Company Christmas Party

And obviously,

just before Christmas, the Company party.
It's a sort of must in Northern Europe, something which cannot be missed.

Why?

Because colleagues want to see each other in a different state of mind: relaxed, tipsy and dressed up.

Everyone waits for something crazy to happen, but usually the expectations get disappointed since nothing so significant happens.

But the following year (almost) everyone is there, waiting for the "great Christmas company party"....

November snow in Dublin

The world has changed, no doubt about that. There hadn't been any snow in Ireland for about 40 years then last year it snowed for 3 days in January. But this year it started much earlier. It started on November 26th and it's going on probably until the beginning of December. What is that mean? It probably means we need to look at the world in a different way...

Dublin

Three weeks went by and so far so good. Since my arrival in Dublin I've got a job at Microsoft and a place to live in the heart of the city. I'd say my decision to move here has already paid some dividends. Let's see what happens next!

Stockholm film - Lappis movie : "The endless dream of a winter night"

Before leaving Stockholm, a few days ago, we had the premiere of the movie we made in the Swedish capital during the season 2009/2010.

You can watch the movie blog here and have a look at many backstage moments and interviews.

Now the question: is this a movie about Stockholm? Is this a movie about Sweden? Or is it just a Lappis film?

And furthermore: what is the meaning of the movie?

I can answer from the perspective of the screenwriter: it is a movie about how a foreigner can feel in Sweden; so it's Stockholm from a foreign perspective, I'd better say from different foreign perspectives.

Why Lappis? Because it is the place where many foreigners live and study.

I don't think it can be called a proper Lappis film, but all those who have lived in Lappis can recognize many things.

Enjoy!

Last month in Stockholm

Today my last month in Stockholm begins!

Here I express my feelings

Antalya - Alanya

Here is where I spent part of my holidays

Very very relaxing

Bath in Stockholm - Lappis beach

It can be very hot in Stockholm,

today there were 32 degrees, so I really needed a bath and in fact I went for a bath as you can see in the video!

Never dark in Umeå

This is Umeå, at the end of June.

As you can see in the video it's 00.50 and it's not dark.

It's never dark in Umeå in that period of the year, basically the light lasts 24 hours.

Absolutely crazy!

Bye Bye Lappis

It's the end of the season 2009/2010, and this is what Lappis looks like these days at around 10pm.
The exchange students have gone, there's almost nobody left to enjoy the longest days of the year..

Italian-Swedish dinner

Here I am,

cooking pappardelle al ragù with one of my classes.
I have to hand it to them, they cooked very well too!

Kungsträdgården in the summer

Some months ago I showed the Kungsträdgården area, which is one of the most central squares in Stockholm, during Christmas time



Now we can see the same area in a completely different period, where the light lasts 19 hours a day instead of 5, and the people can dress in a very light way

The difference is pretty clear!

In Italy when the students end secondary school (high school) there's no official celebration whatsoever, you say goodbye to your classmates, you say fuck off to you ex professors, turn your back and leave that school for ever.
In Sweden when these 19 year old students graduate, they rent a van, they sit on it, play music, drink booze, dance and have a driver that tour them all over the centre.
Here they are, and the second truck shows a very interesting slogan "hellre bonde och arbetande än ekonom och arbetslös" which means "rather farmer and worker than economist and unemployed"

Springbreak in Stockholm

Spring has come

People are happy now, they can sit on the grass and suntan

Like here in this video

Miss you dad

Four years went by. It seems yesterday, it seems a life ago.
All I can say after this time is thank you, I owe you a lot. Thanks for teaching me so many things. Thanks to “force” me to learn new languages, to see new Countries, to be critical towards what people take for granted, to suggest me live abroad. To show me what being a man means.
I know loads of people are just poor pieces of shit, mediocre or idiotic and I dislike them. But thank God there are still some good ones left, and sometimes I come across them because I can recognize them. And I recognize them because you helped me understand who they are. And for that I will always be grateful. I miss you dad

Valborg: connection in Uppsala

Vallborg is special day in Sweden, it means the winter is over and the spring has come. In other words, it’s not time to suffer anymore, it’s time to enjoy. And people enjoy it celebrating, drinking all day long. Then there’s time to go clubbing and dance. Here is a friend of mine with a new acquaintance. At the very late in the night he still had enough energy to dance with a proper dancer while his friends could only film him…

My class choosing italian food

Here is one of my classes, every student chooses
what Italian dish they will cook

Oscar in "The endless dream of a winter night"

Here is the arrival of Oscar, the flatmate of the main character in "The endless dream of a winter night". He is a real character...

To Silvio: who is the problem of Italy

As soon as I got home to spend Easter time with my family I found a letter waiting for me.
"Let's have a look! Who's writing? Fancy That! Silvio Berlusconi! He wants to tell me why I should vote for his party".
I answer throughout my blog Mr Berlusconi: I am not "Egregio Signor Giorgio Paoletti", I am Doctor Giorgio Paoletti, graduated in Political Science in 2003 with a final mark of 110/110 cum laude, the best possible mark, which I got busting my ass, studying hard and never asking for a favour or counting on anything else to help me but my skills as a student.
I don't live in Italy, I haven't done it over the last 9 years and I don't intend to return to the country where you are a sort of king.
Spare your paper, because even if I had the somewhat catastrophic idea to come back to the Country where you can do whatever you want I would never ever vote for you. I have enough toilet paper, I don't need your letters.
I know you don’t speak English, I heard you speak once with Bush and you were pathetic. I don’t demand you to speak 4 languages like me, I know everyone has their limits, and you have many; but if one day there will be some friends of yours able to speak something more than their own dialect maybe you’ll be able to understand what I am trying to communicate to you.
I realized who is the ruin of Italy.
It's not you, it's not your ally Lega Nord, it's not even your friends so-called journalists, good only at licking your arse (they are paid to do it so)..
It's those who vote for you, they are the ruin of our Country.
Those who claim not to watch "Big Brother" or that they dislike your TV shitty programs, or the values they propose.
Because they are the lowest of the low, the scum of the earth: they don't dislike your TV programs, they couldn't, otherwise they wouldn't vote for you. They are just envious, envious of those who are in those TV shows, envious that it's not them, dreaming about becoming a new Silvio, with all that implies: powerful acquaintances, favours, free whores.
I’m not interested in what you could possibly offer me. Escorts: no thanks, I am not pay boy; I like those girls who like me because I am unique to them. A political role, no way; I like to create, to write, to produce, to see if I can communicate something to the rest of the world, but my targets are people who are smarter than your electors. Your money, no thanks, I haven’t got the “poor attitude”, typical of those not poor people who envy the money (or the girls) of the others and think “If I had the money I could get a cool car, a cool house, so I could impress some people, especially the girls that are naturally not attracted to me”.
They secretly hope that one day they will get some crumbs of the kind from their biggest friend Silvio.
Those people are your target, not me.
I am not them, I am not for sale, I am better than you, your friends and your electors because I don't envy any of you.
You people just make me sick.
I have my good friends: journalists (not corrupted), writers, directors, and simple people who believe in healthy values.
They are priceless Mr president.
I know you don't know what that means but we don't like to cheat, to steal, to lie. We like to be what we are, REAL PEOPLE.
Not ass licking jokers, not pimps, not slobs, not clowns who always deny to have said what we said.
We stick to our creeds. We are real men.
What you and your million supporters will never be because you are just buffoons.
So keep the Country to you for what is worth it these days, and keep all your subjects of the kingdom, little men that would follow you even though you endorsed a law that would allow you to piss over all of them every single day.
I bet they would be ready to accept even that. But not me, I am not a buffoon who repeats what your party teaches them.
I am a man

Goodbye Diego, you will be missed

Also Diego is gone.

After all the others.

After Francesco, Lorenzo, Nicola, Valentina, Chiara, Torben, Vera, Giampaolo, Ettore, Alessandro, Adam, Paolo. Now Diego, and soon Giulia, Sarah and somebody else.

Always the same film, the same scenes. I remember when it was my turn, some years ago, same protocol, same feelings. I was at the airport and I turned towards Francesco and then towards the gate, “Fuck man, here we go, for real!”; I was about to cry but I’m not used to crying in front of the people, I prefer to do it when I am alone. Why? I don’t know, maybe because when I was a kid everyone said “Men don’t cry, girls do”; these days I think that’s just bollocks, people should react the way they feel, I do it now, but not always.

The protocol I was saying; the same: you meet the person one more time, while she or he is overwhelmed by the fucking baggage, around 40 kilos “But maybe they won’t extra charge me, maybe if I tell them I am a poor student with no money left...”. Me too, I said the same shit and it was the first time I caught a Ryanair flight, the end of June some years ago, Brazil had just won the 5th World Cup and it seemed impossible Italy could do anything good within the next 3 decades; “they are so cheap and you know when you are leaving, but you never know if you arrive” somebody told me when I was on my way to Skavsta; I corrupted the assistant with 5 free movie tickets, she let me board 36 kilos, it worked. I told her she was cute and she was happy to hear that, “You come from a very different culture, boys here don’t pay compliments”.

She was happy with a compliment and with 5 tickets for the movie, in Italy I should have promised her probably an audition for a national tv program; different culture, different needs.

When you are young you get thrilled for irrelevant things, but you feel alive. Experience makes you used to certain scenes and they start meaning less and less to you but it’s important not to reach that point where they mean nothing.

People are not the same; when you live abroad you meet loads of boys and girls but you don’t remember them all. Why? Because some touch you inside and some don’t. But when a person who touches you leaves it’s important to feel a little bit emptier.

It means you are still alive. 

"The endless dream of a winter night": Johanna-Miranda

Here is Johanna: Miranda who plays one of the central female characters of the movie tells us a little bit about herself and the movie...

Sudden snow in Stockholm...

In Stockholm during March it can happen the weather is sunny and pleasant and suddenly it starts snowing for no reason, nothing anticipated that possibility but it snows anyway...

Interviewing Malin from "The endless dream of a winter night"

Here is Frida who plays Malin in "The endless dream of a winter night". It's her first experience as actress and she really impressed all of us.

Here is what she told us in this short interview

Interviewing the screenplay author

Here is a paradoxical interview where the director of the movie "The endless dream of a winter night" interviews the author of the screenplay. Just a minute to tell in total honesty what he thinks...

A Dutch girl in Stockholm

Here is Manja Wüstefeld that tells us what she thinks about the capital of Sweden. It looks like she really enjoys living there...

Mistakes while acting

Mistakes while acting are made not only by superstars but also by non professional actresses. Here is the very talented Gosia while forgetting what she had to say...

Who studies Italian in Sweden?

One day I was talking to the human resources responsible for an institute that hired me to teach Italian and when she told me “We teach 28 languages in this school and after Swedish and English the Italian tongue is the most taught with 55 courses every semester” I couldn’t believe that and I wondered “Who the hell would study Italian in Sweden?”. Here they are, some of my students!

Movie making in Stockholm

What do people do in Stockholm during a typical Sunday afternoon?

Someone doesn't do anything, just relax after being drunk two days in a row

Someone else goes to a coffee shop to meet some friends and have a chat with them

The most banal meet up and watch a football match

But there's also a minority who does something else: they make a movie!

Here they are, planning the next scene of the movie

Lunch break in Stockholm

What happens during a lunch break in Stockholm?

You go for a walk, trying to avoid any falls due to the snow which makes the pavement very slippery.

Then you return to the office and maybe your lift card doesn't work properly...

Is snowy weather fascinating?

For those who were born in places where the snow is non-existent being in a landscape like this is incredibly thrilling.

The problem arises when this sort of landscape lasts 4 months a year. After a long period being surrounded by this snow can be annoying but still fascinating.

Here is how it feels like being there!

TALLIN, A LITTLE JEWEL

The first time I had a chance to go to Tallin was nearly 10 years ago.

At that time I did not know much about life, about countries, in fact I didn't know much about anything. I was just an Erasmus student convinced that Sweden was the best country in the world and Swedish girls were the most attractive women in the universe (how naive!).

Since then I returned to Tallin twice and the impression was similar and different.
What is similar is the beauty of the historical city centre and of the girls.
Tallin looks like those places who have a foot in the past and the other in the future: the monuments remind of the greatness of the empire Estonians belonged to; walking in the non historical city centre gives the clear impression to be in a Scandinavian city, colonised by the Banks and typical shops you may find in Northern Europe.

The people seem to be happy of what they have, they look like simple human beings that don't demand too much.

The girls are among the most gorgeous in the world (currently my favourite but I love women from all the countries!) and they look pretty confident too.
The only drawback in the capital is the cost of living which seems way too high for the possibilities of the inhabitants.

To turn Tallin into the ideal place to live takes 2 things: a significant economic growth due to investments from abroad (which is not easily predictable), and English improvement by the Estonians who have all the means to accomplish this task (films are shown in the original version)

In that case I would have no refrains to move there right away!