Los Campeones

Look ma! No hands!

Spain winning the World Cup makes me happy for a lot of reasons. Reason 1: I just generally really want them to win. Who wouldn't? Reason 2: it means I won the pool at my office. Hello nice new $ in my pocket; it's so nice to finally meet you. I promise to take moderately good care of you before giving you away for something I like more.

Reason 3: this before and after picture set of Xavi Alonso. Getting karate kicked in the chest is just hunky dory when you get a World Cup victory afterwards.

Reason 4: it means that Paul the Octopus really does have super powers...

Reason 5: It means I can celebrate with flan. Lots and lots of flan. Look how happy Shakira is! It's because she loves the flan too...

I could write more, but I feel if I don't get dressed and ready for work soon, I may not ever make it there.  Hasta mañana (tal vez...)

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Wants to be friends with Paul the Octopus" Yazge

Vamos a la Final!

Pique's got that stupid grin because we're going to the final, duh!

I don't have much time to post today, but I did want to say: HAHA! SPAIN WON! Yes, what I wanted to say purposely included a large "haha" at the beginning. In order to pronounce it properly, think less of the noise you make when something's funny, and more a victorious exhale... With your fist raised in the air. Like a conquistador! Doesn't Pique look like a conquistador in that picture I posted above? No? Well, at the very least he looks like the troubled child the conquistador's took on the ship to mop the poop deck.

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "El Conquistador" Yazge

Dear World Cup Refs, Bite Me.

I know Landon, I'm confused too...

Dear FIFA Referees,

Bite me. You are officially the worst refs every to (dis)grace the game of futbol. It was enough work for the US team to come back from a 2-0 score at half time to tie it up, but then you insisted on robbing them of an actual win because you thought there was a little too much "rough play" in the box. Yes, I can see how our players being bear-hugged by the other team would seem unfair to the Slovenian team. After all, we did not offer to hug them back. But that's the problem with those unrequited loves: someone always seems to get hurt.

While I am perturbed to the utmost degree, I will take solace in the fact that England still can't manage to win a game either, leaving the US precariously positioned in second place in the group. Now if you could try your damnedest to not screw up the officiating for the US-Algeria game, I would greatly appreciate it. However, if you blindly call the England game in favor of Slovenia, I might be able to look the other way.


Spitefully Yours,

Matteo "Should have been 3-2" Yazge

My Multi-ethnic Monday

These multi-ethnic children encapsulate the spirit of my Monday.

It's been too long since I posted, and there's lots of things I could discuss: Glee finale, True Blood premier, more oil spilling, the World Cup, the various restaurants I've taken by force over the past few weeks, how gross my feet look in flip-flops and how having to wear them on a daily basis gives me mixed emotions of comfort and shame.... but no. I'd like to focus on something a little more "It's a Small World."

After I watched the Italy-Paraguay game at work (where the Italians in the office supplied salami, provolone,  bread, Nutella, San Pellegrino Lemonata, and gelato) I decided that I should get a haircut. So I waddled my way over to my favorite immigrant barber shop (if you call a wonderfully sketchy basement a barber shop) at Astor Place. I've gone there for 3 years now and absolutely love it. But Monday was by far the best experience I've had there:

I was wearing my Italian soccer jersey, so instantly the woman cutting my hair commented, both to me and the guy cutting hair next to her. Then we all started speaking Italian about how Gli Azzurri (the Italian soccer team) are amazing, and hail to the victors, and we'll get another Cup, and let's go grab some cannoli, etc. etc. Then I find out that the woman cutting my hair is Greek Orthodox - wasn't a huge surprise given her accent - and we talk all about that, and her grandchildren's picky diets, and spanakopita, and damned those South Koreans for beating Greece 2-0. Although I was mildly confused when she kept speaking Spanish to other people. She caught on that I understood her when I couldn't stop laughing at her heckling of the guy at the cash register. It was like I had my very own ethnically confused Yaya cutting my hair. When I left I tipped her and said "Kali Nikta" (goodnight in Greek). She got really tickled and said "Oh! Look at you! Kali nikta!"

God, I love immigrants. I can only one day hope to be one...

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Multi-ethnic" Yazge

New York Red Bulls

If your team is named after a drink made from a chemical found in bull testicles, you've got to be good, right?

Yeah. Little known fact: taurine, one of the energy-inducing ingredients in Red Bull, can be found in bull testicles. We'll skip over the fact that for food use it's chemically synthesized, and jump right to the part where I tell you how awesome the soccer game was yesterday.

IT WAS AWESOME!

I went with a group of people from my building, and we had a really good time. Their new stadium is really nice, albeit in the middle of absolute nowhere. Harrison, New Jersey doesn't really have a whole lot going for it except the Red Bulls and what appeared to be a pretty killer tuna sandwich stand. The game itself was really good. I have never seen US soccer fans so riled up in all my life. They were cheering, and beating on drums, and some guy was even playing a horn at one point? They didn't stop making noise the entire game. Philly put up a good fight, but in the end the Red Bulls won. Three cheers for the home team! Also, three cheers to the guy who was asked to leave because he was throwing paper airplanes from his seat. Several of them landed on the field, and one hit some dude in the head. Don't worry, the stadium security walkie-talkied all over that, and all was righted. 

I'm really excited to go back for the international friendly the stadium is hosting next month; Turkey vs. the Czech Republic. Should be pretty good, and with tickets at $30 a pop, they're easy on my wallet too!

Ciao Bella!

Matteo

Hockey, Havaianas, and... Hand-grenades?

A scholar and a gentleman... sort of.

That's right. I saw the man, the legend, the Gold-medal-goal-scorer in action. My friend Mel Zahnd, the awesomest guy ever, managed to get us tickets to go see the Rangers-Penguins hockey game last night. It was AMAZING. Sydney Crosby (above) was as epically awesome as ever. The Penguins came from behind to send the game into overtime and win the game. Amazing.

So that was last night. Today, I went in for my followup interview with Havaianas, and instead of having an interview, I got offered the job! Hooray job! What could get better than selling flip-flops? Jamie asked me today if this meant that I wasn't going to be applying for law school this summer instead of working. For the record that was an option that was only fleetingly considered, mainly because Jamie was making me consider it because she didn't want to go to Emory by herself. I told her that she needed to ask herself a very important question: would you rather have to fight your way through the LSATs, law school, and then the world of corporate law, or would you rather sell flip-flops. Problem solved.

The last bit today is about hand-grenades.  I'm not entirely sure why, but I felt that today's title needed a third H word. I hadn't played horseshoes, so I couldn't include that. But I guess the past 24 hours has had so much excitement and awesomeness, that it feels like a hand-grenade full of adrenaline and smiles has gone off in my life? I dunno. It's kind of a stretch.

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Hand-grenade" Yazge

Curl your way to happiness

Happy little curling family... doesn't it make you want to pick up a broom?

You have no idea how excited I am that curling has started! There will be many hours wasted in front of a television watching 40-pound rocks go sliding down a 150 foot sheet of ice. Could there be anything more pleasing?

Yes! Yes there could! Being able to watch it on my laptop anywhere I want! Thanks to nbcolympics.com, I can watch live olympic coverage online! That means on my breaks between classes, I can catch a quick curling fix. Just think of it as the olympic-addict equivalent of hot boxing or chain smoking. OK, commercials are over. Back to watch the US men's opening match!


Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Curling Iron" Yazge

THE OLYMPICS!

OH NO!

The Olympics are upon us. After a rather hysterically unfortunate lighting of the torch last night, I think we're all ready for a real Olympic event.  Enter Apollo (Anton) Ono. You know what I'd like to know, where that Anton went. I know he didn't sell it, because he's loaded. He's not one of those winter olympians that falls into obscurity, then has to sell all their personal possessions so they have enough money to get their next heroin fix. Mr. Ono is a man of dignity, a man of class. He was on Dancing With the Stars.

But if I thought I didn't have a life before the Olympics started, I'm definitely not going to have one now. What will I be doing? One word: curling. YES! I said it. And no, I'm not going to take it back. I will be watching the Winter Olympic version of shuffle board, and I'm going to enjoy every minute of it. In fact, Liz and I are starting our own curling team. Our name? The Curling Irons.

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Curling Iron" Yazge

Always look on the ridiculous side of life...

Fido doesn't care that the Colts lost, he's just shootin' the breeze...

So yes, the Colts lost. It's a sad day for our nation. But my good friend Helen decided to cheer me up with a link to the funniest picture-blog I've seen in a while. It's on tumblr, which I don't completely understand, but whatever. All you need to know is that it's a website. Somewhere. That does something, and as a result of doing that something, you get to see really hysterical dogs dressed up like hipsters.

I've also noticed that that's what's missing from my life lately. Granted, I can't say hipster dogs have ever been a huge part of my life to begin with, but the underlying message (be awesome, smile, do something really weird and quirky and feel like a better person because of it) is something that I need to start striving for on a daily basis. I used to be absolutely ridiculous. Now, I'm only moderately so. This needs fixing. I need to hold myself to a higher ridiculous standard, and that standard needs to be ridiculously high. I promise from here on out, I will devote myself to being at least slightly more than moderately ridiculous, definitely maybe once a day. Or more. Probably. I don't know, but we're going to try. A lot... sometimes.

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Redonkulous" Yazge

DC, Colts, and Short Stories

Proof we (and the two strangers in the background) were actually there.

DC was a good time. It took me a couple hours of texting to wake Lauren up. So much for an early morning out on the National Lawn. The only museum we ended up visiting was the Air and Space Museum. There was a lot of air, a lot of space, a lot of things that were exciting the first time I saw them. When I was 7. So that was a bit of a bust, but I'm really glad I got to spend time with Lauren.

On my way back today, I wore my Colts sweatshirt. Admittedly it was a risky decision. Luckily for me, there weren't any diehard Jets fans on the bus. Also luckily for me, the Colts won, and we're going to the Superbowl!  On top of that, this morning I was able to knock out a good portion of my short story that's due on Tuesday. So it's been a good weekend, and a REALLY good day! Now to plan the Superbowl party!

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Psyched for the Superbowl" Yazge

AFC Championship!

We did this a lot...

One step closer to being Superbowl Champs! Thank you to Taylor, Kat, and of course my mother for texting me updates throughout the game. I was actually in the middle of a heated dodgeball game when my pocket started vibrating. I was very tempted to ask them to pause the dodgeball for a second so I could check my phone for the update. I don't think that would have gone too well. It most likely would have ended the way most of my elementary and middle school athletic experiences did: me getting pegged in the face.

I'm going down to DC this weekend to see some friends and family, but I will be back in time to watch Jets fans everywhere be disappointed. It shouldn't be anything new for them, because let's face it: they're not really even the New York Jets. They play in Jersey...

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Manning-Fanning" Yazge

COLTS!

Oh Peyton, you're so funny...

So the Colts game is tomorrow. I'm crossing my fingers and praying that we don't blow it like we've done in almost every other post-season. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to actually watch the game. As a part of RA winter training, we have a "social night" for all the RAs on campus. It's a Winter Olympics theme. So I guess I'll play dodgeball for Peyton? I've yet to look for one of those text message services that texts you the score of the game and updates, etc. But if my wonderful readers (all six of you) wouldn't mind watching the game, rooting on the boys, and texting me with periodic updates, I'd be extremely grateful! And I'll even dedicate an entire post to the person with the best game updates! There may or may not be a haiku involved... but don't get too excited. I don't want to cause a riot over people wanting haikus in their honor. There's enough to go around. No need to get violent. Peyton wouldn't want that.

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Manning-Fanning" Yazge

La Palestra

Get ready to eat your heart out Janie, I just got a gym membership...

Oh it feels so good to be a member at a gym again. And the lady who I signed up with was so nice. I was supposed to have my school ID since it was a membership for college students home for the holidays, but she let me sign up without it. Of course there was some witty banter back and forth, especially when I forgot how to write the date the American way... MO/DA/YEAR.

This was also a problem when I went to get a new Social Security Card. For the record, I didn't lose it, my parents did. But not the point. So I mosey through the front door, and there's an 5,000 year old security guard standing there. He asks me very abruptly if I was carrying any concealed weapons, knives, lighters, etc. When I answered no, he told me to turn my phone off. They take security very seriously at the SS Office of Greensburg, Pennsylvania. I really think it's to protect the workers from themselves. If I had to go to that office every day I'd probably want to shoot myself too. Anyway, I had the same day/month problem there too. The guy probably thought I was a moron. At least I'll be a skinny moron after my membership at the gym!

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Lean Routine" Yazge

Adesso, Inghilterra

Above: my wonderful hostesses... with the mostestes?

Below: my wonderful reaction to the Middle Eastern baked goods.

So I'm finally doing it. I'm going to talk about London. I've taken some time, reflected on it, talked about it with my therapist, and I think it's finally the right time to start sharing my experience with others. It's the last of the 12 steps to tourist recovery.

The day I got in, I split with my travel companions and headed off to Liz's apartment by Hyde Park. I was hungry, but Liz wasn't so much. To compromise, we went to high tea since it was around 4:00 anyway. For the record, I'm kind of upset no one has ever dragged me to high tea before. There's lots of tea, finger sandwiches, scones with clotted cream (oh, I'll get there), and tiramisu with other delicious chocolate desserts. What's not to love?! And it was only 12 pounds. Like, British Pounds... not American weight units. You get what I mean. But on to the clotted cream (I promised). Apparently it's made by condensing normal creme, and we all know how much I love normal creme. It gives butter a run for it's money.

That night Liz and her friend Sam had to go see a show, which was sold out. We grabbed some awesome Middle Eastern pastries (see photos above) and split ways. The girls went to their show, and I went to the pub across the street to watch the soccer match that was on instead. It was awesome. Think about what you imagine a London pub to be like during a soccer match, and then put me in the middle of it with a Guinness and a smile. That's exactly what it was like. AND I made a friend! We talked all about soccer, and what I should do while I was in London, and other places we both should travel. When we were talking about the US, he said he'd been to two places: Miami and.... wait for it... CINCINNATI. I was very confused, until he explained that he had friends that lived there. I mean, who doesn't love Cincinnati? It's like the Atlanta of Ohio, plus they have the Bengals - a football team that you can only feel pity for. But not exactly a tourist destination.

All in all, I was very happy with my first night in Londontown. Very swinging. Oh, and just so you all know, I haven't shaved in almost a week. I'm not going to shave until I've finished talking about London. I was inspired by my mountain man experience in Cinque Terre. Plus it'll really light a fire under me to finish writing about my fall break. This much scruff isn't a good look on me.

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Mountain-faced" Yazge

Fiorentina ha vinto!!!

All he wants is a hug...

Last night we went to the Fiorentina game. It was a Champions League match against Debrecen? or Decebren? Or Excedrin? Some Hungarian team (that I'm sure my Romanian great-grandmother would spit on). The point is that last night was a huge game, because Fiorentina's win (which was huge, 5-2) put them just one point behind the group leader, Lyon. And we were there! Like, 20 feet off the field! We were less than five feet away from the players while they were doing warm-ups. It was awesome.

It's also worth noting that American pro-sports fans have NOTHING on the Europeans. The entire curve of the stadium was packed with fans dressed in purple, fans that never stopped chanting. They were all in perfect unison too. We were really confused as to how they were so in sync, until we saw that they literally had someone leading the cheers. A cheerleader if you will. He was standing up on one of the guardrails and yelling stuff out to them. There were flags, and scarves, and horns, and all other sorts of awesomeness. We all tried chanting along with them, but we didn't know the words. So we just bounced and clapped a lot. The Italians around us found that pretty amusing.

But the highlight of the evening was 16 minutes in, when I got to see Adrian Mutu (pictured above - midfielder for Fiorentina, striker for the Romanian National Team) score off a header. It was BEAUTIFUL. Perfectly timed, right into the back of the net. All he needs to do now is get the court to settle his pending breach of contract charges, and he's good as gold! Really, I don't care if he used cocaine. He's still my hero.

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Fiorentino" Yazge

Ho dimenticato... sempre dimenticavo.

My brain is a puddle of chocolate-infused mush...

As you can tell from the wonderful picture of myself and Hannah, midterms are here. And they're making me want to throw myself into the Arno. I began stress eating this weekend, and last night was probably the worst it's been yet. In the past 16 hours I've eaten 3 bars of chocolate, half a batch of crepes with whipped creme and chocolate spread, a beer, and roughly 8 cups of coffee... Healthy, I know.

This morning was a mess. As I was walking to class, one of my friends asked how my paper turned out. I was really confused because it was only half done, and I was planning on finishing it tonight. False. It was due this morning. So I had a wonderful time explaining that to my professore, who just looked at me like I was a moron. I am. But that's not the point.

So instead of studying for my oral exam in Italian, I ran back to my apartment to get my laptop so I could finish my paper. I was in the middle of finishing my paper when I had to run to my oral exam, where I more or less managed to talk about Davide Santon (Sky Sports profile here) for 8 minutes. The guy is 18 and he's a starter for Inter and going to the World Cup for Italy. Seriously? What the hell have I been doing with my life? Um... forgetting when my assignments are due and talking about people who have accomplished things with their life while completely failing to do so myself? Plan.

I finished my paper about 30 minutes ago, and now I have to go start studying for my Business Law midterm. Can't WAIT until Thursday at 6pm. Then I can finally start planning my weeklong vacation. Paris here we come!

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Chocoholic" Yazge

Nel Mundo de Deportes

Sulley Montari in Inter's match against Udinese.

Professionals
Let us turn first to soccer, futbol, calcio, whatever you want to call it. As you'll learn, I read NYTimes like it's going out of business. Funny, because it may end up doing so in the current economic climate - not to mention that newspapers everywhere are flailing around like stinking, half-dead fish. But I digress. The NYTimes published an article about the recent Inter-Udinese match in Milan. It discussed, among other things, the state of race-relations in Italy. The match was not going well for Milan when the coach pulled Sulley Montari, one of Milan's star players, from the game. According to the article there was some pretty heinous boo-ing, much of which - as the article suggests - was due to the fact that Montari is a black Muslim. I'd heard that Italy had race issues, but I had no idea that they were this bad. I've become less and less enchanted with the culture here in Italy. I'm sure what I've experienced is not an accurate depiction of the entire country, but I definitely feel the country could use a civil rights movement. It's pretty bad when a coach says that your religious beliefs aren't convenient for your team.

Me
Coming back to my own life, I'm not playing soccer, but I did go to pilates yesterday. It's a LOT harder than it looks. NYU Florence brings in someone to teach a class every Monday night. This lady is a little southern belle - who reminds me a lot of Deborah Finley! She moved to Florence from Atlanta 4 years ago, and she brought her pilates studio with her. I was the only guy in the class - a point she kept bringing up: "You know, you're a smart guy! Those other guys have no idea that they're missin' out on all these lovely little ladies!" She also was very amused by my inability to do most of the exercises. I have a REALLY weak core. I did alright on the exercises that required balance, but anything that required me to isolate muscles other than my core didn't go so well. It's really hard to move your legs without using the majority of your leg muscles. Once, I mistakenly started rotating my foot at the ankle, which prompted her to say "don't you wish" and then proceed to forcibly move my entire leg in sweeping circles from the hip. She kept saying to lift from my abs. I wanted to tell her that I didn't have any...

I made myself feel better with a 5K run afterwards, because running is something that I don't entirely fail at. This is on top of the 4 miles I walked back and forth from campus. So needless to say I'm exhausted, and my Zytec from this morning and the glass of wine I had with dinner aren't helping. I'm off to bed before I fall asleep on my keyboard!


Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Sore-in-muscles-he-didn't-know-he-had" Yazge


P.S. - I realize that the title of my blog today is in Spanish. I feel I owe the rest of Europe my due dilligence, so there will be a flavorful mix of languages from now on!