December 31, 2005

happy new year 2006!!!

i couldn't ask for a better year than 2005: getting married (twice, to the same amazing guy!), beautiful honeymoon to bali, fantastic trip to kalimantan, getting accepted at DA/Ivrea, getting a scholarship, leaving my job, moving to italy into a great apartment. there is not a day that i am not grateful.

here's to an equally, if not better, fantastic 2006 for everyone! xoxoxo, yasmina

edit: wow! the above image made it to Flickr's Interestingness page for December 31st 2005. yayness! sweet way to end the year, this is my second Interestingness frontpage :)

Posted by Yasmina at 02:20 PM | Comments (6)

December 30, 2005

days in milan

last night, karen, andreas and i went to birrificio di lambrate which is just around the corner from my apartment. it was around eleven when we got there, and the place was packed. i really identified with the clientele there: youngish, twenty-something crowd, they look like designers. or overgrown skaters. it was a cool place to hang out and have drinks with friends.

today, after a late start, karen, andreas and i went to explore the naviglie grande area of milano. pentako and ulrich came along too. it was really sunny outside, but really cold. the melted snow puddles on the sidewalks had begun to crystallise again.

we went into a couple of bookshops, that had beautiful art books, as well as more up-to-date design books. as i looked over the antique books, i thought of anton, who'd definitely love these books.

we met up with david and eva, and went to forma. forma is a photography institute, located not far from the naviglie grande.

they were having an exhibit on martin schoeller, who did these close-up facial portraits of celebrities and people. the bigger exhibition was Storie di sguardi, which "consists of a broad overview of 150 years of photographic inventions and creations, which explore the different glances through a series of key images." shame that all the accompanying text in the exhibit was all in italian.

anyway, it was a nice day out with friends today. robert was still sick so he stayed home alone. right now i am waiting for dinner to be ready. i am SO hungry. karen and andreas are preparing a german dinner, since they brought me fresh maultasschen (sp?) from germany.

my upstairs neighbor is playing the piano and it is nice to listen to her/him play. the other week they were playing the piano and the guitar, which was also enjoyable to hear. i hope they don't become irritating in the future though.

Posted by Yasmina at 08:06 PM | Comments (1)

December 28, 2005

loving milan

i am probably still in honeymoon phase.

but i don't think i can ever leave.

Posted by Yasmina at 01:40 PM | Comments (3)

December 23, 2005

first day in milano

yay! we're finally here!

after a hectic morning at schiphol airport, we got to milano orio al serio, where we met up with kathya, who flew in from frankfurt. we settled into our new apartment in milan; it's in a great location, the neighborhood is full of character, and the flat is retro with high-ceilings and tile floorings. we explored the neighbourhood a bit, had an italian lunch around the corner, then went to duomo for photos and a walkabout.

December 15, 2005

christmas packets of ultra awesome-ness

happiness! today i received not one, but two packages in the mail! omg, i have really generous friends, i am counting my blessings! christmas is starting early for me this year, i think, heheh...

the first package came from thalia in singapore. she has started a new project called the avocadolite farm, which is a collection of mini crochet characters that she made and designed herself. her husband ari, is in charge of writing each character's stories. the mini figures are available for purchase on the site. each character is one-of-a-kind and has their own unique stories.

quick! adopt them before they run out!

the second package came from kathya in germany. kathya the überfräu-oh-mighty-chef made us a batch of homemade dark-chocolate-dried-cherry-pecan cookies, packaged in a beautiful christmas tin, with a lovely accompanying card. time for milk and cookies for me then!

in the last weeks, i've also received packages in the mail from adam in new york and from patricia in sweden. :)

seriously, guys, thank you SO much for everything. your happy packages just made my day (and robert's too)... i hope he gets home soon, otherwise i'll eat all the cookies...

*sprouts wings and flies off to the clouds*

Posted by Yasmina at 01:03 PM | Comments (5)

December 13, 2005

thomas + chocolate-chip muffins

baking chocolate chip muffins with marie and thomas. marie downloaded a really yumm muffin recipe from the internet and they came out really delicious! light and fluffy and chocolatey!

robert and i came over with bagel sandwiches to have lunch at marie's. she and david had just had a second baby, a little brother to thomas, called oliver. i should have photos of oliver but he was sleeping so i didn't take any. he was such a quiet baby, sleeping in his pram in the living room, even though we were cooking and eating together and thomas was running around the apartment hyperactive on chocolate-chip muffins.

Posted by Yasmina at 11:38 PM

December 11, 2005

'tis the season to be baking

last week i went over to visit cathrine and little ebbe and spent an afternoon baking traditional norwegian gingerbread cookies. it was fun! although we were a bit silly for forgetting to buy any cake icing to decorate the cookies with. we did have cookie cutters though, so we made different shape cookies.

the cookies came out really well, and i've been munching on them whilst enjoying my afternoon tea. it's been so cold lately outside, and homemade gingerbread cookies and herbal tea is the perfect companion for when i am curled on the couch, reading my new books: jonathan safran foer's "extremely loud & incredibly close" and banana yoshimoto's "hardboiled | hard luck".

Posted by Yasmina at 10:06 PM

December 10, 2005

foodswap round 2

yayness! i received my foodswap package from adam in nyc! god knows how long it's been sitting on my desk at work, but someone kindly informed robert so he picked it up for me! :-)

he sent some spanish biscuits (galetas), some salt olives from chinatown, blueberry farm lemon tea, pumpkin pancake cookies, and a box of VERY LUSCIOUS maraschino cherries in fondant and milk chocolate. omg, heaven!!! thank you SO much, adam!

p.s. i hope my secret receiver receives their package soon! i sent it on november 25th and the post office said it would take 5-6 working days and it is not yet at its destination, boo hoo! or maybe the receiver is too busy to post? :-(

Posted by Yasmina at 12:42 PM | Comments (2)

December 08, 2005

a present from patricia

last week we received this package, from patricia, via laszlo, via ozgur. what happened to regular snail mail? ;-)

it was very very sweet of patricia to send us this. the packet contained really yummy swedish caramel candy. they're soft and chewy, like the english toffee alexis used to bring me, and these have a subtle hint of some unfamiliar spice to me: a mix of cardamom and cinnamon?

in any case, i've been munching on them non-stop, even in class, whilst teaching my students. and no, i did not offer my students any candy, hehe... rude, i know... muse learn. to. share. yumminess. with. others. i. must. play. nice.

Posted by Yasmina at 04:11 PM | Comments (1)

December 06, 2005

untitled

robert: you should update your blog, you know.
me: why? ~~i don't feel like writing~~ i don't have anything to write.
robert: well, people have been asking me why you haven't updated in like, 3 weeks. they thought that you've disappeared off the face of the earth.

it's true. i am stuck in this 'i don't feel like writing' phase. i have things to write about, i guess. like, going to see tim burton's 'the corpse bride', and seeing 'harry potter 4', and oh, joão was here! he was here for almost two weeks, but he was in london for almost a week and he was staying at laszlo's in rotterdam. we went out for drinks a few times, but i still feel like we hadn't spent enough time together. maybe i'm just selfish and want him all to myself, hahaha.

it's my last week in NL. mid-week next week i am moving into my new apartment in milano. :-)

then, people suddenly realise you're going to be gone so they all want to meet you for drinks/lunch/dinner/socialising. which is nice! sometimes i wonder how i will be missed.

Posted by Yasmina at 08:51 AM | Comments (7)

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