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

Und jetzt?

Well, wasn't that the week-and-a-half? As posted earlier, I went to Berlin for a job market presentation at the German Institute for Economic Research. It went really well, and it turns out I know even more people at that institute than I thought! Several friends of mine actually work there, and I even did my kind-of-interview (because the department head was ill) with a guy I had met several times before. After returning from Berlin on Thursday, I had half a day of running around trying to arrange things in Milan, before taking the afternoon flight with Fedor to Bremen. In Bremen, in the middle of some-sort-of-a-blizzard, we rented a car and drove to Groningen to celebrate Jorryt and Lilian's wedding. They secretly (well, not for us) got married in Sydney (more info) and threw a big party to celebrate this. We were happy to participate in the event and enjoyed a great party!
The next day, we did our Northern-Netherlands-round, visiting both my brothers and my parents: it was nice to see everyone, especially the little kids. Isn't it amazing how fast they grow? Anyway, we might have to go back again in June because my niece Leah specifically invited us to come to her birthday and it's impossible to say no to her!
On Sunday, we drove back to Bremen and came back to Milan. In the meanwhile, I had received a message from the department head that he would like to talk to me on the phone and we made an appointment for Tuesday. So we spoke for about an hour and in the end, I was offered a job!

What?

Yes, I was offered a job!!! And it's an amazingly interesting project to work on, with some great colleagues in a brilliant place. So I am currently considering it (and discussing some of the aspects of the job), but it is highly likely that our next station is going to be BERLIN! And in fact, it is also a rather speedy change as well: If I accept the job, I will start April 1.....

(and no, it's not a joke)

So that's the great news of the day! I am totally excited, because the project is really interesting. I will discuss the project a bit more extensively when I accept the offer...

In other news, I paid another visit to the bloody-buggery-bastardy licence office and was surprisingly effective. The lady at the desk was very insecure whether she was doing the right thing, but I managed to leave behind all my documents and I received a 60-day temporary licence. Supposedly, I will be able to pick up my new licence (if all goes well) in six weeks! (just in time, before leaving the country!). Also in other news, we're going on a couples weekend in Piemonte this weekend and I am totally looking forward to it! We'll be with five couples going to relax and enjoy some wine, food and each other's company. I feel extremely burgerlijk, but oh well: shit happens!!!

That was all the good news for now, I will definitely tell more about this job, once I have decided to accept the offer...

Ciao,
OJ

EDIT: In fact, I checked and I didn't post before I was going to go to Berlin for an interview. Oh well, there you have it, anyway...

I may have lost the battle...

.... but may still win the war!

OJ vs Italian bureaucracy, round 15: "driver's licence edition"

Today, I made another valiant attempt at getting an Italian driver's licence and failed. I did manage to get extremely close though, and I hope that next time I may manage! Anyway, the story:

I have a Dutch licence and it's expering in a few weeks. But thanks to European standardisation etc, one must replace a licence at the place of residence (as opposed to place of nationality), as long as one is within the EU. This means I have to get an Italian licence. So, I initiated some internet searching months ago and found many scary stories. However, when I found the website of the local Licence Office, it all seemed fairly straightforward. Seemed, that is.

Stage one was getting a doctor's declaration, so some time ago, i tried to make an appointment. However, an appointment could only be made with a translation of my current licence and a stamp from the Consulate. So I called the Consulate who told me that was impossible. However, apparently, they made a deal with the Licence Office that a Dutch "declaration of validity", together with the "declaration of validity regarding the declaration of validity" (I kid thee not) from the Consulate, would be sufficient. So, I requested the Dutch DoV, which obviously had to be done by mail, and cannot be done via the internet. However, i wasn't willing to give up too easily and continued my internet-search until I found, on the Ministery of Transportation website, an official list of documents that did NOT include the aforementioned documents.

So, I tried the doctor's office again, this time not really particularly mentioning that it was a licence conversion that I was looking for. And yes, success: appointment made! Of course, this means the payment of 36€ for the doctor, 14€ in tax, 9€ for the licence office and 29€ for the licence office (plus the transaction costs for all these separate contributions that can only be done in post offices), but I managed to see him. Of course, he then realised I did not have a translation or DoV, so he at first refused to sign. But thanks to my print of the ministery's website, I was able to convince him to sign anyway. Victory was mine!!!!

Unfortunately, the Licence Office is actually outside Milan, so I tried to double check whether I had all the documents by calling them several times, but to no avail (IF they answer the phone, they randomly hang up as soon as you ask a question: it's very odd). So this morning, I went for the office directly. Good news: it was open. Good news nr 2: I only had to queue for 1 hour, good news nr 3: my documents were COMPLETE...

Wait, what? I have never heard that before at an Italian office when I get there for the first time... I thought I was going to faint from surprise!!! "Sure", the kind lady says, "you can come and pick up your new licence in a month or so", and gets ready to staple my licence to the request... Uh, wait, what? Staple my licence to the request? Are you crazy, I need my licence!!! And no, a temporary replacement licence is not enough: I am renting a car in Germany this weekend...

"Oh well, in that case: come back another time, and we'll see whether your documents are complete then..."


NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I was SO close! By next week, when I will make the next attempt, I am sure they will have come up with 10 new documents for me to bring etc... And I was SO close now....... *sigh*

Running tally for my Italian licence: 110€

Ciao,
OJ

ATMosfera, here we go!

We were lucky to be able to go on the ATMosfera this weekend already, because when Fedor called them to make a reservation, it turned out they had just had a cancellation moments before. So yesterday, we made our way to Castello, from where our trip departed. And I must say, it really is pretty cool! Awfully decadent of course, but pretty cool nonetheless. It's a 2.5 hour journey through Milan, seeing some of the nice places here and in the meantime you get nice food (I had the fish dinner, Fedor the meat) and wine! Absolutely worth doing, although considering the cost, probably not something we'll be doing again!
Just a few pictures (and yes, it was pissing it down with rain: it's been pissing down rain for about 3 weeks now. Don't get me started!)

 

 

 

The rest of the week has been pretty relaxed. With the burden of the dissertation of my shoulders, the burden of finding a job has become a little heavier, but it has also become my main focus. Wednesday, I'll be flying to Berlin, to do my job presentation at the DIW... Let's see where that will lead... In the meantime, while it isn't leading anywhere, I just send more applications everywhere!
Tonite we're going to do pizza with a bunch of friends, which will be nice. It'll include a friend of mine from Minnesota who is here to do his job talk for an Assistant Professor position at Bocconi.

Oh, and contrary to this week, I have actually remembered some of the things I have read this week that I though might be interesting. Here are some cool links:
- Italians propose to ban foreign food, because "foreigners are willing to work hard and that is unfair competition" LINK
- Now that the paper version of my PhD is finished, I guess I have to focus on expressing my dissertation through....... dance! Read more HERE
- Research shows that cows-with-names give more milk than cows that do not get their own identity..... My friend Felix, however, wonders whether the increase in production warrants the amount of effort of having to learn your cows' names... LINK
Well, I am sure there were other things I wanted to mention, but this'll have to be it for now!
Ciao,
OJ

...and it's DONE

Woohoooo, on Friday, I have finally handed in my dissertation: it is DONE. And wow, it is quite a relief, I must say! Of course there are many other things to worry about, but having this dissertation out of the way is really a great boost for me. Now I still have to wait until the defense, which for bureacratic reasons has been postponed until May. I don't really mind, because my getting-paid is contingent on my not-having-defended-my-thesis-yet, so this postponement is not a problem for me at all! Some day soon i will upload the whole thesis on this blog so all you interested people (ie NO-ONE) can read the thing for yourself...

Of course the first thing I did after finishing was to get ill. Part of a long-lasting tradition, Felix brought another killer German virus (the Felix Virus) and I was one of its first victims. However, this did not stop me (or Felix) from celebrating both our birthdays last Friday with a great party in a bar nearby. I got exceedingly wasted (hey, I was also celebrating my dissertation hand-in, so I had a good excuse), similar to last weekend's movie night with Lou and Micky, so I ended up spending the whole saturday nursing my headache and generic misery... HOWEVER, I did get an absolutely awesome present from my mates: Dinner for two in the ATMosfera, which is the driving tram-restaurant operated by the Milan transport authority. Very, very, very cool! I have been wanting to go in te ATMosfera for ages, but never had the opportunity until now! Of course, Fedor is also very happy about it...

For the rest, all is quite well. I am in a bit of a low for my Italy-love, which has to do with the university bureaucracy and lack of communication. Another interesting one was some christian extremist begging letter I received this week. I get them all the time (it's Italy after all), but this was directed personally at me. However, it had the exact typo in my name that our internet provider Fastweb also has. In other words, that means that Fastweb, despite the contract that SPECIFICALLY FORBIDS it, sold our addresses to some christian extremist organsation. That really, really pisses me off!!! And in Italy, it is highly illegal as well, because they have some really strict privacy legislation here...

Which reminds me, thinking of legislation: i am having to renew my drivers' licence. But long live the European Union, licences have been standardized and as a result, you have to get your new licence in your country of residence. So that means, I have to get an Italian licence. But obviously, that is easier said than done! So far, I have not come much closer to the licence, despite several attempts and several trips (to the Consulate, for example). However, this Tuesday, I do have my appointment with the Medico. Of course, you need a medical certificate to have your licence renewed (uhm, what? Wtf is the medico supposed to do? Noone knows! It is just a way to get 50 euros of the people, adding further to the running cost of renewal). Anyway, I am very frustrated about this bureaucratic bullshit in Italy: I'll keep you posted how this is doing...

Ciao,
OJ

PS WHAT DA FUCK?

PPS Hmmm, I found some more interesting links recently, but now I cant remember. Mental note to self: post links immediately when you find them!

6 more days...

... until I have to hand in my dissertation. And yes, I'll be fine. Of course it's not finished yet, but let's be realistic: it'll never ever be truely finished (well, that is, until it's been published in Econometrica or the AER........). Anyways, I'm dotting the i's and something-ing the t's (I dont remember the saying and i'm too lazy to look it up right now. Maybe it's "crossing"?).

Of course there is also the little job-hunting thing going on at the same time, but I'm kinda keeping that on hold for now. Although I did finally hear from the job interview in Paris, back in November: The infamous "there were several very strong candidates, and it was a difficult choice, but we regret to inform you that... blabla". Well, at least I know now, and I'm still proud I was among the last 13. One of the interviews I had in San Francisco also definitively said NO to me, but I have not heard from all yet. This could mean that they are simply not looking anymore, but it could also mean that they have arranged for first-round fly-outs while possibly organising another round if they don't manage to hire anyone among their first-rounders. I don't know, but we'll see!

About the job market, I was in London last week, as well. There was a job market seminar thing going on there, consisting of poster presentations and representatives of different universities going around looking into whom to interview. It was all highly confusing and unpleasant, in all honesty, so I was quite happy when it was over. I spoke to some people, and we'll see whether anything comes of that... It was a nice trip though, anyway, with Fedor (who came with me) being able to meet up with friends and me meeting up with my cousin and lots of friends as well. And it was our first time ever of staying at a Hilton Hotel (hey! It just happened to be the cheapest option nearby...), which was very pleasant. The room may have been tiny, but the AMAZING breakfast compensated for that...

Oh, and it's been my birthday as well in the meantime. We'll be partying the night away on the 30th, when I'll celebrate it together with Felix and i will also celebrate having handed in my dissertation that day......

Ciao,
OJ

Job Market: Fun For the Family!

To start with, I am VERY happy right now. After a month long struggle, having to run some programmes on my computer that re-did the analysis in my third paper in a rather different way, I FINALLY got the result today. And not only does the previously found result still hold, it is bigger and better and stronger and clearer than EVER BEFORE!!! I had been quite worried about this thing, because if the results would not be the same, I would've had to find a damned good explanation before finishing my dissertation. And as the final deadline is on January 30th (ie, in 16 days), this would obviously not have been so great....

Anywayssssss, on to more topical things. Xmas with Werner and José was, as expected, great! We had a lot of fun together and of course a great xmas meal. Particularly the Portuguese [i]vongole[/i] (ie clams or cockles), using the recipe of my friend Marta, were AMAZING! I think I am officially a vongole-fan... anyways, after xmas, there were a few days of work (at home, as the university was closed), before flying to San Francisco, via NYC and Salt Lake City. Unexpectedly, everything went well and I actually made it to SF in time for New Years Eve. however, I was completely exhausted and didnt do much. Also, the friends I was staying with were very, very pregnant (which reminds me: happy day of birth to little Robert who arrived in the world today! We are having a little baby-boom around us. With 3 kids born in the past 2 weeks and 3 new people telling us they were pregnant as well....).

San Francisco was, of course, beautiful as ever before.

However, I wasn't there for its beauty, but instead for its Job Market. The annual American Economic Association meeting took place in SF this year and the annual Job Market is directly associated with that. I had number of interviews, some of which went better than others, and it was all quite stressfull and unsettling. Visiting university representatives in their hotel suites, where the interviews were taking place, and running through the city, meeting up at the Hilton with lots of random acquaintances: it was crazy! However, it has sorted to some effect already, having already been called back by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in Berlin, who invited me to Berlin in February for the next (and supposedly final) stage of the application process. So maaaaaybe, we might end up moving to Berlino!
Anyways, at the end of the job market, I had rented a car with which I drove to Yosemite National Park (my 34th wonder from the Hillman List), which is absolutely stunning!

I had two days of driving through the park and doing lots and lots of hiking and it was great. F.ing cold, but great. Lots of snow and all, but great... The hotel I had was also very pleasant, with 2 large double beds and free internet (for less than 50€ per night), so it was a great success. Driving back to San Francisco wasn't much fun (very small car between lots of big trucks + I hate driving + it was really busy around SF), but at least I survived. Quite cool is the fact that fuel really is ridiculously underpriced in the US. For my nearly 1000km of travel in really mountainous (fuel-burning) areas, I only spent about 25€ of fuel!!!

After that nice experience, I took a night flight to New York City, where I had the day to spend. Of course, i started of with collecting my 35th wonder: the New York Skyline:

 

Seen here from the Top of The Rock (ie the Rockefeller Center). I then went to Time Square and to meet up with my cousin Juli, her husband and their newborn (about 6 months old: jeepers creepers, we really are in the middle of a baby-boom). Then Central Park and back to the Airport for my night flight back to Milano. Obviously, by the time I got home I was veeeeerrrry happy to see Fedor, but also verrrrrryyyy jetlagged. But by the time I could go to Uni again (Monday) I had mostly gotten over that (the jetlag, that is).
So this week has been all about work, work, work, continuing to try and finish the aforementioned analysis and preparing my poster presentation for the London Job Market, which is where we'll be going on Friday. London Hilton, here we come!!!

Ciao,
OJ

Placeholder

I am just posting here to let you know that I am alive! I hope to be able to post more extensively tonite. In summary, Job Market was fun and interesting, I had a great trip and some good interviews. One call-back for a fly-out so far... A fly-out to... (moment of tension to build up the surprise)........ Berlin! (ok, probably not as impressive as possibly hoped for, but I'm pretty happy about it!).

Anyways, tonite I will post more (if Fedor really will go to the swimming pool as promised, that is...)

xmas holidays are nearly here!

Two-and-a-half weeks of agony have gone by. The agony of being on the job market, that is. The OECD in Paris still has not got back to me. In response to me asking, I was told that the final decision had not yet been made. For now, i am still taking that as a kind-of-positive sign (it's not NO...), but I guess hope is not great on that front. And, in all honesty, the number of interviews in San Francisco is also kinda disappointing. I'll obviously continue blaming the market, and the fact that I'm in the wrong field (which, by the way, is definitely true....) to be succesful. Oh well, I'll just have to do my best in those few interviews I have. And after all, it could have been worse! I could have had none... Anyways, my forced xmas holidays are nearly starting (due to the fact that the university is closed between 24dec and 2jan), so it's all quite rushed right now to finish as much as possible before then. Of course, in-the-house, there is also much to do, such as preparing for xmas dinner! Friends of Fedor are coming over, and it will be up to me to prepare an 11-course xmas dinner (details follow afterwards)...

One thing I hadnt posted about yet is our trip to Sicily, a week ago. It was one of my xmas presents to Fedor: a return trip to Trapani, Sicily (I HEART Ryanair). While we had a lot of fun, and had some fantastic food, the trip was not quite the success it could have been. Sicily is not a place to be in December, while relying on public transport. And we did, because Trapani itself is not all that interesting, so Fedor had selected 3 things around Trapani he wanted to do. And while we tried hard, getting up early and exhausting all options (bus, train, walking), we ended up with a total score of ONE of THREE. Even Meatloaf would agree, that one out of three is actually pretty bad... So for any future visitors to Sicily: RENT A CAR. it's not that expensive, and it makes things so much easier!

However, as for the things we DID see:

 

In the background, you can see the mountain Erice, with on top of it the old town of Erice, one of the places we wanted to go. However, after trying a first bus station, we found this huge field of asphalt. Apparently a bus station of some kind, except that no buses seemed to have been there for at least two years. In the end, after walking for quite some time, we did make it to the mountain, but when we got there the funicular was out of service, due to strong wind (it's an ISLAND, for crying out loud! Of course it's windy. And it wasnt all that windy, anyway!) and climbing the whole mountain on foot was a bit much for us.

 

So we, once again, returned to the train station, where we spent quite a lot of time, in general! At least, they had a lovely little tropical garden, as you can see...

 

 

Finally, we did make it to Segesta (dont ask about the way back though.....), which was pretty amazing. It's in the middle of nowhere and constists of an old Greek temple and this city, with theatre on top of a large hill, from which you can see very far across the island. Here, as opposed to Erice, it actually WAS windy... Anyway, it was a beautiful place to be and totally worth it.

However, let me repeat it, for future reference: rent a car.

And I have taken this lesson to heart for some of my future trips and decided to rent a car when I am going to visit Yosemite in two weeks. Doing that on public transport is bound to be absolute hell, so a rental is definitely going to be a better plan! This is part of my trip to the AEA meeting in San Francisco for the Job Market. I will be in San Francisco from december 31 until January 6. Then I go to Yosemite and fly out on the 8th, to New York. I will have a whole day in NYC and take the night flight back to Milan in order to arrive back on the 10th. It'll be lovely! And I will have short week to recover from that trip, before going to the London job market the week after, from the 16th until the 19th (that will be the first time Fedor is actually going to join me on any of my business trips!).

So enough travelling in the near future!!!

For now, however, I will wish everyone happy holidays and a nice and quiet (or not, whatever you want) xmas!!!!

Ciao,
OJ

Immacolata

Happy immocolata everyone! That is, the day of Madonna's Immaculate Collection (uhm, or Conception: I never know which one) and therefore, a forced Free Day! At least this year, the holiday of San Ambrogio was on a Sunday (yesterday), so that was not an additional free day. Oh well, while I would have preferred to be working right now, I guess having a three-day-weekend is not too bad either! It has given me the opportunity to put up all the xmas decorations and make our xmas card for this year.

Particularly the decorating-thing was quite a crisis. I had decided to finally go for a more subdued and traditional xmas tree this year, instead of the horrible collection of light and colour that I usually apply. But, it turned out, that all my neutral xmas lights didnt work anymore! Can you say drama? Anyways, I bought new ones and quickly decorated the tree into a lovely red-white-silve ensemble. And we managed to buy the first xmas presents as well, so it all looks lovely now!

Yesterday, we also got the opportunity to enjoy the O Bej, o bej, market: the yearly San Ambrogio-related event with lots of stalls selling food and other goodies. But, strangely enough, NO mulled wine this year!!!! (ie gluehwein, vin brulée or vin chaud). Quite a disappointment, I must say. Oh well, we enjoyed some on Saturday already, home-brewn and gorgeous!

From the Job Market, there has been no news, apart from the odd rejection here and there (oh, you think that just because I know nothing about Urband Development and India, that makes me an undesirable candidate for working on your Urban Development Project in Hyderabad, India??? Well, FINE! I don't even WANT to work for you anymore!). So in the meanwhile, i just continue labouring on my dissertation and assisting the students that come to me by the dozen nowadays...

Ciao,
OJ

Back from Paris

While Fedor is trying to communicate through Skype in the background, I have time to write something here. The whole Skype thing is pretty random... I know lots of people who use it a lot, and they enjoy it lots, but I have never been able to get into it. Whenever I try to connect, it doesnt work or there is something annoying going on. Skype is simply not my thing. And apparently, this has rubbed off on Fedor, because his communication isnt going very smoothly either....

Anyways, I have spent the last weeks sending more applications, as well as some tutoring and a bit of teaching etc. All in all, it wasnt half-bad! But last week, we went for a trip to the Netherlands, where my brothers and I had organised a surprise sort of party for my mother, who is turning 60. She was indeed surprised (as she should) to see all of us and we had a really good time. It was particularly enjoyable to have to cycle in the snow and walk around in the snow etc....... :-S

Anyways, afterwards, Fedor flew back to Milan and I went to Maastricht, where I was going to go to a conference. I stayed in one of the nicest hotels that I have ever been in (special price, from 200 for 57 euros a night!) and the conference was fairly interesting. I met a few people, and was able to present my paper on education in the Basque region, which I hadnt done often before. On Tuesday, however, directly after my presentation I had to run to catch a train to Paris! Because I had a REAL job interview!!! For the most awesome job EVER at the OECD Development Centre. The interview happened in the afternoon and it went pretty well!!! However, there are a total of 13 candidates, so I am still not giving myself a great chance of making it... But we'll know next week!

After returning, there were again more things that needed to be done, which is fine. But I also received my first interview request for during the ASSA/AEA meetings in San Francisco in January!!!! For a job at the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin!!! Again, we'll wait to see what's happening!

Anyway, let me just go and try to help Fedor get his skype sorted (btw, we saw Madame Butterfly yesterday in a theatre yesterday and it was great! We also went to Caroline's goodbye party and got a bit drunk: that was great too!!!)

Ciao,
OJ

photo-post!

Here is finally, the long promised photo-post. Basically just a summary of all the things we've been doing that were worth taking pictures of...
First of all, we went to India:
The first photos are from Chittogarh

The desert town of Jaisalmer:

The Taj Mahal in Agra:

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The erotic temples of Kajuraho:

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The Golden Temple of Amritsar:

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The holy windscroll-thingies of the Tibetan Budhist temple in McLeod Ganj:

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McLeod Ganj:

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Mode of transportation (and this was a relatively quiet one!):

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After returning from India, early October, we went for a wine-tasting weekend in Morbegno:

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And on the way back, we went to Lago di Como (the North part though, where neither Fedor nor me had ever been):

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Shortly after, Marie and Stephie came to visit and we had a lot of fun, taking funny pictures everywhere:

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Oh, and as you can see, we were lucky with the weather as well:

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on top of Duomo:

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Then after, Fedor and i went to the Netherlands to see our new nephews. Here is just one photo, of me with my new nephew Ruben, as well as Leah and Daanç

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One week after returning from the Netherlands, BarD and his friend Selina came over, here at the Cimitero Monumentaleç

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Once again, we went to Comoç

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And then, Halloween cameç

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Finally, recently the new University Building was officially opened (as was the academic year, at the same time), by President Napolitano and Chairman of the European Commission Baroso (woohooo, I saw another president!). For this momentous occassion, there were a few things organised at the university, and we went to a lovely concert where they were playing Astor Piazzolla music (did I mention I LOVE Piazzolla??? Well, i do!). Additionally, it turns out that our new building has won an apparently rather prestigious award, as well: linky. Anyways, here are a few pictures of the amazing new building:

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(oh, and indeed, these are the pictures taken by the organisation blabla, not my own, etc)

Well, that was a summary of the past months, in pictures. If more comes to mind, I'll expand this post....

Ciao!
OJ

too much

Many great things, too many to write about! We went to the Netherlands, to see our new nephews, we had several visitos (Marie and Stephie and later on BarD and Selina): it was just all too much fun!

And in the meantime, I have obviously been writing writing writing, applying, applying, applying... Just over 50 letters sent now, and so far, I have had 2 positive replies (that is, replies that allow me to continue into the next stage of the application process), so I am going to be in Paris in 2 weeks for my first real fly-out interview!!! And that is for an absolutely amazing job, so I am already completely nervous!

Of course, during the past weeks, we also had Fedor's birthday, which was lovely, and Halloween, which was even amazing! I will upload the pictures (and this time, I really will, because I have not got much to do today), so you can see how amazing it was...

Oh, and before it's too late: hurray, Obama won the elections! (yeah I know, it's a bit late now, isn't it?). anyways, that was just a realllllly quick summary, I think I'll just summarise in pictures in a separate post now. That is, if I manage to download the picture-upload-software....

Ciao!!!
OJ

1st interview done

Time flies when you're really frigging busy, doesn't it? Short summary: I'm cured! Finally! And without having to do the hospital visit, which I really, really wasn't looking forward to... for the rest, I have only occupied myself with my preparations for my first real grown-up job interview!
These preparations consisted of getting some serious grips on the current financial crisis and a thorough knowledge of macroeconomics. I must say that all of this has been quite interesting from an economist's perspective. Things are really happening so fast and unexpectedly, it really was quite interesting to be forced to spend two weeks just reading about this entire crisis. Anyways, this all concluded into my doing this interview today with the IMF recruitment team. It didn't go very well, but I still think it was a very useful experience, so I am quite satisfied.
Now I can focus on sending out more and more applications. And preparing myself for my oral exam next Wednesday!

Last weekend, we spent the weekend in the lovely town of Morbegno with a couple of friends. There was a wine-tasting weekend, and we went around to lots of wine cellars tasting different wines (obviously, they all tasted the same after the first 5 or so.....). And it was so much fun! We were very lucky with the weather, and we enjoyed a sunny day and quiet night in Morbegno. On Sunday, we drove to Lago di Como and lunch by the lakeside: it was rather beautiful, I must say!!!

I still haven't worked out the pictures uploading thing to work so smoothly, so once again, I will refer you to Facebook$, to see them...

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Gerwin and Marjolein on all their great news. As for Gerwins comment on the last post, I am willing to tell you that my applications go to a large variety of institutions, varying from the sort-of training programmes at IMF, World Bank and OECD to junior research positions at research outfits like OECD, UN, etc, as well as academic positions (Uni of Hong Kong, Boston College, Washington State Tacoma, Toronto, Montreal, Georgetown, etc). You'll probably hear more about all of these by the time I start getting interviews (IF I'll get any!!!). I did book my trip to San Francisco for the job market interviews during the American Economic Association meeting there in early January...

Anyways, enjoy your week! I will do the same, particularly with my friends Stephie and Marie coming over this weekend....

Ciao,
OJ

just a few things

I have a new laptop!!! My brother and his wife came over two weeks ago and they brought me a new laptop, after I had finally given up on ever being able to revive the old one, that darn thing. Anyways, the new one is an emachines, so that is a top brand (hence the 399€ price tag).

I also, more importantly, have a new nephew! My other brother's wife gave birth to Ruben yesterday and I am therefore now a quadruple uncle! It also means, I have won my bet in the race between my brother and Fedor's brother, who is also expecting a child one of these days... So that's all great news!

Over the past few weeks, I have been quite busy. There was the not-overly-interesting conference in Copenhagen (at least I managed to meet up with my friend Rasmus) and the oh-so-important Third Year Workshop. But mostly I have been starting the finalisation of my PhD. That is, getting prepared for all the things that are still to be done, such as my oral exams, handing in the dissertation etc. And the most important part of the finalisation of my PhD is, of course, finding a job!

So far, I have sent only a handful or so applications, but I have been preparing for the biggest bunch to be sent late october. This whole application process, though, takes surprisingly much time! All these different places want different documents, different cv styles and of course different cover letters. That way, it seems as if I have to do everything 100 times, even for just 10 applications... Anyway, it keeps me off the streets, I guess!

Something kinda funny:


more music charts

Finally, our little health issues are not improving much. Fedor is officially cured now after his third visit to our family doctor. My situation, however, is not too good yet. After the first visit, I took 5 pills a day, after the second visit, I was taking 14 pills a day and now, after going for the third time this Tuesday, I have a different kind of antibiotics that I take twice a day. And in two weeks, I will go to the hospital..... I'm afraid you'll hear more about this...

Ciao,
OJ

We're Back!

OK, actually, we've been back for quite a while already, but I haven't had time to post before. My laptop is still broken (the BigBro Laptop Repair Service is coming over next weekend), so I am sharing Fedors laptop all the time. Except at work, where I should obviously be doing other things, such as....uhm, well....working!

However, given the (un)fortunate event of being at Bocconi, the internal network has just gone down again, as a result of which I cannot access any of my required documents anymore. So while I am waiting for the repair-people to start working on it, I finally have time to write my update here.

Let me start by saying that a probably more detailed account is available at Fedor's Weblog, because he has actually been updating during the trip. Additionally, as I am at my Uni computer now I cannot add any of the photos either. However, I can refer you to Facebook, where the all photos (about 130: sorry) can be viewed from HERE, HERE and HERE. I will probably post some photos myself as well at a later point, hopefully after my laptop has been repaired...

Anyways, India! It was definitely an interesting trip, if not always equally pleasant... We started of in Hot, Sweaty, Humid Mumbai (after a short visit to pleasant and gorgeous Helsinki), which was overwhelming and impressive. As we were meeting Felix and Annaig, friends from Milan in the Rajasthani city of Udaipur a few days later, our first days were hurried and resultingly not overly pleasant. Obviously we had flown in during the night and then spent all day in Mumbai. That night we took a night train to Ahmedabad, where we arrived early-morning. Another full day in Ahmedabad before taking another night train to Udaipur... When we arrived we were smelly, sleep-deprived and generally grumpy, but that was nothing a good shower couldnt solve! And of course the company of Felix and Annaig!!!

After spending a great day with them, they left and we went on a trip to the deserted mountain top city of Chittogarh. This was our first really sunny day and we had some great photo opportunities. The day after, we took a bus through the mountains and a nature reserve (and an awful Monsoon downpour) to Jodhpur. Jodhpur is famous for its towering fortress and its fabrics and spices. The fortress is indeed impressive and we were kinda tricked into buying some nice fabrics that are utterly unusable for us... The following day we took another bus trip towards Jaisalmer, the desert town that is close to the border with Pakistan. Another impressive fortress, and some of the friendliest people that we met during the entire trip. Jaisalmer was also the location of the cheapest hotel we stayed in (€3.75 for a double room with private bathroom and somewhat of a view in a friendly hotel with a swimming pool.....not bad, eh?).

In the original plan, we had planned to go directly north from Jaisalmer upto Amritsar, but it turned out that this was much less convenient than planned, so instead we took a night train to Jaipur and immediately afterwards a train journey to Agra, so that in about 20 hours, we were suddenly another 1000 kms down the road! Unfortunately, the Taj Mahal (World Wonder number 1 of this trip) is closed on Fridays, but we did manage to get some pretty pictures from across the river and beyond. In all honesty, we didn't mind not having to spend €23 euros to enter the Taj Mahal, because it is simply outrageously overpriced. We did, on the other hand, visit the Agra Fort and that was truly impressive (and had some more great views).

As Agra really is not a place you want to spend too much time, we left again the next morning and made our way (via train and Bouncy Bouncy Bus) to the small town of Khajuraho, another 10 hours down the road. This town is known for its amazing, ancient, temples, largely decorated with rather explicit depictions from the Kamasutra (that according to the descriptions obviously are NOT a sign of "moral depravity", but should be seen as works of art from a long-gone civilisation... Obviously, while we were respectful and thoughtful of the artfulness of it all, you cannot really expect people to be serious when you put statues of guys fucking horses on your temple, really......

After enjoying these temples for 2 days, we took an afternoon bus to the small town of Mahoba, from where we joined the night train towards Varanasi (World Wonder Nr 2 of this trip!). Varanasi: what can I say? It is absolutely filthy, filled with excrements, dead bodies, sick people and beggars. The smell is awful, any ritual is usually swamped with tourists and the it's incredibly humid. In conclusion: we were not overly fond of it..... In fact, we were very happy to be able to leave after two days. Wading through a foot of rain/poo in the streets, we finally made it to the train station and got a train out: NOT a good experience... The 28 hour train ride (1200 km) in the 5th class to get us out of there, filled with people without manners who would not stop staring, was also not a great experience either. When we finally got to our destination, Amritsar, both Fedor and I had uncontrollable Delhi Bellies, which we had so far been spared) and the two days in Amritsar were mostly spent on the toilet. We did of course make it to the Golden Temple of Amritsar (World Wonder Nr 3 of this trip!), which is an absolutely amazing sight... The rest of Amritsar, likewise seemed like a clean, pleasant and, importantly, hassle-free city!

The next stage of our journey was into the mountains. We took a bus from Amritsar to Pathankot and then onwards via Dharmsala to McLeod Ganj. And as it turned out, McLeod Ganj is our favourite place in India by miles! It is absolutely gorgeous, high in the mountains (about 1800 meters high), with mixed foggy and sunny times. The town is populated mostly by Tibetan refugees (the Tibetan government-in-exile is based there), who are friendly, hassle-free and don't try to cheat you in every move. Also important is their lax attitude regarding alcohol usage, so it is indeed possible to buy beer there! Around McLeod Ganj we made some long walks and in the evenings we enjoyed the excellent Tibetan food and the relaxed athmosphere. Finally, we also managed to do quite some shopping there....

Unfortunately, all good times come to an end, so after two nights we had to leave. We tried to take the "toy train" from Kangra back to Pathankot, but apparently "one of the bridges had collapsed", so we were forced to take the bus back to Pathankot, from where we took a night train to Delhi.

By this time, both Fedor and myself were getting a bit travel weary, but we still managed to enjoy some of the sights that Delhi has to offer. Particularly the Lotus Temple and Tomb of Umayden were impressive. The Red Fort, on the other hand, was very underwhelming and disappointing... One evening we met up with Fedor's friend Shruti, an Indian english teacher from Milan who was in Delhi to get married. We narrowly missed the wedding, but it was fun to meet her anyway. She showed us her house and her sweet sweet mother cooked us a yummie meal. After 3 days of Delhi, it was time for us to leave again and we took the super-fast and super-luxurious (both relatively of course) train to Mumbai (1400 km in 16 hours: not bad....), in which we could finally relax a bit. The final day was spent in Mumbai, doing those things we hadn't done during the first visit, particularly Elephanta Island. Unfortunately, the whole day was absolutely drenched in rain and Fedor was starting to seriously suffer from a Delhi Belly, so we did not manage to enjoy that day a lot.

During the evening, we decided to go to the Airport already, because we were supposed to fly in the morning and couldn't be bothered to have to negotiate a taxi fare at 4AM. Afterwards, this may not have been such a good idea, because Fedor fell very ill, with high fever and uncontrollable shaking. Additionally, our flight was delayed by four hours, so Mumbai Airport may not have been the best place to be. By the time we finally made it to Helsinki, our flight to Milan had already left and we thus had to stay overnight in Helsinki. Now being both sick as dogs, with stomach cramps and uncontrollable diarrhea, the idea of going home had been a much more appealing option, but alas, it simply wasn't in the cards...

Instead we got home on Monday morning, where we quickly tried to pick up our normal lives again. The funny Delhi Bellies, however, have not subsided and we started medication, including different kinds of antibiotics this weekend, after consulting our doctor. This sort of post-trip unhealthiness certainly does cast a bit of a gloom over the trip, although it certainly was very enjoyable. Let's hope we'll be well soon and can get on again. During the past week, we also had a guest over, my friend Jochen who was in Milan for a big conference that was being held at my University, so he was quite some distraction as well!

I will be going to Copenhagen from Thursday to Saturday for a conference, which will be a nice little trip, and in the meantime I am doing some serious job hunting. Now let's see whether the technicians have already repaired the network so I can actually access my own CV...

Photos will follow later I hope!

Ciao,
OJ