Buon Natale

I have been having some Blogger problems and have not been able to log in, but am back online now!
Its been a lovely Christmas. Its cold here in Sarnano, but the sun is shining and the sky is blue. On Christmas Day itself we actually had to go in serach of the snow - this must be the first year when there has not been white stuff on the ground outside the window - and I had promised Connie and John - who were over from Hong Kong - a white Christmas! So we jumped in the car and headed up to Sassotetto. The sun was hiding behind large black clouds up there most of the time, but this didn't deter us from lobbing a few snowballs or from drinking our champagne which we had brought up for the occasion!

The rest of Christmas Day passed in a festive way - with a viewing of A Christmas Carol starring George C Scott (the classic version) and much wine and festive grub. Presents were exchanged around the Christmas Ladder - I couldn't bring myself to buy a tree only to throw it away in the New Year - so I had decorated the bamboo ladder that I shipped from Hong Kong in the Summer, and put all the spare baubles in bowls around the house. Before I had the idea of the ladder I thought I would just decorate the furniture, and started hanging decorations everywhere. I am sure that sometime in June I will find a stripy-stockinged reindeer hanging off a piece of furniture I had otherwise forgotten about!
Connie and John left on the 27th after a Boxing Day trip to Servigliano to see the ice rink and the living nativity in Sarnano, and a wonderful meal at thealways fabulous Restaurant Duilia in Snat'Angelo in Pontano. This little village is Englishville and a lot of the people I know here are put off from going there as a result, but the place is amazing overlooking the whole valley from mthe top of the old castle walls (circa 10th century) and with Pappardelle con Cinghiale (wild boar) that makes my mouth water just typing it!
The journey to the station in Ancona for Connie and John's train was a fast one - gathering pace at the end as we flew along the A14 counting the minutes until the train left. That we made the train in the end was thanks to the rally-like driving, the Smart ForFour that I was given byt the hire car company but which is actually very nippy, and thanks also to the brilliant autostrada - you may have to pay for it, but the road is straight, the tarmac good - well worth it!
Yesterday I hit the stores with Irene, a friend from San Cristoforo, near Manadola, and in the evening we hit the ice rink then went for Raclette at her house - it really feelslike Christmas other than the fact that my family aren't here.
Tomorrow I am doing the 4 hour drive to Rome to spend the New Year with some friends from Hong Kong at their house on the Lago di Bracciano, now famous thanks to mr and mrs tom cruise.
More in the New Year, but until than, Buon Anno a Tutti and all good wishes for 2007.

And the news is… there is no news

A strange sight on RAI’s TG1 tonight.
I tuned in for the news at 8pm – after L’Eredita – a terrible yet strangely addictive game show that ends with a contestant who has to choose 1 word per pair from 5 pairs. For each wrong answer, the amount of money they stand to win is cut in half. Once there are 5 words available, the contestant has to write a word that links them all together.
I have never seen anyone win anything on the show.
So I knew tonight was special, as the contestant won E50,000. Very strange.
Then the news started, and the usual anchor was nowhere in sight.
The first item on the news was…. That the journalists are on strike. The stand-in anchor proceeded to read the statement from the editor – in which it was made clear that the journalists were standing to lose a portion of their salary and their pension too, “in an incomprehensible manner”.
Then we had a few headlines, read from paper sheets (I presume the teleprompter was likewise not in work) and no pictures.
The subjects covered included Berlusconi and Prodi – Berlusconi always seems to get first billing still now – a few words on Palestine and the murders in Suffolk, then a few more words on the strike and the journalists.
Then the next game show started.
Being a Hong Konger, strikes are not a common experience for me, but in Italy, there seems to be a surfeit of industrial action. The bus drivers have been striking regularly in Trieste since I arrived – at least 5 times since September.
Luckily, Massimo now takes me to school, and he doesn’t strike!

When the bora blows

Finally, the bora has arrived (although the Triestines tell me it is still speeding up). It is really cold when it blows, and the rain is washing down too. Overall, we have not had a bad run - the winter so far has been far better than expected, and the guys at the meteo (for some reason often in uniform on Italian telly) say it wont last.
I hope this is true as I have decided to drive down to Marche on Thursday as I will take some Christmas goodies from here for Christmas.
I am also trying to track down Giorgio, my geometra, regarding the work that is being done (I hope) on the apartment in Sarnano at the moment. They are supposed to have done the stairs internally before Christmas, when Connie and John will arrive from Hong Kong. I have heard nothing from Giorgio - and sometimes with Giorgio no news is bad news! I have now sent him an email in Italian to try to get some news...

Hitting the town again

The Masters in Tourism and Leisure finishes for Christmas today so they are heading out for their Christmas party. Some of the MBAers are meeting up with them later, some not, but either way there is a meeting at Bar Stella near Piazza Unita at 10pm. I imagine we will hit the bars for a while and may even do some dancing...
Mandracchio is our local nightclub and it is about as cheesy as discos get. I have been a few times so far, with my friend Walter who is irresistible to many Triestine ladies, so is always fun to be out with!
Mandracchio is a perfect example of Italian bureaucracy.
Situated in the corner of Piazza Unita, it is easy to spot the club. There is a pig pen for the smokers outside – no smoking inside in Italy anymore, so its always occupied – and there are 2 bouncers on the door.
Although these are bouncers in the loosest sense of the word, they are not very discerning as far as I can see. If you are daft enough to want to go in, you can.
You queue up, and get a ticket from the boys in black as you pass them.
This says “Drink” – which is an instruction, not a suggestion.
Then you are in!
Down the stairs to the coat check – an obligatory service in this part of Europe where the temperature inside the clubs is approaching 33 degrees and outside its currently 8 degrees at night (and falling).
At Mandracchio, it’s Euros 1.50 to leave your coat, for which you get another ticket.
You are then able to hit the dance floor or go for a ‘giro’ – a prowl around the place looking for likely candidates to dance with. The music is Europop at its corniest, but the great thing is that everybody dances.
This process continues in rotation (giro, dance, dance, giro) until it is almost time to leave.
At which point Walter tears himself away from the ladies and we go to get a drink.
The drinks are 7 Euros, whether you ask for a coke (Walter) or a vodka and orange (me).
And you have to hand in the “Drink” ticket.
The drinks arrive along with another ticket.
“Exit”
Again, we take this as an instruction, not a suggestion.
So out past the guardaroba (hand in other ticket, get coat) then up the stairs to the bouncers.
Who take the Exit ticket, then we can leave.
In other parts of the world, they just charge you a cover charge to get into the disco. I think it can only be here in Italy that hitting a nightclub involves 3 official documents and 5 official transactions.

Last Exam Before Christmas

Finally, we are done with exams before Christmas. Yesterday was Supply Chain Management - a strange multiple guess exam that everyone thought was easy, but which probably means few of us have passed!
We went out for an end of exam drink in the evening, but a combination of the cold weather and the tiredness meant that it was a quiet night with no-one on top form. It is definitely time for the Christmas holidays - we all need a break.

Winter Wonderland

Its getting really cold at night now - the thermometer said 8 degrees last night, but it felt colder to me! Vlasta and I went for a walk after the exams in Piazza Unita and around the Christmas market so I finally managed to take some photos of the trees. It is gorgeous at night and there is Mozart playing at the same time. It feels very European - a bit like a film set! I am waiting for people to start waltzing around the square.

Finance on the Up

Unbelievable news - a B in finance. Huge thanks to Luca, to Hakan and to Joyce who helped me enormously. I am not going to change my career direction, but I am delighted with the result! Another exam tomorrow - supply chain management - but we are celebrating on tomorrow night!

Christmas Party

We are planning a Christmas dinner. This will be next Tuesday at a restaurant called La Tecia, downtown in Trieste. For 20 Euros a head we have starters and pasta, wine, water and coffee. We will run a Secret Santa and generally get into the Christmas spirit - long overdue.
The city is looking beautiful, especially Piazza Unita which is full of Christmas trees, and white lights and has classical music playing. There is also an iceskating rink that I have not hit yet, but I plan to before I leave for Marche. Look out for pictures!

Busy Days

An apology to regular readers, it has been absolutely hectic, and I have not had time to write so much. I have been doing exam after exam, the MBA game has really been played at maximum capacity! We are all pretty tired and for a while the cracks were starting to show. But our last exam before Christmas is tomorrow and after that we are counting down to the holidays.
I am not sure what to put about what I have been up to since I last wrote - winetasting in Cividale and the UK trip seem a long time ago now!
There was the problem of the finance exam (3 hours of number crunching, and I am not sure it was any more successful than last time, although I did manage to get an A in my resit which is great!). We will get the results tomorrow.
We also did a strategy presentation on insurance. I have attached a pic of the team before the presentation.

We will stop working together as a group after Christmas and we are a little sad about it - we are a good group and have very complementary abilities and personalities. But the whole class is great really, so although there will be some upheaval after Christmas with the new groups it shouldn't be too bad.
We have also had a marketing exam - a multiple guess affair and a bit of a collaborative effort between the class - its the Italian style of examinations and a big change for me! Very collegiate!
We also went to the alumni dinner for ex MIB students. This was at a German restaurant downtown (of which there are many - a throwback to the Austrian routes of Trieste). The pic shows the dinner - more pork and sauerkraut than I have ever seen on one plate. I didn't make much of a dent in it if I am honest!

We did manage to go out dancing afterwards, at a bar called the Colonial Cafe, near Piazza Unita in the centre of town. Its Trieste's answer to the Far East - with Buddha statues and raffia fans on the walls. But the people and the music are pure Italian! It was a lot of fun, and I think will be the first visit of many when we are less busy....
I have also finally managed to get my hair cut - last weekend in Slovenia with Vlasta. It seemed strange going abroad for a haircut, but is a big improvement! We had a lovely relaxed girly weekend, not too much studying, but we are all tired and cant keep going on forever at the same rhythmn.
On Sunday we headed back to Trieste, and I spent the afternoon at a degustzione (wine tasting) with Ciccio and Massimo. Massimo knows a lot about wine, and Ciccio and I were avid students! It was a great afternoon and the setting was gorgeous, in the Stazione Maritima congress centre with a view of the sea and the bay. As the sun set we went out on the balcony with our wine. Fabulous and a nice way to end a relaxing weekend, even if we felt a bit guilty about the lack of studying going on.
Yesterday we went on our first visit to a company - hitting both Electrolux and ACC in Pordenone, about an hour away from here. I have attached a pic of me and Lovro from Slovenia outside the factory. After an hour inside we were pretty happy to be back in the sunshine - it is a tough life for factory workers - and a mention must go to the lady who was sitting alone checking the paint job on washing machine bodies one by one for 8 hours at a time. A real incentive to keep up the studying.

Weekend in London

Last weekend I went to London to celebrate my Grandad's birthday with my family. This is the first time that I have done a run to the UK from Trieste, and it was surprisingly easy - and cheap!
I took the 0630 Eurostar to Venezia Mestre, then the bus to the Marco Polo airport. By 9am I was checked in to my Easyjet flight and ready to go.
The journey back was also simple, although I got back to the apartment at about 2am, so Monday seemed like a long day.
The great thing about the trip (other than catching up with my family) of course! was that the flight was only 60 Euros!

Enoteca Nanut

Last night was a quick aperitivi session for Daniele's birthday. I wasn't intending to go originally as there is such a lot of studying to do right now, but having had the finance resit (easier this time I think - we will see) I decided to have a night off. Like all good aperitivi it metamorphasised into a much longer session than we intended. In a radical break with tradition, we moved away from our normal La Portizza / Bar Marino routine to a small enoteca named Nanut, just around the corner from the market where I buy my fruit in the mornings.

Nanut, curiously enough, is also the name of the Dean of our school with whom we had a meeting over drinks and doughnuts today. Italy tends to be pretty formal so this kind of informal chat was a new thing for the school and for a lot of the students too, but it went well and I think we will do it again.

But Enoteca Nanut was lovely - a really wide selection of wines and a gorgeous setting with stone walls and a big wooden bar. Massimo - in the front of the picture above - is our resident wine expert and picked a fabulous red from Sardegna for us to enjoy. In usual Trieste style we got lots of free nibbles, including hams and cheeses to mop up the vino - this is a necessity as we rarely have time to eat dinner these days as we are at school til late.

An All Time TV Low

Wednesday night was an all-time TV low. Il Megliore Miss Italia was a quiz show that pitted the 'brains' of the different Miss Italias throughout the last 20 years against each other. Truly appalling TV, yet strangely addictive the night before a finance exam!

Group shot

Its really very busy here this week. I have been doing a presentation on Red Bull, one on Fabtek (seaarch online for the Harvard Business School case if you are interested, its very dry) and working on my insurance presentation for strategy. All in all there is a lot going on, and not a lot of time. I did get a good result in the strategy exam last week - when I managed to get an A. But whilst on the subject of exams the Time Value of Money resit is tomorrow, following 4 hours of lectures on Finance and a presentation from L'Oreal who are running an MBA competition called the e-strat challenge.
So with all that, there is not a lot of time to write on this blog!
Instead, I am attaching a group shot of me with some of my colleagues at the wine tasting trip on Saturday.

Tocai No More

An interesting trip to the vineyards near Cividale on Saturday. It transpires that the famous local Tocai wine is now Tocai no more (or at least from April 1st 2007). There are 2 types of Tocai on the market at the moment – the Hungarian version - a sweet wine and the version from Friuli – AKA Tocai Fruilano. The European Union has ruled that this latter version is to lose the name Tocai from April, at which point it will become simply Friulano – from the Friuli region. Obviously this presents a marketing challenge for the producers, who historically are fiercely competitive with each other and have not been working as a region – this is now changing. In the name of research, I have been trying the Tocai before it becomes obsolete to see if it is worth drinking. So far so good – give it a try before it disappears!
The case of Tocai also highlighted another interesting point. My Italian friends struggle with their use of the letter ‘h’. A little like Cockney people, the Italians add ‘h’s where there are none, and don’t use them when they should. Which made our Tocai discussions an interesting linguistic challenge as they were angry at Hungary…
The picture was taken at the end of the day, after a lot of wine tasting, just after a rousing rendition of a Beatles medley!

Call me Doctor....

It turns out that in Italy you can take the title Doctor as soon as you have a university degree. I have always harboured a secret desire to have the title Doctor. Now I can do it without the inconvenience of having to do a PhD!

Clementini

I am absolutely addicted to clementines. I have been buying them on the market near the Canale Grande in the morning, and bringing them to school, where I eat them like sweets!
It is different from HK here, as in HK you can get the same fruit more or less all year around. Here the seasons are much more noticeable - when things are in season, they are glorious and omnipresent - when it is getting to the end of the season, they look pretty sad. But right now, the clementines are fabulous, and the whole class is munching through kilos of them every week. A bag of about 30 of them is about Euro 1.60 so they are suitable for a student budget too!

Hard at work

Its been a busy few days, and getting busier. I am writing this at 1915 Trieste time, and many of us are still at school and anticipating being here for a while. We are drowning under the weight of group assignments, reading, revision and so on - and that is before we try and figure out the mundane bits - washing, ironing, shopping and so on!
The weekend did provide a little chance to let off some steam though as there was a party for 5 of the guys from my class who combined their Euros to organise a joint birthday party.

We had a great time, and it was much needed after the building pressure at school. The picture is of us at Luca, Alessandro and Massimiliano's house before we went out.
It was not all play this weekend though, I spent 5 hours yesterday studying finance with Luca from my class. He understands the subject well, and in the end, I think I did too. I am planning to get some more practice in before tomorrow if I can.
Our major project at the moment is a strategic analysis of an industry and a company. Hakan from my working group selected the industries for us, and I am relatively happy to be working on the insurance sector - having worked for Eagle Star (now Zurich); New York Life Insurance and Ace Insurance, I know quite a bit about the industry and its challenges and opportunities - at least in Asia Pacific. My individual company to analyse is Generali, based here in Trieste, so it is a good chance to practice my Italian too as I read through the presentations of the company to find out what they are doing. We are supposed to make recommendations about future direction and business opportunities - it is a bit like Free Of Charge consultancy I guess, but if the recommendations are good enough we might be able to do something with it to earn some cash! I am trying to cultivate links at Generali, just in case....

Studiamo Insieme

We have formed a study group for strategy. It has a limited but varied number of participants, but has been great as we ploughed through 200 odd slides and about 400 pages of a book. It's interesting stuff, but pretty dry and easier if you can add examples, Or just some fun chat in between matrixes.
Tonight will be the third night in a row that we have met. The exam is tomorrow. Let's hope it makes a difference to the result.

Excuse me, but I can't get through

At least this is how I imagine the dialogue went this morning when my busdriver left the bus (motor running) in the middle of a junction to grab the attention of the policeman who was controlling the traffic near the turning in Piazza Goldoni.
Whatever he said it worked.
The policeman in question left his post.
And came to clear a path for the bus.
I hope to get the same driver tomorrow morning! or the same policeman...

Social Sarnano

One of my friends on the course asked what I did in Sarnano – didn’t I get bored in a place as sleepy as Le Marche?

The answer this week is certainly no! It’s been a whirlwind few days and I have barely managed to fit in everything that I had planned – let alone time to be bored. I have eaten 2 delicious meals, one at Simonetta and Fabiano’s house where I tested out my newly improved Italian on them and their friends, and the other at Chris and Irene’s where we sampled Irene’s rendering of the local bacala.

On the menu at Simonetta’s house was carbonara pasta. Its one of those dishes that sounds easy, and I suspect is horribly difficult! For secondo we had cold meats and bread – thin slices of proscuitto crudo, 2 types of salami and

The two highlights of the trip home were a trip to the shoe mecca of Cassetta D’Ete – home of the Tods factory – where I treated myself to my annual to-me-from-me present of some boots for the winter. Not at the Tods factory – now that I am no longer working Euros 200 for a pair of boots – even if this is heavily discounted from the normal retail price – seems exorbitant! But I got a good bargain and like all addicted shoppers, am wearing my new purchase whilst typing this on the train!

The other highlight was the Diamanti a Tavola (Diamonds on the Table) festival in Amandola. All the small towns in the region have these autumn tastes festivals and the Amadola one didn’t disappoint with truffles – both white and black – local wine and cheese and mountains of salami and local ham. The festivals are always done well – and it is jolly to see all the locals strolling around and shopping.

The rude awakening this week was the onset of winter. It was 19 degrees when I left Trieste – no complaints – but I noticed on arrival in Marche that it was appreciably colder. That night there was a hard frost and by Thursday the temperature had fallen to zero in the day too. Then the snow started on the mountains and today as I left the wind was so strong I was worried about the olive tree in my garden. Especially as one of Augustino’s flower pots took off from the roof above me and smashed on the ground – I was delighted that I was not in the garden at the time!

Its also been a bit of a mad scramble as it appears as if the internal staircase that I have been waiting years for is going to be started this week. I am not entirely sure that I know how the finished article will look, and I am working on suspending my disbelief that the stairs will actually ever happen – it has been so long coming that I am not entirely convinced! But nevertheless, I have once again cleared out the downstairs room in the flat, and covered the furniture. So we’ll see.

Actually, it wouldn’t surprise me if this time there was progress on the stairs. And there is a litany of reasons:-
1. Its winter and the builders want inside work
2. Now that all my things have arrived from Hong Kong this is the time of maximum inconvenience for me
3. I have friends coming for Christmas – so predict unfinished work and HUGE amounts of mess
4. The price has gone up so much on this work that its now worth their while getting out of bed to do it!

I have attached a picture of the lounge before the whole in the roof, so I can remember what it used to be like in case anything goes wrong.

Ciao Bellisima!

“Come va? Tutto bene? Un cappuccino?”
Thursday morning – market day in Sarnano and this is the greeting I get when I go for a cappuccino to my favourite coffee shop. Its not just the warmth of the greeting that makes the difference. The cappuccinos in this shop are the best in Sarnano – and I have done a lot of market research.
The proprietor of the bar spent some time as a barista in Rome, where the discerning coffee drinkers vote with their feet. If the cappuccino isn’t good the business closes.
So Sarnano has profited from this master in his field returning to his routes. And I have profited from my market research.
The owner of the bar once made a small gesture that will ensure that his bar is my preferred coffee locale in town for all time. I was with Mum who can only drink freshly squeezed orange juice. We ordered, but the bar was out of oranges, so we cancelled the order and stuck with coffee. The next thing we saw was the proprietor leaving the bar unmanned as he dashed across the road to buy oranges from the greengrocers, so that he could meet our request.
And every time I come back to Sarnano, and I go for a coffee, he greets me in the same way “Ciao Bellisima!...” then makes me my regular drink.
All in all it makes for a heck of a homecoming! It takes a long time to get to Sarnano from Trieste – about 6 ½ hours on the train then a drive from Ancona – and last night when I arrived I was exhausted. But being at home, with my things around me, has a remedial effect – I soon forget my tiredness.
And coming the night before the market is a great idea. I have had a stroll around today and seen many people who have all welcomed me back.
And other than the social side, I have also managed to do some shopping – buying a roast chicken at the porchetta van, fagiolini (small beans) and fennel at one greengrocers van, and clementini at another, and some fresh pasta from the best pasta place in town, in the square. I bought some pastries at the bakers, for Chris and Irene who popped round for a coffee and a chat helped me consume them.
It is really starting to feel homely here, and the greetings from the folk of Sarnano make all the difference.
And the Ciao Bellisima is an added bonus!

Liquidity

I am pretty solvent as students go, mainly long-term liabilities, and not too much short-term debt. (Spot the A/B accounting student!)
So I was a little alarmed when my Bancomat card – our cashpoint in Italy – stopped paying out.
LA CARTA E PRIVA DISPONIBILITA the machine helpfully pointed out. (The card is not available). No clue as to why.
This morning however, I have found the answer.
Doing some long overdue filing at home I came across that bit of paper that comes with bankcards that no-one ever reads. (Or at least, I never read).
It helpfully tells me in miniscule print that I am limited to taking out Euros 1000 a month, regardless of the amount of money actually in the account.
Which I suppose is a good thing, a sort of forced fiscal responsibility.
But it wasn’t that helpful when I needed to eat on October 29th.
Like so many things here, now that I have found out, I know and I can deal with it accordingly. But up until then, ignorance can be far from bliss.

Things are getting better

An A/B for accounting and a B in Economics! There is a chance that I might pass this MBA after all!
I would write more but I am going out for a celebratory / commiseratory drink with my classmates. And tomorrow I am off to Marche for a 5 day break at home.
To garden, to cook, to relax, and to study for the finance resits of course!

E is for Resit

Oh Dear.
I have just received my first exam result.
And I failed.
Not a nice feeling.
There do seem to be a swathe of us that have failed though, so we are all headed for a resit.
The exam was Statistics and Applied Mathematics, the time value of money.
So don't be asking me to invest any cash for you!
The good news is that there is a nice group of people who are all in the same boat as me. So we will have some group study sessions and try to get through it the second time around.
And my friend Luca, who wants to know more about strategy, is going to trade me some finance lessons for some strategy ones. I hope I can help him as much as I am sure he is going to help me!

Beethoven and Ballet on a Budget

When I was telling friends at home that I was moving to Italy, many of them mentioned the culture that’s so easily accessible in Europe. Other than admiring the architecture here, and the natural beauty in Slovenia, my cultural consumption has been fairly minimal so far. I don’t count the Italian TV as a real cultural experience!
All this has changed this weekend, as I have lined up a double bubble of cultural spectacles.
Today I am going to see the Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo – the male ballet troupe – the members of which the guide points out wear shoes sized 42 and tutus size 50. They are performing scenes from Swan Lake amongst other things, and it should be a good show.
The good news is that, even though the tickets are almost sold out, I have been able to profit from the Abbonemente delle Stelle that I bought a few weeks ago from my school – without really knowing what it was if I am honest! This is – I have now found out - a pass for Euros 48 than entitles me to 12 stars that can be exchanged throughout the year for tickets to shows at the il Rossetti theatre. So the tickets for tonight are 2 stars – or the equivalent of 8 Euros, compared to 35 Euros at the regular price.
Last night, after a heavy day inside, cleaning, washing, ironing, cooking and studying strategy, I was desperate for some fresh air. So I pulled on a track suit and went for a walk. Heading into the Piazza della Borsa, I saw a sign that advertised a Beethoven concert in the Guiseppe Verdi theatre with last minute tickets available for 17 Euros.
A few weeks ago Mum and Dad sent me an article from the Times that said that Beethoven improves studying ability. So I decided to trade in the reading of the next chapter of my strategy book in favour of longterm studying gains and joined the queue and bought a ticket.
It was a fantastic concert, and the enthusiasm of the orchestra was matched only by that of the conductor who was jumping so high in the air I thought he was either going to fall off his platform, or lose his skull cap!
I stood out a mile in the theatre, being one of only a handful of theatergoers under the age of 80 – and certainly the only one not in stilettos and jewels galore. But it was a great concert and I will be on the lookout for other such bargains in the future.

Haiiiiieieeeeeeeyaahhhhhhh!

(Kick, Left, Right, Guard up, Pause, Turn and Kick)
Jump a bit and do it again….

OK, that might be a bit of an exaggeration. It was, after all, only my first lesson of kickboxing. But there was jumping and kicking involved!

I was itching to get my mitts (bandaged with my friend Giulia’s spare set of these essential hand protectors) on a bag or something that I could actually punch, but instead I was with the beginners - we were close to shadow boxing and touching with our legs. I was paired up with a very tall girl called Paola – also very thin – so I was a little wary of overdoing the ‘touches’!

Giulia meanwhile was sparring happily with a guy at the other end of the gym. Now that I have seen how well she kicks, she might be deployed for any troublesome moments in our group projects!

The Italian lesson continued during the lesson. I forget the words for ‘drop and give me 10 push ups’ but I am sure it won’t take me long to remember – I plan to go again.

Maybe boxing gloves and shin guards will be on my Christmas list!

Dry bread

Italian meals start with dry bread. This is never (repeat, NEVER) eaten dunked in olive oil – or even worse – olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I remember one day in Senigallia (famous for its golden sands – the velvet beach) when a waiter in the City Hotel told me with horror that it was considered very kitsch to eat bread with oil and vinegar.
No, bread is eaten dry and at the beginning of the meal..
Dry bread can be as deathly dull as it sounds. But here in Trieste the bread is much better than that in Marche. For a start, it has salt in it so it tastes of something. And is softer. Much of the bread is still white, but it is also possible to get a type of brown bread with a yummy caraway flavour.
The good thing about the bread being served dry however is that it is almost a carte blanche (carta bianca?) to dunk in whatever yummy sauce is languishing on the plate.
Monday night the sauce was butter and sage.
And it actually made cold olive oil and a drop of vinegar seem a bit kitsch!

Intensive Italian

Italian lessons have started for those of us that need / want them. Valentina our teacher seems terrific - very clear and smiley too! We have an intensive course to start with - one and a half hours a day for 2 weeks. And after that a couple of lessons a week. We should be fluent by the end I hope!
It is a good chance for me to recap the basics of the language, and also kind of refreshing to be in a class where I can get most of the answers right.
At this pace I hope that I can learn enough to stay and work if I want to when this is all over.
Or at least chat more when I am out and about!

Saturday in Slovenia

A "family" outing today to Slovenia. We finally got going at about 1130 from school and started our trip in Izola with a coffee break - all the non-Italians happily adapting to local practices! Then we moved onto Piran, a town on the coast, established by Venetians. It's a lovely place, very colourful and the sea is beautifully clean. A few brave souls were swimming but it was way too cold for that! Slovenians must be built of stronger stuff than expat brats from Hong Kong!
We stopped for a lovely long lunch on the waterfront, sampling some of the local seafood - and the local wine too - then a wander along the waterfront to a viewpoint and back before piling back in the cars to Ljubljana.
Logistics got a bit complicated after that and we scattered to the winds for a while. But we did get back together at Bacchus Bar - the location for Slovenia's bar reality show - currently filming - which is, as a result, full to bursting. The bouncers are apparantly notorious for not letting peopple in, but we all made the grade.
The numbers dwindled as the night went on, but a hard core group of 7 of us made it to Global - the most famous disco in Ljubljana. The music was hilarious - I honestly don't think I have ever danced to Ghostbusters before!! - but we had a ball and danced til 5 when they kicked us out.
One thing I noticed about the nightlife in Ljubljana is that it is very international. I met 2 large groups of drunken Englishmen (the Sleazyjet phenomenon); 2 Australians, some Slovenians and a guy from Udine who is a friend of Luca and Massimo on my course that I had met previously in the Piazza Unita in Trieste! It was a terrific night, and just what the doctor ordered after the previous week.

Che bella giornata!

Sunday we woke to brilliant sunshine. The postponed trip from the day before to the Postjama Jama was once again postponed as we needed to be outside to make the most of the glorious weather. Its a good job that the sun was shining because there were a few jaded people after the night before.
At 11 our flotilla of cars left Ljubljana and headed for Bled. At Easter, when I was there with Mum and Dad i was totally underwhelmed - partly due to the busloads of German pensioners that were swamping the place.
This time there were fewer people, and with the leaves turning red and gold, and the last of the summer sunshine the lake looked stupendous.

We jumped into row boats and paddled out to the island in the lake where there is a church that has a bell that you can ring 3 times for luck. I thought that it might be more lucky for me to sit outside and drink a bitter lemon in the sunshine. So that's what I did.
We rowed back with Hakan at the helm taking a slightly indirect route to the shore. The old couple in charge of the boats were in hysterics as we tried to navigate in and park the boat!
It was a slow day, on true Sunday pace. Lunch was another lengthy affair and an education - again from Chris from Kansas, who has lived in Trieste for a long time and is my principle tour advisor for the region - with my first try of Ljubljanska - basically pork cordon bleu - YUM!
There was food left over, giving me another opportunity to learn. This time that there are no doggy bags in Slovenia. I asked why not and Vlasta told me it was because there are dogs instead!

What a week!

Its been another busy week. The 3 exams on Wednesday - well - at least they are over with now! Applied maths and statistics was pretty horrendous, and swiftly followed by economics in which I became verbose through lack of any concrete ideas! Accounting peversely was the easiest of the 3 as it was really about the application of ratios and not having to learn things by rote. It seems as though everyone has different responses, but as the response seems to be 'it depends' for many questions then maybe thats no bad thing.
The pic shows Chris and Giulia from my working group at Massimo's house after the exams - smiles all round!
It is turning cold very quickly now. And officially the heating cannot be turned on prior to November 1st. This is a law that I have officially not heard and I am toasty at home in via torrebianca.
This weekend, to recover from the exams, we are going to Slovenia. This will be our first weekend outing en masse - expect pictures on Monday!

Italian TV

Any visitor or new resident of Italy talks about the abysmal state of the TV here. I realized this on a very early trip to Italy, before I bought my house, when Mum and I spent a week watching “Passaparola” over dinner at our agriturismo.
I might watch more of the TV than most, as I am resisting SKY so that I can continue to improve my Italian.
This means indulging in the delights of the Italian box.
Apparently things were a lot worse before Berlusconi and his Mediaset revolution.
This seems a little hard to believe.
The main staple of prime time telly is the game show.
This consists of one host.
Typically male, bespectacled and orange from fake tan.
One contestant.
Typically female, curvy and orange from fake tan. We see a lot of her teeth and other assets through the many close-ups.
Or it is someone older. Of whom we see a lot less.
Then there are the “assistants”.
These can be male (very orange from fake tan – practically full-on Jaffa) and with glow in the dark white teeth, very buff.
But more often they are female.
And so orange that the clementines in my fruit bowl get jealous.
And wearing bikinis.
Or something equally skimpy.
These assistants have absolutely no plot motivation at all in the scheme of things. They are like the gratuitous chest shot in a duff B-Movie from the States.
At a specified break in programming, a naff pop song comes on such as “Keep it Funky:.
Cue the girls.
On they come
Wiggle Wiggle
(Many close ups)
Off they go
Kill the music
On with the show.
So, thank you, Berlusconi. You may not be helping my Italian much, but you give me a great excuse to hit the books.

There are worse places to study economics

This weekend has been full on studying. With the exams on Wednesday, the whole group has been hitting the books hard.
I have indulged my preference for economics by studying that most of the weekend, with the occasional foray into the Time Value of Money (an excuse to play with my new Financial Calculator) and accounting ratios.
On Saturday afternoon Walter texted me to see if I wanted to meet him to study near to the water in Barcola as the sun was shining. It didn’t take me long to say yes!
Barcola is the closest that Trieste comes to the beach. It’s essentially a boardwalk next to the Adriatic, which in the summer is jam-packed with towels and sunbathing Triestines.
At this time of year however, there is me and Walter with our towels and many books, one half naked girl catching the last of the sun in only her bikini bottoms (braver than me on so many levels!), and many joggers, families, friends and grannies out for a stroll.
We contended with the wind on Saturday – which was gusting strongly – but I hear it was only a 3/10 on the Bora stakes – I am getting more and more worried about this wind! – but on Sunday afternoon on our return visit, the wind had calmed down, and we were able to zip through most of the economics problems. We did have to retire to a bar (read coffee shop) to finish the last 2 chapters when the cold got too much for me.

The next week at MIB

The pressure is definitely building here.
We have spent the last 2 days studying in groups until the evening - trying to get to grips with balance sheets and their analysis, statistical variations and the time value of money. (This latter proved difficult to do as I had managed to turn off the equals sign on my new financial calculator and so could not use it for anything. I have since poured over the book and we are now back in business, but it made for a stressful morning yesterday!)
Next week there are full day lectures on Strategy (a new topic for us and FINALLY one that I am already familiar with. Porter of 5 Forces fame feels like an old friend compared to some of the stuff we have been doing!) on Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday night we have a first meeting with our new Italian teacher, to assess the level of the class. Wednesday there are the 3 exams, Statistics and Mathematics first, Economics between coffee and lunch and finishing with accounting after lunch. Wednesday night we have a football game then are out on the town celebrating the end of the exams.
Thursday we have another new subject - International Analysis and Politics - supposedly the light relief in the calendar over the next few months. I have a lunch appointment with a girl from another course who is doing a project connected with Hong Kong and needs to know about the logistics. Then I have a meeting with the personal development team in the afternoon and volleyball in the evening.
Friday we are back in the wonderful world of statistics and applied mathematics.
When we don't have classes, we are all studying - either individually or in groups - and then going home to study some more. Some of my colleagues are hitting the books until gone 2am, but not me - maybe I am getting old but I feel like I need sleep more than that. My economics lecturer says this is a cost benefit situation (like everything else.) At which point, I should really get back to the books.
It's going to be a long weekend, and one, I suspect, punctuated by text messages of varying levels of panic from my compatriots here.
And from me to them.

My Favourite Time of Day

Trieste is a lot of fun in the evening when there are many restaurants and bars to go to, and lots of people around. But my favourite time of the day is when I go for a run in the early morning when I have the place almost to myself.
I leave the flat at around 630, and walk down to the waterfront (about 2 blocks.) These days with winter approaching, its still dark at that time.
I start running from the moment I get to the sea wall.
There are few people around at that time of the morning, but those that are are all characters!
I normally pass 2 or 3 opportunistic fishermen on one of the moorings near the Piazza Unita. I have no idea what they are fishing for as they never seem to catch anything and I haven't seen any containers for fish. But I think my lack of understanding is only fair, as they clearly have no idea what I am doing either from the looks I get with the Buongiornos! The Piazza looks amazing at this time of day. Completely empty except for the pigeons and the sea gulls, and with all the light still blazing as the sun slowly rises and the sky gradually lightens behind the main buildings in the square.
The next person I pass, near to the converted fish market that is currently housing the Andy Warhol exhibition is the Cat Lady. Almost every Italian city seems to have vast numbers of wild cats and Trieste is no exception. And where there are cats there tends to be at least one cat lady who feeds them all with scraps from a bag.
On the left I then pass some of the more functional areas of Trieste. Occasionally I see crew from the boats heading into or out of one of the 1 star hostels 'round the back of the square.
On the right there is the sea, with only the occasional ship on the horizon. It always looks perfectly flat at this time of day, and sometimes you can see the fish in the water.
At the AquaMarina - the last point on the outbound leg of the run I occasionally see an old man walking. He always encourages me to carry on running, which is probably a good thing at this point - although was a little frustrating when I had pulled a muscle and couldn't run!
The return journey often includes other people - a father and son from the army wearing their uniforms, and a few dog walkers. Then there are the 2 caribinieri who stand outside the building next to the Grand Canal, the Chinese cheap-shop owners unpacking boxes of tatt from China, and the small huddle of business men who linger outside the next door building to me, smoking cigarettes before they have to start their day in the office.
I return home at 730 - just in time to power up the coffee machine and get going to MIB.
I still hate it every time the alarm goes off, but the early mornings are a magical time, and make a day of statistics almost bearable.

Book Early For Christmas

My Christmas holiday dates have just been announced!
I am off from December 21st - January 7th 2007.
And we have another 5 days off in November - the 1st - 5th.
Connie and John are already coming from HK for Christmas, but there is still room at the inn, so if you are in the neighbourhood and fancy escaping the annual turkey (I can never find it in Sarnano!) then do come and see me.

Exams approaching

The 18th (1 week today) will be a day to forget for all of us on the MBA.
We have exams. All 3 subjects studied so far on the same day.
Economics and Statistics and Applied Mathematics in the morning.
Accounting in the afternoon.
Accounting and Stats and Maths are open book. Not a lot of help. You have the information (a lot) but it is the application of the information that matters.
Economics is closed book.
The studying has picked up a pace.
The going out has done the opposite.
But I am managing to keep up with the sport. I still run in the mornings when I can, and tomorrow night we are hitting the local Slovenian volleyball courts for a run around.
After the exams things should improve again on the social front. We are going on a class mini break to Slovenia on the weekend of the 21st of October. We are travellling around a bit and staying overnight in Ljubljana in a youth hostel that used to be a prison. We will then head back on the Sunday to Trieste. The attached photo is from my last visit to Ljubljana - at Easter. This time though, we will have the benefit of local knowledge so will see the sights only Slovenes otherwise see!

Messenger

I have finally capitulated and subscribed to MSN Messenger.
This has revolutionalised my student life - and introduced me to a whole new form of communication I knew nothing about previously. It's fantastic to be able to talk to people - and has helped me to check information in lectures with people who actually understand the data crunching on the other side of the room.
And to plan social activities and shopping trips.
I have learnt pretty quickly though that you need to turn it to busy when you are otherwise occupied. Otherwise just as you are getting to the sticky point, grappling with the finer details of the marginal principle and coefficient correlation, someone can send you a message.
It is also a pretty clear indicator of how lectures are progressing. If the lecturer is losing us, MSN is the biggest signal. The names of my classmates pop up on the screen one after another. "Massimilliano has just signed in." "Hakan has just signed in." "Angie...." you get the picture.

Birthday Celebrations

I had a fabulous birthday on Sunday. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and the Barcolana was a lot of fun. Lucy made me breakfast and we then went out for coffee by the canal. It was fabulously sunny and afer a while we wandered down to the waterfront just in time to see the winning boat, sponsored by Alfa Romeo, coming in. We toasted their success with a glass of local prosecco, then Lucy had to head off back to the UK. I spent the afternoon wandering around the stalls that had been put up all along the waterfront for the Barcolana.
In the evening some of my colleagues from the course came into the town to meet me for a little while, then Kristina, Lovro and Vlasta (the Slovenian contingent!) and Massimo - from Udine, who now lives in via Milano just around the corner from me, came back for some cake that Lucy had provided from the UK - good old M&S!
All in all it was a lovely day - topped off by a huge bunch of flowers from my classmates on Monday morning!

Going Abroad for Lunch

On Saturday, Lucy and I went with Vlasta for lunch, To Slovenia! It was a cold day, but we ate at a lovely restaurant called Ruj (pronounced roo-ie) which is a type of plant that turns red in the autumn. You can just about see it in the back of this picture of Lucy and I at lunch. We are drinking a sparkling red wine made of the Terano grape that is prevalant in the Karst region of Slovenia. It is yummy - but a bit heavy for lunch time and we both struggled to stay awake as Vlasta drove us onto Stanjel - a UNESCO protected village, and Lipica - where we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the horses before they disappeared for their tea!

Beautiful Barcolana

Its even colder here now - below 20 in the days I think - and we are starting to get out the winter woolies. There is also a medium to strong Bora predicted for Sunday, but the sun is shining and the visibility is 'flawless' according to the Meteo office. (I hear that this makes a change from the weather in Hong Kong, which is horribly polluted by all accounts at the moment.)
Lucy, my sister is here, and we will go to see the big yacht race in the harbour on Sunday morning before she goes back to London. http://www.barcolana.it/inglese/index.asp will provide more information.
It is also the birthday of Ciccio (Francesco) one of the guys in the class. He has organised a big party on Saturday - it is the tradition here which does not bode well for Sunday when its my birthday!
I will post some pics of the boats at Barcolana on Monday.
Happy Mid Autumn Lantern Festival to all Hong Kongers!

Secondary School Stress

We were laughing last night about how the stresses in our lives have now changed. From being concerned about client demands, cash flow, new business, and international issues, the major concerns now are making it to class on time, whether or not we have finished our homework, and whether we are prepared for the exams ahead. It sometimes feels a little regressive - like we are back at secondary school!
That said, some of the topics are really interesting.
I have uncovered a secret about myself already - a well-hidden love of economics! I guess this isn't so strange as I have really enjoyed writing press releases and other materials for The Economist over the last year, but I never knew that I would enjoy the subject so much. Luca has a theory that it is pretty close to marketing, and that may be why I enjoy it. I think he might be onto something - compared to the other subjects we are studying right now, there are a lot less numbers in Economics. The lecturer is also very dynamic, and great at relating things back to the real world (even if there is a slightly-too-frequent detour to the oil prices every lesson).
I am not sure if this interest will extend beyond the exams (in about 2 weeks time) but at the moment, Economics lectures (about 8 hours a week) are a real pleasure.
Something that cannot be said for accounting.

Party postmortem

I have realised that I didn't write any thing about the party (mainly because John has reminded me that I didn't!)
It was a great night - and the cleaning up was not too terrible afterwards, Vlasta helped a great deal as she was crashing on my sofa for the night so she could come to the party too, Which is great, because she joined in the dancing too!
I had done extensive market research in the bars in Trieste to figure out which snacks to buy. The success of the research was measured by the amount that was left at the end of the night - just a few tired looking olives
Almost all of the class came and we had to move on at 11 when the party on the terrace was getting a little rowdy! This might have been a result of either a) the themed Baileys photos that Lovro was taking, b) the rum and cokes courtesy of Luca, Alessandro and Massimmiliano who brought the rum, or c) the critical mass of people piling onto the balcony.
We went out in town afterwards, to a bar near the Piazza Borsa which is becoming a regular haunt. Friday was a long day.

Turning chilly

The temperature seems to have dropped today, quite dramatically. This unfortunately has happened on the day that Mum and Dad are here in Trieste (currently they are in the mountains near Austria), and on the day that my gas at home has inexplicably stopped working. I have also caught my first cold of the winter (and hopefully one of the last) and didn't much relish the cold shower this morning. I will have to get onto Acegas and try to sort this out. Maybe there is a simple explanation. I wonder if I have missed a note from the company.
This brings me onto the situation with the post. There are a lovely bank of post boxes on the wall in the lobby of the building. And the postman, as in Hong Kong, is expected to deliver the post to each apartment's box. The only problem is that the door to the building is solid. And il postino doesn't have a key. So post sometimes takes 7 working days after reaching the building to be delivered to me. The poor guy has to wait for the day when there is someone in to open the door for him. So post can take anything from 4 days to 3 weeks to reach me.
http://www.turismo.fvg.it is a link to the local tourist authority so that you can see what the region has to offer, other than Sprits and accounting!

All present and correct

Great news - the boxes all arrived and after a weekend of a huge amount of work, the apartment is looking completely different! It is great to have my things from Hong Kong around - especially my shoes which I have missed madly! It is terrific to now have furniture in Marche - the place has been revolutionised by the arrival of such items as wardrobes, and side tables, and much improved by the influx of knick knacks and art from Asia. My next door neighbours all came round to have a look and although the place is far from finished (there is a huge amount of unpacking to do!) proclaimed it bellissimo! It will be great to be able to spend some time there at Christmas and enjoy the place a bit!
And if anyone is interested, I am now the owner of 2 toasters, 3 kettles and 3 hoovers, now all at different places in Italy. Expect a garage sale at some point!

Accounting Amazement

Our balance sheet for the group project balances! This is a MAJOR acheivement after 4 hours of work (although I think it has taken other groups MUCH longer) and we are delighted!
Now if the shipping would only arrive as scheduled tomorrow, all will be well.....

A tough day in Trieste

Its been a heck of a day today. I spent 3 hours on an accounting exercise last night (still not finished)
Today we had 4 hours of statistics and applied mathematics - an absolute killer. The lessons could have been in swahili for me! I realise that it is many many years since I studied math - and now I know why!! I spoke to the teacher in the break and the 2nd half was easier, and at a more reasonable pace.
After lunch (last night's leftovers, brought in a tupperware, and an apple from the market - so organised!) I picked up my school pc (heavier and MUCH less pretty than my Apple MacBook!)
Then the phone rang. It was my 'friend' Anna from the shipping company.
"Mrs Osborn?"
(close enough) "Yes?"
"I have some very bad news. There has been a big accident in the port in Naples and your container has been sfdnskfnkfgbvjfbnn...."
"Sorry - what??"
"So I don't know what I can tell you. But its not my fault."
"Sorry?? What has happened?" (voice rising gently....)
Anyway, the upshot was NOT that the container had been lost, but that rather there had been a problem that had caused the port to close. And the delivery would not happen as scheduled tomorrow morning.
Bad news. Mum and Dad have already arrived and are in Sarnano waiting for furniture etc.
I rang Dad. Mass annoyance all round.
Then, 2 hours later, the phone rang.
"Mrs Osborn?"
(still close enough) "Yes?"
"It's OK now, all will be there tomorrow."
I rang Dad. Mass resignation all round that we will believe the things arrive when we see them.
Then 4 hours of working on a group accounting exercise with the group.
Then shopping
Then home for the party at my house tonight.
I'm exhausted!!
Flavio from Brazil gets a special mention today, as when I was explaining the problem with the shipping, and wondering how I was going to manage alone with 91 boxes (its a lot I know) he said, no problem - we will all come and help you and get it done in no time. I am very lucky to have made friends like this after 3 weeks!
An update on the party will follow tomorrow.... I am off for a much needed glass of wine!

A normal day

I thought it mght help to give an idea of a normal school day in Trieste.
I wake up at 615 if I am going for a run, if not, at 7. The first thing I do is turn on the Gaggia coffee machine to heat up. Breakfast is a bowl of muesli and a "Capp in B" (cappucino in a glass - "bicchiere" in Italian - its a very Trieste experience) which I make at home. I am perfecting the fluffing of the milk and will test this out on Vlasta on Friday morning, as she is staying over on Thursday night as she currently lives in Slovenia and I am having a party on Thursday night.
I walk to the number 11 bus stop, either the terminus at Piazza Tommoseo or near to the Piazza Borsa. Either way it is about 5 minutes walk. The bus trip takes around 20 minutes. If I get the 8am bus I listen to my ipod all the way as there are no colleagues on the bus. If I am running late - like this morning - I get the 830 bus and half the class get on on the way up the hill.
I have been coming in early as I can sit in the classroom and make the most of the wireless internet, whilst I am waiting for it to be fixed up at home. (Good news on this front! I just had a call from Fast Web and they will install the internet inside one week - AT LAST! But like everything here, I will not consider it done until I see it happen! )
Class starts at 9 sharp for 4 hours with a break at 11 for a coffee. At 1 we break for lunch and either start again at 2 or go to group study or individual work. Even if we finish at 1, I am typically in school until 4 or 5. Then I get the number 11 home and study at home for 3 hours or so (unless we are going out).
I cook in the evenings when I am not out, and then iron whilst watching the Italian telly to try to work on my Italian.
All in all, I am studying for about 8 hours a day minimum, including group work and personal study, so its certainly different from my undergraduate degree!

Trieste By Night

I thought you might like to see a picture of the beautiful Piazza Unita at night

Meet you at the church...

Last night I met Marina for a trip around the market. We spoke on the phone and we agreed that we would meet at the church near my house. I dashed out of the house and then realised that as we are in Italy, there is a lot more than one church near my house! I finally met Marina near the Orthodox church pictured here. She was also laughing at the number of church possibilities when I finally arrived!

Baby Bora

The wind started blowing today. Apparantly it is just warming up (or cooling down!) but already it is probably at typhoon 3 level! It gusts strongly, especially near the waterfront. I am exploring different routes to the number 11 bus stop, so that I avoid the front. Bianca from Romania, who is trying to put on weight (making her different from the rest of us!) is concerned that when the wind gets up she may blow away! The more I hear about the Bora, the worse it sounds. I will have to see what it is like when it blows for real in the winter.

The Power of Pocket Coffee

Alessandro (Ale) who I sit next to in the lecture theatre has introduced me to Pocket Coffee. These are a fantastic invention! They are like the sweet Italian version of Red Bull - basically a chocolate that peps you up when things are a little dull (or when the accounting is getting a little heavy!)
Pocket Coffee are as it is says on the packet. It's a shot of espresso coffee in a chocolate.
I had one this morning when we hit the sticky patch on the contribution of different product lines to the fixed costs. Worked like a dream.
I bought the last 2 packs. The next ones are Ale's treat!

Trials and Tribulations of the Number 11 bus

I love the Number 11 bus. It’s cheap as chips – a monthly bus pass for the greater Trieste area (all routes) is about 25 Euros and makes me feel like a resident! The bus number 11 is my favourite as it spirits me every day from home to school.
And back again.

The college building – the grand Ferdinandeo Palace – is the terminus so it should be a doddle to get the bus home after school.

I don’t, however, love the bus drivers. I am beginning to feel that there is some kind of ‘You’ve Been Framed’ gag underway. I am still wearing ridiculous shoes, with stiletto heels and many inches high. And am mostly able to run on the cobbles and marble paving stones to wherever I need to go in them. But to do this after a day of applied mathematics, lugging my computer bag, and dashing for the bus is no mean feat. And EVERY TIME I get to the entrance door the bus doors close and the bus pulls away. Leaving me to wait 10 minutes for the next bus.

The only upside is that I can still get onto the school internet connection when I am sitting on the bus waiting for it to depart. So I am able to Skype Grace in New York more than I ever have been able to before.

Happy Birthday Luce!

It is my sister's birthday today! Here she is in a pic from London a few weeks ago. I particularly enjoy the next 13 days as she is, for a limited time, 2 years older than me!

On a winning streak!

The girl's team remains undefeated at the footy! We won 1-0 and I scored the goal! General delight all round and of course now we want to play again. The boys weren't so lucky - a 6-5 defeat at the hands (feet?) of MIB XVI. We moved on for pizza and beer as on Tuesday.
It was interesting to talk with the people who were graduating the next day about their experience on the MBA and more importantly about their work now. Many are consultants - for AT Kearney, or Accenture, and others work for Ferrari, food companies, pharmaceuticals and so on. Encouragingly, I did not speak to anyone who was unemployed! This must be a good sign, not only for me but for my backers too!!
We finished the night with a few bottles of Montenegro - a local digestive. This was purchased by the bottle, and served with a jug full of ice You pour a measure of the montenegro over the ice and enjoy. It tastes pretty terrible, but is rumoured to be almost medicinal for the digestion, and after 2 nights of pizza and beer in a week, it seemed sensible to join in.
Vlasta (from Slovenia) kindly dropped me off near home at about 130 am and I walked the rest of the way. The poor lady who waits on the corner of my street - her bus had still not turned up! We will be on first name terms by the end of the year!

I stand corrected...

Thursday night was a lot of fun. And there was certianly no dallying this time. In fact, the meeting time was 8pm and by 801 we had drinks already 'while we wait for the others'! It turned into quite a party and made Friday a long day for many of the class!
One great learning point on Thursday was that aperitivi, when done properly, is essentially a free dinner.
We went to a bar in the Piazza Borsa and I ordered a glass of the best local Sauvignon. This cost Euros 1.50. The guys then told me to help myself to the food on the bar. This was not the peanuts and crisps of Hong Kong bars, but prawns and toast, fabulous olives, pizza, sandwiches and a huge variety of other snacks.
Apparantly we were missing out because we had arrived late. Andrea, who is from Venezuela but recently married to a guy from Trieste tells me that Cafe del Mar is the best for aperitivi, with free pasta, pizza and all sorts when you buy a drink. Kristina (from Slovenia) and I were puzzling over the prices - we are not sure how money can be made when the free tucker is so plentiful, but long may it continue! I may adopt the policy of aperitivi every night. It is certainly cheaper than cooking at home - and I get to have a glass of wine too!

Aperitivi

The call went out this afternoon in the lecture theatre, that we should all go for aperitivi tonight. We are meeting in the Piazza Borsa at 8 and will go from there.
I have been out for group drinks only once so far in Trieste- which is pretty amazing when you think about the fact that I have now been here almost 2 full weeks! The drink of choice seems to be "Spritz" (not sure on the spelling, but, like many things in Trieste, you can hear the Austrian influence in the word.) Spritz is basically a Spritzer, although sometimes with Prosecco and water rather than white wine and soda. I guess the idea is that as long as there is bubbles who cares where they come from! To this mixture Aperol is added, like Campari, but less alcoholic. Then a slice of orange. So the result is that we sit around outside in jumpers looking like we are drinking cocktails on the beach! It's pretty tasty and very mild - no exotic margaritas here - or at least, not yet!
The other thing I have noticed is that people here don't drink very much. (or is it just that they drink a lot in Hong Kong?!) This might be due to the fact that it takes us a long time to decide where to go.
You can easily spot the MBAers in town, as they are conducting a complicated assessment to decide which establishment to hit. This basically involves weighing up the snacks vs drink price ratio. The discussion goes something like this:-
(standing in between 2 bars. both look very similar.)
"I think Bar Walter has cheaper drinks."
"Yes, but Via Roma Quattro has really good snacks!"
(Sounds of general agreement)
"Hmmm.. or there is Circus"
"Yes, I hear that's great and I haven't been."
"But the snacks at Via Roma Quattro are great...."
"Let's go there for one and then we can decide. " (This last one is me. Thirsty!)
Anyway, wherever we go, it should be great. We are a good group, and there area lots of fun people to talk to. Especially when, like today, we have finished accounting for the week. If you need a balance sheet, I'm your gal.
So after drinks, its Friday, and I only have to do 3 hours of statistics and applied mathematics tomorrow morning(!) before hitting the football field in the evening.
Then back for pizza and more limonello.
(ps - i STILL can't upload photos!)

Raise the Red Lantern

I discovered last night that I am living in Trieste's red light district. I had seen the red lanterns along the street (it is full of the equivalent of cheap shops in Wanchai, for the Hong Kongers amongst us) but had assumed that this denoted its Chinatown status alone.
Nicoletta - a Triestine resident and fellow MBA-er - enlightened me when she assured me that the dressed up lady on the corner was not, in fact, waiting for a bus.....
When I relayed this information to Mum this morning, she said that she thought that Raise the Red Lantern was only a film. Not in Trieste it would seem!

Summer Holidays

A nice surprise today to receive an email from one of the girls I met in Hvar in the summer. Here is a picture of us at the pub. There is a general theme to the photos, the setting is normally in one bar or another! Thanks to Rona for making my day with her email! It made a welcome change from emails on shipping.....

"I'm sorry, but this is how it works in Italy..."

I have sent my life on the high seas from Hong Kong. 91 boxes have been in Naples for a week awaiting customs clearance (although my Roman colleague Daniele tells me that I am lucky if possessions in Naples will still be there a week after their arrival. Francesco from Naples assures me that there is no problem!)
I have been trying unsuccessfully to establish a good working relationship with the woman in the shipping company in Rome. The measure of my success (or lack thereof) is that when she told me the container would arrive this Friday at 0830, and I told her that this was not possible, she said that this is the way it is. And that she is on a break. And doesn't work weekends. And that she should not be talking to me on her break. And that she is sorry, but this is how it works in Italy.
I am now trying to arrange for the goods to be delivered the following week. And Mum and Dad are flying collectively about 32000 miles round trip to be there to meet the shipment.
From now on, I will travel light!

Victory!

We won the footy! 3, 2 and Marina's goal scoring prowess was such that she scored one goal for the opposition and one for us! We made a good team and we are now keen for Friday's game! Watch this space....
The guys put up a good fight, but the end result was 5, 6 to the opposition. The standard of amateur football in Italy is certainly higher than that in Hong Kong!
We certainly earned the pizza and free limoncello after dinner! It is a strange thing in Italy that every time you consume anything, you get something free. The cynic in me is wondering whether there is a tax break in this, but whatever the reason, it is a great tradition!

Football fears

Tonight will be my debut on the football field. To undertake this inauguration, on an Italian field, when Italy have recently been crowned World Champions of the sport is certainly daunting. Our team is truly international with squad members from Beijing to Bulgaria, from Hong Kong to Hanoi - and Italy of course! We are playing against Origini. This is not a subset of Japanese paper folding but the students from the course running here at MIB for the descendents of Italian immigrants from all over the world.
This match is a training session in advance of Friday's big game against MIB XVI (the class of the MBA that graduate on Saturday). Rumour has it that MIB XVI have played before....
The good news is that, win or lose, we are all going out for pizza after the guys game. Pizza and football - another real Italian experience!

Teambuilding

When I signed up to do an MBA I knew that there would be an introductory teambuilding session. I was not disappointed! We spent 3 days in Lignano, on the coast near Udine. My lasting memories of the time in Lignano will be meeting my team for the first time and starting to work together (we are a group until January), the mosquitos which are the size of small airoplanes and very aggressive, and building a raft then trying to race it in the sea with an audience of 30 octagenarians on their annual Butlins retreat as keen spectators!

Fruili DOC

Last weekend we hit Udine, close to Trieste for Fruili DOC. This turned into my first student outing since leaving university more years ago than I care to remember! We did explore the city a little, ably guided by some of the Udinese on the course, and we walked up to the castle to see the mountains (and the rather alarming sight of a whole bull on a spit, covered in tin foil slowly rotating!) But the rest of the day was a real student affair - spent in a variety of tents consuming the local wine. The night finished with a sobering lesson that I am no longer in Hong Kong. When I reached the stage of the evening when I would normally jump in a cab and be spirited home, we got a lift to the train station, dashed for the last train to Trieste. Chugged in about 1 1/2 hours later, then I walked home through the rain. I reached home at about 130am (a journey of around 2 hours from finishing the last drink.)
The lesson is to make sure your ipod is charged at all times! (and thanks to Massimo for the lift, and Francesco for sharing an ear of his ipod when mine died!)

Accounting

Week 2 of the course has started with Accounting. That's 6 hours yesterday, 4 today and 4 on Thursday. In one week my knowledge of the subject has increased exponentially, but this does not really help me. When I do my personal balance sheet the revenue remains at 0 and the expenses at much. The only thing is that now I understand the debt I am running up better. So that's a relief!

Blogging

Welcome to Trieste Trasmissione!
I have decided to start a blog.
This will make my friends and family laugh. Although I like writing, and write for my job too, I am a terrible correspondent generally, starting letters and emails and rarely finishing them.
But this year, my life will change so radically that a blog seems a good way to record it all for posterity.
And, as I know how terribly boring it can be when people bang on about what they have been doing, this way those that are interested can read. And those that aren't, needn't.
But if you are reading, welcome! I hope that the content will be interesting, the photos appealing and that you will enjoy understanding about my life in Italy and doing an MBA here.
Comments are always welcome!