A day in the life of…

Time is flying by. And in light of so many maladies, you’ll be happy to know that I am still having an incredible time. I try not to think about my problems so I can enjoy the good times here. Speaking of good times…The other day some friends and I thought it would be a great idea to swim in the river surrounding Urbania (in fact…its more like a moat..). Yeah..BAD idea. First we get down there and its gorgeous. The pebbled shore line that comes off the rolling hill that you descend to get to the river, the trees and bridges arching overhead providing a whimsical shade, caves along the high walls of the city that go up 30 feet above you on both sides, fig trees branching out over the water, some rapids…very, very pretty…very, very deceiving. So me and like 5 other friends are in this water up to our knees at first, we cross over little rapids to get to small islands that are spread down the river…we get to deeper areas and my friend Jacob decides to go all in. The rest of us (thankfully) hold off on the complete submersion, until, of course, we see the waterfall. Now, it wasn’t exactly a waterfall per say...more like a cave that you swam into that had water pouring out from the obscured top..that COULD be a waterfall. Anyway, we decided to swim out to it. We played around in it, I even climbed up onto the rock the water was pouring on. It was around this time that we noticed the odd texture on the bottom of the river there and the foul smell coming from the “waterfall”. Then Josh said aloud what the rest of us were starting to conclude, “……I think we are swimming in sewage.” EWWWWWW!!!!!! Well, I’m not certain what kind of sewage it was but thank GOODNESS I didn’t put my head under that water..YUCK! Haha, I thought you all would enjoy that story.

On a different note, I wanted to share my findings on the people of Italy and Italy itself:
-restrooms are either immaculately clean (aka a person stands outside your door waiting to clean after you) or the most disgusting places you will EVER see/smell.
-no air conditioning.
-men find it completely acceptable to gawk and hit on you, staring is not an issue here.
-no one’s in much of a hurry
-EVERYONE in the town takes a 4 hour siesta (nap) every day from 12:30-around 4:30ish. So nothing is open again until after 4:30 in the afternoon.
-EVERYTHING closes at 7:30 (need something late at night?.no luck)
-there’s an honor system here (in Urbania at least..). When you order your coffee and sandwhich you can just go sit down, you can pay whenever, paying right away doesn’t happen very often.
-the transportation here is SIMPLE, and very efficient. Always on time, and cheap.
-Friendly? Depends. But with those who are willing, you make new friends fast here.
-dinner: its usually served in courses, and the salad is usually last…weird.
-the only thing available for breakfast is bread. BREAD BREAD BREAD!!!! I want me some eggs and bacon!! Not that im truly complaining however…I get a delicious pastry and the best cappuccino I’ve ever had every morning…(=
-the old men sit on the piazza (square) benches all day long and argue. The women walk their dogs, walk their babies around in strollers, and the old women sit on the opposite side of the piazza.. gossiping (=
-the old men act so young. They still gawk at girls and say “Ciao bella”. They have a very playful spirit…and its not creepy cause they are so adorable.
-there are a LOT of holidays here.
-wine is cheaper than water.
-unmarried men live at home with their parents until they are married.
-they are very conscious of water usage and electricity
-showers are small and handheld usually
-religion is very important