Fon (Hairdryer)

Today was a beautiful day! I woke up this morning and looked out the windows and there were the Alps. I could not believe how beautiful they were! I got ready for work using the short bathtub again (don't worry I am working on changing that) and began my walk. It is a pretty easy walk, maybe a mile or so down tiny little streets...exactly how most people imagine Italian streets. I stopped outside a Tabacci (small shop...sort of like a 7-11 but they are not open from 7-11) on the way to get a birthday card for one of the girls (Elena) I am sharing an office with. I wasn't sure what all the different cards meant (which were Hallmark by the way) so I went with the one that said 24 since that is how old she is. As I was walking down the street I noticed a little shop that looked like a cupcake place but alas it was not.


I have been informed by my colleagues that there are not really any cupcakes in Italy. That is fine as I am going to get fat enough eating all the pizza and pasta. As I was walking to work I noticed how everyone seemed to be out enjoying the day. No one really walks that fast (even though I am sure some are going to work) and just seems to be chatting with whoever they were walking with. It was great.


My goal for today was to get a hairdryer. I had mapped out the supermarket that Raffaella told me I should go to as they would have it. I decided to go at lunch but as I was about to leave Luigi and Silvia came in and asked Veronica (my non-birthday officemate) if we wanted to go to lunch. We went back to the place that we went yesterday. You can't beat it...today my pizza and my bottled water (it also includes coffee but I have been informed it is not good) were 6.70 euro...and we had a waiter...no tip no tax. The price that you see on the menu is the price you pay! I think this is going to be my Goodwin's di Italia!

I mentioned at lunch that I was going to try my hand at public transportation to go get a hair dryer (yesterday I looked like a wet rat so today I pulled it into a ponytail). Of course I know the name for hair dryer is Fon and that is because yesterday I demonstrated the action to Elena. My lunch partners thought there might be a shop close by that would sell them so after lunch we went by. When we got there I felt awful as that was the same shop I tried last night. On the way back we stopped for coffee. I am still not sure how you decide which coffee shop you go to. We have gone to two different ones but I wonder if that is because we did not go straight back to the office like yesterday. I mean there are more cafes in Torino then Starbucks in Chicago! After lunch we discussed with Elena that we still were having a hard time finding the hair dryer and Veronica said she might know of another place and that shew would take me when she was finished with something which would be around 4:15. I understood most of the conversation. Veronica understands a lot of English but does not speak it often. Elena understands and speaks English. So you can imagine that on the walk to get the hair dryer it was a very interesting conversation. I learned the words for crosswalk, store, motorcycle and ATM. It was fun trying to have a conversation with the limited words I knew (now imagine me describing a hair straightener...I know hair and I know the directional word for straight so we got there).

Other items of note today (and things I forgot to tell from yesterday):

• I learned the names for all the fingers and toes (ring finger, pinkie, big toe, etc.)
• I learned that as hard as left and right is in English it is even harder in Italian because they are not able to do the cool trick where you but your index and thumb out to form the letter L so that you know that is left. Left in Italian is sinistra.
• Copy machines in Italia are harder to work than the ones in America (I didn't think that was possible). Also, they use a different size paper over here. A4 which I am pretty sure is a type of paper at PaperSource.
• I have my own entry page in the cafe log downstairs. As the company I work with shares an office with another professional services firm you keep a log and then pay what I imagine to be the vending company at the end of the month. Every time you have a cafe you check a box.

Workwise I was actually able to help Elena out with some research she was doing related to tax sharing agreements. Tomorrow we have a meeting on the Italian economic stimulus package. I downloaded a program (thanks Sabina) that translates text for you so I have a roughly translated version of it to read tomorrow morning!