Of hardworking foreigners

My beloved mom, who might have got the idea of "bule" or foreigners from movies and stories, somehow believed that no foreigners do any hard work.
And amazingly during her 11 days trip visiting us in Europe, no hard working foreigners were in sight. We saw vineyards, farms, factories along our trips, but none of the farmer or any hard working Italian was in sight :D

So, I told her a story about a hard working woman that I know.

Once in a blue moon I decided to ride the early bus to go to my university. It was around 7 in the morning or something.

Morning buses are notorious for being fully packed with students and people in general. I was lucky that I managed to squeeze myself in a corner of that fully packed bus. After the bus picked more people on one of the stops along the way, someone poked me from the back and said, "Ciao, bambina!" (= Hi, kid!)

At first I didn't really recognize her. I always saw her in her light green uniform before. But finally I recognized that she was the cleaning lady in my office, which I featured in this story and this.

I greeted her, and we exchanged courtesies. Since I never saw her getting on the bus from that stop, I asked if she lives in that area.
She told me no, she just finished a job, and now going for another job.
I was amazed. It was quite early in the morning. I was just about to start my work, and she had finished a job already?

I asked her what time did she start her work? She answered, at 5.30.
Seeing that I always see her cleaning up my office when I'm staying late, which is around 8 PM or so, it means she works almost around the clock!

Wow.

To the astonished expression I had on my face she just responded with a shrug,
"Well, that's work."
Shortly the bus arrived in another bus stop and she excused herself to go for her other work.

And, that, my friend, is one hard working Italian lady.