Working for the Man - Week 1

Sorry for the lack of updates this week.

On Friday I officially completed my first week of work at the Consulate, and it was great. I've been assigned to the Consular section for right now, so my work revolves primarily on the creation and renewal of American passports.

All of my co-workers are great, and have a ton of patience to deal with my asking a ton of questions. Actually, from the first day they told me that they'd rather me ask the same question a hundred times then just think I know what I'm doing (and potentially screw something up big time...). I've been getting really positive feedback about how I'm doing so far from the people I work with so that has calmed my nerves a lot!

On the homefront, the apartment is going well so far. There's some personal BS issues in the house regarding the other roommates but I'm not a part of any of that. I don't really hang out at the house, it's more just a place to eat, shower, and sleep.

Regarding the shower, still gross. Regarding the bed, need to talk to New Lloyd about getting me a new one because the one I'm on right now is more of a cot and it's really really uncomfortable. We'll see what happens with that.

Last night (Saturday) I spent the afternoon and evening with Federico and his friends Michelangelo (what a great name) and Dario, and had a a great time. It was a lot of fun to just walk around and spend the afternoon speaking Italian and making new friends. Oh, it was also great to be able to walk into a café and order a beer without anyone asking for ID!

In the evening we went to a place which I don't remember the name of, but it was like nothing I had ever been to. It was basically a much nicer version than the place that New Lloyd brought me to on my first night in Italy. These places are everywhere in Florence and really cool.

The concept of the place is a place to go before going out either to a discoteca or anywhere else. You walk in and seat yourself and a waitress gives you a drink menu. After you get your drinks and pay her right away, she tells you that you can go and help yourself to the buffet. This is no Hometown Buffet - there are trays upon trays upon trays of pasta, meats, cheeses, fruits, bruschettas, olives, etc etc etc. This place is labeled as an appetizer bar, but it's really dinner.

Again, ordering drinks was great. Long Island Ice Teas are great in Italy too, just FYI. The guys wanted me to try a Slalom Strong (Scottish) beer, and I'm glad I did. Really good.

After hanging out there for a while, Michelangelo asked me if I wanted to go to a discoteca with them. Federico had worked the next morning at 6:30AM, but I wasn't not going to go just because he wasn't. This would be a great time for me to go out with new people which I didn't want to turn down.

Well, as the night progressed the plans fell through so we decided to postpone it for another night. Better anyway for me because I was dressed like a tourist and not like someone ready to go to a discoteca on Saturday night in Italy. Damn. It was still cool that they asked because it showed that they thought I wasn't too big of a freakshow and actually wanted to take me along with them!

Well, today's Sunday which means lots of sleep. Back to the old (but awesome) grind tomorrow.