S called urgently when he stepped into the cap he reserved this morning. He really knew when to call because I just walked into the bathroom for something important. I rushed out but missed the call. Grabbed the mobile, I went back to finish unfinished business and called "Have you tried to call?" Oh, well, yes of course he did. He forgot to tell me there’s a strike today but only limited hours. "Check ATM later," he said.

一早就感覺氣溫降低，因為今天的米蘭是個雨天。Ｓ跟往常一樣出門、準備搭計程車到客戶那兒，而我也跟往常一樣，在他出門後才使用浴室。我才剛開始要解放，電話突然響起，想不理又擔心是Ｓ有急事，匆匆忙忙地卻又沒接到電話，只好抓了手機，趕緊打給Ｓ。當然是他打的，但他只是要告訴我，今天有大眾運輸的罷工，不過不是整天，要我記得查詢一下。
ATM means ‘Azienda Trasporti Milanesi S.p.A.’, the transportation company of Milan. We always use it to see how to arrive our destinations using which means of transportation. Quite convenient I would say. (It reminds me 9292ov.nl, a similar website for searching public transportation in the Netherlands.) Some announcements are also with English version which allow me to understand the information quicker.

ATM 就是米蘭負責大眾運輸的公司，在網站上可以查詢到點對點的交通方式，對不太喜歡在市區開車的我們而言，是個好用的工具。在網站上的公告中，也有部份是有英文版本，相信是為了便利在米蘭居住的外籍人士及遊客們。

Okay, back to strike. The strike of today (May 4th) will be for 8 hours. Having lived in Europe for three years, I have been trained to understand this kind of thing even though I am from a country where public transportation service strike is nearly impossible. What surprise me is that the 8-hour strike is not the one that runs for continuous 8 hours.

嗯，回到今天將有八小時罷工的這件事。初到歐洲時，聽到大眾運輸要罷工，我真的是驚訝地搖頭，他們不是服務業嗎？怎麼也鬧罷工這檔子事兒呢？在我還記得的年代裡，台灣除了年節假期公車停駛外，還真沒聽說過公車罷工的事呢！不過住在歐洲近三年下來，我倒也被訓練得對罷工事件不驚慌失措的能力，但今天的八小時罷工事件，還真讓我覺得特別，因為這個八小時的罷工可不是連續的！

The strike is from 8:45 am till 3:00 pm and from 6:00 pm till 7:45 pm. Wow but how does it work? If I was still on the bus at 5:59 pm, what will the driver do when it is 6:00 pm? What about in metro which is underground?  I have too many questions…

罷工的時間是從早上 8:45 到下午 3 點，然後再從下午 6 點到 7:45。這對我而言當然好，因為在下午三到六點，我得要出門上義大利文，只是這罷工怎麼個罷法呀？如果我 5:59 還在公車上，司機會不會在六點時把我踢下公車？還是就停在路旁？那如果搭地鐵，剛好在黑黑的隧道裡呢？呃～還是別想的好～

Anyway, check out ATM website www.atm-mi.it for latest information if you planed to visit Milan and use public transportation.

相關資訊：ATM website www.atm-mi.it (建議到米蘭自助遊的朋友，如需使用大眾運輸，可先查詢該網站…)

註 1: 上面的圖是 iGoogle theme "Bus Stop" 在雨天時的畫面，這個 theme 會因為天氣狀況的不同而改變唷！【分享】我的 Google 個人化首頁 有更多說明唷～

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