...Hibernating…

Today is exactly 5days after the end of my MC term, I’m still applying for internships, I’m still being short listed for some and turned down for others, I’m still having interviews, I’m still waiting to hear from companies. The necessary implication of this is that I still do not have a more concrete info about my next move, however by some mathematical prediction(which lacks some fundamental basis) I will know about it real soon.
Anyway in order to give the new team some space, I decided to take the advice of my predecessor who experienced exactly what I am going through now. He advised me to travel around Italy, it’s a good way to keep body and soul together, importantly is a good way to psychologically prepared for the upcoming days and experience. That’s more or less like hibernating, the only difference is that this time, the hibernation will cost some money. Given the options at my disposal, it appears to be the most viable so I’m taking it. I have already made a list of places to visit, this was done bearing in mind the cost requirement and availability of an ‘ACTIVITY’ oriented host.

Bearing this criterion in mind, my first destination had to be Genova(Arturo) second Napoli(Mariano)…. This is not exactly a coincidence but I happen to get along quite well with the activity oriented LCPs, actually I am an activity person, you will agree with me that it is just a case of ‘birds of identical plumage congregating in the same proximity’ All my team mates who heard about my trip plan marvelled at the list of my hosts. Besides the identical plumage thing, I got close to these guys because if you have to understand a mad man, you might have to operate in the same frequency with him, that way you can make him realise the cons of his madness, if you are not in the same frequency, you will only be making a fundamental miscalculation because you do not understand anything about madness so you will not understand the rationale behind his madness. This is more or less like a metaphor, I am not calling anyone mad, especially not my host and potential hosts, I am just saying that ‘he who was not there when a corpse was buried normally digs it up from the end where the leg is(which I do not know the reasons for but it is fundamentally wrong to dig up a corpse like that). So in literal terms, I am only trying to be present when the corpse is buried. So I can dig it up from the right side.
That's Arturo my very Good Friend,This is Most probably one of the things that Earned him his popularity in AIESEC Italia
I arrived Genova 2 days ago, Arturo was not at the train station to pick me up like we agreed, I called him and he said he sent me a text message(Which apparently I did not receive) explaining that he will not be able to pick me up because of an emergency. I was not disappointed, I kinda expected a thing like this to happen so I was prepared, the worst thing that can happen to you when you deal with an individual with uncertainties as regards agreements is to bring a knife to a gun fight, however I was surprised by something else, while I was speaking with him on the phone, he said his house was quite close to the train station, he actually started to give me directions about how to get there but he suddenly stopped and said Oh! You don’t have the keys to my flat! How on earth could he imagine that I had the keys to his flat????? This is a really high level of confusion

Anyway I had to go the a bar to see the Italy-Germany Semi-final match, it appeared that Arturo like I knew was not as confused and unfocused as most people thought. I actually don’t blame the people who think this, a guy that gets drunk in a good number of the parties, always the last to go from the parties and always the only one sleeping in training sessions the next day in a conference does not exactly connote focus or the charisma expected from an LCP. I must say he is a great guy, more focused and resourceful than most AIESECers in Italy, maybe the part that people who think he is a push over miss is that he necessarily did not buy the idea of being an LCP to achieve the national or MC plan but some other plan, so as a recommendation, I think the MC current should focus on selling the proper LCP focus to him, if he buys it, he’s got potentials to be one of the best.
It all turned out that Genova was not as cheap as I Imagined, It was more or less like Milan, a small bottle of Becks set me back by 3.5 euros, I had to pay 3euros to watch the match which was televised by RAI 1 a national TV that is received in all the nukes and Cranies of Italy even without an antenna, that was a high level of business and mental uncivilization in a country like Italy.

Anyway I did not mind paying it, I was trying to buy time until Arturo came back from work, it served the purpose quite well so I do not mind. The only cause for regret that I had was the people I saw the match with, most of whom were Italian low lifes(This is not about wealth or standard of life but about civilization), their minds were so shut to reasoning that they completely lost site of the fact that the Football game has rules, all they cared about was everything going in favour of the Italian team, they were completely devoid of any Sportsmanship spirit. The climax of it was that 80% of What ever trash that came out of their traps(without any sort of exaggeration) were swear words which were both for praising and castigating their poor subjects.

For a second time Genova exceeded my expectations, the level of economic activities were quite higher than I expected, the city might be a small one when compared with Milan, Turin and Rome but economically it looks like one of the nerves of Italy, I’ve been to several ports in Italy(Trieste, Napoli and Catania) but none of them had as much resourceful economic activity like Genova, actually the port is so big that it can conveniently house about 30 Titanics and have space for many more, the aquarium in Genova is the 3rd largest globally, I am yet to see it but from what I have seen from outside, paying 12 euros to see it will be just as justifiable as paying 15 Euros to see Taj Mahal in India.

The city generally has a huge number of foreigners, actually it was the first Italian city that I saw blacks living a decent life, doing a decent job and even going to the university just like every other person. I was really impressed to see even Nigerians doing their business, the day to day activities and the law breaking(which every other person does) without any special attention. This is the only City in Italy which I’ve been to, that the average(Mediocre) Italian will see you in places like a discotheque, a bar or a restaurant living a decent and regular life without casting the stare you’ll probably cast at an UFO that suddenly shows up in front of you. Maybe it’s just a first impression, who knows…I’ll see how it goes! Peace Out!