Fine Settimana

Wake up after 9am today. First day sleeping late in Italy! I'm not meeting Dany until after lunch, so I have some time to kill. Want to attempt once again to find a grocery store and/or buy a hairdryer. Wish I have a pedometer, I'm curious how far I'm walking. I could use google maps, but that won't take in to account the multiple circles I seem to walk in.

Have no luck finding grocery store or hairdryer. Do find creepy looking church. It looks a lot happier in this picture than in real life. Just imagine the white skies as rainy-looking clouds. And add creepy music. And remember, you are alone.

At some point along my quest for groceries/hairdryer I become super hungry. Absolutely refuse to overpay for another hotdog at the Leaning Tower. Dany is also running late (although it isn't his fault.) Frustration+hunger+more frustration= Amanda in a bad mood. By the time Dany and his coworker pick me up, I am one sniffle away from breakdown. Act like typical person of my gender and insist I am fine, even with my sour face.


We stop at a mall and I eat. Am happier now, although still upset about general lack of being able to find what I want, when I want. Trying to learn some patience.

We go to a sports store to get appropriate clothing for tomorrow's adventure. Am not thrilled about how much jackets cost, but worth not feeling cold the rest of the trip.

Go back to mall, which contains a Coop (pronounced "cop"), a WalMart-like store that is big enough to eat anything America has come up with so far. Finally go grocery shopping. Grocery section is like the mall on Christmas Eve. Absolutely packed and chaotic. Find yogurt with a picture of acorns. Ask Dany what flavor it is, he points to the picture. I tell him acorns are for squirrels, but buy it anyway out of curiosity. Picking out fruits and vegetables is a nightmare. Here you have to wear gloves to pick out what you want, then you bag it like in the states. After, you fight to take it to a small scale to get a price sticker. Decide to just get tomatoes for now. 

WalMart on steroids also has (guess!) hairdryers! Am super thrilled until I see the prices. Seriously contemplate pros and cons of having wet head. Decide to go ahead and spend more euros on tiny travel size hairdryer than I did on home hairdryer that includes attachments. Hairdryer is half of my total bill. At least it promises a "model look." End up with this collection (clicking on the photo enlarges it, if you're curious about packaging.)


Google "nocciole". Happy to know Italians don't eat acorns, they eat hazelnuts.

Sweet Home Alabama

Woke up yesterday to another cold day. I'm starting to really like it even though I'm almost never warm. School was fine with the exception of the end of the class, when my teacher asked (in Italian) if I had learned anything. I told her I didn't understand what she was saying, she repeated herself slower. Still didn't understand. After several attempts she said in English "I'm asking if you learned any Italian!!" Guess not?

Even after that conversation she told me I should probably go back to the fast class Tuesday. (Monday is a national holiday and everything is closed.) I've never dreaded progress so much in my life.

After class I wandered around some more. Because I still cannot find the grocery store, I walked back to the leaning tower and got a hotdog. After eating, I went on the hunt for a hairdryer. For the life of me, I can't figure out where Italians buy hairdryers! I looked everywhere!! I did accidentally find the Arno River, so pretty.

I also went with Dany and his coworkers to November Fest (in October) to celebrate Germany. It seems like everyone in the world likes to celebrate the land of beer. Of course there were the Italian girls dressed as Germans, giant hotdogs, beer, pretzels, and more beer.  I did try some, although I am far from a beer drinker. It kinda tasted like apple juice, until I swallowed. Then it just tasted like beer. 

The way they sold beer was a little different. You pay a ridiculous amount for the mug and the beer. Then when you are done, you bring back the mug and they refund your money- if you didn't destroy anything.

My favorite part of the whole night was when the band started singing Sweet Home Alabama. I started laughing and Dany said "What? It's Deutsche!"  Yeah, no. Definitely about as American as you can get.

And no, he is not drunk in this picture. He hadn't had anything yet. 

                                                                          
                                                                          

Age of Aquarius

Wake up this morning to fog on the inside of the french doors. Not a good sign when your room already feels arctic, because that means it's even colder outside. Walk across tile floor in socks (I have never worn socks so often!), check computer, 37 degrees. Look out window for snow. No snow : (

Buy ticket at tabaccheria, where it is .50 euros cheaper than on the bus. I kinda like the cashier, she's patient with me and my horrible italian. Tabaccheria is a really small convenience store, without convenient things (except tickets.) Really have no clue what else she sells. There is a slot machine though. Italians will put a slot machine anywhere there is an outlet. No wonder Dany stays busy.

I am back in the slow class. Love it! I spend 3 minutes reading the homework that took me 2 hours to do (with some help from Dany's cousin.) At break, go downstairs with Mona (woman from Denmark) for a cappuccino. Age of Aquarius is playing on the speaker which makes me laugh (at odd choice of song) and randomly think of Maddie's mom. Cappuccino has consistently tasted awful after first day but we still go to the same place. Need to find better coffee shop. This is Italy, after all!

Class ends and I make my way to the bus station. I realize I don't have a 1€ coin to buy a ticket (and no change is given in the machine.) Decide to buy an umbrella from street vendor for 3€ (in case of another monsoon and to get change.) Street vendor speaks no english (fine) and is rude (not fine). I pay with a 10€ and he gives me a 5€ bill and a 2€ coin. I hate euros. Somehow the math makes no sense to me and I insist on getting a 1€ coin. Rude street vendor is now quite angry with me. I refuse to leave him alone. Eventually he digs through his pockets and gives me a 1€ coin. I hate euro coins!

Buy ticket and board correct bus on first try. Feeling quite proud of myself. Sit in front of bus in attempt to locate super market (have eaten nothing but lettuce and noodles for 3 days now.) It is a woman bus driver; women tend to be much more aggressive and impatient than male bus drivers. Notice bus is going to middle of nowhere. See a sign that indicates we are leaving Pisa. Start to wonder where we are going. Check sign, I am on the correct bus. Driver stops. Tells me she is going on break. Insists I get off bus. I look behind me, I am the only person left. Uh oh. I ask if another bus is coming, she says yes. Get off bus. Am in bus stop in middle of nowhere.

Houses in background are mirage of civilization. Read bus sign, no bus will be here for at least an hour. Figure I can walk home in that time, or at least get back to Pisa. Start walking. Can not remember from which direction I came. Open map. Can't find any streets on map. Walk for another 20 minutes. I am in farm pasture territory. Chances of never being found again increasing with every step. See a guy on bicycle and wave frantically. He stops. I ask where I am and hand him the map. He stares at the map and raises eyebrows. Car almost hits us and driver honks and yells in Italian. I almost pee my pants. Guy on bicycle doesn't flinch.  He opens the map wider and I open my eyes wider. He points about six inches off the map and says "We are here." Flips map over to all of Tuscany and points. I am not at all where I want to be. He points in the direction from which I came and tells me good luck. I start walking again and find same bus stop. Am walking in giant circles. Decide it's better to wait it out.

Bus eventually comes. I board and the driver turns the bus off. I try not to scream. Bus driver looks at me and says he is just taking a smoke break. I shouldn't worry. I decide I should look in to becoming an Italian bus driver. Apparently I can do what I want, when I want.

2 hours of travel time and I make it back to my room.

The only way I will ever be able to live with the Pisan bus system is to accept that I will never understand it.

Dizionario?

Wake up this morning to frozen face and check computer... 45 degrees. Ahh! I haven't consistently felt this cold in a long time. I decide to do something with my hair despite temperature and lack of hairdryer. I wet it and attempt to dry it via radiator. Waste of 15 minutes.

I am now a pro public transportation user. Get to school without problems, enjoy freezing cold morning. A teacher tells me I can go back to the slow class, which could be an insult but I consider dancing. Slow class is two students, a woman in her 60s? from Denmark and me. I learn how to describe my daily routine and change favorite word to poi which sounds more Japanese than Italian. We go on break and I go with Denmark lady downstairs to get espresso (yay!) Denmark lady (Mona) proceeds to speak to me in Danish. I look confused and she laughs and switches to English. Run in to confused asian couple on way back to class. They're carrying around a piece of paper with "torre di pisa". I ask if they speak English and they look like they want to hug me. I explain how to get there, but say the bus system is incredibly confusing and I wish them luck. Their face drops and they look less like they want to hug me. I must have looked like them my first day here.

Class ends early because it is smaller and "more intense." I'm just happy I learn something. Take correct bus home on first try (double yay!) Stand around apartment bored for 10 minutes. Decide to go to tower and look for italian-english dictionary. The walk there is beautiful. The sun is shining and feels warm and I am tempted to dance for the second time today. Settle for bouncing as I walk. This cannot be reality.

Wander around Piazza dei Meracoli and find 4,000 t-shirts but no dictionary. I ask a street vendor where I might find one. In a weird mix of Italian and English we understand each other. Realize I am looking for a book during the two hours of the day when everything is closed. Stare at tower for awhile. Eventually I get to the book store and find what I want. After, I realize I am super hungry and stop for pizza. Carry pizza back to piazza because how often can I eat by the leaning tower? A sign in front of the tower says the grass is closed (looks nice and green to me), so I move further down. End up sitting next to American girl (from California) who is randomly traveling around Europe as she pleases. How lucky! We attempt to make plans but she is staying in Florence for a day then moving on to Venice. We discuss shortness and lack of significant lean in tower. (See below.) Still cool to see and really pretty architecture.

Allora (or fake it till you make it)

Yesterday ended on a much better note than it started!

Dany called to check on me, and I described my crazy morning/afternoon. He told me about his coworker, who is definitely having a much harder time right now and I realized if transportation problems were all that happened to me, I didn't have it so bad. He also fixed a few problems including calling my land lord Francesco because my room felt arctic. We ate dinner together at Mcdonald's. I wasn't too thrilled but it was late and Dany drove 45 minutes to get me so I kept my mouth shut (or tried.) We did eat shrimp though, which was pretty random.

This morning I found the place to buy bus tickets so I managed to get on the bus without any problems (yay!) I rode the bus to the train station, which is also a bus station, and also a mess of people who don't understand how to get where they want to be. Managed to crop out the chaos in this picture (you can see a bus on the far left.)

Class was difficult! I was put in a new (completely-lost-like-me) class. I really enjoyed it because I felt like I understood what was going on. At the break the instructor told me to go back to my original class. So I went back and struggled to understand the people who can actually carry on a conversation. I am too fast for the slow class and too slow for the fast class. Story of my life!

I spent a significant amount of time trying to randomly guess what the professor was saying. I did pick up a new word- allora. I have no idea what it means, but the professor says it a lot and at random times. I figure if I just replace all of my "uh..." and "um..." with allora I will definitely sound Italian. Or like an idiot.
---
P.S. Random picture of something that I constantly struggle with: door locks. If anyone ever wants to hide something from me, put it behind one of these bad boys.

Day 1

Today was a little... rough.

7:30am Alarm clock goes off. Jet lag is horrible. Hit snooze.
7:33 Decide to just get up. Floor is freezing! Slippers are soaking wet, probably from the monsoon last night that I thought for sure would break the glass doors in my room.
7:58 Attempt to make espresso using machine in kitchen.
7:59 Cause red light on espresso machine to blink. Red=bad. Give up on espresso.
8:03 Try to turn on hall light. Press doorbell instead. Pray roommates don't notice.
8:15 Board bus to school.
8:16 Make mental note to never stand in front of bus again. Bus driver is lunatic.
8:21 Realize I forgot to buy my ticket. Try to give money to bus driver. Hand him 2 euros. He looks at me and says something I don't understand. I tell him I don't speak italiano. He says five to me. I assume this means a ticket is five euros. Look through wallet and realize left euros at home.
8:22 Jump off bus and avoid eye contact with bus driver.
8:23 Decide to change previous mental note. Front of bus= can find my way home.
8:35 Enter apartment. Turn on light. Hit doorbell again. Rush to avoid potential angry roommates.
8:50 Back on bus, different driver. He tells me it is 1.50 euros. Want to scream. Realize I won't make it to class on time.
9:10 Can't find school. It's raining. I'm wet, tired, and cranky.
9:17 Pace street hoping to magically see school's sign.
9:20 Find sketchy street vendor home base. Turn around trying to avoid being noticed.
9:26 Call school for third time. Still don't understand what secretary is saying.
9:27 Tell myself not to cry. Call Dany for help.
9:28 Cry anyway.
9:50 Find school. Can't get door open. Completely soaked.
9:53 Secretary tells me to go use bathroom hand dryer to try to dry off before taking placement test.
10:00 Write my name on placement test. Stare at placement test.
10:01 Know nothing. Give test back to secretary.

1:00pm Decide I am happy about taking Italian lessons despite minor disaster this morning. Head back to bus station.
1:10 Can't figure out where to buy ticket. Call Dany for instructions. Find ticket machine.
1:16 Realize ticket machine is actually taxi line. Find real ticket machine.
1:18 Watch bus drive away without me.
1:30 Board bus.
1:40 End up back at bus station.
1:45 Try to find real bus. Frustrated. Decide to walk.
1:46 Realize map does not measure distance. Too frustrated with buses so decide to walk anyway.
2:05 Walk in to ghetto. Turn around. Starts raining again.
2:30 Completely lost. Want to cry. Instead keep walking.
3:07 Find two Americans just as lost as me.
3:45 Recognize apartment. Shout for joy.
3:52 Collapse from exhaustion.

I think tomorrow has to be better!