The makings of a good aperitivo:

So once again, it's the lead up to exams where restlessness is a plague. Expect a lot of blogging from me, especially about Milan and Italy :)

We went for an aperitivo after class the other day! Aperitivo is Italy's happy hour from 7-9.30pm at restaurants/bars/pubs. You can buy a drink (alchoholic or non-alchoholic) for about 7euros and get a whole buffet spread for free! They dont cheat on the alchohol because of the price so it's a really gooood deal. There's a wide range of aperitivos ranging from italian (duh), mexican to japanese.

I'm gonna miss this when I go homee. Here's pictures of a good place we found! The spread's fantastic and there are waiters coming around offering you pizza fresh from the oven, yum. Common dishes are pasta, bread, salads, risotto, pizza, stew, chicken, desserts etc.

The golden arches.

I think McDonalds gives quite a good illustration on the difference between Italians and Singaporeans. I was standing in front of their counter the other day with Bren, waiting to order and observing. While Singapore's Macs have time turners that grant a free burger if the sand runs out faster than they serve us, Italy's Macs take all the time in the world. The italian guy that took our orders dawdled his way three times to pick up our burgers and put them into a paper bag.

I've gotten used to it by now but it still is rather interesting. Everyone takes things really slowly here and they're all very laidback. No wonder people I meet here tell me Singapore is really productive, efficient and organised. I guess you only realise the extent of it when you have a basis for comparison and you see it in action!

The irony (sadly) is that my productivity level currently stands at one chapter a day.

Forza Inter!

The soccer season's ended but before it did, we got in on some of the action! Went down to San Siro on the day Inter was playing against Sienna with Donna, both of us decked in our Inter jerseys -true bluee fans.

The atmosphere was crazy. The fans were already pumping up the tram(on the way to the stadium) with their cheers, which btw sounds very cool, the kind you want to stand up and cheer with even though you dont know the words. Here's a short pictureless soundclip I took.. It isn't the cool cheer that I like but it was the only one I could capture cause they didn't repeat the cooler cheers after I took my cam out.




Watched the match at a nearby bar and it was fun! It was completely packed with people sitting on the floor. Quite an exciting match. The whole bar jumps up cheering, shouting, hugging each other and pumping their fists in the air whenever a goal is scored. I got beer sloshed all over my feet ( by an over-enthusiastic fan) and got sprayed with a shower of beer later (by an angry and frustrated fan) when Inter was clearly drawing with Sienna near the end of the match 2-2.

Milan kinda stops in action during an important match. The entire duomo (city centre) area is packed with street stalls displaying inter flags, shirts etc and there are satellite stands set up everywhere so that people can tune into the radio and listen to the commentator on the match's progress. Bars with television have people standing outside watching through the glass panes (top right). The whole city comes to a standstill, listening intently and waiting with bated breathe (top left).

Inter's match against Sienna was clearly a bummer, leaving fans ready for a celebration going home with downcast faces. Anyway wearing inter jerseys makes for an interesting day. Throughout the day, we had people coming up telling us another team was better, trying to get us to say we prefer another team etc, was quite funny. After the match, we got asked at least 5 times for the score! Yay to our limited italian understanding.

Last week's match -Inter vs Palma was a different story though! With a triumphant win of 2-0, the whole city erupted in a celebration -very large scale one. Champions of the first league! Gooo inter, all the waaaay. The fans were out in full force at the duomo, cheering in the rain! We watched at a bar again.. first half was really boring but second half had all the kicks :)

I have some videos somewhereee, will post it when I find it!

Step into my summer paradise:

Long overdue posts. We went to cinque terre a few weeks back, a place which consists of 5 islands by the coast. It was full blown summer paradise. I think George Clooney(or some other famous celebrity) has a house there.

We went to two islands -Monterossa and Vernazza. Clear blue waters, sandy pathways, golden tans and colourful houses and boats - makes you want to jump into the waters and forget the world.. which I would have if I had extra clothes!

well worth the 3hours plus train ride :)

My happy ending,

We chanced upon a fairytale today -a full, complete rainbow glistening in the aftermath of the rain. It was beautiful beyond words. I could see the entire arch, from one end to the other! Like if I just peeked beyond a bit more, I'd see the golden pot at the end of the rainbow.

Magical moment :)

Even more magical when we realised that we're staying at Arcobaleno(which is italian for rainbow) Residence!

Here's a video taken and narrated by Jac, you can hear my voice sometimes! Haha. The video doesn't do it justice, it's muchhh prettier.

Love like yours will surely come my way.

Tell me did the wind sweep you off your feet

Did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day

And head back to the milky way

Eiffel Tower,

Paris.

Where are you Sartorialist?

Okay, before I leave Milan, I hope I see the sartorialist in action! He has pictures shot in Milan but I always miss it :(

I'm off to cook -we're cooking Singaporean dishes for Phillip and Mailys today :D

Before that, random interesting thing to note: Italians never drink cappuccino beyond 11am. It's the culture! Cappuccino is only consumed before 11am, latest 12noon (and that's pushing it already). Apparently ordering it after noon will be met with weird looks.

LONDON!

LONDON! 10 reasons why i love youu:

1. English, i dont have to do charades for once.

2. Availability of food -pret a manger (best breakfast food), chinese, thai, mexican, american etc. we'll never go hungry! plus we had singapore food there -char kway teow!

**3. Shopping!! -TOPSHOP (3 storeys whoopee), miss selfridge, next, dorothy perkins, boots, primark, warehouse, harrods.. 10-15% discount all year for students at some shops :)

4. Musicals - Wicked made me smile foreverrr. (plus Chicago which was good. We Will Rock You was really not my kinda thing though.)

5. No one comes up to you saying "Cinese? Japponese? Korean? Anyunghaseyo, Konichiwa, Ni hao.. the italians do that all the time, grr.)

6. The city's so colourful -especially the red buses, telephone booths etc.

7. Everyone has their own sense of style and you can be more experimental and wacky!

8. The accent you can listen to all day.

9. Harrods.

10. Quaint bookstores (top right) with very interesting selection of books :)

And because london makes me happy in so many other ways! :) Here's the rest:

Madame Tussauds:

Our windswept adventure walking to Tate Modern. We almost flew away with the umbrella!

Borough's Market:

you're my #1!

Tous les oiseaux du point du jour chantent l'amour

Monmarte -we took the tour for this! Apparently last time, this place was filled with artists and the area was whitewashed cause the artists washed their plaster down from the top, therefore causing the white paint to flow down the streets.

Moulin Rogue: The man behind moulin rogue started with stripteases, progressing to women dancing and kicking their legs up in the air. The shorter the skirt, the higher sales got till a point where the skirt couldn't get shortened anymore. The solution? Longer dresses with the girls wearing nothing underneath!

The image you see at the bottom left is an artwork done by an anonymous artist named 'Space Invader'. Nope, I'm not kidding! His goal is to have one of these space invaders in every country around the world. Visit http://www.space-invaders.com/ to see more pictures of invasions!



Top left: A restaurant where Pablo Picasso had his humble beginnings. Picasso exchanged his paintings here for food for a couple of months before he became famous. The owner ended up being really really rich!

Top right: The room where Van Gogh stayed, the same room depicted in Bedroom in Arles (if I heard correctly)!

Bottom left and right: Remember the show Amelie? A lot of famous scenes were shot here! On the left is the cafe where Amelie works in the show and on the right is the grocer which she passes by on her way to work every morning. I like that show :)

You can't leave Paris without a little romance!

The Louvre museum:




This was a really funny picture -see the guy behind Jac and I!! / Us cam whoring among the sunny grassy gardens :)

River Seine / More gardens:

Notre Dame (top left)! Okay I was really happy here cause I got to feed the birds :) I was standing up there looking rather silly and holding my bread (none of the birds wanted to eat my bread!) until this guy comes along and teaches me the right way! It was amazing cause after he rolled up my bread, taught me how to hold it with my fingers, all the birds stared to flock to my hand : ) : ) Cool eh? Totally madeee my daaayyyy!

I like feeding animals -horses, lambs, birds etc etc. heehee :) Aaaaand the guy could even get the birds to eat a piece of bread off the tip of his tongue. As you can tell, I was and still am very amazed.

The top of Notre Dame:

Hmm, Paris wasn't really one of my favourites but looking back at all these pictures, I think I quite like it after all!

Je m'baladais sur l'avenue le coeur ouvert à l'inconnu

im back! :) been sleeping since i came back cause i fell sick on the last day of london. awesome trip nonetheless!

I can see why people are split into two camps about Paris now. There is the romanticised view that Paris portrays and there is the uglier side of it that most people dont see (which we sadly forgot to take pictures of). Here's Paris at its best:

Galleries La Fayette, department store which has two seperate buildings, both three stories high and each solely dedicated to men and women :)

Their current exhibition, "Asiatic" -asian inspired.



My favouriteee: Fauchon - black and pink!

Fauchon: Their displays are gorgeous, mouth-watering, impeccable and perfect right down to the last raspberry haha. I loveeee.

Hediart: The fruit display really captivated us, we took TONS of pictures here. They had free pineapple samples to taste which were really really good. I can't believe people actually shop here! It looks too perfect.

Arc de Triumph:

Champs elysees: This man was actually using the mont blanc display window(top right) to hawk his goods -sticky plastic figurines that trapeze down the window. It was a sunday so the store was closed. We finally finally sat in one of those sidewalk cafes to eat (bottom left) and people watch. The chairs are always arranged to face outwards (bottom right), cool huh.

More of paris in the next post!