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title: Working!
date: 2006-05-18 13:13:07 +02:00
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type: article
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Yes, I started "working" at the "Siemens/Microsoft MES Expertise Center":http://base--/bookmarks/view/siemens-mes/ two days ago, and you can tell from the lack of activity on my blog, for example. That's the first _real_ and _full-time_ job for me, and yes, I noticed the difference from an "I-get-up-whenever-and-do-whatever" policy to a slightly stricter "get-up-at-seven-and-go-to-work" policy: I obviously don't have the same amount of free time as before, nevertheless I really can't complain. 

!<http://base--/img/pictures/siemens/mes.jpg! For the first two weeks I have to attend the compulsory introductionary course about the "Simatic IT":http://base--/bookmarks/view/simatic-it/ framework, and it's not that bad: the topics of the course are not that difficult (for now), I can understand everything (for now) and people seem really nice and chatty (for now). I'm still a bit scared of the _corporate environment_, the main reason being that it seems _too nice to be true_: especially for me it's really great to have a chance of meeting people from other countries, attend courses _in English_, talk mainly _in English_ and basically be able to forget that _outside_ those walls there's Italy. Not that I particularly hate being in Italy, I like my city in particular, but I relate much better with foreigners and/or English-speakers.

Everyone has a different accent: you can tell where everyone is from simply after hearing them talking for a few seconds! Oh well, I suppose people can tell I'm Italian from my accent as well, perhaps. I almost immediately made friends with the other four Italians in the training room and also an Austrian guy from one of Siemens' branches in Linz... great people, easy-going and friendly.

In two weeks time I'll start working _properly_ writing stuff and maybe things won't be as easy... or maybe they will be - I hope - because normally I really like writing about anything, especially in English.

!>http://base--/img/pictures/roxy/roxy.png! The only bad thing is that this week and maybe even the next I'll have to stay apart from my fiance&eacute; Roxanne, as she's staying at her parents' place (100Km far from me) since we're in the process of restoring our future house. I really miss her terribly and she does as well. The good news is that we'll meet again tomorrow evening as I'll be driving down there immediately for the weekend! 
She's actually worrying a bit because of the huge chunk of time that my job will require, but I hope we'll be able to live together in our _own_ house soon: for now our 1st priority is finding a suitable and decent fitted kitchen... anyone?

Another thing I need to get used to is answering _all_ my emails (and they are a lot in these days) in the evening, without mixing up or forgetting somebody: I got some really good news recently concerning my activity of _freelance writer_, along with various offers from online magazines. I'm also pleased to announce that some editor just got back to me about my new introductive CakePHP article, and it will soon be featured on another (fairly well known) website... a good publicity for myself, my _site_ and CakePHP, that's the most important _point_ ;)