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