Monday, April 23, 2007
U Pylos
Hello everybody!
Here I am back from my trip to Greece... and as I can see there is a PLENTY of people who have written some text, that wanted to share their ideas, it is SO cool to have all these friends around the world but feeling them so close coming in this blog....
.....
.....
Ok, I needed it.
Anyway, here I am back from Greece. As always, Greece it is always a great country to me, and greeks people are very nice. I mainly spend the whole week with the greeks, working on my program, and they have surprised me (I have to admit) for how well organised and well prepared they are. They offered me to go in Greece after the phd, and I will seriously think about that. Unfortunately the weather was not so good, it was probably the only week in which the weather was nicer in the Netherlands then in Greece, but still I manage to have a swim, although I really freeze.
What I will surely remember from this week was:
1) The roasted pig night
2) the octopus, ouzo and friutra mista night!
Something nobody wants to miss....
Please, visit here to check out the pictures!!
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Thursday, April 12, 2007
"That African island that Italians keep calling Sicily"
Good Morning, Italy!As promised, here we are again...
It seems that lately we are visiting more and more continents... before America, now Sicily...!!
Well, fist of all, check out the pictures in the usual website http://picasaweb.google.com/ellyon17
Then, some description....
It's a bit hard, I don't know where to start. What I think it is important to say before starting is that Sicily is surely seen differently from people who come from abroad and people from Italy. For people coming from abroad (I got some impression from Guus & others) it is exaclty the stereotype of Italy. For people from Italy it is exaclty the stereotype we think others have of Italy and we want to fight with.
What I want to say is that everything is very nice and very folkloristic to visit and to live, but if you come from the same country, you are under the same laws and you live in the same society, you are a bit disappointed and you start to think about all the fines and the taxes you have paid, and that there are not existing... But, after you overpass this first feeling of injustice, you can start to enjoy the sun and the life there. All the good & the bad things you can find everywhere in Italy, there are to the hundreds.... the weather is extremely good, the food is extremely good, the cars traffic is extremely caotic and dangerous, the tendence of ignoring the rules has become a sort rule to ignore the rules, the disorganization has reach the highest levels, but the people is very friendly, after they have understood you are friendly too. From this point of view, it is maybe the opposite then in the Netherlands. Here people are always friendly and kind with everyone, without knowing, but then, to increase the level of the relationship is maybe harder. In Italy, and moreover in Sicliy, people are always diffident at the first sight, but then they are very friendly. I think that the reason is because the society makes you untrustful in respect of other people, because there is no a real society, there is only the rule that you have to think about your own good by yourself, and other may eventually risk your good, so be ready to fight! But then, when you realise that they don't want to damage you, then everybody is your friend. It may seem a good option, but I can tell you that living all your life like this is pretty stressful. And this kind of behaving is quite clear when they are driving: they don't know who's driving the other cars, so they are very much aggressive. But then, of course, there are also quite funny sides of this! One evening (but it was late afternoon more then evening) we were walking arount the very center of Siracusa and we have seen four (four!! 4!! FOUR!) smiling and joyful girls on one scooter.... FOUR ON ONE SMALL TINY SCOOTER!!! Of course none of them had the helmet, but come on, who notice the helmet in such cases?!?!?!?!
In the end, I can say it was a great holiday, I enjoyed it very much, I was maybe too much conditioned by the tendency of comparing it with Trieste (that most of them will keep calling Austria...), but without thinking of it, it was really great!! And, by the way... after 5 days we were there most of the people still didn't believe that me and Ermes were Italians!! They were always trying to speak in English, although their English was most of the time just Italian, but spoken slower... and the fact we were understanding what they were talking about didn't help them in believing we are Italians..... Maybe it's because of our Dutch accent!!
Friday, April 06, 2007
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Money Money Money
Italy is now present with its troups in 20 countries, with 24 missions. The Prodi gouvernment had set an amount of money of 1.040,5 milions of euros for military missions. And this only for the year 2007. I am working abroad, also. But I'm not paid by Prodi. And he doesn't seem so interested to have me back. Ok, maybe I'm not such a good scientist, but I'm surely more useful then a bunch of fascist soldier that hang around raping girls in the middle east.
On the other hand, the last financial balance for the 2007 gives, in TOTAL, 230 milions of euros for the ministry of university and research. (against the 1040,5 milions ONLY for foreign missions). These milions are distributed in this way:
30 milions for research institutes (for the proposition of Montalcini)
70 M for the universities
100M for the budget
20 M to give a permanent position to the researchers
7,5 M for new jobs
Well... maybe even if I am happy that the gouvernment didn't fell, I would like to ask to this gouverment to think again about its priorities.... and then let me know where I have to buy the house....
Sunday, March 25, 2007
New post
I don't know what to write, but I feel the moment has come to write a new post: all the quiz has been answered, I have won a beer, and we decided what to do for Small Easter.... don't we? Finally where do we go? the poll suggest Sistiana....
Anyway, I think that Moris has proposed a new nice trick... the quiz! So.. from which movie this dialogue has been taken?
"
- I like to dress in women's clothing.
- You're a fruit?
- No, not at all. I love women. Wearing their clothes makes me feel closer to them.
- You're not a fruit?
- No, I'm all man. I even fought in WWII. Of course, I was wearing women's undergarments under my uniform.
"
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Saint Patrick's Day
So...Yesterday was Saint Patrick's Day (aka "just another reason to drink")!
Since in the afternoon there was also the rugby match between Italy and Ireland (and Ireland had the chance to win the 6 nations) we decided to watch it in an Irish pub, having an Irish breakfast (at 14:30; that required to synchronize the day and the wake-up on that time), drink a reasonable amount of beer, get beaten by a reasonable amount of drunk Irish men and then keep drinking at some Saint Patrick's party somewhere around in Amsterdam.
The plan was nice but the breakfast-beer caused more effect than we expected. So we ended to have headache at 14:35. Moreover Italy lost the match (with a honest 24-51) so there were no reason to be beaten.
So we tried to cure the headache drinking more beer ("to drink Guinnes is the same as to eat something, so it will work") without success. At the end we had our (Saint Patrick's) Indian dinner with a non-reasonable amount of spicyness and some other beers.
However this Saint Patrick's day was nothing special so we have to try again at the Small Easter(n) Party!
"To Alcohol! The cause of... and solution to... all life's problems."
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Poll results and conclusions
And, it seems is time to change the poll and to decide what to do to Pasquetta (Little Easter or Pasentje)!
Friday, March 09, 2007
The Future of the Blog
(It would be nice that when you vote you also put a comment - You can do it in Italian for this time)
Thursday, March 01, 2007
The Big Fruit Salad
Good Morning, Europe!
So, here we are back in the old, but always beloved, continent. I guess some of you may be interested in a description of our Manhattan experience. So, here we are. First of all, if you want to follow the story with some pictures, let's go to the usual website: http://picasaweb.google.com/ellyon17 and check it out.
Well, the first impression when you get out from the subway in the heart of Manhattan, just one street after Time Square, it's not the one you had imagined. Or at least I had imagined. I have to say that the picture I had in mind of New York was given by movies such as Breakfast at Tiffany's, You've Got Mail, Sabrina, the last Devil wears Prada and, of course, all the movies of Woody Allen. Well, forget about it. Ok, if you look carefully you can find the shoots of these movies, but you have to dig under meters of dirt and rubbish. Anyway, after a while, when you have realised that things are not bright and shining as in the movies, you can start to appreciate the city for what it really is (although it's impossible for me to deny a bit of general disappointment). Anyway, our hotel was on the 55th, so no more than 10 minutes walking to Time Square. That's why the first night we have hanged around there (I suffered the jet lag for the first few days): we have eaten shrimps at the Bubba Gump Shrimps and we have walked around there. It is always quite dirty, but in the night it's easier to look up instead of down, so you tend to see more the lights and the shining commercials on the skyscrapers.
The following day we walked around the Fifth av. as I had to buy a dress to go to the Metropolitan the next day. The stores are expensive (not incredibly expensive, mostly cheaper than in Europe, but more expensive than in the rest of the city), and a lot of them are quite elegant and chic, like Cartier or Saks, but between a Chanel and a Prada store there is always a H&M, and it doesn't seems they can really recognise the difference. What really cheered up my day was the visit to the Sony store, it was really great!The famous Apple style can disappear in front of the Sony style!
The weather was nice, so we also went to the top of the Rockfeller building, and Manhattan looks much nicer from above (the rubbish is too far away).
The next day we went to visit the Central Park Zoo, and it was nothing like the Madagascar Zoo, although there were the penguins (also the Gentoo Penguin! no Kubuntu, though... ;-) ). The evening has surely been the best in the week, as we have been to the Met. The orchestra, as well as the singers, were exceptional, and I think it will be hard to listen again to something like this. There was La Traviata of Zaffirelli, so finally the scenes were as good as Verdi thought of, and probably much better. The theater was really beautiful and the acustic great, we had a very good place, first row and central. Everything was perfect. What has to be noted is there there were really few americans inside. Most of the people were italian-speaking or japanese/corean. Probably most of them had an american passport (the couple seated next to us were italians, but arrived in NY in the 1954...), but it seemed to me that if an american had 80 euros to spend, prefer to go to the Madison Square Garden...
The third day we have done a trip to the Liberty Statue and to Ellis Island. There was a hell of wind, and it was so cold as I have never experienced before. The entire trip was with a boat in which they stored something like 1000 turists, probably to make us feeling the experience of the ancient immigrants... To enter in this boat we had to stay in queue for like 2 hours, and to pass through a metal detector and to be checked completely... these are the kind of things that make you hope to have a plane to crush on their heads.... anyway, the visit was not the most interesting ever, the statue was a statue (that have already been seen in Paris) and Ellis Island was just a big empty room where they use to store people.
In the evening we went to see the Phantom of the Opera in Broadway, and it was really nice, although in this case there were quite a lot of americans, and you could understand it by the mobiles ringing, the noise and the discouraging dumbness you could feel around. Probably more that what you could feel in the Madison Square Garden, I think this is because here people wanted to look intellectual, while to the match you just want to have fun, and it is more normal to shout and be a bit mad. Indeed the NBA match we went to see the last evening was really fun. People where more polite than the people usually following sports in Italy (maybe it's the football that collect only the beasts around, maybe the football or, for them, the baseball has the same effect in U.S. ...) and the show was good. Between the quarters there were few shows of dancers, acrobats and magicians, and the match itself was really exciting. It was Knicks against Miami, and NY won for few points after a well fighted match. Pretty good. Shaquille O'neil was a bit disappointing because he spent all his time doing faults, but I guess it's more or less his job. Anyway, it's impressive how big he is....
The previous day we went in China Town. Funny place! Little Italy is a depressing street that, as Ermes has probably already told, is almost (luckly) disappeared in advantage of Chinatown.
We had good luck because in the Sunday we were there they were celebrating the Chinese New Year, so we have seen the parade and eaten spring rolls... cool.
In fact we have eaten almost every night in a mexican restourant, where you normally dine drinking Margarita Frozen.... not bad.
So, finally, everything I enjoyed in NY was not American, but European or Chinese or Mexican... I'm very happy not to live there and I'm always more and more proud of being European. The main problem in U.S. is the society, which is really primitive, it is based on hating the others and to be scared by the others. Everywhere they check you, everywhere there are signal of fear for whatever, bombs, attacks, guns, illness... In the metro there was even a poster of a medical insurance that was trying to sell some medicine(probably a kind of aspirine....) and it was written :"Influenza can kill! Save your children!"... Come on, I should have died 100 times!! Or "If you see something (a picture of a bad guy with a gun) say something (a picture of a woman shouting)", "Illegal gun: 3 years of jail", and a lot of other signs about terrorism and so on.... but come on!! Who the hell you think you are? It's incredible how they are afraid you want to stay there forever, in the airport they asked me hundreds of question about where I will stay, adress of the hotel, how long I was planning to stay, why, what I want to do there and bla bla bla.... but when all the american turist come here in Amsterdam to kill themselves with joints we don't bother them so much! And life here is so incredibly better then there, I really cannot imagine why someone should want to leave our beautyful city to go in that crap. Unless, of course, you're a millionaire... in that case you can enjoy the Opera and have a nice clean appartment next to the one of Woody Allen, you go around only in taxi or with a private car with driver and you probably have much to do everyday.... We have lived more or less like millionaire in these days, so we have enjoyed the holiday pretty much, but I don't think I would spend there more then few days....
Enjoy Europe!
Sunday, February 18, 2007
The Empire State 2.3
Happy New Year!
As you all know, the year of the Fire Pig has begun.
That means fortune and fertility for everyone!
To celebrate this event I decided to go to Flushing - the Asian neighborhood in Queens - to attend to the Lunar New Year Parade with some friends of mine (with the fundamental supervision of a Chinese girl).
Actually the parade was for both the Chinese and Korean community (but the Korean part sucks as compared with the Chinese one) but at a certain point they split and we followed the Chinese one going to a market place for more celebrations.
I had my rate of dragons and red lanterns, Pekin ducks and amazing fishes, harp music and green tea cakes...
I'm quite satisfied: here in the States I had the chance to know and learn something more about these eastern folks (I had also very good impressions about three Japanese people during my staying here) and they very fascinating.
And moreover the number of bad words I know in Chinese is increasing!
AND now I know what's the meaning of the spheres the white dragon grabs in the Bhutan flag (I know you all were wandering about that): it's the symbol of power and wealth...
What shall I ask more from the Fire Pig year?
probably more RAM...
and anyway, quoting the wise (Sun Tzu): "of the (Fire) Pig one doesn't throw anything away"
PS: I'm going to take a week off so see you in March from The Netherparts!
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
The Empire State 2.2
(aka: previously on lost)Here we are.
My long stay in The Empire State (and neighboring states) is on its way: the next week end I'll go to The Queens for the Chinese New Year Parade and after that I'm going to take a week off so this will be one of the last upgrades of The Empire State 2.
So its time for summarize and for draft a ranking of the cities I visited.
All four are of course American cities (huge and spread out urban areas, built for cars and without a city center) so they are very different from the cities in Europe; anyway: New York City is obviously the best. There are so many things to do and to see that you feel nearly to be in a real city. Its problem is that it's a (too) well known place, especially from movies, so when you see something interesting you live a sort of deja vu that makes you not to be able to appreciate it completely. But still...
Boston is also a nice place especially because it is the only (big) city in the US built before the car era. That means that the street and the districts are human and you can walk through the old city and see some other people around you (instead of yellow cabs). Cons: a huge Little Italy and a typical (New) English weather.
On the contrary the other two cities (Washington and Philadelphia) are a bit boring. Actually if you like federal buildings and war memorials (Washington) or "old" houses (200 years) and items from the US independence (Philly) they are full of those.
If you don't, then they have not so many thing to offer...
Anyway in Washington you can visit a Space Museum with the residues of the Soviet Union while in Philadelphia you can enjoy the Cheese-steak!!
In general also here it is true that the souther you go the better you eat (as everywhere).
I have still to prove that the souther you go the bidetter you find
see you
ps: picture here: http://picasaweb.google.com/keterelyon
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Italians & Dutch
Brief compendium of the Italian & Dutch way of life.... today I experienced both.
First of all, this morning I had to go to the Italian Consulat in Amsterdam, to get the passport stamp to go in the States. Going there it is like entering in a movie, from some point of view an horror movie, but for sure in a science fiction movie, because such things are not happening in real life.....
So, first of all I was in front of the Consulat at 9.55 (it opens at 10, from 10 to 12, you can take your time...) and there was already few people standing in queue. The funny thing is that when they opened, at 10.00, they let enter only 2 people per time, and everybody else was just standing below a sort of metal detector that was by all means a fake.
When I finally manage to enter there is a nice folkloristic guy giving you a random number to wait for your turn (Do you know the Tim Burton's movie Beetle Juice). And when I say random, I mean random, in fact sometimes he gives the same number several times to different people ("Eh, può succedere..."). Anyway the bright side is that you didn't need the number at all, because there are no screens or any other way to know who is being served or who is before you.
Served? Did I say served? Because actually there were three desks, but hardly one person behind them, doing whatever he wanted. He was eventually calling someone to serve him, but there was no order at all, and after he finished with one person (mean time 15minutes) he disappeared for like 10 minutes doing God knows what. Luckily I was like the third in the queue, so I had to wait only 50 minutes. When finally my turn arrived I went to the desk, and I asked for a stamp for the passport. He stared at me distrustfully and he asked me since when I was registered in Amsterdam. I told him 7 months and he looked satisfied... It's a proper amount of time to be considered by the Italian burocracy. He asked me 40.30€ and I gave him 50.30 (I didn't want to pay by pin-card because the italian consulat is the only place in The Netherlands where you have to pay 0.40€ of commission to use the card, everywhere else is free...) and he told me he would have be back in 5 minutes. On the spot I thought "What the hell, five minutes to get a stamp?!?". After almost 20 minutes I realised he has been quite optimistic. In the meanwhile few people has passed in front of me, of course, while a poor Dutch guy had the number just after mine but as he was slow in understanding numbers (of course, the "calls" were only in Italian) he has been overtaken by something like 5 people. When I finally get my stamp (the guy at the desk was kind enough to change also the residence location on my passport) and my money back, I pushed the Dutch guy in front, telling to the desk-man it was his turn and I left. I heard behind me few voices complaining and insulting the Dutch guy because he hasn't been fast enough. When the door closed behind me, I felt in a free country again.
Unlukily I didn't know that to complete the morning I had to experience also the Dutch life. So when I get back to my bike I found the front tire flat again. It is the third time in 4 days, and I was a bit annoyed, also considering that last Saturday I changed the whole inner tire, just to be sure. I pumped it (now I always ride around with a fietspump, and all the other stuff you need to repair a bike) and I get at Nikhef. There, Gordon has shown all his Dutchiness and he fixed my tire in a time record and in front of all the nikhef, having transported the bike inside. Now it seems ok again, hopefully it will last a little longer. That was fast, so Holland-Italy 1-0...
Monday, February 05, 2007
The Empire State 2.1
(aka weekly review on the physics we're onto; coming soon on PPT presentation)Here I am again, after the Potential Most Boring Week End in the History of Mankind.
At the moment I'm watching the XLI Super Bowl (Indianapolis Colt: 19 - Chicago Bears: 14 , six minutes to the end of third quarter) and yesterday I had my first Campbell's soup; so I can say my work here is finished, I'm quite satisfied.
Actually the condensed soup needed the addition of milk I didn't have so it turned to be a sort of watered-down condensed stuff smelling like fish but tasting like potatoes. Not so bad.
Especially because I cooled it down out of the window so that it regain a bit of its consistence (am I the only one in the world who likes the cool soups?).
I know: I'm ready to live under a bridge.
Speaking of bridges I have to note down the most stupid bridge of the known (by me) world: the Kosciuszko Bridge. It connects The Queens to Brooklyn (Interstate 278 or Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) and it's a ill-proportioned enormous bridge over a very small naked canal; it's really impressive also because while you're travelling on it you don't realize it's over some water.
However it offers the possibility of the complete view of Manhattan (it's quite far from that) and I think it's the best place for take a picture of the whole borough, even if it is not possible to walk on it (it's a bridge planned only for cars, as everything here after all) and you can't stop the car over there.
So here it comes its uselessness.
Cheers
Saturday, January 27, 2007
New features
I followed the suggestion of a new advertisement for my blog, so here there is the "Tell a friend" button, so you can suggest your friends to visit my blog.
And, (thanks to Giovanni) for who has stress problem, here you can also help yourself punching as much as you want mr. Berlusconi! So, have fun!
The Empire State 2.0
(aka weekly review on the physics we're into)
Yes, I'm back in the land of the brave and the home of the free (turkeys).
Everything is like I expected to be: veeeery cold (-13 Celsius at noon) and snowy, veeeery geese and turkey (the adverb of being turkey), veeeery far from home.
I'm going to stay here in the long long island for another month so I decide to update (and upgrade) the last version of the review.
The question that bothers my sleep in these first days is: what the hell the turkeys do during winter?
Do they migrate to New Jersey?
Do they hole up in some holes in the ground?
Do they just wait for the next thanksgiving?
Are they a seasonal animal or can they survive more than a year (if they are not so inductivist to escape the thanksgiving)?
Why are they still here and they keep going around in flocks also with -20 degrees?
Why are they staring at me when I go out in the morning?
obsession...
Anyway, the pictures are always in the same place (follow the link above) but this time I decided to take just the pictures I like, so be prepared to just a few boring images of trees and don't tease me.
obsession...
Yes, I'm back in the land of the brave and the home of the free (turkeys).
Everything is like I expected to be: veeeery cold (-13 Celsius at noon) and snowy, veeeery geese and turkey (the adverb of being turkey), veeeery far from home.
I'm going to stay here in the long long island for another month so I decide to update (and upgrade) the last version of the review.
The question that bothers my sleep in these first days is: what the hell the turkeys do during winter?
Do they migrate to New Jersey?
Do they hole up in some holes in the ground?
Do they just wait for the next thanksgiving?
Are they a seasonal animal or can they survive more than a year (if they are not so inductivist to escape the thanksgiving)?
Why are they still here and they keep going around in flocks also with -20 degrees?
Why are they staring at me when I go out in the morning?
obsession...
Anyway, the pictures are always in the same place (follow the link above) but this time I decided to take just the pictures I like, so be prepared to just a few boring images of trees and don't tease me.
obsession...
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
New Blog design!!
- New green design
- New language: from this moment on, only English is allowed
- New links!
- New hit counter, poll section & the big news: a Guest map! Put a flag on your city!
- Feeds reader in the bottom of the page (Repubblica & Hardware Upgrade)
Any comment will be welcome!!!
De muis in de huis
Ora il sondaggio è più sul sociale, vedremo cosa vi aspettate dal futuro!!
Monday, January 15, 2007
Corso di olandese
Ho appena cominciato un corso di olandese... figo... a parte la pronuncia che secondo me è assolutamente impossibile...ma sembra divertente!!Ho messo anche un sondaggio a riguardo, per vedere come ve la cavate voi!!
Monday, January 01, 2007
Anno Nuovo
Non ho scritto per un bel po' a causa dell vacanze natalizie, Ermes e` tornato, siamo tornati a Ts per le feste, e tutti vissero felici e contenti....
Che dire...
cerchiamo di ripristinare il blog, anno nuovo blog nuovo!!
Proposte?
Continuiamo con la cosa dei sondaggi?
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