Ciao ciao, here I am once again. This week has been excruciatingly tiring but quite good. I've worked a lot, earned a lot of money and had a lot of interesting experiences. Nothing life-altering, but interesting enough to tell you. I started some new courses this week and if my other new courses are finally starting next week I'll have a 30-hour working week. I'm also loving my Italian lessons, as Paola, my colleague and teacher, shares my love of conjunctives, conditionals and literary language. We're studying a lot more than just the Italian language: this is going to be a course on Italian rhetoric, literature, style and linguistics in general as well! Isn't that cool? OK, so maybe I'm an idiot whose interest in languages is completely stupid, useless and non-sensical, but hey, as long as it makes me happy, right?!
When one of my classes at the Corriere della Sera (an important Italian newspaper) was cancelled on Tuesday, I had some time to kill in the middle of the Brera, Milan's old artists' quarter. Nowadays, this is a very hip area famous for its art galleries, art school, art museum (the Pinacoteca di Brera I have spoken of before) and classy bars and restaurants. Therefore, I decided to check out the infamous Art Café opposite the Pinacoteca di Brera. It is supposed to be a hip arty-farty bar where - as a fashion-sensible Milanese yuppie - you just have to be seen. Well, being the fashion-sensible Milanese yuppie that I am, this obviously sounded like a nice place to spend an hour and a half of otherwise wasted time. Well, this turned out to be quite a disappointment. The walls were painted in the brightest non-complementing screaming colours, the staff walked around in currently fashionable clothing (baggy jeans pulled down to expose tight Armani, CK or H&M - for the losers - boxers clutching an overly-exercised pair of buttocks) and nobody seemed to have heard of the word service. The staff members were obviously employed solely for their beauty and arrogant 'do-you-really-think-you're-worthy-of-my-attention' looks, but there was nothing superior about their serving abilities. Needless to say, I didn't enjoy myself that much and left the 'quality establishment' with a condescending look of utter superiority over them on my face. Those yuppies just don't know what to do with their time.
I also seem to have gotten stuck in a disagreement between my boss and one of my most treasured colleagues, our intern Silvia. Silvia and I get on really well and she is one of the reasons life at school (Corporate English) is very enjoyable. She started when a lot of things were changing because one of my bosses had just left and was handed a lot of responsibility without getting the chance to get adjusted to the job or receive proper training. She's been complaining to me for a while that she doesn't feel appreciated and often gets blamed for making mistakes she hasn't been trained to be able to recognize or avoid. On the other hand, she's quite the chatterbox which - to be completely honest - doesn't improve her efficiency very much, to say it euphemistically. Plus, she has been with us for three months now and should be able to do the main part of her work independently. According to my boss, however, she still makes a lot mistakes she shouldn't be making anymore and is way too slow in doing her job. As I know my boss as a very reasonable person and employer, I have no reason to doubt her. So, now I find myself in a position where I feel myself forced to defend each party to the other. I've been trying to stimulate them to talk to each other, but I'm afraid this has been going on too long to be mended. I don't want to be a mediator, but on the other hand I think part of their disagreement is caused by misconceptions and if I'm going to be the one who has to listen to others complain I'm not one to listen quietly to things I know or perceive to be untrue. So, maybe I do want to mediate between them. Well, we'll see. Silvia is leaving in a few weeks anyway and then we'll probably get another intern. Maybe my boss will appreciate then how much Silvia has actually helped them the past few months and will Silvia finally understand people's frustrations about her.
Anyway, this is all stuff for the working week and the weekend is here. Maartje and Steef are coming over tomorrow morning and I just know this will be a great weekend! This will actually be Steef's first time flying, just to visit me! Good luck, popje!!!! They have apparently chosen a very nice weekend to come over. It was 17 degrees last weekend, but we've been having a little winter since yesterday. However, the winter is supposed to be over tomorrow. And they're arriving tomorrow! I wouldn't call that a coincidence... More soon.
Ciao,
Fe
Friday, January 26, 2007
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Another week in the life of a working man
Ciao tutti, I seem to be making a habit of updating my blog on Sundays and I kind of like it. Therefore, I intend to continue this habit. It's not that I don't want to update my blog more often, but my daily activities on working days usually last until late and by the time I get home I prefer to spend some time with Olaf and answer my emails. On Saturdays, we usually do groceries, often work for a bit, go out to eat and drink at night and if there is some time left I generally spend it by finishing answering my emails and checking up on other people's blogs. And besides, I don't really do anything besides working during the week, so there's nothing to write about anyway!
This week wasn't that much different from any of the other weeks and I like that. Continuity and repetition cause relaxation and adjustment, and that is exactly what I need right now. I would, however, like to get back to something people have apparently misunderstood about my last post. When I said I have been thinking a lot about how to maintain my friendships with people in Holland, some people have interpreted this as if I said that I was lonely and felt like I was losing people. This is by no means the case. Thank you for your concerns, but that is not what I meant. It just means that I am trying to figure out what is the best way to keep up friendships with people in different countries, a thought strain that is still developing and probably will for some time. I might not like the conclusion I'm going to reach, because I fear that there are some people I am going to lose. I suppose this is inevitable, because there are people who will not be up for the challenge of maintaining a friendship with someone far away even though I am willing to. Vice versa, there will probably be people who are making the effort, but who I just don't make the time for. I wouldn't be the first person to lose friends because I moved far away and I certainly won't be the last. No matter how much effort I put into it, I will never be able to 'keep' everyone. This is even more the case, because I'm spending a lot of time on meeting new people here and trying to get to know the people I have met - let alone my jobs! This is what makes me a bit sad, but it is a logical consequence of my leaving Holland. I don't regret that choice but I might regret some of the consequences resulting from that choice.
Of course, it was Olaf's birthday last Tuesday, although we didn't celebrate it that extensively as he is not very keen on celebrating his birthday on his birthday. We're going away to Florence for a weekend in a couple of weeks, which is a lot more to his liking. He did bake a lovely apple pie for his study mates. I had my first Italian lesson on Wednesday and it was great. We didn't really do much except discuss our initial test results. It turns out I've got a quite high level (Upper Intermediate, which is equal to level my most advanced students of English have got). This means I'm going to have individual lessons, as none of my colleagues scored as high. Well, we'll see what happens next week. Yesterday evening, we were invited by Belinda and Enrico for a dinner party. It was a lovely evening with far too much food, booze and appropriate and inappropriate conversations (more inappropriate as the evening progressed). Belinda's friend Simona was also there and she and Olaf really hit it off talking about their experiences traveling in Africa and Australia. Obviously, Belinda and I had loads of fun talking about our work, moving to Italy, living together in smaller spaces than we'd been used to (because housing is so expensive in this country) and, of course, every possible subject that's unsuited to be repeated by any sane person with a sense of dignity. This is one of the things I treasure about her, our ability to talk about every subject imaginable, whether it is serious, funny, stupid, extremely important or simply irresistibly bad and embarrassing!
We had already decided that we'd go on a day trip today and we did. We had planned to go to Monza, but as one of Monza's big attractions is a park, we thought it best to postpone that trip until spring when the plants and trees will be in bloom. Instead we went to the Certosa di Pavia, a late fourteenth/early fifteenth century Carthusian monastery only half an hour away by train. This monastery was built by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, the duke of Milan, as a private chapel but later given to the Carthusians who made it into a flourishing monastery and embellished the building to its current impressive state. We had been been to Pavia before on a day trip but didn't have a chance to visit this famous sight that day. As we were both tired and not up for a full day away, the Certosa was the perfect solution as it didn't take long to see the complete complex. It was worth the trip, although a large part of the facade was hidden because of renovation activities. Still, we were able to take some nice pictures:
This week wasn't that much different from any of the other weeks and I like that. Continuity and repetition cause relaxation and adjustment, and that is exactly what I need right now. I would, however, like to get back to something people have apparently misunderstood about my last post. When I said I have been thinking a lot about how to maintain my friendships with people in Holland, some people have interpreted this as if I said that I was lonely and felt like I was losing people. This is by no means the case. Thank you for your concerns, but that is not what I meant. It just means that I am trying to figure out what is the best way to keep up friendships with people in different countries, a thought strain that is still developing and probably will for some time. I might not like the conclusion I'm going to reach, because I fear that there are some people I am going to lose. I suppose this is inevitable, because there are people who will not be up for the challenge of maintaining a friendship with someone far away even though I am willing to. Vice versa, there will probably be people who are making the effort, but who I just don't make the time for. I wouldn't be the first person to lose friends because I moved far away and I certainly won't be the last. No matter how much effort I put into it, I will never be able to 'keep' everyone. This is even more the case, because I'm spending a lot of time on meeting new people here and trying to get to know the people I have met - let alone my jobs! This is what makes me a bit sad, but it is a logical consequence of my leaving Holland. I don't regret that choice but I might regret some of the consequences resulting from that choice.
Of course, it was Olaf's birthday last Tuesday, although we didn't celebrate it that extensively as he is not very keen on celebrating his birthday on his birthday. We're going away to Florence for a weekend in a couple of weeks, which is a lot more to his liking. He did bake a lovely apple pie for his study mates. I had my first Italian lesson on Wednesday and it was great. We didn't really do much except discuss our initial test results. It turns out I've got a quite high level (Upper Intermediate, which is equal to level my most advanced students of English have got). This means I'm going to have individual lessons, as none of my colleagues scored as high. Well, we'll see what happens next week. Yesterday evening, we were invited by Belinda and Enrico for a dinner party. It was a lovely evening with far too much food, booze and appropriate and inappropriate conversations (more inappropriate as the evening progressed). Belinda's friend Simona was also there and she and Olaf really hit it off talking about their experiences traveling in Africa and Australia. Obviously, Belinda and I had loads of fun talking about our work, moving to Italy, living together in smaller spaces than we'd been used to (because housing is so expensive in this country) and, of course, every possible subject that's unsuited to be repeated by any sane person with a sense of dignity. This is one of the things I treasure about her, our ability to talk about every subject imaginable, whether it is serious, funny, stupid, extremely important or simply irresistibly bad and embarrassing!
We had already decided that we'd go on a day trip today and we did. We had planned to go to Monza, but as one of Monza's big attractions is a park, we thought it best to postpone that trip until spring when the plants and trees will be in bloom. Instead we went to the Certosa di Pavia, a late fourteenth/early fifteenth century Carthusian monastery only half an hour away by train. This monastery was built by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, the duke of Milan, as a private chapel but later given to the Carthusians who made it into a flourishing monastery and embellished the building to its current impressive state. We had been been to Pavia before on a day trip but didn't have a chance to visit this famous sight that day. As we were both tired and not up for a full day away, the Certosa was the perfect solution as it didn't take long to see the complete complex. It was worth the trip, although a large part of the facade was hidden because of renovation activities. Still, we were able to take some nice pictures:
The Certosa di Pavia in the fog
The facade, unfortunately we couldn't see half of it
A better look at the visible part
The outside facade wall was covered with incredibly detailed reliefs which have obviously suffered from the passage of time
The altar in the sacristy and the frescoes behind it are extremely beautiful. I don't know if it's very clear but in the picture of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist on the left, Jesus is actually shivering because of the cold water, a very touching human emotion not often encountered in religious art.
On the train and while waiting for the Certosa to open after lunch break, I spent my time wisely reading Erik's bachelor thesis. He was kind enough to send to me after I expressed some interest in what he was doing, because his stories reminded me of my own master thesis. His thesis is about the Christian interpretation of Virgil's 4th Eclogue and how this has influenced the later Greek translation of this work. I had been wanting to read it for some time, but hadn't had the chance yet. I hope he is not too offended by my comments and will find my questions useful and/or at least interesting. We've just returned home and will spend probably spend this evening watching a movie. Oh, and we're eating Mexican food tonight, yummie!!!
Ciao, Fe
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Back to work special
Ciao tutti,
'All beginnings are hard' is a commonly heard proverb and coincidentally also the first line of Chaim Potok's 'In the beginning' (which I didn't know but just found out when I googled the saying). And this year's beginnings weren't easy, to say the least. After our great though excruciating tour of the Netherlands, we really needed to relax for a whole weekend. I slept a lot and all we did on Saturday was doing the groceries. Late in the afternoon, I went into the city centre to go shopping with Belinda and Melina (a lovely Slovenian girl who I know through Belinda). Olaf had also gone shopping because he desperately needed some things and we met him briefly so he could wish them a heartily Buon Anno, as it was the last day we were actually allowed to do so (it was the Epifania or the Advent of the Magi). I'm very proud to say that although we went into La Rinascente, smelt every single perfume that was on sale - and got quite drunk on all the different scents and consequently confused - I didn't buy anything at all! Except for a cocktail afterwards, of course...
As we didn't really do anything else that weekend, we had a lot of time to relax and plan the implementation of our New Year's resolutions, since we obviously hadn't had time or the opportunity to do that in the Netherlands. I also got some time to think about a little paradox I had been wrestling with. On the one hand, I was very happy to be in the Netherlands again and meet all my friends and family. Most of the time, it felt like I had never left and still fit in exactly. A lot of people acted like I hadn't gone to live in another country and luckily the semi-obligatory 'How is life in Milano'-conversation was usually quickly handled, concluded and disposed of in order to go on to regular not-so-unnerving conversation topics. It made me feel very much at home again, as if I'd never left. Thank you all for that! However, on the other hand I have left the Netherlands and the friendships I had with people there will have to change into something different if I want to keep them as my friends. We simply cannot be the kind of friends we used to be because I am not there to experience their lives with them and cannot be part of every day activities anymore. Our relationships should develop into something I have not completely figured out yet. But the thing is... I don't want them to change, because they are the way they are because I want them to be the way they are (after spending a lot of years accumulating the amount of friends I've got and building on relationships, I'm quite happy with the result). Voilà, paradox! Anyway, this one thought strain our holiday in the Netherlands got me pondering about. I'm sure I'll figure it out at some point but thinking about it has been taking up a significant amount of my time of late, I'm just not sure whether I'll like the conclusion.
And after the weekend it was time to start work again on Monday. After not teaching for two and half weeks and mainly having spoken Dutch in the meantime, I wasn't really confident it would be that easy again. I've come to realise lately that constantly switching between different languages doesn't have a very positive effect on my English or my Dutch. Moreover, before I had even taught one class three of my lessons had already been cancelled which didn't improve my confidence at all. In the end, it turned out all right, of course, because after a few minutes I got right back into the teaching mindset - and my first lesson was quite easy and a lot of fun which also helped a lot. I am proud to announce that as of this week I've finally got my long-desired 25-hour working week! And that's not even counting my extra work designing lessons! But as a lot of lessons get cancelled I'm aiming for some more hours a week.
On Thursday, we went to our first 'NL-borrel', an aperitivo for Dutch people which is organised by an association for Dutch people living in Milan. Olaf quite liked it, but I really didn't feel comfortable there. I'm just not used to hearing people speak Dutch around me anymore - or rather, used to having people around who can understand me when I speak Dutch! The thought alone makes me panic and paranoid at the same time, I don't want people to be able to understand when I criticise them! Anyway, by the look of them (because I must admit I jumped to the conclusion I didn't really want to get to know any of them the moment I walked in and didn't make any effort to meet anyone at all) they were mostly serious business people who are in Milan because they are really cool and have got very good jobs. In short, I decided they were yuppie 'ballen' and wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. I'm afraid I was obviously pushing Olaf to leave and they probably didn't like me much either. Which is fine by me, as I'm trying to banish everything Dutch from my daily life because it has a too negative effect on my English, so I'm obviously not looking for any new Dutch friends in Milan anyway! I've got Dutch friends in the Netherlands who I treasure very much, basta. But I'm sorry about Thursday, darling, you know I am! You're right you should go alone next time.
Friday was the last day of the week and getting back into the rhythm had been quite tiring so even though Belinda had invited me to go clubbing I decided to pass and get some rest. But then it turned out we were going to have aperitivo with Olaf's study mates at Le Trottoir - which obviously meant we would go dancing afterwards, because Le Trottoir has usually got great live music and is pretty much a guarantee for a good night out. Plus, it's around the corner. So in the end we danced (part of) the night away and went to bed around 2.30, completely beat. This meant I slept late yesterday and besides groceries I didn't really do anything - although I should mention Olaf and I both set out to get new scarves at the market, each of us with a pretty good idea of what we looking for in our minds, and he found exactly what he wanted and I didn't...*grrrrr*
Yesterday evening, we stayed in and started our Lord of the Rings marathon (we watched 1,5 movie) which we'll hopefully finish tonight. Today we got up reasonably early because we both wanted to get some work done (I had to catch up on making exercises to a couple of issues of The Economist because of Christmas break), really needed to clean the house and Olaf wanted to bake some apple pies as a treat to his study mates to celebrate his birthday on Tuesday. I'm happy to say we've both finished these chores by now so we're getting back to LotR now - aren't those movies just amazing?!?!?! I'll write another post soon, hopefully about my first Italian lesson - if all goes well, Lauren, one of my Australian colleagues, and I are starting an Italian course with our Italian colleague Paola (as our teacher) on Wednesday. This means I'm finally going to start improving my Italian in a structured and efficient way! Whoohoo! Until then, I hope you all had less trouble getting started again than I did.
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'All beginnings are hard' is a commonly heard proverb and coincidentally also the first line of Chaim Potok's 'In the beginning' (which I didn't know but just found out when I googled the saying). And this year's beginnings weren't easy, to say the least. After our great though excruciating tour of the Netherlands, we really needed to relax for a whole weekend. I slept a lot and all we did on Saturday was doing the groceries. Late in the afternoon, I went into the city centre to go shopping with Belinda and Melina (a lovely Slovenian girl who I know through Belinda). Olaf had also gone shopping because he desperately needed some things and we met him briefly so he could wish them a heartily Buon Anno, as it was the last day we were actually allowed to do so (it was the Epifania or the Advent of the Magi). I'm very proud to say that although we went into La Rinascente, smelt every single perfume that was on sale - and got quite drunk on all the different scents and consequently confused - I didn't buy anything at all! Except for a cocktail afterwards, of course...
As we didn't really do anything else that weekend, we had a lot of time to relax and plan the implementation of our New Year's resolutions, since we obviously hadn't had time or the opportunity to do that in the Netherlands. I also got some time to think about a little paradox I had been wrestling with. On the one hand, I was very happy to be in the Netherlands again and meet all my friends and family. Most of the time, it felt like I had never left and still fit in exactly. A lot of people acted like I hadn't gone to live in another country and luckily the semi-obligatory 'How is life in Milano'-conversation was usually quickly handled, concluded and disposed of in order to go on to regular not-so-unnerving conversation topics. It made me feel very much at home again, as if I'd never left. Thank you all for that! However, on the other hand I have left the Netherlands and the friendships I had with people there will have to change into something different if I want to keep them as my friends. We simply cannot be the kind of friends we used to be because I am not there to experience their lives with them and cannot be part of every day activities anymore. Our relationships should develop into something I have not completely figured out yet. But the thing is... I don't want them to change, because they are the way they are because I want them to be the way they are (after spending a lot of years accumulating the amount of friends I've got and building on relationships, I'm quite happy with the result). Voilà, paradox! Anyway, this one thought strain our holiday in the Netherlands got me pondering about. I'm sure I'll figure it out at some point but thinking about it has been taking up a significant amount of my time of late, I'm just not sure whether I'll like the conclusion.
And after the weekend it was time to start work again on Monday. After not teaching for two and half weeks and mainly having spoken Dutch in the meantime, I wasn't really confident it would be that easy again. I've come to realise lately that constantly switching between different languages doesn't have a very positive effect on my English or my Dutch. Moreover, before I had even taught one class three of my lessons had already been cancelled which didn't improve my confidence at all. In the end, it turned out all right, of course, because after a few minutes I got right back into the teaching mindset - and my first lesson was quite easy and a lot of fun which also helped a lot. I am proud to announce that as of this week I've finally got my long-desired 25-hour working week! And that's not even counting my extra work designing lessons! But as a lot of lessons get cancelled I'm aiming for some more hours a week.
On Thursday, we went to our first 'NL-borrel', an aperitivo for Dutch people which is organised by an association for Dutch people living in Milan. Olaf quite liked it, but I really didn't feel comfortable there. I'm just not used to hearing people speak Dutch around me anymore - or rather, used to having people around who can understand me when I speak Dutch! The thought alone makes me panic and paranoid at the same time, I don't want people to be able to understand when I criticise them! Anyway, by the look of them (because I must admit I jumped to the conclusion I didn't really want to get to know any of them the moment I walked in and didn't make any effort to meet anyone at all) they were mostly serious business people who are in Milan because they are really cool and have got very good jobs. In short, I decided they were yuppie 'ballen' and wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. I'm afraid I was obviously pushing Olaf to leave and they probably didn't like me much either. Which is fine by me, as I'm trying to banish everything Dutch from my daily life because it has a too negative effect on my English, so I'm obviously not looking for any new Dutch friends in Milan anyway! I've got Dutch friends in the Netherlands who I treasure very much, basta. But I'm sorry about Thursday, darling, you know I am! You're right you should go alone next time.
Friday was the last day of the week and getting back into the rhythm had been quite tiring so even though Belinda had invited me to go clubbing I decided to pass and get some rest. But then it turned out we were going to have aperitivo with Olaf's study mates at Le Trottoir - which obviously meant we would go dancing afterwards, because Le Trottoir has usually got great live music and is pretty much a guarantee for a good night out. Plus, it's around the corner. So in the end we danced (part of) the night away and went to bed around 2.30, completely beat. This meant I slept late yesterday and besides groceries I didn't really do anything - although I should mention Olaf and I both set out to get new scarves at the market, each of us with a pretty good idea of what we looking for in our minds, and he found exactly what he wanted and I didn't...*grrrrr*
Yesterday evening, we stayed in and started our Lord of the Rings marathon (we watched 1,5 movie) which we'll hopefully finish tonight. Today we got up reasonably early because we both wanted to get some work done (I had to catch up on making exercises to a couple of issues of The Economist because of Christmas break), really needed to clean the house and Olaf wanted to bake some apple pies as a treat to his study mates to celebrate his birthday on Tuesday. I'm happy to say we've both finished these chores by now so we're getting back to LotR now - aren't those movies just amazing?!?!?! I'll write another post soon, hopefully about my first Italian lesson - if all goes well, Lauren, one of my Australian colleagues, and I are starting an Italian course with our Italian colleague Paola (as our teacher) on Wednesday. This means I'm finally going to start improving my Italian in a structured and efficient way! Whoohoo! Until then, I hope you all had less trouble getting started again than I did.
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Saturday, January 06, 2007
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year everybody, I hope you had a great time celebrating the birth of this year's god and weren't hurt by any fireworks! But before telling you about my adventures in the Netherlands, we must first flash back to Christmas, as I still have to tell you about it.
Our dinner on Christmas Day was fantastic! Olaf had spent more than a day in the kitchen preparing nine delicious courses just for the two of us. I especially enjoyed the tuna carpaccio, the artichokes and the salmon tompouces which contributed a lot to making it the romantic dinner it was supposed to be. On Santo Stefano (St. Stephen's Day, Boxing Day or Second Christmas Day) my mother and Rob, her boyfriend, arrived and after a short tour of the Duomo, the Galleria and the Scala the three of us made it was time to go home again, because Olaf had been working his ass off to prepare our ten course dinner. His shrimp cocktails, goat cheese fondue, crab souflés and mint spoom were wonderful and his coffee granita was orgasmic! Obviously we also drank far too much wine - as every course was accompanied by a special kind of wine - and after spending seven hours at the dinner table we weren't able to do anything else and just went straight to bed.
My mother and her boyfriend stayed for a few more days so it was sightseeing time again while Olaf had to work! The Pinacoteca di Brera, Cimitero Monumentale, the inside of the Duomo and the tour of the churches in the Southwest of the city (Santa Maria Maggiore, Sant'Ambrogio, San Lorenzo and Sant'Eustorgio). And we found out that the open-air exhibition Italia, Emozioni dal Cielo is prolonged to February due to enormous popularity! We had two lovely aperitivos at Caffe Formaggio (which is really called Cheese Cafe) and Movida, after which the two of them left to go hiking around Bergamo. On 31st December, the four of us met up at Bergamo Airport and flew back to the Netherlands for the New Year celebrations.
And they were lovely. It was great seeing all my friends and family again, although doing a tour of the Netherlands in five days and telling the same story a couple of times a day was very tiring. But then again, that was to be expected and it was the only way we could actually see as many people as possible. We started with a family dinner at my mother's and Rob's place with my brothers, Rob's children and my cousin. Unfortunately, my mother wasn't able to enjoy this as much as she would have liked because she had a nasty toothache and had to go to the emergency dentist. Mum, I hope you're OK again! After that we went to a New Year's party at Maartje and Edin's, where we met Cobie, Stephanie, Margo and some more friends, acquaintances and random strangers. They live next to a Chinese restaurant and their neighbours' fireworks were lovely - I'm sorry, Edin, I completely forgot to look out your stuff but it just wasn't as cool... Obviously, this became a late night full of champagne, wines and catching up. And Olaf improved his paternal capabilities by playing with Maartje's three year old nephew all night who was running around like a rabbit on crack!
The next day, we visited Maarten and Miriam's new apartment and went to dinner at my father's. Unfortunately, my sister was on holiday so we missed her but she did leave me a very late birthday present: a book on interior design focusing on how to make the most of small apartments - which is very useful, because that means I can now start figuring out ways to store even more shit in our little one-room apartment! Olaf's going to love this... Anyway, after this very relaxing night which included heavy discussions about religion and future plans (as my youngest brother is determined to become a priest and wants to be pope someday), we went home quite early because we were leaving for the North of the country the next morning. On this beautiful Wednesday morning, we first went to Olaf's parents in Drenthe and then on to Groningen to meet some friends and family and we obviously ended up drinking too much in a pub! On Thursday, we passed Utrecht, where we visited Wouter in his new house, while traveling to Rotterdam to have dinner in Cafe Rotterdam on the Kop van Zuid which offers a magnificent view of the Rotterdam skyline with one of Olaf's friends and we spent the night with two dyke friends of Olaf's before returning to Nijmegen on Thursday. In the afternoon, we visited Ilse in her gorgeous new apartment, had dinner at 'De Ontmoeting' with Margo while Steef was working and went to a pub where we met all of my old study mates. This was really great, because it felt exactly the same as when I was still living and studying here. It's good to find out that some things just don't change... And my family being there and getting drunk without me knowing they would be there or the other way around enhanced the enjoyment of the evening immensely!
On Friday, the last day, we slept quite late and went to have lunch with Jolien, my sister-in-law (wet T-shirt girl from a few posts ago), and got a train to Schiphol where we were flying back from. It was a lovely visit but also a quite expensive one, mainly because the Dutch trains are incredibly expensive! I had only had experience with Dutch trains as a student the last few years - and as a student you can travel for free or with large discounts, but I hadn't expected this! In the end it turned out to be cheaper to get a one-year discount card for these five days alone!
Anyway, it was worth the expenses and the fatigue, but I'm just really glad to be home again. Fortunately, we've got a weekend left to recover before we go back to work. When I got home I got another big surprise, though. I received two letters from the Netherlands from companies which still owed me money and they'd both finally decided to pay up! I'm especially happy about my pension money being paid, because according to the letter that's about 2,000 euros gross!!!!!!!! And the Christmas sales have just started...
I just wish you all the best for the new year and hope all your dreams come true. And your resolutions, of course! Mine are eating less, exercising more, drinking less and finally starting a course of Italian so I can start improving effectively!!! What are yours?
Ciao,
Fedor
Our dinner on Christmas Day was fantastic! Olaf had spent more than a day in the kitchen preparing nine delicious courses just for the two of us. I especially enjoyed the tuna carpaccio, the artichokes and the salmon tompouces which contributed a lot to making it the romantic dinner it was supposed to be. On Santo Stefano (St. Stephen's Day, Boxing Day or Second Christmas Day) my mother and Rob, her boyfriend, arrived and after a short tour of the Duomo, the Galleria and the Scala the three of us made it was time to go home again, because Olaf had been working his ass off to prepare our ten course dinner. His shrimp cocktails, goat cheese fondue, crab souflés and mint spoom were wonderful and his coffee granita was orgasmic! Obviously we also drank far too much wine - as every course was accompanied by a special kind of wine - and after spending seven hours at the dinner table we weren't able to do anything else and just went straight to bed.
My mother and her boyfriend stayed for a few more days so it was sightseeing time again while Olaf had to work! The Pinacoteca di Brera, Cimitero Monumentale, the inside of the Duomo and the tour of the churches in the Southwest of the city (Santa Maria Maggiore, Sant'Ambrogio, San Lorenzo and Sant'Eustorgio). And we found out that the open-air exhibition Italia, Emozioni dal Cielo is prolonged to February due to enormous popularity! We had two lovely aperitivos at Caffe Formaggio (which is really called Cheese Cafe) and Movida, after which the two of them left to go hiking around Bergamo. On 31st December, the four of us met up at Bergamo Airport and flew back to the Netherlands for the New Year celebrations.
And they were lovely. It was great seeing all my friends and family again, although doing a tour of the Netherlands in five days and telling the same story a couple of times a day was very tiring. But then again, that was to be expected and it was the only way we could actually see as many people as possible. We started with a family dinner at my mother's and Rob's place with my brothers, Rob's children and my cousin. Unfortunately, my mother wasn't able to enjoy this as much as she would have liked because she had a nasty toothache and had to go to the emergency dentist. Mum, I hope you're OK again! After that we went to a New Year's party at Maartje and Edin's, where we met Cobie, Stephanie, Margo and some more friends, acquaintances and random strangers. They live next to a Chinese restaurant and their neighbours' fireworks were lovely - I'm sorry, Edin, I completely forgot to look out your stuff but it just wasn't as cool... Obviously, this became a late night full of champagne, wines and catching up. And Olaf improved his paternal capabilities by playing with Maartje's three year old nephew all night who was running around like a rabbit on crack!
The next day, we visited Maarten and Miriam's new apartment and went to dinner at my father's. Unfortunately, my sister was on holiday so we missed her but she did leave me a very late birthday present: a book on interior design focusing on how to make the most of small apartments - which is very useful, because that means I can now start figuring out ways to store even more shit in our little one-room apartment! Olaf's going to love this... Anyway, after this very relaxing night which included heavy discussions about religion and future plans (as my youngest brother is determined to become a priest and wants to be pope someday), we went home quite early because we were leaving for the North of the country the next morning. On this beautiful Wednesday morning, we first went to Olaf's parents in Drenthe and then on to Groningen to meet some friends and family and we obviously ended up drinking too much in a pub! On Thursday, we passed Utrecht, where we visited Wouter in his new house, while traveling to Rotterdam to have dinner in Cafe Rotterdam on the Kop van Zuid which offers a magnificent view of the Rotterdam skyline with one of Olaf's friends and we spent the night with two dyke friends of Olaf's before returning to Nijmegen on Thursday. In the afternoon, we visited Ilse in her gorgeous new apartment, had dinner at 'De Ontmoeting' with Margo while Steef was working and went to a pub where we met all of my old study mates. This was really great, because it felt exactly the same as when I was still living and studying here. It's good to find out that some things just don't change... And my family being there and getting drunk without me knowing they would be there or the other way around enhanced the enjoyment of the evening immensely!
On Friday, the last day, we slept quite late and went to have lunch with Jolien, my sister-in-law (wet T-shirt girl from a few posts ago), and got a train to Schiphol where we were flying back from. It was a lovely visit but also a quite expensive one, mainly because the Dutch trains are incredibly expensive! I had only had experience with Dutch trains as a student the last few years - and as a student you can travel for free or with large discounts, but I hadn't expected this! In the end it turned out to be cheaper to get a one-year discount card for these five days alone!
Anyway, it was worth the expenses and the fatigue, but I'm just really glad to be home again. Fortunately, we've got a weekend left to recover before we go back to work. When I got home I got another big surprise, though. I received two letters from the Netherlands from companies which still owed me money and they'd both finally decided to pay up! I'm especially happy about my pension money being paid, because according to the letter that's about 2,000 euros gross!!!!!!!! And the Christmas sales have just started...
I just wish you all the best for the new year and hope all your dreams come true. And your resolutions, of course! Mine are eating less, exercising more, drinking less and finally starting a course of Italian so I can start improving effectively!!! What are yours?
Ciao,
Fedor
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