Friday I woke up and went to the campus to take care of some school stuff. The way they register for classes is so strange. It is like the DMV. I had a problem too because they didn't understand my program. Therefore they were yelling to people at the other side of the room asking questions about me. That was a real fun experience, having a huge crowd of people staring at me because I am the strange foreigner. Not that they weren't staring at me before because I was wearing a skirt even though it is about 70 degrees out. Because apparently it is still freezing and we all need to be wearing winter coats in Italy. Loro sono pazzi! (They are crazy!) Afterwords I went to a little festival that is being held in Pavia this weekend. It is a Sicilan festival and it was amazing! They had a million cheeses and sun dried tomatoes and bread. I didn't buy anything because it is all weekend long but I think I will buy a lot because it is amazing!!! They have a lot of embroidery stands for touristy places and they will embroider your name or a phrase and cloth and this guy asked me what my name was and did it for me on a piece of paper. At first he messed up my name and but Allie instead of Kellie. But it worked out because I was with Ali...which is kind of the same. Haha. Then my friend Angelina called me and said that she was going to go to Milano. So I decided to go meet her there. But first I wanted to stop at home so I could grab my purse. Little did I know what a problem this would cause. They have recently changed the door system where I live and now you need an electronic key to get in. I didn't have my electronic key thing so I borrowed Ali's. Now we all know that I have incredibly sweaty hands. Which is not a good combination for holding things. As I was getting in the elevator the keys happened to slip out of my slippery sweaty hands. But this wasn't just any old regular drop of the keys on the ground. Just my luck, I was standing over the crack of the elevator. My hands became even sweatier as I watched the keys slide down the crack. As I heard the keys fall to the seemingly bottomless pit of the elevator I thought "Oh Fuck." Not only was I in a mess because I dropped the keys down the elevator shaft, but 1. The keys were not mine & 2. No one that spoke Italian was around so I would have to definitely try my Italian skills out. It is funny how you come to learn the words for certain things. I didn't know the word for dropped but I sure do now! I thought to myself "Ok, what vocabulary do I know that can get me through this situation?" As I was walking to the front desk I realized what a dumbass I was about to sound like, but luckily I was able to describe my situation. I told Margherita, the front desk lady, about how "I lost the keys in the elevator." She said it wasn't a problem, that they could come and get them out but I must pay 10 Euros. She asked me if my room was open and I told her yes, but that is not really the biggest problem. The problem is that the keys aren't mine, they are Ali's, his room is locked, and my keys are in his room. This is when Margherita started laughing. She said "Oh! It's not a problem for you then. He must pay the 10 Euro!" I told her that I would pay for it. But there is another problem. Ali wasn't at Golgi (where we live) but at the call center and I didn't know when he was coming back and that I was leaving to go to Milano. She said it wasn't a problem just have him stop by her desk and she will give him the keys. Then it seemed like the problem would be resolved. Unfortunately, it is important to remember that I am in Italy. It is not like America, where if you have a problem the most you will have to wait is probably a night. Oh no....we are in Italy, I think perhaps one of the least working countries known to man. So this created another problem because the key incident occurred on a Friday afternoon. I guess weekends start fairly early, say 1pm, in the afternoon and there is not really the option of weekend assistance. Thus in conclusion of this ridiculous story, we have yet to receive the keys because it is not yet Monday and the Italians never work on the weekends, therefore we have been sharing keys to enter the building for a few days now. Who knows....maybe we won't even get them until Monday evening because Italians also like to continue their weekend until about 3:30 pm. I guess they like to ease into their work week which is quite nice for them, not so nice for others.
Finally after the delay of the key incident, I made it to the train station to continue on to Milano. I went to one of the suburban train stations and took the metro because it was cheaper and more time efficient. I met up with my friends Angelina, Emilia, and Marcin. Emilia was on the hunt for a dress so the others were helping them. We all know that I am much like Becky Bloomwood, star of Confessions of a Shopaholic, so going into stores while others are shopping is like torture for me. I hung with them for a bit but then met up with my friend Lucia. Lucia was going to a museum next to the Duomo, right next to where I was. So I met with Lucia and her friend Marta. I enjoyed the museum because some of it was interactive. They had this black box that you could go in and inside where there were a ton of full length rotating mirrors and the floor was checkered green and red while strobe lights were going on. Maybe some person tripping on acid had designed it. My favorite thing though was an embroidered world map and for each country the whole country was done in their flag. It was so cool. I wish I could have one in my house! After the museum I tried to go into the Duomo to say hello to my friend Valeria that works there but they wouldn't let me in because I was wearing a skirt. It wasn't even a super short skirt! But I guess your legs down to your knees must be covered. Also your shoulders must be covered. So I didn't get a chance to say hello to Valeria. :( Next time! Afterwords Lucia and I met up with her friend Chiara, who I had met last week. Chiara was so happy because she had just found out that she was accepted to study in Paris as an exchange student. We went to Chiara's school and she said hello to a friend and then we went to Arnold's Coffee, a rip off of Starbucks. It is the only place in Italy that I have found Chai Tea though, so I was pretty excited that I could get my Chai Tea fix. Then, Angelina, Emilia & Marcin came to meet us at the coffee shop. We didn't stay for much longer. Lucia and Chiara invited me out to celebrate Chiara's acceptance to Paris, but I would have either had to sleep on the floor in Lucia's room or come home early by myself at the 12:25 a.m. train. While I would love to stay out and celebrate, it was choosing between a restless night sleep and a messed up neck all day, going home with the crazy weirdos on the train in the middle of the night, or just going home early. Option C? I think so. So then I ended up having a little party on Angelina's floor with Angelina, Eleni, Marcin, and Fabien. It was nice we just hung out and had some drinks and played a movie trivia game.
Yesterday was a nice day. I went to the Certosa di Pavia with a group of friends. There was Sarah, Marcin, Angelina, Tucge, Fabien, Visillius, Benjamin, and me. The Certosa is a famous old monastery. It was gorgeous inside. I forgot that they might not let you in also and I was stupid and wore shorts. But luckily my friend had a sweater so I tied it around my waist and buttoned it in the front. I looked super awesome. It was nice to go around there. Afterwords we walked to the little village of the Certosa. There wasn't much to be seen in the village. On the walk back though I nearly died of a heart attack. My friend Sarah and I were walking and out of nowhere this dog comes leaping towards us barking its head off. I was extremely startled and screamed like a maniac. It jumped up at the gate and was barking so loudly. Sarah is already terrified of dogs too. We grabbed each other and were screaming. Everyone that was with us got a good laugh though. Then we came back on the train. Everyone went to the center to go have a coffee. I went back to where we live to change really quickly and then met them. When I met everyone we were also joined by Clinton, one of the other Americans, and Ali. Everyone enjoyed their coffee, and I my tea for a while. Then Sarah, Ali, and I went to the Sicilian festival. Che bella!!!!! There were sun dried tomatoes, garlic, special cheese, olives, canoli, arancini (fried rice balls), and a ton of other stuff. I was in heaven!! Too bad my wallet couldn't afford it. The sun dried tomatoes cost 35 Euro/Kilo. So expensive! You would think they were tomatoes sprinkled with special anti aging fairy dust or something. The garlic was expensive as well. We wanted to cook dinner with some of the stuff from there but most of it was too expensive. I did buy some garlic though and used it in my pasta. :) It is delicious! I also bought some cheese, two canoli, an arancini, and a panzerotti, which is kind of like a calzone with cheese and tomato. All of it was worth it. Much better than the pastry I bought at the chocolate festival last week. Then Ali, Sarah, and I returned back to our apartments so we could get ready for dinner. Then we all met back up later with our friend Hassan to cook dinner. The three of them taught me how to Lebanese dance, even though Sarah is from Morocco. I was not so good at it. It was fun to learn though. :) After dinner we all went back to our apartments to go to sleep after our long day.
