Here are some pictures:
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Married!!!!
On Friday, 30th October, Olaf and I got married in secret. We had a very small ceremony with only our parents as guests and witnesses in the picturesque medieval town of Naarden. I am very happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here are some pictures:
Here are some pictures:
Friday, October 23, 2009
October
Hi all,
So, October seems to have come and (almost) gone. I actually had a lot to do this month and I am happy because of it. I am really happy about the way my Dutch group course is going and according to the account manager they are very happy with me too. I wish there were more people wanting to learn Dutch because I am really getting into it!!
I spent two weeks with the Japanese-Korean couple and had a great time with them. After my initial reservation and doubt whether I would be able to teach them well for 5 hours a day, it all worked out fine. The good thing when you are teaching someone on a daily basis, is that you get to know them really well really fast. I not only gained their trust this way but I was also soon able to ask them the right questions to start talking and to figure out to what kind of prompts they reacted best. The fact they we were all about the same age also made it a lot easier.
The Korean girl had initially told me she did not know any English and was not interested in learning it. I am proud to say I convinced her to do something any and she learnt a lot. She was not a beginner, as she had previously stated, but actually already had some vocabulary and turned out to have a knack for English grammar. In the end, he got over his apprehension of speaking English too and kept chattering away with her correcting his grammatical mistakes. It was very funny! The unfortunately decided not to continue after two weeks, because she did not want to anymore. He did but found our school to expensive and started an intensive group course at another school. So no more Japanese students for me, though I must say I would not have minded continuing with them in the end. We made a good start and I hope he will be able to build on what he has learnt with me in his new course.
Over the weekends, we got to play hotel again. Olaf's friends Ellen and Kim from Groningen came over for a weekend and we had a blast. It was the first time we had seen them in over two years but things were great. We went to the Tag der Deutsche Einheit parade where two gigantic marionettes walked through the city centre and met at Brandenburger Tor to celebrate the reunification of East and West Germany twenty years ago. It was really cool, except for the fact that we nearly got squished by the mob that was being pushed out of the way by one the giants. I guess there was a little security error there. Oh well, at least it gave us a nice view of the giant!!
One of the giants (a little girl, just before meeting her uncle, the big giant) actually decided to relieve herself in front of Brandenburger Tor!!! For pictures see Olaf's weblog.
The week after Stephi came over from Duesseldorf and rocked our world. Stephi and Nicole (Dutch friend who moved to Berlin 2 weeks after Olaf did) knew each other as well from Groningen and so the four of us spent a lovely weekend together. It included sights, food, clubbing, booze, Sunday brunch, a visit to the Pergamom museum, more booze and food and Shoes, Shoes, Shoes!
The last day, I had my Japanese students, they did not feel like sitting in a classroom and studying. I guess they had sort of fallen out with Lingua Franca's management team over the price of the course and did not feel comfortable being there anymore. Anyway, I did not want to get into that and was happy to take them sightseeing for the day. We actually did two museums that morning. The first one was the very informative Haus am Checkpoint Charlie documenting the rise and fall of the Berlin wall and the often desperate escape attempts made to cross it or to get through Checkpoint Charlie unnoticed. I did not know people could be folded into such small spaces... The second one was the renowned Juedisches Museum (Jewish Museum). It was very interesting but I had already seen it before (when I first visited Berlin with Wouter in 2006) and my back was killing by then and I was happy to bring them back to school and say my goodbyes. I obviously did not pay a dime for these museums because I let the Japanese guy pay for me. It was, after all, only a job for me (and boy, does getting paid to go to museums rule!!).
That afernoon I finally managed to go to the Carl Gustav Carus exhibit at the Alte Nationalgalerie. I did not know this painter but had seen giant posters of his paintings all over Berlin and they appealed to me immensely. Carus was a gynaecologist and physicist from the Romanticist period who had a great fascination for the workings of nature. He regarded art as the epitome of science and painted landscapes exactly the way he perceived them in great detail. He paid a lot of attention to for instance eroding mountain slopes, dying trees, waves crashing onto cliffs or meadows covered with fallen autumn leaves. He also loved painting ruins and often included neglected castles on hilltops or decaying remnants of abbeys. I especially liked his use of colours, they are very warm and full and give off a cozy, trusted and warming sensation. All in all, a very interesting exhibit! And it was great to be able to go to three museums in one day and not even having to pay for a single one of them!
Olaf is in DC this week for a presentation, a workshop and a lot of networking. Now that my Japanese students have interrupted their course, this means I have a lot of time on my hands. I had a couple of courses but have mainly had a lot of time to myself. I relaxed, practised a lot of yoga (which I had been neglecting a bit), went swimming and watch loads of films. That, and trying to figure out the healthcare system in this country. As I am self-employed, I am entitled to private health insurance (thank heaven, as it is much cheaper than public health insurance - Olaf is paying 500 euros a month just for him) but it is still rather expensive and the cheapest quote I have got so far is around 175 euros a month, which is a substantial part of my monthly income and makes me wonder whether it is still worth it to work. I might as well remain unemployed and get free health insurance and 600 euros of unemployment benefits to live on. Germany really has to rethink its incentives for people who want to start up their own companies!! Anyway, I am now looking outside of Germany and may have found a cheaper, international healthcare insurance provider.
And now I am waiting for my brother Ward and his girlfriend Anne to arrive. They called me two weeks ago to see if they could come over (as it is autumn break) and fortunately for them another friend of mine had just cancelled for this weekend. I am really looking forward to their visit and cannot wait to show them around Berlin. Olaf will be back tomorrow as well, which means things are only getting better!!
So, October seems to have come and (almost) gone. I actually had a lot to do this month and I am happy because of it. I am really happy about the way my Dutch group course is going and according to the account manager they are very happy with me too. I wish there were more people wanting to learn Dutch because I am really getting into it!!
I spent two weeks with the Japanese-Korean couple and had a great time with them. After my initial reservation and doubt whether I would be able to teach them well for 5 hours a day, it all worked out fine. The good thing when you are teaching someone on a daily basis, is that you get to know them really well really fast. I not only gained their trust this way but I was also soon able to ask them the right questions to start talking and to figure out to what kind of prompts they reacted best. The fact they we were all about the same age also made it a lot easier.
The Korean girl had initially told me she did not know any English and was not interested in learning it. I am proud to say I convinced her to do something any and she learnt a lot. She was not a beginner, as she had previously stated, but actually already had some vocabulary and turned out to have a knack for English grammar. In the end, he got over his apprehension of speaking English too and kept chattering away with her correcting his grammatical mistakes. It was very funny! The unfortunately decided not to continue after two weeks, because she did not want to anymore. He did but found our school to expensive and started an intensive group course at another school. So no more Japanese students for me, though I must say I would not have minded continuing with them in the end. We made a good start and I hope he will be able to build on what he has learnt with me in his new course.
Over the weekends, we got to play hotel again. Olaf's friends Ellen and Kim from Groningen came over for a weekend and we had a blast. It was the first time we had seen them in over two years but things were great. We went to the Tag der Deutsche Einheit parade where two gigantic marionettes walked through the city centre and met at Brandenburger Tor to celebrate the reunification of East and West Germany twenty years ago. It was really cool, except for the fact that we nearly got squished by the mob that was being pushed out of the way by one the giants. I guess there was a little security error there. Oh well, at least it gave us a nice view of the giant!!
One of the giants (a little girl, just before meeting her uncle, the big giant) actually decided to relieve herself in front of Brandenburger Tor!!! For pictures see Olaf's weblog.
The week after Stephi came over from Duesseldorf and rocked our world. Stephi and Nicole (Dutch friend who moved to Berlin 2 weeks after Olaf did) knew each other as well from Groningen and so the four of us spent a lovely weekend together. It included sights, food, clubbing, booze, Sunday brunch, a visit to the Pergamom museum, more booze and food and Shoes, Shoes, Shoes!
The last day, I had my Japanese students, they did not feel like sitting in a classroom and studying. I guess they had sort of fallen out with Lingua Franca's management team over the price of the course and did not feel comfortable being there anymore. Anyway, I did not want to get into that and was happy to take them sightseeing for the day. We actually did two museums that morning. The first one was the very informative Haus am Checkpoint Charlie documenting the rise and fall of the Berlin wall and the often desperate escape attempts made to cross it or to get through Checkpoint Charlie unnoticed. I did not know people could be folded into such small spaces... The second one was the renowned Juedisches Museum (Jewish Museum). It was very interesting but I had already seen it before (when I first visited Berlin with Wouter in 2006) and my back was killing by then and I was happy to bring them back to school and say my goodbyes. I obviously did not pay a dime for these museums because I let the Japanese guy pay for me. It was, after all, only a job for me (and boy, does getting paid to go to museums rule!!).
That afernoon I finally managed to go to the Carl Gustav Carus exhibit at the Alte Nationalgalerie. I did not know this painter but had seen giant posters of his paintings all over Berlin and they appealed to me immensely. Carus was a gynaecologist and physicist from the Romanticist period who had a great fascination for the workings of nature. He regarded art as the epitome of science and painted landscapes exactly the way he perceived them in great detail. He paid a lot of attention to for instance eroding mountain slopes, dying trees, waves crashing onto cliffs or meadows covered with fallen autumn leaves. He also loved painting ruins and often included neglected castles on hilltops or decaying remnants of abbeys. I especially liked his use of colours, they are very warm and full and give off a cozy, trusted and warming sensation. All in all, a very interesting exhibit! And it was great to be able to go to three museums in one day and not even having to pay for a single one of them!
Olaf is in DC this week for a presentation, a workshop and a lot of networking. Now that my Japanese students have interrupted their course, this means I have a lot of time on my hands. I had a couple of courses but have mainly had a lot of time to myself. I relaxed, practised a lot of yoga (which I had been neglecting a bit), went swimming and watch loads of films. That, and trying to figure out the healthcare system in this country. As I am self-employed, I am entitled to private health insurance (thank heaven, as it is much cheaper than public health insurance - Olaf is paying 500 euros a month just for him) but it is still rather expensive and the cheapest quote I have got so far is around 175 euros a month, which is a substantial part of my monthly income and makes me wonder whether it is still worth it to work. I might as well remain unemployed and get free health insurance and 600 euros of unemployment benefits to live on. Germany really has to rethink its incentives for people who want to start up their own companies!! Anyway, I am now looking outside of Germany and may have found a cheaper, international healthcare insurance provider.
And now I am waiting for my brother Ward and his girlfriend Anne to arrive. They called me two weeks ago to see if they could come over (as it is autumn break) and fortunately for them another friend of mine had just cancelled for this weekend. I am really looking forward to their visit and cannot wait to show them around Berlin. Olaf will be back tomorrow as well, which means things are only getting better!!
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Funny students
Well, here I am again. I guess you had not expected to hear from me again so soon, now had you? Well, don't worry I don't have that much to tell you. There are, however, some things I just have to share with you!
I forgot to tell you about my trip to Glasgow to visit my college friend Femke. She is on an exchange to do some in-depth study of Ancient Greek drama and has chosen the misty city of Glasgow, Scotland. I had been to Scotland before but never made it to Glasgow and having a friend there provided me with a second reason for a visit. And it was worth it. Besides the fact that it was obviously great to see Femke again and to have time to catch up and gossip about our old studymates, I found out that Glasgow is actually a lovely city. And it has got a great museum, St. Mungo's Museum of Religious Art, where the different religions being adhered to in the Glasgow region are presented without bias or presumption. It then goes on to explain how different themes such as birth, coming of age, marriage and death and dealt with by these religions. It does not represent the artifacts in its collection as art (though some may rightly be called art by their sheer beauty - and are probably worth a lot of pounds) and they do not propagate any single religion but the whole purpose of the museum is to promote understanding and acceptance of one's neighbours. In one word, awesome. For pictures, click here.
When I came back, I was in for a nice surprise. The school that had hired me as a Dutch teacher but had been hesitant to give me English courses as well offered me an intensive English course. It is 5 days a week (of which I do 4), 6 hours a day and the students are a Japanese-Korean couple on their honeymoon. They actually decided to spend their two-month honeymoon in Berlin to learn English! They learn English every morning and are then too tired to do anything else, who would opt for that? Though they are lovely, compliant and very grateful every time, I do struggle a bit. I obviously do not speak Japanese or Korean and their level is quite low. It sometimes takes us up to 10 minutes to figure out what we are talking about and I often have trouble understanding what they are saying at all. I believe they are making progress but I keep thinking it must be hard on them. After all, it is very hard to stay focused for that long and I simply do not have the energy or the imagination to keep our lessons fun and interesting for 6 hours straight.
I also laughed my head off today! I discovered that I have been spied on. One of my students admitted to having googled me and read this blog and suddenly turned out to know lots of things about me. I don't mind this at all but I never thought that would happen and it caught me off guard. Well, she is a communication specialist after all and I guess I should have been prepared for it. I never thought my blog could be a teaching tool but Kirstin, if you're reading this, just look at it as exercise. And I will just have to start being really careful not to make any spelling errors or grammatical mistakes!!!!
I forgot to tell you about my trip to Glasgow to visit my college friend Femke. She is on an exchange to do some in-depth study of Ancient Greek drama and has chosen the misty city of Glasgow, Scotland. I had been to Scotland before but never made it to Glasgow and having a friend there provided me with a second reason for a visit. And it was worth it. Besides the fact that it was obviously great to see Femke again and to have time to catch up and gossip about our old studymates, I found out that Glasgow is actually a lovely city. And it has got a great museum, St. Mungo's Museum of Religious Art, where the different religions being adhered to in the Glasgow region are presented without bias or presumption. It then goes on to explain how different themes such as birth, coming of age, marriage and death and dealt with by these religions. It does not represent the artifacts in its collection as art (though some may rightly be called art by their sheer beauty - and are probably worth a lot of pounds) and they do not propagate any single religion but the whole purpose of the museum is to promote understanding and acceptance of one's neighbours. In one word, awesome. For pictures, click here.
When I came back, I was in for a nice surprise. The school that had hired me as a Dutch teacher but had been hesitant to give me English courses as well offered me an intensive English course. It is 5 days a week (of which I do 4), 6 hours a day and the students are a Japanese-Korean couple on their honeymoon. They actually decided to spend their two-month honeymoon in Berlin to learn English! They learn English every morning and are then too tired to do anything else, who would opt for that? Though they are lovely, compliant and very grateful every time, I do struggle a bit. I obviously do not speak Japanese or Korean and their level is quite low. It sometimes takes us up to 10 minutes to figure out what we are talking about and I often have trouble understanding what they are saying at all. I believe they are making progress but I keep thinking it must be hard on them. After all, it is very hard to stay focused for that long and I simply do not have the energy or the imagination to keep our lessons fun and interesting for 6 hours straight.
I also laughed my head off today! I discovered that I have been spied on. One of my students admitted to having googled me and read this blog and suddenly turned out to know lots of things about me. I don't mind this at all but I never thought that would happen and it caught me off guard. Well, she is a communication specialist after all and I guess I should have been prepared for it. I never thought my blog could be a teaching tool but Kirstin, if you're reading this, just look at it as exercise. And I will just have to start being really careful not to make any spelling errors or grammatical mistakes!!!!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Summary
Right, so it has been a while. Things have changed and I haven't written anything. That's the way things go in life. Sometimes you're too caught up in something to be able to write about it. And sometimes you just forget. I stopped updating this blog because I didn't feel like sharing what was happening because I wasn't too happy with what was going on in my life. And then, when all that was over, it was just really difficult to find the right time to start again and to think of the right post to start with. So, I guess I am not going to make deal out of it but just start with a little summary to bring you up to speed.
At the beginning of this year, things got rough at work. The company wasn't doing too well and things had to happen. The atmosphere got really tense and it became increasingly clear that things couldn't go on the way they were going. I don't want to go into details but in the end it was a good thing that I decided leave at the end of May instead of continuing on until July. In the end, Caroline, my boss, came back and had to make some pervasive and unpopular decisions to keep the company afloat and find a buyer. This decreased my work enjoyment even further and I was ultimately happy to leave that company. I hated leaving like that and we sort of figured it out and made up but it wasn't pretty. I was also not too happy about the prospect of leaving Milan and settling in Berlin. All this contributed to my not feeling very happy. The company was eventually sold to one of my colleagues and her fiance who are now trying to make things work.
Here is a summary of some cool things that happened while I was still in Italy:
In February, we went on a weekend retreat in Cocconato in the Piemontese hills with four other couples: Jen and Massimo, Louisa and Mickael, Shruti and Gianni and Kate and Giammaria (who after that broke up). Good food, wine and lovely views. For pictures, click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/CouplesWeekendCocconato21And22Feb09?authkey=Gv1sRgCKSzhcyg0_ileg#
In March, Wouter and I spent our annual weekend away in Frankfurt. It was very good to have some time alone with him, even if Frankfurt itself was not everything I hoped it would be. The Staedel is a great art museum though. For pictures, click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/FrankfurtMar09?authkey=Gv1sRgCKaD_eWv2peIlwE#
Olaf left for Berlin on 1st April and I had two more months in Milan. Although it meant we would spend two months apart (except for visits of course), it was good for me to have the time to say goodbye to my friends and take the time to let go of the city. And to have time to think.
In the beginning of May, Marike came over for a long weekend and we had a blast. We reminisced about the past, analysed the present and the future, drank too much, smoked too much and overdosed on cultural experiences. The most impressive of which was our visit to Sirmione on Lake Garda where one of the best preserved Roman villas has been excavated. For pictures, click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/MarikeSVisitSirmioneMay09?authkey=Gv1sRgCOzq2tfh5P3s5wE#
May was a good month. It was my last month in Milan and I did lots of fun stuff. Jen, Kate, Caroline, Massimo and I went to Lago d'Orta for instance, a beautiful small lake near Lago Maggiore with a little island with a church on it in the middle and a Sacro Monte nearby. For pictures, click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/LagoDOrta170509?authkey=Gv1sRgCJj8wf-HiJzdbg#
At the end of that month, Olaf came back for his defense of his PhD, which he passed of course. We celebrated this with a party on a tram: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/OlafSGraduationPartyOnATram230509?authkey=Gv1sRgCMDu94LBufrP6AE#
I also finally made it to Brescia, where you can see the remains of a Roman forum. It was an exceedingly hot day and thus a great day for my very last day trip from Milan: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/Brescia260509?authkey=Gv1sRgCK6f3u7tx83kbQ#
And the last weekend I was in Milan, Jen, Massimo, Kate, Flora and I went out for the best mussels in the world at La Cozzeria: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/LaCozzeriaMyGoodbye290509?authkey=Gv1sRgCJvhnYqZpsy_igE#
So, then I moved to Berlin. I arrived on 1st June, which happened to be a bank holiday. You may wonder why I was surprised at the second day of Pentecost being a holiday, well it is because for some reason they do not celebrate it in Italy, bulwark of the Roman Catholic faith though it may be. I had hoped to find a job before the summer but that soon proved to be difficult. In the end, I was at home all summer, apart from the occasional private student. This is the way it is for language teachers. People finish their courses in June or July and don't start new ones until after summer, so language schools don't hire until September. I managed to get hired by two different language schools as a teacher of the English and Dutch languages the very first week of September though and have been working on getting more courses in ever since. Hurray, I am no longer unemployed, which - to be honest - I had had enough of after a month. I am simply not made for three-month holidays...
Since moving to Berlin, I have been exploring the city to try to get to know it. Not having a job made me feel like being a tourist on an extended stay here and I don't feel at home yet, but I hope that will all change with having a job. I'd like to start feeling like a part of this city.
Fortunately, I had already planned some trips to take mind of spending a whole summer in Berlin. I went to London for Marike's opera's opening night and spent a long weekend in Nijmegen with friends and family, where I tried to leave a lasting impression on my supercute nephew Neo: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/Neo#
Several people came over to visit, like my mother,
my father and his girlfriend,
Maartje (http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/MaartjeSVisit2123Jul09?authkey=Gv1sRgCNHVwpPPlMWkVA#), and Olaf's brother Lars and his family.
We also had a lovely housewarming party themed 'Stock the bar'. The bar was stocked and emptied that same night: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/HousewarmingParty130609?authkey=Gv1sRgCIOx59mkmu_2mQE#
Summer came and went. The weather wasn't that great but we had three sunny weeks in August. I guess I am still too hung up on Milan to be able to call that a summer. I got a little tan, read loads of books, started a yoga course (which I love!!) and started swimming again. I hadn't worked out since before Christmas and I had put on about 10 kg of surplus weight which I am still working on getting rid of.
And then I could finally start working. I am teaching a couple of General and Business English courses at my one school, and a beginners' group course of Dutch and an intensive English course at the other one. This is obviously very tiring. So, when I had been working for 1 week, I really needed a holiday. So, it was a good thing we had already booked a 10-day holiday in Italy!! We spent a couple of days in Rome, where we visited Ostia Antica and the Vatican museums and had a great lunch with my former colleague Katherine on the beach. We then proceeded to hire a car and explore hilly Umbria with its hilltop towns of Orvieto, Perugia, Gubbio, Assisi, Montefalco and Spoleto followed by a night on the Piano Grande, a 1500-meter high bowl-shaped plateau which fills up with mist every morning leaving the little hillock with its hamlet Castelluccio on top of it as a virtual island in a sea of mist. We then drove back to Rome to fly to Sardegna to spend an amazing party weekend at Jen and Massimo's place. Sun, sea, beach, fresh fish, a barbecue, an exciting dinghy ride and booze, booze, booze. For pictures of this lovely and well-deserved holiday, click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/ItalySept2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCMeZovPX5vGVdA#
Ciao,
Fedor
At the beginning of this year, things got rough at work. The company wasn't doing too well and things had to happen. The atmosphere got really tense and it became increasingly clear that things couldn't go on the way they were going. I don't want to go into details but in the end it was a good thing that I decided leave at the end of May instead of continuing on until July. In the end, Caroline, my boss, came back and had to make some pervasive and unpopular decisions to keep the company afloat and find a buyer. This decreased my work enjoyment even further and I was ultimately happy to leave that company. I hated leaving like that and we sort of figured it out and made up but it wasn't pretty. I was also not too happy about the prospect of leaving Milan and settling in Berlin. All this contributed to my not feeling very happy. The company was eventually sold to one of my colleagues and her fiance who are now trying to make things work.
Here is a summary of some cool things that happened while I was still in Italy:
In February, we went on a weekend retreat in Cocconato in the Piemontese hills with four other couples: Jen and Massimo, Louisa and Mickael, Shruti and Gianni and Kate and Giammaria (who after that broke up). Good food, wine and lovely views. For pictures, click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/CouplesWeekendCocconato21And22Feb09?authkey=Gv1sRgCKSzhcyg0_ileg#
In March, Wouter and I spent our annual weekend away in Frankfurt. It was very good to have some time alone with him, even if Frankfurt itself was not everything I hoped it would be. The Staedel is a great art museum though. For pictures, click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/FrankfurtMar09?authkey=Gv1sRgCKaD_eWv2peIlwE#
Olaf left for Berlin on 1st April and I had two more months in Milan. Although it meant we would spend two months apart (except for visits of course), it was good for me to have the time to say goodbye to my friends and take the time to let go of the city. And to have time to think.
In the beginning of May, Marike came over for a long weekend and we had a blast. We reminisced about the past, analysed the present and the future, drank too much, smoked too much and overdosed on cultural experiences. The most impressive of which was our visit to Sirmione on Lake Garda where one of the best preserved Roman villas has been excavated. For pictures, click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/MarikeSVisitSirmioneMay09?authkey=Gv1sRgCOzq2tfh5P3s5wE#
May was a good month. It was my last month in Milan and I did lots of fun stuff. Jen, Kate, Caroline, Massimo and I went to Lago d'Orta for instance, a beautiful small lake near Lago Maggiore with a little island with a church on it in the middle and a Sacro Monte nearby. For pictures, click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/LagoDOrta170509?authkey=Gv1sRgCJj8wf-HiJzdbg#
At the end of that month, Olaf came back for his defense of his PhD, which he passed of course. We celebrated this with a party on a tram: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/OlafSGraduationPartyOnATram230509?authkey=Gv1sRgCMDu94LBufrP6AE#
I also finally made it to Brescia, where you can see the remains of a Roman forum. It was an exceedingly hot day and thus a great day for my very last day trip from Milan: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/Brescia260509?authkey=Gv1sRgCK6f3u7tx83kbQ#
And the last weekend I was in Milan, Jen, Massimo, Kate, Flora and I went out for the best mussels in the world at La Cozzeria: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/LaCozzeriaMyGoodbye290509?authkey=Gv1sRgCJvhnYqZpsy_igE#
So, then I moved to Berlin. I arrived on 1st June, which happened to be a bank holiday. You may wonder why I was surprised at the second day of Pentecost being a holiday, well it is because for some reason they do not celebrate it in Italy, bulwark of the Roman Catholic faith though it may be. I had hoped to find a job before the summer but that soon proved to be difficult. In the end, I was at home all summer, apart from the occasional private student. This is the way it is for language teachers. People finish their courses in June or July and don't start new ones until after summer, so language schools don't hire until September. I managed to get hired by two different language schools as a teacher of the English and Dutch languages the very first week of September though and have been working on getting more courses in ever since. Hurray, I am no longer unemployed, which - to be honest - I had had enough of after a month. I am simply not made for three-month holidays...
Since moving to Berlin, I have been exploring the city to try to get to know it. Not having a job made me feel like being a tourist on an extended stay here and I don't feel at home yet, but I hope that will all change with having a job. I'd like to start feeling like a part of this city.
Fortunately, I had already planned some trips to take mind of spending a whole summer in Berlin. I went to London for Marike's opera's opening night and spent a long weekend in Nijmegen with friends and family, where I tried to leave a lasting impression on my supercute nephew Neo: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/Neo#
Several people came over to visit, like my mother,
my father and his girlfriend,
Maartje (http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/MaartjeSVisit2123Jul09?authkey=Gv1sRgCNHVwpPPlMWkVA#), and Olaf's brother Lars and his family.
We also had a lovely housewarming party themed 'Stock the bar'. The bar was stocked and emptied that same night: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/HousewarmingParty130609?authkey=Gv1sRgCIOx59mkmu_2mQE#
Summer came and went. The weather wasn't that great but we had three sunny weeks in August. I guess I am still too hung up on Milan to be able to call that a summer. I got a little tan, read loads of books, started a yoga course (which I love!!) and started swimming again. I hadn't worked out since before Christmas and I had put on about 10 kg of surplus weight which I am still working on getting rid of.
And then I could finally start working. I am teaching a couple of General and Business English courses at my one school, and a beginners' group course of Dutch and an intensive English course at the other one. This is obviously very tiring. So, when I had been working for 1 week, I really needed a holiday. So, it was a good thing we had already booked a 10-day holiday in Italy!! We spent a couple of days in Rome, where we visited Ostia Antica and the Vatican museums and had a great lunch with my former colleague Katherine on the beach. We then proceeded to hire a car and explore hilly Umbria with its hilltop towns of Orvieto, Perugia, Gubbio, Assisi, Montefalco and Spoleto followed by a night on the Piano Grande, a 1500-meter high bowl-shaped plateau which fills up with mist every morning leaving the little hillock with its hamlet Castelluccio on top of it as a virtual island in a sea of mist. We then drove back to Rome to fly to Sardegna to spend an amazing party weekend at Jen and Massimo's place. Sun, sea, beach, fresh fish, a barbecue, an exciting dinghy ride and booze, booze, booze. For pictures of this lovely and well-deserved holiday, click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/ItalySept2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCMeZovPX5vGVdA#
Ciao,
Fedor
Sunday, February 08, 2009
January 2009
Ciao all,
I can't believe how fast January has come and gone. It still feels like 2009 has only just begun but that is just not true anymore. This scares me a bit as I was really living towards Christmas and now that Christmas is past I am measuring time towards and looking forward to summer. Summer, however, is still one big question mark. We are going to leave Milan, that is for sure, but I have no idea where we will be. It all depends on where Olaf gets a job (and whether or not I veto us moving there!) but it is awfully close. I do not like insecurity. I am a planner and a perfectionist and need to know what is going to happen and where I am going to go. This situation frustrates me a bit, though I manage. Leaving Milan and my life really is a frightening enough prospect as it is and will emotionally be very difficult anyway (I love Milan and feel at home here!), so I can really do without the other doubts. If time keeps moving this fast we will have left before I know it and there is still so much I want to do here. I just want to make these last couple of months a time to remember.
However, work is claiming a lot time - hey, what else is new?! - and is still worrying. We are now in a position that is somewhat more secure but even that is a temporary situation. Our largest client (roughly 50% of yearly business) have let us know they have no budget at all for language courses this year. Although we had anticipated this, the actual confirmation still came as a shock. Fortunately, this woke some people up and they realised things will actually have to be done if this company is to survive. So, this might actually have a positive effect on the atmosphere in the office as they are not as incompetent and slow anymore as they use to be. Let us see how long this will last and that it will not be too late.
On to happier topics, Olaf has finally handed in his dissertation and this was cause for a grand party to celebrate this and his birthday as well. It also means he has finally got some time for me as well, I was getting lonely!! We went to a lovely Indian Italian fusion bar where (I think) the food was very good and the alcohol expensive yet enjoyable. All his friends put their money together and they got us a dinner on the ATMosfera, the dinner tram. We decided to go as soon as possible and they fortunately had a cancellation for last Friday. We had a posh four-course dinner while being driven on a tram through rainy Milan looking out and waving at the little people. This is what it must feel like to be the queen...
Oh, and we also went to London this month. Olaf had a conference there so his flights and the hotel were all paid for and the nearest hotel just happened to be the Hilton... I had never slept in a Hilton before and it was quite exciting. In the end, the room was tiny and nothing special but the full English breakfast too mornings in a row was an amazing antidote to little alcohol-induced drowsinesses. I spent most of my time with Marike, who I had not seen for a while. We did some shopping and lots of talking (if you know Marike, you will understand why) and on Sunday we went to an exhibit on the Byzantine Empire at the Royal Academy. The Byzantine Empire was a very important, culturally rich and historically exceedingly interesting period and empire but for some reason it was never given the attention it is due while we were at university. We spent about four hours inside and learnt many things - and corrected many others as the curator obviously did not speak ancient Greek or had just not bothered interpreting the depictions on the artifacts because his interpretations were often completely off. That made us feel smart and give each other pats on the back while congratulating ourselves on choosing to study Classics. See, not completely useless!!!
We have got some interesting things coming up soon and I hope I will have enough time and energy to enjoy them as I would like to:
- Next weekend we are going to Jorryt and Lilian wedding party (as expected they did get married in secret in Australia on 31st December). They did it their way and we are coming to Holland to celebrate with them!!
- The weekend after that we are going to a Cascina in Piemonte to stuff ourselves with local specialities and lots of wine. It will be a proper couples weekend with Jen & Massimo, Louisa & Mickael and even Kate has managed to convince her new man Giammaria to come with us!!
- Sometime in March Wouter and I are going to explore the mysterious city of Frankfurt
- Both my mother and father have booked flights to come and visit us!!!
And now I am going to enjoy my Sunday. Yesterday was an interesting evening of pizza with wine, followed by just wine, followed by cocktails and dancing and Le Trottoir so I think I am going to take it slow today...
I can't believe how fast January has come and gone. It still feels like 2009 has only just begun but that is just not true anymore. This scares me a bit as I was really living towards Christmas and now that Christmas is past I am measuring time towards and looking forward to summer. Summer, however, is still one big question mark. We are going to leave Milan, that is for sure, but I have no idea where we will be. It all depends on where Olaf gets a job (and whether or not I veto us moving there!) but it is awfully close. I do not like insecurity. I am a planner and a perfectionist and need to know what is going to happen and where I am going to go. This situation frustrates me a bit, though I manage. Leaving Milan and my life really is a frightening enough prospect as it is and will emotionally be very difficult anyway (I love Milan and feel at home here!), so I can really do without the other doubts. If time keeps moving this fast we will have left before I know it and there is still so much I want to do here. I just want to make these last couple of months a time to remember.
However, work is claiming a lot time - hey, what else is new?! - and is still worrying. We are now in a position that is somewhat more secure but even that is a temporary situation. Our largest client (roughly 50% of yearly business) have let us know they have no budget at all for language courses this year. Although we had anticipated this, the actual confirmation still came as a shock. Fortunately, this woke some people up and they realised things will actually have to be done if this company is to survive. So, this might actually have a positive effect on the atmosphere in the office as they are not as incompetent and slow anymore as they use to be. Let us see how long this will last and that it will not be too late.
On to happier topics, Olaf has finally handed in his dissertation and this was cause for a grand party to celebrate this and his birthday as well. It also means he has finally got some time for me as well, I was getting lonely!! We went to a lovely Indian Italian fusion bar where (I think) the food was very good and the alcohol expensive yet enjoyable. All his friends put their money together and they got us a dinner on the ATMosfera, the dinner tram. We decided to go as soon as possible and they fortunately had a cancellation for last Friday. We had a posh four-course dinner while being driven on a tram through rainy Milan looking out and waving at the little people. This is what it must feel like to be the queen...
Oh, and we also went to London this month. Olaf had a conference there so his flights and the hotel were all paid for and the nearest hotel just happened to be the Hilton... I had never slept in a Hilton before and it was quite exciting. In the end, the room was tiny and nothing special but the full English breakfast too mornings in a row was an amazing antidote to little alcohol-induced drowsinesses. I spent most of my time with Marike, who I had not seen for a while. We did some shopping and lots of talking (if you know Marike, you will understand why) and on Sunday we went to an exhibit on the Byzantine Empire at the Royal Academy. The Byzantine Empire was a very important, culturally rich and historically exceedingly interesting period and empire but for some reason it was never given the attention it is due while we were at university. We spent about four hours inside and learnt many things - and corrected many others as the curator obviously did not speak ancient Greek or had just not bothered interpreting the depictions on the artifacts because his interpretations were often completely off. That made us feel smart and give each other pats on the back while congratulating ourselves on choosing to study Classics. See, not completely useless!!!
We have got some interesting things coming up soon and I hope I will have enough time and energy to enjoy them as I would like to:
- Next weekend we are going to Jorryt and Lilian wedding party (as expected they did get married in secret in Australia on 31st December). They did it their way and we are coming to Holland to celebrate with them!!
- The weekend after that we are going to a Cascina in Piemonte to stuff ourselves with local specialities and lots of wine. It will be a proper couples weekend with Jen & Massimo, Louisa & Mickael and even Kate has managed to convince her new man Giammaria to come with us!!
- Sometime in March Wouter and I are going to explore the mysterious city of Frankfurt
- Both my mother and father have booked flights to come and visit us!!!
And now I am going to enjoy my Sunday. Yesterday was an interesting evening of pizza with wine, followed by just wine, followed by cocktails and dancing and Le Trottoir so I think I am going to take it slow today...
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Pictures from Vienna
Hey all, finally some pictures from Vienna. They are in reverse chronological order (not intentional, I just don't know why this programme acts like this...)
The Kunsthistorisches Museum
Parliament
One of Empress Sisi's water jugs, a testament to her lack of taste
University
Details of Michaelerkirche: the archangel Michael defeating Satan
Artyfarty fountain with Neoclassicistic reconstruction of a ruined Greek temple in Schloss Schoenbrunn gardens
The gardens of Schloss Schoenbrunn, the summer residence of the imperial family, currently a public park with statues, fountains and even a Zoo
The Hofburg, the imperial palace
The 11th-century Ruprechtskirche, the oldest church in Vienna
Die Griechische Kirche
Lollipop pink and vomit green twisted columns in the over-the-top Rococo Jesuitenkirche
The Gothic Stephansdom with its mosaique roof and lovely views
The modern Haas Haus with reflections of the 13th-century Stephansdom in its glass walls, apparently a perfect contrast.
The Baroque Karlskirche
Random building with angels
Emperor Franz Joseph I's private metro station, unfortunately he only got to use it twice.
Hope you enjoyed that. I did!! Will write something soon!
Fe
The Belvedere, Prince Franz Ferdinand's summer residence, currently home to the musems of Medieval, Baroque, Biedermeier and 19th- and 20th-century art.
The Kunsthistorisches Museum
Parliament
One of Empress Sisi's water jugs, a testament to her lack of taste
University
Details of Michaelerkirche: the archangel Michael defeating Satan
Artyfarty fountain with Neoclassicistic reconstruction of a ruined Greek temple in Schloss Schoenbrunn gardens
The gardens of Schloss Schoenbrunn, the summer residence of the imperial family, currently a public park with statues, fountains and even a Zoo
The Hofburg, the imperial palace
The 11th-century Ruprechtskirche, the oldest church in Vienna
Die Griechische Kirche
Lollipop pink and vomit green twisted columns in the over-the-top Rococo Jesuitenkirche
The Gothic Stephansdom with its mosaique roof and lovely views
The modern Haas Haus with reflections of the 13th-century Stephansdom in its glass walls, apparently a perfect contrast.
The Baroque Karlskirche
Random building with angels
Emperor Franz Joseph I's private metro station, unfortunately he only got to use it twice.
Hope you enjoyed that. I did!! Will write something soon!
Fe
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Happy belated New Year
Happy belated New Year everybody!!!
All right, it has been another month. But that's a better score than last time. See, I am making progress... Anyway, I obviously need to tell you about December and Christmas break. December was fortunately a short month. I hadn't realised how horribly tired and stressed out I really was until I had two weeks to relax and do nothing. I was actually so relaxed that I got incredibly lazy and did not do a thing! Not even update my weblog, for which I am paying the price now! No, seriously, my Christmas holidays were amazing!
Things have been tough at work lately. It is not that I am not enjoying my job or that I feel like changing it, but the company has been in financial distress for just too long and I am sick of it. I hate working in an atmosphere where everybody is uptight and strained as bowstrings to find more work and sell more courses. I also do not agree with how the company is run and am seriously getting annoyed by people not doing the jobs or not doing them right. I mean, there is only so much I can do and if people do not learn to do their own jobs but just do what they want, I am going to quit someday. They procrastinate, think ages about every little thing they do but there is so little that actually comes out of their hands. And then they are never there, come in late, do not come in at all, complain about all the things they have to do instead of actually doing them and then go through the same list again the next day because they still have not accomplished anything. And this is not an easy financial climate to be running a business in. One of our biggest clients has frozen its budget and it is unclear when and how many courses we will be providing for them and we are not having much luck finding new business. Anyway, I would just like to go to work one day without worrying whether I am actually going to get paid this month.
My irritation and fed-upness reached an all-time low the week before Christmas and I even lost control and shouted at one of my colleagues for fucking up something I had put a lot of time into. That was not good and not very professional of me. But then, fortunately, the Christmas holidays arrived and though I am still annoyed I have at least managed not to think about work for two weeks and am better able to handle it now. Today was my first real day back (I did some preparatory work Monday afternoon) and though it sucked from a practical point of view - it is snowing like crazy here and this fucked up all lessons as the whole city is blocked and no-one can get from a to b - it went relatively well from an irritation point of view. Well, saddle up...
On to good things, on 12th December we (the management team of my company) decided enough was as far as money trouble went and we had our lavish Christmas party consisting of a dry pizza, lots of booze and dancing the night away. I enjoyed that immensely, especially because I finally got to meet our Rome teacher who had been flown in for the occasion in person. The next day, Olaf and I took a weekend trip to Trapani in Sicily which was very interesting. Basically, Sicily is beautiful, the food is good and there is a lot to do and see - except in Winter time. There was zilch public transport and we only managed to walk around the town (which was nice enough but quite small) and go to Segesta (gorgeous Greek temple and amphitheatre on a hill in the middle of nowhere). As you can read on Olaf's weblog, we should have hired a car. Oh well, this leaves some good reasons to come back some day in spring. For pictures, see Olaf's weblog.
Then the Christmas holidays arrived and I slept, slept and slept. Then Werner and Jose arrived and we spent some lovely days together. Olaf surpassed himself once again by cooking us an 11-course dinner consisting of delicacies such as (in random order) tuna carpaccio, grapefruit carpaccio, clams a la Portuguese, mint spoom, home made chocolade truffels and arancello, cashewnut soup and goat-cheese puff pastries followed by a chocolate fountain and a heavenly cheese platter. Among other things, I got a very nice edition of Dante's Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise with beautiful pictures and a kettle. Olaf got music, a language course of choice to work on his French or Spanish and of course the 'Alles-went-behalve-de-Wentvogel', thus named by Werner:
Isn't he cute? Olaf is absolutely smitten with him...
After that, Werner and Jose went on to spend some days in Venice together and Olaf and I had some well-deserved time to ourselves. His university was closed and though he had to work at home at least we could spend some time together. As he was working anyway, I decided to continue my long-term project of reading Homer's Iliad in Greek and finished book 4. We spent the nights eating and drinking together, occasionally going out, but mainly watching lots of movies and episodes of our new favourite TV series, The West Wing. Olaf left for San Francisco on 31st December for a conference and several job interviews so I am keeping my fingers crossed. I spent New Year's Eve with Belinda and Enrico and we spent to this totally random party with lots of people I did not know. It was fun though as these relatively well-educated yuppie Italians all turned out to speak English quite well. Oh, and I got to eat my fill of zampone and lentils, the traditional Italian New Year's Eve food. Lentils are supposed to bring wealth, well bring it on!!!
I did not make a late night of it though, as I was flying to Vienna to meet my mother there and spend a couple of days together. It was great seeing her again, I realised we hadn't spent some quality time together for a long, long time. We ate, we drank, we walked around the city, learnt a lot about architecture, how the Habsburg emperors lived at court and painting through the ages, visited a multitude of churches in different styles and Jugendstil building and drank loads of wine and beer. Vienna is beautiful, it is a big city but incredibly spacious and green, even outside the historical centre which is small and specked with sights. I could spend days in the Kunsthistorisches Museum and just walking around. You can really tell it is an imperial city because it is, in one word, grand. The people are very nice though and it was very nice to hear people speaking English to foreigners. The city is incredibly well-organised and the public transport system is amazing. I liked it so much I told Olaf to find a job there... I will upload some pictures as soon as I figure this damned camera out!
All in all, I had a wonderful time, although a three-day visit was really too short to do the city well. The flight back was a bit of a drag though as we were delayed by two hours and we were then sent to Pisa because there was too much fog in Bergamo - only to be loaded onto another plane which took us to Bergamo which was bathing in clear skies and shiny stars... Weird story, I still do not know what really happened and am not sure I want to know. Anyway, that meant I did not get to Bergamo until 3.30 am and that I had to wait for another hour to catch the first bus to Milan. I did not get to bed until 5.45, destroyed yet satisfied. I worked for a couple of hours that afternoon, just to get some necessary admin and spam mails out of the way only to be able to really relax yesterday, as the Epiphany or Advent of the Magi is obviously worth being a public holiday...
And that brings us back to today. I am lonely and stuck at home because of the snow, waiting for Olaf to come back. He has been away too long, and I am a devoted housewife ;-)
All right, it has been another month. But that's a better score than last time. See, I am making progress... Anyway, I obviously need to tell you about December and Christmas break. December was fortunately a short month. I hadn't realised how horribly tired and stressed out I really was until I had two weeks to relax and do nothing. I was actually so relaxed that I got incredibly lazy and did not do a thing! Not even update my weblog, for which I am paying the price now! No, seriously, my Christmas holidays were amazing!
Things have been tough at work lately. It is not that I am not enjoying my job or that I feel like changing it, but the company has been in financial distress for just too long and I am sick of it. I hate working in an atmosphere where everybody is uptight and strained as bowstrings to find more work and sell more courses. I also do not agree with how the company is run and am seriously getting annoyed by people not doing the jobs or not doing them right. I mean, there is only so much I can do and if people do not learn to do their own jobs but just do what they want, I am going to quit someday. They procrastinate, think ages about every little thing they do but there is so little that actually comes out of their hands. And then they are never there, come in late, do not come in at all, complain about all the things they have to do instead of actually doing them and then go through the same list again the next day because they still have not accomplished anything. And this is not an easy financial climate to be running a business in. One of our biggest clients has frozen its budget and it is unclear when and how many courses we will be providing for them and we are not having much luck finding new business. Anyway, I would just like to go to work one day without worrying whether I am actually going to get paid this month.
My irritation and fed-upness reached an all-time low the week before Christmas and I even lost control and shouted at one of my colleagues for fucking up something I had put a lot of time into. That was not good and not very professional of me. But then, fortunately, the Christmas holidays arrived and though I am still annoyed I have at least managed not to think about work for two weeks and am better able to handle it now. Today was my first real day back (I did some preparatory work Monday afternoon) and though it sucked from a practical point of view - it is snowing like crazy here and this fucked up all lessons as the whole city is blocked and no-one can get from a to b - it went relatively well from an irritation point of view. Well, saddle up...
On to good things, on 12th December we (the management team of my company) decided enough was as far as money trouble went and we had our lavish Christmas party consisting of a dry pizza, lots of booze and dancing the night away. I enjoyed that immensely, especially because I finally got to meet our Rome teacher who had been flown in for the occasion in person. The next day, Olaf and I took a weekend trip to Trapani in Sicily which was very interesting. Basically, Sicily is beautiful, the food is good and there is a lot to do and see - except in Winter time. There was zilch public transport and we only managed to walk around the town (which was nice enough but quite small) and go to Segesta (gorgeous Greek temple and amphitheatre on a hill in the middle of nowhere). As you can read on Olaf's weblog, we should have hired a car. Oh well, this leaves some good reasons to come back some day in spring. For pictures, see Olaf's weblog.
Then the Christmas holidays arrived and I slept, slept and slept. Then Werner and Jose arrived and we spent some lovely days together. Olaf surpassed himself once again by cooking us an 11-course dinner consisting of delicacies such as (in random order) tuna carpaccio, grapefruit carpaccio, clams a la Portuguese, mint spoom, home made chocolade truffels and arancello, cashewnut soup and goat-cheese puff pastries followed by a chocolate fountain and a heavenly cheese platter. Among other things, I got a very nice edition of Dante's Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise with beautiful pictures and a kettle. Olaf got music, a language course of choice to work on his French or Spanish and of course the 'Alles-went-behalve-de-Wentvogel', thus named by Werner:
Isn't he cute? Olaf is absolutely smitten with him...
After that, Werner and Jose went on to spend some days in Venice together and Olaf and I had some well-deserved time to ourselves. His university was closed and though he had to work at home at least we could spend some time together. As he was working anyway, I decided to continue my long-term project of reading Homer's Iliad in Greek and finished book 4. We spent the nights eating and drinking together, occasionally going out, but mainly watching lots of movies and episodes of our new favourite TV series, The West Wing. Olaf left for San Francisco on 31st December for a conference and several job interviews so I am keeping my fingers crossed. I spent New Year's Eve with Belinda and Enrico and we spent to this totally random party with lots of people I did not know. It was fun though as these relatively well-educated yuppie Italians all turned out to speak English quite well. Oh, and I got to eat my fill of zampone and lentils, the traditional Italian New Year's Eve food. Lentils are supposed to bring wealth, well bring it on!!!
I did not make a late night of it though, as I was flying to Vienna to meet my mother there and spend a couple of days together. It was great seeing her again, I realised we hadn't spent some quality time together for a long, long time. We ate, we drank, we walked around the city, learnt a lot about architecture, how the Habsburg emperors lived at court and painting through the ages, visited a multitude of churches in different styles and Jugendstil building and drank loads of wine and beer. Vienna is beautiful, it is a big city but incredibly spacious and green, even outside the historical centre which is small and specked with sights. I could spend days in the Kunsthistorisches Museum and just walking around. You can really tell it is an imperial city because it is, in one word, grand. The people are very nice though and it was very nice to hear people speaking English to foreigners. The city is incredibly well-organised and the public transport system is amazing. I liked it so much I told Olaf to find a job there... I will upload some pictures as soon as I figure this damned camera out!
All in all, I had a wonderful time, although a three-day visit was really too short to do the city well. The flight back was a bit of a drag though as we were delayed by two hours and we were then sent to Pisa because there was too much fog in Bergamo - only to be loaded onto another plane which took us to Bergamo which was bathing in clear skies and shiny stars... Weird story, I still do not know what really happened and am not sure I want to know. Anyway, that meant I did not get to Bergamo until 3.30 am and that I had to wait for another hour to catch the first bus to Milan. I did not get to bed until 5.45, destroyed yet satisfied. I worked for a couple of hours that afternoon, just to get some necessary admin and spam mails out of the way only to be able to really relax yesterday, as the Epiphany or Advent of the Magi is obviously worth being a public holiday...
And that brings us back to today. I am lonely and stuck at home because of the snow, waiting for Olaf to come back. He has been away too long, and I am a devoted housewife ;-)
Thursday, December 04, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
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
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
Friday, August 29, 2008
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
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
Monday, August 18, 2008
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'.
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'.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
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.
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.
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