In These Weeks

It has been nearly one month since I landed on this peninsula (it is a peninsula, isn't it?). The weather is cold, the sky is always gray, and the coffee is always good. Nobody looks twice in my house if I eat pizza morning noon and night. I can't imagine a better scenario.

I have, in these weeks, moved into an apartment on Via Marconi, a wonderful bustling neighborhood in the newer part of the city. Newer because the old part that existed here was destroyed in world war two. Is that a proper noun? I live on the 6th floor, the 6th Italian floor, the 7th American. There's an elevator.

I made the obligatory trip to Ikea and himmed and hawed over whether or not to go with the polyester or the down comforter. It snowed on Tuesday so I couldn't be happier I went with the down. My room resembles an updated, twin-sized version of my room in Santa Barbara. I stash cookies in my desk so I can eat them while I study in bed, an action I do in the utmost of secrecy, afraid of the watchful eye of my roommates. It's not the fact that I want the cookies near so I could eat them at any hour of day, its the eating in bed part, something I consider integral to my existence on this earth.

These girls, all Italian are simply wonderful. The best, in fact. We have nothing but fun and they correct every mistake I make in my bumbling Italian. Though this may sound irritating, it is not. Almost 2 weeks in this house and I've improved infinitely. Ironically, this was the first, and nearly only, house I came to see before deciding on it. This can be nothing but fate. I had at first turned it down because of the price, but all parties involved knew that we were destined to be together and they asked their landlord to lower the rent. (LOWER the rent? Only in Italy could such a preposterous thing occur. )

So here I am, tumbler of red wine and notebooks spread wide, cookie crumbs lying about, blogging. I have no complaints, not even about the cold. I am quite convinced that spring will come sometime soon, and I will eagerly await it here.