January 26th – 29th Milano, Italy.
Having fun. Working hard. Struggling to keep up. The work isn’t my worry…I’m able to understand what types of information my superiors are asking for but my language skills are not up to par. I’m trying to read the paper each morning but it’s difficult as news language is different from everyday spoken language. But I’m learning steadily. Our meetings are held in Italian. They are using much more complex terms and concepts so my basic understanding, which has served me faithfully and allowed me to get by in day-to-day life, has not provided me with enough understanding to put together the full conversation.
Work is going well. I sat down and broke my chair today which was quite entertaining! I got to sit in on a meeting as well. Doing some basic clerical work but mostly focusing on learning what is going on here. I’m afraid I can’t go into details but generalizations are just fine.
I’m struggling with internet and it’s really beginning to agitate me. I went out and bought a mobile chiave (key) for my laptop which connects to the cell phone carrier’s network and uses that as a mobile connection point (59Euro). However, despite connecting and registering a meager amount of traffic, the 3.6MB/s connection will not allow me to actually surf. The browsers come up with a ‘Check DNS settings’ or ‘make sure the site exists’. Something is wrong and I’m not sure how to fix it. I will go into the tre.it (3) store today and ask them what’s wrong. I’ve tried everything I know, from setting a specific IP address, to manual forwarding, to creating a static IP address. No luck. I’ve even reset to Microsoft defaults and used 100% dynamic and varying degrees of static IP, DNS, and WIP. I followed their instructions and uninstalled and reinstalled their programs. It connects, it registers packet traffic to check connectivity, but will not allow any pages to display – nor will Skype or Pidgeon work…so I think it’s a communication issue between my computer and their server. (Their sever IP will not register – I think this is the issue). If they do not have an answer than I will return it, make sure I get my money back and walk 15 minutes to the internet café at Bocconi and pay per hour there. It’s not as nice as being able to surf in your own home and write and post whenever you would like, nor is it convenient since I get home around 7:30-8pm and everything closes between 8-9…but at least it will allow me to be online again after being sans internet for a week.
Milan is treating me well. Getting used to life here and trying a new ristorante ogni giorno. Va bene. I met the other two interns and for the last three days have gone to lunch with them every day at 12:30. I need to be off to meet them. I can surf etc. a limited amount at work which is how I wrote this.
I will work on getting internet and once I have it I will post my backlogged items.
Ciao
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