New Year, New Job

The morning after my long trip I had to start work. With the 11 hour time difference it was not difficult to get up early, and although I had no luggage (it was delayed again), I went to work in jeans and met the staff and had my first day. I felt very calm and comfortable there, it was during the next few days when the whirlwind would begin and there would be challenges and opportunities and lots of new things to take in and learn. Listening and paying attention is the best way in the beginning in my opinion though. There are really good people here who know what they are doing and that's a valuable asset. I look forward to learning from them. So far, so good.

New Years Eve and the long flight

New Year's Eve was cold, and ever since I accepted the job I was able to stand the cold less and less each day. Especially the last week when all my stuff had been packed up and sent to the port in Genova to be shipped off, I had very few warm clothes since I could only take two suitcases with me. It was cold, but we had a lovely dinner with friends and then hit a club for a few hours. On no sleep I took the early morning flight to London then to Los Angeles then to Honolulu. Arriving early evening, I checked into the hotel next to work where I was to stay for the following month, ate something and went to sleep. I was tired, so tired.

Berlin for our DJ Booking

Dani and I, better known as The SubDivision in dubstep terms, were booked by promoters in Berlin to play a big party there on December 6th, so we flew in and spent the weekend there. It was a blast and we had a great time, and performed well if I do say so myself. Ironically, just before my departure I started to be asked to play sets almost every week! Funny that. But it was good for Dani and I to see some success from our music. Our first proper release, Devil's Kiss on Mode Recordings was launched in December as well. We now have momentum to build upon and a good number of excellent tracks to release over the next few months. Being apart will be a hindrance to music on one level, but I feel secure in the fact that we will be able to succeed nonetheless.

Time to party

The weeks between my accepting the job in Honolulu and leaving Italy, which would be scheduled for the 1st of January, 2008, were filled with trips to the bar with friends to have last get-togethers. Trouble was that there were many friends thus many get-togethers, hence lots of drinking for me. It was an intense time full of emotion, but I remained calm and happy and sure about the move and the new life. Chapters end and new ones begin and it was time to turn the page, but not forget friendships forged and memories of good times in Italy. I promised myself that a part of me would remain first of all European and secondly Italian, as the times there have made me a better person on so many levels.

I get the job in Honolulu

A month after I got back from my "business trip" to Honolulu, which was actually an interview for a position at Hawai'i Pacific University, I was selected and accepted the position of Director of the International Center there. I would start work 7 weeks later, so it was time to wrap up everything from work to housing, friends to other personal stuff, and leave Italy and Europe after 10 years.....

Hawaii Business Trip

I went to Hawaii for work reasons last week. I was lucky enough to be able to spend 4 days in Honolulu, which is a fantastic town. It has everything you can want from a city, but is not so large so that you get lost in it. The air is clean, the temperature and weather perfect, and the people are quite nice. The ethnic diversity is also very interesting, with around 60% Asian, 20% Hawaiian and 20% other. Unfortunately I didn't have time to do alot of different things during my time there, but I was able to relax on the beach and see a couple different spots. Good food there as well. Recommended. Hopefully I will be able to return soon....who knows....

Trondheim, Norway - EAIE Conference (12-17 Sept. 2007)

I have been in Trondheim Norway for the last few days for the European Association of International Educators conference. Always a good chance to learn more about your job and the best practices of other universities. It really gives you positive drive to better your programs and ideas to improve and implement things. I've had a few good ideas come through over the last few days. Besides that, meeting 2,500 people who are working in the same sector as yourself is always an interesting experience.

As far as the city goes, I always enjoy new cities. I hadn't been to Norway since I was knee-high and 4 years old, and didn't remember much about it. Well, that's not true, I spent an afternoon in Tromso, in northern Norway in 1994 while on student exchange in Finland when we had a field course in the north. I remember the colors from that trip.....grey, a bit of green, and more grey. The water seemed grey as well as the sky, and it was broken up by the green of the vegetation (not too much of it, this is tundra country) and the dark grey granite of the rocky coast. I find that although Norway is a fascinating country geographically, with it's crazy coastline, it doesn't really appeal to me that much otherwise. I think this is mostly due to the inclimate weather. It ranged from 5 degrees Celsius to 12 degrees, which is fine, but the thing is that you can never tell when it will rain! It might be clear and in 5 minutes clouds move in and it rains for ten minutes. Then nothing. Then it starts to rain horizontally with gusty winds. Then nothing. Then it hails. Umbrella's don't help. I ruined two of them in the last few days. The last one basically collapsed on itself while I was walking to the conference from the hotel. i arrived soaking. Unfortuantely all of my winter stuff is in storage at the moment and I only had on a business jacket. I was freezing and a pathetic sight. Today it is raining again (it's rained every day) and we are supposed to take a boat tour of the fjord. Hopefully it will clear up a bit so we can enjoy it. Someone told me the other day that last year they had 87, yes, 87 days straight with rain. I couldn't live in a place like this. But there are good things, like the salmon, and the Norwegian people are very nice and warm. If anything, because of the crazy weather I won't soon forget the trip!