The Last Supper(s)

So, during my Last Weekend in Milan, I did not use the opportunity to finally, finally go and see the famous Last Supper. I know, it's shameful, but Fedor went and he said it was quite underwhelming. Also, it's expensive and you have to book 2 months in advance. So you know what? Never mind!

Instead, I did my own Last Supper. Twice! On Friday we went for Pizza, and then on to the Vineria. It was an enjoyable evening and there was some good company! Then yesterday, I sort of had another Last Supper, going with a bunch of people to a nice Japanese restaurant: another great night!

 

 

So now I am really preparing to go. Packing the necessary stuff, trying to remember what I have to bring, etc etc. It's gonna be great!

Anyway, here are some things I have come across recently that I though were interesting:
- Sometimes you read something, and it's simply unbelievable. Here is a piece about some quotes of the Republican who might well be the Presidential candidate in 2012:LINK
- But sometimes you come across stuff that is simply hilarious. Like the Golden Oldie of the Philipine prisoners performing Mickael Jackson's Thriller:

- And if you're up for another really funny song, follow this link for an Oded Gross original!

Ciao/Tschüß,,
OJ

the Last Things

It has been a week of lasts. My last meal at ARCI (it was fantastic: swordfish and aubergine pasta!!!), my last Reading Group (well, I actually skipped the last-last one, because I wanted to go to ARCI), my last seminar (actually quite interesting. I will miss some pretty amazing seminars, unfortunately). And my last (and admittedly also first) visit to San Siro! I know, some of you must think it is a shame it has taken me so long to go, but I never really had a true incentive before to go. But last weekend, Idil and I finally went to see a match: Inter vs Reggina. And [i]we [/i]won!!! 3 vs 0: it wasnt a very exciting match, basically... Here are some pics, to prove I really was there!

 

 

 

Furthermore, we also had Fedor's father (+donna) visiting last weekend, with whom I merely spent the evening programme. Fedor entertained them during the day, so that gave me some time to relax (and go to San Siro), which was pleasant. Let me think, what else have I done? I have been unpacking my office, and transfering everything home. Oh, and very importantly, I found a house in Berlin for the first month!!! I think I wrote previously about the flat I thought I had found, but which fell through. Well, now I have found something for real. The girl living there seems very nice, and the flat is in a great location. So I don't have to worry about that anymore, which is quite a relief.

My drivers' licence, on the other hand, is another story. Apparently it is not finished yet, so I am trying to find out whether Fedor can pick it up, or whether the office might be open on Good Friday (when I am going to be here for 2 days). It is all a bit of a hassle. Not as much hassle as the Internet company, but that is a wholly different story...

Anyway, I am just writing this post because I am meeting some friends (in fact, I believe it might be quite a few friends) for a pizza in 20 minutes and I wasnt sure what to do in the meantime: writing a blog post seemed like a good idea! Fedor is away for the weekend, to Frankfurt and he returns Monday morning. It'll be nice to see him for a moment, because on Monday Evening the moment is finally here: I will become ein Berliner!!!

Ciao/Tschüß,
OJ

SanFran for a day

Well, that was a bit of a crazy weekend. On Friday, I had to get up very early in order to catch my flight to Amsterdam and then on to San Francisco. It was my first KLM flight ever and it was pretty cool: quite strange to get to speak Dutch to stewardesses all the time... But some good movies (Slumdog was pretty ok, but I was not totally overwhelmed), plenty of drinks and no problem with vegetarian food. Oh and the best of all: a return flight Milan-SF for 377 euros....

Anyway, when I got there, I headed to my hotel and dropped off my stuff, before going to see Agnieszka and Kuba, my friends who live in San Francisco. Their oldest, Julia, was very excited to see me (I stayed with them for a few days when I was there in January), and I got to take a peek at their newborn Robert. And we got to talk a bit, until the moment that the time difference caught up with me and I just wanted to pass out. The next morning, I got up early to go to my conference (seriously, an 8AM starting time for a conference on Saturday is NOT NORMAL, is it???) at San Francisco Statue University. The conference was very interesting, with many interesting topics, and some amazing speakers. All in all, it was totally worth the travelling time. In the evening, I just about managed to visit a nice sushi restaurant before passing out again at early o'clock... Sunday I had a stroll around the city and managed to finally buy the last missing part of Asimov's Foundation series (The Second Foundation has been a goal of mine at bookshops for about 5 years already). After my little walk, i went back to the Airport and flew back to Milano. yes, it was a crazily short visit, but who cares: it was useful and I don't pay for it!

Today I went back to work, but I was still a bit tired, so not overly productive. I managed to clean up my office, so it will be easier for me to move my stuff back to home now (I normally live under a mountain of papers: not anymore!). It'll also help to have a clean office when I have my German class tomorrow (Fedor's present for xmas was a mini-course in a language-of-my-choosing), so that is pretty cool. Talking about Germany, I had found a place to live for the first month, but something went horribly wrong (in other words: the guy turned out to be completely nuts, as certified by my token German friend Felix) and now I don't have a flat anymore. Anyway, it won't be too difficult to find something, I think...

Oh, and for any Facebook users out there: goddammit, the new new Facebook sucks, doesn't it? Let's hope they Facebook engineers start using their brains and either change it back or enable us to make some individualised changes (like blocking those stupid fcking quizzes from popping up in the newsfeed).

Ciao,
OJ

Just some ramblings

Driver's Licence: the Saga continues.

The licencing office called me this week, because there was something wrong with one of the documents. That is, I had to make three separate payments to them, and the way this works in Italy is as follows: you go to a post office, and fill in a slip of paper. This slip of paper is then processed by the post office (of course you also have to pay for them to process it, but that's obvious). You then get two receipts for having paid. Now for all of the payments I made, I left one of the receipts at the Licencing Office (in fact, the lady there choose which one she was gonna keep). But it turns out that these are not exactly 100% identical. I still don't know exactly what the difference is, but there is one word different, or something along those lines. And she had to wrong slip for one of my payments. So I spent another 2.5 hours (it was busy in the metro) to get there and come back to give her the right f.ing piece of paper! Of course, we'll have to see whether the whole thing is finally going to work out or not: that's still completely unknown. Although my old licence has now officially expired, so if I don't get the Italian one, I'm f.ed.

For the rest, the week has been work-work-work. I have started working on a new project that I really would like to start to get going before moving to Berlin (omg, only 23 days left!), so I'm pretty busy with that. It's all pretty sad here, anyway, with lots of people leaving. Louisa had her goodbye a week-and-a-half ago, because she's moved to Trieste. Gili had her goodbye this week, because she moved back to Israel. It's getting quiet here... Our Costarican friends are leaving at the end of the year as well. Another friend of mine, however, will actually be moving to Milan probably, as he was offered an assistant professorship here. So that's cool (and we'll have a place to stay that way!).

Anyway, that's about all I have to say for now. I want you all to check out Meghan's website, with a cool blog and an online shop for the clothes she designs: It's HERE. Tomorrow, we're gonna go to Genova, as I haven't gone there yet in the 3.5 years of living in Milano and this will be the last opportunity. Because things are pretty tightly packed during the next weeks: I will go to San Francisco for a conference next weekend (yes, I know it's insane: I will be in San Francisco for a grand total of 46 hours), Fedor's father is visiting the weekend after and Fedor will be in Frankfurt the weekend after that with a friend. And then it's time for me to leave............

Ciao,
OJ

PS The weather is fantastic right now!!! Sunny, relatively warm: that is one thing I'm gonna miss about Milano!

Berlin, here I come

OK, so I lied to you. I did not in fact post immediately after deciding to accept the job. In fact, it's more than a week ago when I took the job, and only now do I write to you here.

I HAVE A JOB!!!

Yes, it is now officially true: I am getting old and I have a job. Awesome. Anyways, so, logistically, this means the following: Per April 1, I will be post-doctoral researcher at the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin, working on a project named "Calculating the Global Costs of Conflict" (yes, it's really, really interesting!). So I will also be moving there of course, per March 30. Fedor, however, still has a job to do here in Milano, so he will stay in Milano until June 1. That's ok, because it gives me a bit of extra time to find a house, and we can do the relocation in a slightly more relaxed way. Oh, but btw, if anybody happens to hear something about a job in Berlin for Fedor, let us know!

Of course I will be coming up and down from Berlin to Milano a few times (for Easter, for example), but in principle I will be ein Berliner from April 1.

But before it's that far, I still have plenty of things to do. I started working on a new paper, I submitted some papers to journals, I have lots of reading group meetings to attend: it's all quite busy. But there is also time for fun. Like last weekend, which we spend in Cocconato, on a Couples Weekend! I know it's pathetic, but we went to this Agroturismo for the weekend, with five couples (and a dog) and we ate and drank and ate and drank until we, well, were full of food and drinks, basically...

Picture time:

 

 

 

 

Yesterday we had a lovely dinner with our Costarican friends and now we have started counting the days until I leave...

Ciao,
OJ