what Italian neighbors are like

this totally didn't even register as something i should post on here until today. but i thought all of you would be pretty interested in the stories i have about my italian neighbor, Maria.

the first day we got there, Maria was in our apartment with Danielle (our landlady) and we got to know her a little. she speaks no English. she is approximately 4' 10''. she appears to be around 60 years old. i do think she makes our experience here more entertaining. we don't go a day without seeing her. mostly it goes like this...

our doorbell rings.
2 second later there is a bang on our door. normally none of us have gotten out of our bed yet.
another bang.
i answer the door.
Maria, talking rapidly in Italian, walks through the door past me and starts trying to explain something

one time it was our washer. one time it was the stove. another time it was the bathtub. the heat. the water in general. she really doesn't run out of things. since i have no idea what she's saying, its tricky. but luckily, my other three roommates know enough Italian to semi-decipher what Maria is saying. it ends up being a long conversation in which i - or Roxy, or Ada, or Anna - say "Si. Si. Si." (Yes, yes, yes.) a lot. lol. then Maria leaves and i have to turn to someone else for interpretation, and normally we have no idea what she said.

it makes for a pretty funny morning. although she can be annoying, i like Maria. shes pretty much like another mom here. between her and Danielle, we've got it covered. hopefully i'll get a picture with her before i leave so you all can see her.

okay, i've gotta get home and crash. ciao!

grrrrrrr....

still sick. it blows. i didn't go to class today.

let's cross our fingers that i feel better tomorrow...

no worries, i'm alive

i put together a whole breakdown of the "going out" night in a blog. and then blogger couldn't get it to look right and it annoyed me. so i haven't posted it yet.

anywho...i've been lying in my bed basically for the last 2 days. i have a cold. but its kind of like a super cold. i don't remember ever hacking up my lungs like this before. that's unfortunate. luckily, Anna brought a pharmacy with her, so i've been taking DayQuil and NyQuil. i've finished rereading two books (Sloppy First and Second Comings both by Megan McCafferty, which I highly recommend) and am now offically bored out of my mind. here's a list of some other things you might find interesting about my trip:

1. Italians Like Obama

we watched the inauguration on tv this week and let me tell you, it was one of those, "proud to be an American" moments. i really felt moved by watching this whole thing take place. even though i was in another country. i watched with a bunch of other American students at a bar on a big screen tv. there were some locals there as well who seemed pretty interested in the whole ordeal. we all stood when everyone was asked to stand. we all sang the national anthem at the end. it was awesome.

a girl in my Contemporary Italian Society class was telling us about how when she watched the inauguration (at a different bar) the Italians seemed annoyed that Americans were there. but in the end, everyone clapped after Obama had given his speech, causing the bar tender to say, "for Obama? shots." and she gave every American a shot of tequila. at the end of the girl's story my teacher proclaimed in good humor "Obama does really make miracles." hahahaha. 

2. Bad Ways to Start Your Study Abroad Experience - Getting Beat Up

walking back from the bar on infamous "going out" night, one of the guys who had come over to our house unfortunately ran into a bit of bad luck. now, i haven't seen the picture - yes, he put one up on facebook - but i'm told his face is covered in  black and blue bruises and is pretty swollen.

kevin got beat up by a few italians. they didn't mug him. they didn't take a single thing from him. they just decided it would be fun to beat up some American guy. at least from what i can tell.

now, if i were kevin, that is if i were a guy, i would be really upset. i would probably let this experience ruin part of my time here. but from what i understand, he's really not that upset about it. he's glad he didnt get beat up more than what happened. i feel really bad for the kid. but i'm glad he's moved on. i'm still kind of in shock by it.

3. Dinner is a Long Drawn Out Process

just like pretty much everything else in Italian society, dinner takes time here. they are so much more relaxed when it comes to time. everybody is about 10 minutes late - you can imagine how i feel about that. 

last night we went out to dinner and we were at the resturant for probably 2 hours. and pretty much the whole time all four of us were thinking "when is our next course coming?" "when is the check coming?" "is she ever going to come back to wait on us?" lol.

obviously this is going to take some getting used to...but i'm thinking that this concept will be good for me. maybe i'll mellow out. or maybe i'll slowly be driven crazy. haha.

breakdown of last night

here's what happened to the "going out" nite of yesterday:

7:10 p.m. Jay decides to bring his roommates over to our apartment to "pregame" before we go out. (needed explaination: pregrame = drinking before you go to the bar so that you don't actually have to buy drinks at the bar.)
8:13 p.m. Anna comes into my room with her first outfit choice, which I like, but she nixes
8:26 p.m. Anna comes into my room with her second outfit choice, which we both like, but she decides to go tightless
9:34 p.m. Roxy, Anna, and I are dressed and ready. We watch Sex and City to pass the time.
10:17 p.m. The guys get here - Jay, Kevin, Kevin, Ryan, and Andrew. We decide to play some ridiculous card game. I have finished one glass (actually a mug) of white wine.

After this point, I'm not sure exactly on the timing, but it goes something like this. We play this card game twice. The cards are put face down in a circle and each person takes a turn to draw one. They all mean different things:

7s - point to heaven, the last person to do so drinks

Ace - you get to make up a rule for the game. such as: all guys must talk in Italian for the rest of the game

10 - never, have i ever. this is my least favorite. everyone wants to say some raunchy thing to catch how horrible other people are. and its even weirder with people you don't know. we actually had to define threesome at one point for someone to fess up. ew.

I just realized I stopped using capitalization on that last bit.

Anywho...so this game goes on. I go through another glass of wine (this time red) and have to fill up the mug about a quarter of the way to finish the last game. Since I didn't have a full meal, I'm feeling a bit tipsy. More than a bit actually. Plus the wine is making me sleepy. We finish the game sometime after midnight and then everyone is ready to go out. For me, going somewhere after midnight is ridiculous. That's basically my bedtime. No joke. Unless its an emergency, I don't know if I have ever left my house past 12am for anything.

I made the executive decision to stay home. I knew I wouldn't have any fun. I wouldn't want to drink anymore. The only one who seemed a bit upset by it was Anna, which was very sweet of her. So they left, I took a shower, and eventually got to bed. The other two girls came home around 3:30am...I could hear them making pasta in the kitchen. Haha.

As for today, I'm actually sick. Like cold/flu sick. I've taken a couple DayQuil, which helped a bit...but I'm still coughing up a lung. Hopefully it goes away within a few days. And luckily its the weekend. 'Til next time I have something fasinating to add...

favorite picture taken since i've been here

and yes, i do indeed know all of those people.

yes, i can speak italian...sort of.

i've been feeling like a rude american lately. i really can't do much with ordering. asking questions. etc. i really have no clue what things are in italian, so i just have to ask them in english. most of the italian are really great about it. they just smile and then help me get the right word. there have been a couple people who seem pretty annoyed actually.

its supposed to rain all day this week. its really not that bad though. i mean, i wish the sun was out, but i'm in italy for pete's sake.

last night we went to a bar to watch the Eagles vs. the Cardinals. it was not my idea of a fun time. the bar was basically made for americans. all american food. lots of american drinks. cheap. and it was filled with american students. i didn't really comfortable. its like going to a big party back home. except i don't know anyone. and i have class the next day. anna knew some people there. and she felt bad that we didn't have a good time. lol. she's pretty nice. anna...that's my roommate. i'll give you the low down on them.

1. Roxy - from the U of M. she's sweet. really nice. we had a good chat last night on the way back from the bar. shes a sophmore majoring in history and knows quite a bit of italian. she's taking italian 4 here. she's sharing a room with anna.

2. Ada - from the U of M. she's actually from somehwere by milwaukee. i haven't gotten to know her as well as the other two, but she's really laid back. she has some family in italy too. shes 21 and is taking italian 3.

3. Anna - from the U of Delaware, but she's actually from PA. (i asked her where abouts Barb and she is not from York, but said she liked it there.) at this point i feel like her and i will get along the best. shes sort of no-nonsense. really nice. pretty girly. lol. idk. we just kind of have a vibe. she is taking italian 4.

fyi, i was going to put up a slideshow of the apartment pics on here, but i couldn't do it unless i had flickr, which turned into a whole 'nother thing. i'll try to post a couple at the end of this thing here.

sitting to the right of me is our program adivisor. his name is danny. he came it Italy just like we did like 6 years ago or something. and now he works for CAPA and goes the University in Florence. hes so nice. and kinda cute. haha. as for the other guys here, we haven't really had any run ins. (i know that all of your girls want the tibits on foreign men...you told me you did.) obviously i met mostly americans last night. although walking into the city center we passed a couple of guys, one said "hi girls" in what appeared to be an australian accent. we've had a couple of italian guys yell at us - not really yell, just kind of you know...cat call i guess. we have no idea what they're saying, i just kind of smile...or look down. haha. anna is all about saying "ciao!" to them. she says its just because she wants to speak italian as much as possible. lol.

i mean, i'm sure we stick out like sore thumbs. its totally obvious that we're american. as i've told the girls, how much can i blend in? i have pale skin, red hair, and freckles. i suppose its possible i could come off as irish, but i really don't think it would make much difference.


okay, this is a picture of my room. i can't take anymore time uploading the rest. they are all on fb anyway. 'til next time!

after 21 hours...i have arrived

i leave in two days

i repacked my suitcase today...it didn't really work. i have like 2 more pairs of pants, plus some other stuff to cram in there. i'm not really sure what's going to happen.

i updated my list of movies today. yahoo had an article a while back about great movies coming out in 2009, so i took a peak. here's what i'm looking forward to, in chronological order by release date:

1. He's Just Not that Into You
2. Duplicity
3. The Ugly Truth
4. Seventeen Again
5. The Proposal
6. Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen
7. Public Enemies
   
8. Harry Potter 6
9. Sherlock Holmes
10. New Moon
11. The Lovely Bones

at this point, that's less than 1 a month, which is pretty good for me. lol. sorry this is a lame post. i'm actually just doing it to test out the automatic email i have set up on here. i'm guessing my next one will be from an airport on thursday while i have a layover. see you then!

no one here can make a sound...

i forgot about Guster. they're playing now on my ipod. i'm glad my ipod reminded me about them. lol.

i went and saw The Curious Case of Benjiman Button last night. first...they had the coolest opening. you know how before the movie starts you see the production company and studios' logos? well for this one, it was Warner Brothers and Paramount, and both shots were made of all different buttons. i seriously freaked out. Sammi can confirm, she was sitting next to me.

as for the movie...i thought it was really good. i mean, it was definately not one of those pick me up kind of movies, but the story was great. heartbreaking. i wish i had cate blanchett's red hair. and it was so interesting how they put everything together. from my perspective, when brad pitt or cate had to look old they looked old. and when they had to look like they were 19 or 20, they did. it was crazy. as Sam said when brad appeared as a 20 year old, "oh...i forgot how hot brad pitt was when he was younger." and i loved the cinemotography. its kind of that soft, romantic look, like how Atonement was shot. plus the costumes were amazing. and the acting. overall, i'd said it deserves as many Oscar nods as it can get.

on a completely separated note...i'm starting to get insomnia again. i can't fall asleep when i go to bed. i just start thinking about all the italy stuff (which is a week away) and i start freaking out. not like, "oh, i'm not going to like it." or "i don't want to leave." i'm just worried about money, and what my apartment is going to be like, and if i'll get the schedule fixed. and all of that stress won't be relieved until i'm there, so i really need to quite worrying. easier said that done i guess...