So yesterday didn't go as swimmingly as the other days did. For some reason I thought my morning class started a half hour later than it did, and once I realized that, I had to run out of the apartment with no breakfast, lunch packed, and with my hair barely brushed.
I made it just fine (a sweaty wreck, but fine) and thought I'd grab some food during my morning break. Well, no, because I ended up having to do some reading that took me my entire break and before I knew it, it was nearly time to go to my next class. My saving grace was that some students brought in leftover pizza to the student lounge from a presentation. It was kind of cold and soggy, but I was starving and even bad pizza isn't bad.
So I get done with my classes and go home, and all I want to do is sleep. But I signed up for a cooking class in someone's apartment, and I figured that I needed to go. I looked at the public transportation site to figure out how to get there, but either I read it wrong or the site was wrong because I got hopelessly lost. (I might be biased, but I'm blaming the site)
Anyway, it's cold, dark, pouring rain, and this creepy Italian guy starts harassing me. He seemed to speak English just fine but when I said "no, stop touching me", suddenly the language eluded him. (He kept trying to get me to take a taxi with him- yeah, that sounds like a great idea, strange man who is already ignoring my discomfort. Maybe you can meet my dad, Liam Neeson.) I passed by this group of girls about my age, said "oh, there's my friends", and walked with them for a block until he left me alone. The girls were confused, but when I explained, they were happy to help. Girl code is international.
(Most likely he was a pickpocket with how he kept pawing at me, but I held my purse tight and I don't keep anything in my pockets, so I'm fine)
I finally found an open place with working wifi, and google maps helpfully informed me that by the time I got to where I needed to go, the cooking class would basically be over. I decided to cut my losses, got a falafel wrap, and headed home.
The guy at the falafel place was almost nice enough to make up for the earlier creepy guy. He spoke very little English, and I spoke very little Italian, and he kept using smaller and smaller words in Italian in an effort to have a conversation with me. Then I accidentally gave him a 50 cent coin instead of a euro coin, and he had to politely explain that 50 cents was not a euro. I get the impression he thinks I'm kind of vapid, but nice enough.
So I finally go home, eat my falafel, take a shower, and go to bed. Ugh. Today I'm going to take it easy, I think. I bought all the stuff for French toast and I'm excited to make it. At least the sun is finally out.
Jennifer, CMU, 20. Spending a semester in the American University of Rome. Writer, film nerd, greek life. I'm a PR major and a broadcasting/cinematic arts minor. Taking classes about film, marketing, and the mafia during my time in Italy. Prepare for a lot of pictures of scenery and food.
