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| Cathy & Meg |
The worst thing this year is that our internet doesn’t work well at all! The front desk says that they’re having someone come in and look at it. Don’t they understand that for Americans (especially college aged) internet = air. Both are needed for survival :o) There are three groups of Americans here: a group of interns from Arizona State, a group of Mormons from Utah who are doing a 6-8 week trip to study dancing at different places in Italy (they are students and adults with their little kids…so cute!!), and us. So, a lot of frustrated people!!
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| The Duomo |
We were supposed to leave at about 10am, but it was raining (again) and
people needed their passports for SIM cards, and people didn't pack
umbrellas, etc. etc. At about 1015, we were ready to go :o)
I told the three girls that our travel insurance for the
trip would cover new clothes and toiletries.
As it turns out, British Airways will also do that, so they won’t need
to worry about filing through both. I
just cautioned them to keep their receipts.
They were so cute….they bought an extremely modest amount and no
toiletries. I told them that toiletries
were things they could buy too. But, I
was proud of them that they didn’t run out and buy several hundred euros of
things. They possibly could have gotten
it reimbursed, but they didn’t try to scam the system (sniff, sniff!)
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| Duomo as the sun sets |
Then went on a search for SIM cards for the phones. Alas, it's Sunday and there were no stores open. That's on the list of things to do tomorrow too. Luckily, Carrefour (the nice grocery store) was open, so we went shopping and people got some things. As per usual, our drains are clogged, so Meg & I bought some drain cleaner. I’m sure the dorms would do it, but I just don’t feel like waiting that long :o) I had cereal for lunch, yummy! It's like Cocoa Puffs, so I was very pleased, ha!
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| Judy wants to come back! |
Around 2, we all met downstairs and started our
icebreakers! Meg “loves” doing them, so
I was all excited, hahah!! I did this
last year and it was good. They kept it
kind of boring, but boring did help us to learn more about each other. Probably the funniest thing is that there
were three people watching us intently.
They sat there for about 15 minutes just watching. Didn’t say anything, didn’t ask, just
watched. It was a little unnerving at
first, but after a bit it’s like they weren’t there. Later, they asked one of the students if we
were the Dancing Mormons, haha! Well,
they didn’t call them the Dancing Mormons, that’s what we call them, but
still. They were confused because it
didn’t look like we were dancing at all (we weren’t), so they didn’t understand
how we could be the dancers (we aren't). Hahaha!!
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| Meg wants to come back! |
After that, we did a thing that I started last year. It’s where we go around the group and explain
how we deal with stress, frustration, and/or anger. I blow up and then I’m over it. But, a lot of people in this group
simmer. This gives us something to
monitor through the month, but it’s good to know. I think it helped last year too.
Then we had some downtime to get frustrated with the
internet not working. I tried to get a
little organized, some others took a nap, others read their homework (yea!!),
and others went out to explore. This
evening was the Welcome Dinner. It was
just the 20 of us. I wish more of the
Italians would join, but they don’t.
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| Pete wants to come back! |
Our stop was the Duomo.
I added in extra time so that everyone could take pictures. I knew they would want to take numerous ones,
which they did! After that, we left for
the restaurant. We got there, I told him
we had a reservation and that we were the group from GMU. He wasn’t a very happy man or he wasn’t happy
that I didn’t speak Italian fluently or whatever, but he was grumpy through the
entire dinner. He wasn’t rude, per se,
just seemed put out.
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| La Mucca always wants to come back! |
The food, however, was excellent! There was meat and grilled veggies as an
antipasti and I got wine (red and white) and water for everyone. Then, I ordered a variety of pizzas so
everyone could try something different and not just order Pizza Margherita
because they didn’t understand the menu :o)
I think this is where I disappointed or made him grumpy….because then he
didn’t have a place to put down the pizzas…it was all willy nilly when they all
needed to be served :o)
We had a large variety of pizzas and I think that almost all
of them were eaten! It was more fun
because people could recognize the toppings and then decide if they did or didn’t
want them. It was funny when people saw
what was coming and clamored to have the pizza put in front of them, haha!
For dessert, there was a sponge cake with a crème filling. Oh….it was so good! Then, they got a limoncello, which some
people did not like at all! Others got a coffee. We said our good-byes and headed out. It was getting to be a little later, and some
people wanted to have the lights of the Duomo in their pictures. Pete, Judy, Meg, & I went to see the bull
in the Galleria and to stomp on the divot.
We all did, which means we’ll come back someday! After that, Judy, Meg and I had a nightcap
and headed home. An overall successful
day!
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