Well, it's been a little while since I've written...this week things have been busybusybusy, so I sleep when I can, and the rest of the time I'm either in class, making lesson plans or riding on the metro/train. Tuesday night I had one of those practice teaching sessions where as the whole lesson plan is falling apart before your very eyes, you hear your mom or high school English teacher say, "Remember, this is one of those learning experiences that will help build your character." Luckily I have the chance to redeem myself this coming Tuesday, and I'm hoping that I'm a Mighty Duck champion TEFL teacher who makes the most unbelieveabe triumphant comeback...I CAN DO IT!!!!

The people I hang out with are really cool, as in, I've managed to find yet another group of friends that loves complete randomness, and is random all the time. Take for instance my friend Michelle, who as we're sitting around having a glass of wine and there's a lull in the conversation, takes the time to confess, "You know, I'm really attracted to water bottles that are bigger than my face." Hmmm, never thought about that, never realized water bottle size was based on the scale of one's face, good to know.

Five years ago, my parents and I moved to Hyde Park, into a charming and quaint little house that my Grandfather built. It's a great place, heats on a dime, but only has a bathtub. No shower, nothing. It's impossible to take a quick bath, and the past five years have been an incessant nagging to get a new shower. Here in Italy, I get to take a hose. Taking a hose means standing in the tub that does not have a plug, and holding a shower head in my hand and literally hosing myself to get clean (oh yeah, and my bathroom has a wall length mirror next to the tub...awkward.) So now I have the worst of both worlds...I can't relax in the tub, I can't stand under a constant stream of water, but I can definitely hose myself off, scha-wing. The other morning we had no hot water, and I flashed back to the days of frozen pipes in Craftsbury, and heating oil running out...brrr. I was glad for the reprieve in that case, that I wasn't standing under a 50 degree stream of water, but other than that, this hosing system sucks. Oh yeah, and this morning the bottom of our sink fell out of the wall. My roommate decided that she wondered what would happen if she turned the water on anyway, and since you can SEE THE FLOOR through the drain, the water obviously sprayed everywhere...way to go, Einstein.

A girl that I sit next to in class have silently declared that we don't like each other. She dresses very artsy, yet has an unbelievable snob factor to her. She's got an unbelievable presumptious side to her. She's lived in Italy for five months, and thinks she's God's gift to this country (newsflash, I am, duh.) Anyway (and that was a joke, for those of you who still mistakenly take me too seriously) I mentioned that the water had zero heat, and she graciously took the time to tell me that cold showers were something I would have to get used to, that because she's lived here so long, she's obviously an authority on Italian utility systems. I'm not claiming that I am, but she should really think about the fact that she's still PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN, and she can't run away from the country she came from, no matter how much she hates it, and how hard she tries. I was explaining what it meant to her to have someone tell you that something builds character..."Oh yeah, you know, like, doing all those stupid chores when you're a kid, and you're parents tell you, 'Hey kid, this is good for you, it builds character.'" She reflected for a moment and then replied, "Wow, you must have had a very strict and conservative upbringing...my parents never told me anything like that." Yeah, I guess she would say that, due to her obvious lack of character that her parents never had her build as a kid. FACT. Well, enough about this.

For those of you who have read previous posts, the woman who feels that money buys freedom was robbed blind the other night...10,000 dollars worth of stuff, gone, from her apartment. She's having a difficult time coping with having to buy freedom all over again in the form of iPods, laptops, dvds, clothes, perfume, shoes, and her electric toothbrush, which they took, which is just gross if you ask me.

Tomorrow I'm headed to see the Roma soccer team play at the Olympic Stadium, and it's going to be amazing. It'll be a good way to start of my week of grammar tests, phonetics tests (or FUNetics, as I like to call them), methodoloy tests and receiving my TEFL certificate, which I'll hopefully be taking with me to Sardinia, once I hear about the job. So here we go, wish me luck!