Seconda settimana. Faccio le amicizie

Tuesday morning. Hmph. Monday is finally over, and Tuesday brings a new face to the office, Giancarlo.  I am introduced to Giancarlo, who somehow was fooled by my facade that I was a real italiana, but then Francesca told him that I was American because she knew he had studied in America.  After he found that out he started speaking with me in English because he said it had been two years since he has spoken English, and his friends make fun of him if he ever says an English words, saying things like "oh you think you're american now!".  I found that kind of entertaining.

Anyways, Giancarlo proved to be quite the character, with quite the flowing hair, and the mannerisms of a nantucket prep.  He was wearing a light blue linen polo button up, khakis and sandals, blew my mind.  He explained how he went to school at Berkeley in California, did all four years there and then proceeded to work in Los Angeles for the following two years after he graduated, so he knew the english language MOLTO BENE.  We probably chatted for about an hour, me being very entertained by his stories about obtaining a californian license, about how he gets bored of every place he stays to long and about how it was hard to make friends being in a foreign place not knowing the language (like me now!).  His english was highly entertaining as he was talking like a californian with an Italian accent "you know man, shittt, I mean fuck it was like so hard getting used to it, you know and like all that shit and stuff".  I almost died. hahaha. I'm telling you, CHARACTER!  But he was very nice and said he would get Giuseppe (a coworker) to go out one night, and he would try and help me get connected with some more romans :)

I left work around ten of 5:00 and hurried to Laurentina.  The one day I wear flats to work, I'm rushing down the stairs to catch the metro I heard arriving and I slipped and fell down HARD on my butt and continued to bump down 4 or 5 marble stairs... well done.  Holding back the tears from severely bruised tailbone, I took my book out and tried to act as non chalant as possible while I waited for the next train (because I of course missed the one I was trying to get).  Mannaggia la miseria!  I thought the day was going so well! I was speaking a little more Italian in the office, meeting more people who were interested in finding me friends etc... and then I fall on my cuolo. Boo!


Back at home I had planned to go on a run to a near by villa, but since my but was in pain I decided I would lay low.  Instead I changed my clothes then headed out to fare le spese at the Sma supermercato in Piazza BOlogna.  As I stepped out of the apartment and went to cross Via Catania, ti giuro, I swear to you, I saw Lady Gaga in a short silver wig, silver lipstick, etc, riding shotgun in a small punto filled with what appeared to be a normal italian family, kids and all, that's why Gaga's appearance in the front seat took me by surprise.  Who knows if it was actually her, but she had been in Rome for the Gay Pride Parade over the weekend, and as I went to follow the car that supposedly had Gaga in it, I walked past a set of camera men packing up what appeared to have been a rather large production. Strano. molto strano.

So I guess my day was looking up!  I walked around the block then to the Sma at Bologna where I bought arugula, strachino (cheese), tomatoes, and mare blu tuna fish to fare una bella insalata for dinner. Waiting in the long line to check out I was standing behind a couple who was speaking both english and Italian, so I wondered what they were doing here in Italy.  The woman was definitely american, e' sicuro. But I finally spoke to them as we both watched the cashier to a peculiar thing. She took a bunch of paper, shoved it in a plastic tube, then put it in some tube attached to the register and sent it off somewhere. So bizarre, so I asked the english speakers if they knew what she had just done, and the man went off and asked in beautiful italian what she had done.  I wanna speak italian and english like them. Vorrei parlare le due lingue cosi' bello.  Apparently, every so often she has to send the signed receipts up to the managers office, so that is the story behind the mysterious plastic tube.


I returned home, showered then prepared my insalata around 8:30.  I caught up with my journal, looked for an Italian class to take, but apparently there are ZERO in the summer, and then got ready for bed...  Until I heard Rehem screaming, Marta! Marta! Marta! Ti giuro! Non posso crederelo! so I run to Marta's room and ask Cos'e' succeso??? And apparently Rehem had passed her biology exam!!  I didn't realize it was that big of a deal until Marta explain that she had failed the first two, and had been studying for almost 2 years to take the biology exam, and if she had not passed one exam that she took, she would have to go back to Israel because the permesso di soggiorno requires you to be studying, and an active student, and passing the exams proves that.  So Marta poured us all rum and cokes and abbiamo festegiato! We celebrated!  We chatted for a while as Rehem called everyone she knew, ecstatically happy, and she repeated it to us over and over that she couldn't believe she had past!  It was adorable.  Somehow we started talking about arab cuisine, and I mentioned my mom had made grape leaves, and she couldn't believe that an American knew what they were, so she asked me if I wanted to go steal the neighbors grape leaves with her because she knew of a vine, but none of the other italian roommates would go steal them with her, so I said why not!?  And around midnight we walked of into the night looking mischievous as we hoarded grape leaves into a plastic bag making sure no one was watching us.  Good roommate bonding going on.  It was great!


When we returned with un sacco di foglie Rehem let me go to bed because she knew I had to go to work early, and she started to prepare the leaves that she was going to make for us to eat the next day.  I was very content with how the day ended up, I was feeling more at home, and more confident in my Italian and I was excited that my roommates were interested in doing silly things with the American. haha.