Extreme Ends and a Wonderful Friend

Met up with Van on Fri for dinner and to bombard her about her time in Italy. From all that she has said, I’d think she really had a great and amazing time in Europe. The greatest piece, or rather, pieces of news must be that she :

a) bought herself a pair of Ferragammo shoes for 160 Euros (!) , now…even moi who has shallow materialistic cravings, I’ll not buy something that costs so expensive (serious!) and I doubt I’ll be that high class to buy from boutiques, which explains all those branded stuffs I want must all come from one source – The Mall factory outlet near Florence, in fact factpry outlets are de facto reason for my purchases.

b) She bought pair of Gucci shades for her sister (also, NOT from outlet) and it was the wrong pair. Of course, the best part is that the expression from Van’s sis, though disappointed, cannot be shown directly to Van, constipated forced smile perhaps?

c) realised that wine and alcohol is great!

Best part of the whole evening is the pressie she got para mi - Chocolates! Gosh, those chocs are so good! Europeans really do make great chocos, and Latin Americans too, actually. Here’re the pics of the chocs:




The next part of my post will be that I just MSNed with Marc and Wanwen, and you may ask, why am I bringing this up. Well, Wanwen is now in Argentina (for the second time in under 12 months!) with Sa’adia for the Latin American Forum, and Marc is in Madrid, the last stop on his 3 months backpacking trip across Europe. Marc was suppose to go for exchange in Norway same time as me, but cos he had to leave for Europe to tour with his amigos, he was unable to leave his passport with the Norwegian Embassy for his visa- who needs exchange when he can tour?!

Anyways, the funny part is that Wanwen and Sa’adia is experiencing harsh winter in the Southern Hemisphere with temperature dipping to 1 degrees at night, and Marc is telling me how hot Madrid is (trust, me, Spain is so not cool in Summer-been there, done that!) But I guess the wonderful thing in Argentina now is that they either can go to Bariloche for a great Ski Trip or even venture to Patagonia for icebergs, and with the extremely favorable exchange rates, how I wish I am there with time enjoying a glass of wine from Mendoza and eating my Bife de Lomo! Argentinean Beef is the best in the world! Done jugoso, esta muy bien! Glenn’s students for the end year BSM there will so enjoy themselves!

All for now, gotta get back to my packing…currently digging all my cold wear out.