Part II: Italy

I made it, without any hiccups, to Italy: the land where wine is cheaper than water, where dogs go to the bathroom on the sidewalks (and more importantly no one cleans it up), and where, once you get in the bathroom, there are directions on how to get to the toilets. The directions aren't just printed out on paper and taped to the walls, they are engrave in the tile.  And you know when you get there because behind the toilet there is a tile that says 'here' and behind the urinals the tiles say 'these are the toilets'.

The trip over was very enjoyable and worked out, basically, completely perfectly. Jeannie and I were worried about how we would get my bike back to her apartment but, to our surprise and good fortune, my bike had been left in Munich. So we went on into Bologna and bought some gelato, which was delicious, like ice cream but richer.  After gelato we went to school because, hopefully, the airline was going to ship my bike straight there. Alas, I still had to fill out a customs declaration and fax that in, which we got done the next morning (Monday).  The bike came Monday afternoon and I carried back home and put it together Tuesday, which was pretty exciting. Before I left Idaho I bought a rack for it, with the idea of Jeannie being able to ride around on the back.  Success! Jeannie had to babysit Tuesday afternoon and, thanks to my help, she got there 10 minutes early.  And I popped a wheelie once because Jeannie was sitting on the back.  Then I rode over to the grocery store to pick up some beer and eggs but, to my disappointment, it was closed. This, however, wasn't entirely unexpected because Italy celebrates Christmas on the 6th, so I tried to make it back home a new way. I did get lost, but just before I was about to turn around and go back the way I had come, I saw a familiar street sign, which led me straight to my front door. Overall the I'm very excited about bike riding in Italy. The one ride I've had so far was very enjoyable not only do I see loads of other people biking around, but some streets even have bike lanes, making the whole enterprise a lot safer than I had originally thought.

I also have some interesting things to relate about Jeannie's apartment.  1st of all, the shower is a death trap.  It is similar to a normal shower in that there is a bathtub attached to it, however, the bathtub is about 1/3 as big as a normal bath tub. It is also tiered so that about halfway from the spigot to the back of the shower there is a step. The dangerous part is that the whole thing is curved. So, its sort of like showering in a big wet bowl, with little lateral maneuverability. Everytime I have to turn my body, I wish there was a handle to grab onto, but there isn't, so I just put my palm against the wall and hope that if I lose my balance there will be enough friction between my palm and the wall to keep me from tearing down the shower curtain in a last ditch effort to prevent my fall from being a rib breaker.

Another interesting thing about Jeannie's apartment is the radiator. Basically, it sounds like a waterfall. I've lived in rooms before that had radiators and none of them sounded like this. Also, it's barely warm to the touch, although if we leave it on constantly it somehow seems to keep the room liveable. However, the combination of the waterfall like noise and the luke warm surface of the radiator lead me to believe that basically there is just hot water running through the radiator, which warms the metal, which warms the room. This seems horribly inefficient; however, I don't really know anything about radiators so if anyone does, I would welcome any knowledge you might have on the subject.