italiarama

"You like some Pork?"

2008-05-01T19:35:00.000+02:00

...my new landlady, asked as I came in last night at 10:00 pm. She had a delicious meal of rice, cabbage, bread, and pork waiting for me at the kitchen table.

First day in California, my birthday, big pork dinner... no complaints.

Italy Italy I am no longer in you

2008-05-01T19:16:00.002+02:00

Around the World For Easter

2008-03-27T00:12:00.019+01:00

Last weekend was a long weekend so I decided to fill it up with random travels. First on saturday I went to Genova by myself to see the sea. It turned out to be a beautiful day, and of course I enjoyed wandering around with no real specific goal or direction. Probably the highlights of the trip were eating some oranges I bought at a fruit store, and walking out on a dock and watching the ripples in the water.

Sunday, I spent in Milan, went to church and ate lunch with some friends. Then I hopped on a train and went to Florence. I also very last minutely brought along my friend/co-intern Changduk. We stayed in Florence Sunday night and early in the morning woke up and caught a bus to Sienna. I have been wanting to see Sienna ever since the pre-existence and so I was really happy to finally go. We ran into some mucky weather, and we also ended up having to stay an extra day in Florence because all the trains back to Milan were full, but overall it was another grand adventure. Some of the highlights were:

1. We stayed in nicest hostel in Florence (I found it on www.hostelbookers.com). It was like 50 yards from the Duomo, and brand new. Well, it was newly opened, but obviously the building it was in was probably a few hundred years old. Check out the immensely tall ceilings in our room!

2. The bus to Sienna was really crowded. Somehow me and Changduk managed to get on board even though there were no available seats. We were lucky to find a relatively comfortable staircase, to share with some nice gypsy ladies. The bus ride was about 1.5 hours long, through the hilly tuscan countryside. Even though it was mostly gray and brown outside, it was a bus ride I've been waiting to go on for a long time.

3. We got to Sienna, and as we looked at it with squinty eyes (because it pouring crazy rain in our faces), we were totally stunned. Sienna is a beautiful and extremely old city almost completely covering a hill side.

4. Changduk's green poncho. We had both imagined that going 4 hours south of Milan would mean going to warmer weather. Unfortunately that wasn't the case and to make up for it Changduk purchased this classic green poncho to keep warm and dry. I had luckily brought a jacket so I didn't get in on any of the poncho fun.

5. We spent a lot of time taking cheesy pictures. If you look closely at this one you will notice that our umbrellas are spinning.

6. And of course we made sure to enjoy the INCREDIBLE architecture of Sienna.

Ci Sono Ancora

2008-03-21T22:53:00.003+01:00

Sometimes a break from blogging means laziness. Other times it means craziness... which has definitely been the case for me in these last few weeks. I have done a little bit of everything from travelling (Como, Parma, Venice) to Design Events (Bill Moggridge, Castiglioni studio, Bruno Munari Museum) to work (Continuum of course) to hosting some friends (from the US and England) and craziest of all, planning my next internship adventure (in and out of contracts with companies, lots of portfolio submission, millions of emails, and quite a few interviews...).

So yes, I've been through some craziness, but it has been excellent and I'm ready for more!

Never Enough Time

2008-02-28T20:42:00.004+01:00

Paris Preview:

La Mia Giornata

2008-02-14T00:55:00.011+01:00

My Average Day.

First I wake up and make my bed (immediately)

Then I open my "tapparelli" (really good blinds) and I look out at the beautiful grey milano sky.

Then I go in the bathroom and take a shower. Our shower is probably about the size of an american pizza box.

Then I get dressed, and say goodbye to my little apartment. (Which is basically a really big hallway, a tiny kitchen, two bedrooms and a tiny bathroom.)

I walk out onto my long and straight italian street. Its kind of in a very typical residential area of milan, consisting of large tall block buildings that house hundreds of people.

And I walk about 50 steps to the west to the Panetteria (bread store) for breakfast! This is definitely where my day begins to get exciting.

My two italian bakers cook me delicious pastries and breads everyday. I usually get a cream filled brioche (i'm on vacation so I can eat these everyday...) and a big piece of focaccia. This is probably a very strange breakfast for italians... but I can't help eating it because its dirt cheap, super convenient, and delicious.

I continue walking down the street to the bus stop.

Sometimes I see Milan wildlife.

And then I get to the bus stop. I wait here for anywhere from 1 minute to 30 minutes... depending on how regular the buses are feeling like being on this particular day.

Then I get on the crowded bus and ride it for 5 stops. (some days I just walk to work)

The bus lets me off right by Via Coletta, where Continuum is located.

The Continuum Entrance

The parking lot... Continuum is at the very back, you can see it if you look for the big U with a circle around it.

What a surpise! Changduk, the other intern, (from Korea) is waiting to greet me as he drinks his morning coffee.

We walk into to Continuum

Down the hall...

And these are some of the great folks that work at Continuum.

And this is my desk. I spend most of my time here, although a lot of my day is also spent in our group project rooms in the back of the studio. I usually work from about 9:30 am until 8:00 pm.

This is my lunch, which to save money I buy from the supermarket. Its not the best italian lasagne (microwaveable in a box)... but it fills me up.

Sometimes I get lucky and get to make things in the shop. Today Changduk and I had to make some quick sketch models of a product we are working on. These are my safety glasses. Not only do they look amazing, but they protect my eyes from any harm.

This is our protective owl.

and this is me and Changduk, a few minutes before he went on a photo rampage in the studio... taking lots of pictures of everyone who was still left there working this late. I think the clicking noise that my camera makes is addicting.

This is me leaving continuum after a full day of work.

On the bus again

Past the old scary black and white building...

and the glowing red building...

And then I'm home. I usually eat pasta, write emails, and then fall asleep.

The end.

At it again

2008-02-07T20:11:00.000+01:00

So, even though I've done it now about 7 times, I'm in the middle of redoing my design portfolio again. It may be because soon I will be sending it out around the country (USA) in hopes of landing another internship offer for this summer. Or, it may because I feel like I've learned a lot since the last time I threw one together. Most likely though, the reason for making this new portfolio, is that I am crazy and I get too much of a kick out of reorganizing and refacing my same old projects with sleek new layouts. We'll never know...

Carnivale

2008-02-04T07:41:00.000+01:00

This weekend I took another trip.. This time it was to Venice! I went with a friend of mine, and his aunt (her first time) and we had a grand time. It was raining the whole day (which made for difficult picture taking), but it actually created a really cool atmosphere that I had never experienced before in Venice. Also it was "Carnivale" weekend, and despite the rain, there were still quite a few people dressed up in the traditional venetian costumes.

Bergamo

2008-01-27T09:13:00.001+01:00

So, last Sunday, after church, I made a quick trip to Bergamo. Its another really interesting city, about 45 minutes away from Milano. Probably the coolest thing about it is that the old historical city center of the town, is so old, that it was built up on the top of a hill. Its called Citta' Alta. So basically I just spent the day wandering around up there. I was planning on taking tons of photos, but in the end, I kept getting distracted by the random people I kept meeting and talking to. Unfortunately the photos don't really give a good idea of what the city is like, but some of them are decent.

Como...

2008-01-23T07:56:00.000+01:00

Saturday I went on my first day trip. I got on a train around 12:00, (accompanied by a new friend... Sara Carnieletto) and we went to Como. Its about 40 minutes north of Milan, in the lake/mountain district. It was an excellent day, spent basically just walking around like nerdy tourists. At one point, we rode a tram to the top of one of the nearby mountains, and spent quite a bit of time exploring a small village up at the top. Here are some of the pictures:

Can I just say...

2008-01-16T08:20:00.000+01:00

I absolutely love my job! I was walking home from work yesterday, and I realized that I am totally enjoying this internship. I really think that I could be happy working at a place like Continuum, for the rest of my life.

As I have mentioned before, we are working on a medical project right now. The research and analysis that we are doing, in preparation to create our design solution, is so incredibly interesting. I have always wanted to dive deeper into design research and strategy, and this is really my chance. I wish I could go into more specifics of what we're doing... but that will have to come later, after the whole thing is over.

the weekend

2008-01-14T05:46:00.000+01:00

Well... because of the less than desirable weather this weekend, I decided not to take my day trip to Como to do some sight seeing. Instead I spent saturday doing a bunch of random/necessary things around town. I finally went and got some minutes for my telephone, I went shopping downtown and got some more professional-ish clothes to wear to work, and a few other things. I also slept in.

Sunday, was a very mormon day. I spent the entire day doing church things. I went to church, and then to a teaching appointment with the missionaries, and then back to church for a baptism, and then dinner with the members afterwards. Actually it wasn't technically dinner, after the baptism, but there was so much food, and everyone stood around talking and eating for about 2 hours, so I can't really call that refreshments...

In the middle of the day, I did take a few minutes to snap some more photos of Milan. It was a dark and rainy day... basically all we've had since I've been here.

the shopping district

cool red pavement

a church in the middle of the big industrial buildings (very typical of Milan)

the Duomo (main cathedral in the city)

Myself, on my way to church

Coke chairs

Castle Estense

in the metro

random shots out on the streets

italian refreshments...

2008-01-14T05:40:00.000+01:00

I went to an italian baptism yesterday. If you thought that at a baptism of an 8 year old italian girl, there would be refreshments, you would be right. You probably would never guess just how much food there would be though.

hard work

2008-01-10T07:56:00.000+01:00

I know a lot of you are wondering how my presentation went. Actually I haven't done it yet. They decided to push it to next week because a few people aren't back from vacation yet. I was ready to do it yesterday, but I'm glad that I have a little more time to prepare now. I think I might add in one more project this weekend. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.

Other than that, all I have to say right now is that this job is hard work. I've never had a job that was so mentally taxing. We are working on a project that involves quite extensive medical research. (I can't really go into detail because of confidentiality rules) These last few days have basically just been long meetings of analysis of all the collected data. It is very interesting research, but the meetings can get kind of long. (and you know how good I am at sitting still) Its exciting though to be participating in such extensive research and analysis, especially because I believe it plays a huge role in valid product design.

I worked yesterday for 11 hours. Again I came straight home, ate dinner and went to bed. I remember when I was on my mission, I used to always be frustrated with people who used work as an excuse to not really do anything else. Now I think I have a little more empathy for those people!

Anyway, I'm having fun, feeling a little overwhelmed, but I was kind of expecting that.

ministero finanze

2008-01-09T07:39:00.000+01:00

Today, I had to go to the Ministero Finanze to get my "codice fiscale" (fiscal number). I went bright and early in the morning around 8:30 am, to get a good spot in line. I took my number and sat down and waited for it to be called. After waiting for about 2 hours (time I spent practicing my signature, and sketching the people sitting around me), I heard some people speaking english behind me. I decided to be outgoing and go meet them. It was Yang Yang and Ding Bei, a guy and a girl from China, here in Milan to study Industrial Design (woot woot) and fashion. We had quite a fun chat (Ding Bei, the girl had excellent english), I even showed them pics of my family from christmas on my laptop. Anyway, after about 3 and a half hours of waiting, my number was still not close to being called, Ding Bei convinced me to leave and go get lunch, and then come back in a few hours, so I wouldn't waste time waiting. So I decided to leave and left my two new friends waiting (who had lower numbers than I did). I went and got lunch and then walked around in a nice park nearby. At about 12:30 I decided to head back to the Ministero Finanze building, and to my suprise saw Ding Bei frantically running around outside looking for me! She said they were one number away from mine! I ran inside and got to the counter just as they called my number. I had my appointment and successfully got my "codice fiscale". Lucky day!

I exchanged email with Ding Bei and Yang Yang and I think we'll be going out to lunch one of these days. I'm glad I went out of my way to meet them.

the real deal...

2008-01-08T04:10:00.000+01:00

WOW... Is probably the best way to sum up my first day of work. The design firm I'm working at is the real deal and I am so excited/lucky to be here.

I showed up at work at 10 (they normally want me at 9 but for my first day they wanted me a little later) and the guy who hired me, showed me around the design firm. I was shocked right from the beginning at how cool the studio was. Its built in an old factory, and its kinda hard to describe, but its very state of the art, complete with nice conference rooms, big studio spaces, group work areas, cool coffee break room, huge shop (where they mill models and prototypes), a neat outdoor workspace (if only it were a little warmer), and a lot more. The whole office is very stylized and covered with posters and examples of products designed in the past. Did you know that they invented the swiffer?

Anyway, after showing me around the office, I was introduced to all the employees. There are mostly italians, as well as a few people from other random countries. They are excellent people, very nice, very helpful seeming, and very qualified. I am excited to be able to work with them.

So after all the introductions, I had to do a bunch of logistical stuff, like getting a log-in and password, getting a work space, etc. Then I basically just spent the middle of the day reading old marketing presentations about all the products they have designed, just to familiarize myself with the company's process. I should be getting my new project assignments shortly.

For the quick lunch break in the middle of the day, I went out to eat with all the other employees. Because there are only 15 of them, and because they work so much, I get the impression that they are all best friends and basically spend a lot of time together. The other guys are all pretty interested to know my background, although none of them have heard much about BYU, so its fun to be the first one to tell them about it.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to present my portfolio to the whole clan. I'm a little nervous for that, however, as long as I am confident about how I explain it, I'm sure they will find things they like in it. (they are very nice people)

Anyway, today was absolutely amazing. I didn't leave work until 7, and I got home around 7:30. I ate some quick dinner and crashed at 8:30!

So, overall, this is going to be an amazing experience. I'm still nervous about my ability to perform at the level this company is at, but luckily, I'm just an intern and I'm here to learn!

(I'm posting this tuesday morning because my internet doesn't work at night for some reason)

a word of advice...

2008-01-07T05:57:00.001+01:00

If you are ever in Italy, and because of jet-lag you're having difficulty sleeping at normal hours... don't buy this alarm clock. Though she is cute and innocent and orange, she is ridiculously expensive and TICKS SO LOUD, you might as well not even try to sleep!

una bella domenica...

2008-01-07T05:37:00.000+01:00

I went to the Milano 1st ward today. It took me about 1 hour to get there from my apartment (conveniently located on the opposite side of town) but it was definitely worth the travel. I hadn't told a single person in the ward that I was going to be coming to Italy... so needless to say I caught them off guard by just randomly showing up. A few people didn't really seem to remember me, but for the most part everyone was happy to see me. The ward has grown quite a bit since I served there (3 years ago), and it was great to see and hear church in Italian again.

I got several invites for lunch (exactly what I was hoping for.. hehe...) and I ended up spending the entire Sunday with the Redaeli family. They are a super high energy family that I did a lot of work with back in my missionary days. I wish I had a picture to post of our time together, but unfortunately I left my backpack and camera at church and didn't get it back until after I left their house. We ate lunch (which lasted about 1.5 hours... italians take their time when they eat) and then just sat around and talked for quite a while. They also made me take a nap on their couch, because I "looked so tired" and then they took me home. Good times.

sono arrivato!

2008-01-06T06:28:00.001+01:00

I finally got to Italy! After 3 exciting flights (Boise to Minneapolis to New York to Milan), my plane finally rolled into the Malpensa Italy Airport, at 8:00 am this morning. Then it was another 3 hours of travel in a train, the metro, 3 buses, until I finally found my apartment, on the southeast side of the big dirty city of Milano!

There were two memorable things about the trip here. First, my luggage. I recently got brand new bright orange suitcases, and they are amazing. You should have seen the people staring at me as I dragged them all over the place. (I was mistaken in thinking my mission was probably the last time the italian people would think I was weird...) The other exciting thing was the italian couple I sat next to on the plane ride. They were form Lecco, a small town just north of Milan, and courteously answered my 10,000 questions (in italian) about Italy and other things, as we sat next to each other. It felt really good to have almost 8 hours of conversation in italian, before I even got here.

So after I got to my apartment, I met my roommate and my landlady. Both seem nice. My roommate is a Japanese kid named Taka, who is in Milano to study industrial design. He said he was glad I moved in because I seem "simpatico"... but I think it will only be a matter of time before he changes his mind. hehe. The landlady, Signora Zilli, is short and very italian. She kept forgetting that I spoke her language, and kept using broken italian and lots of hand signals as she was showing me around the place. Once she was able to trust the fact that I really did speak her language, she was able to explain things much easier.

I spent the afternoon moving in to my small closet/apartment. (I'll be posting pics of that later). And then I went out on the town. First an unsuccessful trip to the phone store to try to find a charger for my old italian cell phone, and then to the grocery store to buy my first groceries. If it weren't for the fact that everything there costs 50% more than America, I would have run around buying everything in sight. Walking through that little grocery store, I realized just how much I miss italian food, and how much I absolutely LOVE IT.

This evening I went to downtown Milan and took pictures of the beautiful christmas lights. I always make fun of kitschy american christmas decorations... but I can't do the same of italian ones. I like them.

Tomorrow, I'm going to go to the Milano 1st ward, where I served for a major portion of my mission. I'm excited to see old friends.