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