Sono stanca

1/28/15

Day 12

Today I had a class that "ends at 6:20" but I got home at like 7:10... And I live 3 minutes from school. 

Long story short, my history class took a field trip to San Miniato, which is the church on the hill right next to Piazzale Michelangiolo. We took the #13 bus up and it was great. But as my professor finished the tour, she told us she was walking down and we could come if we wanted or take the bus back down. Um what kind of question is that? It's cold and dark and I'm hungry. Meanwhile, it was 6:35 so we were already 15 minutes late getting out of class. Normally, if a class ends at 6:20, I'm home by 6:23. Today it turned out that the #12 wasn't coming for a long time so we started walking. We headed towards the Duomo since that was the only source of direction we had. I didn't get home until about 7:10- almost an hour after I should have. Unhappy. But this view made it a little bit better! 

When I finally was back in my freezing apartment, I heard something echoing up from the courtyard. That's not unusual because our apartment is made entirely of tile and masonry and has nothing to muffle the sound. But today, someone was learning to play the trumpet. Painful doesn't do it justice. As the sound bounced up to my open window, it's volume increased. A piano joined in. Someone was singing in the stairwell. A tv was on full blast in our neighbors and of course we could hear every word. But here's the thing: when we were preparing to come here, we got warned over and over that the wifi wasn't going to work as well, that the walls in old Italian buildings were too thick for the signal. (Even though this didn't end up being the case) I don't know how the "thick walls" can successfully block wifi yet conveniently the "thin walls" let all the sound through...

I also realized today that the reason I'm so cold here, (besides only having heat for 8 hours a day in the apartment) even though it's nowhere near as cold as Pittsburgh, is because I just wear sweatpants and layers of ugly wool sweaters at home. Apparently sweatpants are really really warm. Now when I get out of bed and try to look like a human, I know that I'm signing on for a day of being cold- even with my down coat zipped all the way up. I miss not caring if I make new friends because I already have enough that still talk to me even if I'm wearing a sweat groutfit. 

A lot of people talk about Pino's and I thought maybe it just got too much hype. But no! I can personally confirm that the deliciousness of Pino's is not just an urban legend- it really is as good as people say. The bad news is that after such a good lunch, I didn't feel like reverting to my usual chicken nuggets or tortellini for dinner (I have been surviving on those since they are the only two things I like and know how to make) so I ate a lot of Nutella. I'm almost to that bottom of the massive jar I just bought. Once it's gone, I am going to have to battle myself not to buy another. I've decided I need to commit more to homework and less to Nutella. Sorry but I'm breaking up with you because you make me break out :( 

This makes me sound like a brat to admit, but if we're being honest here, I came less for the study and more for the abroad. You could say I was disappointed when, because of a weird schedule this year, all my professors assigned the missing day of class to a random weekend. On top of that, there are certain activities with our program that they made mandatory and would count as unexcused absences if we didn't go. But we got a little bit of good news today that they aren't requiring the extra programs anymore which means I now have a few more weekends of travel!!!