Silence Means Yes
Yes we are a bit too busy now to put anything down. I still owe you guys pictures from Munich, Leipzig, Berlin, Vienna, Salzburg. :) More soon.
Our current location: Ivrea, Italy
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Yes we are a bit too busy now to put anything down. I still owe you guys pictures from Munich, Leipzig, Berlin, Vienna, Salzburg. :) More soon.
Our current location: Ivrea, Italy
First of all thanks to the many greetings I received on my birthday.
It was a busy birthday for me which started very early at 12 midnight in fact. I was working away at our room in Pension Flora so that I could finish what I needed to pass on for work the next day. The day went well. I was greeted by the HR person with a nice greeting card and a small box of chocolate. Then everyone realized that it was my birthday and greeted me as well.
Work was intense, I had to do manual labor on HTML files creating almost 200 pages by cut and paste.. over and over. But I was done early, said my goodbye to my officemates and left at 4:30pm to meet Via at the train station. We picked up our rental car and headed to Leipzig (1 hour and a half away from Berlin.)
The drive was long. We could not find the exit to the highway and kept going around Munich for about an hour. Once on the road, we missed a turn and noticed that the signs were no longer saying Berlin but Frankfurt instead. So we lost another couple of hours. It was 1am, and officially the end of my birthday, when we got to our hotel in Leipzig. We were sooo tired. But the room was huge and lovely anyway.
Oh.. about Berlin, well the next day we drove to Berlin, but let me save that for another entry.
Will wonders never cease? We were once again asked to wait upon our attempt to check-in our luggage for our flight to Vienna from Munich. (Because of my expired permit of stay which I had applied for extension in March from Italy. And it did not help that my Study Visa/Schengen was expired as well) We had to wait for about half an hour for the airline personnel's colleague to come see us- this after being so relieved that we arrived almost 8 hours ahead of our flight schedule as we had to return our car rental and ship some stuff home already (another story for Noel to tell you) as we didn't want to have to pay for excess baggage.
By this time, I had postponed a much-needed response to mother nature's call, so I excused myself while Noel stayed behind to wait for the airline personnel's colleague to consult with the authorities. On my mad dash way to the bathroom, I saw 2 uniformed men make their way up to the escalator and thought to myself: "They have got to be kidding. Surely I am not that dodgy-looking?" (Credit has to go to our friend Ben for pointing this out)
Sure enough, I saw Noel already explaining to the policemen on my way back. They in turn had to consult with someone who spoke Italian to translate our very-worn documents- having been subject to countless scrutiny at several airports. Finally, after 20 minutes more or so had gone by, they came to the conclusion that we were really only going to Vienna on vacation as we had applied for extension of our permits of stay in Italy and we did have a return ticket. One of the policemen saluted me as if to say (in Noel's terms) :"Sorry Ma'am/Sir." And we shook their hands, to their surprise. (But they really weren't at fault, and were quite nice to us in fact) Then we lugged our very sorry and very tired (but also very relieved selves, thank God) to endure yet another hour until our plane was ready for us.
Today Noel turns 28 in Munich. Poor thing is still finishing up at work after a pulling quite a late night last night, making sure he transitions well to the new intern. Today is also his last day of internship at designafairs. Oddly enough, last year we celebrated his birthday in Florence as that was when we set off for Italy.
To celebrate, we will drive up to Leipzig (where author Goethe and composer Richard Wagner were born) in a few hours and stay overnight. Then we also finally get to see Berlin (Noel's been wanting to go) as we drive there the following day.
To my favorite travelling partner in the whole world, my husband, my favorite everything period, have a wonderful 28th birthday!!! Can't wait to celebrate with you as soon as you get off work. :) I love you!
I thought I had done all my crying already when I read this novel of Nicholas Sparks a couple of years ago. But when Noel and I saw the movie last night, I think I may have cried throughout the entire film! Or maybe, I had a 15 minute break. (It was my "crying-est" film, second only to Bridges of
Madison County) Even Noel was sniffling.
Towards the end of the movie, one could hear a number of sniffles and nose blowing from the audience as well. In fact, when I went to the loo to wash my face (which to my horror was beet-red with matching puffy, shrunken eyes!), this German woman told me: “Nice film.” She was also blowing her nose and wiping her eyes. And we both laughed, embarrassed at our silliness. But if you see the movie, you’ll know what it is that we were both trying to hide. Needless to say, it was a very well-made film. Acting was superb, and the story was very real.
Yesterday we went to see Schloss Nymphenburg- birthplace of Bavaria’s Fairy King, Konig Ludwig II. (I don’t know why he was dubbed “Fairy King”. An allusion to his being gay?) As noted by Noel: “The Bavarians are really fond of their gardens.” We were surrounded by lush green and striking pink rows- a very well-manicured garden. And at the center was a mini lake with happily swimming swans and what could have been seagulls. But the main attraction was this spectacular fountain which would spray water up to 2-stories high- perfect for the blistering heat yesterday. Little kids would dart to and from the fountain- screaming with delight when they got wet. And then they would pull their Mommy to join them, and she too, would scream happily with her kids. Ah, the simple joys. :)
No, not in the "Le freak, c'est chic" manner.
There were towels of blood on the subway floor this morning. And shards of glass. Definitely not your typical underground walk. Hello! Good morning!
It was with deliberate slow-motion that I shifted my gaze from the ground, upwards. Then I saw him. A large, black man seated on the stool. Being treated by paramedics. Broken lip or (heaven forbid!) gunshot to the neck? I don't know! It was a balancing act really, carefully putting one foot in front of another very gingerly (they were only clad in rubber slippers today), and craning my neck to see more of the "gruesome scene." I wanted to look, but I didn't want to look. But I also found that I couldn't turn away completely...
Every morning, as I get out of my last stop from the subway, I pass by this cafe/beer bar. And almost every morning, I see this old lady sitting down in the same table outside the cafe near the roadside. There she sips her coffee and holds a biscuit in her hand.
She looks old and grey, wearing the same set of clothes. The expression on her face is like she is mad at the world. I try to give her a smile every time I pass by, but she just ignores me. Sometimes I am too afraid to even look at her because I imagine her biting me or pulling out an umbrella and start hitting me saying something like "you asian freak! go back home, get out of my country!" But that's just my overly dramatic imagination.
It is the only accessory of mine that has gotten a lot of compliments. No kidding, and being surronded by different kinds of designers this must be one killer looking watch. It was a 'kris kringle' gift for me from Tito Smit and Tita Lit a year and a half ago. Until now, even with all the scratches, I get stopped by strangers (in my office) just to say "nice watch."
Note: this entry is also dedicated to Steven, who swears he will steal this watch someday. :)
During my commute back home yesterday, I heard english being spoken from a distance. It was a novel thing to hear, so I naturally looked at who it was. I saw a group of foreigners, some asian, mostly white european or american looking people. But what struck me was they all had this big goodie bag slung around their shoulders. It was a huge tacky white and red mailman bag. And it had something printed on in that suggested it was a giveaway at a conference. Of course the corporate logo was prominent, it was for Novartis.
This reminded me of the times my Dad used to get loads of these things from Pfizer. Don't you just love getting corporate giveaways? As a kid I used to mooch off of every giveaway he would get, I didn't care that the bag advertised a anti-depressant or that the pen had a brand of painkillers on it. My Dad happily gave it to me anyway. I wonder if I would get a chance to do the same for my kid someday...