Class Trip - Milan and Turin
So initially, Civen was supposed to have arranged a class trip to Intel in Dublin, Ireland, at the beginning of May, but unfortunately that fell through. Instead, we went to Turin to meet with the Fiat research group, and to Milan to meet with ST Microelectronics. Each company visit was a day each with a chartered bus.
Early in the morning meeting at Civen for the bus. An espresso would've been very helpful at that point.
But since we didn't have access to an espresso machine, the next best thing was to snooze!! Doesn't Alberto and Camille look so cute and peaceful!
Our first company visit to he Fiat Research and Development group in Turin.
A few future researchers relaxing in the hotel near Turin.
From left to right: Surinder, Gianluca and Davide.
All of us waiting outside our hotel to head to dinner. In the meantime we enjoyed a glass of wine to toast.
Table 1 at dinner in a small local, but excellent restaurant.
From bottom left clockwise: Manish, Anna, Matteo, Stefania, Nicolo', Camille, Alberto, the bus driver and Binay.
Table 2, which was of course the more important table because I was there!! Haha
From bottom left clockwise: Martin, Francesco, Mikkel, Stefano, ME!!, Alessandro, Giuseppe, Andrea, Valerie, Davide and Gianluca.
Enjoying a moment with friends post-dinner. Now the party starts.
From left to right: Andrea, Stefania and Binay.
Me and Andrea.
The party starts to get crazy. For some reason, Alberto (middle) has sprouted a moustache, Nicolo' (right) has grown a goatee, and I can't really describe what is on Giuseppe's head (left)!! Those crazy Italians!
But wait, it's just starting to warm up!
Camille also gets into the action of the fun.
So it looks like Surinder and Martin decide to hit the sack and get some sleep. After all, it's 3am in the morning.
But Giuseppe decides that sleep is over-rated and crashes their slumber party. Besides, didn't someone say that a threesome is more fun!
No, apparently, a foursome is where the party is at. Alberto likes it really cozy in the bed. :-)
The morning after on the bus to Milan.....nuff said.
Can you say "tired?" That's what having coffee is for, right?
Our second company visit in Milan at ST Microelectronics. They create silicon chips just like Intel. The tour was quite cool, very modern facilities.
A display case in the lobby, showing silicon wafers that they produce (top shelf) from the raw silicon material (2nd shelf) and the ingots (2nd shelf), which is the pointed shape in the centre,
Thus ended our class trip to Milan and Turin. Absolutely a fantastic time!!
Trieste - Beautiful!
Trieste Visit - April 8,. 2006
So, on April 8, we went to Trieste for the first time checking out the coastal city very near the Slovenia border on the Adriatic sea. The history of Trieste is very interesting as it was under the Habsburg's rule, an Austrian family for almost a century, so based on the buildings in the centre, you can see the Austrian/Hungarian influence. From then to now, they've gone to Napoleanic rule, to Slovenia and finally to Italy only in 1954, which is very recent.
Also, because of that reason, they have a much more Austria/German style and way of thinking. For one, the buildings are very clean! Here's a picture of the main boardwalk by the water. To the left, is the main Piazza della Liberta'.
And this is the Piazza della Liberta'. As you can see behind us is a government building very much in the Austrian style. From left to right: Gianluca, me and Martin.
Gianluca and me resting in front of the Castello di Miramare (Miramare Castle). It's a very beautiful castle that was built by the Archduke Maximilian, a member of the Habsburg family. There's another castle, Castello di San Giusto, but we never went there.
Martin posing between the columns.
A sunset view from the gardens to the sea.
Trieste Run - May 7, 2006
I know this is a bit out of order, but I thought I would group our 9 km run together here, since it was held in Trieste. Don't ask me why it was only 9 km....it's an odd number...but it was nice short run, which was great! This is at a pitstop very near Trieste. From left to right: Gianluca, Giuseppe, me and Martin. (Surinder is taking the picture)
The view from our Ostello Tergeste (Tergeste Hostel) where we stayed for cheap! But it had an awesome view and it was right where the race started!!! How perfect is that! Highly recommend!!
The view of the Ostello Tergeste....with Giuseppe!
Posing in front of the finish line the night before. The finish line was in the Piazza della Liberta'. From left to right: Martin, Giuseppe, me, Surinder and Gianluca.
The 5 of us with our medals after!!!! Whoo hoo! We all finished within an hour.
Our well-deserved gelato afterwards just before heading back to Venice.
Miscellaneous Photos
Funny Photos
This is Martin, our resident German....actually more accurately, our German-Sicilian, since he has Sicilian ancestry...which would explain his predominantly un-German-like characteristics!
Anyway, this is his usual relaxed state. Haha!
Another drunken classmate, Binay. This was one of the evenings that we went out for Carnevale.
It doesn't seem that Binay can handle his alcohol too well. But at least, he did what he was told to do! Walk straight...sit down.....ok...stay!
Valerie posing in front of a Mao-Tse-Tung poster. Hmmmm, are there similarities?
Apparently there are a few of us are musicians! Nicolo' entertaining us with guitar music.....very good! Yeah...rock on!
Giuseppe, being a klutz as usual, spilling his drink. Tip: Don't ever let him carry a wine bottle...because he'll be sure to drop it! Haha.
Part of the gang having lunch together on the weekend. Do we look cold? That's because it was in the winter... I think we were having home-made pasta made by Andrea (the one in the black beanie cap). Pretty good considering we don't have real kitchen facilities here!! Plus, it's the first time that I've had tuna in my pasta....excellent! Highly recommend trying it.
The three amigos...I would've said the Italian amigos...but Surinder doesn't quite qualify as Italian, even though he's learned a lot of the 'low-language' Italian words.
This was after they played some rather rough soccer.
From left to right: Giuseppe, Surinder and Andrea.
The guys post-laundry, sorting out their stuff. Since the laundry machines are quite big, two people can wash their clothes at the same time.
Another class picture just before we started spring break. Can't you tell that we all look more relaxed now? This was when I headed out to explore Italy with Anton for about 2 weeks.
The guys studying on the roof to try to catch some warming rays. This was early spring...so not much sun yet.
From left to right: Stefano, Nicolo, Giuseppe, Surinder and Andrea
Alberto showing our colleagues his ass-ets. Nice view!
Can you guess who this is? 'This person was being very creative with the hot dog.
Surinder, the machine, finally broke down and fell asleep on the vaporetto.
He goes to the gym every day and consistently gets up every day early, even on the weekend, much to the chagrin of his room-mate Giuseppe, who is almost the opposite!!!
Of course Surinder wasn't the only one who couldn't resist the sleeping gods!
I took a quick snooze during a break.
Don't you think there's a resemblance between Alberto and Jacques Cousteau??
Some of our Professors:
Our Organic Displays professor from the Philips company showing us some cool OLED (Organic LED) gadgets!! Awesome!
Our 'famous' Professor Ferrari, who taught us Photonic Crystals. He made our lessons very 'interesting' with his "It is IMPOSSIBLE to NOT obtain FCC structures...." Huh????
Let's just say that he was very dramatic in his speech. It's too bad that I can 't show videos here.
We were all quoting him for weeks after!!
A class picture with Dr. Kim Schatzel, who taught us Marketing.
Valerie's B-day
is
It was Valerie's birthday on March 26, so Monday night, we headed out to celebrate with dinner and of course lots of drinking...ok..mild drinking.
First, we started with a spritz near Rialto. Now for those who don't know what a spritz is, it's the drink common in the Veneto region, which Venice is part of. So, if you ask for a spritz in the south of Italy, they probably won't know what the heck you're talking about! But spritz is a great drink that both guys and gals alike have equally. It's essentially a combination of prosecco (the Italian version of French champagne) and the choice of Aperol (lighter) or Campari (more stronger), and sometimes water. Add an olive or two and that is a spritz! Awesome!
Anyway, after the spritz, we headed to a restaurant called Due Arche, which served good ol' fashioned Italian food.
The Birthday Girl!!! By the way, she comes all the way from Malaysia!
Day Trip To Bologna
We headed to Bologna on Saturday, March 11 just to get out of Venice and especially out of our block-sized rooms!!!
It was a normally cold morning and of course we were tired from having to get up quite early.
Anyway..here's a photo of us in front of the famous Neptune's fountain, or Fontana Nettuno.
From left to right: Manish Thatte, Surinder Mann, ME!!, Gianluca Tabacchi and Andrea Melara.
The piazza Nettuno....
Also, Bologna is very famous for their freshly made tortellini, which was veeeery expensive..so I didn't end up buying any. Oh well.
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