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.