Accounting Amazement

Our balance sheet for the group project balances! This is a MAJOR acheivement after 4 hours of work (although I think it has taken other groups MUCH longer) and we are delighted!
Now if the shipping would only arrive as scheduled tomorrow, all will be well.....

A tough day in Trieste

Its been a heck of a day today. I spent 3 hours on an accounting exercise last night (still not finished)
Today we had 4 hours of statistics and applied mathematics - an absolute killer. The lessons could have been in swahili for me! I realise that it is many many years since I studied math - and now I know why!! I spoke to the teacher in the break and the 2nd half was easier, and at a more reasonable pace.
After lunch (last night's leftovers, brought in a tupperware, and an apple from the market - so organised!) I picked up my school pc (heavier and MUCH less pretty than my Apple MacBook!)
Then the phone rang. It was my 'friend' Anna from the shipping company.
"Mrs Osborn?"
(close enough) "Yes?"
"I have some very bad news. There has been a big accident in the port in Naples and your container has been sfdnskfnkfgbvjfbnn...."
"Sorry - what??"
"So I don't know what I can tell you. But its not my fault."
"Sorry?? What has happened?" (voice rising gently....)
Anyway, the upshot was NOT that the container had been lost, but that rather there had been a problem that had caused the port to close. And the delivery would not happen as scheduled tomorrow morning.
Bad news. Mum and Dad have already arrived and are in Sarnano waiting for furniture etc.
I rang Dad. Mass annoyance all round.
Then, 2 hours later, the phone rang.
"Mrs Osborn?"
(still close enough) "Yes?"
"It's OK now, all will be there tomorrow."
I rang Dad. Mass resignation all round that we will believe the things arrive when we see them.
Then 4 hours of working on a group accounting exercise with the group.
Then shopping
Then home for the party at my house tonight.
I'm exhausted!!
Flavio from Brazil gets a special mention today, as when I was explaining the problem with the shipping, and wondering how I was going to manage alone with 91 boxes (its a lot I know) he said, no problem - we will all come and help you and get it done in no time. I am very lucky to have made friends like this after 3 weeks!
An update on the party will follow tomorrow.... I am off for a much needed glass of wine!

A normal day

I thought it mght help to give an idea of a normal school day in Trieste.
I wake up at 615 if I am going for a run, if not, at 7. The first thing I do is turn on the Gaggia coffee machine to heat up. Breakfast is a bowl of muesli and a "Capp in B" (cappucino in a glass - "bicchiere" in Italian - its a very Trieste experience) which I make at home. I am perfecting the fluffing of the milk and will test this out on Vlasta on Friday morning, as she is staying over on Thursday night as she currently lives in Slovenia and I am having a party on Thursday night.
I walk to the number 11 bus stop, either the terminus at Piazza Tommoseo or near to the Piazza Borsa. Either way it is about 5 minutes walk. The bus trip takes around 20 minutes. If I get the 8am bus I listen to my ipod all the way as there are no colleagues on the bus. If I am running late - like this morning - I get the 830 bus and half the class get on on the way up the hill.
I have been coming in early as I can sit in the classroom and make the most of the wireless internet, whilst I am waiting for it to be fixed up at home. (Good news on this front! I just had a call from Fast Web and they will install the internet inside one week - AT LAST! But like everything here, I will not consider it done until I see it happen! )
Class starts at 9 sharp for 4 hours with a break at 11 for a coffee. At 1 we break for lunch and either start again at 2 or go to group study or individual work. Even if we finish at 1, I am typically in school until 4 or 5. Then I get the number 11 home and study at home for 3 hours or so (unless we are going out).
I cook in the evenings when I am not out, and then iron whilst watching the Italian telly to try to work on my Italian.
All in all, I am studying for about 8 hours a day minimum, including group work and personal study, so its certainly different from my undergraduate degree!

Trieste By Night

I thought you might like to see a picture of the beautiful Piazza Unita at night

Meet you at the church...

Last night I met Marina for a trip around the market. We spoke on the phone and we agreed that we would meet at the church near my house. I dashed out of the house and then realised that as we are in Italy, there is a lot more than one church near my house! I finally met Marina near the Orthodox church pictured here. She was also laughing at the number of church possibilities when I finally arrived!

Baby Bora

The wind started blowing today. Apparantly it is just warming up (or cooling down!) but already it is probably at typhoon 3 level! It gusts strongly, especially near the waterfront. I am exploring different routes to the number 11 bus stop, so that I avoid the front. Bianca from Romania, who is trying to put on weight (making her different from the rest of us!) is concerned that when the wind gets up she may blow away! The more I hear about the Bora, the worse it sounds. I will have to see what it is like when it blows for real in the winter.

The Power of Pocket Coffee

Alessandro (Ale) who I sit next to in the lecture theatre has introduced me to Pocket Coffee. These are a fantastic invention! They are like the sweet Italian version of Red Bull - basically a chocolate that peps you up when things are a little dull (or when the accounting is getting a little heavy!)
Pocket Coffee are as it is says on the packet. It's a shot of espresso coffee in a chocolate.
I had one this morning when we hit the sticky patch on the contribution of different product lines to the fixed costs. Worked like a dream.
I bought the last 2 packs. The next ones are Ale's treat!

Trials and Tribulations of the Number 11 bus

I love the Number 11 bus. It’s cheap as chips – a monthly bus pass for the greater Trieste area (all routes) is about 25 Euros and makes me feel like a resident! The bus number 11 is my favourite as it spirits me every day from home to school.
And back again.

The college building – the grand Ferdinandeo Palace – is the terminus so it should be a doddle to get the bus home after school.

I don’t, however, love the bus drivers. I am beginning to feel that there is some kind of ‘You’ve Been Framed’ gag underway. I am still wearing ridiculous shoes, with stiletto heels and many inches high. And am mostly able to run on the cobbles and marble paving stones to wherever I need to go in them. But to do this after a day of applied mathematics, lugging my computer bag, and dashing for the bus is no mean feat. And EVERY TIME I get to the entrance door the bus doors close and the bus pulls away. Leaving me to wait 10 minutes for the next bus.

The only upside is that I can still get onto the school internet connection when I am sitting on the bus waiting for it to depart. So I am able to Skype Grace in New York more than I ever have been able to before.

Happy Birthday Luce!

It is my sister's birthday today! Here she is in a pic from London a few weeks ago. I particularly enjoy the next 13 days as she is, for a limited time, 2 years older than me!

On a winning streak!

The girl's team remains undefeated at the footy! We won 1-0 and I scored the goal! General delight all round and of course now we want to play again. The boys weren't so lucky - a 6-5 defeat at the hands (feet?) of MIB XVI. We moved on for pizza and beer as on Tuesday.
It was interesting to talk with the people who were graduating the next day about their experience on the MBA and more importantly about their work now. Many are consultants - for AT Kearney, or Accenture, and others work for Ferrari, food companies, pharmaceuticals and so on. Encouragingly, I did not speak to anyone who was unemployed! This must be a good sign, not only for me but for my backers too!!
We finished the night with a few bottles of Montenegro - a local digestive. This was purchased by the bottle, and served with a jug full of ice You pour a measure of the montenegro over the ice and enjoy. It tastes pretty terrible, but is rumoured to be almost medicinal for the digestion, and after 2 nights of pizza and beer in a week, it seemed sensible to join in.
Vlasta (from Slovenia) kindly dropped me off near home at about 130 am and I walked the rest of the way. The poor lady who waits on the corner of my street - her bus had still not turned up! We will be on first name terms by the end of the year!

I stand corrected...

Thursday night was a lot of fun. And there was certianly no dallying this time. In fact, the meeting time was 8pm and by 801 we had drinks already 'while we wait for the others'! It turned into quite a party and made Friday a long day for many of the class!
One great learning point on Thursday was that aperitivi, when done properly, is essentially a free dinner.
We went to a bar in the Piazza Borsa and I ordered a glass of the best local Sauvignon. This cost Euros 1.50. The guys then told me to help myself to the food on the bar. This was not the peanuts and crisps of Hong Kong bars, but prawns and toast, fabulous olives, pizza, sandwiches and a huge variety of other snacks.
Apparantly we were missing out because we had arrived late. Andrea, who is from Venezuela but recently married to a guy from Trieste tells me that Cafe del Mar is the best for aperitivi, with free pasta, pizza and all sorts when you buy a drink. Kristina (from Slovenia) and I were puzzling over the prices - we are not sure how money can be made when the free tucker is so plentiful, but long may it continue! I may adopt the policy of aperitivi every night. It is certainly cheaper than cooking at home - and I get to have a glass of wine too!

Aperitivi

The call went out this afternoon in the lecture theatre, that we should all go for aperitivi tonight. We are meeting in the Piazza Borsa at 8 and will go from there.
I have been out for group drinks only once so far in Trieste- which is pretty amazing when you think about the fact that I have now been here almost 2 full weeks! The drink of choice seems to be "Spritz" (not sure on the spelling, but, like many things in Trieste, you can hear the Austrian influence in the word.) Spritz is basically a Spritzer, although sometimes with Prosecco and water rather than white wine and soda. I guess the idea is that as long as there is bubbles who cares where they come from! To this mixture Aperol is added, like Campari, but less alcoholic. Then a slice of orange. So the result is that we sit around outside in jumpers looking like we are drinking cocktails on the beach! It's pretty tasty and very mild - no exotic margaritas here - or at least, not yet!
The other thing I have noticed is that people here don't drink very much. (or is it just that they drink a lot in Hong Kong?!) This might be due to the fact that it takes us a long time to decide where to go.
You can easily spot the MBAers in town, as they are conducting a complicated assessment to decide which establishment to hit. This basically involves weighing up the snacks vs drink price ratio. The discussion goes something like this:-
(standing in between 2 bars. both look very similar.)
"I think Bar Walter has cheaper drinks."
"Yes, but Via Roma Quattro has really good snacks!"
(Sounds of general agreement)
"Hmmm.. or there is Circus"
"Yes, I hear that's great and I haven't been."
"But the snacks at Via Roma Quattro are great...."
"Let's go there for one and then we can decide. " (This last one is me. Thirsty!)
Anyway, wherever we go, it should be great. We are a good group, and there area lots of fun people to talk to. Especially when, like today, we have finished accounting for the week. If you need a balance sheet, I'm your gal.
So after drinks, its Friday, and I only have to do 3 hours of statistics and applied mathematics tomorrow morning(!) before hitting the football field in the evening.
Then back for pizza and more limonello.
(ps - i STILL can't upload photos!)

Raise the Red Lantern

I discovered last night that I am living in Trieste's red light district. I had seen the red lanterns along the street (it is full of the equivalent of cheap shops in Wanchai, for the Hong Kongers amongst us) but had assumed that this denoted its Chinatown status alone.
Nicoletta - a Triestine resident and fellow MBA-er - enlightened me when she assured me that the dressed up lady on the corner was not, in fact, waiting for a bus.....
When I relayed this information to Mum this morning, she said that she thought that Raise the Red Lantern was only a film. Not in Trieste it would seem!

Summer Holidays

A nice surprise today to receive an email from one of the girls I met in Hvar in the summer. Here is a picture of us at the pub. There is a general theme to the photos, the setting is normally in one bar or another! Thanks to Rona for making my day with her email! It made a welcome change from emails on shipping.....

"I'm sorry, but this is how it works in Italy..."

I have sent my life on the high seas from Hong Kong. 91 boxes have been in Naples for a week awaiting customs clearance (although my Roman colleague Daniele tells me that I am lucky if possessions in Naples will still be there a week after their arrival. Francesco from Naples assures me that there is no problem!)
I have been trying unsuccessfully to establish a good working relationship with the woman in the shipping company in Rome. The measure of my success (or lack thereof) is that when she told me the container would arrive this Friday at 0830, and I told her that this was not possible, she said that this is the way it is. And that she is on a break. And doesn't work weekends. And that she should not be talking to me on her break. And that she is sorry, but this is how it works in Italy.
I am now trying to arrange for the goods to be delivered the following week. And Mum and Dad are flying collectively about 32000 miles round trip to be there to meet the shipment.
From now on, I will travel light!

Victory!

We won the footy! 3, 2 and Marina's goal scoring prowess was such that she scored one goal for the opposition and one for us! We made a good team and we are now keen for Friday's game! Watch this space....
The guys put up a good fight, but the end result was 5, 6 to the opposition. The standard of amateur football in Italy is certainly higher than that in Hong Kong!
We certainly earned the pizza and free limoncello after dinner! It is a strange thing in Italy that every time you consume anything, you get something free. The cynic in me is wondering whether there is a tax break in this, but whatever the reason, it is a great tradition!

Football fears

Tonight will be my debut on the football field. To undertake this inauguration, on an Italian field, when Italy have recently been crowned World Champions of the sport is certainly daunting. Our team is truly international with squad members from Beijing to Bulgaria, from Hong Kong to Hanoi - and Italy of course! We are playing against Origini. This is not a subset of Japanese paper folding but the students from the course running here at MIB for the descendents of Italian immigrants from all over the world.
This match is a training session in advance of Friday's big game against MIB XVI (the class of the MBA that graduate on Saturday). Rumour has it that MIB XVI have played before....
The good news is that, win or lose, we are all going out for pizza after the guys game. Pizza and football - another real Italian experience!

Teambuilding

When I signed up to do an MBA I knew that there would be an introductory teambuilding session. I was not disappointed! We spent 3 days in Lignano, on the coast near Udine. My lasting memories of the time in Lignano will be meeting my team for the first time and starting to work together (we are a group until January), the mosquitos which are the size of small airoplanes and very aggressive, and building a raft then trying to race it in the sea with an audience of 30 octagenarians on their annual Butlins retreat as keen spectators!

Fruili DOC

Last weekend we hit Udine, close to Trieste for Fruili DOC. This turned into my first student outing since leaving university more years ago than I care to remember! We did explore the city a little, ably guided by some of the Udinese on the course, and we walked up to the castle to see the mountains (and the rather alarming sight of a whole bull on a spit, covered in tin foil slowly rotating!) But the rest of the day was a real student affair - spent in a variety of tents consuming the local wine. The night finished with a sobering lesson that I am no longer in Hong Kong. When I reached the stage of the evening when I would normally jump in a cab and be spirited home, we got a lift to the train station, dashed for the last train to Trieste. Chugged in about 1 1/2 hours later, then I walked home through the rain. I reached home at about 130am (a journey of around 2 hours from finishing the last drink.)
The lesson is to make sure your ipod is charged at all times! (and thanks to Massimo for the lift, and Francesco for sharing an ear of his ipod when mine died!)

Accounting

Week 2 of the course has started with Accounting. That's 6 hours yesterday, 4 today and 4 on Thursday. In one week my knowledge of the subject has increased exponentially, but this does not really help me. When I do my personal balance sheet the revenue remains at 0 and the expenses at much. The only thing is that now I understand the debt I am running up better. So that's a relief!

Blogging

Welcome to Trieste Trasmissione!
I have decided to start a blog.
This will make my friends and family laugh. Although I like writing, and write for my job too, I am a terrible correspondent generally, starting letters and emails and rarely finishing them.
But this year, my life will change so radically that a blog seems a good way to record it all for posterity.
And, as I know how terribly boring it can be when people bang on about what they have been doing, this way those that are interested can read. And those that aren't, needn't.
But if you are reading, welcome! I hope that the content will be interesting, the photos appealing and that you will enjoy understanding about my life in Italy and doing an MBA here.
Comments are always welcome!