Welcome to St Louis!

Picture 78286 - dusk shot, originally uploaded by John Foong.

So I made it to St Louis! The 11th state of America that I've visited (actually, I think St Louis is the city, not the state). Here's the view from the "arch" - this huge 200 metre metal thing that represents the edge of the Mississippi River and the US expansion to the west ... or something like that.

i'm here for a Christian conference called Urbana for 6 days - 22,000 of us! Should be good :)

A very merry (but not white!) Christmas

Picture 78177, originally uploaded by John Foong.

(picture: our Christmas dinner setting!)

Well, it's been a great Christmas - even though it's been my first away from home. We had a great party at our place (Tom, the man of the house (apart from me of course ... oh dear) is a fantastic cook, and cooked up a storm - a huge turkey, and a whole lot of chinese type food (Which wasn't necessarily "Christmas" - but suited me fine!) :)

Today - Christmas day - I spent with my mate Dan and his family singing Christmas carols, eating more ham (ah, sweet ham) and ... installing a new DSL connection (Christmas present for his Grandma - a good one, I thought!) ... lunch started at 1:30pm and finished around 10pm!

It was a great Christmas. Although it didn't snow ... it was actually a really nice day! (at least that made the drive back not scary)

One VERY cool thing about the University of Chicago

Picture 78141, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Yes, they have an outdoor ice rink in winter - about 2 minutes' walk from the business school (see photo background - you can see the church adjacent to the b-school).

I wanted to go ice skating, but it felt too cold! (to which Warren rightly asked me, "so, when would you EVER go ice skating then?") ...

Friends in random places: meeting Warren in Chicago

Picture 78140, originally uploaded by John Foong.

My mate Warren from church is currently over in the USA checking out business schools. Rather randomly, we managed to overlap in Chicago ... it was awesome to be able to hang out and catch up. Here's us checking out the University of Chicago's business school ... cold, but nice! (Though, for those of you deciding to do an MBA, it's not as nice as Stanford ...!) :)

We also did shopping (Christmas shopping, not window Shopping!) and ate at different Steakhouses. We worked out that the best meat-per-dollar ratio was found at Outback Steakhouse (see below). And, of course, went to Willow Creek's AMAZING Christmas service, which was a sight to behold! :)

Outback Steakhouse - a cheesy American chain

Picture 78115, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Everything on the menu has some kind of Australian location on it - such as "Ayres Rock Fries" and "Alice Springs Steak" ... ah, the joys of marketing ... :)

Chicago - beautiful city, crappy weather

Tonight Warren (in from Oz!) and I decided to hit Chi-town, to check out what was happening. There were some beautiful sights - such as ice skating in millenium park here, as well as some great views from the 96th floor of Hancock Tower - but it was coooooold and wet.

But hey, this ain't San Francisco! :)

At least the Chicago River was in fine form ...

As were we - from John Hancock Tower ...

Fine, we'll get out of the way then :)

Goodbye California, welcome to Chicago!

Picture 77914, originally uploaded by John Foong.

After a mad flurry post-RV trip of finishing off 2 final papers I should've been doing whilst watching BattleStar Galactica / eating Nachos (that was 60 double spaced pages of rushed fun!!! Oh dear) it was off to Chicago for my next adventure ... doing a mini-internship at megachurch Willow Creek, helping them with some strategy stuff. The executive pastor there, Greg Hawkins, is an ex-McKinsey ex-Stanford MBA (sounds strangely familiar) and they're doing some pretty exciting work ...

... though it's cold! Though Chicago is nice. I'm going into the city tomorrow to check it out! :)

RV Trip - Stop One, Skiing in Utah

Picture 77087, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Here's me on a snowboard - yes, one of the few times I was up! :)

Me and my housemates spent 6 days and more money than we thought we would for a cheap trip (Though it was still great value) roaming round the Wild Wild West in an huge 10 metre RV.

Here's the first stop - Park City, Utah (Where the Sundance film festival is held). Snowboarding - my 3rd day trying it. Ouch! :)

RV Trip - Stop Two, The "Windows"

Picture 77342, originally uploaded by John Foong.

In Southern Utah they have LOTS of rocks. One of the highlights is the place called "the windows" where these huge rocks have formed little holes in the middle. Kind of like this.

Kind of cool huh? Though I prefer the real "Windows" ... :)

(apologies, nerd joke)

RV Trip - Stops 3, 6, 14, 15, 16 and lots: JUNK FOOD

Picture 77620, originally uploaded by John Foong.

An RV trip is an essential part of American culture. So is eating fatty foods. In case I hadn't done enough of that in my 26 years so far, I and the team stopped at most major fast food outlets - pictured here at "Sonic" - an innovative fast food outlet where you don't even have human interaction - you pick up a phone from the eat in area, and food arrives a few minutes later ...!

To balance that out, we stopped for a steak at least once in every state. I mean, you need to have a balanced diet :)

RV Stop Four: The Grand Canyon ...

Picture 77642, originally uploaded by John Foong.

... is big. And goes on forever. And, for you economists, really has diminishing marginal returns (after about the 2nd vantage point) ...

... here's my housemate Micah trying to jump the canyon! :)

RV Stop Five: Another obligatory stop in Vegas ...

Picture 77777 - vegas, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Yes we just HAD to go to Vegas again. Who would've thought Vegas would have an RV park?

To top it all off, we finished at 3am with 24 hour Korean food. Ohhh yeah! :)

RV Stop Six: Los Angeles, Korea Town

Picture 77947 (29) - dave's birthday party, originally uploaded by John Foong.

To finish off the trip, apart from watching almost 20 episodes on a laptop of sci-fi series BattleStar Galactica (I'm not addicted, honest, I can give up any time I want to ... I think) we stopped in LA for a surprise birthday party for Dave, and a final dose of beef (I think we may have had - including burgers - over 10 servings of beef during the trip!) ...

... it was a great way to finish the trip. And he was surprised! :)

What a great trip. Ah, American culture ... it's not healthy, but you've gotta love it ...! :)

Christmas = Christmas parties (and final papers too, but hey)

Picture 76927, originally uploaded by John Foong.

I LOVE Christmas. And whilst I WON'T be back in Australia (sob!) to sing Christmas carols again for this year, I had a great time hosting and popping along to all sorts of cool celebrations around the business school

Here's one where everyone had to dress up in their daggiest (think St Vincent de Paul kind of stuff) Christmas jumper. I actually didn't have one, so I wore this classy "yeah!" shirt I found at a Japanese store in Cairns a few years ago which "snuck" into my luggage ... :)

Big Game ... Stanford Loses Again ...

Picture 76903, originally uploaded by John Foong.

... finishing the season at 10 losses, 1 win (I think our worst season ever? For a pretty rich sporting school that boasted football players like John Elway, that's NOT cool!) ...

... but it was great to travel to "Cal Stadium" in nearby Berkeley to see this. It was an amazing spectacle - an 80,000 seat stadium (including about a 1000 people on "Tight Wad Hill" (see below photo post) ...

... though the team put up a decent fight, we were in it to the last minute. I went to the gym afterwards, to console myself :)

Tightwad Hill

Picture 76901, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Check em' out, at the top there.

If only I'd known, I'd be there! :)

Dublin - it's actually kind of a happening place! :)

Picture 76721 - temple bar area - a cool paved social area, originally uploaded by John Foong.

My final leg in my Thanksgiving extravaganza was Dublin, where I was in final interviews for a management position at Google. Part of the intention was to answer that question: could I actually work in Dublin? Isn't it cold, and people drink lots, and stuff?

Well, both of the above are true - though people here are EXTREMELY friendly, and the city is kind of cool. It's no London, but it's a lot more accessible than London - everything is kind of walking distance. Hmmm ....

(picture of Temple Bar - walking distance (kind of) from the Google office - and a cool part of town)

Thansgiving ... at Disney World!

Picture 76517 - in front of castle, originally uploaded by John Foong.

One of the great things about term one is that we get a one week break towards the end of the term for Thanksgiving. Seeing I'd eaten enough turkey during the year, I packed my bags for a bit of an "Air trip" around the US - with the purpose of seeing some new places I hadn't been to (Such as Florida and Indianapolis), checking out old hangouts (NYC and Seattle), and visiting Angie in Europe.

One of my conferences was in Florida - conveniently located at the HUGE Disney World, which has 6 or 7 Disney-size theme parks in the same place.

Yes, it's a tough life, but someone's gotta do it ... :)

"El Castillito" - home of "Ocean's 6"

Picture 76364, originally uploaded by John Foong.

One of the huge highlights of this years has been my housemates. 6 of us - the bestest of friends (seriously), we spend heaps of time studying and hanging out in an ad hoc way (no we're not nerds, honest) and get together every week for an outing and a time to share and pray ...

... here's the week we dressed up in Hawaiian shirts, ate deep dish pizza and went bowling. (A really good looking house member thought of the dress idea ... he's so classy) :)

I really love and value my housemates, I feel really lucky to have found such a great group of guys! (insert group hug here) :)

12 MBAers stuck in a beach house together, talking about feelings for 18 hours

Picture 76463 - support group for interpersonal dynamics, originally uploaded by John Foong.

... welcome to "touchy feely", one of the most distinctive courses at the GSB, and a very "Stanford-esque" course! We meet for 4 hours every week to talk about feelings and interpersonal interactions - and the climax is a weekend at a beach house, where we spend 6x 3 hour periods of more of the same.

This is my support group - yes, we met in groups of three OUTSIDE of the 18 hours to check in with how everyone's going.

This course is unbelievable - worth the MBA admission price alone! OK, well maybe not THAT much. But I have learned so much, it's ridiculous :)

Hostin' parties

Picture 76304, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Now that we have a house of our own - and a big house too! (it's 8 bedrooms, and there's only 6 of us) - we've been throwing HEAPS of parties. Here's a picture from a Saturday morning brunch we threw, which included lots of MBAers, including those with kids

(yeah, we had kids running around and dribbling everywhere. Can't they make those bibs more effective? Now there's a business opportunity)

I'm really enjoying being able to host parties and be hospitable. It's a real blessing! :)

Halloweenies

halloween (9), originally uploaded by John Foong.

Halloween is kind of a big deal here in the US. One the first years had this great idea to invite the children of some of the MBAs who are parents to go trick-or-treating around the campus housing! Great idea.

Here are two of them, one dressed as a chicken, and the other as ... um, I'm not sure?!

Broomball: like ice hockey, but involving less skill

Picture 76356, originally uploaded by John Foong.

I've been on the leadership team of the Business School Christian Fellowship and it's been a blast! The teaching has also been of high quality (I say that complete objectively ...kind of)

One of the great events was "Broomball" - played on an ice hockey rink, but with normal sportshows, a little ball, and these broom-type things.

It was AWESOME! But my backsidehurts ...(ok too much info I know)

Another weekend, another camp ...

Picture 76224, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Being in 2nd year means that many weekends are spent, well, away. So far, I've been away most weekends - camping, checking out a new city ... or in this case, going to the Stanford IV Grad Christian Fellowship.

This picture is actually misleading ... I mostly sat around and talked to people, there really wasn't much outdoor stuff. But hey, I'll let the picture do the talking :)

MBA Year 2 = 2x the fun! :)

Picture 75991, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Picture here of our section reunion - our section/class from the first terms of last year. I was BBQing ... and yes, I was "throwing shrimps on the barbie" as Americans love to say in an Australian accent.

Oh, the things I put myself through for the sake of seafood! Ah, sweet prawns ...

... seriously, it's been a great time of lots of great parties, connecting with people again - and having a car helps (Though the whole driving-on-the-right thing is tough!) :)

Taking a bunch of first years camping! :)

Picture 76046 - mutiny!, originally uploaded by John Foong.

You see, they love me! :)

This is all part of the induction/welcome/how are you doing stuff. I was in charge of food.

Needless to say, I bought too much, and we had to leave it behind, then take it home with us in the car. (How convenient ...) :)

Back to reality! (Well, as much "reality" as business school is ...!)

Picture 75798 - supermarket fun, originally uploaded by John Foong.

(picture here of a "welcome back to school" presentation me and my co-president Robyn put together for re-orientation)

It's AMAZING to be back. Ready to welcome bright eyed, bushy taled first years and show them how to dress up in gawdy 80s clothes, and connect with my friends again.

AMAZING subjects too. Managing Growing Enterprises involves a different entrepreneur (from still-struggling-to-make-it to billionaires) coming in two times a week and share a series of tough management situations, and have us try and solve it (before they tell us how it all worked out). Touchy Feely involves 12 of us (and two facilitators) sitting in a room for 4-5 hours a week (and a 20 hour weekend at a beach house) and talk about … well, our feelings.

Leadership Coaching has me coaching 3 different first year MBA students and learning how to listen (for a change!). Paths to Power has us study the lives of some 15 powerful people – both good and evil – and observe what made them powerful (scary stuff indeed). And Education and the Status of Women ... well, I'm not sure waht to expect there. :)

(And yes, the word for the day IS 'amazing') :)

Shop-over in Hong Kong ...

Picture 75430, originally uploaded by John Foong.

36 hours in Hong Kong. Enough time to visit the relatives, eat copious amounts of much cheaper (and better) food than I'm used to in London and San Fran ... and, of course, bargain my way down the night markets (pictured here) ...

Goodbye, Mozambique ...

Picture 75378 - coconut alley, originally uploaded by John Foong.

... my two weeks ... over before I knew it! It was a blast. Intense .. but a blast (kind of the way I like to live life, really!) :)

Back in Mozambique - Danger is my middle name

Oh my goodness.

So, after a lengthy 14 hour flight to Johannesberg, 2 hour layover (which ended up being a huge rush due to the airport being ridiculously full) and a 1 hour flight to Maputo (Mozambique's capital), I FINALLY got here ...

The good news.

... and it was great. the roads look nicer (less potholes! less garbage! more trees) and it feels nice. I even got my visa at the airport in the below average time of 20 minutes of standing around - this is down from the usual 30-40!

Things looked even better when my old friend from McKinsey (who had since started volunteering for TechnoServe) invited me to a party full of other cool people working in the same field at one of my favourite restaurants. And, with 3rd world prices, I was flabbergasted at how cheap a good meal was (especially once I converted it to pounds - ah, good times). We hit this cool jazz club that had been literally 200 metres from where I used to hang out late at nights when I was here but I'd never seen (which would've been excusable had it not been this large, old railway station that had since been used in Leo DiCaprio movie). Even though I'd slept 2 hours on the plane and 4 hours the night before - a total of 6 hours out of the last 70 including about 20 on the trot - I felt great (thanks to Diet Coke ... the cool fresh taste you can have all around the world!).

But, it was 1am by then, and it seemed foolish to stay up too late; and it was a good opportunity to get my sleeping patterns right. So my newly made friend (from TechnoServe, staying at the same hotel) Maggie and I were the first to leave. We quickly walked to the nearest cab - only to find that it as empty (even though the light was on!). So we strolled down the main road in search of one (Murphy's law I know) when 4 police officers, including one particularly friendly looking one with a big rifle, walked towards us.

A conversation we didn't want to have ... and keep having

"Show us your ID," they said.

STUPIDLY I gave him my driver's licence.

"No, we want your passport," they said, holding onto my driver's licence.

"I don't have my passport," I said, as in a "you can't fool me" confidently way as possible. "This is my identification. My passport is at the hotel."

"No, no," they said. "Give us your passport, or pay a million meticals fine!" (that sounds like a lot, but is only about $60 AUD. Still, too much to pay a police officer trying to cheat us)

"We don't have our passports!" Maggie said. "Now we know to carry them. So please return the licence and let us go!"

My heart beat continued its rise.

This continued for (literally!) 45 minutes as they used every method of persuasion ("you'll spend the night in prison" / "go to the police station then call the hotel and ask them to get it for you" / "you are very bad") and we, in the absence of knowing whether we really needed to have our passports or not, tried every method to get out of it (stunned silence / "you have no right to take my passport" / "we'll show you tomorrow" / contemplating just making a run for it) ... in fact, at many times when they were saying "come to the police station or else" I was kicking myself for NOT paying the fine in cash and getting out of there. ($60 AUD in pounds is even less!)

For some reason, one of the police officers (maybe he just figured we weren't going to budge nor we were going to go to the police station) just pulled me aside, said "just carry a photocopy with you", gave me back my licence, and pushed us away. We kept walking, didn't look back. Phew.

Until.

UNTIL 250 metres later, after being relieved as anything, ANOTHER pair of police officers - this time both with guns - pull us aside demanding the same thing. "Passport, passport!"

Maggie shouted something at them in Portuguese and kept on walking. I wasn't sure if this was the best strategy - I'd rather be facing an angry man with a gun than facing the other way - but then I figured it wasn't best to be the closer one out of the two of us to someone with a gun - and kept walking. when we turned the corner, we just ran and ran to the nearest taxi ...

And, to "cab" it all off:

... UNFORTUNATELY that taxi, apart from being completel unroadworthy, (i) ran out of fuel, making us stop and wait (nervously) while he looked for petrol stations at 2am in the morning at 20kph, (ii) had to ask for directions - with a few U-turns thrown in for good measure, (iii) decided for some reason (against our instructions) to choose a route that drove past both sets of policemen we had previously encountered on our slow way home.

It was a VERY long cab ride and one of the longest 90 minutes of my life.

Moambique resolution 1.

From now on, we're calling for cabs!!!! :)

Africa ... back on the road again ...

Picture 74773, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Back to Africa ... time for another 2 week TechnoServe project; lots of flying and 4WD-ing, crafting innovative solutions, and learning.

I'm a pretty darn lucky guy :)

Coconuts, everywhere!

Picture 75158, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Half of my project has been to explore how we could possibly get cocnuts replanted. Who would've thought that some 10-15% of the 20 million population are (i) dependent on coconuts and (ii) have never planted (successfully) a coconut tree?

Well ... problem to solve. Travelling to central Mozambique to check out who's doing it right ... and what we can do about it! :)

Eating cashew - fruit!

Picture 74639, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Yes, believe it or not - cashews are FRUITS as well as nuts. You learn something new everyday!

Enjoying Northern Mozambique - Pemba, this beautiful beach town - and checking out how cashews get replanted (pictured here with some government officials assisting the project). It's a tough one :)

Return to Oz!

Picture 74209, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Coming back to Sydney feels weird. Maybe it’s the jet lag? No seriously, it’s kind of like I never left – I still remember where all the groceries are kept in the aisles of my local Woolworths, loving playing my piano again. Despite all my traveling the last 20 or so months, Sydney remains very much home.

It was great to catch up with people, usual lawn bowls party, etc, etc.

And now ... off again, for another adventure! :)

Goodbye London (eye)

Picture 73849, originally uploaded by John Foong.

London ... it is a great city, particularly in summer (except on the underground tube service, where it’s like an oven).

I saw many musicals (6!)
... went to Wimbledon (though more time was spent queuing than watching tennis!)
... “sampled” much of London’s nightlife
... and made lots of friends (at least 3.5, at last count – that’s a 150% improvement!) …

Will miss you :)

Goodbye London Interns!

Picture 73821, originally uploaded by John Foong.

(pictured here on the London eye, this big cartwheel type thing that goes high above London!)

Google work was great … But what I enjoyed even more than the work was the culture. There were about 25 summer interns in London, and together they took us to musicals, tours of the city, dinners, parties, etc … great fun, and really cool people. The Google offices themselves are amazing places. Apart from the obligatory foosball table/pool table/giant connect 4, one of my best “friends” there was our Japanese massage chair –Shiatsu and I became very close. Apart from that, what other places give you free (unlimited … oh yeah) breakfast and lunch, with chocolate, fruit and a wide selection of snacks and soft drinks 24 hours a day? It was just like Vegas! (with some obvious differences)

The Netherlands ... land of windmills, and, um, contrabands

CNV00004, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Angie and I were lucky to even get to Amsterdam, given that the terrorist threat on London occurred just 48 hours earlier. In fact, both of our flights (in and out of Amsterdam) were cancelled – I just sneaked onto the non-Heathrow Saturday morning flight, and we had to fly out of Rotterdam (the #2 city in the Netherlands) on Sunday night instead. This initially seemed inconvenient, but actually was kind of cool as it gave us an excuse to visit Rotterdam and The Haig on the way.

Amsterdam is pretty unique. Apart from having canals everywhere (the greatest volume of canals in any city in the world!), it has drugs galore (some drugs have been legalized there). On almost every corner you’ll find a “coffee shop” which – as you might be able to guess – sells “cake”, and of course, coffee (I mean actual coffee; this isn’t a veiled reference to something more sinister).

Don't cry for me Barcelona

Picture 74062 - me posing in front of that lit up parliament building thing, originally uploaded by John Foong.

(picture - me in front of this old building they light up during summer, incredibly so!)

This place is unbelievable. Apart from beaches, a huge mall that leads from the city all the way to the harbour (La Rambla), some of the most unconventional architecture in Europe (this genius guy called Gaudi made all these buildings based on natural art forms – like lizards and caves and stuff), and a non-stop night life – we ate dinner around 11pm each night; it’s a place with fascinating history.

(Short soliloquy: I never knew I’d get so much into architecture and history, but I think traveling in Europe makes you do it. I even started reading history books each week – I think I read about 10 books over the summer!)

Another highlight was seeing FC Barcelona’s football stadium – the largest (apparently?) in Europe at 120,000. Ronaldinho sends his regards …

I'm Hungary ... to hang out with Tamas and Reni, with Angie

Picture 74893 - seechaney baths, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Eastern Europe is changing so fast at the moment, and Hungary is one of the movers and shakers there. The capital Budapest boasts a pretty amazing club scene, and more beautiful buildings than Prague (according to my Hungarian friend from work Tamas, anyway). We spent half the weekend at his 1970s style beach house next to Lake Balaton; the biggest lake in Eastern Europe, and an incredible one at that – with beautiful warm water about 1 metre deep spanning hundreds of square kilometers. It’s like a really big spa, only cheaper!

One of the highlights of Hungary are its old-style Roman baths. These are like big public swimming pools, but cooler – you don’t do laps, you just sit there under the fountains, warming to the thermally-heated pools, and chat to people (though given that I didn’t speak Hungarian, this was difficult and/or brief). The surrounding buildings boast an elaborate maze of variations: including the whirlpool, a series of mini-pools where each pool is 3-4 degrees hotter than the last, and Hungarian massage/manicure tables (and yes, I sampled both).

Beautiful Prague - who would've thought old stuff could be so fun? :)

Picture 74097, originally uploaded by John Foong.

My mate Cram and I decided to explore this place, known for its beautiful architecture, abundant tourists and status as preferred locale for British bucks/hens nights (we saw tens of them throughout the weekend, mostly in strange costumes and invariably drunk). We pretty much spent the whole weekend walking, looking at old buildings, visiting the Communist museum (which was fascinating), listening to free classical music concerts, and …looking at more old buildings. Cheap food and drink was also a bonus!

A trip to Pisa deserves a round of stupid leaning tower photos ...

Having half a day to kill in Florence as great - it gave me enough time to get to Pisa (1 hour by train) and time to take plenty of photos - as well as climb the thing!)

Can I say the climbing is COOL. It's like being in a vortex (So I'm told). You walk up the stairs and you feel yourself pushed and shoved in different directions as you go around (and I'm not just talking about my legion of fans!) :)



Of course the highlight - apart from the view from the top - are all those photos you can do with such a great stimuli to work with:

You can help keep it up:



You can make it worse:



You can try to fight it:



You can fight it at close range:



Or if you can't beat 'em, join 'em ...



(note: horse may be irrelevant)

Italy - Champions of the World

Continuing the theme of travelling for the purposes of sport (World Cup, World Cup, Wimbledon) was the trip away for the final of the World Cup. It was too difficult to try to get to Germany - though I'd already been to Berlin twice AND Germany weren't in the final. So I flipped an (imaginary) coin and decided for Italy over France, then jumped into a plane in the cheapest plane I could find going to anywhere within Italy.

I ended up going to Florence, meeting up with my mate Giovanni's (from Stanford) best friend, Ciro.

For those of you who haven't been to Florence - it's pretty amazing. There is a huge river that runs through the city, overladen by bridge ...



Which looks gorgeous at night and twilight ...



... There was a large video screen set up on Micahelangelo's Piazza, a gorgeous huge lookout/car park overlooking the cirty ...



... This was the area for which we were to gather for THE game, the final, on the Sunday night (see statue of David in the background)!



In the meantime, Ciro's friends led us to this bizarre massive music festival about 30 miles away, situated in an old italian village ...

...

With musicians, lots of food, and cool circus performers like this fire dancer:



Of course the highlight of the weekend was the Italian world cup victory. OUR victory (sorry, you just had to be there).

After we (Italy) won, it was absolute ecstacy throughout not just the place where we were watching, but every single person in the city ...



Which continued well into the early hours of the morning ... what a party! :)