Good Morning, Sunshine.

Oh I miss home. I know, it's been a week, and I'm a wimp and lame for missing home. But I do and there's nothing you can do about it.

Since getting the internet up and running, I've had more contact with people. This is due to the fact that I can now be on AIM at a normal hour for you people. Silly things, being six hours behind... But anyway, I've been in contact with more people and I realize I have less and less to say over the span of time. I do pretty much the same thing every day here, so when asked "How's Italy???" I basically have nothing to say:

"Well, it was sunny today, and there's some good weather coming in... and... um... we learned about pronoun dependent verbs... and... uh... I saw a pigeon."

Yes, it is lovely here. Yes, I do enjoy it. No, we do not in fact go out every night because Yes, I am, in fact, 85 at heart and enjoy going to bed at 10 pm. I'm a lady who enjoys her sleep. Also, we've been everywhere there is to go practically in this town, I think there are only a couple of pubs that we haven't invaded with our American Presence.

And the American Presidential election is all over the news here. (Thought process: presence sounds like present sounds like president PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION). Franco asked me about the presidential election and who I wanted to win and how it worked and everything the other day and I stumbled through it as best as I could. Honestly, I don't start doing my research until August, tops, and I probably couldn't hold an intelligent conversation in English much less Italian. As I was tripping over words he was looking at me strangely, and when I finished with an exasperated sigh he asked me, "Quando stai fuori della classe, che lingua parli?" (outside of class what do you speak) I didn't understand the point of the question, I was still furiously embarassed about the debacle of a conversation we'd just had. "Che?" I said. He repeated it again, slower. I still didn't understand why he wanted to know. "Parlo itliano alla scuola, ma quando sono con gli altri studenti parlo inglese." (I speak Italian in class, but when with the other students I speak English) He gave me a knowing look and nodded his head, "Si, pensavo che si perche tu non parli l'italiano bene." (I thought so because you don't speak Italian well). I was mortified, it was like a slap in the face. First you ask me about a subject I don't know anything about, and then criticize me when I don't know the words in a foreign language? What kind of crap is that? It's not like when we sit in Italian class they say "Oh, here's all the words for everything you may ever need to talk about in Italy, including the specific terms for the presidential election, the candidates' occupations, how to state their opinions and if you agree with them, and here is how to explain the electoral college." These are things I never thought I would encounter.

Oh well, we're off to Florence for the afternoon, I'll post a less whiny entry at a later date.

Ciao, a presto.