An Early Start

At 7.30 am I left the house and walked briskly down the slope, under the sweet gentle sunshine of Perugia.

I saw an old man coming out of a bookshop and gave him a hesitant smile and said, as Italian as I could manage, "buongiorno!" And he mumbled something "bella". I walked nearer, "huh? Non ho capito?" He repeated slowly, "Tu sei molto bella". Self-consciously, I replied, "oh, grazie". I had thought he was commenting on the beautiful whether. But he was actually saying I was beautiful. Oh well, most ang mohs in Europe and the US say that to me. Giving compliments come naturally to them, I guess.

I reached the Uni to look for info regarding the test I had to take this morning. Could not find it and asked the info counter. I heard it will start at 11 am. Not convinced, I looked around and found another piece of notice saying it would be from 8.30 am to 11.00 am, at Room XI on level 3.

I went to level 3 determined to look for room 9. Could not find it. Finally it dawned on me, she had meant, Aula 11 (room 11, not ore 11 - 11 hours). And obviously I need to brush up on my knowledge of roman numerals too:-)

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While waiting to enter the room for the test, I made friends with Kumi, a Japanese girl, who was anxious about her paper work - the merry chase I'd gone through two days ago. After the test, we were supposed to wait outside for our results, which would determine which level we would be put into. But she was eager to complete her paper work, and I explained to her what it entailed, and reassured her she would have enough time to do them, even after the long wait. Don't think I did much to re assure her, but I welcomed the look of anxiety and eagerness to complete her tasks quickly: finally, I got to Singapore-like Japanese sense of urgency - something I've not seen for a few days among the Europeans here.

We decided to leave the waiting for a while, rushed to the Questura for part one of her paperwork and rushed upstairs to get our results. (See - Sin-Jap collaboration and sense of efficiency and multi-tasking!) With our results, we queued at the registry for our matriculation.

I became somehow her interpreter. The woman at the counter was sullen, rude, impatient and totally unpleasant. She adopted the Sin-HK-Jap sense of speed and urgency, but in the most unsavory manner, making her appear frazzled and incompetent.

She claimed that Kumi had not paid her fees and refused to register her. Kumi insisted she had paid and showed her telegraphic transfer receipts. The woman referred the matter to her supervisor, while at the same time trying to register me.

Bingo - Janet Loh moment came. She could not find my name on her computer. Asked for my date of birth, I could not quite hear her and she barked for my date of birth again. Somehow I gave it to her but forgot how to say July in Italian. You guessed it - I said "julio" (Spanish). And upon reflection I think I must have told her the year 77 instead of 66. I always get my 6 and 7 mixed up - in Spanish or in Italian!

All the more could not find my name! And got so exasperated she even yelled and argued with her supervisor, almost tearing my paper apart. He calmly told her to key in some info and lo and behold, everything worked. Incompetent B&%$h !

My case sorted, she turned her ferocity on Kumi. The man came to her rescue - "let's sort this out next week, come back again. Let her go to her lessons now, the queue is long’’. Kumi looked at me, I interpreted, she understood, but was not satisfied. Japanese precision this time - "What time next week? When next week? What will they do next week?" "I have no answer, please, let's go - you need to sort out your permit to stay!" Off we went to get her stamp, her photocopies, etc.

Communications, communications....
Paper work ironed out, and starving since post-test (we were too nervous prior the test to eat anything, we headed for centro to find something to eat. The cafes were not open yet, unless we wanted "fast food". So we headed for Vodafone shop, for her to buy a GSM phone. Her fancy Japanese phone is useless in Europe.

I guess my work background made it a breeze for me to understand promotional tariff plans, phone functions, phone subsidy, even in Italian. Imagine having to translate all this to her. Somehow the shop owner just assumed she could not understand and looked at me all the time and explained everything to me. I looked at Kumi and asked if she understood. No, she shook her head.

Trouble is, it’s not just the language, but the entire concept of phone subscription, air time, pre paid card, cash back, phone subsidy…. The shopkeeper explained to me at least three times, thinking I did not understand, but I did. Each time he explained he expected me to repeat to her, who did not understand!

She was horribly confused between the choice of pre paid or subscription with cash back (some confounding Vodafone plan!) and in an attempt to avoid decision making, said, "I don’t need to decide now, right! I don’t need to buy a SIM now because I've this international calling card..."

"No, Kumi, you do need a SIM, in a GSM phone to activate it; otherwise it’s a dead phone," I was exasperated. "Whether you choose pre paid or tariff plan depends on your usage pattern, as explained by the shop keeper..." I almost sound like an M1/Gemplus ambassador - my ex/employer(s) should be so proud of me!