Visti

I picked up my visa from the Italian embassy yesterday! It's a big sticker in my passport... Since I had a Nulla Osta already, the paperwork I needed was relatively easy to obtain... Copies of the Nulla Osta and passport, the visa application form, a flight reservation, a letter from my current job and a copy of my health insurance card (both not required, but nice to have), and of course the money for the application! In exact change...

The most irritating is that they want you to have a flight before you have the visa... but what if you then have a problem getting the visa? Isn't that unnecessary?

The turn around was exactly a week, and I am all set with my visa now.

Pismleur Italian 1 Lesson 15

I returned from California last night! I was incredibly busy, I only had time to go through one of my Pimsleur lessons. On the plus side I listened to it while walking along the beach at Crissy Field. This was another one about having things, counting and money. The instructor explained that in Italian, you use the pronouns for "some" or "any" more than you do in English. When you actually use it to modify nouns, you use delle or dei. In this lesson they introduced the standalone form, ne. As in Non ne ho. "I don't have any."

Today I have lots of things to set up and arrange for later this week and next week. Including a meeting with the head of the exchange program with Polimi at MIT. Hopefully I can nail some of the details of visa stuff and travel down. I am also supposed to be having a conference call with Marcello and his boss/mentor Professor Tolio. The dates we are considering for me heading out are coming up soon! Hopefully I will be able to squeeze in some Rosetta Stone today, too.

Maybe Milan

It's looking more and more likely that I will be going to Milan, to work at the Politecnico and ITIA. I just emailed with my potential future boss about putting together my fellowship application letter. Basically, I have to write a letter detailing why I want to go to Politecnico, and I need a letter of support from a faculty member at Politecnico and another from an MIT faculty member. That's the core of the application!

So, for me, I basically have to get cracking and write this letter. Once I finish it up, I am thinking that it will be time to get some Italian lessons.