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
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Monday, June 02, 2008
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
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
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