Box-Land

It is official we have moved into our new home. Which is Via San Massimo number 53. It is the land of boxes and unpacking! It is not so bad. Yesterday Mira and Cri came to help me to unpack stuff whilst Fab built shelves and finally our BED (all courtesy of IKEA). Then we all went out for Pizza dinner at our favourite pizza restaurant, where the waiter spent all night trying to figure out where Mira and I came from. It must have been tough for him because Mira and I look kind of similar (sort of Asian) but she is from Kazhakstan and I am from Singapore, so it was really funny to see him struggling! Each time he brought a course, we would give him another clue!

Tutta Bene

I am really relived! Madoka just emailed me to say that she was fine, but really sad that the train accident has claimed so many lives. Am pretty relieved, but pray for all the families of the victims injured or dead.

On a more cheerful note, THANK YOU everyone who has given these really cool suggestions for the tables in France. I think I am going to use Kiddo's idea and adapt it accordingly depending on how it all looks when I do the mock-up.

Today we had this test on the Vienna Convention. I think I did okay. We have a lecture in the afternoon on the social impact of globalism. Today is also ILO World Day for saftey in the workplace. Apparently working can be dangerous for your health! we got stickers and stuff to advertise it.

All Quiet on the Western Front

There are some people I have not heard from for some time, so I am blogging this with varying degrees of concern.

First there is Shaun - my brother in Baltimore. YOO HOO Brother -- Are you there? And why your emails have gone quiet? You mean you are actually studying?

Second there is Madoka. For those who do not know her, Madoka was this friend I made when I was studying French in Rambouillet. She lives in Osaka, which was the site of huge train crash a few days ago, and I have not heard from her, so I hope she is okay too.

Okay, I guess I will hear from them at some point in time. In the meanwhile I am trying to settle the billion logistics for the wedding in France. If anyone knows of an interesting way to present chopsticks (they are our wedding favours here) please drop a comment on this blog. Otherwise I leave you with the theme idea which we decided on for the dinner.

We decided to name the tables after places which have some significance to Fabien and me. So for example, we have "Bali" and "Turin" which we enjoy together, and "India" and "France" which are very special to Fabien, and "Nottingham" and "Taiwan" which are special to me. Then we put photo albums and postcard on those tables (but no flags because they are cheesy) and we give the guests clues to find out which table they are on. Does anyone have suggestions on what other little things we can put on these tables? my idea is to have soft toys in costumes, like a plush baby elephant for India, a pig in a poncho for Mexico, a Panda for China and so on.. But what animal is suitable for France??

Northern Exposure

We are now in Lille this weekend because Monday is a public holiday in Italy. Basically we are 6 weeks to the weding here, so we needed to swing by and prepare wedding booklets and other nonsense in Lille. It is really pretty administrative, and (after the pain of deciding table themes and dinner menus) I realise why people only get married ONCE...

The good new though, is that I have learned about more interesting wedding customs from the North of France, where Fab is from. For example, in the Church, there is one part of the ceremony where people come up to the front table or something and bless a cruxifix of some other personal item intended to be in our future household. The idea is 2 fold. First, it allows people to get up and walk around in the middle of the service to stop them falling asleep and secondly, there is a church collection basket next to the cruxifix, where you can drop some change into. The money goes to the maintainence and repair of the church. I have no problems with this custom. I actually think it is quite useful, and when you see the stained glass window, you realise that it does deserve to be maintained and repaired...

I am also reading this really funny book at the moment. it is called "surely you are joking Mr Feynman!" and is the biography of the brilliant and eccentric physicist _ Richard Feynman.

Passing Exams Italian Style

Before I start - I am going to say hello to Jac -- (*waves madly*) because she would like to have something personal and I think you can be personal by blog as well as email. She is running all over the world at the moment, and I really hope she can run around to France in June this year, but of course, we will have to see. In any case, Pete can come by himself, because you know that the invitation is open to him too!

This post will have greater interest to Esther because it is about an Architecture exam, but it has a general interest to anyone who has had to ever take exams...

I gained some insight into Italian Style exams from this really interesting lady - to protect identities, let's call her M. [I know that I have a policy of using real names on this blog, but this particular case requires an exception] Anyway, M has 2 other siblings. An older brother and a little brother. The 3 siblings lived together in Rome, and attended the University of Rome at the same time. The older brother was studying engineering. He is clever and mathematical, and always did well in school. M is the sister in the middle, and she was very good at Art and literature. Then there is the little brother, who was desperate to enter the highly prestigious faculty of Architecture in Rome, but that faculty required a 2 section multiple choice entrance exam, with one section on Art and literature, and one section on mathematics and physics. It is not enough to be smart or to be a potentially good architect. There are 150 places for more than 2000 applicants, so you had to score really well.

The little brother had flunked this entrance exam one time already, and was close to giving up. So the two other siblings signed up for the same entrance exam together with him.

Why? The cunning plot revolves around the fact that they all had the same surname, they would all sit around each other in the exam hall. and so the Older Brother was the (*ahem*) guide for the maths and physics section and then stop writing (effectively only doing half the paper)and the Older Sister would perform similar services for the Art and literature section. So only the little brother handed in the COMPLETED paper with both sections, and has graduated from the university and is now a practicing architect.

This apparently is a very Italian way of doing things, where the ends justify the means. I asked M if she had any moral issues about doing what the rest of the world would think of as cheating, but apparently there is no inherent conflict because everyone is doing something like this!! There is less regimented adherence to rules here, which I find totally refreshing. However I would still need to apply my own personal moral standards to be comfortable in my own skin. I am not alone in this, because my classmate - Jukka from Lapland, lightly scratched someone's car whilst coming out of a parking lot, and left a note with his name and phone number. This has caused much amusement to the Italians all around...

dinner somewhere in Alba

One really nice thing about being here is that you get the experience of being cold and sunburned at the same time. It is kinda like skiing. We drove through the vineyards surrounding Turin (Alba and Asti), and ended up having dinner at one of those quaint little village places, where there is a fireplace and so on. You kinda think that you are having dinner in someone's house! The chef comes out to talk to you and throw in lots of freebies and stuff. We had a carpacio which melts in the mouth, some kind of chicken roulade, a pasta dish with some kind of meat sauce, and some kind of gamey meat. The desert was a sharing platter with different types of tasting portions. The only good news is that earlier in the week, I played football with my friends from the class for an entire afternoon. You can do that here because you don't really feel hot.

Toilet Paper Trees

There is a kind of tree here which has big pink blooms and lots of little delicate petals, which shred in the slightest wind. I will get a digital camera from Singapore and show you a photo of what I mean. After some rain, the pink petals get all soggy and wet, and plaster themselves on the pavement and cars and anything else in the vicinity. They kind of look like shredded toilet paper (you know the cheap bright pink kind?) This has led Fabien to christened them "Toilet Paper Trees".

Totally Boring Game

Last night's match was a complete waste of time. Both sides were nonsense, and I am really disappointed. The only good thing was that there were no fights taking place between the hooligans, which would have really pissed off the real fans, because that would have called off the match.

I hear your comments and will put up photos of our appartment when we have a digital camera. Fabien will try to buy one in Singapore. Or someone who is coming here to visit can get one for us or something. I will try put up a photo from our pizza party dinner that someone else took on their camera. We went to this place where you can order rectangular pizza about 1m long! Beer is cheaper here than coke.

The weekend weather is going to be crap. It is going to actually snow!