I looove this band

a couple of weeks ago I was desperatly bored in Euskirchen so went to Media Markt to see what they had to amuse me. There I found this dvd, "American Hardcore", which is a movie I badly wanted to see some months ago when I was in the US (but they started playing it in the movie theatre 2 days after I came back to Europe). I thought punk in the US would be an interesting mix, something like serving wild boar stew in a vegan restaurant. The movie was actually nice. And there was this group, Bad Brains, that simply shone out of the rest. So now I will have a shower and see whether I can find more of it.

Gwen Stefani? Already seen. In 1979.

miei cari, yesterday night at dinner we started talking about music from the 80s. And I remembered one night at university when we went out to a sort of club where they were playing this kind of music. And all of a sudden we see this guy wanking while dancing. The song that was playing was Kobra by Donatella Rettore. So this morning I decided to look up some videos from her (for the first time in my life), and found out that this woman looks really like Gwen Stefani (or the other way around, to be more precise). With the only difference that the songs are better. There you go.

welcome to Germany

miei cari, today I went to my 3rd volleyball lesson. First of all, I can't remember anything. Well, I'll learn again. The other funny thing is that the showers in the womens' changing room did not work, so we went to the mens' one. And obviously there were also men. And, since we are in Germany, they all got naked and went under the shower, I mean men and women alike. And since I am a modern girl, I thanked god that I had shaved this morning and I went as well. Weird. The funniest part was thinking what would have happened in Italy in the same situation.
Then I decide that I want some sushi to bring home to eat. So I go into town to get some. OK, it was 10PM, but there is the huge car fair so I assumed that bloody German restaurants would stay open longer. Mistake. At 10 sharp they close. Farewell to sushi.
And then I arrive home, starved like a stray dog, I open the door of my building and find myself face to face with a policeman. He asks me on which floor I live, I say 4th and start swearing in my head because I thought that someone had done something to my flat or that they found all the fines that I didn't pay. Then he asks me whether I know of a Romanian neighbour, I say no and walk to my flat. There are other 2 policemen on the 2nd floor, so I realize that the weird woman that was living there was probably who they were referring to. Funny thing is that some days ago I was talking to someone, can't remember who, and told him/her that I thought that this neighbour was a prostitute. Hope she didn't get beaten up.
And now I am waiting for my minestrina to get cooked...

bloody printer

my dears, I am still in the office and I hate the printer. Iwas ready to pack everything and call it a day when I remembered that I had sent some things to print. So I go there and obviously I find out that the printer was out of paper so now I have to wait another 5-10 minutes (because it's also slow).
Anyway. This weekend was pretty good, altough completely exausting (I want to go hooooommeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee). On Friday we went to Jack and Jasmina's place to arrange for the present (pictures will come soon). Then we went out, came back at 3 something, bullshitted around the house for another hour and then decided to go to bed. On Saturday I woke up at 8:30 because I had to finish stuff for the present. Then went to the newly-wed house, finished everything (thanks Maria for coming and helping) and then went to pick them up at the airport. Apparently they enjoyed the presents and they also didn't get mad at the confetti all over the flat. Then I went home, stayed a bit, then back to their house (we had decided to meet with everyone there), then directly to Naka's place for her birthday party. The party was cool, but I was so tired that I ended up begging for a bed, got it and collapsed into it. Next day we had breakfast, then went walking and then I ended up in the city walking along the river with Jasmina and looking at flats to rent in Westhafen. OK, I need to get an expat contract to live there. Anyway, then we went pick Jack and Estelle up from the IAA and went to watch a DVD.
Needless to say, I am pretty much tired and need my bed badly. Fucking printer.

Macedonia!

miei cari, I am just back from Macedonia (and Italy), so I assume it's time for the summary of the past (long) weekend:
- on Thursday I woke up really early, somewhat tried to clean my flat and then took the plane to go to Milano. They upgraded me to business class (which, being the plane really small, means I could sit in the first 2 rows). The flight was uneventful, and I arrived in Milano in time, with luggage. Apparently not all the people had the same luck: Alitalia decided that Petero and Tina didn't really need their luggage and decided to leave it somewhere. Anyway, I arrive home, I bullshit around a bit, I install my dad's internet connection to go online and for some reason this screwed up all my settings. I don't know exactly how I fixed it now, I hope I haven't screwed up all the settings on my computer otherwise tomorrow at work it's going to be funny... And I went to the hairdresser, for more details read the other post.
- on Friday I was pretty much desperate because I had nothing to wear over my dress. So, as a last resort, I stop at this outlet on the way to the airport and I manage to find a little nothing with exactly the same colours of the shoes. Still have no bag, but you can't really be perfect... I meet Gaborno and Estelle at the airport and we fly to Macedonia on this small little plane named after Giulio Natta, so I could show off because I know who the guy was. Well, my department at University was named after him, so it wasn't really that complicated, but still people looked kind of impressed - or just kind to me, who knows :-) We arrive in Skopje, at the airport Alexander The Great: that sounds kind of funny, as if the airports in Milano were called Giulio Cesare and Ottaviano Augusto. Anyway. The weather is kind of shitty, raining and cold, and we start wondering how we will manage to survive with our little summer dresses. We get our taxi and drive to Ohrid, with the driver thinking he is some sort of Schumacher and Estelle nearly feeling sick next to me. We arrive there, get to the hotel, really nice, meet the the other guys and get out for dinner. Some of the others decide to go have some drinks after dinner, but I am feeling so cold and tired that I go back to the hotel and try to fix my nails.
- on Saturday morning we get a town tour, really interesting (thanks Jamina for organizing this!). And, m i r a c l e, there is sun and it's not so fucking cold anymore. Then at 1 we have the appointment to the hairdresser. I tell the girl to make my hair down, and I mean DOWN. So after she is done I had this monstrous bob, but I could stop her before she put some hairspray. And then the guy really made it down, so that was safe. Then next door there is the lady who puts make up, never had anyone putting make up on me so I decide to go and ask her for something "natural". Probably the lady's idea of "natural" is slightly different from mine, so I end up with a half cm layer of fundation, really heavily kajaled eyes and a rainbow on my eyelids. Funny. And once Gaborno downloads the pictures I will show you what I mean. I go back to the hotel and we get ready for the wedding. First we go to Jasmina's house, really nice, right on top of the amphitheatre, a really cool location. We have a little garden party,with a band playing some traditional songs, all together with some really nice food and wine. The garden is really nice, Jamina's parents must have really worked on it because it is perfectly organized and taken care of. After that we get some buses and get a bit outside Ohrid to this old monastery. We first have a small blessing, which was kind of funny because the priest (or whatever an orthodox priest is called) reads this passage where it says that the wife should always obey the husband. Reaaaaally funny :-) Then we go to this big place and the party really begins. We get some food and some yellow fluid in small jars. It didn't take long before we found out that it was rakja, and we are told that we should sip it slowly. Which we do, for the first 2 glasses. Then we start having shots of it, with Petero leading the group. And this rakja was really good quality, because next day we didn't have headaches. Then we start dancing: the dj mixed some traditional Macedonians songs with some "normal" stuff for the guests. The traditional songs were really cool, basically you had all the people making big circles and dancing together, the locals knowing what they were doing and us foreigners trying not to screw it up too badly. The first one was easy, 3 steps on the right, kick, one step to the left, kick and the same overandoverandoverandover. The second one was more complicated, the lady next to me (then we found out that she is a professional dancer) was telling me that it is really easy, like 6 steps to the left, kick, 3 steps to the right, kick, and so on. And I really thought I was already drunk like a piece of shit, because I was always out of pace. Then the second time that they danced it I was sitting down and I found out that actually it is 3 steps to the left, jump, another 3 steps to the left and so on, not 6 consecutive steps. So I celebrated this new revelation that I am not really completely unable to dance by downing another couple of glasses of rakja. Ale'! Then there was a third dance but after staring at it for 10 minutes I still couldn't figure out what the steps were, so I didn't even try. It was fast with all sort of jumps, kicks, right foot forward, left foot backwards, right, left. A mayhem, basically. But you really appreciate these dances, especially when you figure out that they are a perfect way to cheer and at the same time burn all the alcohol. Cool. Then we had more food, more dances. Jasmina was dancing like crazy, she really looked beautiful in her dress and still I can't understand how she could dance all night and not rip the dress in pieces. Jaccko was also dancing, we couldn't manage to get him really drunk, we will do when they come back :-) And also Jack's sister was dancing like hell, it was actually really nice to see her dancing Arabic style (well, a sort of censored Arabil style, you know, with your parents watching you...). And at around 3 something we got back to the bus and went back to the hotel. It took me 3 times washing my face to kind of get rid of all the make up. Interesting.
- next day we wake up early to go for breakfast and then we go out for a coffee and for some shopping. I got my tomatoes and cheese. And of course some rakja :-) even though I left it in Milan so that my parents can get a taste of it as well. Then we get our bus and go back to Skopje to the airport. The plane was late, Petero and Tina lost their connection and the fuckers from Alitalia didn't even want to pay their rental car to go back to Geneva (Petero had to fly to Dubai in the morning). I assume they won't fly Alitalia ever again in their life, and honestly it is perfectly understandable. So I go home with Blanca and Maria, we try to get some pizza but it was already closed, so we just cooked some pasta and went to bed.
- this morning we woke up, I took Blanca and Maria to the metro station so that they could enjoy some shopping, then managed to meet with Alina, had a coffee and some gossip and then took my plane to come back to Frankfurt.
and tomorrow Euskirchen :-((

NEWS: I am not blond anymore

cari miei, this great technology called DSL reached my parents' house so now I can surf freely; apparently even faster than in my own house, which probably means that I need to change contract. Today I went to the hairdresser and decided that after more than 10 years as a blond (with a little punk red, turning pink, and light brown intervals) I was going to get draker than I have ever been in my whole life. So now I am dark brown and it looks really weird but not bad. And at the end of the day it's better to be tall and dark haired if you live in Germany, makes you somewhat recognizable. And I can put all sort of weird waxes to make my hair look shiny without looking shitty dirty.
Apart from this pretty significant change, I have also, for the very first time in my life, realized that there are a lot, and I mean A LOT, of non Italians living in Milano. Realllllllllyyyyyy a lot. And they all talk really nice Italian; which is probably due to the fact that noone talks any other language, so if you want to survive you'd better learn it. Amazing.
And also it always takes me 1-2 days to not get shocked by the mess Italian people make when we talk; you know, you come from Germany where people look badly at you if you breath slightly harder, and then tonight on the bus this girl from Sardegna was shouting at her parents because she wanted some bullshit to get recorded from TV - "Ho detttto premmmi la errrre - dove? - si', sulla destra - EIA - si' premmmi quelllllo". f a n t a s t i c o
And today I bought the new Economist where Google is on the cover. The article shares insights on the past and some ideas and concerns for the future, like people might not really like the kind of BigBrother approach. And tonight I log on my blog and everything - surprise! - is in Italian. Scaryyyyy. Gaborno, I am sure you would love this shit.
And Pavarotti is dead and every single news report is on him (including the one my mum is listening to right now, most probably she is sleeping on the sofa). To be very very honest, I did not like the guy. I liked the way he sang classical music. I found the rock-pop music hideous. And I really didn't like the fact that the guy did not pay taxes and then, since he is fucking Pavarotti, he gets a discount on the fine and signs it in front of TV cameras with our idiot Finance minister grinning (you idiot! do you know how much money he stole??? what the fuck are you smiling about!!). That said, passing over is not that nice, and doing it because of cancer is pretty painful on top. So, dear Pavarotti, I thought and still think that you were a great tenor and a slight dickhead when alive, but I wish you all the best wherever you are. Amen.

Tomorrow to Macedonia!!

going to Macedonia!

miei cari, today I am on holiday. Reason is to go to Macedonia and attend the marriage party of Jack and Jasmina. Can't wait to be there! So this morning I will fly to Milano, go to the hairdresser (oh yes, I need that), then tomorrow fly to Skoje, somehow get to Hokrid (can't remember how exactly but we'll see), on Saturday go to the party and then back again on Sunday. As for the dress, I have that and the shoes. Only problem is that I have no bag nor anything to put on top of the dress, so I assume this afternoon I will have to go around and try to find something (I am starting to wonder whether there is something wrong in my planning, I keep on going to weddings without outfit, ...).
Then yesterday I had my first volleyball lesson, it was really nice to play again after so many years. I thought I would be worse. Mind you, I am pretty bad, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Funny thing is how you just enjoy it and don't feel that you are exercising; this morning I wanted to lift a thing and my arms ache like hell. Net: fuck the boring gym, I want more volleyball!
ciaociao