Let’s see…so my week is over.
My new landlord got a peek at my passport photo (for the contract) and did the doubletake…see I have pics in my passport where I look like the biker and pics where I look like the über geek (wow I got to use an ümlaut – almost legitimately)…it seems not to matter which one I happen to look like at the time. If someone sees the OTHER one in my passport they do a doubletake (and if they work at the airport they call their supervisor over - if they work at the German-Netherlands border they say “ver ist your beard?” and if it’s my new landlordhe s says “not better…just different”).
that story went nowhere fast…
I’m still waiting for the punchline…but it’s a squires story, so it’s really just me waving my hands around and you focusing on the journey….
…and in the end, nothing really happened…
I sign papers this week and move in by next week…then we have halloween (not sure if they do anything for that here), followed by Saints day (1 Nov), followed by the day of the dead (2 Nov). I think 1 Nov is normally a holiday, but since it falls on sunday, then I’ll have to wait until next year.
I had a mexican working for my team in Portland once upon a time and he told about how in Mexico families will spend all night in the cemetery of their ancestors drinking and praying, and drinking…all the while thinking about their ancestors.
I asked a colleague here about it and I guess there’s no drinking. Just going to the cemetery and putting a candle on the headstone or something…I said something like I’ll be wandering that cemetery for a while looking for my ancestors…I’d better bring something to drink while I’m looking.
That is another story without a real punchline or point…stream of consciousness. stream of consciousness…Stream.of.consciousness. teh
This just in…I can’t spell consciousness…Luckily I have spell chekking.
There’s a big comic/fantasy festival in Lucca this weekend. I was planning on going tomorrow, but then found out there’s a gigantic party/dinner with a bunch of work colleagues tomorrow. I had to procure a ride and since I did procure a ride I’m not sure if I’ll go to Lucca tomorrow or not…
The last time I went to a company dinner it basically went like this:
8pm…meet Luca in Carrara so I could follow him to restaurant
8:15…Get to restaurant. Hang out in parking lot for 15 minutes. Greeting everyone in turn as they arrive
8:30…sit down and someone orders wine
8:34…start drinking wine and eating bread that arrived with it
8:35-9:00…drink wine…volume of people in the room gradually increases as more and more italians enter.
9:00…appetizer 1 arrives, along with more bread…I can’t even remember what appetizer 1 was.
(drink more wine)
9:15…appetizer 2 arrives along with wine…turns out the wine is all you can drink…we all drink to free wine…
9:30…fried fish arrives along with some kind of fried ground vegetable…It was eggplant or zucchini I think…I skipped the veggie. I start wondering if that was the main dish…and then get disappointed because that has to be the main dish
9:50…fried rabbit and fried chicken plates appear at every table (in fact 2 plates per table I think)…Start getting concerned that the last dish was not the main dish and this might be the main dish…am full…don’t even care…drink some wine and eat more bread just because it’s there…
10:15…Lasagna….ah ha!!!! This is delicious and I am now happily full, drunk, and not craving anything…I may even be ignoring the bread at this point….stifling yawns now…as I’ve just had 13 courses of bread and wine with other stuff in between…
10:40…2 plates per table arrive of pork or veal and potatoes. HUH!!! I’m not hungry anymore…We pass the plates around as we have been doing for the last 2 hours or so and take off some meat and potatoes in turn…afterwards people start wandering around outside like overstuffed zombies…
11:00…dessert arrives…….really? I didn’t have dessert. I went outside with my glass of wine instead…
11:30…Am trying to pay…it costs something like 22€ for all that. I tried to ask if that included tip…but there is no tip. tips do not exist…
11:35…while paying I hear someone say the words “limoncello”. Since every place makes their own limoncello I can’t say no. It’s like pummkin pie in the states…I’m not hungry…Oh look pummkin pie!!!!
…and as I sort of mentioned in passing a few days ago…italian proposed blogging law. I would just like to say that this page is in no way aiming to inform, educate, divulge or entertain. In fact I would encourage you to stop reading now, and never come back to this page (unless you’re into octagons)!
Stop.reading.