italian refreshments...

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

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

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...

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...

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...

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!

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.