Three months later...

So, it has been three months since I wrote anything and I am utterly ashamed. I have my reasons, superficial as they may be, but there it is. I always try to save up stories until I have enough to write something interesting but somehow that always backfires and makes sure I don't write anything for a long time. Perhaps, that is not a winning strategy after all...

Anyway, too much has happened in the last three months to go into much detail - even if my failing memory permitted it. I was reading my last post and realise that I have been telling the world that I am utterly, utterly unhappy for three months now. Let's start with the good news, therefore. I am completely better, I feel great and am physically in great shape. My illness subsided with the second batch of antibiotics and Olaf's disappeared a few days later. It cost some money and kept us drugged up for a while, but it is all in the past.

I also have the cutest nephew ever, Neo (which ironically in Italian means 'mole'). I saw him in early October when we went over to Holland to visit both our newborn nephews and I must say that I like mine best. And no, I am not biased because he is my nephew. He is beautiful, has the most gorgeous dark blue eyes and is a perfect party baby. Seriously, you can put him in a room with lots of people talking, laughing, drinking and just generally behaving rather loudly and he will just watch and listen and make a cute little sound every once in a while to make sure you remember he is there. What, you don't believe how cute he is? Well, here is a picture to prove it to you:


See? I was right!

Work has been manic yet good. Our company is going through another one of its many financial crises and this has everybody stressing out. Fortunately, I have two colleagues now who do a lot of work, although I still sometimes feel like I am the only one who knows everything that is going on and has the whole picture. I guess that will pass as they get more experience, but sometimes I wonder why people don't worry as much as I do. I am a fan of direct action when necessary and my colleagues are more planners and procrastinators, whereas I can't rest until everything is done. They are also in very different life phases from me (married with children), so it is natural for them to have other priorities, but I miss the 'come on, let's all dig our heels in and push this big boulder out of the way together' attitude.

My own job is very varied which makes it a lot of fun. As the company is very small and I am responsible for all day-to-day operations, I handle everything from course management to invoicing, from initial client contacts to paying teachers, from filing to managing the technicians who are constructing our new database. There is never a boring day at and always a lot to do, especially as we are frantically looking for new clients, have lots of courses to start in 2009 and our database needs to be finishing by Christmas. I speak Italian all day long and am getting better and better at it. For my own personal enjoyment, I also teach an elementary course on Monday nights and have one private student on Wednesdays. Every Friday at 6pm I am as dead as can be but usually satisfied with what I have achieved this week. Minor frustrations with my colleagues and suppliers aside, I am actually quite content and can't wait for next year when everything should be operational and there will be much more courses to manage. I might regret saying this later on, but that's how I feel now.

This does not mean I am not looking forward to free time though. I like working hard and do it gladly, but I realise it is taking up a lot of my free time as well. There are a million things I have to remember and I sometimes find it difficult to stop worrying in the evening and leave things that can be done tomorrow to tomorrow. This weekend will be a long weekend, as Monday is a public holiday, the day of the Immaculate Conception (or 'Immaculate Collection', as Olaf likes to call it). Olaf's doing well, by the way, but you can read all that on his blog. Although he has been very busy as well, he has had the discipline to post a couple of times. He had a job interview in Paris last week and is one of the last 13 candidates (initially there were over 200) and has another one for a job in Berlin in January. We'll see. In the mean time, we don't see much of each other but I we will make up for that in the future.

We enjoyed visits from Stephanie and Marie, and Bard and Selina and when the new Bocconi building (Olaf's university) opened, we were pleased to find out that there would be a Piazzolla concert. Actually it was a combination of a reading of a selection of Jorge Luis Borges' poems alternated by music by Piazzolla. Though I am not a big fan of Borges' work, Piazzolla's music made up for a lot. Then there was Louisa's awesome Halloween party, where we were dressed as Patsy and Eddie from Absolutely Fabulous and were the life of the party.


We got quite drunk and did lots of naughty things and that is all I am saying about it. More pictures can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=675442465&v=photos&so=0#/album.php?aid=60061&id=672566816

I celebrated my birthday party at La Hora Feliz (because I didn't feel like organising anything special - we always go to La Hora Feliz on Tuesdays) and got a lovely teapot and other tea-related equipment, as well as, of course, tea. Two weeks ago, we made a dash visit to the Netherlands in order to surprise Olaf's mother who was turning 60 and though she had already understood there was going to be a surprise party she was genuinely unaware of our attendance. She really enjoyed that party, of which her constant smiling testified. Talking about surprises, I myself was quite flabbergasted when it turned out to be snowing in Bremen when I landed.

Last weekend, we went to a little Christmas market with Stefano and Elke and had our first gluehwein of the season. Believe it or not, it snowed here all weekend and the white roofs and the blurred view of the church through the snow really put me in the mood for Christmas. Olaf thinks it is still to early and I have unfortunately not been allowed to touch any of our Christmas CDs yet. After that we went to see a beautiful rendition of Puccini's Madame Butterfly which I enjoyed immensely, though somewhat less than I should have as I was sitting on a broken seat for three hours. This was followed by Caroline's leaving party (my boss who has gone to live in Rome), where we all got drunk.

That's it really. Here are some things I am looking forward to:

- a three-day weekend including Sant'Ambrogio Christmas and the international food fair in the new Fiera di Milano
- A four-day week followed by my school's Christmas celebration and another three-day weekend in Trapani, Sicily (my birthday present from Olaf)
- Another four-day week and the beginning of our Christmas closure on 20th December
- 2,5 weeks of Christmas holidays including Christmas itself, which we are going to celebrate with Werner and Jose, New Year's Eve and 4 days in Vienna with my mum
- Possibly a trip to London around Olaf's birthday

Dinner is ready and I have got to go. I will try to update more often. Honestly.

Changes, illness and uncertainty

Hi all,

To fall right back into my pre-summer pattern, I am very sorry I have not updated for a while. I will not bore you with useless, unbelievable explanations though, but get straight to the (hopefully) interesting stuff.

I am not well. Or, I should say I am relatively unwell. My Delhi belly is still here, although admittedly in a much less serious state, and I am feeling the effects. I am not suffering from the explosive type of diarrhoea that forces you to make a run for the bathroom and hope for the best whenever you feel just the slightest tinkling anymore. Nor am I any longer plagued by cramps and spams in my intestines before and after going to the bathroom. Actually, my condition is under control and things seem to be returning to normal - although there is obviously still something wrong but I will not bore you with the gross details. I have had lots of general antibiotics and other types of killers which have obviously helped but unfortunately not resolved the problem. I am still waiting for the results of tests to be able to fight whatever it is that has nested in my gut more efficiently.

I must say I am quite fed up with it though. Not just with the diarrhoea and medication that does not solve anything, but also with the Italian healthcare system. Italians are paranoid and hypochondriacs and therefore feel the need to have full checkups every two years or so. I, on the other hand, coming from a country where you are taught only to go and see your doctor when there is a serious indication, have obviously never had one before. When my doctor heard this, she nearly fainted and frantically started typing out pages and pages of blood and urine tests that I had to do. That is in addition to the faeces tests she had already told us to do because of the diarrhoea. As it would never even occur to me to doubt a doctor, I consented ("Well, alright, better safe than sorry!!") and did not worry since I have had health insurance in this country for over two years and I assumed basic checkups would be part of that. I could not have been more wrong. Having health insurance in this country means that you pay less than if you do not, it does not cover anything. Which in my case meant I had to pay 70 euros for tests I did not even need. Moreover, GPs in this country are apparently unable to perform even the simplest medical procedures and I had to go to the hospital to get all my tests done. Not only did this mean waiting for an hour three days in a row (we had to do some tests three times on successive days), it also meant filling in piles and piles of paperwork before even getting to see a nurse. And on top of that, it takes between one and two weeks before you get your results back!

As you can imagine, I was not very happy. I was feeling crappy at the time and just wanted to be helped (you know, get some CARE like most sick people do). I had lost 8 kilos in about 5 weeks (about 4 of those I had to get rid of anyway but the other half - which I lost in one week - scared me a lot) and am still physically quite weak - though not working out for two months may have something to do with that as well. Last Tuesday, I slipped off the sidewalk thanks to my new shiny shoes without grip and hit a lamppost with my ribs which are now bruised and hurt whenever I move. But, worst of all, I have a zip on the inside of nose which itches like hell!! Can you imagine the horrors of my life???? *wallowing in self-pity*

Anyway, things have not all been bad. Hotel O&F has opened its doors again and we have been entertaining Jochen (who was here for a conference), Bart and Tineke (who stopped over on their way back from Tuscany) and Lars and Rachel (who were here to celebrate a weekend without children - aka booze up and play games!). Their visits were very enjoyable, though unfortunately not too good for the strict observation of our diet and drinking alcohol while taking antibiotics is usually not such a good idea! Oh well, Tuesdays at La Hora Feliz are back with a vengeance and are now rather the rule than spontaneous gettogethers that happened to be planned on Tuesdays because they always had been. Whatever, it is good to have your own bar! Oh, and I have discovered a new drink: Mojito champagne, yummy!!!

There have also been some changes in my professional life. Changes for the better, I think. I had agreed with Caroline to support her doing admin and course management work in September while she was looking for a replacement for Veronica (our former course manager who left because she found a better job). After a couple of days, she asked me as a joke if I did not want to do it for real and after thinking about it for a night I told her I would like to give it a try. Even though she knew I am only staying until next summer, she offered me a shitload of money if I would do it, which took away any doubts I might still have had about that impulsive decision. So, I am finishing the courses I still have and am easing into office work.

It is a challenge though. It is good money but I am also experiencing some difficulties. On the one hand, there is a lot of information missing that Veronica had in her head and I can not find anywhere - but clearing messes up, getting to the bottom of things, filing and archiving are some of my strengths and things I like doing so that will be fine. On the other hand, I have realised that my Italian just is not up to the mark. It is good and as long I am writing I do not have any problems, but I have found out that my knowledge of Italian is very theoretical. Ask me about subjunctives and conditionals and I can apply the forms correctly - besides telling you fascinating stories about their etymology and linguistic development - but basic, down-to-earth, colloquial Italian is very different from that. I am too focused on applying the correct grammar rules and pronouncing everything in a right way which, combined with my businesslike approach, does not seem to work well with Italians who apparently need to be cooed and wooed. In other words, I apparently come off polite but very direct and not friendly enough. Clashing cultures. I would not dream of making small talk on the phone with random strangers about the weather or how difficult it is to start work again after the holidays when I am supposed to represent a company. But apparently Italians do expect just that!

So, I am worried about having made the right decision and perhaps also about taking on too much. I am tired, feel that things are escaping me and have to send myself an email reminding me that I still have to do something I should have done but forgot. But beginnings are always hard I guess, and perhaps I am even more insecure because I still do not know what is going on inside my body. Vediamo!

Another reason for doubt is that the more students finish their courses, the more I realise how much I am giving up. Teaching English to individuals or small groups is much more than a job. When you see people once or twice a week for a long time, you get close to them. A good teacher is an attentive and trustworthy listener and people talk to you about anything they want. You find out so much about their personal lives, their plans and worries, their fears and hopes. You learn more about their past, present and future than you had thought the grammatical tenses you teach them could imply. But you are not some kind of psychologist, you share a lot of yourself too. You become friends, even though it is just for a short time. As a teacher you have many short-lived, fleeting friendships whose end may cause you pain. I had not realised how much it would hurt me to give up this type of life. The life of spending much time with people talking about their innermost feelings, of traveling for hours a day and of reading at least one book a week, the life of irregular hours and of long days, but also the life of satisfaction after a long day's work has born its fruits and your students are confidently using the constructions and vocabulary you taught them. Maybe it is all for the best though, perhaps this way it will be easier for me to cut the cords when we leave this place a few months from now. It will still be hard saying goodbye to my real friends but at least I will not be bothered by the additional weight of these temporary but profound short friendships.

In short, I am in doubt. But then again, that is nothing new. On to the future. This weekend, we are going to have a Costa Rican dinner with Diana and Jorge and have a 'primitivo' red wine party planned with Cinzia and Louisa. In early October, we are going to test new wine produce at a wine festival in Valtellina with Jen, Louisa and Kate and obviously we are coming to The Netherlands in mid October to look at our new nephews/nephew and niece who will be born by then. We are there from 16 until 21 October so let us meet up!!!

Keeping my fingers crossed for the girls, you have nearly made it! Just a few more days and you will have beautiful children!

Ciao, Fe

Afterglow

Ciao all,

We are back. And happy to be. In spite of some minor annoyance which I will eloquently illuminate in due course. But let's start where I left off.

Leaving McLeod Ganj was one of the hardest things to do. The peace and quiet we found there, the fresh air and overwhelming natural beauty, had easily made it the highlight of our trip. As far as I was concerned, it could only go downhill from there. I did not want to go back to dirty cities and annoying Indians and the thought of Delhi was actually quite frightening. I was still a bit under the weather and had more or less had enough of traveling and just wanted to go home. But on the other hand, I did not want to leave India before at least seeing Shruti (my Indian colleague) and congratulating her on her upcoming wedding. It was bad enough that we could not stay for the wedding itself, as a traditional Hindu wedding would have been the perfect end to our trip, and Delhi did seem to have a lot to offer.

And it did. The Red Fort was a bit of a disappointment, but the Jain temple across from it was cute (at least from the outside), Humayun's tomb (an architectural ancestor of the Taj Mahal) and the Bahai Lotus Temples were very enjoyable. I was not really able to give it my all anymore, but I guess that if we had done Delhi in the beginning I would have enjoyed it a lot more. Shruti was quite busy, so we met her at a shopping centre where she and Elisabetta (her friend and student who had come over to be her bridesmaid). We spent a nice, quiet evening together, topped off by a delicious meal cooked by her lovely mother. The next day we went shopping and bought about 4 billion cheap books, as well as the last souvenirs we were still looking for.

We then took the night train to Mumbai, put our bags in the cloakroom and did all the things we still wanted to do there but had not had a chance when we were there before. I did not particularly like Mumbai initially but the fact that it was now raining constantly pretty much confirmed my negative verdict of this city. The famous Mumbai laundrettes (where rows and rows of people are doing the whole town's washing in ankle-deep dirty water but manage to everything clean and back to their respective owners - while most of them are illiterate and keep track of everything in their heads!!) were a sight to be seen but Mahalaxmi Temple and Haji Ali's mosque on rock in the ocean were a bit disappointment. I did enjoy our boat trip to Elephanta Island to have a look at the 2,000-year-old rock temples there. After that we were caught by bookshop again and lured into buying another truckload of books.

At this point, we were both really ready to go home and it seemed like our wish was to be fulfilled easily. All we had to do was spend the night at the airport in order to catch our early morning flight back to Helsinki. Reality had something else in store for us and the way back turned out to be quite horrible. Having arrived at the airport, I suddenly fell ill. I was shaking uncontrollably, felt ice cold, had a very high fever and burst out in the heaviest diarrhoea I have ever had. I was very happy I had fallen in love with a yak hair sweater when I was in McLeod Ganj because it was the only thing that could keep me warm. There were, of course, no beds and after a night of shaking (which I fortunately got under control as the night wore on), running up and down to the bathrooms and sleeping on the floor because that was the most comfortable position I could find, we were just happy we had made it. Olaf was also suffering from the same explosive diarrhoea but fortunately not from the other systems I had. But then it turned out that our flight was delayed four hours, which meant more waiting but also that we would miss our connecting flight in Helsinki. I felt like crying, screaming and running to the bathroom at the same time. In the end, it was not too bad because FinnAir booked us into a relatively good airport hotel in Helsinki and we could fly back early in the morning. And a good night sleep in a wonderful bed was exactly what I needed and did cheer me up a lot. But not as much as the idea of being out of India and in a civilised country again though!!!

No seriously, India had a lot of positive sides, we ate very well, saw beautiful temples, forts and palaces, did a lot of shopping, were amazed by the countryside and fell in love with the Himalayas. But it was also dirty, smelly and filled with Indians who (like those beautiful errant cows who do not know any better) are apparently not bothered by living - literally - in their shit and garbage and do their number twos everywhere except in the public washrooms or even in the open sewers. It is incomprehensible. Oh, and 99 per cent of them are really annoyingly persistent. In the 26 days we were there, I met just one person who wanted to talk to me to share experiences and cultures and did not just want to sell me something (except for Shruti and her mother of course).

I still have not recovered and am getting a bit worried by it. I have been suffering from this explosive diarrhoea for nearly a week now and I had expected a return to normalcy to take care of that rather quickly. So, I called the doctor today and got prescription for a smorgusboard of pills which I am all taking. Let us hope it helps because I am really fed up with it and will not be able to go to the bathroom whenever I need to anymore next week when my courses start again. Yesterday, I started working in the office again. Now that Veronica has left, Caroline and I are sharing her responsibilities and I am going to be working in the office about 3 days a week for about a month until we find a replacement for her. Right now, I could not be happier. But if I do not get this under control those other 2 days a week will be damn near impossible to manage. Fingers crossed!

We went out for a very nice welcome back aperitivo on Thursday with Louisa, Jen, Caroline, Kate, Loic, Gerry, Felix and some more of Olaf's colleagues. That was great but the enormous amounts of alcohol were not too good for my belly. Plus, I am not used to drinking alcohol anymore. I have lost about 5 kgs now and am just under my perfect and have got used to eating much less. If only I was not feeling so lousy, I would be jumping for joy and back in the pool showing off my perfect body!!

A selection of pictures of our trip is online on Olaf's profile page on Facebook. For those who are not on Facebook, these links should work. If not, please let me know.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50422&l=8982c&id=672566816
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50426&l=4a251&id=672566816
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50434&l=f54aa&id=672566816

The ones taken in Khajuraho are quite graphic. Please enjoy the shock and take it in good humour. Let me know what you think of the pictures!

Fedor

Amritsar & MacLeod Ganj

Ciao all,

So, we finally left Varanasi on that lovely train journey, which was, to tell the truth a tiny little bit too long for my taste. I did however finish most of The Lord of the Rings and being out of Varanasi really made everything worth while. As stated previously - but in need of emphasis - this holy city of Hinduism is a big pile of shit, and hence it obviously gave me Delhi belly. It has been five days since we left that asshole of the world and I still have not recovered. But that aside, our holiday has taken a turn for the better.

After that (including delay) 26-hour train journey, we arrived in Amritsar where the people are nice, the shops have sale and the Golden Temple is stupendously beautiful. The day we arrived, we just went shopping and I bought a lovely pair of dress pants which will be great and very stylish for work - I just need to have them tailored once we are back in Milan. We also tried to go to the museum of Sikh culture but unfortunately it was closed for renovation. From that night onwards, Varanasi's heinous backlash hit us hard and we spent the night and the morning commuting between bed and bathroom. At one point, I had to go out for water and more toilet paper and almost did not make it back. That afternoon, we were feeling a bit better and were able to go and visit the Golden Temple. It is beautiful. Whereas Varanasi felt really fake and like being in Disneyland, the rituals and ceremonies in Amritsar were (or at least came off) genuine. As there were hardly any tourists there, it was quite impressive to spend part of the afternoon there. We also went back at night to take some pictures of the sun setting and the turning on of the lights. The temple itself was a bit to golden for me, when I build my temple it will be similar but made of silver!!!

A couple of days ago, we discovered we had about a three-day gap in hour itinerary between Amritsar and Delhi and after consulting the Bible (aka the Lonely Planet) we decided it would be nice to go up into mountains, as Amritsar is quite far North already and not too far from the foothills of the Himalayas. So, here we are in McLeod Ganj. This village on the slopes of one of the lower mountains of the Himalayas (we are about 1800 meters above sea level) is famous for being the seat of the Tibetan government in exile and the location of Tsuglagkhang, the substitute for the holy Jokhang temple in Lhasa and hence the most important place of Tibetan Buddhist worship. I admit the presence of the Tibetan community here was why we chose McLeod Ganj over all the hundreds of other hill stations. It is quite touristy here but as it is off season it is not too bad. It is a lot colder (we actually need to put on sweaters at night - which we have not had to do yet since we came to India, not even in the desert) and it rains a lot too but that is a welcome change. All in all, we love it here. We have got a massive hotel room with a gorgeous view of the valley for a relatively cheap price. The views here are breathtaking and they are in fact one of the main attractions of this place. Despite the rain and frequent fog, it is very nice and quiet here and the ever-present smell of of wet and replenished pine forest is working wonders. We visited the temple today and took a long walk through the mountains on a little path that led us alongside a mountain stream and to a very cute little waterfall. After that, we were caught by the rain and ran into the first place we could find to have lunch (and restaurants are scarce on top of a mountain!!), which funnily enough turned out to be the exact place we had planned to stop for lunch. Oh, and another advantage of this place is that these Tibetans are Buddhists and therefore live by a live-and-let-live principle and do not try to force their own beliefs on others like the Hindus do. In other words, alcohol shops abound and we were baffled to find out that we could actually order a bottle of wine in a restaurant - which was obviously shit as it was the cheapest local wine, but that is beside the point. And Tibetans are not annoying either!!! I love this place...

I do not know if I will be able to update again before we go home on Sunday, so I will just leave with a traditionally Tibetan 'peace be with you and your family'.

Holy shit

Hello again,

Here are some more updates about India. We have also taken loads of pictures but can't put them online just yet. We will do so when we come back though.

After Jaisalmer we went to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, which was closed as it was a Friday. Not that we really cared because apparently the inside is not very special. We took some nice pictures of it from different sides though. Agra's Mughal Fort was definitely worth the time and the money, as we could roam freely through most of the (remnants of) palaces and play archaeologist. The UNESCO World Heritage Sight was well-documented and the signs very informative. If you have to go to Agra, look at the Taj Mahal from the other side of the Yamuna river and go to the fort and leave as soon as possible, the people are quite annoying there.

Then we went on to Khajuraho, a little hamlet in the middle of nothing with one big attraction, 24 1000-year-old temples famous for their erotic sculptures which the very Victorian who 'discovered' them described as 'a little warmer than there was any absolute necessity for'. In short, they are quite explicit and illustrate a specific characteristic of the culture that constructed these temples. They show how wonderfully integrated the spiritual and physical life, including sexuality, and how natural it all must have been for these people. They were fortunate not to have been subjected to our Christian morality for so long and hence not to equate sexual enjoyment with moral depravity. Unfortunately, this was also the place where I first used the phrase 'fuck off' to get rid of an annoying Indian. But that was an exception, the people were generally nice and not to persistent. I also tried to eat something else than curry for the first time in two weeks. It was a spaghetti carbonara without any ham and it was, well, not that bad but not very nice either. I just had a curry again the next day! On the bus from Khajuraho to Mahoba we met two fellow backpackers, two girls who made the wait for the night train to Varanasi (scheduled to leave at 1am) a lot more pleasant and made us feel safe.

And then there is Varanasi, which is where we are now. This is the biggest heap of shit I have ever seen, quite literally. I do not think I have ever been in a dirtier city in my life. All the people, and not to mention the errant sacred cows, excrete in the streets and nobody cleans it up, the Ganges is so dirty it makes one want to vomit and there is no way I could get used to the perpetual stench of this city. On top of that, the old city is a maze and it is absolutely impossible to locate anything as maps are either incomplete or inaccurate and hence useless and road signs do not exist. Varanasi is one of the 100 modern wonders of the world but I cannot see why. Leaving aside the dirt and the stench, it really does not have anything to commend it. It is a holy city for Hindus, who believe that when they die here they escape the endless cycle of reincarnation and go straight to their version of heaven. This means there are a lot of old people who come here to die and cremation is big business here. The smoke from the cremation towers is ever-present and Indians charge tourists ridiculous prices to watch the burnings. It is sick and I refuse to desecrate a person's (or a body's in any case) final moment for enjoyment. It shows disrespect on the part of the tourist as well as the tout.

One of the other main attractions of this city is the sunset ceremony at Dasaswamedh Ghat (a ghat is a place where steps lead down to the river). When we got there, all the Indians were mercilessly shoved aside so we and the other tourists could get the best seats (for money obviously), even though we took no part in the ceremony. It was a sham. It was either a reenactment by actors of a ceremony that used to be held there at night or it was the real ceremony but completely customised to the desires of the tourists. There was hardly any singing, the sound came out of a tape player, and most of the monks/performers looked bored. Never in my life have I felt more like a desecrator. But as we were there, I decided that whatever the ritual was, it must have retained some characteristics of the original ceremony and I started studying it. It was a goodbye to the day with salutes to the North, South, East and West. Fire and water were featured a lot and I guess it was a fertility ritual as well, thanking the sun and the Ganges for allowing plants to grow to feed people. It was very repetitive and the numbers, 3, 4, 7 and 12 seemed important, 4 perhaps for the seasons or the parts of the day, 3 for the trinity of Vishnu, Rama and Shiva, 7 for the planets (sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) or the days of the week and 12 for the months of the year (or just as 3 times 4).

This morning we took a boat trip at 5.30am to watch the sun rise over the Ganges but it was overcast so that was another disappointment. All in all, I guess this city is just a big disappointment and does not really deserve to be included in a trip to India. But I guess it is too late to turn the tide and leave Varanasi to the Hindus and stop harassing them and disturbing their sacred ceremonies. Oh well... We have just had lunch with Devatara and Toni (the girls from the bus) who are leaving for Agra today. Good luck to them. We are going on a nearly 24-hour train journey Northwest to Amritsar tomorrow and I am looking forward to it. 24 hours in a train without worries and with a bathroom near.

That's it for now. Bye.

India - more impressions

Hi all,

I may have been a little bit too hasty being proud of myself for being in India for a week without getting Delhi belly. I suffered from it for two days but am fine again as of today. Here are some more updates.

Jaisalmer: Imagine a fortress slash walled city on a hilltop in the middle of the desert made of limestone glittering golden in the sunlight. Very small and very cute and the people were unbelievably nice. Hearing random people say 'hello' and 'good morning' to you without any ulterior motive was a welcome break from all the hassling. We got cornered by a holy cow near the ramparts that was suffering from Multiple Personalities Disorder. When we tried to pass it started to rub its head against Olaf, it thought it was a cat!!!

Lodhruva: used to be the capital of Jaisalmer state before the founding of Jaisalmer state. It is a small village in the middle of desert consisting of absolutely nothing!

As it turned out, traveling from Jaisalmer via Bikaner to Amritsar would be really annoying with lots of trains leaving and arriving the middle of the night and we decided against it. So, we changed our itinerary and decided to Uttar Pradesh first.

Agra: after a night with hardly any sleep on a sleeper train that arrived at 5.30am and then a regular 2nd class train sitting on hard benches trying not to be pushed off by Indians, we arrived in Agra where it immediately started raining. It has been drizzling all day and as it is Friday the Taj Mahal is closed. We did take some nice pictures of it though and visited Agra's Mughal fort, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

And now we are done here. The people are annoying and the weather sucks. Tomorrow we are off to the erotic temples in Khajuraho!

Ciao, Fe

India - first impressions

Hey all,

This is our sixth day traveling through India after a short stopover in Helsinki. Here are some first impressions:

Finnair: a lovely airline after years of flying RyanAir, they actually provide service. I was so ashamed at ordering another bottle of wine free of charge, it felt so naughty!!!
Helsinki: cute yet provincial, quite pleasant in summer but I would not for the life of me set foot there in winter
Mumbai: culture shock, too many people in too small an area. It could have been something but it just does not have enough enough architectural monuments and overall beauty to compensate for the pollution, dirt, stench and overpopulation. Although the dry rain was an interesting surprise...
Kalyan: hell on Earth, never in my life have I been stared that like that. You would think that the people there had seen caucasians before... I was so glad we did not have to spend the night there!!
Ahmedabad: dusty, sand everywhere, some cute mosques and temples but nothing really worth mentioning. Gujarati snacks are delicious however and the people were not as annoying as expected. Got wet all through though, thanks to a sneaky rainshower lurking behind all the buildings.
Udaipur: my first shower in three days!!!! Joy, utter joy. We met up with Felix and Annaig and strolled through this lovely little city and visited palace after palace. As the monsoon has only just started here, the lake was still quite empty. But no matter, the view from the roof terrace of our lovely hotel with its soft and comfy pillows to sit on and relax our feet after a long day's walk made up for a lot...
Chittorgarh: an amazing fort, but what a heat. The view from the Tower of Victory was magnificent, but oh that heat... Traveling by regular bus turns out to be quite comfy and so cheap, we will do that again!
Jodhpur: the silk route city famous for its antiques, textiles and spices. Its amazing fort of Meherangarh gives one a sniff of how the Maharadjas lived and worked. Gorgeous, and the fabrics... And another rooftop terrace with a view to a kill. And our first glass of wine in days!!!

Tomorrow, we are off to Jaisalmer and then we are going to North to Amritsar via Bikaner in the desert. Hope to be able to update again soon!

XXX, Fe

Summer edition

Ciao all,

I have been completely incommunicado recently, but I am not going to apologise for it for a change. The rest of June and first week of July were extremely busy but July, 5th marked a welcome change to this lifestyle. My workload was cut in half and I suddenly had a lot of time on my hands. It took me a while to get adjusted to this and I was a little out of it for a few days. Fortunately, this passed as well and I have been enjoying the hot and surprisingly wet Italian summer ever since. Hence the reason for my not having written anything.

I had decided to take it slow, finish up the few things I still had to do at work and devote myself to some deserved (in my opinion at least, feel free to disagree!) rest and relaxation. I have been swimming a lot, getting my body in shape for summer, and think I have managed fairly well. And of course, one of the fringe benefits of swimming is that there is usually a secluded place to sunbathe as well and I took advantage of all those visits to the swimming pool to get myself a nice tan.

As far as activities are concerned, here is a nice little list:

- watching lots of movies (no, seriously, lots)
- rediscovering my love for the French language as well as that country's fascinating culture, i.e. watching French movies (I recommend 'Les Chansons d'Amour' by Christophe Honoré), listening to French music (Alex Beaupain, Edith Piaf) and trying to speak French with Sam
- Lunches in Brera (very decadently on weekdays!!)
- Typing out lots and lots of certificates for students who have recently completed courses at CE
- Lush and raunchy drinking bouts ending at 5am with unexpected house guests
- A Bollywood movie night
- Taking leave of Veronica (our course manager and a close friend), who has made the very difficult decision of leaving CE but will in the end be happier and better-off because of it
- Studying Italian (I have finally been able to pick up where I left off with Paola, yay!!!)
- Teaching Paola Dutch (although it is still unclear to me and the rest of the world why on earth she would want to!)
- Thinking and talking about the future of the company, mainly with Caroline, about our new organisational structure and my role now that Veronica has left
- Missing guests, by which I mean Andrea and a friend who came over for a Friday afternoon but I had to work and by the time I got home they had already left again
- Enjoying living by myself for a change (the second half of June, while Olaf while was still on his world tour)
- An amazing visit to Marike in London: talks until deep in the night, nostalgia (oh those good old days at the Koninginnelaan!!), having children, the future (how our children will get as rich as we want them to be), smoking lots of ciggies, a lovely visit to the National Gallery, coffee and cake in St. James' park, gi-normous glasses of wine for ridiculous prices in Covent Garden, lunch at La Bohème, fish 'n' chips at a pub (of course!), discussions about money vs. happiness vs. success, lovely plans for future holidays and of course 'That Face!', the amazing play with Lindsay Duncan we went to on a whim and that made us laugh until we cried, laugh again, pant, sigh, perspire, hold our breath until the very end and left us lost for words and air but infinitely impressed and satisfied. But next time, Marike, please make sure you stock up on wine!!!!
- Randomly meeting a Belgian on the bus from Stansted to London who turned out to live around the corner from my place in Milan. Bring on the beers and games of pool!
- Hascar and Jolien's wedding, at which I was asked to officiate as best man (Has had done me as well as Ward the great honour of asking us both). I will never forget Jolien's bursting out in hearty laughter as Hascar seriously said 'I do', laughter which slowly developed into tears of happiness. And nobody there suppressed their grins, as we all recognised her victory of persuading the man who said he would never ever marry. I think my speech followed by a pagan libation to celebrate and bless their marriage was received well... Thank you, Marike, for the input!!
- Enjoying Renee and Ejal's visit. There had never before, nor has there since been such a lovely afternoon in Parco Sempione. The cocktails were big (Más!), as were the pizzas (La Padellaccia!), and that freak rainstorm getting us wet through and through in 1 minute while on our way there have definitely made this a weekend I will never forget. Thanks for the pictures, they are lovely!
- Going to random concerts in the Arena and in Villa Reale. A jazz concert (or so we thought as it was part of the Milano Jazzin' Festival) which turned out to be the French band Justice, two DJs playing hardstyle dance music while in front of their tables there was a big shiny cross that lit up in accordance with the music. The Latvian Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra playing Tchaikovsky, which was beautiful though at times a bit boring - and we were annoyed because there were too many mosquitoes and we had forgotten our repellent!! And last but not least a lovely Cuban Jazz band, the Roberto Fonseca Group, playing absolutely inspired jazz with Latin influences that made it impossible not to love.
- Preparing physically and mentally for our great trip. Vaccinations, insurance, planning a route, booking local trains etc.... Phew!

But it's all done now. And tomorrow we are finally leaving for India!!! I am so looking forward to that! Tonight we will have a final aperitivo (at La Hora Feliz) with a few friends who are still in Milan (most people have already left on holiday or family visits), but fortunately Louisa, Jen and Flora are still here. I hope I will be able to update this blog while we are there but I can't promise anything.

Happy holidays everyone!!!

Deluge

Ciao tutti,

The Andrea Bocelli concert was very nice - and we had the misfortune of being constantly reminded of this by some American bimbo who was standing next to us enveloped in a column of smoke. Seriously, what did she think she had to prove? She was obviously showing off her perceived supreme knowledge of and deep insight in Italian music to her equally stupid friends, but did she HAVE to do it while Bocelli was singing?!?!

Anyway, the rest of the week was as usual. I still have to finish a lot of courses before June, 30th and this is pretty much defining my life. Olaf was in Tunisia last week and spent this week in Turkey so I didn't see him much. Which is good, because I don't have any time for him anyway. He made the mistake of traveling with Alitalia though, and, as expected, the lost his luggage. They delivered his suitcase two days later on Monday night and this was quite inconvenient as he had to leave again Tuesday morning and he needed all his shirts cleaned. But let's be optimistic, at least they found it back.

Paola and I went to an Italian translation of Thomas Middleton and William Rowley's 17th-century comedy 'The Changeling'. This was a really weird play (for a description, go here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Changeling_%28play%29). It was about a woman who wanted to marry her lover but was made to marry another man by her father. In her despair she hires someone to have her prospective husband killed, but this hired hand wants her for himself and forces her to pay him in sex. She then gets to marry the man she wants but has already lost her virginity and makes her chambermaid take her place in the nuptial bed for the prima notte. Afterwards, she has her maid killed by her hired hand who is found by her husband and owns up to everything. The woman and the hired hand then take their lives and the play ends with the husband's appeal for a return to the morals and values of the past and a renunciation of decadence. The execution of the play was nothing special but it was entertaining. The only thing I did not understand - although the authors apparently meant it this way - was the fact that the female lead was played by three different actresses. This was supposed to illustrate the development of her character in three stages, from caprice to guilt to dour amoralism, but in my opinion it just caused confusion over who was who and denied the actresses the chance to develop their performances to a climax.

Last Sunday, when Olaf was back for a couple of days, we went to the Cimitero Monumentale art festival with Stefano and Elke. There were supposed to be musical and theatrical performances, but unfortunately it started raining not long after we got there and everything was cancelled. Our tour guide was amazing though. Instead of cutting the tour short and trying to get inside to escape from the rain, he shepherded us all into one of the bigger monuments and started telling us about all the monuments we hadn't seen yet. He was hoping the rain would end or slow down and wanted to take us to look at the tombs he had just described. But alas, the rain did not end and as a last resort he led the way running past all the tombs we shouldn't miss before taking us back to the main building. This guy was way cool!

I've also had a near-death experience. Someone else's death by my hands, that is. Last Friday, as I was cycling back from the swimming pool through the pouring rain, I had to stop because some guy was trying to get out of a parking space. I was obviously annoyed because I was cold and wet and wanted to go home, but these things happen you know. The guy took his time though, all the while blocking my passage. When he finally got out of the parking space and onto road he pulled up really fast and I was happy I could continue my journey. 20 metres down the road, however, the guy stopped again and started trying to get into another parking space, taking his time again and blocking my way through. Shivering, soaked and really irritated, I did what any decent Italian would do in this situation, I gave him the 'Va fa in culo'-gesture. So, without parking his car well, making sure it was still blocking all the traffic on the street, he got out of his car and asked me with this quasi-innocent, pseudo-shocked, trying-to-look-sweet, arrogant face 'Ma che c'è? Perché fai così?' or something of the sort. I swear, I could have strangled him right then and there...

As you may have noticed, I have been mentioning the word 'rain' quite a lot. I don't really want to talk about this. I'm in Italy and it's June, the weather should be f*cking amazing by now, but it's not and it sucks. As Dennis Quaid said in The Day after Tomorrow: 'I think we're on the verge of a major climate shift.'

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!! The deluge has started and we will soon be living in a new ice age!!!! Does that mean I'll get to snog and cuddle up to Jake Gyllenhaal though??

That would make for a lot... Ciao, Fe

Trips 'n' Drinks

Ciao tutti,

As announced before, we went to Holland for a family weekend organised by my mum. It was wonderful. The weather was surprisingly good Friday and Saturday and we were able to take a walk through a nearby forest and some fields. We enjoyed the sunshine and each other's companies. Obviously, lots of alcohol was consumed and we also had our (Olaf's and mine anyway) first barbecue of the season. The evenings were spent playing board and card games and I am proud to say I won one of the round of the new trivial pursuit, although the new questions seriously damaged my confidence and made me feel like a complete nitwit for knowing absolutely nothing. Fortunately, the others weren't much better and that helped a little. I still prefer the 1987 version though, at least I know more than 50% of the answers belonging to the questions on that one. Of course, it was great to see everybody again, that goes without saying, and we had some good talks. I particularly enjoyed talking incoherent nonsense with my brothers and making stupid sex jokes. And then, there was Jolien (my soon-to-be sister-in-law), obviously the centre of attention as she is carrying the first scion of the new generation of Van Rijn's inside of her. At five months, her pregnancy is really showing and I am glad to be able to report that all is going extremely well. I can't wait for the baby to be born, and am looking forward to going back for Hascar and Jolien's wedding later this month. For pictures see Olaf's picture website: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/ojdegroot/FamilyWeekendEtc/

This week was quite slow, as I had a lot of cancellations. This was just the still before the storm though, as we have been informed by Sky that all our group courses have to be finished by 1st July. At the moment, Sky has got three offices in Milan and as of July they are all moving to one new complex that is nearly ready. In order to prevent mix-ups booking rooms for the lessons, we are just going to have to study much harder. This is more easily said that done. I still have full schedule for a couple of weeks and don't have that much extra time, so it took us a while to figure it all out. So June is going to be very busy, but July will be incredibly slow. Oh well, at least that means I can start getting used to being on holiday somewhat earlier. Today is another one of the random days off that the Italian, la Festa della Repubblica (Republic Day), so I am at home sitting on my couch, writing emails, preparing lessons and relaxing before all hell breaks loose tomorrow. I was a little bit concerned because Olaf is pretty much going to be gone until the beginning of July, as he has got conferences and workshops all over the world, but I guess this is actually a good thing because I wouldn't have a lot of time for him anyway and will be probably be grumpy quite often. There's really just one thing left to do before he leaves tomorrow morning, we have to figure out where to go on holiday and book it!!! And then there is a free Andrea Bocelli concert at Piazza Duomo tonight and I am really looking forward to that.

Last Saturday, we went out for drinks at La Hora Feliz (where else!) with Louisa and Amanda and some other random people. To our surprise, there was a Dutch girl there who turned out to be a lot of fun. We enjoyed ourselves immensely, Irene and I shared loads of cigarettes and the evening progressed nicely to the point where we were all best friends and were discussing the most curious nonsense. On Sunday, we decided to leave Milan for the afternoon and went to Lodi, a small town South of Milan with a cute medieval centre. It was part of the duchy of Sforzas (the dukes of Milan) in the 14th and 15th centuries and city centres shows many examples and traces of typical Sforza architecture. Here are some pictures












We had an interesting experience here. Italian waiters and waitresses, who are not known for their efficiency in general, were brought to a new all-time low. We sat down for lunch at around 2.30 on the central piazza, expecting to pay a little bit more than we would elsewhere but couldn't really be bothered to find another place. There were about 6 people sitting on the terrace and they had 8 people to wait on them, so we thought we would be quite safe.

After 10 to 15 minutes of waiting, we decided to try to get the attention of the waitresses by waving and winking and after about 10 more minutes they finally noticed. When we asked for and got the menu (having been there for about 30 minutes now), it turned out that there were no prices next to the primi. So, we spent another 10 minutes trying to get our waitress' attention and when she finally came we asked her how much having lunch would actually cost. This is what she told us: 'Well, actually, I haven't worked here for that long so I don't know anything about the prices. I'll go and check with my colleague.' Obviously, when you start as a waitress you're instructions are pretty much this: 'Ignore as many customers as you possibly can, discuss the weather and TV programmes with your colleagues, walk around pretending not to see anything, don't smile and, most importantly, don't know anything!'.

After that, she came back with an older colleague who told us in an annoyed voice that the prices were inside the menus. When we showed her that they were not, she was taken aback, sighed deeply and said she didn't know anything about the prices of anything they sold. She would have to go to the cashier, debate with him, find out all the different prices and report back to us. In the end, we told her just to ask about the prices of the two primi we wanted (we were quite hungry by now) and she returned relatively fast after about 5 minutes. As it turned out, all primi were 9 euros - seriously, don't you think it would be useful to know things like this if you are working as a waitress during lunchtime???? Anyway, I ordered a pasta, Olaf had a panino and we decided we had earned ourselves a little prosecco. So, the prosecco and Olaf's panino arrived soon, but I had to wait for my pasta for another 15 minutes. If you ever go to Lodi, I suggest you find another place to have lunch at.

Anyway, the town was cute but nothing special, although I did manage to find the largest part of Ferroni's 'Storia della Letteratura Italiana' (7 volumes for 10 euros). Later that evening, I went running for the first time in ages and I'm still feeling my muscles. We topped the night off with a visit to the Irish pub to have a few beers with Gerry, Domenico, Gunesh and Giovanni.

So, tonight we're to Piazza Duomo for the Andrea Bocelli concert and I'll be working my ass off (and missing Olaf) for the rest of the week. There's one thing I am looking forward to though, Wednesday night Paola and I are going to the opera The Changeling (not at the Scala unfortunately). I'll let you know how it was!

Ciao, Fe

International Stereotypes Party

Ciao tutti,

We had a blast yesterday. It was time for our quasi-annual spring party and obviously it rained cats and dogs. But that did not spoil the fun, oh no!!!! Here are some pics from our International Stereotypes Party, enjoy them!!!

Olaf was amazing as a Palestinian suicide bomber

Look, a real Norwegian viking!!

Martina, the French can-can girl, fell in love with our calendar

I was a Chassidic Jew and Olaf a Palestinian suicide bomber, but we live together in peace. How's that for a message to the world?!?!

Felix was an Indian rose seller (the ones that keep bothering you in Milan) and Annaig was a lovely Chinese girl in a flower dress

This is a difficult one. Niamh was a little, innocent German girl, did you guess?

Latin American guerrilla fighter and cocaine smuggler Flora had had just a little bit too much of the merrymaking powder

And obviously the two guerrilla fighters didn't get along...

Idil was very beautiful as a Spanish flamenco dancer and especially stunning in the picture below

Jorge and Diana came as Australian crocodile hunters

Look, two typical Slovenians! Don't Andreja and Damijan look natural?!?!

Apparently, sweet innocent little Chinese girl also had a dark terrorist side...

Superman, the stereotype for planet Krypton!!

I hope you enjoyed that. I certainly did! I had a tiny little headache when I woke up today and cleaning up wasn't much fun, but hey, it was so totally worth it!!! As the Facebook application Vampires would say, "Fun was had, and the funk was brought!"

I'm looking forward to going to Holland next weekend. My mother and her boyfriend are organising a family weekend and we are all going to be there. I have even managed to convince Olaf that family weekends can be fun!

Ciao, Fe

Poetry in the sun

Hey everybody,

It has been a long time since I wrote anything, but this time it was a conscious choice. Well, partly at least. On the one hand, there wasn't much to tell and on the other hand I didn't really want to write down what I had to say. I have been working like crazy and haven't really had time for anything special, but I have just been treasuring the little time to myself that I had and didn't find the little things that happened worthy enough of mentioning here.

The main reason I have been so busy is because there are a lot of changes happening and coming along at work which have not been having a great influence on the atmosphere in the office nor on my performance as a teacher. About a month and a half ago, Caroline, my boss, announced that she had decided she didn't want to be in the commercial teaching business anymore and that she was planning to move to Rome to be with her new boyfriend this summer. This had to remain a secret, but you can imagine it caused some excitement, nervousness and frustration. For a long time, we didn't know what was going to happen. It was unclear whether the school would be sold, there would be a new partner or she was going to hire a new manager and hand him all her tasks. This was especially hard on Veronica (our course manager) and me, because from the moment my boss told us she was going to leave it seemed like she was already half gone. There was trouble in communication, she was out of the office a lot and though she was working out what to do we didn't hear anything for quite a long time which made us feel very insecure.

In the meantime, several of our teachers left, our database was (and still is) down and we had some trouble with our email sever. It also proved quite difficult to find new teachers and to have them take over the courses we needn't to place. As 3 of my colleagues left (among whom Rebecca and Dariush, who will be direly missed not just as colleagues but as friends too), this effectively meant we needed 2,5 full-timers by 1st May. Caroline was busy with other things and subsequently went on holiday, so it was up to Veronica to find new teachers. I tried to help her out as much as I could. On top of this, we (as in the school, not me and Olaf) were having financial problems, as we always seem to be out of money no matter how much we make...

In the end we managed, but it caused a lot of stress and discontent. We decided that it would be better if I cut my office hours by half and started teaching more. This way we could place some more courses and I could earn a little extra money (as teaching pays more than office work). To tell the truth, I was quite happy to be in the office less often, as I didn't like the atmosphere anymore. When my boss came back from her holiday, it was clear to me that things had changed. She really is leaving and is distancing herself from the school more and more, even though she won't leave until July. There is still no manager, but at least now we know that Caroline has interviewed and is interviewing people, so I suppose things will be all right. I feel quite sad about the situation. Even though, I am very happy for Caroline that she has found someone to share her life with, it will cause the end of Corporate English as I know and love it. The one thing that attracted me to CE was its sense of family. When I just got to Milan, I was welcomed with open arms and introduced into a group of lovely people, many of whom became friends of good acquaintances. Most of those people have now left and now it will definitely die with Caroline, the one always kept us together and maintained that sense of family.

Besides all my work problems, there were some parties and a visit. Last weekend, Matt and Ant came over for a visit and we spent almost the whole time outside of Milan. That was very nice. We went to Como on Saturday and rented a pedalo to go out onto the lake. There is really nothing that can beat exercising in the sunshine, is there? And the well-deserved weissbier in the sun afterwards really made my day unforgettable. That Sunday we went to Vigevano and walked around the city enjoying some more warm touches of sunshine. And to end their visit in style, we played uno to our heart's content...

There is one last thing I really must mention, because it was amazing - or well, the concept was anyway. We went to a rubik's cube party, which unfortunately didn't work out very well. A rubik's cube party is a party where you have to come dressed in something blue, something green, something yellow, something red, something white and something orange. Over the course of the evening, you are supposed to swap articles of clothing with the people at the party until you are uni-coloured. How amazing is that?!?! This one was organised by my colleague Antony in honour of his 30th birthday. It was at LoolaPaloosa, a club in Corso Como, Milan's most fancy clubbing area where Olaf used to live and where we - obviously - never go out. As could have been foreseen, LoolaPaloosa's staff was not too happy about the concept (Italians, or at least Milanese, are very style-sensitive, and would rather die than be seen in a ridiculous outfit) and when it started getting late and a lot of serious, trendy people started arriving, we were kindly yet resolutely asked to get changed or leave. Anyway, it was fun for about 30 minutes. Here are some pictures.






I hope you enjoyed that!

So, things are settling down, courses are finishing and I finally feel like I can breathe again. Furthermore, I am quite sure that I will enough courses to live off until the end of the school year. That is a load off my mind. Last Friday, I had several cancellations and lost lessons and you know what I did? I sat in the sun reading poetry. I was reading Oscar Wilde's Complete Poems and it wasn't the best poetry I had ever read, but for the first time in a long, long time I was able to block out the world...

Ciao, Fedor

An adventurous trip

Hey ho, here I am again! I bet you weren't expecting me to post something this soon, now were you?!?! Well, I just have to tell you about my trip to Holland - and more importantly about my adventures on the way back!

I had three days off after Easter and decided to spend them in Holland as it had been a long time since I was there last. So, I left on Easter Sunday and arrived around 2pm. I stepped out of the airplane onto the stairs, took a look around, tried to sniff up the cold Dutch winter air... and got hit by a snowflake. It was a single snowflake that must have wondered off somewhere because there weren't even any clouds in the sky. I was baffled. I had no idea where this snowflake had come from. Welcome to Holland...

I wanted to go to Utrecht to visit Wouter before going to Holland and so I went to Eindhoven train station. Imagine my surprise to see a random woman jumping up and down and flying at me like a frolicking pony while shouting something like 'whoawhooooooowhoaoaoaoaoa', when I was waiting for the train. This bouncy little thing turned out to be my friend Renee, soon followed by her boyfriend Ejal, who would grace me with their presence on the train as they were going to Utrecht as well. Obviously, there were no trains between Den Bosch and Utrecht (once again, 'welcome to Holland') thanks to the Dutch Railways so - even though I had won a lot of time I hadn't expected to have with Ejal and Renee - I unfortunately only had 30 minutes to spend with Wouter. Oh well, at least I got to see him. After this, I took another train to Nijmegen to join my mother's Easter dinner where my brothers, my sister-in-law, my mother's boyfriend and his children were as well. The food was good, although I had to get used to eating a meal consisting of so much meat again (as Olaf is a vegetarian we never eat meat at home). Later that evening, I went to visit Maartje and Edin to catch up, watch their wedding video and admire their wedding album. The pictures were all black and white and combined with their choice of outfits it made them look like a bride and groom from the fifties. I rounded up the night at Café Van Rijn, where Ward, my youngest brother was working (and so he should, I mean, Café Van Rijn just isn't Café Van Rijn without a Van Rijn behind the counter!) to get drunk and smoke to many cigarettes with my big brother, Hascar.

The next day, I could sleep late and had breakfast with my mother and her boyfriend. Afterwards, I went to see Maarten to have lunch and then to my father's for a late lunch. I enjoyed all this eating immensely but it did mean that I had already finished three big meals by 3 pm. As I usually just eat two meals a day, you can imagine how I must have been feeling. That night it was time for the Super-SteMaFeCo, a game night like there had never been a game night before, a game night with a continuing mission to go where no game night had gone before!!! Well, it just meant Stéphanie, Margo, Cobie and I got together to drink a lot of wine, catch up, smoke too much and play board games. Steef just beat me at Risk and Margo won at Koehandel, but I got my revenge in the end after winning two consequent rounds of Boonanza. By this time, Steef had gone home and we had been joined by Margo's girlfriend Marieke who had come home from work. As the girls all had to get up early the next morning, we didn't finish too late which made sure I didn't have a hangover on Tuesday. Oh and I almost forgot one of the most important things, we had loads of fat French fries and other types of Dutch junk food that I had been having a craving for for a long, long time...

Wednesday morning, I had breakfast with Renee and Eefje at uni and it felt great being back there again. It's funny how, even though I don't really miss Nijmegen or my old house that much, being at university made me nostalgic. Apparently, uni was much more my home than my old student room!!! Anyway, after that I had to go to the dentist, followed by lunch with Lisa who I hadn't spoken to for a long time. Later that afternoon, I went for a coffee with Femke and Sebastiaan and then managed to pry my mother away from a meeting for a glass of wine. That night, I had a quick look at Ward's new room and then rushed off to have dinner with Nina and Antonio, our Italian friends who have recently moved to Nijmegen. It was really good to hear how they are enjoying themselves here and have found jobs they like. We were especially worried about Antonio because he doesn't speak any Dutch but as it turned out he actually had a range of jobs to choose from. They like it so much there that they are thinking about buying a house. I ended the night with drinks with some of my study mates like Bert, Eefje, Marianne, Sebas, Erik and Suus. It was nothing the normal drunken debaucheries we usually engage in but we kept it relatively civil this time, but had fun and a lot of opportunities to have some good conversations - and talk humongous nonsense as well of course!!!

The next day, I was due to fly back around 2pm and I obviously arrived at the airport in time. I had just had a relaxing lunch and was looking forward to reading for a couple of hours while waiting for and being on the airplane, when they suddenly announced that my flight was cancelled. Apparently, some farmer had driven a truck into an electricity pole whereby causing a total power failure, so my airplane couldn't land. This put me in a tight spot, because I had to get back to Milan that day in order to be able to teach at a big client Thursday morning. As my school was closed, it would have been very difficult to inform them that I wouldn't be there the next day. Anyway, everybody had to get in the same queue to find out what could be done, and obviously RyanAir could only employ four rather stupid women (who only had two computers to share among them, so there were always two of them helping just one customer) to help us figure out a solution.

Obviously, when it was my turn all RyanAir flights from nearby airports had been booked full for that day and all days up to Friday. The lady was very understanding of my situation and said she would do everything she could to help - except trying to find me another flight with another airline. After assuring me that she didn't work for RyanAir but for the airport and thus worked for all airlines that use Eindhoven Airport, she uttered a completely unintelligible reason why this was simply impossible. If I wanted a flight with another airline she could tell me exactly how expensive that would be (the cheapest one being 450 euros) but that was it. Communicating with Olaf, I finally booked the night train from Amsterdam to Milan but I obviously had to pay for that myself. Well, anyway, I decided not to worry about the money that much but just to enjoy the train ride and the time I now had to read my book. I'm re-reading Tanith Lee's 'The Blood of Roses', for the first time in the original language, and it is amazing...

The train ride, however, would not be as relaxing as I thought it would. I love travelling by train in general because of the comfort, the views and the time you get to read. I have travelled by sleeper trains before and have always been quite happy to. This time, however, it was different. I had to share a cabin with five other people, two Germans, who were quite ok and didn't get on until halfway through Germany, two Greeks, who I didn't see for most of the evening because they were spending their time in another cabin where their friends were, and a young black woman with a newborn baby. A newborn baby with 6 other people in a cabin of 2 square metres?!?!?! When she got on, I realised I wouldn't be sleeping much that night...

Looks deceive, however, and after some initial wails the child went to sleep and didn't disturb anyone for most of the night. The two Greeks however, who came back drunk and stoned from the party in the other cabin, were quite annoying when they went to bed at around 1 pm when everyone else was already sleeping. And as if this wasn't enough, it turned out they were smuggling drugs out of Holland and hadn't taken into account the fact that they would have to travel through Switzerland. So, at around 3 pm, we were violently roused from our beds by grumpy soldiers and barking dogs who wanted to go through the cabin. Their drugs were found, of course, and the customs guards wanted to take them off the train. The Greeks, however, stupid and stoned as they were, started trying to bribe their way out of it. Now, there are lot of countries in the world where this would have a significantly positive chance of success, but NOT IN SWITZERLAND!!

So, after a lot of angry shouting and an unnecessary but provoked violent removal of these dimwits, we could finally continue our journey. Olaf, sweet man as he is, had woken up very early to come to Centrale to bring me my books and my bicycle because I had to go on to work immediately. I just hope my students didn't mind my not having showered, my smelly clothes and my five-day beard. As Caroline (my boss) later said, 'when you travel through Europe by train, strange things always happen...'

I was a little bit tired on Thursday, but not bad enough to really affect my work and Friday was a normal day as well. That night, Bart arrived to pay us a visit, and on Saturday we were joined by his girlfriend Tineke who had been attending conference here (she's doing a PhD in urology). We spent a nice, relaxing and warm weekend with them, which was exactly what I needed. They have just left and I am really looking forward to spending an evening with Olaf on the couch watching a movie...

I hope you are all well and to those of you I met when I was in Holland, thank you for a lovely time!!!

XXX, Fe