Our Container Finally Arriveth

Our container arrived today. It left Seattle on February 24, 2005, was trucked to NY, and sailed from NY to the Port of Leghorn in Livorno, about 2 ½ hours from Turin. The container actually arrived at the port on April 6th or 7th but due to red tape only made it our apartment today. As much as I hate to complain… who am I kidding? This situation has been almost unbearable.

In Seattle, I arranged for the movers to come, load up Demetrio’s stuff in their truck and drive the stuff to my house where the container was waiting. They proceeded to fill the container with D’s stuff from the truck and my stuff from the house. The container was the loaded up and the next day it was taken away. The movers were on time and did a good job. The freight guys were competent, punctual, while the representative from Stone Path Logistics, named Eri was a saint on Earth. Smooth, Logical, Timely, Sensible…

Across the Atlantic: Rough, Frustrating, Slow, Mindless, Insane, Exhausting…
In order to park the container in front of our building, we had to get a city parking permit. Without the permit we risk a 600 Euro fine. When we arrive at the city office, the clerk tells us there is no way for us to get the permit because they need 5 days of advance notice. “Okay” we say.….
Deme talks to her as she stares at me, presumably because I am Chinese and she is wondering if I am Chinese/Chinese and here to steal Italian jobs or if I am Chinese/American and just a plain oddity. After a few minutes, she arbitrarily gives in and says she can grant us the permit. Demetrio comments that although things are disorganized and illogical, some people can bend the rules.
I run downstairs to get an 11 Euro duty stamp from the tobacco store as D fills out the forms. She tells us to come back tomorrow so she can tell us how much the permit is going to cost, then to go to the post office to pay the fee, and get back to her office to show her the receipt before she can issue the permit. When D tells me this I almost hit the wall. Why could she not tell us the same day? Why could we not pay downstairs where I saw a window and possibly a register? Why come back the next day? UGH!! My darling husband handled the transaction the next day between meetings, another saint on Earth.

After faxing documentation back and forth for the past two and a half weeks with the freight company in Florence; answering the same questions over and over, bumbling with translations and interpretations, our container is set for delivery. The freight company asked me what floor I lived on and the location of our apartment. I gave them the information only to find out they plan to park the container for 4 hours then leave. They asked me what floor I lived on and I assumed they would deliver to the 4th floor, I was wrong. We have to hire movers, luckily a company was available.

The container was held in Livorno for an extra 18 days at 50 dollars a day because the freight company says they could not reach any at Microsoft for payment. I have to tell you Microsoft Italia is an entirely differently entity from Microsoft USA. We finally paid out of pocket; hopefully the company will reimburse us fully. One last glitch, the container and the movers are both set to arrive at 2 p.m today. D happens to drive by the house at 9:41 a.m. and to his shock the container is sitting outside. As I write this entry our container is parked in from of m our apartment as I wait for D to get off work and pick me up at 1:30 p.m. I hope it’s the same container I loaded up in Seattle.

To make a longer story shorter, they guy with the container has to wait 4 ½ hours for D, the movers and I to get there. Isn’t this a model of efficiency? How is miss the good ole’ capitalistic, “customers are always first” U, S of A.