Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting...

Ciao,
Well, things are sailing somewhat smoothly now. Kind of figuring out how things work, where I live, how to get around. We’ve (my roommates & I) befriended Tony, the owner of a local restaurant called Hostaria Del Moro, who rocks and treats now treats us well. He gave us a free bottle of wine yesterday after eating dinner at his place, boo ya.
Saturday, Elton John put on a free concert in front of the Coliseum. It was quite the concert, over 100,000 people showed up from what I could make of things. Very crowded but very fun, even though he didn’t play Tiny Dancer or Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Oh well, it was free.
Sunday, we all went to this huge flee market in town. It is the biggest flee market I’ve ever seen or hear of…it took us about two hours to walk from one end to the other…and then we got lost trying to find the entrance from which we came. Only two purchases were made…a euro-plug extender for the wall socket for two Euro…and a totally rad 80’s skateboard for five Euro. Almost got a fake watch, but I couldn’t haggle the guy down to the price I wanted, need to work on my haggling skills….probably doesn’t help that I don’t speak Italian, eh?
Classes started today along with the most un-organized, overly complicated, and pathetic Drop-Add session in the history of mankind. They have a ticket dispenser that you would find in your local deli or grocer when waiting in line for your favorite choice meat from which you care to take a number and get in line. You wait for your number by looking at the digital number display at the end of the very narrow and tiney hallway in which the registrar’s office is located. It’s hot, not air-conditioned, and packed w/people. I took my number this morning at 10am (they opened at 9am) and found that I had B22…they were on A28. At noon they were at about A48, when they (and by they, I mean the single, bitchy lady who is running this whole fiasco) promptly left for their two hour siesta. I’m currently writing this back in the apt. with little to no hope of being helped today w/my scheduling needs. Why John Cabot doesn’t use electronic registration like the rest of the civilized world I haven’t the foggiest, but it would make the lives of everyone here incredibly easier…except for maybe the tech guys, but hey, that’s their job.
I’m beginning to find that this University, like most places I’ve ever worked for, been at, or attended has the organizational skills of a two day old chimp. They metaphorically fling fecal matter around in an effort to say “Hey, look at us, we’re awesome” when really, it’s just a big mess, smelly, and a bitch to clean up. Granted, it’s been like that at every school I’ve ever attended, so I’m not terribly surprised. We’ll see how things go once classes really get underway in a few weeks. For now, we’ll just hold our breath and hope all the teachers speak English well.
To try and get over this sorrow of shameful disorganization, I’ve decided to treat myself to a new pair of ridiculous European sunglasses. You know, the kind that you get beat up for wearing in the states. They’ll be my first purchase in my fight to de-tourist myself among the Italians; and though I will still blatantly be an American with my horrible accent and inability to say more than about 10 phrases, it’s a start to camouflaging myself. I also hope to find another fake watch dealer soon because my $8 Wall-mart watch isn’t exactly helping to make me look familiar with the Italian lifestyle. Next update, I’ll try to insert a picture of the shades I end up with.
Also, I’ve learned a little more about the roomies. Hakan isn’t actually a prince, his name just means Sultan when translated into English. He should have just lied about it, I wouldn’t have known any better and it would have been a cool story. Also, Lars is actually 26 years old. The reason he’s so old and still in school is because before he started college he was a professional skier for Norway for two or three years. He then was basically “drafted” by the University of Denver to ski there, really liked it there, and skied for his first two years until becoming ineligible in the eyes of NCAA due to age. He also is infatuated with golf, so we’re already making plans to hit up some Italian links and the Alps sometime.
Speaking of traveling, my current list of places I want to go/visit/do include the following (how many of these actually get accomplished is a whole other issue): This weekends rival soccer game with Rome and…well…their rival and this Sundays F1 race in northern Italy. Eventually go to Monaco, the Isle of Capri (sp?), the local beach, the southern beaches, Florence, Pizza, the Alps, Oktober fest (which apparently is in September…weird), Holland, Prague, possibly Milan, Paris & the Louve(sp?), and I’m sure there are a few others I can’t think of at the moment. So, estimating how much money and time I have to do such things, I’d say many of them won’t happen; maybe next trip to the EU.
Anyhoo, I’m going to walk to campus now, see how far I have until I can fix my schedule, and post this, since I don’t have the internet at my apartment.
Ciao,
Jon Boy