Animal House

(the Bar da Gino owners and Allie)

(The Ai Cugnai family)

First of all, happy birthday to my cousin Brittany (if she happens to be reading this)!

The past few days have been surprisingly hectic considering I spend the majority of my time each day in the house. Today I woke up at 7 (alarm set for 8:45) and found yet another rose outside my door (the boys buy them from the street vendors on nights we go out, then give one to each room of girls)--these boys are definitely characters. Beacuse I had time, I took a long walk down to the Zattere, turned left (instead of right towards the grocery), and walked up and down a few side streets, to Salute, then back to the house. I forgot my camera, but I ended up being glad I did--sometimes it's nice to not look at everything thinking would that make a good picture and just appreciate it instead. I was one of the only people out and about except a few old men fishing in the Giudecca Canal, so I got to watch the sun rise all by myself. Soon Kayla and I are going for a quick coffee, then I'm leaving around 11:30 to catch my 12:45 train to Cinque Terre (which I will fret about until we get back Saturday night, I imagine...)

Yesterday I had to wake up at 7:30 to take a group of students to the doctor because quite a few people have both mosquito bites AND some other sort of mysterious bite that they thought was from bed bugs. Laura and Roberta (Italian ladies who "run" the house) didn't really believe the bed bug proposition and so they wanted any and all afflicted students to go to the doctor to see if he could figure out the culprit. After some serious grumbling and debating, I ended up with a group of 5 and we met Laura in Campo Santa Maria Formosa right on time (I didn't even get us lost). The doctor let us know it was fleas, not bed bugs, causing the problem and that we probably picked them up on a train (apparently flea-infested trains are a somewhat new, but rampant issue), so he prescribed a spray to kill any fleas in the house and a lotion for the students to use themselves. On top of fleas, we also have a serious ant issue and a slightly less severe mosquito issue (ergo the "Animal House" title). The rest of the day, the students had class and so first I took an accidental nap on the upstairs sofa and then had this minor epiphany that I really do want to apply to law school. So from that point (lunch time, maybe?) to when we left the house for Elizabeth's birthday dinner, I was frantically registering for the required Law School Data Assembly Service (they collect, then disseminate all your pertinent info), requesting transcripts, calling professors to ask for recommendations, and thinking about the dreaded personal statement... It's a big decision and is going to necessitate a lot of work in the coming weeks, but other than weekend trips, I don't really have any day to day obligations, so that leaves me plenty of time to give the applications the time they'll need. Cross your fingers for me...

Tuesday was a strange day...it started like always--Bar da Gino with Kayla, then bumming around while the kids were in class, but then I roped a few people in to going to Trattoria ai Cugnai with me for lunch (Allie and I went there ALL the time when we studied here and I hadn't been back yet)...we had a great time and I think the crazy old aunt and the two brothers remembered me, but since we've all usually been grabbing a quick sandwich or making food at home, sitting down for lunch was odd. Then after class, I walked alone to the train station because McKinley was napping and on my way there, I thought I ran in to someone, but no, he was intentionally touching me and it was really uncalled for and I was so shocked that I didn't know how to react, so I just kind of jogged away, but it really threw me for a loop. When I got home, it was about time for house dinner (Ana made Mexican), then the students had to watch a movie about opera for a few hours, so I caught up with friends and watched Gossip Girl. They roped me in to going out even though I knew I shouldn't and it was a really strange night out--I wasn't feeling well in the first place, so a tiny bit of a drink made me feel even worse. Then I let myself be dragged to another bar, then back to the first with a few of the girls, then we met some slightly sketchy Italians who convinced us to sit with them and bought us drinks (note that I had wanted to go home like an hour ago...). They were harmless, but called me "the serious friend," because I wasn't doing much talking (as I was so tired and not feeling great), and they got a little clingy when we said we needed to go. We couldn't even walk home in peace...we ran in to some incredibly sketchy character who Ana and Rhianna met the other day and he insisted on talking to us for probably 20 minutes and wanted to come to our house...I was relieved to finally get home and go to bed so I could put the day behind me.

Monday was probably the least eventful...the typical line up of Bar da Gino and class, then I did some travel planning with Elizabeth and McKinley (to go to the REAL San Marino next weekend), then McKinley and Kayla (to go to Slovenia the last weekend in September). We had kind of an early dinner, then went to good old Campo Santa Margherita and hung out at the typical spots (Madigan's, Cafe Blu). Shortly after I got home, Tom scared me to death breaking in to my "suite" to leave a flower outside my door (he didn't do such a hot job of being quiet)... it reminds me of some of the kids in my spring 07 group who would always buy the flowers at the end of a night out... I love that there's pretty much always something going on here because we have such an energetic, adventurous group, but it's also nice to be able to retreat to my little room under the stairs (I don't know if I already mentioned this, but one of the girls calls me HP (for Harry Potter) because I live under the stairs and so did Harry, apparently)

Now I'm just waiting to catch a vaporetto around 11:30 to head to the train station...normally I'd walk, but I think I'll save myself the intense workout this time...my "luggage" for this trip consists of a purse with the essentials that I absolutely cannot lose (my passport, the 1000 Euro in cash for the apartments we're renting, and my stuffed animals [mock me as you wish!]) and Tom's Northface backpack. I definitely am not letting myself sleep on the train (easier to get robbed that way) and I'll probably be hugging that purse to me the whole time. I couldn't do the whole rolling suitcase thing because a)Cinque Terre involves a lot of stairs, possibly to our apartment, b)we have to check out at some point Sat. morning but our train isn't until 5pm, so we have to carry whatever we packed ALL day Sat. I'm pretty impressed with how light I packed (pjs, 2 shirts, 1 pair of hiking appropriate shorts, tennis shoes, hat, toiletries. the end), but the bag still feels a bit heavy for the 30 min trek to Ferrovia.