New guy

Hi – I’m back again! It’s been really busy here! I would have written if I hadn’t been so swamped with work. I felt relieved after the presentation, but I should have realised that the hard part was just coming up! Frank is getting really “wired” as the budget keeps getting tighter for us. We just hired a new technician. He seems like a really nice guy – from Mississippi. It’s really cool to listen to this guy talk. He’s got what is called here a “southern drawl” – where lots of the vowels are drawn out when he speaks. Instead of saying things like vehicle – he says ve-hìcle, and warshin’ machine instead of washing machine. He sounds like he’s from a movie. I mean this in a good way. Has anybody seen “Brother Where Art Thou?” by Joel and Ethan Coen? It’s a bit like that. Frank gave him a really hard time for the first couple of days, because the accent in the south of the US is very different than the one here. Actually, the Wisconsin accent isn’t too different from my mum’s – she’s Canadian. It was really easy to get used too. I’d love to go down south sometime – shoot right down the Mississippi river to New Orleans. I saw a documentary about the aftermath of Katrina (the hurricane) – it must have been horrible. I guess the city has changed alot. Still, it must be totally different from here.

I was reading a business report on this area and discovered that Madison is really active in high tech industry. I’ve been so busy here that I never really paid attention to the bigger picture. It might be nice to get a job here after the work-study is over. It’s really nice here, cold, but so far not much colder than the mountains at home. My parents are talking about coming over for Christmas, as I don’t get much time off work. I think I get the week between actual Christmas and January 1st. Anyway – it could be a good excuse for me to show them and my sister around a bit. That’d be cool. Going back for such a short period of time would almost be a waste – it takes so long just to get there from here.  Are you going back Marco?

Anyway – we’ll see.

I went to the  Chazen Gallery yesterday. It was really cool. They have an exhibit of Utagawa prints. Those are the Japanese wood-block prints done at the end of the eighteenth century and beginning of the nineteenth. Lots of samurais etc. It was a nice afternoon. Actually, I went by myself – but things have been so busy it was great not to have to interact with anyone. I spent all afternoon looking at the Utagawa exhibit. The print style was called Ukiyo-e, which means “pictures of the floating world”. (I got that from the brochure.) Forget Manga! This has erotic pictures, pictures of kabuki actors, samurai – and all from 200 years ago. Anyway – again, I’m rambling.

Today’s expression is “to sound like a broken record” – to be needlessly repetitive

Aahhh!

Like the title says – aaahhhh! The report went well last week, with only a few questions about budget and approach. Actually, I found that I wasn’t nervous once I began – it was interesting to explain these things and feel like an authority. It was also interesting, and a bit of an “eye-opener” to deal with business questions regarding web-radio. When you study, it’s all theoretical and it’s all possible – maybe because you’re just at the beginning. Here, apart from our tekki r&d (research and development) office, the concerns are cost/benefit, marketing, time to production, market share, etc. It’s really pretty cool, because it ads a sense of competition to the project. The product has to be good, it has to work, it has to be cost efficient, and it has to last in a market that “upgrades” every 16-18 months. I’m really lucky to have this experience, and with such nice people. There is definitely a degree of stress, but it doesn’t ruin the way people get along.

After the presentation on Friday, we had a celebration dinner at a place called Inka Heritage on S. Park street (I’m goin’ down to South Park, gonna have myself a time!). It was really neat! I’d never been to a Peruvian restaurant before – Marco – Do they have ceviche in Ecuador? It was really good! We’re pretty uhm, proud of our Italian cuisine, and we’re right, but there are so many different types of food to try! (OK – I love to eat). Frank told me that the national dish in Peru was the guinea pig (they look like big hamsters – heh heh) which made me a bit nervous, but it wasn’t on the menu. I think I would have eaten it if it had been on the menu, though. The US is fantastic for the mix of everything. Aparently this restaurant is relatively new, and there used to be a Chinese restaurant here. Across the street there’s a Mexican restaurant. It’s really cool how many different places to eat there are, and, of course, how many different types of people there are. I caught up with Kate on the weekend (Hi Kate!) and she was telling me that lots of people come to Madison from South America etc., study at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and work in restaurants to pay for it. It’s a different model of immigration than we have in Italy. I must say – I don’t go to Italian restaurants here! Heh heh.

Anyway, now that the progress meeting is over, things will be a little more relaxed – for about a day. I’ve been watching movies all Sunday – lazy, lazy, lazy day. I suppose it’s messed up my sleep. If I hadn’t stayed out so late on Saturday, I probably wouldn’t have taken Sunday to do nothing. It’s been a while since I’ve stayed in on Sunday. I’ll be tired tomorrow, but oh well.

Anyway – this is late night delirium kicking in – I’m rambling.

The expression of the day is: “to be snug as a bug in a rug” – it means to be really comfortable, wrapped up in blankets. That was Sunday!