The good the bad and the ugly

This is me kind of whining \(-\) although I do have some positive (and I think I’m right in whining).

First off: chapeau to the iHEA local organisers at Bocconi University in Milan! I think they’ve done an incredible job \(-\) I think iHEA staff do help and get involved quite a lot in the organisation. But as far as I can tell, the whole thing went perfectly. In typical Italian style, the coffee and lunch breaks were really good, too (a nice change from previous iHEAs I went to).

Then the bad (here comes the whining)… As I mentioned here, this has been sort of a mixed conference experience, since I’ve not stayed in Milan for the whole time and have sort of commuted from Marta’s parents’ (they live on the lake). Anyway: yesterday I took the train to come back home after the afternoon sessions and I needed a ticket to the tram/metro to get to the train station. The first place I found on my way to the tram stop, told me that they had run out of tickets \(-\) the man wasn’t very friendly. “Go to the newsagent around the corner”. So I went but as it turned out, they had run out too \(-\) the man was even less friendly than the previous one. Third time lucky, I found another place who could sell me the €1.5 ticket, a bit further down the road \(-\) by then I’d already walked a good 1/3 of the way.

Thanks to this, I just about manage to catch my train \(-\) and here comes the ugly: firstly, the air conditioning wasn’t working. Sitting next to me was an English family on holiday \(-\) the little boy was wearing a Liverpool FC shirt which got so drenched with sweat I doubt he was able to take it off, last night… Then, when I got to my station and tried to get off the train, I simply couldn’t because the door wasn’t working. I did rush to the next carriage \(-\) but that door didn’t work either! Mid way my rush to the next-next carriage, the train left the station and I had to get off the next one \(-\) luckily not very far from my stop.