Off to Austria

The trip to Austria started well. I packed my passport. And it turns out I didn't need it. I really didn't know that once you get into the Schengen zone there are no borders - you can literally go where you like!
After a few hours on the bus (and a festive atmosphere with beer flowing freely - hence the picture of Chris with the slab above!) we got off the bus for a dinner of Wiener Schnitzel and chips and Austrian Beer. There was tonnes of snow - but no Austrians in Leiderhosen that i could see!

Bus Jam

After the snow on Thursday, I caught the bus to school on Friday morning. Everything was going fine, apart from being loaded down with luggage for the upcoming ski weekend (which irritated a pensioner trying to get past no end) but as we climbed the hill towards the house where Ale, Luca and Massimiliano live, we stopped. And there we stayed for about 15 minutes.
Eventually we realised the problem. At the end of the road the bus has to turn right to continue the journey to school. But a car had parked across the exit of the junction and it was impossible for the bus in front of us to get around.
When patience ran out we jumped off the bus and went for a coffee - the first time I have seen a coffee bar run by a Chinese family since I have been here - and returned to the bus stop just in time to see the tow truck putting the car back in a more suitable spot. I imagine that there will be a huge bill for someone to pay, but my debt is mainly to my group who were waiting an hour for me to arrive.

Winter arrived - and then left again

Thursday morning and snow arrived in Trieste for the first time this winter. The school looked really orange with its white dusting and at the break we staggered outside against the wind and weather to throw some snowballs.

Flavio, who is from Brazil, had never seen the snow before, and was surprised by how soft it was, and the crunchy noise it made. I have attached a pic of him with the imprint of his first snowball!

We spent the weekend in Austria - another post on that later - and by Monday when we came back the snow was long gone. The sun is now shining brightly and we are itching to get outside in the 15 min break before the next lecture.

International Relations

Today the International Relations exam - and tomorrow and Friday we are working on a marketing case study on an alternative Viagra called Cialis. There is a lot of reading to do! And then some slides and numbers to crunch.
We need to get everything done by Friday as we are off to Austria on the bus to go skiing.
Also this week, I need to start adding more photos to the blog. Mainly because I have started sharing the link with friends in the class - and the friends that are not in the pics are giving me a hard time!
So... to start to correct this - here is a picture of my friend Walter who I sit next to in class.

Day off for the calendar guys!

Another "Only In Italy" post
It was on Sunday that the attached picture made me smile. I love the idea that it is someone's job to change the date with stones every day - its almost a Japanese thing! But the difference here is that on Sundays the stone calendar guy has the day off. Long Saturdays at Miramare - 48 hours at least!

Tourist day in Trieste

Yesterday dawned foggy and a bit gloomy. But after a Saturday night mainly spent ironing and watching terrible TV, it was time to get out.
I got on the bus to Opicina, thinking that I would go for a run along the Napoleonic trail. But by the time the bus got there, the clouds were back to the low level of the last few days and I couldn't see anything. So back on the bus, and then down to Barcola. From there, I ran along the waterfront path to Miramare Castle, overlooking the headland. I had a stroll around the park (it was beautiful - not such a tough life being an Austrian emperor back in the day) and then decided that I would visit the castle itself.

Anyone that is heading this way, I suggest a trip to the castle - its 4Euros, but worth it. (Don't bother with the spoken guide unless you are a real history buff - there are panels inside explaining everything). The thing that really struck me was that, although there are cameras, there are no security guards around, leaving you with the feeling that you are really wandering around someone's house on your own. Its great - and I especially liked the oriental rooms, but maybe I am biased! Massimo told me this morning that it is considered unlucky to go with your partner there - because Massimiliano's love story was not so successful. I am not sure if that is only because he died in Mexico.... But anyway, if you aren't with your partner - go and see!
I ran and walked back to the flat, passing Hakan and Cesar from IMTL out for their own run - then went past the Verdi theatre. I saw that there was an opera on in 45 minutes, so grabbed a half price ticket.
The next three hours (after a quick shower and change of clothes - I learnt from the Mozart concert that people dress up to go to the theatre) went by with a large helping of Wagner. It was great to go, but my first Wagner experience, and I suspect one of my last. It was a bit heavy going for me.

Manuale D'Amore 2

A quick plug for the newly released Italian movie "Manuale D'Amore 2", (Love Manual 2), which I went to see last night at the cinema at Torri D'Europa (the local mall - a bit soulless, but the cinema is a big improvement on the one on Viale XX Settembre). The cast is full of Italian greats - the only one of whom I knew was Monica Bellucci. But having seen him on screen last night, I will now be keeping an eye out for other movies featuring the delightful Riccardo Scarmacio!
The movie is a series of short love stories, all of which have their own difficulties - the physiotherapist and her wheelchair-bound patient; the gay couple with an unaccepting parent; the manic woman desperate for a child and her long-suffering husband; the man in his 50s and the young Spanish girl who is staying in his building - but it is a great combination of laughter and some poignant moments too. I couldn't understand 100%, but I got by enough to get the story. The Gianna Nannini music brought back memories of the summer just after I left Hong Kong - when Sei Nel'anima was playing EVERYWHERE. (Now it's Scissor Sisters - I don't feel like dancing that follows me around). I recommend it!

I hear the view is lovely from Carso

But I wouldn't really know. Yesterday the fog was so thick you couldn't see anything. Except for the man in flouro yellow who was jogging. We crawled along in Massimilliano's car, in flotilla. Somehow, thanks to Massimilliano's driving and Giulia's navigation we made it to Da Mario.
And it was well worth the journey. We spent a very enjoyable afternoon ensconsed in the restaurant, drinking wine from jugs on the table and tucking into delicious pasta. I have discovered a great option for the indecisive in restaurants (my family would tell you that this includes me!) Tris di primi (thanks to Ciccio for helping me with the spelling!) is a selection of 3 types of pasta, enabling you to effectively choose different options for your pasta course. Yesterday these options included Gnocchi con Cinghiale (wild boar potato dumplings), whole wheat ravioli with venison, and a tomato and mushroom pasta. We followed with potatoes in tecia (like mash potato with ham and onions - yum) and salad.
Then they let us loose on the grappa trolley. I have seen this a few times in the past, but normally the owner stays in the room. Yesterday we were in one room, the owners in the other. And with us were about 30 empty glasses and about 15 bottles of grappa - flavoured with everything from a strange green herb, to hazelnuts, to berries. We sampled a few, I enjoyed the nut one, and the berry one was nice but too sweet to drink too much of it.
And all for a cost of 22 Euros - can't be bad.

Un giro e pranzo

This morning a lecture on macroeconomics - an interesting insight into the financial situation in Italy. Best summed up as not good.
A couple of weeks ago Massimo and I had planned a 'giro' (turnabout) on Sunday and lunch. Due to a communication collapse we ended up not going.
So the news this morning that the Johnson and Johnson representatives were stuck at the airport because of fog, meaning that we had a free afternoon, the opportunity seemed too good to miss. So in a short while we are all jumping in cars and heading off to a village near the border to have lunch together. This is also a follow on from an email that Chris sent some time last week to encourage us to get together to do more things - such as eating out, bowling, the Carnevale in Venice (a lifelong dream for me!).
Talking of doing things together, skating last night was fun - although in the end there was only Hakan, Vlasta and I skating. Building on the success of Christmas skating, I was trying to do turns and skate backward. I am definitely heading for leg-breaking territory if I go again during our trip to Austria next weekend for the annual "MIB on the Snow" offsite.

AAAAAgh is for accounting

The accounting exam today was really tough - advanced accounting for management - really difficult.
The good news is that all of us found it difficult so hopefully we are all going to be doing it again together or we have all done enough to bring down the average so that we can all scrape through.
Tonight, to recover, we are going ice skating and afterwards for dinner at the little restaurant near to my house. It should be good!
This week also marks the start of outside visits - we had AT Kearney come and see us yesterday and tomorrow we have Johnson and Johnson who may want to interview some of us.
I am writing this in the dark in the classroom as we are watching No Man's Land - the Oscar-winning moving about the war in ex-Yugoslavia. It is especially interesting as it is in Croatian / Serbian with Italian subtitles, and currently rather graphic. I think that I will try to get hold of an English version at some point so that I can watch it for real.
The plan is that things will get a bit easier from now on - fewer exams and fewer hours, although having just heard the timetable for the next few weeks I am not sure how much easier. I am counting down in horror towards Advanced Finance in February.
The pic here shows Luca and I hard at work on our Strategy projects last Friday. The thumbs up is ironic!

A Multicultural Evening

Last night another first - a trip to the movies. I went with some of the class to see Rocky Balboa in the cinema in Viale XX Settembre. The tickets were Euro 7 each - the same exact price as in Hong Kong. But there the similarities ended.
Firstly all the movies at the cinema are dubbed into Italian - you can only see original language movies on DVD or at film clubs (there is an American one, but it is quite expensive to join and the movies are old). So its good for the language lessons, but not always rewarding for the comprehension and relaxation!
Secondly, when we entered into the cinema through curtains, I was a little surprised not to be able to see the screen, but instead to be faced with rows of faces on two levels looking expectantly in my direction. Then I realised that the screen was in fact over my head - we had entered underneath the screen.
The movie started and after about 10 minutes they turned off the heating fan which had been whirring happily over my head - so then I could actually hear something. And, happily, understand it - although the quantity and quality of dialogue in Rocky Balboa may not be a clear representation of comprehension levels!
Then halfway through, the biggest surprise. The movie stopped, the lights came up and the word "Intervallo" was splashed on the screen. A handful of people stood up and left. Apparantly this is to give people a chance to have a cigarette or to get a cofffee. So Italian!
But barely 90 seconds after the start of the interval, the film restarted. It seems strange to break the film, and then not give a break long enough for people to do anything. Perhaps it is gradually being phased out.
After the movie, we headed to Bar Rudy on Via Valdirivo - near to my house. There we ate german food cheese and ham, drank German beer and listened to the drunken oompah band. Hilarious! It was Elis' birthday and the rendition of Happy Birthday by the drunken trombone player and the guy on the spoons will stay with her for a while!


Just to round off the evening, we hit Colonial - the club near to Piazza Unita.
A truly multicultural evening!

First no buses, now no cars

A curious piece of news today in Trieste - at least for a Hong Konger.
Due to concern about the pollution, there is a car ban.
Tonight cars are banned from crossing from one area to another, and from entering the city centre, between 4 and 7.
Tomorrow the ban is almost all day.
I have been amazed since I got here at how fresh the air is, certainly after Asia. The fog has been terrible for the last few days, and I am not sure if this is related to the ban - but the idea of having the power to tell cars not to drive for a day and a half to help control the pollution is an interesting one - a learning point for HK perhaps?
I have stopped buying the monthly bus pass, as Massimo drives me to and from school now. And the ban is not really an issue today as we will be here until at least 7 doing strategy projects for tomorrow.
I predict that the ban will have another effect. It is likely to alleviate the parking nightmare in the city. Finding a space to park in Trieste is like winning a lottery and remains a major gripe for the city's residents. I imagine that shortly after 7 this evening, the city will seem empty of cars for a while - or that there will be a major jam as traffic streams in to park...

Back at Work

So school has started again and in some ways it feels as though we never left! You would think from the greetings on Monday morning that it had been months since we had seen each other - it is amazing how much we all missed each other over the vacations and I am not sure what we will do when the course is done in a few short months!
The new year also means new working groups and the end of point 22, my previous group. We had a farewell dinner last night, across the border in Slovenia. Slovenian food - at least what I have experienced of it - is often very heavy and mainly fried. We started last night with fried cheese, then followed up with ljubljanski (not sure of the spelling!) - which is like cordon bleu - and much other meat and cheese - all accompanied by chips - and a tomato salad to try to counteract the fried items! All of this was washed down with beer brewed on the premises.
Today I will be at school til late, we are in lessons til 4, then I have to work on my strategic analysis of Generali for Friday. There is a lot to still do and little time!

Activities for the New Year

Many folk around the world make resolutions that revolve around activities and getting fit in the New Year. Its true that studyoing took priority over exercise in the latter months of 2006 (and it was WAY too cold and dark to run outside in December!) but my New Year started with 3 days of sitting around and drinking coffee.
So it is good that now that I am back in Sarnano, I have a few outdoor activities planned.
Tonight I am going ice skating in Servigliano - at the outdoor rink that they have set up in the piazza. I have done this once already and loved it - an became much more confident towards the end. This is a bad sign I think as the more confident I get, the higher my chances of coming a cropper on the ice.

Banking bureaucracy

Banking in Italy is an interesting game. This morning, like so many mornings, I set off with my list of things to do. By lunch time, I had managed to achieve one thing - go to bank.
This was not due to the length of the queue. But because I needed to change accounts to a residents account. This means that I can pay less tax and commission on every activity. But I have a sneaking suspicion that this is really just in compensation for the amount of bureacracy it takes to open the new account.
And to close the old one. For which there was a fee of close to E40.
I also needed to track down the money from Hong Kong that had gone missing in December. It turns out that - in error - this had been posted to another person's account. The error has now been corrected and whoever the person is that was momentarily richer over the Christmas period, I apologise profusely! I will certainly be checking the balance on the account carefully from now on...
By the end of the 2 hours something that I spent in the bank, I had at least managed to start my new account, to close the old one, to sign up for internet banking, to transfer all standing orders and to eat 2 free caramels (with all their sweet wishes for the New Year - get it?)
Fingers crossed that the 20+ signatures that were required to make this happen were sufficient and that I can now look forward to trouble-free and lower commission financial transactions in the future.
But I am not holding my breath!

L'Anno Nuovo

The New Year has started well. The last time I tried to drive to Bracciano to Irena and Mo's house I did so without a map and without a plan. As a result it took about 6 hours to get there. This time I took the wise counsel of Via Michelin and made it there in about 3h30 - a huge improvement but meaning that I was there well ahead of time. Poor Irena and Mo who had planned a morning a casa! We had a very relaxing lunch then started getting sorted for the party in the evening.
By about 9 everyone had arrived - a full complement of 4 kids, 2 dogs, and 9 adults - and we soon tucked into the Morrocan food that Irena and Mo had prepared. At midnight the champagne flowed and we went into the garden to watch the fireworks from the castle (as made famous by TomKat in November). After midnight in Italy you are supposed to eat lentils as they signify money for the following year. Traditionally these are consumed with Zampone - the skin of a pigs trotter into which the grissly bits that are too yack for sausages are stuffed. We therefore bypassed the zampone, but I trust that this will not affect the power of the lentils - my finances are such that I ate mounds of them in the hope that there was something in it. It cant hurt right?
At midnight I also tried to send messages to friends and family around the world - but the Telecom Italia Mobile network was not up to much and I am not sure how many messages actually went through. A quick round of charades and a chat meant that we hit the sack around 4...
New Years Day dawned bright, and seemed the perfect setting for the pajama-clad Oprah marathon! Lunch was leftovers from the night before followed by more lounging around - the perfect way to spend New Year! In the evening we ventured out of the house (no longer in pjs) and headed to Trevignano on the other side of the lake for dinner and the most delicious chocolate and biscotti cake.
The morning of the 2nd started as New Year's Day had - drinking coffee and chatting. Then Irena, Mo and I went up to Bracciano village to have a look around, and another coffee before I set off back to Marche. Huge thanks to both of them for not batting an eyelid when I invited myself over!
The new route to and from Bracciano (new to me at least) is failsafe - essentially a straight drive all the way. There are some amazing views as the road twists through the Umbrian countryside up into the mountains, but possibly my favourite bit is once you hit the SS77, the other side of Foligno. Here the road ceases to be just a superstrada and becomes the centre of commerce for potatoes and onions. I was reminded of the sign that I saw in Ljubljana which campaigned for potatoes and onions to be recognised as an independent dish - if ever the society needed to do any shopping, they could hit the SS77 outside Tolentino for all their requirements. I did not stop to buy anything. Partly because I don't really eat many potatoes and have no idea what I would do with a bag the size of the ones that they were selling and partly because I could not possibly choose between the many tractors that were parked touting their wares. So I drove onto home.