Friday, we went out with some of my friends, for Aperitivo. We went to a new, Spanish, place, which I really liked. However, not everyone completely agrees with this... We didnt stay out too late, because it had been a busy week already. On Saturday, it was time to do our things-to-do for the week. Go to the supermarket, clean the house, that kind of stuff. And at night, we stayed in and enjoyed a lovely lasagna dinner... Today, finally, we went to Parma. It was AMAZING. Such a beautiful city and, different from many other Italian cities, not swarmed by tourists. We also had a lovely day for it, with about 25 degrees and Sun. An absolutely perfect day in an absolutely perfect city. Most interestin in my thought, were the residential buildings. Absolutely lovely houses and Fedor and I had more than a few "oooohhh, I would love to live there!!!"-moments. Of course there are also the great churches and shops et cetera, but the houses were the best! Unfortunately, our lovely lunch there, did not include any Parmesan cheese OR Prosciutto... Too bad, but Fedor had has share of Prosciutto when we came home, so he didnt mind so much after all. Finally, a few pictures from Parma. Ciao, OJ
Dont worry, I have now reached the end of my blog-fiddling. I promise to keep it like this for a while. There are now 20 different banners, which should be coming around randomly (as a matter of chance, it seems my computer actually has a preference, but oh well), and there is one non-Italian picture involved...
Of course, I do not actually spend my days playing with my blog. I do work as well. However, my primary research project has kinda reached a bottleneck, where the bottleneck consists of a particular book that I need. And even though the Bocconi Library is supposed to be the Largest Economics Library in Italy, it doesnt have the book I need (only 2200 citations according Scholar Google... Why would you need such a book!). They promised to order the book for me, but I am kinda stuck while waiting for it. Fortunately, I have had another idea yesterday (while sitting in an extremely boring lecture) of a theoretical model, which could also lead to another paper. The only major question I now face is whether there actually is empirical evidence for the fact that I am trying to prove. So I have spent my day on doing that. And of course I also take time for other important matters, such as having lunch and entertaining first-years...
Tonight, I have had a quiet night at home, while Fedor went to the cinema with a colleague. It gave me the chance to completely finish everything I wanted to do with my blog. So I can now officially get on with my life! Btw, I will just add another picture taken 100 meters away from our house, next to the Naviglio (one of the banners is based on this picture)
I am getting the hang of this personalising-my-blog thing. I have changed a few things again (making it look less LateX, I hope). Please note the banner in the top. It changes when you reload the page.... (yes, I do think this is a cool feature. And no, I dont care if you call me a nerd for this). I hope to be adding more and more banners, so they will always be a surprise. For now, the banners are made by me, based on photos in Italy, made by me, or by Jorryt (for the visually impaired, I am not sure whether the contrast is actually still visible, with the red-on-purple for links. If it is not: sorry) Ciao, OJ
Well, this certainly was an interesting weekend... On Friday, I went out with some of my PhD mates. I hadnt seen some of them for ages, so it was good to be able to go out together again. Of course we ended up at La Fontanella again and drank huge beers. At least this time, I didnt get extremely drunk, but we did end up in a thorough discussion on Italian politics etc. Fedor was out with his colleagues that night, so I finally went to bed alone. Of course he had returned by morning (after a long nite of dancing)... We had a very relaxes Saturday: groceries and chilling. Saturyday nite was the birthday party of our friend Antonio, who lives with Nina in the outskirts of Milano. This certainly was a fun party: Many new faces and some time to catch up with Nina and Antonio. We ended up extremely drunk, though, and walked home at about 4.30AM. The walk home was gruesome, but at least we were able to have a looooooooong sleep afterwards. Today, I had a class and a seminar, and tried to get some work done in between... This didnt really work, but at least I tried. Fedor, by now, has a nearly full schedule with classes as well, and he will be working nearly fulltime this week: woohooo, this makes me very happy!!!! Ciao, OJ
Tonight, Fedor went out with a friend from his new job. So I took the evening of redesigning my blog. Recently, part of my blog disappeared (in the links section) and even though I dont know how it happened, I still felt it was a reason for doing some redesigning. Unfortunately, it has been a long time since I did any webpage design and I had to do it the hard way. I think finally it worked out reasonably well. However, I do realise this statement only works for those people who use Internet Explorer, because it looks kinda sucky in Mozilla Firefox: bad luck for you guys! Anyways, most of the changes are probably too subtle to be noticed (the background went from nearly-black to a-little-less-close-to-black, for example, for which I found a great tool). The most noticeable, however, is the new picture in the top, which is a photo I took today of the Naviglio, practically next to our house. I thought it was pretty. Ciao, OJ PS Fedor also started a blog PPS Earlier today, I posted this news story, which made me laugh... (people say we are poor: but if we include the illegal economy, we are really not that poor! Now that is creative bookkeeping!
Finally, I took the time today to take a few more pictures of the flat, furnished definitively. I know I put pictures here before, but those were from the time we didnt actually have our furniture here yet. But now we do! So, these are the pictures from how the flat looks now: And finally, a quick picture from the Naviglio Grande, the canal we live very, very close to...
All in all, the house is very, very awesome! As to my week, no much has been up since Wednesday. On Thursday, we went out for Aperitivo with a group of friends. This was fun, but Fedor and I didnt stay out too late as Fedor had to go to training early next morning. I have been trying to achieve some progress, which is going surprisingly well. Except on Friday, when I was simply having an off-day. The week-ends are still very relaxed (the quiet before the visitor's storm, from half October). We go to the supermarket on Saturday and clean the house on Sunday: nothing else! Finally, there is another link I should tell people about. I have mentioned SkyScanner before, which is an amazing website for looking for cheap airline tickets within Europe or Asia. But now there is Budget Long Haul, which contains information for cheap intercontinental tickets! Always very useful... Ciao, OJ
Recently, Fedor and I have been spending a lot of time on our bureaucratic affairs. For me it is the second time, but that does not make it much easier. What does make it easier, apparently, is coming to Italy to be an English teacher, instead of a student. We first went to the Police Station last week, arriving at 7AM (which, admittedly, is a bit late there). After waiting outside in the drizzling rain for one-and-a-half hours, we got to to the First Desk. Here I was told that, as an EU-citizen, renewing the Residence Permit takes place in a different office. Fedor, however, could go ahead because it was his first permesso. Afterwards, not only did we not have to wait long, Fedor also succeeded in getting his Permesso during the first attempt!!! (it ook me 4 attempts last year). And all that in only 3 hours!!! The most jealous-making thing, however, is the fact that, without asking, Fedor received a 5-year permesso!!! I am having trouble getting a 1-year extension, but Fedor gets a 5-year one without any trouble. A few days later, he managed his Municipality registration in a mere 2 hours as well... In the meanwhile, I managed to find the "other police station" where I was supposed to go. So after an hour or so waiting, I was told to return in the end of October. Which thuse means that my Medicare is running out (which can only be renewed with a new Permesso). However, I decided to go the local office again anyway, together with Fedor. Once more, he was very lucky and he got his Medicare arranged straight away! (it took my 6 months). However, I was able to borrow some of his luck and get my Medicare extension straight away too. So at least that is arranged. The same cannot be said for my affairs in the Netherlands. Suddenly, a lot of bureacratic bullshit is arriving from my past again too. This includes a large unpaid bill and the recovery of a bank account! "A what?", you are asking, now. Well, apparently, a bank account which, to my knowledge, had been cancelled more than a year ago, still exists. I have not found out whether there is any money in that account, but I am very curious...... (probably not, though) Ciao, OJ
OK, I realise it has been long since I have written anything. But as my defense, I would like to suggest that NOT having Internet at home makes it significantly more difficult to stay up-to-date with a blog. However, the good news is that this problem has been solved! Since Friday we actually DO have internet at home! So I am not completely Skypable and MSNable any time of the night or day (well, sort of). Over the last week-and-a-half, quite a lot of things have happened of course. We went out with our friends Nina (whom I know from Highschool) and Antonio twice. We went out with my ex-flatmate twice (and ended up singing Karaoke twice as well), etc, etc. I have been working, at Uni. Working on a research proposal, for which I have managed to get the attention and interest of my new sort-of Supervisor. Additionally, we have been quite busy at Uni welcoming back everyone after their holidays... However, Fedor has been significantly more productive! He has had a few interviews and at all the place he went to, they decided they wanted to hire him! So he could actually simply choose a job. And there are still offers coming in!!! But he has made a final decision already and has taken up 2 part-time jobs. For one of the jobs he had his first classes on Friday, and it went really well!!! I knew he was a born teacher... For the rest, too much has been happening to discuss it all. I will just tell about today, when we (finally) had time to celebrate my gift for Fedor's Master Degree. We started by going to the Absolut Ice Bar. It is a bar, made of ice. With tables and benches made of ice. And glasses made of ice. And everything made of ice. We drank a cocktail there (wearing big warm coats) and went home afterwards. At home, I made a lovely dinner for Fedor, including a gorgeous chocolate fondue, as a result of which we are now feeling extremely fat and kinda sick. But it was verrrrry yummie, anyway!!! Anyways, now that we have internet at home, I will be able to update my blog more often... Ciao, OJ
Wow, that was one exhausting week in Holland!!! At least we had a little more time then usually is the case, so we had some extra time to see friends and family. After spending 2 days in Nijmegen, we went to the North to visit Groningen. Of course, this involved heavy drinking on Saturday and Sunday, and great eating (especially witth my brother Niels, who is an awesome chef!). After Groningen, we returned to Nijmegen, with my parents' car, as well as the rest of my stuff (books, furniture). On Wednesday, it was Fedor's great day: he got his Master degree in Latin and Ancient Greek! After the award ceremony, we had a family lunch, with his entire extended family as well as a fair share of people from my side. It was all very enjoyable. Just like the party in the evening! Even though many people had to work the next day, we still managed to do some heavy drinking and partying!!! Of course, many of Fedor's friends were very sad to see him go and quite a few tears were shed... But it was an appropriate goodbye. The next day consisted of cleaning the house and packing the car with all Fedors books and other stuff. On Friday, Fedors father and I drove to Milano with a filled-up car. The journey was actually very enjoyable and we had great weather throughout. Of course there was a bit of stress when we had to unpack the car, because of the parking situation etc, but it was not too bad. But once we had gotten everything into the flat we realised how much junk we had! I got a bit depressed thinking about where to leave everything and whether it was going to fit!
The next morning, when trying to find a parking space for the car, I managed to stupidly hit the pavement and blow the tyre of the car. STUPID. So we spent all morning on repairing the car, which I can now say I am able to do! In the afternoon and the next day, Fedor and his father went around to see the city, while I unpacked our stuff. This went amazingly well, and we are able to fit everything in quite easily! I will soon post some more photos of how it looks now that it is furnished. Very different, I can tell you! On Monday, Fedors father left again and we got back to Real Life. For me, this consisted of returning to Uni and trying to get started again. Officially, the academic year starts Monday 11th, but I wanted to get a head start. For Fedor, however, Real Life consisted of job interviews. Because suddenly, he received invitations for a number of interviews. And they went really well! In fact, they went so well that he now has 3 job offers, out of the 3 interviews he's had... OMG, this is great news!!! He can basically choose which job he will take (all English teaching), which is going to be a problem: he likes them all! And they pay quite well, too! Better then we expected in advance, anyway... So in conclusion: LIFE IS GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!! Ciao, OJ
Well, since visiting Rome, we have not been doing much at all. Fedor has been applying for jobs, I have spent time at University, but not studying intensively (at all), and we have been preparing a little bit for our next trip to the Netherlands: tomorrow, that is. Of course, this has meant buying presents for people, making preparations, etc, etc. But we are completely ready to rock-and-roll!
Last Monday, we went to my old flat in the Via de Cristoforis, for Marta's birthday. Micky had organised a little BBQ and we had a really, really great time eating and drinking, and drinking, and drinking, and drinking. At the end of this, we were full. And drunk. Of course, by now we had missed the last metro and the last tram, so we had to walk home in the end. Not my first time I walk between the Via de Cristoforis and the Naviglio area in the middle of the night, but definitely the first time of walking in that direction! But we had a really great time and it was nice to see the old flat again... Yesterday night, we met up with my friend Astrid, who was quickly dropping by Milano for a day or two, between holidays. It was nice to see her and it was nice to show her the flat: she was actually the first official visitor we had to our house!!! And we had a little, nice, aperitivo with her. Right, so for those of you who I will see in Holland, I am looking forward to it and see you in a few days. Ciao, OJ
Well, well, well, wasn't Rome a treat? Well, yes it was, in fact. Thanks to my personal guide, who knows A LOT about Roman ruins and everything related to Christianity, I have had a journey of Knowledge. Seriously, I learned so many new things, it is amazing! And I took so many pictures, you would really not believe that. But that is just because there is so much to see! Fedor divided our trip in several parts. Monday was Roma Antica, Tuesday was (mostly) Roma Christiana and Wednesday was Roma Sud (and rest). Unfortunately, one of the main Things-To-Do in the Roma Christiana theme didnt happen: the Vatican Museums (and Sistine Chapel) were closed!!!!! Very unfortunate, because this means I only got TWO Wonders of the World during the trip, instead of the three I was hoping for. But despite this, we did have a lovely time!!! Roma Antica included the following (most of these do not need explanation, so I will not give any. The other reason for not giving any is found in the fact that I actually do not remember all the names of everything we saw!) The second day was Roma Christiana, from which these were some of the highlights: Finally, on the Roma Sud and Rest Day, we went to the South (EUR, the ruins of the Terme and the Via Appia)
All in all, it was very exhausting but we did do a good deal of all there is to do in Rome in only 3 days! Yesterday and today, we rested and chilled. Of course, I will have to try and do a little bit of work for a few days, before we actually go travelling again! Well, that is, next week we are going to go to the Netherlands for a week! It will be a busy week, that one!!! Ciao, OJ
As our Sunday activity, we have made this little photo collage of our flat (yes, finally we took proper photos. However, excuse us for the lack of furnituture). We start at the entrance door to the building: After going through the door, you reach the courtyard, from where you look up to our floor: At our floor, by the railing: And the actual door to the flat: First, you enter into the kitchenette Next to which is the bathroom attached to the kitchen is the dining room (well, sort of) And on top of the kitchen/bathroom area is our bed/attic These last photos, I am not sure whether they will show here (some Blogger trouble). But they are pictures of our living room. With sofa, finally!!! Now, tomorrow we will go to Rome, so expect more photos then.... Ciao, OJ
No, I still havent got any better pictures from inside the flat... I do, however, have a picture of this: After Sadam sugar, of which I put a picture here on an earlier occassion, there is now Hell beer!!! How cool is that? I think it is kinda awesome... Furthermore, the main news is that Fedor had his first job interview today! And it went really well. Unfortunately, it is not a full-time job and he doesnt know for sure yet whether he is hired, but it is a good sign that his first interview went really well. I am very happy about that! Additionally, we received our new sofa today! This is a great thing, because we have been sitting on wooden chairs for a week now and were both kinda sick of that. And the fact that we didnt expect the sofa for another week, makes the reception even sweeter! (the landlord ordered it and told them to deliver it next week... For some reason they decided to deliver too early: I am not complaining!) Yesterday and today, I have dedicated time to writing down my ideas for a paper. I am considering the possibility to use a spatial econometric analysis approach to the spill-over effects of conflict on the GDP-growth of neighbouring countries. Now, wouldnt that be interesting? I am not entirely sure, however, whether my idea is feasible or not. So I am still in the process of analysis. And tomorrow will be the last day before my week-long holiday. That is, the air-conditioning will be switched off for a week, which means NO WORK. On Monday, Fedor and I will leave for Rome for 3 days, and I am really looking forward to that too! Not in the least because it will give me another 3 Wonders of the World, of course! Finally, another photo from the courtyard of our new building (you actually cannot see our flat, but we are on the 3rd floor) Ciao, OJ
Our first week of living together has been one of holiday. Of course, we both had to get used to our new flat and we needed to discover our new suburb (the supermarket situation is less than optimal...). Unfortunately, this has not actually included taking any more nice pictures of the flat. I will do so at one point, and I will then put them on this website. For now, there will be no more. In addition to our little suburb tours (and buying things for the flat), we finally went to see Portofino on Sunday. Portofino is listed in the Wonders of the World List, so we expected it to be of the same calibre as the Eifel Tower or the Sistine Chapel. Well, it isnt. It is a very cute town and it is very pretty, but that is really just it. I have seen many other cute villages that were about equally cute and cuddly, but that are nowhere near the top 100 Wonders of the World (mind you, it is only number 100). However, the trip was pleasant, we got to see the sea and had a nice little swim. So it was totally worth sitting in the train for 6 hours (in total). And we got a few little photo opportunities. Today, we decided that our holiday period was over. I went back to Uni to work (and I resubmitted my paper about Latvia!!! Woohoooo) and Fedor came along to make preparations for his job search. He sent out another 15 applications or so and has a list of hotels to go and see. So that will hopefully pay off some time soon! Ciao, OJ
Wow, I have finished moving! Yesterday was a crazy day: moving, electricians, shops, landlord, etc, etc. But I managed to move my stuff into our new flat! Which reminds me, I have too much stuff! This is only the stuff I already have in Milano: I have more in NL and Fedor obviously brings more too!
The flat is really great, I am sure now. Unfortunately, it isnt actually complete yet. The sofa will be delivered in 2-3 weeks, the stove will be delivered in September (so there is a temporary electric one...) and we need to bring more furniture from the Netherlands in a month. Finally, there was no mattress yet and the shop I bought it, didnt deliver until today... So I had to sleep on top of my duvet, on the mezzanine.
For now, I havent really got any good pictures yet, but when Fedor is here (in an hour: woohoo), we will take some good pictures etc and I will post them here. I will only add one more picture. Last night, the weather was quite stormy again, like it often is in Milano, and this was the view from our window.
Now, I will go pick up Fedor to show him OUR NEW FLAT!!! Ciao, OJ
Recently, I havent been posting much, but that is mainly because I have nothing to say. I spent my days at Uni, kinda working, but mainly hiding from the heat. I do some work, but little else. The only exciting thing I did this week was a Polish vodka night on Tuesday, which basically consisted of drinking rather copious amounts of Polish vodka. And it also reminded me how happy I was to be moving to the other part of the city, because the 45 minute walk home after the party wasnt fun. At all. Neither was trying to sleep in the horrific heat, after going to bed at 5.45AM. Didnt really work of course, so I felt fcked all day long the next day. Furthermore, I have been preparing (psychologically and otherwise) to moving on Tuesday. I cannot wait!!!! Well actually, I cannot wait till the moment that I have actually finished moving. I hate moving. Especially in the heat: it will be hell. But it's gonna be great to have moved!!! The final interesting thing that happened today is that I finally solved my referees' problems. I received two referee reports a while ago about an article and both suggested basically the same change to my paper. However, their suggestion would have 1) led to an extremely inconvenient and large amount of extra work and 2) would not really have been possible because I do not completely have all the necessary data to follow up on the suggestion. Also, it was a suggestion that has never been followed up in the general literature about the subject (which the referees were obviously unfamiliar with). And today, after one month of thinking, I FINALLY thought of a watertight argument why the additional calculations they asked for are not necessary. So instead of using a lame "but-that-would-be-so-much-work"-excuse, I can now prove that their suggestion is stupid! I am ECSTATIC!!!! Ciao, OJ
Saturday night, Meghan came to visit. We had quite a few drinks, and a little aperitivo, and some more drinks, and some more drinks. Obviously, as a result of that, I didnt really feel like going to Portofino on Sunday, as I had planned. Instead, I decided to go to Como, to rest and cool down. After all, on Sundays, there is not air conditioning at University, so I needed to find something else to do. Also, on Saturday, I discovered that the cleaner at University threw out all my notes for one of the research projects I was working on: I am not happy. And I AM frustrated... Goddammit. Today, a little work, some background research on what I am going to be doing next year. And I found my perfect topic. Something that is HOT. Something that is totally happening at the Worldbank right now. Something that everyone is working on right now... Yes, I am happy about that. Ciao, OJ
Today I heard I passed for my Political Economics Field Exam as well!!! That means that I have finished my first year. Again, the grade wasnt great, a Pass, but in this case, I am simply happy to have passed... And to be among the minority who has passed all their courses at the first attempt! Additionally, I went to see Laurent, the new landlord, yesterday. And we arranged some minor matters that we still had to discuss. Even though I havent actually signed the contract yet, because he needed these details first, it is all settled. And he seems like a really nice and trustworthy guy. So I am very, very happy!!! All this, of course, wouldnt have been possible without the help of my Polish friend Dominica, who speaks proper Italian and has translated a lot of times for me (and made a lot of phonecalls too!!!) Of course, now that we are sure to have a flat, this is also an excuse to make real purchases for the house too. The (new) kitchen will not have kitchenware, which is fine, because we have it already. But, in order to survive the first month, we do need some things (our stuff wont arrive until the end of august). So I went to a fabulous shop yesterday, which happened to be in its last days of a closing down sale. And I got some brandname kitchen knives, and a pan, for practically nothing! I was momentarily doubting about the set of 3 glasses that had a 90% discount. But when I realised that 12 euros was the (after discount) price for THREE glasses, I thought better of it. I am not surprised the shop has one bankrupt, I should add... As for the rest of the time, I spent all days at Uni doing some research. And hiding from the heat, as temperatures have now risen to the upper upper thirties (or lower forties, depending on which website you consult) and the University offices have airconditing... Ciao, OJ
Yesterday, I celebrated my Blogger Birthday. I just turned 1, as a blogger... How cool is that? For the rest, things seem to be going well. The owner of the flat told me all was well (but I dont trust anyone anymore until I sign a contract: I will see him on Friday), so I guess I have a plac to move to in 2 weeks. Also, I have finally received the first grade of one of my field exams (the resit, which I took on my own. And it took them 2 weeks to correct it!!!). I received a Pass, which is not very good. But at least, I passed. And considering the fact that, at least for one of the exercises, my question was waaaaaaay more difficult than in the original exam, and because of that question I was actually a bit worried about the final result, I am quite relieved to have passed it. That was my Public Economics Field Exam. Now, the long wait starts for the result of my Political Economics Field Exam.... *sigh* Ciao, OJ
AAAARGHHH. Today I found out that the Bitch Landlady didnt want me: FUCK.
Of course this put me into panic mode and flathunting mode... I went to see 3 flats today. One cute little thing with a fireplace, a balcony and about 50 square meters, quite far down the Naviglio Grande: Nice, but not quite nice enough. Another one I saw was big (55-60 square meters), nicely done, nice floors, nice balcony. But in a very bad area (Naviglio area, but not very nice), with many foreigners (and shootings etc) in the area. Also, very noisy area and a bit more expensive then other places. But even though the flat looks very nice, the thing that tipped the balance was the kitchen: Small, messy and unpleasant. The final one I saw today, which I hope to be take was right between the Naviglio Grande and the Pta Genova Metro Station (both about 100 meters away) and is a small, very cute, flat looking out on the Naviglio Church. Located at the top floor of a central courtyard, it is in the process of renovation right now. In fact, the kitchen isnt there yet and the rooms still needs to be furnished... But it does have a great (working) fireplace and is built in such a way that the sleeping area is a large area above the bathroom and kitchen. Basically, this adds an extra 8 m2 or so to the amount of living space and then it really is not bad at all. I am very excited about this flat, and it is actually significantly nicer than the flat I finally didnt get. It is a bit more expensive (850 plus additional costs, which will add up to about 950-1000 euros), but it is very cute. And the location is simply PERFECT. So, I am quite happy (even though I am not sure whether I will indeed get it). Btw, another little funny thing today was the fact that the current tenant of the second flat I saw will actually move to the flat I am not getting. What are the chances of that? He opened the door and said "hey, I know you. We have met..." And it turned out we met at the elevator at the Via Terulliano flat..... Freaky.... Ciao, OJ
Well, today Marike and Marjolijn left to Venezia. They are friends of Fedor who stayed with me for four days. They mostly entertained themselves, while I was at Uni, and at night we enjoyed some nice dinners. For the rest, as I said, I have spent most of my time at Uni: working on a paper. And trying to save my laptop. I have partly succeeded in this last thing. I saved my most important data and the computer works again. A little, tiny bit, that is. Half of Windows is now working and there are 2 programmes that run in Windows: Internet Explorer and Winamp (to listen to music). For the rest, nothing works. No MSN, not Media players, no access to Windows Security settings, no nothing. Oh well, I am already glad I saved my data and I can use the internet at home. What else could I possibly wish for? In other relevant news, I met the possible new landlady yesterday. Apparently, she STILL has not made a decision who she wants in the flat, but she is now only doubting between me and one other person. On Monday, I wil finally know for sure! I did already have a look at the contract (four years... OMG... But with a 6-month cancellation period if you want to get rid of it earlier). I also realised I may have been drunk when I went to see the flat the first time, because it looked different in my memory than it did now. The gorgeous wooden floors in the entire appartment, were not actually there, for example. Does that make me completely insane? Only the bedroom has a gorgeous wooden floor, while the living room is simply tiled. Oh well, we will see: At least it is cheap! And I have looked around and there are many other flats available still too. So if the Landlady decides to say no, I will just get something else! Anyways, time for my afternoon nap (I am having a day off work today), please think happy thoughts for me... (as the Italians would say to wish luck to a person: 'in the ass of the whale!', to which I would say 'I hope he doesnt shit!!!!') Ciao, OJ
Well, well, well, wasnt that a crazy weekend! On Friday, Ellen and Kim arrived for the weekend. Of course it was great to see them again and we enjoyed some leisure at home, because it was actually raining (!!!). At night, we had aperitivo in the Naviglio and visited the Fontanella. On Saturday, more leisure activities were planned, such as shopping and visiting Duomo. A rather unfortunate addition to that is the fact that my laptop gave up and died. That is, it refuses to start at all now. It should not be necessary to say that this is not a good thing!!! On Sunday, we visited the Cimitero and Hightech, where Kim and Ellen bought some gorgeous things (and it was all on sale).
At night, of course, there was The Match. We watched in a bar in Naviglio, together with some of my friends. After the penalty kicks that "we" so amazingly won (!!!!!!!!!), we walked towards Duomo. Crazy, crazy scenes!!! From Youtube, I also found this little movie:
Unfortunately, Ellen and Kim had to leave early next morning, so we didnt stay out very late. We did, however, get lost on the way home (as a resulting of entering Parco Sempione, but they would not let us out anymore). So we finally didnt arrive home until 2AM. But that was enough to get some sleep before getting up early to bring the grrrls back to the Station and back to the Airport. I spent the rest of the day at Uni, trying to recuperate my laptop. To no avail, unfortunately, sofar. Last night, I finally managed to meet up with a Dutch girl I know from the Internet who is doing an internship in Milano. We had great fun and quite a few drinks! Today, finally, is another day of attempting to recuperate my laptop. I did find out that it is probably the victim of a virus........ Ciao, OJ
Crazy, crazy week. Of course, I needed to be studying hard for te first days of the week, but there was also a bit of time for other things. Firstly, I had to (get someone to) call the landlady of the flat I want: She was supposed to get in touch with me "at the end of last week", but when I hadnt heard anything by Monday, I decided it was time to call her. It turned out that she had sent me a message, which simply hadnt arrived! Unfortunately, she took the absence of any response from my side as a sign that I didnt want the flat anymore, so she started looking again. Now that I finally did get in touch with her, she had already left Milano again and made new appointments with people to come and see the appartment!!! After clearing up this issue, I got in touch with her via e-mail (she writes very good english, it turned out: probably speaks it too), and she said she was going to make a decision about who gets the flat this week. Now, today she replied to me that we could meet up in Milano next week. I hink that implies that she principally chooses me for the flat, under the condition that she actually likes me. But I am not entirely sure. However, in addition to this studying and the crazy flat-situation, there was also The Match: Italia-Germania... on Tuesday. We watched it in a bar at the Naviglio and when the match was finally decided (in the 119th bloody minute!), the city exploded with joy. These are two videos I found on the Internet about the celebrations in Milano:
Please note, this was the SEMIFINAL. The final will be even crazier!!! It took me a long time to get home through this madness, but of course I did need to: my final Field Exam was the next morning! The Field Exam went reasonably. I have done better in the past, but I have also done worse. I probably did pass, although I am not 100$% sure about it. At night, we (me and two others who did a resit) obviously had to celebrate the end of our exams. And we had to watch the other semifinal that decided who will be the opponent on Sunday (fcking French, bleeeh). So we had another aperitivo, and some beers afterwards. By this time, there were only two of us left (me and Astrid) and we decided that we want to go dancing somewhere. Unfortunately, everything turned out to be closed! We did spend a total of 75 euros on bloody taxi fare, though!!! Which really is a lot, considering how cheap taxis are here! The worst thing is that we finally did fail in finding a club to go dancing and I ended up at home at around 3.30AM. Today, I have done my post-exam cleaning and laundry etc... Always good to make a fresh start after an exam, right? And of course I had to clear out my mess before Kim and Ellen arrive: Tomorrow!!! They are very lucky, as the temperature has gone down significantly. Only 28 degrees today!!!! Ciao, OJ
I guess, I managed... Although this will be a quick try to find whether I really did or not. Anyways, the first picture is the last one from the party... At a very late hour. And the other pictures are flowers on the terrace :D Ciao, OJ
I am having trouble posting picures, but I am not entirely sure why. I had the same problem yesterday, when I had a final party picture I wanted to add, but didnt manage. Today I wanted to add some extra pictures of the flowers on our terrace, but the whole picture-adding-situation is rather shit. I am going to try and solve it and then I will add them later. Today, I was at Uni to study all day. Unfortunately, on Sundays we are not supposed to work. The University makes it very clear that is what they think: In winter, there is no heating on Sunday and in Summer, there is no air conditioning. So it was a hot and sweaty day there! But, I did get a fair bit of work done, so I am rather satisfied with myself. Now, I will try and see if I can solve the picture-situation. If so, I will post more pictures later. Ciao, OJ
Well, that was an interesting exam. I predicted only 1 of the questions correctly (out of 3), unfortunately. Overall, I felt reasonably ok about the result. Let's put it this way: I have done several exams that I felt significantly worse about, and passed them anyway. So, even though it wasnt fun at all, I reckon the result isnt going to kill me. As this was the official last day of the Field Exam period, everybody was in a great mood after finishing (I will do the resit of my other field exam, in Public Economics, on Wednesday, so I am actually not finished at all!). We first enjoyed a good lunch and I then went home to get myself organised and try to cool down (which is difficult, considering the heat!). At night, there was of course Italy vs Ukraine in the Quarter Final of the World Cup, which was rather interfering with our supposed party to celebrate the end of the exams. But my friends had decided to watch the game in a bar next to my house, so they could come and party afterwards. Unfortunately, they arrived a bit late and the bar was completely full. So, suddenly, at 9PM (2 hours before I planned), about 15 of them suddenly arrived at my place to watch the football here!!! Well, I can officially say it was cosy, and FCKING HOT! After Italy had wiped Ukraine of the map, we continued the party outside. Lots of other random people showed up (friends of friends of friends), as well as Nina and Antonio. And it turned into one big booze fest! An attempt to go to a club nearby failed as a result of us not being allowed into any clubs. So we ended up returning home, where we had left Idil sleeping inside and Micky sleeping on the terrace... All in all, it was an AWESOME party!!! Obviously, today was not quite so awesome... In fact, today was a very bad day. But mine wasnt nearly as bad as Meghans, because she was actually moving today! She (and Micky (carried boxes and furnutre all day long in the 35+ degree heat: I do not envy them...) Now, I am watching Bra-Fra and I will go to bed early. Because I really have to study for the Field Exam on Wednesday! Ciao, OJ
