Words in English

Ahhh.  Home for the holidays.  It was so fantastic to be back Stateside for Christmas and New Year's.  I was only back for 11 days, but every single moment was perfect.  Now that I'm back in Italy I thought I would make a list of all the things I did in 11 days that I haven't done in 4 months.  

1.  Made copies of keys.  I still do not have a copy of my mailbox key (school cannot find a locksmith to make a copy) or a spare set for my apartment (I've tried, but they won't take my money or make the key of course).  In the US, I made copies of 2 different keys.  On Christmas Eve day!

2.  Watched a movie. In a theater.  In English.  "The Descendents" is fantastic and a real tearjerker just in case you were curious.

3.  Walked to an Asian restaurant.  That's right.  I walked.  Not possible in my town for anything except pizza.  I also ordered in sushi and walked to a Belgian restaurant, walked to a sandwich shop for lunch, and walked to McDonald's (for the record that is my third trip this fall/winter; 1st was for wifi in France; 2nd was for wifi and lunch in Germany).  Guess what I didn't eat.  Pizza!           

4.  Got my hair cut.  There was no negotiating or misunderstanding or drastic change.  I've been afraid to get a haircut here because they are expensive and I've learned from London and Paris, don't go to a new person without being able to communicate very clearly.  I can't do that here yet.  


5.  Bought a cell phone.  Yes, that's right.  It turns out you really do need one everywhere these days so I went to Target and bought a pay-as-you-go phone.  It worked and I even recharged it.  Ahhh!  The sweet smell of success.  I  actually thought that it might work abroad, but it doesn't.  Damn US locked phones.  It took me all of 10 minutes.   

(In any case, in an Italian phone update, I just bought a new cheapo phone for my Italian SIM card, but I still couldn't make calls.  I took it down to the electronics station at the grocery store and used my best smile to charm the guy into helping me.  It worked.  He couldn't figure it out either.  He ended up calling headquarters or something and they said I was out of credit.  He recharged it for me and when the new balance came up, I wasn't actually out of credit, but, it works now, so I'm not going to question it.  Plus, now I have a phone that charges regardless of what angle I put the charger in!)    


6. Did a load of laundry the morning I flew back.  Yes, that's right I washed and dried an entire load of laundry in under 2 hours!  My washer isn't even finished in two hours here.  Drying is out of the question.  




I did a ton of other really fun stuff and saw tons of people I really miss!  Quick highlights were:  my parents' holiday party, Christmas day, a road trip with a friend, a massage, homemade dinner and good wine with friends, a night in my old apartment with my old roomies, watching "The Good Wife,"  discovering "Damages," playing bananagrams on New Year's Eve, dinners with my cousin (at an old favorite) and a friend (at a new favorite),  and a 6-mile run with old friends.  

Finally, here is a reason to love Italy.  They sell this contraption.  Searching for shelving on amazon.it, this came up as a kitchen accessory.  I prefer to think of it as some sort of contemporary art, but whatever, it had me laughing at long last.