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!
Hey Bob,
just checkin’ in and making sure you’re not talking about me in your public space (’course u were….)
The weekend was fun, by the way, always nice to “catch up” isn’t it?
Yes they have cevice here in Ecuador, allthought I’m not very found of it…and the guniea pig it’s called “cuy”. They eat it like we eat rabbits back in the old europe…it’s actually very popular! Once I went to an archeological site and they reproduced a little shack were they used to raise these cuys to use them for sacrifices (better them then children). But other then this they don’t have may popular dishes most of them are sopas (soups) and chanchos (pig).
It’s a golden rule to stay away from italian restaurants abroad unless you personaly know the owner or the cheff and they are “true” italians (not third generation immigrants, I think in america it’s difficult to find true italian cheffs)…can somebody please tell all of USA citizens that the so called “Alfredo sausce” IS NOT an italian sauce!?!?!