitivo (omg, the newly discovered sushi aperitivo is AMAZING). Sunday was the day where it was most obvious that Marie brought some darn bad weather, as it was absolutely pissing it down all day. Too bad for the antiques market, which is really not very interesting in the rain... Of course, we also did the normal lap including Cimitero Monumentale, Corso Como, Hightech and Màs and gossiped about all the people we havent seen for a long time. It was great!
Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pictures, but "from the old box" (uit de oude doos), here's Marie at my Goodbye/Graduation party:

 

After Marie left on Monday, it was a long workday for me. The Professor I work for (Elsa) needed something done immediately, which I managed to finish at 22.00. The rest of the week was kinda similar, until Annaig's birthday party on Thursday. This was my first journey to the end of the Green Line (only 3 stops away, but it seems like another world) and it was a lovely experience. In her area, there are trees and other green stuff: The air feels very clean and fresh, despite the fact that there are of course lots of concrete blocks all around. The party itself was certainly a lot of fun:

 

We did decide to go home with the last metro, so arrived home quite early. Which is a good thing, because I had to do more Questura-things (Police).
On Wednesday, I had already gone there again and queued for some time at the back-entrance of the Police Station. This is the normal procedure, because foreigners are not allowed to enter through the main entrance. When it was about half an hour after the normal opening time, someone finally decided it was enough and decided to go to the front entrance (a risky business, because if the backdoor would open suddenly, she would have lost her place). However, it turned out that at the front door there was a 15x5cm notice saying that the time when foreigners are being spoken to changed from 15.00 to 09.00...
WTF!
Why the FUCK do they not post this at the door where people are supposed to enter? Why does no-one come outside when there are 40 people queueing for something you know they are not going to get? Why??? I can answer this quite easily: bcause the people inside the building are Italian and the people queueing are mostly black, Latin American or Asian. And Italians thus enjoy to see them suffer. Bastards.
Anyway, I went again on Friday morning, leaving at 8am, to make sure I was there 45 minutes before the supposed time. After waiting for only just over an hour, the amazing news arrived: MY PERMESSO IS READY!!!!!!!!!

So finally, after ELEVEN visits to the assholes at the police, I FINALLY have my Permit to be here!!!! And the best thing was that my recent nightmare did not come true: Last week I had a nightmare that I received my Permesso, but that it would only be valid until September, when I filed my first request. However, I am delighted to say that it is actually valid until March 13, 2008, so I can relax now for nearly a year... I rejoice!

At Uni, I spent the rest of the day working (and being very Happy). As a final celebration of Annaig, my friend Wei Wei, made this lovely candy-present at her desk: isn't that sweet?:

 

Yesterday, on Saturday, Fedor's friends Coby and Peter arrived. This means that I dont have to participate in the day programme and I can finally do all those things I have been wanting to do for ages (like updating my blog and answering emails). Of course I do participate in the evening programme (mainly eating, drinking and playing games (had my ass absolutely whooped in Risk yesterday, but won Trivial Pursuit as always).
More work coming week... Because the conference in Izmir is approaching......
Ciao,
OJ