I will be honest, my first day was not fantastic. I arrived at the beautiful office of Farnese Vini and spent the morning photocopying and filing. I was then moved to Caldora, an office just outside the town in a bottling plant. (I'm still not sure if I was exiled due to my poor photocopying skills or if that's where I was actually supposed to be!) I walked in, smile on face as per usual to meet a group of Abruzzesi looking at me very oddly as if I were an alien. No smiles. Barely a greeting. I felt like I was 10 years old. They didn't actually give me anything to do, so left me sitting like a lemon apart from a little tour around the factory. To make matters even worse, the staff at this office don't really speak Italian - they speak dialect. And it's a hell of a strong one. I think I could probably understand more Russian spoken by a child with a speech impediment. To be honest, even when they speak Italian their accent is so strong that I really struggle to make it out. So far so not good.
The second day wasn't much better. I spent 8 hours stapling. 8. Eight. EIGHT!!! My shoulder actively hurt from the repetition. The week continued in this vein, I stapled/filed/sat around doing nothing. I completely admit at this point to feeling completely helpless and worried. I was not being paid to staple, the youngest person at the office apart from me was in his early forties and I was the only girl. The advantage of this was that they started calling me Kate Moss. Which is lovely, even if a little odd coming from middle-aged men with a naked girls calendar on the wall. But we'll ignore that little treasure.
Luckily things soon started to look up, and I'm not just talking about the gravity defying nature of those models' boobs. I managed to find an absurdly expensive but lovely apartment in the centre of Ortona, owned by a fantastic old Italian lady called Lina. The setup is fantastically stereotypical. Lina lives on the second floor in the biggest apartment I have ever seen in my life. She is a self-confessed housewife and spends her days looking after her flat and her lovely son Giuseppe and his family, who live on the fourth floor. Her brother-in-law lives on the first floor, so the whole building is occupied by one big happy Italian family, with the addition of little me on the third floor. I think they knew I was feeling a bit lonely and overwhelmed and have adopted me into their family, to the point of getting worried if they don't see me every couple of days. Also if I need anything, they do everything possible to take care of me. On Friday night I managed to break the electrics and the oven at the same time, classic Coleman. Within 5 minutes, Lina had her friend's nephew over (who had only just got home after a long day at work....I did feel rather guilty) who fixed everything. So despite breaking something on a Friday night, it was fixed straight away for free. The advantages of tight communities/having a terrifying fabulous Italian matriarch on your side.
Luckly this week another "stagista" arrived at Caldora. As I had done all the stapling that needed to be done and some that didn't there wasn't really a lot for Simona and I to do so I emailed the main office at Farnese who welcomed us with open arms. So not only have I not stapled anything for at least three days, I also have a new friend who is Italian! Simona is 22, studies in Turin and is lovely. She has introduced me to her friends, who interestingly think I'm alright, and includes me as much as possible. I think I may have made some friends! Yes, I'm very excited about this, but after the first week I had resigned myself to having no friends at all and a very lonely summer so it was nice to be proved wrong. Work is treating us pretty well - on Friday there was a tasting at the office and there were plenty of almost full bottles left. So we were told to take as many bottles as we could manage. Score. I think they definitely underestimated how strong I am when given alcohol as a motivation. Typical Brit. I was given a baptism of fire that night when we went to Pescara to "ballare".
We got back just after 5 so I decided to go and watch the sunrise over the port. Mad beauty.
Obviously I have been going to the beach. Oh yeah, it's 30 degrees here. Tragedy. After getting spectacularly lost on my first visit and nearly ending up walking down a dual carriageway (thanks Google Maps!) I found a little path that goes through a mini jungle and ends up in an olive grove.
I think I've found my picnic spot.
Despite having made Italian friends and family, I didn't feel up to watching the England-Italy match with other Italians. I am literally the only English person here. So I watched it at home alone, which was just as well as I had temporarily forgotten how much I swear when watching sport. Obviously this didn't reach Wales rugby levels of histrionics, but it wasn't that far off, particularly when England scored. Robbed. Robbed we were. I was so glad I had stayed home, I just can't cope with all the smug Italian faces. Effing Ballotelli. We also seem to have lost our ability to kick a decent corner, and I'm not just talking about Rooney's shocker. And don't get me started on the uselessness of Johnson (who by the way Italian girls think is the hottest player on the team....) The only saving grace was the Italian commentators' hilarious inability to distinguish between Welbeck, Sterling and Sturridge.
Anyway I apologise for the lack of pictures - I will make sure to take loads next weekend as the lovely Lucy is visiting me! Very, very excited. I've just got back from an hour and a half of zumba....absolutely dying so ciao for now!
