First Impressions

Hello everyone, this is my first post outside of Canada. I arrived in Torino yesterday and although I had pleasant flights and a good night of sleep, I still feel really tired.  Jetlag certainly has something to do with this. It is currently 10 am local time when in fact my body thinks it’s 3 am.

My first challenge here was the language barrier. I expected people around the airport to speak english but it wasn’t so much the case. And as soon as I left it, of course Italian was the spoken language. I have 0 knowledge of italian; “me scuzi” doesn’t count :). Fortunately, I had the hotel's address written on a peice of paper which I gave to the taxi driver. He got me there in no time.

I stayed at the “Novotel  Torino Corso Giulio Cesare” (what a name huh) hotel in Torino and I have to say that it’s first class hotel. I went to the reception, gave my name, and a key card was already waiting for me at there. Organization is top notch.

My first day at the circus was more of an introduction than anything else. The show took place in the arena that was built for the winter Olympic games in 2006. It’s a pretty neat building. I was shown around, was presented to the crew, artist and office members. Everyone is really friendly and I should't have any problems with my integration. I went backstage (I have an all access pass). It's cool to see how everything works in the background. For the first night, I got to see the show front seat. I was never really interested in circus but I have to say it's worth watching. The performers are amazing! juggler, trapezists and others really have talent.

Today, we performed a fire drill. Basic stuff. We will do it in every venue, once a week. Today will also be my first loading experience (getting everything packed in the trucks for the move). Loading and unloading is the bulk of the work. Once everything is setup, it's pretty much just maintenance and service calls. I will be provided with a laptop and a cell phone.

If our destination is less than 5 hours of bus, we take the bus. If not, we travel by plane. Next stop is Pesaro so we will take the plane. I didn't have time to visit the city of Torino. Being my first few days I guess I'll stick around the crew to get more acquinted, then when I have the chance, I'll take some time to visit.


This is it for the first post. As things happen I will tell you more about my trip. I hope everything is good for you guys and see you next time. 


ps: check out the album I've uploaded some pictures