Back to a hectic (haha, just kidding) week of "classes." I have never had such free-spirited professors before. I'm working on a project right now for my Society of the Catholic Church in Italy class, and it says three different things on the syllabus about how long it is supposed to be, what percentage of our grade it is, etc. My International Marketing professor also told us that our project could be "Whatever you want it to be! If you like to write, then write. If not, then make a PowerPoint. Anything you want." Okay, funny little Italian man, PowerPoint it is. The only thing remotely stressful about these classes is that they each take up 2.5 hours of my day, and I can't get to Marcato Centrale in time on Mondays or Tuesdays. Such a tough life I lead.
Last night, my roommates and I went to see La Dolce Vita. They had a free showing for Valentine's Day with English subtitles. Surprisingly, Valentine's day is incredibly downplayed in Italy. My boyfriend this year was a nice 1 euro cone of nutela flavored gelato. He's too good to me. Anyway, La Dolce Vita was one of the strangest movies I've ever seen. I was expecting some classic Italian romance, but it was very unromantic (and not to mention, 3 hours long) so I slept through the second half of it. We decided to drink wine around the dining room table instead of going out. My wallet can't handle all of these 5 euro cocktails, and I'm completely convinced that every Italian wants to break into my apartment and steal my stuff, so I don't even try to get free drinks from the creepers.
Now, onto the topic of this post: Always carry cash in Europe. Yesterday, I learned that lesson. I came back from Siena with only 7 euro in my wallet, which I spent Saturday night on a margarita. I then went grocery shopping with the 20 euro I had saved in my room over the weekend. So, it's Monday afternoon and I am off to class with nothing but credit cards. My class got out early, and I actually had time to eat lunch, so I stopped at a cafe and got a panini. I got up to pay after already eating the panini (which was delicious by the way: pesto, fresh mozz, artichokes, lettuce, cucumber) and handed the woman my credit card and she said "No." Whoops. I said "me dispiace" a million times and told her I would run to the ATM. At this point I have 15 minutes until my next class on the opposite side of the city. During my mad dash to the bank, I realized that I have a brand new debit card with a brand new pin number, which of course, I do not have memorized. So then I run back in the direction of the cafe, go into one of the school buildings to use the wireless, and find my pin number. Then I run back out the door and to the bank, get my money, and realize my class starts in five minutes. At this point, the lady thinks I dined and ditched. I went to class a hot, sweaty mess, and 2.5 hours later went back to the cafe with cash. The lady I had talked to wasn't there!! I felt so terrible. I went up to the other lady at the counter and told her I got a panini, paid, and left. I figured you can never have too much good karma. Lesson of the week: always carry cash in Europe.
Two more days of classes (food & wine pairing and Italian, so difficult) and then it's off to Rome with my roommates to meet up with Jenn! I'll post again after my next adventure.
Ciao!
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