The Italian Office

Just a few unbiased observations on the difference between an office in the States and one in Italy (Europe). 1] Paper US paper is, for the most part, based upon an "A-size" or 8-1/2" by 11" sheet that we normally call Letter Size.. From there, you double it to "B-size" which is 11" by 17", double it again to "C-size" which is 17" X 22", "D-size" which is 22" X 34" and finally "E-size" which is 34" X 44". There is even an "R-size" that is 44" wide and on a roll so you can make it as long as you want. Then of course, we throw in Legal at 8-1/2" X 14, Executive at 8" X 10" and whatever you call the 5-1/2" X 8-1/2" stuff. Europe [for that matter, the rest of the world] uses sizes based on a size called "A0" [A-Zero] which is 840mm X 1188mm. Converting this to English measurements makes it 33.07" X 46.77". Then you start folding it in half to get an "A1" size, which is 594mm by 1188mm, then to "A2" which is 420mm X 594mm to "A3" at 297mm X 420mm "A4" at 210mm X 297mm to "A5" at 148.5mm X 210mm. "A4" is the standard size that would be equivalent to our Letter Size with English dimensions of 8.27" by 11.69". This 0.23" and 0.31" difference doesn't seem like much until you go to stick in that binder or clipboard that you brought from the good ole' USA. (See Item 2 - Holes). Envelopes are another matter. They come in sizes "B" and "C" that somehow correspond with the paper size, depending on how much slop you want for your insert & I haven't gotten them quite figured out yet. Just told get some small ones and some big ones. 2] Holes If you brought your US three-hole punch and a US two-hole punch with you, you might as well throw them away, because the rest of the world two and four holes in their paper (seeing the problem here?). If you use their two hole punch, it will punch two holes (duh!) 80mm (a little more than 3") apart centered on the long side of the paper. This is nice because it fits in their two ring binders. If you have a four ring binder, you must A -- adjust your two-hole punch to punch the holes 25mm (~1") from the bottom, then B -- turn the paper over and do the top. If you are not smarter than the punch & paper, you end up with holes on the left side and two on the right side of the paper. Or, you can save yourself the embarrassment by buying a four hole punch! This works well for both the four-ring binders and the two-ring binder. Now there is one small wrinkle in this whole process. There is also a two-ring binder that has rings that are 85mm apart. In this case you adjust your two-hole punch to punch slightly off center and turn the paper over and do it again from the other end to make oblong holes. 3] Binders As you pretty much guessed from Item 2 - Holes, there are two types of binders -- two-hole and four-hole. If you brought your US three ring binder and a US three-hole punch and just have to use them, refer to Item one - Paper. Since the "A4" paper is 0.69" longer that the US Letter Size, and the US three hole punch punches three holes - one in the middle and one centered 1-1/8" from each end, you end up with all of the extra paper sticking out of the top of your US three ring binder by about 3/8". Looks pretty ugly (oxymoron?) If you choose the two-hole binders (the cheaper choice, so guess what we were supplied) which are 340mm or 13-3/8" tall which gives you nearly 1" of clearance between your paper and the shelf the binder sets on. This means that your paper hangs heavily on the top ring and the holes start to enlarge eventually requiring the application of hole reinforcement rings, commonly called "Plastic &%#-holes". If you order the more expensive two-ring binder, you get a clamp that goes down on the paper to help prevent this problem, but only if you remember to clamp it down each time, but they are still 340mm tall.. If you use the expensive 4-ring binders, they are only 318mm or 12-1/2" tall which leaves only a 10mm or 3/8" gap to the shelf which is more typical and with four rings, there is much less chance of needing plastic &%#-holes. One very nice feature that the majority of their binders have, is a finger hole about 1/4 of the way up from the bottom. This make it so that they can be easily pulled out of the shelves, which is nice since they are taller and therefore closer to the bottom of the shelf above, it is more convenient than pulling them by the top like we normally do. 4] Staples, Staplers and Staple Removers If you brought your Made in the USA stapler with you, I hope you brought plenty of Made in the USA staples, too. Just like in the US, they have different sizes and brands that only use a specific size or brand of staples. If you brought your staple remover, it almost works on the larger size staples here, but you can only use one tooth on the small, less expensive type (again, I ask you to guess what we were supplied with). These monetarily efficient staplers use 6mm or 0.23" wide and can handle up to a whopping 10 sheets of paper. After that you have to use one from each side then beat the staple points flat with the back of the stapler. 5] Tape This is not really an issue because the normal tape here is good old Scotch Brand Magic Tape, that comes with the standard Scotch Brand Magic Tape Dispensers, both the cheesy plastic ones and more functional desk types. 6] File Cabinets Never ask "Can you get me a small two drawer file cabinet, you know the kind that I can put hanging files in?" The phrase "One picture is worth a thousand words" applies here. You will have to go to the photo entitled "Italian HANGING file cabinet" to get the full effect. 7] Desks Desks are desks, tables are tables and credenzas are credenzas, right. Right, only why on earth would you make them all different heights?!?!?!? My desk is 720mm, the table is 750mm and the credenza is 870mm tall. Now, granted, the credenza has to be tall enough to hold two rows of binders - see Item 3 - but at least make the work table and the desk the same height! And while your at it, don't put two 135mm (5-3/8") deep drawers in the darn thing, put a thin, wide drawer where the chair goes and a file drawer in instead! 8] Chairs Cheap chairs have no padding! No matter where you buy them, cheap chairs have no padding! I do not consider 1/4" (6.35mm) of open cell foam and a pretty red fabric, padding! People with bony butts (or those who exert a lot of pressure to a non-bony butt) need padded chairs! At least they all match. Looks nice in the conference room with different size tables. 9] Office Lunch Area We ask about getting a coffee maker and a mini-fridge for the office. It takes too long for (most) of us to go out at lunch, so (most) of us have sandwiches that are sold at the local store - ham & cheese, salami & cheese, speck (smoked ham) & cheese, tuna & tomato (I normally pass on this one) on fresh Italian bread. Tasty, but you need a good set of teeth to get through the bread crust. Not hard like the dinner rolls, but a bit tough. Having the fridge means we can add some mustard, mayo or butter. Also keeps make the milk for the coffee last a bit longer. Now the coffee maker is a bit of a strange saga. Like I said, we ask for a simple coffee maker -- silly Inglese -- thinking that they would get a cheap Mr. Coffee knock-off. No, in comes this 5-foot tall 18-inch square coffee machine that for 50 Euro-cents, you get about two teaspoons of a thick, dark-brown liquid in the itty-bitty plastic cup. Not what we had in mind. So we pooled in 5 Euros each and bought our own. First time we made coffee, we used one rounded spoonful for each cup of coffee. Seems like a poor way to make sure the project makes money. The following is for information only: Watch out what kind of coffee you get. If it is their normal coffee, it is ground extremely fine. If you take one coffee bean that is, for ease of calculations, a 1/4-inch sphere, you have a surface area of 0.19635 square inches. If you pour one liter of water over this coffee bean that has 0.19635 square inches of surface area, you are going to get some very weak coffee. However, if you grind this same coffee bean into small spheres that are each, say, 0.005-inch in diameter (about the thickness of a human hair) you have over 490 square inches of surface area are that can be contacted, transferring 2,500 times as much coffee to the same one liter of water. See where this is going. The stuff that they bought was like flour! Much smaller that the thickness of a human hair. Lesson learned, don't use coffee ground for espresso makers in a drip coffee maker or if you have to, don't use one rounded teaspoon per cup, otherwise, you end up with a mug of espresso. Now if we could just get them to buy more than two or three 6-pack of 50-cl bottles of water at one time, life would be good. *See photo in photo album.*

A Better Day Today

Today started out late. Slept in until almost 10AM. Met Tom downstairs and, armed with a map and the GPSr we headed out to see what we could see in Parco Nazionale del Gargano, which is located on that little spur that sticks out on the back of the boot. The weather wasn't as good as it was on Saturday, but the rain held itself to light sprinkles off and on during the afternoon. First stop was at a town called Manfredonia where we toured an old fortress. Wish I could read more Italian, because there were some interesting headstones(?) on display in the main gallery. Most showed a pair of hands on the front and other scenes on the back. Many had a little head or decoration on the top. Another exhibit was depicting the women of the time. There was lots of jewelry and pottery. The clothing did not look like what I expected it to. Don't know what I expected, but what was on display wasn't it. Some of the pottery and sculptures looked more Mayan that what I would expect to find in Italy. Enjoyed a walk around town, but was woefully under-dressed in my blue jeans, hiking boots and Red Dirt shirt, for walking around an Italian town on a Sunday afternoon after church. Going to have to remember that everyone dresses up to showoff on Sundays. Back on the road and the scenery began to change from butt-ugly to spectacular. The road went from sea level to just over 2000 feet, in places, and back down to sea level again, several times. We had to take the windy 3.5 mile, up over the mountain, high road as the 1.4 mile tunnel was closed for some reason. The peninsula has lots of olive orchards/groves(?). You can see little stands out in front of some of the farms selling their own olio extra vergine d'oliva. The way the trees are grown is something to see. The trees are planted about 20 feet apart, which doesn't seem unusual, but with these being grown on the sides of mountains makes it makes the spacing more difficult. Each row of olive trees has its own stoned terrace that separates it from the rows above/below. I know that olive trees are extremely long lived, which may explain why all of the terraces are stacked dry stone walls. Must have taken hundreds of years to build them. When the road got back down the sea, we started to see lots of campgrounds and bungalows. Plan on doing some of that this summer. There are also some beautiful hotels/resorts right down on the water in some secluded coves with nice looking beaches. May have to do some of that this summer too. It had been raining a bit harder and had noticed that the roads were a bit slick, so I was driving a bit slower -- car still has 3-1/2 good sides & I wanted to keep it that way. We came to a line of cars and had to wait for about 5-minutes before we started around the live of campers (caravans to Brits) and buses. When we made it around everyone, we found two cars both with the left front fenders totally destroyed. Looks like one or both were a bit to the left of center and kind of had a semi-head on. The two cars were setting 90 degrees to the direction of travel, blocking everything but a narrow path on the shoulder that cars could sneak past. As we proceeded on around the peninsula, we started to see more limestone rocks. I know that the whole area is limestone, but before it was more of a loose strata where as out on the east end, it became more compact and whiter. We stopped to look at this square building overlooking the sea and saw a rock that had been worn away by the sea to form a natural bridge jutting out into the water. Just after we left here, we saw a car that had spun out and smacked the wall with the right front end, then a car that had slid off the shoulder, next a car getting pulled up onto a tow truck and another car that had missed a turn and ran almost head on into that limestone I was describing earlier. Didn't look like anyone was hurt, but it was a tough 5 miles on cars. Found some really nice beaches, about 3 miles of nice beaches. The beaches extend right up to these extremely white, limestone cliffs that the town of Vieste sits atop of. Looked like the type of town that is going to be packed during the summer with all of the tourists. Lots of hotels, campgrounds, bars and pizzerias. Another place to visit this summer. The road up the north side of the peninsula had some scenery reminiscent of the Oregon coast in the high cliffs and narrow beaches. Only differences were the towns perched on the tops of the cliffs. The land flattened out as we headed back inland towards Foggia. Still lots of olive trees, but more wheat and vineyards, but then what more do you need. Bread, oil and wine? Gotta love it. *See related photos in photo album.*

Unique Experience

This was from the beginning of this month, prior to blogging. Thought we would post it now. The other night I had an experience that I have to share. I hope that you can get by the, possibly disturbing, visual image and find it as humorous as I did. At the restaurant, I had the need to visit the facilities. During the course of this visit, I apparently moved or shifted my weight, triggering an unexpected chain of events. First, the toilet flushed with a force, vigor AND altitude not normally seen in porcelain appliances. Then a portion of the back of the toilet about 2" wide by 6" tall & just above the seat, began to extend forward about 6-inches This movement naturally caused me to move forward. Needless to say, this caught me completely off guard, but not nearly so much as when the ring began to rotate under me! Seems that the section that extends out has a mechanism of some type that cleans & sanitizes the ring as it rotates 360-degrees under it. You just never know what new & exciting experiences you will encounter in your day to day existence in seemingly the most harmless of places.

Saturday

Well, today has to go down as one of the stupidest things that I have ever done! But, this story really starts last night, when we were having dinner with two of the supervisors that work for our sub-contractor, GTSi. They took us to a restaurant that turned out to be a great find. We started with antipastos that included thin slices of Parma ham, fresh bufalo mozzarella, grana, ricotta & something like a fluffy Philadelphia cheese, stuffed mushroom caps, fried eggplant, fried zucchini and a couple of things that I couldn't identify, but were tasty just the same. Then they brought out a couple of plates of fried mashed potato cakes, fried cheese and a type of fried batter that was about the size and shape of an onion bulb, similar to the Indian soffas. This was followed by a couple of mini-pizzas, which had only a light tomato sauce and large sea salt, to clean the palette. Next was an orecchioetta pasta with a light pesto sauce, then a local dish with sausage, potatoes and something that looks like collard greens but with the oil & seasonings didn't taste like anything I'd had before. Next to come was the meat dish, but we all refused to let them serve it! Just to damn full. So what did they do, but bring five kinds of desserts and gelato. Managed to get down a sample of everything and were ready to leave when the plates of fresh fruits hit the table. I don't know who ordered the Grappa and Limoncello, but they should have been shot! The bill for the six of us came to 100 Euros or about $118. Pretty darn cheap for as much food as they fed us. It was during the Grappa and Limoncello sipping that these two guys were telling us about the town of Sant' Agata di Puglia. It is a town that sits on top of a small mountain, which is visible from the plant we are building. Said that it had a very interesting monastery on the top of the peak. Claimed that it was very beautiful and we should take the time to see it. Well, Tom Chandler & I were planning to go out to the job site today to do bit of housekeeping that we couldn't do with everyone going in and out all day, and decided that today would be a good day to go see the Monastero di Sant' Agata di Puglia. The directions we had were to go to the central plaza and then follow the road up and stay on it until we got to the top. We found the plaza and took several photos of the surrounding countryside, the steeples, houses and people of the town. Got back in the car and headed up the only road. As we went up through the narrow streets, we marveled at the cleanliness of the city, the polished stones in the streets and how close the houses were to the road. We continued up the ever-narrowing street until I turned a corner, over a little hill, down the little hill and found ourselves in a dead end. Now when I say narrow street, I mean that I had to pull the mirrors in on the car just to get past the buildings. So, now here we are sitting down in this dead end street alley path place with no way to turn around and no way to back out. I mean that I literally scraped one of the doors (I did take out the optional insurance on the rental car) on the corner of one of the houses on the way in. Tom got out of the car and is trying to direct me as I attempted to back up this polished stone path with only inches of clearance on each side. It is about this time that a couple came out of one the houses. I'm sure they were wondering "What in the HELL are these two idiots doing with a car of that size in here!?!” They tried to help but it wasn't going too well. The woman, Margarite I found out later, suggested that her husband Giovanni drive the car. Best decision I made all day was to listen to her. With the help of about six other neighbors, much shouting in Italian, not many comments from two thoroughly embarrassed foreigners, half a clutch and twenty minutes later, Giovanni had managed to back the car up the hill and back down to the street that we should have turned on -- did you catch that -- should have TURNED. Going to talk to the boys Monday morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Only missed it by 100 feet, but holy crap, what a difference that one simple little error in navigation made. You cannot believe how much help all of these people were, and not one of them made any comments about the stupid Americano. I asked if I could take Giovanni & the rest of the people to dinner or at least buy everyone a beer/wine at the local market, everyone was "No, no. No problema." When I got the camera out and took the photo of Giovanni, Margarite thought it was funny, but when I turned the camera on her, she kept turning away and telling me no. I told her "Per mi, tu essere la piu bella donna in totta Italia", but she would still not let me take her photo. When we got back in the car, and back on the main road, we decided that we really didn't want to see the monastery that bad after all. I can see Giovanni at the pub tonight talking with the boys, "You are not going to believe this, but this afternoon, some fool drove a car down in front of my house." "No" they will say, "No one would be dumb enough to drive down where you live" "Yes, I heard this noise outside of my house. It sounded like a car, but what would a car be doing here I ask Margarite. But when we walked outside, here is this enormous Ford Mondeao Station wagon?" "What did you do Giovanni?" they will ask. "When we finally got them out of the car, I backed it all the way back up/down to the market!" "Giovanni, you are making this up. No one is that crazy! Bartender! Don't give Giovanni any more wine. He is talking out of his head." This story will keep them rolling in the aisles for weeks to come, I'm sure. Don't know if I will ever venture back to the town of Sant Agata di Puglia for the rest of my life! *See photos in photo album.*

More Things I've Discovered About Italy

Electrical plugs and outlets: *There are two types of standard plugs in Italy: 10-amp and 16-amp. The 10-amp plugs have three slim round pins all in a line or they only have two slim round pins without a center ground or they have two slimmer round pins without a center ground that are slightly closer together. *The 16 -amp plugs have three hefty round pins all in a line or they only have two hefty round pins and if they have two round pins, the can be on a flat plug or a round plug. The 16-amp plugs are farther apart than pins on the 10-amp plugs. The round plug will fit in where ever you can plug in the flat plug, but the flat plug will not fit in a socket designed for the round plug. (Note: do not confuse the 16-amp hefty pin Italian plug with the heftier pin German plug). *Most wall sockets are designed for the plugs with three slim round pins, unless they are the recessed round two hefty pin outlets. Some female outlets have a port that is in the shape of an "8" that allows for both the 10-amp and 16-amp plug to be inserted. *Many shapes, sizes and configuration of adapters are available. My personal favorite is one that is about 6-inches in diameter and has the 3-slim, 3-hefty, 2-slim, 2 hefty and a USA non-polarized 2-prong male plugs sticking out all around the periphery of adaptor. God only knows if, when you plug one in, all of them are hot! *When you plug in you appliance and nothing happens, remember - most outlets have off/on switches on them. Light switches. *The first bit of advise I would like to give you is that when you push on the top of the light switch, which are usually rocker switches, the light will go off. To turn the light on, you must push the rocker switch down. Same goes for the switch on the outlet: up/off, down/on. *The second bit of advise is - pay attention to this one, it might just save your life - do not close the door to the toilet until you have used the available ambient lighting to locate and turn on the light switch! *There is no such thing as a standard location for the light switch. If you don't see one where you think it should be, shut the door part way and check behind it. If you don't see one there, look on the opposite wall. If you don't see one there, look back outside on either side of the door. If you don't see one there, give up and do it in the dark. Toilets. *Toilets come in two types: sitters and squatters. The majority are the of the sitter type, which is your good old fashioned toilet that you can sit on (duh!). However, being a sitter does not assure that one will have anything to sit on. Many Italians apparently have a toilet ring/lid fetish/collection. The squatters are a 30-inch square porcelain pad set into the floor, with a hole at the back and two raised blocks towards the front where you put your feet (toes pointed away from the hole). You do the math from here. *There are two types of tanks, overhead and normal (mounted on the back of the toilet). Usually the normal tank has a button or lever on the top that you push to flush, but not always, sumetimes you pull/lift. If you see a button in the middle of the wall, this too may be a way to flush the toilet. The overhead usually has a string that you pull to flush, but not always. If not, see "button in the middle of the wall" above. *When you go to the toilet remember two words - Pocket Door! While this is not the normal door, they are quite common. This bit of advise will save you the embarrassment of standing at a blank dancing that little dance that we all do from time to time until someone takes pity on you and shows you how to open the door. Or, after a night of drinking, it could save you the embarrassment of not being able to outsmart the door by yourself in time. *The Italian symbols for men and women on the restroom doors are simple. The one looks like a woman wearing a dress is the women's. The one that looks like a man wearing pants is apparently also a woman wearing slacks, as I have waited outside and both sexes have emerged, although not at the same time. However, just because you see a woman or man come out of a door marked toilet or toilette does not necessarily mean that it is a men's or women's restroom. It might mean that there is a common door to two water closets. Sinks. *The sinks in the toilets are not always in the toilets. Much of the time, they are in an area between the two water closets. *Another hint: When trying to turn on the water, look down. There just might be one or two pedals down there for you to step on. *While we are on the subject of sinks and turning water on, the "C" on the faucet stands for Caldo, which in Italian translates to hot. The cold water is marked with an "F" for Freddo. They are usually configured the same as US faucets with the hot on the left and the cold on the right. Next issue - Dining out. *Immediately upon being greeted, usually by a Buon giorno (good day)or Buonasera (good afternoon), say "Parlare Inglese". To which you will most likely hear "No". This does not present a problem as you can then say "Non c'e problema, prego, menu in Inglese", to which you will most likely hear "No". This still does not present a problem as there are a few names that you recognize, especially pasta. Spaghetti is spaghetti, lasagna is lasagna, penne is penne, linguine is linguine and gnocchi is gnocchi (small potato dumplings). It is what they put on the pasta that is the problem. I have found no good correlation between English meat/fish/fowl that it readily apparent in Italian. Beef is manzo, which is darn near intuitive if you ask me, whereas Pork is Maiale - see the difference? Prosciutto is ham and Tacchina is turkey. One to watch out for is Ostriche. This is not ostrich, which when cut into filets and grilled is excellent, but oysters. *Luckily, chicken is pollo, which, if you are from the American southwest you will instantly recognize. Steak is bisteccal, but only if it is carne (meat). Trancia would also be a steak, but it will be a fish steak. Fish, by the way, is pesce, The closest you will see here is trota or trout. If you want your meat cooked well done, it is ben cotto, for medium, medio and rare is al sangue (literally "with the blood"). Veggies are a bit better. *Carote is carrot, asparagi is asparagus, lattuga is lettuce, patate is potato, funghi is mushrooms and riso is rice, but il riso is laughter. On the other end, fagioli is beans, while fagiolini is green beans, granturco is corn and melanzana is eggplant. See... no problem. *So, if we apply what we have just learned, "Un Big Mac, menu maxi, con Coca Cola Light", you will not starve. Caio!

Things

Being this is my second time to work in Italy, I have been come an expert in all things Italian. 1. Italian - Italian is actual Spanench. If you know some Spanish, you can screw up Italian quite well. If you know some French, you can screw up Italian quite well. 2. Clothing - You should always remember that you are nothing more than a mobile display rack for your clothes. Comfort is secondary to style. 3. Shoes - No boots. Side note for women, the longer and pointier the toe, the more stylish you are. Who cares if you look like you have size 13 feet! 4. Parking - Simple rules apply here. Park anywhere you can get a part of your car in. Just because everyone else is parallel parked does not require you to. 5. Driving - Drive fast. Remember to avoid turn signals or checking you rear view mirror, as it might warn someone that you are going to cut them off. As soon a the light turns green, honk your horn. Even if you are the 15th car back from the intersection, it will help traffic move out of your way. 6. Food - Generally very good, served in courses. Bread will hit the table just about as soon as you do. Antipasto (hors d'oeuvre / appetizer); Prima, usually a pasta dish or a soup; Secondo, the main course, but may be smaller than the prima - don't be shocked if you order sausage and get a sausage, all by itself, just laying there on your plate, all alone, with nothing else. Formaggi, frutia & insalata - cheese, fruit & salad can follow the secondo. Dolce, sweet dessert and coffee top of the meal. Wine or water (naturale, frizzante or effervescente - still, sparkling or lightly sparkling) are the preferred drinks. You can get a Coke, but why would you. Generally each restaurant has house wines that are quite nice. Like the French, restaurants do serve cavallo (horse). Taste is not unlike beef. If you know your eating horse, you will taste the difference. If you don't know your eating horse, you probably wouldn't know your eating horse. 7. Irish Pubs - It will be just like any other Irish Pub anywhere else in the world, only here you see them dancing on tables and booths. Usually the girls will join in. 8. Television - Multiple thoughts A. What ever the program format, game shows, variety shows, sports, infomercials, talk shows, there will be a group of young women dressed in less. B. Infomercials, lots of infomercials. C. Thirty two channels on the TV; Twelve different channels on the TV; All in Italian. Walker Texas Ranger is easier to follow in Italian than Friends. D. Being completely dressed in not a requirement for television before 11PM. Sex in the City airs at 7:30PM. D & 1/2. Do not let young children watch some of the channels after 11PM. You don't really need to use your imagination. D & 3/4. Movie trailers show some of the good parts! 9. Hotels - Rooms are small, beds are small, the showers are small & the towels are small. and 10. Sunglasses - You must have sunglasses. They should be placed on you head in a location where they can be seen by the most people - it is best to practice placement in front of a mirror until it becomes second nature. If you are going to actually wear them over your eyes, UV protection means nothing if the face of style.

Blogging Begins

Erin is helping Tom & Mona set up a blog site so others can share in their experiences.