italia - beginning

I have been back in the homeland for exactly 9 days and 16.23 hours and my has it been great!

The smell of the air as I stepped out of Pisa International Airport was refreshing and full of opportunity for the coming year! While tired (we landed around midnight) and body sore from the long flight and trying to help Pops lug around my four jam packed suitcases and four carry-ons, I arrived in Italia full of life and energy. There is just something about the crisp winter air here that opens your eyes and brings a sense of calm to you.

Our first day in Italia was La Befana. A national holiday, so it was nice to not have to start work my first full day here, but it also meant that everything was closed, so we couldn’t do any work for the apartment. The beauty of a holiday in Italy is that it really is a holiday. No work for anyone, not even most stores.

I started work subito dopo on January 7. The office is a loft-like three story building with lots of windows in the front and none in the back! It’s an interesting layout with the main floor structured around two conference rooms in the middle. David and a majority of the communications team are in the back. I have been set-up, after about a week of desk floating, in the “open space”. The open space is a set of about fifteen cubicles in the front of the first floor. It’s nice and bright because the entire wall is windows. Work has been a lot of learning and trying to take in as much information about different projects as possible. Everyone in the office is really nice and some of them are hilarious. There is one guy who is this big guy with glasses, he is very loud and gets mad very easily (from what I’ve heard coming from his office). Well, everyone here calls him Pallone (his real name is Paolo)(sorry but if you don’t know a little Italiano that name won’t be very funny to you). Another guy around the office is called Skywalker. It’s pretty funny working in an office with technology nerds. I look at some computer screens and have no clue what is going on and think that my brother would fit right in! My first travel was my first Friday on the job to Roma. Had to catch a morning train to Rome, sit in on different lectures, went for a quick look at the always wonderful Trevi and then dinner followed by a three and a half train ride back to Pisa. What a day!

I take the bus and train to work everyday. It has been very easy and straight forward everyday except today. Firstly, the buses (see min 1:28 from the link) in Italy never arrive on time and seem to have no schedule whatsoever. My bus is supposed to “arrive” at 810 in front of the Chiesa around the corner from my apartment. On average, I’d say it arrives around 8:20 (I learned this after running out of the apt one morning at 8:10 only to get to the bus stop, sweating, and then waiting for fifteen minutes). Today it didn’t show up until 8:30. Then when we took the turn onto the main street just outside the walls of Lucca, I guess the bus driver cut someone off or something because next thing I know there is a man yelling at our driver, car stopped in the middle of the road. No clue what exactly was said, except the driver ended it with vaffanculo stronzo. Not a good start to a day…

Life in Italia has been wonderful. My Pops hooked up the apartment before he left and took care of pretty much everything for me. Now I’m just sitting tight waiting for my new bed, kitchen and the internet to arrive! It’s going to be amazing….Pops, David and I took a trip to Esselunga to stock up before he left. We went to a new one close to the apt and were stunned by the size of the place. Not to mention you needed sunglasses to work in there - the white brightness could kill someone! We're still confused as to why you can only buy at max a twelve pack of toilet paper and a three pack of paper towels. Someone should introduce Costco...

The beauty of working in Italy is that you can, and are encouraged to take a thousand breaks a day. Whether for your tenth macchiato of the day, for a smoke, or even just a small giro. I think I might have a heart attack from the amount of coffee I’ve taken up (I have no clue how you do it Gaily!) However, this also means that co-workers might not be available at any time you may need them and they might take a little longer than you might want to do something.

Example, setting up my email address. At my previous job, I had an email address the second I walked into the office. Here though, it took ten days. Part of the adventure…learning to work and adjust my working habits to my new environment.

This Saturday – Firenze!

A dopo...