Thursday

Oct, 4, 2001

off to Italy

Having to get up, get ready to meet customers and pack and be ready to move to the next country. What fun! (Yes, that's exactly what I said for yesterday.) Sigh. At least, I get to sleep a little later and dawdle over breakfast. Because I convinced them of a 10am checkout since we don't have presentations until the afternoon.

The hotel has a city theme. The restaurant is the 'uptown' and the bar and snack place is the 'downtown.' Eating my leisurely breakfast, I notice a plastic panel. It must be meant to evoke a city at night. But it looks like a street with smoke and fire. A few minutes later I look again. No lights. Hmm, did I imagine that.? Probably not, I'm so much more literal than all that. Finally I realize the light cycles from off to on and off again. One thing is certain: WTC has made an impression on the things we notice.

Still, I also notice the whimsical things. This is a buffet breakfast, like most of those included with the room in Europe. Should you want a boiled egg, you help yourself to one cooked in a special cooker in the shape of a giant egg.

When we get to the office, we are shown to empty offices to use. I check my mail and such. I notice that the hallway is decorated with a series of large scale photos. Of New York City. Save one of the Flat Iron building, they all include WTC, from a bunch of angles.

Customers join us in the afternoon for sandwiches, coffee and sodas. We present to them. Then there is wine and snacks. I'm watching the time, though. I sneak off and put away my PC and take my flying drugs (decongestants).

We get two work mates with cars to drive the four of us and luggage to the airport. And we are on our way to Italy.

The Milan office has sent two cars for us. It's a long drive from Malpensa Airport to our hotel. One of my work mates meets her husband here. We all meet for a drink. The guy in charge is worried about threats against 'American interests in Italy.' He is checking with the company about whether we should go home. We eat a late dinner in the hotel. In spite of what you may have heard, they don't really eat all that late. They pick up the appetizer buffet after we serve ourselves and restrict us to two pasta dishes otherwise to hustle us through a meal and get us out, their last patrons of the night.

"Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace..."

John Lennon, "Imagine"

Meta:
We'll just be keeping Lennon's radical lyrics here indefinitely. I'm updating this after the fact. Which means, of course, that I forget even more than usual.

JUST TYPING
Off to Italy.
The good news?
The final currency.
The bad news?
All those zeroes.