28 June 2014

Today is Saturday and the first day of the program!  The first order of business was getting some laundry done!  Oh my….I had nothing but fancy dresses to wear today and I was not going to do that, haha!  So on went the sports bra and t-shirt, the undies and sweat capris.  And my Birkies, of course.  I was quite un-stylish, but comfortable!

The Internet in this building leaves a lot (A LOT) to be desired!  It doesn’t always work and when it does, it is usually slow.  It is very frustrating because we’re all used to lightning quick speed (spoiled) and I worry because the entire program has things online!  Yikes!  We always make it work, but it’s interesting and frustrating!

Khafre, Courtney, & Alison trying
to get their phones to work with
the wifi in the building!

Throughout the day people arrived.  I got them settled in the best I could, while answering questions about phones, wifi, food, groceries, etc. etc.  By noon, I was exhausted, haha!!  Meg went and got me lunch.  There were some interesting language differences (an American at a Turkish kepap place in Italy trying to buy food), but she managed to get some pizza (yuck) and fries (yum!) and a drink for us both.  We’ll go back and I’ll show her the magic of kebaps!  (They spell it with a “p” at the end).

Folded laundry, tried to update the class website, and continued to answer questions.  Then, during a lull, Meg and I went over to Penny Market to buy some food and water.  I, of course, got fizzy water.  It’s like a party in your mouth :o)

By mid-afternoon, most everyone had gotten in.  Meg and I went around to all the rooms to see people and to try to get a sense of what was what.  Tried to convince people not to nap, but don’t know how successful we were, haha!  There are two, triple rooms.  One for the three guys and one with three ladies.  There was a problem with the electricity in the guy’s room, but after dinner I fixed it….they had tripped the fuses, so I reset them.  

This is a good idea
why??  Waiting in the
rain for dinner.

One of the guys was also pick-pocketed, which sucked.  Luckily, they only got money and not credit/debit cards, but still….a violation is a violation.  He had a touch day and was in very low spirits.  Three of the girls have lost luggage.  We have travel insurance through the program and I'm sure British Airways will reimburse them.  Some people got SIM cards, others still need them.  Always chaos.....

We met downstairs at 6pm to go out to try to find somewhere to eat.  When things go wrong……We left and walked up to Gemelli’s, which is closed on Saturdays?!  Who’d have thought it!  And, the other place that’s good, La Martesana, didn’t open until 7pm.  Luckily there was a gelato place next door where we could get some gelato and stand out of the pouring rain that decided to come down right then and there.  Ugh!

We ate dinner and I remembered/discovered that two other people spoke a little Italian.  It’ll help when people order :o)  We had dinner and then came back to the dorms to do a little work.  Sadly, there was no internet (ugh!), so I took a quick rinse off and went to bed.  Megan (the other one….a student’s also named Meg), let me borrow her People magazine, so I did that!  Ahhh…relaxation!!