Bye Bye Calatrava

It’s two in the morning. Ok I am ready to sleep. I turn off the light but I cannot sleep. I keep thinking. I am in Milan. As I was two years ago. But the guy who is lying in the bed is not the same. He has changed. He has changed a lot. Not in his essence, but in the way he thinks, in the way he see life and the world. In his habits. In his friends. And my memories go through the last two years. I think about the moment I went out of the parking of Calatrava for the last time. I turned left. I miss Calatrava now. I have the clear picture of how via Augusta looked like in that moment. I should have turned right, have a trip in the city. Once more. The streets I’ve been through many times. I should have gone to the gym on Sunday. Would have been the last time. Because the last time I’ve been through those streets and to the gym and to the beach and to anywhere else, I didn’t do that with the consciousness that were the last one. Oh my god. I need to go back there, I need it. I feel something in my stomach. I want to be there. And my memory now goes back a little bit more. I went into the elevator. I pushed -3 to go to the parking. I am just one floor down and I hear Noelle calling me because I left something. I reach -3 but I push again 7 to see what I left. By the time the door opens, we are both crying. I big hug, and we both cry on each other’s shoulder. And I am crying now. Drops on my keyboard. And back again. Marco leaving the flat. Big hug, then he turns the corner of the living room. I hear “giorgiooooo” and he comes back. Another hug. It’s tough to say goodbye. It’s tough to realize that the people you’ve been living with for 2 years are going to be far from you. Not to far maybe, but won’t ever be the same. And now flows of random memories. Where is Marco saying “chicos… Photo!” when we take the elevator to go out. Where is Noelle saying “I’m fucked up for this… let’s put some music!”. Where is Huy, the most disorganized organized Vietnamese German on earth. I need him. I need Rafa drunk at our place even the day before the marketing exam. I need to hear that Matteo has just got another fine for being drunk on a moto. I need the daily habits of meeting people around, having people coming at home unexpectedly and to visit people just because I was passing by. This is all gone. I want to stay there. Ok we need to work. But I want to stay in Barcelona, with all my friends working in the same town. I want to stay in my flat, with my friends at few blocks from me. I want to wake up on Sunday morning and have pictures of the weekend to look at. I don’t want a time machine and relive these two years. I just want to continue but with everybody in the same place. And this is not possible. Everything is gone. Maybe the only thing left is Matteo drunk on a moto. I really hope he buys one here in Milan.

Dedicated to my extended calatrava family: You know I can't smile without you I can't smile without you I can't laugh and I can't sing I'm finding it hard to do anything You see I feel sad when you're sad I feel glad when you're glad If you only knew what I'm going through I just can't smile without you

Bling Blonde

What Am I doing in Barcelona in these days? Hang around, take some pictures. This one for example (in eixample).

A pure classic...

Young girls love poo

Last update was March 31st. Why? Don't know. For me writing a blog comes natural as a flow of random words out of my brain (do i have one?). And my brain is on only when under pressure, which is not the state I am in in the last month and a half. I've been traveling in spain with some of my best friends from IESE. Then graduation day and then again vacation. But i cannot stay in this state too long. That's why I asked BCG to anticipate my starting date to June 4th instead of September. I don't have money to travel as i would love to do and I am bored of asking money home. Now I don't want to force myself too much to write something so i will just post some pictures from the last weeks, starting from the spain roadtrip to the last event, Chris and Kathi's wedding!

Jumpin under the windmills in memory of Don Chichotte!

The advantage of being the taller of the group: we were 6 in the car but I was on the passenger seat!

Matteo is sleeping? Let's jump him!

A close up of Matteo on the atlantic coast between Santander and Bilbao

Salamanca, university city. Let's have some action!

You don't need a reason to jump

It didn't work out very well...

Many things to remember of this trip... among them for sure:

• Matteo Marcietta bullshitting every other sentece. Like when we entered salamanca and just by being there two minutes he made an estimate of the size of the city and the population and compared it to Piacenza. Definitely he will found the PCG (piacenza consulting group).
• Huy who booked an hotel in san sebastian and we've been looking for it for two hours ending up on the hills just to find out that the hotel he booked was not in San Sebastian (and Matteo's "logrobobos" in the middle of the phone call with the hotel, a word that in spanish does not exist at all!).
• Huy's "PERDONAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
• Saturday night at VIP Cielo of Pacha in Madrid with Diego. Back at his house at 8 in the morning and eating whatever was in the fridge, even cold meat with chocolate cookies. Suddenly, at 2pm in the middle of my best REM phase of my life, a very high tone voice woke me up yelling "A Despertarseeeeeeee!"... coplued with sheets pulled out of the bed and bulbs at full light in the room. Nice to be woken up by Diego's cute nephews!
• Diego joking about Huy "Yo no hablo espanol, yo solo chupo poja" and Huy "chupo pollo??"

Fuck i think i already forgot many of the funny things... i should have wrote this post long time ago. Shame on me. Here we go with graduation..

El trio italiano

With La Mamma and Il Papà!

I guess you know all of them

Graduation is the less funny part of the MBA, probably the one that i will remember less of these two years. It's just a ceremony where your parents discover what the hell have you been living the previous two years and have a glimps on who are this new friends with wierd names you always talk about! Then some hanging around in Barcelona with the few people that are still around in Barcelona...

Lovely Martina... Who said that models are dumb?

A nice daily trip to cadaquez, delicious village in costa brava.

An absolute must: the Dalì museum in Figueras! What a fuckin genius!

And finally here we go with the wedding, one of the most funny weekends of my life. Chris and Kathi got married in Neaudau, a small town in Austria. For most of us, this will be the next big step of our life, after the MBA. For most of us, this will be the moments when we will get together again, time for memories and hugs, laughs and tears.

Black Tie Ladies and Gentlemen

The just married couple with the IESE friends

Could a jumping pic be missing? Naaaaaaaaat

At 8 in the morning after the big party, with still lot of willingness to party!

Touching the bed at 9am and waking up at 11 can be a tough experience

How to forget people having 4 beers before the ceremony, being two days in a row hungover as part of the wedding celebrations, Francis going to bed at 9, and waking up 2 hours later still with the tux and cufflings on! Not to mention the trip into the fetish shop in Wien when i learnt that Oh-De Toilette can be a movie and that Young Girls Love Poo! Francis: "Hey we have been to a fetish shop this afternoon on our way back from the wedding!" Alexandre:"Already?" Ian:"Did you mean 'Oh really' or 'Already'?" A friend of Francis in a motel (with tiny walls), hears some voices from the room next to his Man voice (angry tone): "Where is it!!!?" Man voice (again): "Where is it!!!?" Tiny lady voice: "It's in my ass" Man voice: "You're damn right, it is!"