Introduction and the Italian bureaucracy
WHAT AM I DOING?I'm attending a Masters in Nanotechnologies at CIVEN, an institute associated with 3 universities, the University of Venice, Padua and Verona, in Venice, Italy.
WHY VENICE?
I'm sure the fact that I'm doing this Masters in Venice is enough to garner a "huh".
And undoubtedly you will ask, why Venice? That fundamental question was asked by many of my friends. My answer is this...there are 2 main reasons:
1. It's first and foremost a great program - it's compact in a year, which was one of my requirements and included business education. It also includes an internship, which can be anywhere in the world!
2. What is a nicer place than Venice?
MY ARRIVAL IN VENICE
Now, with all those preliminary introductions aside, I turn to my arrival in Venice. My arrival wasn't too difficult, as it just required a bus ride to the Piazza le Roma station where I would then catch a vaporetto (ferry) to the Giudecca island of Venice. Yes I'm living on an island, which would require me to ferry back and forth between class and the residence! A very different experience than what I'm used to I assure you!! You know, this might actually cure me of sea-sickness!! That would a great bonus for me!!
Anyway...for those ever intending on coming here for an extended stay like me, I should warn you of carrying very large and heavy luggage, because Venice in general is not luggage friendly!! There are many bridges to cross over and Venice has not modernized yet in that respect!! But if you plan to brave that front, I wish you mighty strength!
THE MIGHTY BUREAUCRACY
Italians, I'm discovering rapidly, are Kings of bureaucracy. They don't believe in organized structure and information. HOWEVER, they do believe in many service charges and confusing foreigners as much as possible. I apologize to my Italian friends if this offends you...but I'm sure you'll agree with me.
One personal example of note: I needed a Permit of Residency to be here for my studies, which required 8 items, including for instance, 4 photos, a fiscal code (probably similar to a SIN), a bank account etc.
Most of these items were not that difficult to obtain. The bank account however, the Civen administrators told me that I had to open a bank account here. Now, the banking system here is geared to charge you as much as possible, just like anywhere else in the world I would presume. The joke here is that when you breathe, they'll charge you. I argued that even if I opened a bank account here to prove to the gov't that I have sufficient funds for my stay here...but if I don't transfer anything, then what proof do they have? Maybe that thought process was too logical for some of these Italians. I don't know.
Anyway, I took the chance to NOT open a bank account here and go the Questura or police station. I was told to go very early...like 7am, even though the queue booth where you get a number doesn't open until 8:30am!!
Well, I ended up showing up there at 7:30am, and there were already about 30 people waiting in front like fugitives begging to be let into the host country. It was very cold as well even for a homegrown Canadian like me, but I stuck it out like a true Cdn.
Now this is where I believe that when people are forced into a stressful situation, like being out in the cold for over a hour, people act very irrationally and regress into the primal animals that we are. Once the gate opened, people pushed their way ahead and cut into the line to get to the booth to get that golden ticket of another waiting period!!
Long story short, the waiting area looked like a grim area where people gazed at the numbers of different counters like their life depended on it. It almost felt like a scene out of George Orwell's 1984. Anyway, my application was approved, but then I was sent to a room to get my fingerprints done. Now first, in a gov't setting, wouldn't English also be used as part of their signs?? But then again, that thought process would be too logical for Italians. So after getting lost finding this room, I eventually found it and came face-to-face with a rather grim looking man. He took my fingerprints twice with REAL INK!! Apparently the first time, the prints weren't very clear. Then he even took a palm print! Now if that doesn't make one feel like you're very welcome here.... Unfortunately the ink didn't wash off very well..so on top of that, I felt like a marked woman just coming out of jail!
I was soo relieved that my administration sojourn was over!!
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Now if you actually this far...congratulations and thank you. I promise that my later blog postings will be shorter and more light-hearted. I don't want to bore you!!! And of course I'll be including lots of pictures!!
Here's one to start!
Ciao!
posted by Suanne Tse @ 2:59 AM
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