Milanese yearbook

Last week I went through all the pictures that I've taken during my time spent in Milan in an attempt to pick out the best ones and get them printed. Before I leave I will make a sort of yearbook, where I'll glue in some photos of some of my favorite Milanese memories and ask my friends and colleagues here to sign. Here are some of the photos I dug up!

Amongst my lovely colleagues in the lab at STM

Maria and I in the galleria

Gina, Eleonora, Cynthia, Marthica, Maria and I celebrating
July 4 in Milan representing in red, white & blue

My 26th birthday party at home :)

agosto

I'm probably the worst blogger there is because all these exciting things happen in my life and I never have the time/energy to write about them! That being said, I guess it's better that I'm out living and experiencing all these wondrous things than sitting around blogging them, right?

It's August now, and we all know what that means... vacanze! Well in Italy that's what it means, anyway. Milan in August is a sight to be seen: the city empties, public transport slows down to a crawl, stores close whenever they feel like it, and you can even see the occassional tumbleweed drift down the untrafficked streets.

For me it's just a few more days of work at STMicroelectronics before I resign. It's been a wild ride, but now I'm off to a new part of the world to experience new challenges. To keep everyone in the loop, my August plans are:

• Lyon, France 8/6-8/9
• Stockholm, Sweden 8/16-8/19
• Camogli, Italy 8/20-8/21
• NYC 8/25

Not too shabby I'd say!

The next few weeks will be full of arrivederci s and organizing myself both physically and mentally for my big move to NYC. Wish me luck as I bid farewell to my beloved Milano!

Indonesia here I come..!

Tonight begins another adventure: I'm off to Indonesia to visit my father. Originally I was supposed to meet a VIP (seriously though, very important person) there but due unforeseen challenges (it's just the biggest environmental disaster in history) this encounter will have to be postponed. Nonetheless, I leave for Indonesia tonight and I couldn't be more excited.

The itinerary is jam-packed: arrival Thursday night, Saturday and Sunday scuba diving in Bali, Monday through Wednesday in the rainforests of Kalimantan exploring the stomping grounds of wild orangutans and pythons, Thursday/Friday in Surabaya hanging out with a friend from graduate school who lives there, and then back to Jakarta for the following weekend I imagine. BAM! It'll be a quick and intense trip, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Oh and on the way back to Italy I'll be spending just 1 of the 1001 arabian nights in Dubai, once again reuniting with a friend who I met during one of my travels.

It's hard to imagine what the emotions will be while visiting all these places. From familiar Milan to the jungles of Kalimantan is a long way to go, and the thought of breathing new air and seeing new sights lifts up my psyche, kickstarts my imagination and reminds me of the refreshing fact that the world is really much bigger than my bubble.

-- Sidenote: for those of you who are my friends on Facebook you may have noticed that I've deactivated my profile. I received many concerned emails from friends and family who are so used to following me on fb; some of whom were writing to me with the same level of urgency as if I had just had a lobotomy or something (...it's just a fb account kids!). I just feel like it's too invasive and not really my style anymore. I don't like the idea of staying totally out of touch however, so feel free to email me and stay tuned for stories, pictures and the like which I'll be posting here every now and then. Ta ta!

Stockholm

I was in Stockholm with my mom this weekend... check out some pictures from our trip.

Damsugare, kokosbollar and kladdkaka. Swedish classics.

Mom and I. Also Swedish classics.

On the bridge to Reimersholme at 12:30 am: the sun just dips below the horizon.

Riding the train through Skåne.

The Vasa museum, as seen from Stockholm's archipelago.

The gates to Djurgården.

Stockholm's beautiful City Hall, where the Nobel reception dinner is held each year.

Cioccolata calda

This weekend I'm off to visit my sister in Switzerland and when asked if she wanted anything from Italy she asked me for cioccolata calda. Italian cioccolata calda is a whole different animal from the hot chocolate we're used to in the US. It is much more dense, less sugary and coats the mouth (and the belly) with a rich gooey chocolatey taste. In the US we're accustomed to ripping open a packet of Swiss Miss (complete with those dried-out crunchy mini marshmallows), adding hot water and BOOM hot chocolate, but Italians aren't known for such pre-packaged quick fixes. I've only ever had this treat in bars here and never having seen anyone make it at home I had to do a little research into how it's prepared.

Here's a recipe for classic Italian cioccolata calda:

• 1/2 liter milk 
• 100 g dark chocolate (<70 % cacao)  
• 50 g sugar 
• 10 g potato starch 
• whipped cream

Melt the chocolate, some of the milk and sugar together in a saucepan at low heat. When the chocolate is melted and the mixute looks homogeneous slowly add the rest of the milk while stirring. Add the potato starch and stir well. Remove from heat one it has reached the desired density. (If you want it really dense you can add even more potato starch to thicken the pot..!) Pour it into the cup and add the whipped cream on top. Sprinkle with cocoa powder on top and voilà!

Stealing back my stolen wallet

I have to give it to them; it was indeed a nice try. Had I not heard my lipgloss fall to the metro platform floor and had my lightening quick friend Maria with me my wallet would be lying in a heap with hundreds of others in some gypsy camp right about now.

This is how it went down: last night my friend Maria and I were on our way to catch the red line metro from Loreto. I pull out my wallet, tap it to the sensor at the entrance of the metro which sounds off a buzz and allows me to pass through the turnstile. I place the wallet back in my purse which is hanging over my shoulder and saunter down the stairs to the platform blabbering on with Maria about this or that. Once on the platform I hear something fall to the floor, and turn around to see my lipgloss lying there. As I reach down to pick it up Maria asks me if I have everything else from my purse, and when patted down with my hand I realize that my wallet isn’t there. Maria, who has been the unfortunate victim of several metro robbery attempts, starts telling me that the two 20-something girls who are standing beside us watching me have taken my wallet. I say to one of them, “Apri la borsa!” and she voluntarily opens her bag wide and I don’t see my turquoise blue wallet anywhere. Maria assumes the worst; that these girls quickly snagged the wallet and have already passed it off to an accomplice who made a run for it. I noticed that the girl had a second bag, under her other arm, which she was holding close to her body. I demanded that she open that one too, and went to grab it from her. As I held the straps of the purse I saw my wallet squeezed between the bag and her body. At first she tries to hide it from me but I grabbed it.

Just a regular Tuesday.

Creation from last night: Tigerkaka, or Marble cake.

While I was experimenting with cake my roommate Valery decided to try out a new lemon-y cocktail on me: lots of vodka, lemon juice, and lemon snaps. Wow! It made for a spectacular Tuesday evening at home. Enjoy the photos!

Let's not forget this morning: I made my first latte macchiato! It turned out deliciously well. Excellent way to start the day!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

"People who photograph food and display the pictures online"

I read this article a few days ago and think I'll start doing this on my blog. Some of the food I eat here is so beautiful I think it deserves to be showcased. Will especially be posting photos of baked goods and other dishes that I cook myself. This will also be neat to do when I go to Indonesia!
Check out what people are doing in the following NYTimes article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/dining/07camera.html?scp=1&sq=pictures%20food%20&st=cse

Let me start here - some photos of Swedish SEMLOR that I baked a few weeks ago for mardi gras.

Swedish chef

I think my love affair with Milan is ending. We've had a great run, made amazing memories together and fallen in love over the years. Recently however, upon returning to Milan after skiing in the Swiss alps with my mother and sister, I realized that I might be moving on from my relationship with Milan. We just seem to be growing apart from one another.

In the past few months I have applied to a number of PhD programs in the USA and Canada. After a slew of rejections (I received my last rejection letter about 2 months ago) things have been suspiciously quiet on the PhD application front. This has given me plenty of time to make myself crazy with all the "what ifs?" that are swirling around in my head. So what if I'm not accepted anywhere? At this point I've already given my 3 months notice to my landlord and we've even found new renters; expected to move in the first week of June. Will I stay in Milan, even if my head and heart have already moved on? Or should I move closer to my family in New York, even though I don't have anything solid lined up there? Believe me, it's not an easy desicion.

I've recently been toying with the idea of changing careers (please don't tell my mom, she'll kill me). Yes being an engineer is rewarding and I love the work I do but there are other options and I have other passions which I might find just as much pleasure pursuing professionally. For example, I might want to try my hand at being a pastry chef. Baking has been a hobby of mine for a long time, and with positive feedback from friends and colleagues I've been motivated to consider this as an alternative to chemical engineering... I mean afterall, they are really similar: selection and preparation of just the right ingredients, mixing components in precise quantities, heating to a specific temperature for just the right amount of time to permit a chemical reaction to occur, and ensuring the final product comes out just right.

Who knows, I might be the next Swedish chef!

2 ships passing

Yesterday after work I went to the central train station in Milan, the elegant and imposing Stazione Centrale, to buy a train ticket to go visit my sister in Switzerland in May. I walked up the stairs from the metro and to my surprise right in front of me was a very familiar face, that of my first love. For about a year and a half of my time spent living in Milan I was paranoid that I might run into him; and if I did, what then? Would I make a run for it? Or look straight past him with cold and unforgiving eyes? Or greet him as I would any old friend with a big hug and a warm smile?
As it turns out, after all that time has passed, my reaction was the latter. We had a chuckle at the chances of running into each other in such a busy transit point at rush house, I accompanied him to buy a train ticket, and we embraced and shared a quick kiss before he ran off to catch his train.
He went his way, I went mine.