A Long Week

A Long Week
In some ways, it feels like this week has been forever and a day long, and yet, it seems to have flown by. I think this is going to be a long post; so prepare yourself.

First and foremost, I started school this week. Every day, I wake up at 6am to get ready, eat breakfast and be out the door in time to catch the 7:10am bus. This puts me into Siena about an hour and ten minutes before class starts. I have absolutely nothing to do, and mostly I just wander the main streets, looking in shop windows, and finding my way around the city. Please do not forget that it is still cold in the morning here, usually somewhere in the low thirties, and so I think my face has become pretty wind burned this week. Friday, it was just too windy. The wind speed was something like 25mph, and so I just waited for the school to open and sat in the stairwell. Class has been wonderful. I am learning tons and tons of new words, and even though I have not memorized them all yet, I will have plenty of time to do so after class ends. I am reviewing a lot of the grammar I had forgotten about, and so I feel like this was a good use of my money. I really like my teacher, and I think I will be sad when classes finish. The school is located right off of one of the main piazzas in Siena, where the big post office sits. Everything you could ever want seems to be in, or right off of, this square. For example, the city supermarket, Conad, is stocked with goodies you just cannot find in Castelnuovo. Like, for example, dried apricots. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw the little pack. I do not even look at the price, I know I want them, and I buy them. I have been searching high and low for dried apricots after I ran through the supply mom sent with me. All I ever succeeded in finding was raisins… Well, at least now I know where to get my fix. Also, I learned from my professor the other day that Italy does in fact know what sour cream is. They call it “panna acida”, or acidic cream. No one really eats it here, and my teacher says not only is it hard to find, but also, if you do find it, most likely you will have only one option. No fat free Daisy here I guess. I have also located the place to buy my Clinique stuff, I found a paper store that happened to sell cork boards, and bought one instantly for my room (YAY!) so now I can display all of the post cards and photos people send to me.

Wednesdays are the best day because that is the day of the market. When I arrive in Siena at 8am, the market is already in full swing, so I can spend my hour browsing the stalls for this and that. Last week I bought some more “parafreddo”, which I can only describe as a type of removable caulk. It is very thick, thin strips of foam that is ultra sticky on one side. They are made to stick on the inside of your window to make them more airtight. I did this with the big window, the one where the crooked curtain hangs, because I felt it was leaking the most air, only to find that the window over the sink was in even worse shape. At first, I thought I could buy some caulk and caulk the cracks of the window closed, but after messing with the big blue curtain this morning, I noticed that there is a sizable gap between the window and the frame that you just could not fill with caulk. I think what I am going to do is take down the curtains, wash them, and then put them back up on the wall but in such a way that they actually cover the open area of the window. Maybe this will help. I do not know what I am going to do, but I am certainly going to need to figure it out before summer hits because the gap is certainly big enough for a bee or wasp to fly in and out of. If worst come to worst, I might just stuff some fabric down into the gaps! I cannot use duct tape, because Pam says it takes the paint off the wall (oh what a tragedy!)

Well, while we are on the subject of windows. I think I am just going to break down and buy some new fabric for them. First of all, both of the curtains are dirty dirty dirty. I do not think they have ever been washed; second, they are not all that nice. I am going to try to look up how to make curtains by hand on the internet to see if I can easily sew together some curtains. I figure they cannot look much worse that these do. However, for the curtains over the sink will have to be nailed to the wall, like they are now. The only difference I am going to make is I am going to nail them directly above the window, so I can hopefully make the place a little more airtight. I go back and forth on this. I do not know if I want to put the time and money into making curtains by hand, buying the fabric, etc. But, it is going to get cold here again before I leave, and I am going to have to do something I think. It is better since I arrived, but some more things could be done. Of course, there is no hope for the window in the bathroom. All I can do is try to keep the window closed, since the walls on either side of it are angled, and there is no way to even nail a curtain up since the window goes all the way up the wall. Well, anyway. I might get bored with the whole sewing curtains by hand bit, but for now it seems like a plan.

French lessons are also going well. I told you all I started taking French lessons via Skype right? Well, they are going pretty well. I actually have one today in a few hours, so I guess I should be studying, but I really wanted to upload to my blog, so here I am. Right now, I am learning how to count to one hundred, which is actually rather complicated in French. Like to say “80”, in French it is “40, 40”, or to say “90” it is “sixty, twenty, ten”, crazy I know. Of course, when Pam asked me how things were going in French, and I was trying to tell her some of the numbers I had learned just yesterday. I made a mistake and Sam was quick to jump in tell me, “No Casey, you are wrong it is ….blah blah blah”. Ass. I really do not like him. I think he is quite rude most of the time, and too old to do anything other than plop his butt down in front of the computer all day and check email. I mean, how much effort does it take to shoot down a beginning language student? None, that’s how much. It’s like taking candy from a baby. So, I said, as Sam was still rambling on about French numbers, “wow, thanks for shooting me down”. Everyone at the table laughed, except Sam, who continued trying to demonstrate how smart he was to everyone else. He may have a PhD in Renaissance art, but he is an Ass who will not set up my wireless internet!

Well, what can I say? I like it much better when the two of them are gone. I mean, the house is so messy, but I try not to be over there too much. The only plus is that I can get on the wireless over there, so I always eventually make my way over to the big house. Well, only one more week, and then they will be gone on tour, and then directly after that, I am leaving for England. Then I come back, and they are gone again. I think things will work out okay, and time is going to start flying by even faster than it is now. I have already started looking for work for next year. I was really thinking I wanted to come back to Italy or go to France, but I do not know what will happen. I know that what I am looking for now is a job that will pay enough for me to find my own apartment so I do not have to live in a barn. Actually, if I wanted, I could go to Prague or Russia for a pretty good deal. In Prague, they do not pay for your housing, but you get a thousand dollars a week for 25 hours of work, and so I am sure I could find a decent place on that kind of salary. Also, in Russia they pay for the whole kit and caboodle. They pay for a whole winter wardrobe. I am sure you would need it! They pay for your housing, your flight over, they take care of getting your visa, and you get free Russian classes as well as 1000 dollars a week on top of all this. Of course, this means you would be living in Russia, so I think it would be pretty freaking cold, but if you had modern living conditions, I do not think the cold would be such a problem. Well, these are just the things I have found so far. I would also like to try getting on with an American company in Europe as well. I do not really know what I am going to end up doing, but I am glad I started looking now. What with the economy in the shape it is in, I guess you just have to get a head start on everything.

Finally, I have to tell you about the Waxer from hell. Okay, so I know this is probably TIM (too much information), but I have to tell you so you understand the story. See, I have not shaved my legs since I have been in Italy. Mostly it has been so cold, and I just did not see the point. Well, thought I might just go and have it waxed so I did not have to fool with hours in the shower shaving. There was an ad posted on the board at my school for a nail salon/waxing place, which gave discounts to students. Well, I decided to make my way over to the place after school on Friday to check out the prices and the facility. I finally found the place; it was almost hidden down this angled hallway off of the main streets of the city. When I walked in, it was small and cramped, and all of the ladies immediately stopped and stared at me. I said, in my broken Italian, that I had seen their paper at Scuola Leonardo, and was wondering if they had a price list I could look at. One of the women said, “no, come with me”. I followed her, and she said “ok, there is no price list; I just have to tell you. What do you want?” I told her I wanted to do my legs and she said “ok, 26 euros. When do you want to come. Today at 3pm.” This was not a question. I told her no, that three was not good for me. Then she flipped the page, “Monday at 3pm”, no I could not do that either. The telephone rang and she answered it, telling her friend to hold on. “Tuesday at 3pm”. “No, I cannot do three”, she let out a very loud, exasperated sigh. I asked her if I could come around noon, and she said they were closed. She seemed very upset with me, so I just told her I would come back. She made a slight attempt to stop me, but when I told her again, that I would just come back, so said “fine” and turned to talk to her friend on the phone, someone clearly more important than I was. Well, after that I just thought, ‘oh hell, I will just shave my legs and for Christmas this year I am giving myself laser hair removal.’ And that is exactly what I am going to do.

It is funny how most people think of Italians as these really jolly people ready to invite you into their homes to have dinner and talk about this and that. I guess some small group of Italians made a really good impression on the world, because this seems to be the stereotype all over the world. And yet, I think the Italians are not nearly as friendly or courteous as the people I know back home. Men shove in front of old women to get on the bus, people are just downright rude to foreigners half the time, and I can see how, if you do not speak the language, you could be very overwhelmed by the people and the country almost immediately. It is funny because as a foreigner, I always expect people to be especially nice to me. I mean, I certainly am to every foreigner I meet, but here, it is just not that way. I cannot understand why people are rude to foreigners and tourists. These people keep the economy going when times get rough, but I guess to each his own.