Internet's a Putana

You know what I love? Not having internet in my apartment. It’s really the best thing ever.

Please note the sarcasm in the above declaration.

In theory, not having internet should be a good thing—it cuts down on major procrastination outlets, hours of mindless youtube sessions, allows one to get in touch with their inner chi, etcetera etcetera. In reality, not having internet at my apartment is possibly the most inconvenient thing that the cosmos could inflict on me. If anything, I waste more time because I am constantly contemplating what life was like before internet, or when the internet was just a baby, AOL was still the shiz, and it took me 4 hours to download one Avril Lavigne music video (by the way, I’d like those four hours of my life back, thanks). Oh, nostalgia. 

Not having internet also means that I have about seven blogs lingering in “My Documents” that are now completely out of date and irrelevant. Here’s a short recap of what I’ve been doing lately:

-My best friend Sarah came to visit me. It was her first time in Italy and we tried to fit as much as possible into a four-day period. One day we did Bologna, the next Verona, the next Venice, and the last we saved for Florence. That’s four cities in four days. It was so much fun but so exhausting, for both the body and the wallet. Now Sarah is safely back in London, and I am lounging in an internet-less kitchen.

Sarah's first gelato! Where else would be go than Sorbetteria Castiglione?

Roman arena in Verona. NBD.

Kyle, Sarah, and I on the Grand Canal in Venice!

I couldn't resist. Shladonkadonk, David!

-The weather has been a changin’. It’s significantly colder than it was a week ago—probably in the 60s. The thing is, Bologna is mad humid, so 65 degrees feels way more like 50 degrees. It’s also been raining a lot, which makes drying laundry very difficult. It also makes your socks wet through your shoes. Not the greatest sensation in the world.

-I have so. much. homework. Okay, so it’s not so much homework as it is reading, but I’m, like, 200 pages behind. This is mostly due to the fact that I couldn’t find the textbook for the class, so I only got my hands on it 2 days ago. I am not completely innocent in this situation, however… watching and rewatching episodes of Vampire Diaries hinders my academic endeavors a bit.

-Went to my first Italian house party. I was scared for my life for most of the night—in a good way, though. I felt like I was back in Madison—people from wall-to-wall in an apartment of questionable cleanliness, drinks being spilled, no one understanding anything that was being said, dancing to Gaga… the usual.

-I have a newfound obsession with couscous. It’s the greatest thing ever. EDIT: Okay, as with most of my gastronomic obsessions, I am now over couscous and totes into boiling potatoes and mashing them with a fork with unhealthy amounts of butter and salt.

-I also have been eating several bars of chocolate a week… okay, more like one a day. The fact that I still fit into my pants is an effing miracle!

-Going to Montagnola, the Friday-Saturday morning market on the other side of town, is not advisable when you are not feeling your best. It took me an hour to talk myself up to leaving the house (I had one of those ‘I am feeling off’ mornings), and within 2 minutes of me getting on the bus, I almost threw up on a seven year old. Cut to me walking around the market for 15 minutes before the heavy smokers, really cheap, obviously not cashmere “cashmere” scarves, and seriously loud crying babies drove me to get on the bus again. Fifteen horrible, horrible minutes later I arrived back at my apartment, crawled back into bed (with my shoes on… grossness), and slept for 6 more hours (on top of the 10 hours of sleep I got last night). I have a stinking feeling that I am getting sick.

-I still haven’t done my Italian history reading. It’s going to take me several hours, and I’m dreading it like a punkabestia* (heh-heh, get it? Dreading it? Like hair dreds? Heh, heh… okay, sorry, I’m done.)

-Can we please take a moment to appreciate how amazingly good the third season of the Vampire Diaries is? I mean, Mason Lockwood has been resurrected. Thank you, Julie Pleck, for answering my prayers. *Drooooool*

-When you sit in Piazza Verdi with anything that even resembles a bottle of alcohol or anything that could have alcohol in it, you will make more friends that you could possibly imagine. You will also make enemies when you don’t let said new friends have any of your Coke Zero. Liquor is one thing I’m willing to share. Coke Zero? Back the heck off, boo.

-Yeah, I should start laying off the chocolate…  just sayin.

Peace out boy/girl scouts,

L

Sunset in Venice from the Ponte di Rialto. Kinda sucks, right?

*In case I’ve never mentioned it, Punkabestia are semi-homeless young adults with really elaborate rasta dreads, bad clothing choices, and several dogs that just chill all around Bologna—mostly on Via Irnerio or Via Pietro San Borgo—looking dirty and meancing. Most of the ones I’ve met in passing, however, are very nice.

Shout Out: To the lovely Kelly Stretz, who I think may be the only person who reads this blog. Loves yah!