What is your life when...

This is a phrase that we utter A LOT...it is usually more like, "what is my life....".  However, you get the point.  I cannot tell you how many times I have thought this or uttered this phrase!  But really, what is my life right now?!?!? I live in Italy!  This is something I always wanted to do, and here I am...doing it!  How incredible is that?!?!?  That being said, I intend to live the rest of my life saying, "what is my life right now??"  I intend to live this way, because I intend for each phase of my life to be exciting, no matter how challenging it may be! 

Today was a weird and wonderful day! It started with going to school.  I walked and it was a nice walk!  I really do enjoying taking those 25-30 minutes to walk to school.  When I got to school though, I was sweating and my congestion was getting the better of me.  Virginia was in the middle of giving a speech in Italian when I arrived in class.  Then she came to me and said that someone called her yesterday and was cussing her out, and she KNOWS it was a student, and she intends to call someone to get the private number.  She then started telling me about some other stuff going on.  Then she noticed that I was not feeling well, and started asking questions about fevers, the flu, etc.  She started checking my pulse, but I had to explain that I was sweaty from walking to school.  Anyway, she called Franco to ask about medicine for my congestion, and then she sent me to the lab to wait about an hour before the students joined me.

Therefore, I took this time to talk to Nick, who had not started work yet.  I also took this time to mark things off of my to-do list.  When the students did join me, I had them do their presentations about New York, but naturally, most of them had not done it.   However, the ones who did the work did a great job.  When class was over, I walked them back to the classroom, and Virginia insisted on getting me a cappuccino and cornetto, and of course I was grateful.  I went back to the computer lab to work.

A student brought my delicious cornetto con ciocolato e cappuccino.  I worked on lesson plans, blogs, emails, etc. etc. for about an hour or so, and then Nick was finished teaching so he called me.  The internet lasted approximately 20 more minutes and then cut out on me.  I was so frustrated that I just went to give Virginia the key back and then went to the other building to wait.  I sat in the teacher's room and waited.

WHen the bell rang I went to Angelino's class.  The principal lady came and got him though, so he left me with the book and told me to do some exercises.  Inside I was laughing and thinking, "haha...yeah right Angelino!  You know better than that..."  So, she made him leave me there alone.  I bargained with them that if they would do the first exercises, then they could talk the rest of the time.  I have DEFINITELY learned how to pick my battles around this joint...and this class is NOT one that I want to battle.   I was just anxious for this class to be over with!  Nick was texting me the whole time....he was going to the tabacco shop to pay his internet bill....yes, this is how it is done in Italy...go figure!  Buonasera tutti!

When the bell rand Angelino was still missing, so I gave his book to one of the hallway ladies and headed to the bus.  I called Nick and he told me his funny story about paying his bill at the tabaccheria.  The machines were acting strange and it went through that he paid when he really hadn't.  Then the people told him that he could just come back tomorrow and actually pay it...that's trust.  They made a copy of his drivers' license because they felt bad wanting to keep his actual one!  So, only an honest Nick...a dishonest person would have gotten off with not paying the bill at all!  The story was much funnier when he told it, but it was DEFINITELY one of those, "only in Italy moments!" 

I stopped at the grocery store on my way home and got enough to last me the rest of the week; well, I'll have to get turkey at some point.  I also stopped at the fruit/veggie people and got some things.  Then I headed home to eat my lunch.  I talked to my momma and then went to my room to work on things and talk to Nick.

Later I decided that I wanted to go out for a walk.  I was just intending to walk down to the river and back, but I was distracted by the big grocery store.  Nick had been at the grocery store earlier agonizing over which wine to buy for his "collection".  He was contemplating some on sale, etc.  He said that he needs to have enough for when Erin/Meagan come, the Cheri, in general, etc.  I decided that I wanted to go check out the wines even though I knew I would have to buy some for when Meagan and Erin come anyway.  So, I was walking towards the store when I heard someone say, "buonasera" in my general direction, but did not know if they were talking to me or not.  When I looked back over my shoulder it was MASSIMO...that's right, Massimo...the creeper from the hotel!  Thankfully I was on the phone with Nick, and it was not really as if I had been ignoring him because it was not until I looked back that I knew it was him.  Whatever...he didn't pursue the greeting any further, so I kept on walking into the store.  Once inside I saw that they had some colombe on sale for 99 cents, which meant that I HAD to buy one for Meagan and Erin to try!  You cannot pass up something that is typically like 5 euros, but is now 99 cents!  Then I went to the wines and started joking with Nick about how I looked like a sad single girl with my whole colomba and standing in front of the wine...alllll alone!  We got a good laugh out of it, and then I started trying to pick out a wine!  I had missed all of the bottles of the one that was on sale, but I started looking at all the others.  Nick and I decided that we would each have some wine tonight, and if we did it over Skype, then it was not REALLY drinking alone...it was drinking alone over Skype! This totally makes a difference, right?!?!?  Then I created a challenge for myself to find a local wine under 3 euros for tonight, knowing that next week I would SPLURGE and get my fave local wine for Erin and Meagan.  Shhhh dont tell them, but it only costs like 3.49 or something!  I know...a huge splurge!  However, it is a really good wine!  So, I finally picked out a local wine and headed towards the registers.  Then I saw that they had pastas on sale, so I bought a new kind of pasta.  This whole time I was talking and laughing with Nick, which makes everything that much more fun!

I started my walk home, and I took my usual route down the Corso.  I saw a few students I think, and just enjoyed people watching.  I had been out walking for about an hour; one of my favorite things about living in Italy is all of the walking that I get to do.

When I got home I waited a bit before cooking.  As I took everything into the kitchen to get ready to cook, roommates started coming home.  Sofia had gone home for the weekend, and other girl has been gone for like 3 weeks.  I can't wait to live in a 1 bedroom apartment and not worry about roommates....ahhhhh...that will be so nice!  Anyway, so I had my veggies all cut up and ready to put in the pan when I decided I wanted to open my wine.  I also had the chicken laying out.  It was only then that I realized I had broken the cheap wine opener back when Christy was here, and had nothing to open the wine with at the moment.  I was so frustrated...of all days that I wanted to just have the glass of wine.  So, I live in Italy right?  Therefore, the store down the street (Chinese store...their phrase, not mine) has wine openers.  I left all of my food out on the table and ran down to get an opener! What is your life when the biggest stressor of your day is not having a bottle opener for your bottle of wine?  I mean really! I had trouble finding them in the store at first, but then I spotted it, grabbed one, and paid. 

I came back and put my veggies on the eye of the stove to start cooking and I started opening the wine.  It seemed to be way more difficult than it should be.  I tried to pull it out, and the cork did not come out all the way.  So, I thought, well, I'll try this again, only to discover that the metal screw had broken in half....where was 1/2??? IN THE WINE CORK!  I was on skype with Nick and so he got to see how frustrated and annoyed I was.  I tried sawing the cork off to try and pull it out, but this did not work!  Nick started insisting that I go back to the store with the wine bottle, broken cork, and a wine stopper.  I was insistent at first that this would NOT work because it was not a wine store, and how my knee was hurting and so I did not want to go up and down the 5 flights of stairs again.  However, his logic won out, and I headed back out with bottle, opener, and stopper in hand.  I made Nick teach me what I would have to say, and he did, but he kept saying that I could probably just show them.  I was also nervous because this was one of the few times that they had not given me a receipt.  I had Nick on the phone in my pocket just in case I needed help.  I walked in, showed them the situation and they immediately went to work.  Another guy came over out of curiosity, and thankfully they DID remember me; my Americanness and green jacket probably helped me out!  They were AH-MAZED at the situation.  The guy immediately got some pliers and got the metal out, went to get a new opener, and opened the bottle for me!  They also replaced my opener, no questions asked!  I was amazed, and they were SHOCKED when I pulled out the wine stopper to keep the wine from spilling or anything as I walked.  I don't think they expected me to be so prepared.  I was so grateful for them and their handiness.  So, now I ask this question: Where do you live when you just walk down the street and the man looks at what is in your hands and immediately comes up with a solution (with very little spoken language going on because neither of you are native speakers in the place you live)??  I mean really! **

I told Nick, "this is what I get for wanting to drink alone...over skype!"  He was having wine tonight too! :) So I came back home, and felt kind of like a loser walking down the street with my open bottle of wine and new opener in my hand.  I did get a few strange looks.  Nick said that I just needed my colomba to complete my lonely, living alone image.  Unfortunately I do not have any pics of this whole incident. 

I came home to an email about the job in Richmond.  Nick was so proud that he told April before I could.  We "shared our wine" via skype.  I made a wonderful dinner of veggies and chicken with this new cheese I tried (provolone piccante), which was not spicy at all.  It was a really stout cheese, but good! I ate dinner, had 2 glasses of wine with dinner, talked to my momma, talked to April on facebook for a bit.  I wrote some blogs, but was not feeling like doing much else, so I went to bed!