Life in Milano

30/10/08

Yoshifumi Mori

This report is about my life in Milano. Unlike others, I declare here that I shall adopt a casual, or sloppy and

informal style, which I expect doesn’t make the readers sick but rather informs them that this stay is more than a mere great

success. I hope everyone will read this relaxed and at the same time it might be an incentive for junior students to enjoy those

moratoriums in a productive and creative manner, which usually are denied them in their later university life.

It was on 15th August the midsummer dream, as it were, began to take stage. This date is like a national holiday, and

so almost all shops were closed. On top of that, I first wrongly went to the IEO hospital, not the campus, so I couldn’t get the

key to the guesthouse. The tried to contact the secretary about the details of this but the line was busy. Finally I stayed a night in

the hotel nearby, the institute charged. Only limited Italian people spoke English, I had no idea what would become of me, and

so I was awfully restless. The next day I managed to reach the campus and was given the key; it all had begun, I told myself.

First I describe life outsides the campus. The guest house in Noverasco, a neighbouring commune (district) to

Milano, was nicely furnished with bedding, a closet and a large kitchen, although the light was much too dim to read a book

and one roommate was all too disgusting whose memory is what I surely want to erase; the others were nice enough. Thanks to

the kitchen, I cooked for myself breakfasts and suppers. As Italian people generally had only cafè normally espresso or cafè

lungo sometimes with some biscuits or bread, my breakfast appeared odd to them. I utilised frozen vegetables for minestrone

and as I knew how to make some pasta sauces, my everyday dishes were minestrone and pasta. EU had a strict regulation in

pesticides and additives, meeting my demands. I had lunch in the campus for free. They offered us prima (pasta, trancio of

pizza, or risotto), secondo (a main dish or salad) and dolce (fruit and yogurt) respectively. You see, I had very healthy foodstuff

there. The idea of cooking my own meals might have been partly due to the prices. Raw materials were sold cheaper and

readymades more expensive than in Japan. You could easily imagine that tomato, pasta, olive oil and wines were sold

extremely low-price. Italian wines were very remarkable in that they didn’t ever cause any headache or hangover and prices

were half those in Japan but tastes were much more than double. Fortunately or unfortunately, this encouraged me to drink

often—about once every two days—and much—at least one cup. A colleague joked I might have become alcoholic, as I might

perhaps be now. True it would be better if I should mention more, but though I moved about and had a grasp of the centre of

Milano, I’ve spent too much time in the lab. to explore the outside in Noverasco. The climate was very nice. The weather was

so comfortable that I rarely worked up a sweat.

Next is the life in the campus, which every reader would be the most curious about. My main task was cloning and

purification, ranging from transformation of E.Coli with recombinant plasmid to gel filtration of harvested, crude proteins. Our

laboratory has been focusing on the assembly of kinetochore in a structural biological way, which demands a large amount of

protein if only to determine its molecular shape. That summer cloning technicians were lacking, so I was automatically

designated as such. It is difficult to find out what condition is desirable to what protein, but such information with the proteins I

dealt with had already been determined, so what I did was like a routine. So much so that I once operated with 5 kinds of

proteins at the same time without any trouble. I suppose I purified about 30 times in all normally with 2 to 5 litres overnight

culture. I usually worked—they use this word, but to me it was not, but rather fun—from 9.00 a.m. to 9.30 p.m. This was

practically because one of my bosses, Stefano, a PhD student, also worked that long, while the others were moderate in this

respect. You might consider him Japanese. Also it was partly because I had nothing to do in Noverasco, where the Net was

unavailable and I was forced to see the offending subject. Joking apart, I secretly wanted to enjoy the atmosphere there and

keep up with the latest findings and development. This was the main reason. The span less than two months were too short to

fulfil a single tiny project, but I made it a rule to read as many papers or implemental books and to meet as many

lab-technicians as possible and I did. I contacted them all by myself and gained orientations, say, about mass-spectromy. The

junior readers should remember the following: it’s not how long to stay but how to make the most of it that is important.

When it comes to the campus life, I cannot go without mentioning the peers. There were many peculiar

characteristics about them, which would derive from their being Italian: they were consistently overacting; they were late in the

Monday morning and on rainy days but they went home still earlier than Japanese researchers; they usually invited me out

without organising the details; they shouted suddenly even when they were doing experiment; they went vacances for one

week to two months very frequently showing no signs of the leave on the previous day—another similar case was one where

when I carried some experiments out on a Saturday, a researcher ‘scolded’ to me, “Yoshi, you must not work in the weekend.

You have to go sightseeing.” Upon their honour—also I should want to strongly stress this—they always gave a big smile or

wink when we passed by each other; they were much more respectful to each other than average Japanese; though there were

also in Italy some etiquette, they allowed and, moreover, required me to regard them as friends; once I asked someone for help,

they put all energies to solve the problem sometimes to the point where they could possibly be considered a little bit

meddlesome; even the women there were so self-assertive that few sly battles in secret happened and we could easily discuss

every matter completely and get to satisfactory conclusions. They were many times really careless and slipshod, but at the same

time were very flexible. If you have any doubt, then you can check how many great theses they yielded. In short, they know

how best to enjoy their fleeting life, I should say. Furthermore, researchers in IEO used the campus mailing lists to ask

someone to give some samples, chemical agents, or some aid in experiments they were unfamiliar with, and even to gather

people for football, to sell some motorbikes or cars, and even to inform others there were rooms to let. They were amazingly

cooperative.

Indeed all friends in the laboratory are worth reviewing, but here I shall introduce five people in particular. The first

is Stefano. He was a PhD student and virtually the chief person to direct me. He worked much too like Japanese and gently

offered me many tasks. As the people around him said, he was usually being crazy, for the 90% of his remarks and deeds were

jokes. Would he have been an adorer of Diogenes that he’d seem to me to be engaged in science for its sake? Annemarie was a

Postdoc researcher from Luxembourg. She was such a cosmopolitan person; she spoke Lëtzebuergesch originally and Deutsch,

Français and English incredibly fluently. That no doubt you would take her for a British person as I did, her pronunciation was

so beautiful. On top of that, she was very open-minded, diligent and kind. It is surely advisable to turn to her. Another female

Postdoc is Paola. Her character and Stefano’s were really explanatory of the famous stereotype: people from the southern part

in Italy are very honest and extremely cheerful. Paola showed warm sympathy and always willingly offered me a help even

outside the campus. Her kindness was something that all Japanese people should once have had but now many are missing.

The next is a person to have a shining head not only in appearance. He is Arsen, a genuine cultivated Postdoc researcher. Words

fail to describe his excellent intelligence, knowledge, and personality; you had to meet him face to face. If I were allowed to be

arrogant, I should say we shared many things in common; it may be that I am following his road, and he could be one of the

idealised people I’d aim... though it’s hard to identify with him. Now the last person is obvious. He is our group

leader—equivalent with a professor— everyone loved and respected, Andrea. He was similar to Arsen. He was very strict in

science and ethics, and was by no means authoritarian as you-know-who. There were, of course, a lot of anecdotes to prove his

frankness and friendliness, but they were rather too complicated to appropriately write down here. Once when we had a supper

together, I was about to unconsciously assume a casual attitude towards a friend my age. Could this come about in Japan?

In the weekend I went sightseeing in European cities (Bologna, Verona, Innsbruck, Bern, Firenze, Venezia), where I

met unfamiliar cultures but was reminded of a faint memory of those good days in Cambridge at 3, and on weekdays, I

enjoyed the blessed surrounding. Everything was more than I’d deserve. I’ve learnt some secrets of life: having good wine,

taking rests (or going on holidays regularly), keeping on smiling. Paola advised me to do what I feel like, though she also added

this should be fairly difficult to materialise in Japan. I’ve also been reassured that there are holdovers from an ‘education’ era.

The sad thing is that 45 days are too short, that I had little time to talk with Andrea as he was very busy on stupid September.

The second last day I invited about 20 lab-mates to a small party. I offered a six-course Japanese traditional family

meal. They were very surprised and curious, which made me nervous at first. Later, I was very pleased to see them savouring

all dishes and often to hear the words ‘Buono!’ I ended this with a farewell greeting all in Italian. At this precise moment, I was

being a Milanese... verweile doch, du bist so schön! The last night I was invited ‘a’ last dinner. A surprise occurred. They

secretly prepared presents —a book on all about Italian cooking, a cooking tool for pasta, dried porcini, and a set of biscuit and

wine. “Open the first page,” Arsen gently said. Many messages by lab-mates immediately spread all over my sight. I had been

very moved! How could I have expressed my feeling? At the same time Andrea’s words flitted across my mind, “I heard

everyone liked you.” Had I casted any spell on them? I asked Paola. She calmly replied, “It’s your character.” Yes, exactly I’m

the main character in my life, and in the meantime am a summer student who has to say good-bye to Milano soon. Hence the

last line I delivered to each friend Plaudite, Acta est Fabula.

with Arsen with Guendalina, Paola, Annemarie, me, Gianluca at ‘a’ last party

with Andrea in a process of cloning

with Stefano my bench my desk