Tempus fugit, tempus volat. Has it been that long since I wrote anything? I should really boost the number of posts I write per month, but hey, at least I've got plenty to say if I do it this way. And it gives me some time to reflect on what's really interesting to tell. So, I forgot to tell you in my last post that Lars and Rachel had also brought us a mini ping pong table... A mini ping pong table? Yes, a mini ping pong table! It's a ping pong table for mice. And strangely enough everybody loves it, except for me. So, you can imagine my heart didn't break when Olaf decided to take it to his office where it remains a means of merriment for all hard-working Bocconi PhD students in their building. By the way, if you haven't seen Alanis Morissette's cover of the Black Eyed Peas 'My lumps' yet, should watch on YouTube asap. It's awesome!!! The video parodies the moves and the image of the Black Eyed Peas which is completely in contrast with Alanis' normal behaviour. It's absolutely brilliant!
We've had some visitors the past two weekends and we've got visitors again now. The first weekend, Marie a uni Friend of Olaf's came to stay and taught us the hardships of proper shopping streaks. We shopped until we dropped and she was able to find most of the things she wanted. I was a bit less spendthrifty and contented myself with a nice new pair of trousers. The weekend after that my friends Cobie and Peter came to stay with us and we had a lovely time. I hadn't spoken to Cobie since Maartje's New Year's Eve party in Nijmegen so we obviously had a lot to catch up on. Moreover, I think I had met Peter only once or twice before a couple of years ago and this was the perfect way to get to know him a bit better. As Cobie and I are both board game fanatics (we used to be part of a group of friends that met every week to play games and we continued this tradition in a less intensive frequency with Margo after this group fell apart), we just had to play a lot of games. We did our very best to get them addicted to cafe international and I think we fairly succeeded. Neither Cobie nor I won ultimate risk but we enjoyed playing it immensely. Ultimate risk is the version of risk we used to play on game nights. We've changed the names of the countries, added some new assignments and have altered some of the rules. Consequently, this is a very strange way to play risk and people who didn't use to be part of our group, like Olaf and Peter, usually don't understand its appeal to us. Peter didn't mind because he won and Olaf won the round of trivial pursuit we played afterwards, so I suppose they were both happy - and maybe the fact that it was alcohol galore that night contributed somewhat.
Unfortunately, they also brought a nasty Dutch virus and I haven't been feeling well all week. I'm not exactly ill and don't need to stay home - I wouldn't even if I could, as there are two many public holidays this month and I fear its effects on my pay as it is. I had a splitting headache on Sunday, but that was probably just because of all the alcohol but ever since then my head feels as if it's filled with snot up to the extremities of my earlobes and whenever I blow my nose it just oozes yucky stuff. Seriously, I feel as if I've secreted most of my brain by now.
This has obviously had an effect on my work and it's safe to say that this hasn't been the most perfect week I've ever had. I had to start a new a course which starts at 9am twice a week - which was always going to suck but it was simply horrendous to start this week, because I had trouble breathing and couldn't sleep very well and getting up at 7 or 7.30 wasn't exactly an improvement. I also had to take over a one of Vanessa's courses (Vanessa is a former colleague who has recently moved to Belgium - why is it that everybody seems to be going to Belgium these days? What attraction does Belgium have that I've missed?) and this guy turned out to be a football reporter who specifically wanted to improve his football vocab. Now, I must admit that my knowledge of football is quite small in any language and that I really, utterly, majorly dislike football. So I was really worried about this, but he turned out to be very nice and we get on quite well. A third and last thing about my work is that Yarnie, my overseas boss at Corporate English, is temporarily back from New Zealand and wanted to have dinner with us all Tuesday night. I didn't feel well but I went anyway, because it was a good networking opportunity and about 50 per cent of my courses is going to finish within the next four weeks so I really need them to like me and give me new courses. When I arrived (late because I had to work until 8pm), there wasn't anyone there yet except for Caroline, Veronica, Yarnie and Scout (Caroline's dog which I am in with and which adores me) and they were all bitching on Peter who had forgotten to make a reservation. At that moment I decided to leave and I excused myself to go and get some money to be able to confer with Olaf privately. Fortunately, we had miraculously gotten a table while I was away and it turned out to be an extremely fun night and I got home way too late and a little drunk. This didn't really stimulate my healing process though...
Yesterday, Olaf, Idil and I went out to dinner at Más with Sebastiaan who had come to Milan on a rugby trip. It was nice seeing him again, even though he ended up throwing up in the middle of the street which supplied me with a nostalgic dose of vicarious shame (Non si fa! That is not just done in Milan!). I was really sorry for being tired and unwell and couldn't enjoy my time with him more but that's the way it goes. I have to say I don't understand their way of going on holiday though. There are about 35 of them and each year they go abroad to play a match against a foreign team and they usually turn this into a short holiday. However, instead of going sightseeing they like to sit a park and play drinking games all day. When I met Sebas they had been in Milan for almost two days and they hadn't even been into the city. I don't understand why they don't just invite a local team from Nijmegen to play a match in the park. This just seems like a waste of their money to me. Oh well, different people, different cultures...
I started writing this post this morning and then I stopped to go and do groceries, because Olaf was going to pick up Joost and Kim two of his friends from university from Centrale. When I was outside a disconcerting thing happened. So unfortunately, the last thing I have to share with you is not very pretty. When I had bought a pizza slice and was eating it while I was walking down the street in the direction of the supermarket, I noticed three young Moroccan boys in front of me walking in my direction. It was quite busy so I stepped aside to the wall to let them pass, but they were looking for trouble. They cornered me so I couldn't pass them anymore and then one of them deliberately hit my shoulder with his in passing causing me to launch what was left of my pizza slice into the crowd. It's clear that this was my fault. Isn't it? So when I shouted something like 'hey', he had every right to get angry and hit me, didn't he?! Anyway, I don't hit people, so I just reacted by making a threatening gesture and stepped up really close to him hoping to impress him with my stature (I may not be the largest person in the world but I'm still quite tall compared to most Italians), but unfortunately this backfired. As a result, they ganged up on me and one of them took hold of my head and pulled my forehead against his. He then started cursing me in Italian which made me laugh secretly. I suddenly realised the irony of the situation. He was now trying to scare me because he thought I was a Catholic Italian and therefore susceptible to curses. So I listened to him calmly, kept my hand on my bag because that's probably what they were after and didn't even take my sunglasses off. After that, I pulled my head away from him shook my head at him in disdain and just walked off, my sunglasses perfectly in place as to show him he was miles beneath me. Some bystanders, who - italiani di merda - hadn't even tried to lift a finger to help me, praised me for my composure. The funny thing is that the incident didn't scare me at all. What that did scare me was the thought I had afterwards, a thought I never thought I'd have. It was something along the lines of 'That's typically Moroccan, they are always out to cause trouble and no matter where they are they're always trying to steal your things'. Seriously, this country really does turn you unwittingly into a racist.
So, let's end on a happier note. I've really discovered YouTube now and have found many, many, many interesting things. And I love Tila Tequila, a girl with a name like that deserves to be famous. And her music is great, she's definitely the new Lil' Kim ('How many licks does it take 'till you get to the centre of the ...') or Khia ('My neck, my back, lick my pussy and my crack!'). Oh yeah...
A presto (spero), Fe
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