Tadaah!

OK I'm in Sweden and I've already done one of the most Swedish things you can do, which is to ignore someone you know at the bus stop. Anyway, here it's nice and cold - some parts of the country even have snow!

Today I presented my thesis and I got top grades which frankly surprised the hell out of me! So there you have it folks, I'm done with school and school is done with me. I would be happier if I could but I'm dogarnit tired after not sleeping last night and getting up five in the morning to work on my presentation.. I'll do my victory laps tomorrow, I promise.

EB

Yesterday I attended the Executive Board meeting that is taking place here at WFP head quarters. The set-up is what you recognize from the news on TV: important representatives sitting behind desks with their country name on a black sign, wearing ear pieces to hear the translators. I was literally a fly on the wall as I sat on one of the few chairs reserved for WFP staff along the walls of the auditorium. The issue on the agenda was regional presentations so I listened in on speeches on Sudan, Mozambique, Somalia etc. The English translator was hilarious - he had such an aristocratic, crook-in-an-American-movie accent that I just couldn't believe it; the type who pronounces "years" as [jeaars]. It was fun. You can imagine how dry the meeting was if that got me laughing for the rest of the day!

Tomorrow I'm going back to Sweden in order to a) defend my thesis b) meet friends and family c) stock up on winter boots and jackets and d) eat proper healthy food. I'm returning to Italy ludicrously early on Sunday and it was just yesterday eveing I realized that we're all off work on Monday - so I could have stayed longer! Damn damn damn..

I fit the bill

This is from the blogg "Stuff White People Like":

In most of the world when a person works long hours without pay, it is referred to as “slavery” or “forced labor.” For white people this process is referred to as an internship and is considered an essential stage in white development.

The concept of working for little or no money underneath a superior has been around for centuries in the form of apprenticeship programs. Young people eager to learn a trade would spend time working under a master craftsman to learn a skill that would eventually lead to an increase in material wealth.

Using this logic you would assume that the most sought after internships would be in areas that lead to the greatest financial reward. Young White people, however, prefer internships that put them on the path for careers that will generally result in a DECREASE of the material wealth accumulated by their parents.

For example, if you were to present a white 19 year old with the choice of spending the summer earning $15 an hour as a plumber’s apprentice or making $0 answering phones at Production Company, they will always choose the latter. In fact, the only way to get the white person to choose the plumbing option would be to convince them that it was leading towards an end-of-summer pipe art installation.

White people view the internship as their foot into the door to such high-profile low-paying career fields as journalism, film, politics, art, non-profits, and anything associated with a museum. Any white person who takes an internship outside of these industries is either the wrong type of white person or a law student. There are no exceptions.

If all goes according to plan, an internship will end with an offer of a job that pays $24,000 per year and will consist entirely of the same tasks they were recently doing for free. In fact, the transition to full time status results in the addition of only one new responsibility: feeling superior to the new interns.

When all is said and done, the internship process serves the white community in many ways. First, it helps to train the next generation of freelance writers, museum curators, and director’s assistants. But more importantly, internships teach white children how to complain about being poor.

So when a white person tells you about their unpaid internship at the New Yorker, it’s not a good idea to point out how the cost of rent and food will essentially mean that they are PAYING their employer for the right to make photocopies. Instead it’s best to say: “you earned it.” They will not get the joke.

Från DN idag

"På en tröja ser Obama ut som killen på Kalles kaviar-tuben - fast mörk."

Det är ju sant!

Aaoooww

My head hurts due to some unscheduled celebratory drinking last night. We have finished the Blue Book (finally no more Danish swearing) and today we have nothing to do but sit at our desks and clutch our heads, vincing at loud noises. Of course when I say "we" I mean "I". My plans for the weekend include not drinking and not spending any (large) amounts of money. We'll see how that goes.

I booked my flight to Schweden land so Gothenburg here I come! Although the message on the cheap tickets site gave me pause - "the booking has not been confirmed by the airline, please wait 24 hours for confirmation". Is that normal? Anyway, if all goes well with the purchase I'll be home next Wednesday already!

Ciao everyone

P.S. Wall-E was so sweet..

Batman!

These last couple of days have been work work work. We finally sent a draft to the Important People Upstairs and now we're waiting for the feedback to come and kick us in the nuts (basically what my supervisor is telling me). The Blue Book (remember, the prognosis on beneficiary needs and requirements for 2009?) is going to print on Thursday for the Executive Board meeting the 23rd, and by that time we can all let out a huge sigh of relief. But not yet. So that's why we're still hunched over our computers at our desks, and that's why my supervisor is still swearing in Danish, sotto voce.

I'm gonna try to get out early today (around six) so I can see Wall-E at the cinema - I've been wanting to see that for like three months now!

New glasses? They're fine. My friend M's remark about them was that the Gucci-logo on the frame looks like the Batman symbol (when slanted just so). He probably thought he was delivering a killer insult but I was pleased!

Finally

Wohooo the new glasses are here and I can see once again! I want to write about my weekend and about the book I'm reading and about work but the boss is soon coming in from lunch and I gotta look busy. I'll update you all later.

Hey hey

Today I get my glasses. Today is crunch-time, we have a lot to do. Today will be yet another long day in the office (we stayed until eight on Friday). Today I'm in a good mood.

I've added another link to my blog, called Illustration Art. It's so good, you have to check it out!

Tell you more later, ciao

Forget about it

Hrrmph. I'm in such a bad mood today. All talk bores me. Work is tedious (it really is though)and I keep staring off into space instead of focusing on what's ahead (hey did that rhyme?). Colleagues who previously were funny are just petty and juvenile. My eyes are strained. I'm just grumpy. And I even had a really nice evening yesterday, enjoying some pizza (nice this time) and Australian wine on a terrace in beautiful Trastevere in the company of witty, good-looking people. Apparently that's the stuff that brings me down.

Bad week

Sure I'm being flippant about the whole fainting and losing my glasses ordeal but that's my style, right or wrong. But to be honest with you, I chose a fricking baad week to walk around visually impaired. We've got so much to do it ain't even funny and I'm squinting at the screen like a mentally challenged person. It's going to a loong week until I get my glasses I tell you.

Ciao

For once no fuss

With a minimum of fuss I got myself a new pair of glasses yesterday. Well of course I didn't get them so to speak, but I put in an order and they will be ready next Monday. Brand?
Gucci baby!

My weekend

Conversation with my colleague M yesterday over coffee:
Me: So how was your weekend?
M: Stellar. I was in London to see my girlfriend, and we went to the V&A, Brick Lane, had some bad curry.. It was fun. And yours?
Me: Well you know, business as usual. I walked around in the terrific weather, sat in a park and read Lady Chatterley’s Lover (love it!), went to a concert and saw John Legend and the Cure, fainted a couple of times and lost my glasses in the process. Sunday I spent at home, just relaxing.
M: You lost your glasses?
Me: Yes. But it’s OK though, I get by.
M: Alright then.

So what happened was that I had unknowingly subjected my poor self to warm weather, not enough food, beer and standing in a huge cramped crowd for four hours. Coupled with the lasting effects of my cold I guess it all was a bit too much. I remember being bored by the Cure, thinking “I don’t feel so good, I should really get out of here”. I think I turned to my colleague C and said so. We started pushing our way out of the crowd and the next thing I knew I was being carried by paramedics to a nearby tent. I came to thinking I was in M*A*S*H (no, not really, but I was groggy). Through pantomime, some French and Italian I conveyed that I wasn’t dying and that I was OK, although sans glasses.

In the end I was released, and a Swedish acquaintance followed me home. Through dumb luck I wasn’t trampled, I didn’t lose my purse or my jumper (though I would’ve preferred to lose a jumper rather than my glasses) and I survived the experience in one piece. Despite some mortification and mild shock I’m quite alright thank you.

Italian efficiency

Today I changed desks in the office. Before I was sitting right next to the door which was kind of a shitty spot since I was constantly disturbed by people walking by in the hallway, plus it put me right under the AC vent. But now, oh now! I have a new shiny desk with a slightly used computer and bookcases and notice boards around me and all sorts of neat stuff! The whole changing of work station thing was quintessentially Italian: one guy came to move my stuff. I told him there was no actual desks being moved, just a change of computer and my handbag moved a couple of meters (he left, muttering under his breath). Then another guy came to move my phone. Then another guy came to move my computer. 

Isn't it adorable? 

Ciao!

Awww!

Yesterday was my one month anniversary of my internship-UN-Italian-life and there were no fireworks let off, parties held or speeches given. I would have settled for a normal bloody Tuesday really, but instead my body decided to throw me a coming-down-with-a-cold-fest. I should have known something was up on Monday when I couldn’t stop freezing.. So now my throat hurts and my head is heavy and my eyes ache. And if my current physical shape wasn’t enough to get me down I’m presently stuck doing the most tedious task imaginable at work, checking 689749128740104 ‘output indicators’ in a spreadsheet. Trust me on this one, you don’t want to know.

But I had a lovely weekend though, one that was, and do I need to point this out, without any activities that leave you weak and prone to viruses the week after. I did not deserve this, that’s all I’m trying to say. I fell into bed yesterday after work and felt sorry for myself, eating ice cream that was delicious for one minute then too rich and too sweet for ten. Urgh.

Anyway moreover nonetheless, I thought you all would like to get acquainted with the leading characters in this reality blog-show that is my life. As you know I live with an Aussie, C. She’s nice, a bit much at times but then again who isn’t? She sings in the morning, is obsessed with her health and is always out and about, leaving me home alone to enjoy the peace and quiet (and the shower). At work I sit in the same office as my supervisor, M. He’s Danish, and really tall. I call him the Great Dane (buut not to his face). M is young, very good at his job, obsessed with his health and in general a succesful bloke. Directly behind my desk sits F, a quiet Italian (the only one I’ve met) who never makes a fuss. Also in the office is J, a juvenile American who is obsessed with beer. We of course hit it off right away since I’m outgoing and has the tendency to never shut up, something he can relate to.

In the same departement but a couple of doors down the hallway you find among others S, my Swedish colleague (who I lived with the first week), C (my flatmate), and a Canadian and a Brit who never ever smile, a very very French Madame and an Italian secretary who never does a lick of work. That’s the motley crew I see everyday at WFP – but no workday is complete without coffee breaks or lunches. That’s when I team up with the gallant M (the Canadian fellow who helped me find my bloody fusebox when the lights were out) and the rough C (a very rude but funny American obsessed with working out and, well, smoking weed).

That’s the cast of the show.

Oh I almost forgot to mention my morning co-stars! Every morning I see my fruit and veg vendors, Italian guy 1 (who winks at me) and Italian guy 2 (who smokes when picking out my fruit du jour). They never hurry and never cease to speak Italian with me even though they know that C and I are hurrying to catch the train to work and that I don’t understand a word they’re saying. God bless them really. Seems that all the vitamines in the fruit they sell me are ineffective against this cold huh?

Oh yeah, two more lightbulbs have gone pffft! at home so now C and I basically get by by candle light. We need a ladder to change the bulbs!

Ciao

The walkabout

This city is amazingly beautiful, it's not even fun to use the word 'beautiful' anymore. Yesterday I was out walking for about four hours - I set a course for the Vatican and saw many lovely things on the way. The Vatican was big, impressive and .. churchy. I did some nunspotting and enjoyed the lovely weather and all in all it was a really good day.

Random pics taken during my walkabout yesterday

This is Castel Sant'Angelo, a mausoleum that looks like a fort. Right next to the Vatican, on the river.

Gotta love yellow cars.

The Swiss guard at the Vatican. They make me think of Ronald McDonald.

Gotta love yellow vespas.

Beautiful views like these are everywhere here, it's almost a pain in the ass.

Garbatella

Hi how are you all?

Great.

Two days ago I was taking a stroll around Garbatella, a lovely area right next to where I live. The place it's actually a mini-model-village inside the city, built by Mussolini (to show people how life ought to look like) or so I have been told. Anyway the area is charming. You see kids playing football, old people in the piazza eating ice cream, whole families out walking.. The ol' fascist dictator must be so proud that the core values are being upheld!
As I was walking down a street admiring the neighbourhood's mandatory imposing church I noticed .. a peacock walking towards me. On the street. A blue peacock. Right in front of me. We exchanged shocked glances. It possibly became bored after a while because it turned and walked into a garden, and just sat there. No one else in the vicinity was making a big scene about the exotic bird in the midst of the everyday domestic scen so I kept my excitement to myself.
But it was cool.

Ciao!

Beautiful October

There is an Italian expression apparently; "Ottobrate Romane", meaning that Rome's beauty comes out in full in October. I second that, judging by the clean rain-washed streets and the crisp air this morning. It's also very warm and sunny today, as in shouldn't-have-worn-trousers-to-work-weather (not as in half nude though). Sorry I'm a bit silly here from the regular lunch sunstroke.

On a completely different note altogether I had my hair cut this weekend. The linguistic exchange between myself and the hairdresser was.. not optimal. So I ended up with really really short hair. I look like a corporate GI Jane and it's making me feel really self-conscious. My only comfort is the firm belief that things can only get better.

Yesterday I survived my first bike ride in Rome. Two workmates and I braved the traffic on bikes in order to eat some purportedly fine pizza. The ride was nice, the evening was pleasant. The pizza? Not spectacular.

Ciao yall!