The title of this post is an Excel formula I was shown that will concatenate data from two cells separate cells into one with a comma separator or a blank space depending on what is needed. Its sheer niftiness gives me smiles. Excel is cool.
I am quickly becoming the obnoxious American in the office, or so I think. After subtle hints (ok daily whining) about how useful having two monitors is, they finally relented at work and set me up with a second. I was instructed to deny the existence of the second monitor to anyone who commented in order to head off additional requests. However, I am in an arms race with Vayla, our sales rep for Italy. He saw my set up and said he might ask for one himself. I said if has two, I'm asking for a third.
I went to a Quiz Night with Raimundo on Tuesday to join a couple of his friends. They were doing quite well on their own and since the questions and answers were all in Italian I was next to useless. The few questions I did understand I didn't know the answer to anyway. Until the last question of the first round when the capitol of Alaska was the answer. As the first, and only, team to answer the question we received maximum points, won a free beer, and qualified for the Finals. My first Italian triumph.
Being in Italy has almost begun to feel ordinary to me which is a nice feeling. Even nicer is the almost daily jolt I get when I realize that I am living in Italy. It happened while walking to work this morning. The walk was just another like I've done before when it hit me that I was walking down a street in Ancona from my apartment to my job surrounded by all things Italian. I had to smile and laugh a bit at the absurdity of it while realizing every day it feels less and less absurd.
I carried on my first substantive conversation in Italian class this week, I've also been surprised a couple times when I understood a conversation, and I wrote a paragraph in Italian of almost 100 words. It's not much, but compared to how much I knew just a couple weeks ago it feels like progress is starting to be made.
"Boh!" said with a shrug of the shoulders means I don't know and I don't really care that I don't know. Ask someone else. I like this word.
According to Jim and CSI: Miami are both on TV here and have been dubbed. Moving them to Italian TV does nothing to improve their quality. In fact, I think the Italians know the shows stink because they managed to find a voice for Horatio that makes the character as lame here as it is there.
There was a protest by the university students earlier this week right outside my office windown. Someone shouted through a megaphone, the students chanted some very inappropriate sayings (those words I've learned), they stopped traffic and then they went for a march. It lasted a few hours, made Raimundo late for work, and I suspect was only an excuse to miss an exam or go for an early lunch on a nice fall day.
Bar Franco makes the most amazing and delicious pastries. On the weekends the line is 8 or 9 deep and 6 or 7 wide at the counter and trails out the door. This lasts from 9.00 until 13.00. Any wait is more than worth it. Once I have a bike it will be a regular stopping point for any ride.Ikea in Italy is just like Ikea in Portland.
My Italian teacher Eliana gave me a present on Friday, a children's book called Pollicino. At first I was very touched by the gesture. That quickly turned to a mixture of depression and despair when I opened to the first page and tried to read the first paragraph. I understood two words. It's supposed to be good for my vocabulary. You think? Oh well, it's full of lots of pretty colors and nice illustrations. I think pre-preschoolers read this book.
A package arrived in the mail this week from a friend in Portland. Inside was a jar of Jif peanut butter. I nearly cried. Nutella is good but it's no Jif. So excited.
This is what it looked like on my home from work Friday. Awww.
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