I'm very happy to announce that I've been reunited with my stuff!! Also, I've discovered that I have a lot of stuff and that though the apartment in Milan is bigger than the one I have in Israel, somehow, the one in Milan doesn't have enough storage place.... So, I'll probably have to buy some cupboards or something to store stuff in. No drawers in the closets. A lot of hanging space, some shelves.
I've discovered also that if there's a siege tomorrow, I have enough cosmetics/soaps etc. to keep me for at least a month or two....
I wonder where I'll put all the kitchenware I have? These are the existential (spelling?) things I'm dealing with right now. Very tired. A lot of boxes and things to unpack but all in all as stated in the first sentence - I'm very happy to have my stuff.
The unpackers where very nice. They moved things for me in the house, took things down to the cellar and garage (heavy things - sofas and beds from the 4th floor down), but most of all were calm and helpful. Which was nice. They came with this elevator thing which takes things up to higher floors, a lot better than carrying these things on backs through narrow stairways.
I've also started the process of getting a telephone and internet in the apartment (hurray the readers mutter to themselves...). It took about 7 calls to the cable company but it seems we might just be in business sometime next week. I will update of course.
Nirit sent me an article saying the Italians might want people to register their blogs and pay for them.... (for those who read Hebrew here's the link) I hope this doesn't happen. Can they do such a thing? I was always told that there are effective ways around such barriers? If people can blog from Iraq and Burma I suppose from Italy it would be a piece of cake....
Gotta go. One table lost one of its legs on the way from Israel to here. Paola might help me with a name of a welder.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Friday, October 26, 2007
On strikes and containers not arriving - or so they say
So, I'm sleeping in my apartment - got some bed linen from Paola and Enrico, it's very clean. I spent 6 hours yesterday getting it ready for the arrival of my container today. But, early signals were given yesterday that all is not well in Genoa. Some strike or other and someone not willing to sign some papers releasing my container. But we were all being optimistic about it. Things were supposed to solve themselves out this morning.
Got up in the morning, it was raining, I think it still is. The people with the elevator car were there waiting early in the morning. Standing under big umbrellas. Very patient. and we waited. I put some things in closets, cupboards, etc. But, nothing happened. No news from Genoa. The guy signing the papers there was not doing his thing this morning. or so we were told. Time passed. I went to the office. At some point Michela said, let's see who we know in the customs (because the claim was that they were on strike). Finally, she got up to a very highly ranked colonel who promised to help (for those who didn't read the previous chapters or know Michela - she was the one who got the bank to cash a bankers' check for me by calling the corporate manager, she can move mountains when necessary). He did help, and we got the papers signed or whatever, but by this time - it seems the movers had had enough for one day (it was three by then) and wanted to go back home for a hot meal and some rest. So, the container is supposed to come on Monday. At least, like Michela said, we got to know some high ranking officials in the Italian Customs Authority....
How am I managing in the apartment you might be wondering? (my father says this is like in the great TV show - 'allo 'allo, to quote Rene - you might be wondering what I'm doing here....) Like camping out. Had good training in the scouts and in the army. Things are OK really, it's very quiet - no TV, no computer, and empty, there's an echo from the walls, I've got a cup and a plate, and some plastic cutlery. A pot to heat some water for coffee and tea, a big supermarket (the biggest in Milan, it seems) about 5 min. walk away from me, I've got electric appliances, an i-pod thanks to my uncle and some friendly neighbors down below. Not too bad, really. It would have been nicer with my stuff, but I'll have to live with things as they are. I I really need to do a wash. wonder where I'll hang the clothes......
I got to experience two strikes this week - one, at the airport, following which I arrived back in Milan at 3 a.m. in the morning from Rome and now this. I'm not so sure what happened today was absolutely unavoidable. Probably, just the Italian Bureaucracy at its best.
More luck in the future. Hopefully. I'm signing off here. Do write.
Got up in the morning, it was raining, I think it still is. The people with the elevator car were there waiting early in the morning. Standing under big umbrellas. Very patient. and we waited. I put some things in closets, cupboards, etc. But, nothing happened. No news from Genoa. The guy signing the papers there was not doing his thing this morning. or so we were told. Time passed. I went to the office. At some point Michela said, let's see who we know in the customs (because the claim was that they were on strike). Finally, she got up to a very highly ranked colonel who promised to help (for those who didn't read the previous chapters or know Michela - she was the one who got the bank to cash a bankers' check for me by calling the corporate manager, she can move mountains when necessary). He did help, and we got the papers signed or whatever, but by this time - it seems the movers had had enough for one day (it was three by then) and wanted to go back home for a hot meal and some rest. So, the container is supposed to come on Monday. At least, like Michela said, we got to know some high ranking officials in the Italian Customs Authority....
How am I managing in the apartment you might be wondering? (my father says this is like in the great TV show - 'allo 'allo, to quote Rene - you might be wondering what I'm doing here....) Like camping out. Had good training in the scouts and in the army. Things are OK really, it's very quiet - no TV, no computer, and empty, there's an echo from the walls, I've got a cup and a plate, and some plastic cutlery. A pot to heat some water for coffee and tea, a big supermarket (the biggest in Milan, it seems) about 5 min. walk away from me, I've got electric appliances, an i-pod thanks to my uncle and some friendly neighbors down below. Not too bad, really. It would have been nicer with my stuff, but I'll have to live with things as they are. I I really need to do a wash. wonder where I'll hang the clothes......
I got to experience two strikes this week - one, at the airport, following which I arrived back in Milan at 3 a.m. in the morning from Rome and now this. I'm not so sure what happened today was absolutely unavoidable. Probably, just the Italian Bureaucracy at its best.
More luck in the future. Hopefully. I'm signing off here. Do write.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Rome, strikes, getting back in the middle of the night
So, went to Rome yesterday. Everything went fine workwise, did have the rare opportunity to ride from the airport to Rome with a taxi driver talking on two mobile phones and writing (aside from driving, of course). Rome is congested in the most unbelievable way and public transportation is not very efficient.
I got to the Fiumicino airport in the evening - around eight thirty. There, after checking in I sat reading at the gate. Shortly before the boarding time a group of angry passengers descended on the gate where I was waiting for my flight back to Milan. The passengers were from a previous flight which didn't go. So, they got to take "our" plane or something (they had the police there to make sure that none of the passengers would try anything funny with the attendants) and we were told to wait for another flight which will depart at 23:45 but to Malpensa not to Linate (which is a smaller but closer airport in Milan). The flight left at 00:20 and arrived at 01:20. From Malpensa a bus took us to Linate (an hour's ride). There, the airport was closed (probably the reason they sent us to Malpensa which was still open) and no taxis. I called one of the companies - they said that they can't come but a few minutes later when they realized there were about 40 of us waiting for taxis they appeared quickly and drove us to where we wanted to go. I got back to the hotel at 03:00 a.m. in the morning! instead of at 23:00. Welcome to Italy and its strikes - my first trip to Rome and this is what happens. 4 years of travelling from Hungary to the Czech Rep. never had something quite as grand as this... not even close.
So, now I'm exhausted. But on the happy side of things - I'm moving tomorrow to my apartment. I'll have to haul two heavy suitcases, one small one and one shopping cart from the hotel to the apartment but otherwise, I hope it will be OK. The first night will be an adventure because the container is only coming on Thu. Why? the city of Milan needs to approve the standing of the truck on the road for a few hours and this permit takes time to acqire (luckily only two days, not three weeks). So, I will borrow some linen and towels from my friends (who will be my neighbors) and hope for the best.
I hope after that to connect myself to the internet, telephone, and also buy a car. In the meantime, I will walk with my bright red shopping cart from the supermarket to the apartment....
ve ba le'zion go'el.
and one other comment - I went to the Brera Pinacoteca - only so so. A lot of Madonnas with Bambinis, a few interesting "Last Suppers" (not the Leonardo one, others tried out this subject as well - I liked the one done by Rubens). Again, a museum where the order was not clear to me - in one room there were mosaics from the middle ages on one side, archealogical relics from the the first century B.C. and pictures of Picasso and Modigliani on the other. Go figure. I haven't yet....
This will be a short entry. Got to go and rest before the big upheaval tomorrow.
I got to the Fiumicino airport in the evening - around eight thirty. There, after checking in I sat reading at the gate. Shortly before the boarding time a group of angry passengers descended on the gate where I was waiting for my flight back to Milan. The passengers were from a previous flight which didn't go. So, they got to take "our" plane or something (they had the police there to make sure that none of the passengers would try anything funny with the attendants) and we were told to wait for another flight which will depart at 23:45 but to Malpensa not to Linate (which is a smaller but closer airport in Milan). The flight left at 00:20 and arrived at 01:20. From Malpensa a bus took us to Linate (an hour's ride). There, the airport was closed (probably the reason they sent us to Malpensa which was still open) and no taxis. I called one of the companies - they said that they can't come but a few minutes later when they realized there were about 40 of us waiting for taxis they appeared quickly and drove us to where we wanted to go. I got back to the hotel at 03:00 a.m. in the morning! instead of at 23:00. Welcome to Italy and its strikes - my first trip to Rome and this is what happens. 4 years of travelling from Hungary to the Czech Rep. never had something quite as grand as this... not even close.
So, now I'm exhausted. But on the happy side of things - I'm moving tomorrow to my apartment. I'll have to haul two heavy suitcases, one small one and one shopping cart from the hotel to the apartment but otherwise, I hope it will be OK. The first night will be an adventure because the container is only coming on Thu. Why? the city of Milan needs to approve the standing of the truck on the road for a few hours and this permit takes time to acqire (luckily only two days, not three weeks). So, I will borrow some linen and towels from my friends (who will be my neighbors) and hope for the best.
I hope after that to connect myself to the internet, telephone, and also buy a car. In the meantime, I will walk with my bright red shopping cart from the supermarket to the apartment....
ve ba le'zion go'el.
and one other comment - I went to the Brera Pinacoteca - only so so. A lot of Madonnas with Bambinis, a few interesting "Last Suppers" (not the Leonardo one, others tried out this subject as well - I liked the one done by Rubens). Again, a museum where the order was not clear to me - in one room there were mosaics from the middle ages on one side, archealogical relics from the the first century B.C. and pictures of Picasso and Modigliani on the other. Go figure. I haven't yet....
This will be a short entry. Got to go and rest before the big upheaval tomorrow.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Visits, container, apartment
Had two visits this week from Israel - work, though. One, from the security and the other concerning the promotion of Israeli companies participating in Medica in Germany. I think the visits went OK, but it's been a very tiring week.
In between, I'm studying Italian - pronouns, and conditional... aaaagggghh. Italian is not hard to understand (at least the day to day things, I have problems with very formal letters and reading the serious newspapers but the day to day things are OK) - since a lot of the words are the same or similar to words in English (I'd say about 40%) or at least have the same general meaning (so at least you know what the subject of conversation is, a luxury I didn't have when I first came to Hungary, for example). However, the grammer, being based on Latin, is not easy at all, and is hard to understand and more than that to implement (which is the whole point of the exercise). But, on the up side I can say that people here appreciate it very much if you try to speak Italian and are willing to forgive the mistakes you make. I just have to be less afraid to make these mistakes.
My container has arrived in Italy. It's currently in Genoa waiting for customs clearance (paperwork from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). In any case, whether I get the clearance or not (I mean, I'll get it eventually in any case) I'm moving out of the hotel (haleluya!!!) and into the apartment on the 24th. I'm really looking forward to this. Also, it's gotten cold here all of a sudden (well, I suppose it's expected really, it being Oct. already....) and I really need my winter clothing. I'm just about surviving right now with what I brought with me and a few things I've bought. but if it gets much colder I'll have to buy stuff to keep warm. Two of my workers have bad colds (the third one was sick last week). I hope I don't catch it, too.
On Sun. I'm going to hear a Gershwin concert. The same orchestra which played last week (did I write about it? don't remember. Anyway, it's a young orchestra, called La Verdi, not fantastic but quite OK in an unpretentious sort of way). They give concerts on Sun. at 11:00 in the morning or at 16:00 in the afternoon which is are nice times to hear music.
On Mon. going to Rome for the day (it will be very long - from 6:30 in the morning till about midnight). But, it's high time I see the embassy there. Then, Thursday, probably, Turin, unless the container decides to come on this day. We'll see.
and a car. Got to look for one. I hope I have some time to do this next week. Luckily the public transportation here is not bad at all so I get along quite nicely even without one.
That's all folks. Will write more soon (maybe from my own computer at home....).
In between, I'm studying Italian - pronouns, and conditional... aaaagggghh. Italian is not hard to understand (at least the day to day things, I have problems with very formal letters and reading the serious newspapers but the day to day things are OK) - since a lot of the words are the same or similar to words in English (I'd say about 40%) or at least have the same general meaning (so at least you know what the subject of conversation is, a luxury I didn't have when I first came to Hungary, for example). However, the grammer, being based on Latin, is not easy at all, and is hard to understand and more than that to implement (which is the whole point of the exercise). But, on the up side I can say that people here appreciate it very much if you try to speak Italian and are willing to forgive the mistakes you make. I just have to be less afraid to make these mistakes.
My container has arrived in Italy. It's currently in Genoa waiting for customs clearance (paperwork from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). In any case, whether I get the clearance or not (I mean, I'll get it eventually in any case) I'm moving out of the hotel (haleluya!!!) and into the apartment on the 24th. I'm really looking forward to this. Also, it's gotten cold here all of a sudden (well, I suppose it's expected really, it being Oct. already....) and I really need my winter clothing. I'm just about surviving right now with what I brought with me and a few things I've bought. but if it gets much colder I'll have to buy stuff to keep warm. Two of my workers have bad colds (the third one was sick last week). I hope I don't catch it, too.
On Sun. I'm going to hear a Gershwin concert. The same orchestra which played last week (did I write about it? don't remember. Anyway, it's a young orchestra, called La Verdi, not fantastic but quite OK in an unpretentious sort of way). They give concerts on Sun. at 11:00 in the morning or at 16:00 in the afternoon which is are nice times to hear music.
On Mon. going to Rome for the day (it will be very long - from 6:30 in the morning till about midnight). But, it's high time I see the embassy there. Then, Thursday, probably, Turin, unless the container decides to come on this day. We'll see.
and a car. Got to look for one. I hope I have some time to do this next week. Luckily the public transportation here is not bad at all so I get along quite nicely even without one.
That's all folks. Will write more soon (maybe from my own computer at home....).
Friday, October 12, 2007
Signing THE contract, museum of science, Italian lessons
So, I'm happy to tell you that I signed the contract for (what will be) my rented apartment here in Milan. I'll be going into it on the 24th of Oct. Hopefully, my stuff will have arrived by then but this remains to be seen. It was supposed to be shipped today from Israel and arrive at Genoa by the 19th. I know the schedule is tight but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will be OK.
You may be wondering if I stood behind my promise to trot in the Terry Fox Trot. I did. It was a lot of fun although I did go on my own in the end (a friend who was supposed to come didn't feel well). Like everything else, also when Italians do sports they are very elegant, they've got these nice sports clothes that they wear. Some even dressed their dogs with the Run's shirt. I have some pictures but they're in the telephone and I haven't figured out the technology of downloading them onto the computer (I have, but the computer is warning me that dire things will happen if I activate it... and since I've had many problems with computers here lately, I'm not risking it) so you'll have to take my word for it.
Last weekend I also went to check out the Science Museum. It's OK, but I've seen much nicer museums of this kind - such as the transport museum in Luzern or the Air and Space museum in Washington, DC. I think its not interactive enough. and also, it's a sort of mishmash of things, the museum is not organized in any logical sequence that I could understand, and you can go from checking out telephones and how they work to looking at photos of fashionable people in Milan, to some reproductions of pictures from the renaissance and then to musical instruments. The connection? I didn't get it... What were very interesting to see however over there were reproductions of Leonardo Da Vinci's models. Really a pleasure to see how his mind worked. That was worth the whole visit as far as I'm concerned.
I've started to take Italian lessons. I took two this week. We're a group of 7 women. Why only women? I don't know. We were the ones who signed up. We've got someone from Slovakia, Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Romania, and I don't remember from where else. Looks like a nice group. I hope I manage it because the lessons start at 6:30 in the evening which is a bit hard for me.
Yesterday I went to a gala dinner in a palazzo in Como. Very fancy. We had dessert at 23:30 at night. I'm not built for this, my stomach shuts down around 21:00 max... But we did some good work promoting WATEC there so I think it was worth it. Italians are very easy going and so it's nice to work with them.
Finally, what do you think about Al Gore winning the Nobel Prize? I read somewhere that his own electricity bills are very high (30,000 USD a year...) But like Yoni said, the fact that he spends a lot on electricity doesn't mean that we don't have a problem regarding the environment. Still, I'd be happy if he practiced what he preached, would sound more sincere to me.
That's all folks for this edition of my blog.
You may be wondering if I stood behind my promise to trot in the Terry Fox Trot. I did. It was a lot of fun although I did go on my own in the end (a friend who was supposed to come didn't feel well). Like everything else, also when Italians do sports they are very elegant, they've got these nice sports clothes that they wear. Some even dressed their dogs with the Run's shirt. I have some pictures but they're in the telephone and I haven't figured out the technology of downloading them onto the computer (I have, but the computer is warning me that dire things will happen if I activate it... and since I've had many problems with computers here lately, I'm not risking it) so you'll have to take my word for it.
Last weekend I also went to check out the Science Museum. It's OK, but I've seen much nicer museums of this kind - such as the transport museum in Luzern or the Air and Space museum in Washington, DC. I think its not interactive enough. and also, it's a sort of mishmash of things, the museum is not organized in any logical sequence that I could understand, and you can go from checking out telephones and how they work to looking at photos of fashionable people in Milan, to some reproductions of pictures from the renaissance and then to musical instruments. The connection? I didn't get it... What were very interesting to see however over there were reproductions of Leonardo Da Vinci's models. Really a pleasure to see how his mind worked. That was worth the whole visit as far as I'm concerned.
I've started to take Italian lessons. I took two this week. We're a group of 7 women. Why only women? I don't know. We were the ones who signed up. We've got someone from Slovakia, Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Romania, and I don't remember from where else. Looks like a nice group. I hope I manage it because the lessons start at 6:30 in the evening which is a bit hard for me.
Yesterday I went to a gala dinner in a palazzo in Como. Very fancy. We had dessert at 23:30 at night. I'm not built for this, my stomach shuts down around 21:00 max... But we did some good work promoting WATEC there so I think it was worth it. Italians are very easy going and so it's nice to work with them.
Finally, what do you think about Al Gore winning the Nobel Prize? I read somewhere that his own electricity bills are very high (30,000 USD a year...) But like Yoni said, the fact that he spends a lot on electricity doesn't mean that we don't have a problem regarding the environment. Still, I'd be happy if he practiced what he preached, would sound more sincere to me.
That's all folks for this edition of my blog.
Friday, October 5, 2007
Hair cuts, Hari Krishna, and books
So, I went and got myself a hair cut. It was cut by Alain Winters. He's Belgian and very gay. He decided my hair is too serious and needs to be more a-symetrical. Here are the results (shorter than I wanted it but you know barbers - you tell them not to cut too much, you get home, discover half your hair has disappeared - but luckily mine grows fast). I think it's nice. Very European.... (oh, and don't get alarmed by the "after" picture, it's just that I took the picture myself and didn't know where to look and when to smile, I promise to change the picture when I have a better one - I wanted you to see the effect right after the cut - I tried about ten times but didn't manage to get it right...):
Before (taken at the office one day):
After (taken at the hotel):
As this is an experiment in blogging - you'll have to bear with me while I try out the technology...
In addition to getting my hair cut, I visited my first church yesterday - Sant'Amrbogio, the patron saint of Milan. You can see his remains - dressed up and with two other saints flanking him (spooky...) - in the crypt of the church. This custom of not burying people but leaving them on display is a bit strange to me (saw it also in Brno where Franciscan monks were left in boxes above ground) . There were some people praying there, singing very nicely. The church acoustics are very good.
I also went to two good english bookstores. There are 4 stores some nicer than others (there were books in Spanish, French, Russian, German, even Portuguese in one store). No used bookstores. Seems this is not "the thing" here. People don't like used books. Got a very funny book called "Lost in translation" with funny quotes from all over the world from planes, hotels, etc. (I've seen some of them before on the internet, but many were new) making some hysterical mistakes in English (I suppose I make some mistakes myself but nothing like those quoted in this book..). I had to stop reading it on the train - I was laughing so hard people were staring at me.... I also got a book about Louis the 14th and his women - the women in the life of the Sun King, by Antonia Fraser. Looks good.
Milan is nice in the sense that it is a very cosmopolitan place - and so has bookstores in English, a newspaper in English for tourists, many people here speak at least some English and so on, but because it doesn't have too many tourist attractions (compared with Rome or Florence) there aren't so many tourists around, which makes the place less crowded and you don't see so many groups of tourists going after umbrellas.... (their guide). I think I'm going to like this place...
Today I went with Paola to eat at a Hari Krishna place. I went to a place like this in Hungary with Hagit. Like everything else in Milan - even the Hari Krishna place here is elegant. They're centrally located and the food is good, vegetarian, but good. You sit with other people having lunch there in tables of eight. The price is reasonable and it's better than what you'd would get in a fast food place here - which costs the same.
I was planning to go to visit a friend in a village near Florence today, but because rain is expected - the trip will take place next weekend. If it doesn't rain - I'm thinking of going to Bergamo (a small town east of Milan) which I hear is nice and/or take part in the Terry Fox Run here (I won't run, I'll walk). Terry Fox Runs take place all over the world at this time of the year in memory of Terry Fox who went across Canada while he was sick with cancer, with an artificial leg, to raise awareness to the illness. Money raised on these runs are given to cancer research, hospitals, etc. You can read more about this here.
Looks like I'll start taking Italian lessons next week. High time. I understand a lot but am afraid to speak and make mistakes. Luckily, although I said that many speak English, many others don't so I'm forced to use the language.
and since I'm attaching pictures today - here are two of the hotel room:
.JPG)
That's all folks for this edition of my blog. Have a nice weekend.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Antique Market and waiting for a public transport card
This last Sun. I went with Paola and Enrico (her husband) to a monthly antique market in Milan (for those interested it takes place on the last Sun. of every month). It was very nice. Along the canals in Milan (yup, there are a few canals here - they used them to bring in supplies and equipment to the inner parts of the city). I'm not a big antiques person but this was a very pleasant market (I'm told that with me it's usually the people I'm with who determine whether I'm going to like something or not, so maybe I liked it also because of the company). i didn't see much Judaica there but Paola said that sometimes there are Poles who have some things (she commented that she doesn't want to think where or how they came about the things they're selling... a good point). We also went to eat in a special kind of bazar organized by the church - they prepare home made food - pies, cakes, and the Italian version of the Hungarian Langos (a kind of fried pocket of dough filled with Mozarrella and tomato paste), it's cheap and was actually quite nice. They use the money to support their welfare or social projects.
and I also had a chance to enjoy Italian Bureaucracy this week. I purchased a monthly card to use on the public transportation. First you have to fill in a long form in Italian - giving all your personal details, then you stand on line (or sit) for an hour and wait as 50 other people get served, then comes your turn (and I was there first thing in the morning, after I left there were even more people). For 40 euros I now have a monthly card (10 for the ticket, 30 for the rides). To compare - a similar ticket (weekly) which I got in the metro in France took all of 5 min. to acquire. On the bus in Israel it takes less than a minute. However, the public transport system here (especially the subway) is efficient and fast, and you can get around very easily (again, mostly to places close to the metro lines, but also others are quite easy to get to). Interesting that in Israel the buses still don't have a schedule, they come when they come. Even in relatively unorganized Italy, the buses come according to schedule... this card should be good for 4 years, so hopefully I won't have to stand on any more lines regarding this over here.
We're off on the second Succot holiday. I'm going to have a haircut tomorrow. Let's see what happens.
Got to run. Do write. Hag Sameach.
and I also had a chance to enjoy Italian Bureaucracy this week. I purchased a monthly card to use on the public transportation. First you have to fill in a long form in Italian - giving all your personal details, then you stand on line (or sit) for an hour and wait as 50 other people get served, then comes your turn (and I was there first thing in the morning, after I left there were even more people). For 40 euros I now have a monthly card (10 for the ticket, 30 for the rides). To compare - a similar ticket (weekly) which I got in the metro in France took all of 5 min. to acquire. On the bus in Israel it takes less than a minute. However, the public transport system here (especially the subway) is efficient and fast, and you can get around very easily (again, mostly to places close to the metro lines, but also others are quite easy to get to). Interesting that in Israel the buses still don't have a schedule, they come when they come. Even in relatively unorganized Italy, the buses come according to schedule... this card should be good for 4 years, so hopefully I won't have to stand on any more lines regarding this over here.
We're off on the second Succot holiday. I'm going to have a haircut tomorrow. Let's see what happens.
Got to run. Do write. Hag Sameach.