Xmas has been and gone. I was invited to Paola's family for Xmas lunch - which was very nice. Very similar to our celebrations of holidays - a lot of excitement, food (stuffed chicken, a spinach pie, a gnocchi soup, and of course, a big panettone (traditional Xmas cake, yeast cake with dried fruit in it) and many more things), and in general a good atmosphere. The prayers at the beginning are obviously different, and we don't really have a holiday where gifts are exchanged so diligently (it must be difficult to find nice and new gifts to give every year). Everyone gives gifts to everyone else. I got some nice infusions to drink (orange and frutti di bosco - fruit of the woods) and a small Xmas cake.
The stores were packed before the holiday - and everywhere gifts were packed very nicely in gold, silver, red and green. The city is decorated - a big Xmas tree (poor tree) is standing in the Duomo square all lit up. lights are hanging everywhere. In the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele the dome is covered with little blue lights (I suppose some pictures would be good here but I haven't taken any... - I found these pictures on flickr taken by a guy named Giorgio http://www.flickr.com/photos/girogio/2098108545/). On the 25th and 26th everything was closed - although flowers could be bought - the streets practically empty. A unique experience in this noisy city.
On Thu. and Friday I went to work. Hardly any phone calls or mail. A good time to throw away stuff I found in my office from 10 years ago. One guy called up to ask what he needs to do if he wants to move to Israel and work there. hmmm.... I explained things to him in Italian - me being the only one there to talk to him. Yes, I can understand and even say things in Italian so people understand. However, it's a struggle. Constantly being in a situation where I'm not sure I've understood what was said, or being sure I chose the right words for my question or answer. In Italian, like in Hungarian, there is a courtesy form - third person, and one has to remember to use it and not the simple - you, like you would in English or Hebrew. My situation here is better than in Hungary - it took me about two years to get to the same level of understanding of Hungarian. Also, here, usually people understand some English so you can say - Vorrei (= I would like) un subscription or parking tickets or whatever and they know what you're talking about. They then go on to answer in Italian but at least if I'm not sure about the initial term I can say it in English. Then you've got to figure out how to use whatever it is you bought. I just bought the Milanese version of an "easy park" machine, but I've got to use a dictionary to figure out how to make it work. I discovered the telephone I bought for home doesn't have an answering machine (Although initially I thought it did - I think I confused it with the telephone numbers' memory...). I keep being worried I won't understand things and probably some of the time I don't so I've got to really push myself to ask for things. Today was the first time I bought things from the dairy inside the supermarket - up until now I only bought things already wrapped. I still remember not finding the ground meat in Hungary - they make it on the spot when you ask for it, you can't just point and say - I want this. So for months I went around with a little piece of paper on which was written how you say - "I would like ground meat" in Hungarian... My next "big" project in this sense will be to buy a GPS for the car. I'm not sure I know the terms regarding this but I hope to figure it out (by the way, if you use a GPS and have recommendations - on a brand or on some feature - do let me know). Another thing that happens to me with languages I don't know too well - I need to really concentrate to understand, so a lot of the time I hear conversations but don't understand, I'm also a lot more aware of the tone of things rather than the content because of this. I remember in Hungary I knew I needed to tune in whenever the words for trade or economics were used, the rest of the time - it was quality time with myself. Italian is closer to English so I'm more aware of what's being said - at least I know what the topic is, and also my Italian is probably better than my Hungarian was (I'm forgetting a lot of it now...) - so I understand more. I hope, with time, my understanding will be better. I probably need to insist at work that I'm talked to in Italian and also answer in Italian but I keep "escaping" and using English. I suppose because I don't want to make mistakes - and there are a lot of mistakes to be made - the Italian grammer is pretty difficult... many tenses and forms some of which I barely understand when you're supposed to use them and how.
and finally, I've got a cold. Nothing major but definitely a cold. I hope it doesn't get much worse on the plane. I'm trying to take it easy so that I feel better before the flight. It's not pleasant to fly with a cold. Sometimes it gets much worse because of the pressure or the temp. or something. I hope not to spend the entire time at home being sick. Looking forward to seeing you. and finally - Happy New Year to everyone.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
A new car, an alarm and painting the balcony
I am happy to announce that I am the proud owner of a new car! Today I went to take it from the dealership. It's a black Toyota Yaris. Maybe it's good it's a small car - the parking place for it is so tiny I could barely get it in without rubbing the sides of the car (for those who visited me in Hungary and were impressed by the smallness of the parking space? this one is smaller...). But, it's a parking place, in Milan not something to be sneezed at. If you remember one of the reasons I moved a bit farther out was so that I'd have this precious parking place. and I managed to fill the car up with some diesel - only 10 euros because I couldn't figure out how to pay with my credit card in this self service gasoline station, another woman who was there filling up her car seemed to think it isn't possible to pay with a credit card in that station. So I'm counting on these few liters to last a bit (maybe like the in the Hanuka miracle for 8 days...) until I figure out how to fill up the car - or find a serviced gasoline station. I know this is not fascinating stuff to read but I'm writing it anyhow so you get a feeling a bit of how my life is here. Small things like filling up cars become major issues (or at least, time consuming and a bit nerve racking). I also got to work with the car, parked it (we've got special places for diplomatic cars over there) and got home in one piece. I wasn't sure where my parking place is so I stopped at every corner in the underground garage and tried my remote until I found the right place.
Speaking of remote controls - I've now got three remote controls - one for the car, one for the garage and one for the alarm system in my house (yes, as of yesterday I'm well protected in my home). Also, I've got a million keys - 3 for the office, 5 which I use regularly to get in and out of my apartment and building, and an additional 5 or six keys that open various other doors in the building - the storage room, the electricity room, the bikes' room, etc. I feel like those guys in the old churches and their graveyards going around with a lot of keys rattling on their belt....
What else? I've just come back from a conference in Amsterdam. I haven't been there for about 11 years. It's a great city a lot of fun. How does one describe fun? I'm not sure. To begin with everyone there speaks English, which is a relief, the city is very pretty (although it was very cold - the wind adds a chill factor to the already low temp. of around zero...), there are a lot of nice stores to buy things in, and in general a pleasant atmosphere. We stayed at the Victoria Park Hotel across from the central train station which was very nice. We ate A LOT, but the food was good, especially the Dutch version of french fries, which you can eat with various dips - most Dutch people eat them with Mayonnaise. Also the stroopel cookies are nice - they've got this caramel filling inside which is divine. and the cheeses - like any serious European country the Dutch have some excellent cheeses - the Old Amsterdam was very nice. We played a "City Game" on Sun. - it's like a treasure hunt, you go around Amsterdam and answer some questions on various subjects and also send back proof you've been to the various points you were sent to. In the summer I suppose this game is a lot of fun because the city IS very nice but when it's so cold it's hard to be out for 3 hours like this - all you're thinking of is a nice hot cup of coffee... (I remember my first winter in Budapest I was walking around the city in the dead of winter with a friend, it takes a while to realize that when the temp. is this cold you stay inside and only venture out when it's absolutely necessary, another thought that struck me was that it's probably better I ended up in Italy and not in Canada from this point of view, I expect I would have been very miserable there because of the darkness and cold).
Two things bothered me in Amsterdam - the first is the fact that smoking is still allowed there in public places, when you get used to smoke-free environments it's not a nice experience to get back to the hotel stinking of cigarette smoke. and the second thing is seeing the ladies in the red light district. It's like a butcher's shop - meat on sale. At least, the Dutch say, they're not standing on the streets and are supposed to be "clean", they get examined regularly and are enjoying relatively good working conditions. But it's depressing to see young girls on display like this. One of the people in our group pointed out that it's weird to see the working girls and a few meters away from them - a church.
Tomorrow we're having a small Xmas celebration at work. I've just baked a cake in honor of the occasion. After attending the Jewish ceremonies (I went to a candle lighting ceremony at a synagogue here (Beth Shlomo) followed by a dinner with nice Kosher food (it appears they have an Israeli chef who makes very nice food) the night before I left to Holland) I will now attend a Christian event. It's a bit strange, today I got a small gift from the wife of the Gabay of the synagogue in honor of the festivities, and it seems the Jewish people also send and receive Xmas cards or at least exchange New Year greetings.
Anyway, things are grinding to a halt in anticipation of the holiday next week. A good time to catch up on my mail at work and to take care of things that otherwise get put aside. My eyes are closing so I'll end here. Happy Xmas to those celebrating Xmas and many greetings and good wishes for the New Year.
P.S. 1 for those wondering about the state of the ceiling in my balcony - I am happy to announce that the work is finished and my balcony is now beautiful! a few flowers in the pots when spring comes will make it a lovely place to sit in (barring mosquitoes...).
P.S. 2 two pictures of me in Amsterdam, taken by Yoni:
This is me just before eating a nice juicy steak....
This is me getting ready to leave the restaurant and face the cold...
Speaking of remote controls - I've now got three remote controls - one for the car, one for the garage and one for the alarm system in my house (yes, as of yesterday I'm well protected in my home). Also, I've got a million keys - 3 for the office, 5 which I use regularly to get in and out of my apartment and building, and an additional 5 or six keys that open various other doors in the building - the storage room, the electricity room, the bikes' room, etc. I feel like those guys in the old churches and their graveyards going around with a lot of keys rattling on their belt....
What else? I've just come back from a conference in Amsterdam. I haven't been there for about 11 years. It's a great city a lot of fun. How does one describe fun? I'm not sure. To begin with everyone there speaks English, which is a relief, the city is very pretty (although it was very cold - the wind adds a chill factor to the already low temp. of around zero...), there are a lot of nice stores to buy things in, and in general a pleasant atmosphere. We stayed at the Victoria Park Hotel across from the central train station which was very nice. We ate A LOT, but the food was good, especially the Dutch version of french fries, which you can eat with various dips - most Dutch people eat them with Mayonnaise. Also the stroopel cookies are nice - they've got this caramel filling inside which is divine. and the cheeses - like any serious European country the Dutch have some excellent cheeses - the Old Amsterdam was very nice. We played a "City Game" on Sun. - it's like a treasure hunt, you go around Amsterdam and answer some questions on various subjects and also send back proof you've been to the various points you were sent to. In the summer I suppose this game is a lot of fun because the city IS very nice but when it's so cold it's hard to be out for 3 hours like this - all you're thinking of is a nice hot cup of coffee... (I remember my first winter in Budapest I was walking around the city in the dead of winter with a friend, it takes a while to realize that when the temp. is this cold you stay inside and only venture out when it's absolutely necessary, another thought that struck me was that it's probably better I ended up in Italy and not in Canada from this point of view, I expect I would have been very miserable there because of the darkness and cold).
Two things bothered me in Amsterdam - the first is the fact that smoking is still allowed there in public places, when you get used to smoke-free environments it's not a nice experience to get back to the hotel stinking of cigarette smoke. and the second thing is seeing the ladies in the red light district. It's like a butcher's shop - meat on sale. At least, the Dutch say, they're not standing on the streets and are supposed to be "clean", they get examined regularly and are enjoying relatively good working conditions. But it's depressing to see young girls on display like this. One of the people in our group pointed out that it's weird to see the working girls and a few meters away from them - a church.
Tomorrow we're having a small Xmas celebration at work. I've just baked a cake in honor of the occasion. After attending the Jewish ceremonies (I went to a candle lighting ceremony at a synagogue here (Beth Shlomo) followed by a dinner with nice Kosher food (it appears they have an Israeli chef who makes very nice food) the night before I left to Holland) I will now attend a Christian event. It's a bit strange, today I got a small gift from the wife of the Gabay of the synagogue in honor of the festivities, and it seems the Jewish people also send and receive Xmas cards or at least exchange New Year greetings.
Anyway, things are grinding to a halt in anticipation of the holiday next week. A good time to catch up on my mail at work and to take care of things that otherwise get put aside. My eyes are closing so I'll end here. Happy Xmas to those celebrating Xmas and many greetings and good wishes for the New Year.
P.S. 1 for those wondering about the state of the ceiling in my balcony - I am happy to announce that the work is finished and my balcony is now beautiful! a few flowers in the pots when spring comes will make it a lovely place to sit in (barring mosquitoes...).
P.S. 2 two pictures of me in Amsterdam, taken by Yoni:
This is me just before eating a nice juicy steak....
This is me getting ready to leave the restaurant and face the cold...
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
strikes (again) and a few other things
I haven't had time to write lately. Maybe enjoying the internet at home too much?
Anyway, last friday we had a strike here again of the public transportation. This time it was for real (the Italians have this thing where you never know what kind of strike it's going to be - i.e. a real strike, where there are no trams, buses, subways, or just a make believe one where you can't figure out for the life of you what strike they're talking about exactly).
Through this last strike I discovered that it takes approx. one hour to walk from the center of the city to my apartment. Not bad but I'm beginning to get tired of all this walking, to say nothing of the time spent doing all of it.... However, it's an ill wind that blows no good - I've lost about 3 kg since i got here. I'm not sure if this was necessary, but all this walking definitely helped my figure.
You might be wondering why I didn't wait for a lull in the strike (the strikers are very accomodating this way - so the workers can get to and from their work place, the strike stops during the rush hours and then resumes again - so the capitalists (and those who don't have cars yet, like me....) will suffer)? I got a call from the custodian of our building (there is a kind of doorman here who is called custodio) that two guys have come to take a table to be fixed. The two guys were supposed to call before they came and let me know that they're coming but they didn't. So I rushed home and was sure they would either leave or be very angry with me for making them wait for an hour. Neither. There they were happy as can be waiting for me. My colleague says he's not surprised - if they went back to their office they would be sent on another job, this way they sit around waiting for me and do nothing....
In the evening I got back to town OK. Attended an event organized by the Milano Province. It took place in a beautiful palazzo - Isimbardi which used to be owned by a very rich Milanese family by that name. I recommend visiting it.
Then I went to have dinner with the Jewish family I know (for those who remember - the rich family I met when I just came here). The subways weren't running. So I took a bus. I asked the driver if he goes to their area and he said yes. Then he started going in the opposite direction. It took me a few minutes to realize this and many min. before I found a bus going in the other direction (because even though the sciopero = strike in Italian was supposed to be over there were no subways). I didn't take a taxi because there were many people trying to catch one and not enough taxis to go around. The bus took forever to get to where i was going. At some point I got off it and took a taxi. Arrived one and a half (!) hours late to the dinner.... Luckily, the lady is a very nice one, she kept me some food and they didn't seem to mind too much that I was so late. I took a taxi back to the apartment on the way home (the subways weren't running again, and frankly, I'd had enough...).
On Sunday morning, there was no strike but on the other hand we had a marathon here. I went to the airport to meet the Israeli minister of health and ended up walking home again because there were no trams to be had. A lot of walking....
In the evening two of my workers came to dinner. I walked to the supermarket to get some water bottles (like I once said, without a car, even getting 6 bottles of water from the supermarket becomes a project).
What about my car? I transferred money for it today and need to figure out which insurance to take (why did it take so long? needed some exemption from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which only got here today). But hopefully, very soon, I'll be driving again. I wonder just how difficult driving and more importantly, parking in Milan is - like my aunt said, quoting her Sicilian neighbor, most Italians hardly use their cars, they only admire them in the garage.... I know for sure that those I know here, either use public transportation, bicycles or scooters. We'll see.
What else? I attended an event organized by Keren Ha'yesod here to mark the 60th anniversary of 29th Nov. 1947. They had an Egyptian Magdi Allam talk there. He's a big fan of Israel and a radical critic of Islam. For this reason has to go around with 6 bodygaurds because his Islamic brothers want to kill him... another interesting speaker was Fiamma Nirenstein. It wasn't easy for me to understand them but what I did get was interesting. The Jewish community in Milan (who filled the hall where this event took place - around 1,000 people participated in this event which was competing with a basketball game of Maccabi Tel Aviv in Milan the same evening) is a very warm, rich and confident community. Big supporters of Israel.
Today I attended the lighting of the first Hanuka candle in a central square in Milan. Ben Izri, our minister of health mentioned before, lit the candles. It appears he used to be a hazan. He did it very nicely. We talked to a Jewish woman during the ceremony - she was crying, she told us that she is an Aushwitz survivor and it was a very emotional moment for her to see the Hanuka candles lit by an Israeli minister in a main square in Milan. Hag Sameach to everyone.
Anyway, last friday we had a strike here again of the public transportation. This time it was for real (the Italians have this thing where you never know what kind of strike it's going to be - i.e. a real strike, where there are no trams, buses, subways, or just a make believe one where you can't figure out for the life of you what strike they're talking about exactly).
Through this last strike I discovered that it takes approx. one hour to walk from the center of the city to my apartment. Not bad but I'm beginning to get tired of all this walking, to say nothing of the time spent doing all of it.... However, it's an ill wind that blows no good - I've lost about 3 kg since i got here. I'm not sure if this was necessary, but all this walking definitely helped my figure.
You might be wondering why I didn't wait for a lull in the strike (the strikers are very accomodating this way - so the workers can get to and from their work place, the strike stops during the rush hours and then resumes again - so the capitalists (and those who don't have cars yet, like me....) will suffer)? I got a call from the custodian of our building (there is a kind of doorman here who is called custodio) that two guys have come to take a table to be fixed. The two guys were supposed to call before they came and let me know that they're coming but they didn't. So I rushed home and was sure they would either leave or be very angry with me for making them wait for an hour. Neither. There they were happy as can be waiting for me. My colleague says he's not surprised - if they went back to their office they would be sent on another job, this way they sit around waiting for me and do nothing....
In the evening I got back to town OK. Attended an event organized by the Milano Province. It took place in a beautiful palazzo - Isimbardi which used to be owned by a very rich Milanese family by that name. I recommend visiting it.
Then I went to have dinner with the Jewish family I know (for those who remember - the rich family I met when I just came here). The subways weren't running. So I took a bus. I asked the driver if he goes to their area and he said yes. Then he started going in the opposite direction. It took me a few minutes to realize this and many min. before I found a bus going in the other direction (because even though the sciopero = strike in Italian was supposed to be over there were no subways). I didn't take a taxi because there were many people trying to catch one and not enough taxis to go around. The bus took forever to get to where i was going. At some point I got off it and took a taxi. Arrived one and a half (!) hours late to the dinner.... Luckily, the lady is a very nice one, she kept me some food and they didn't seem to mind too much that I was so late. I took a taxi back to the apartment on the way home (the subways weren't running again, and frankly, I'd had enough...).
On Sunday morning, there was no strike but on the other hand we had a marathon here. I went to the airport to meet the Israeli minister of health and ended up walking home again because there were no trams to be had. A lot of walking....
In the evening two of my workers came to dinner. I walked to the supermarket to get some water bottles (like I once said, without a car, even getting 6 bottles of water from the supermarket becomes a project).
What about my car? I transferred money for it today and need to figure out which insurance to take (why did it take so long? needed some exemption from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which only got here today). But hopefully, very soon, I'll be driving again. I wonder just how difficult driving and more importantly, parking in Milan is - like my aunt said, quoting her Sicilian neighbor, most Italians hardly use their cars, they only admire them in the garage.... I know for sure that those I know here, either use public transportation, bicycles or scooters. We'll see.
What else? I attended an event organized by Keren Ha'yesod here to mark the 60th anniversary of 29th Nov. 1947. They had an Egyptian Magdi Allam talk there. He's a big fan of Israel and a radical critic of Islam. For this reason has to go around with 6 bodygaurds because his Islamic brothers want to kill him... another interesting speaker was Fiamma Nirenstein. It wasn't easy for me to understand them but what I did get was interesting. The Jewish community in Milan (who filled the hall where this event took place - around 1,000 people participated in this event which was competing with a basketball game of Maccabi Tel Aviv in Milan the same evening) is a very warm, rich and confident community. Big supporters of Israel.
Today I attended the lighting of the first Hanuka candle in a central square in Milan. Ben Izri, our minister of health mentioned before, lit the candles. It appears he used to be a hazan. He did it very nicely. We talked to a Jewish woman during the ceremony - she was crying, she told us that she is an Aushwitz survivor and it was a very emotional moment for her to see the Hanuka candles lit by an Israeli minister in a main square in Milan. Hag Sameach to everyone.
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