The longer I am here, the more tame my adventures are becoming. Mopping my floor has become much more frequent, especially when I have a minor cooking failure and cover my kitchen in splattered oil.
Tomorrow I am taking the fast train to Verona, where I will meet with two collaborators. We are discussing the project that was supposed to be my primary focus, but which has made the least progress. Hopefully meeting with them in person will help! I'm not sure if the lack of progress is because the project depended on me pushing it forward (and I've invested my time on other projects) or if it is a communication issue.
Obviously, it would be silly to take an hour-long trainride for a single meeting, so I'm spending most of the day sight-seeing in Verona. I've also printed some papers out to read on the train. I feel so much like an Italian Business-person: taking the Frecciarossa to another city for a meeting and working on the way. I'm even sitting in one of the fancier cars!
Because of the Verona trip and a late-evening meeting on Friday, I don't have any exciting travel planned for the weekend. However, my biggest adventure yet is scheduled: getting a haircut! This has been a few days in the making, but I hadn't yet succeeded in entering a salon to make an appointment. I asked a colleague for a salon recommendation today, and she even called and made the appointment for me. First thing Saturday morning, I will get a haircut! Yay!
Why is getting a haircut such an adventure? Well, I have no idea if the stylist will speak English or not. My colleague did not warn them about my poor Italian skills when making the appointment. I know that I am not the easiest salon client in the US, given that I know very little about the terminology for things and I am fairly flexible about what I want. Stylists never quite know what to do with me. Am I really as flexible as I claim to be? How adventurous should they be? What do I actually mean by "short"? I am not too worried for my haircut, as much as I feel bad for the stylist who will be communicating with me Saturday morning.
After the haircut, I don't quite have plans. I could take a train to one of the nearby towns, spend the day in a museum in Milan... or work. I'm at the point where I can write up one of the projects I've been working on, and I am tempted to try to write the paper in one day (it is a short paper). This would be more tempting if I had somewhere nice to go and work at, rather than sitting in my apartment. The places where one drinks coffee in Italy are not Starbucks-esque, where one sits and works for hours by oneself.
Tomorrow I am taking the fast train to Verona, where I will meet with two collaborators. We are discussing the project that was supposed to be my primary focus, but which has made the least progress. Hopefully meeting with them in person will help! I'm not sure if the lack of progress is because the project depended on me pushing it forward (and I've invested my time on other projects) or if it is a communication issue.
Obviously, it would be silly to take an hour-long trainride for a single meeting, so I'm spending most of the day sight-seeing in Verona. I've also printed some papers out to read on the train. I feel so much like an Italian Business-person: taking the Frecciarossa to another city for a meeting and working on the way. I'm even sitting in one of the fancier cars!
Because of the Verona trip and a late-evening meeting on Friday, I don't have any exciting travel planned for the weekend. However, my biggest adventure yet is scheduled: getting a haircut! This has been a few days in the making, but I hadn't yet succeeded in entering a salon to make an appointment. I asked a colleague for a salon recommendation today, and she even called and made the appointment for me. First thing Saturday morning, I will get a haircut! Yay!
Why is getting a haircut such an adventure? Well, I have no idea if the stylist will speak English or not. My colleague did not warn them about my poor Italian skills when making the appointment. I know that I am not the easiest salon client in the US, given that I know very little about the terminology for things and I am fairly flexible about what I want. Stylists never quite know what to do with me. Am I really as flexible as I claim to be? How adventurous should they be? What do I actually mean by "short"? I am not too worried for my haircut, as much as I feel bad for the stylist who will be communicating with me Saturday morning.
After the haircut, I don't quite have plans. I could take a train to one of the nearby towns, spend the day in a museum in Milan... or work. I'm at the point where I can write up one of the projects I've been working on, and I am tempted to try to write the paper in one day (it is a short paper). This would be more tempting if I had somewhere nice to go and work at, rather than sitting in my apartment. The places where one drinks coffee in Italy are not Starbucks-esque, where one sits and works for hours by oneself.
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