Cute Mugs and Multitasking

I now have a cute mug to add to my very small collection! After our Thursday lessons and coffee/cappuccino/tea break (I’m going to start abbreviating that: CCT), she and I went on the hunt for a cute, inexpensive mug. I had been pouring my tea into plastic cups, but one cracked the other night. I think it was because of the heat. Regardless, I don’t want to crack any more cups, so I am investing in my very own mug.

Beverly and I run around Teramo trying to find a mug. All we can find are tea sets and cups and saucers. I don’t want the saucer; I just want the mug! We finally have success at a random shop that was a combination of Best Buy and Bed, Bath and Beyond. But I found a cute, relatively inexpensive polka-dotted mug. How perfect.

Beverly and I had spent the entire period running around Teramo talking about Disney movies. Which movie was our favorite. How Disney went downhill recently and Princess and the Frog was supposed to renew it. How Pixar is awesome. How we love that the classic Disney movies are essentially semi-musicals. How I thought when I was a little girl that when the Beast transforms into a man he was ugly because he had long hair (what was I thinking?! I watch now, and that man is GORGEOUS!). How Aladdin is by far the hottest Disney cartoon character.

In short, it was one of the best conversations I have had in a while. The next day, Beverly sends me a message on Facebook. “I just want you to know, I watched Mulan today.” I like this girl.

Outside of my perfect Disney realm, this online class is WAY harder than I anticipated. Friday I went to the library to do some more of my online class. It’s talking about this fancy Turing machine-thing, and uses all these mathematical equations to show how the machine works, and there is an interactive website, but I can’t figure out how to use the website let alone the machine it is trying to demonstrate. Grrr.

But, I have wireless internet now. So I give up and watch an episode of Tool Academy 3 online. I wonder if the University can track what you use the Internet to do? Because while I’m waiting for this stuff to load for my online class, I’m totally Facebook creeping and watching this show. I’m a multitasker, what can I say?

After the show ends, I try very hard to focus on this class. I just skip over the fancy mathematical material and move on to the general theory stuff. Now, this I can understand. All about communication between one person to another with a mediator (the computer) in between. Maybe that Turing machine info won’t be on the test. I just want to make a web page, dangit.

Not to mention that I brought my charger, but forgot my European adapter. So the charger is useless, meaning I only have about 20 more minutes of battery life on my computer. Guess I won’t be staying here as long as I thought.

And remember that 60-degree weather three days ago? Well, it’s snowing now. I think this weather is more bipolar than the weather in Arkansas. I am wearing a heavier jacket, but not my winter coat. When I boarded the bus in town, it was only raining. As we climb up the hill to the University, the rain turns to snow. I look at my jacket and look at the snow in disbelief. Just my luck.

So, in general, it is just not my day. But, I am meeting Rina’s daughter Giulia at the market tomorrow morning, so maybe things will turn around!

Saturday morning, I met Giulia and Rina at the market. Rina left me and her daughter to walk around, so we decided to get a book for Giulia. After that, I went shopping for fruits and vegetables. I figured out why the guy yelled at me when I went a couple of weekends ago. Giulia pointed out that there are two separate vendors right next to each other! So, I was crossing over to the other guy’s market with his competitors produce. I understand now. I won’t make the same mistake.

As we are walking through the market, I hear a “Ciao!” directed towards me from a man on a bike. It was one of the employees at the bar where we have a CCT stops! He recognized me, even with my huge red sunglasses on! How sweet…that must make me a regular! I couldn’t wait to tell Beverly.

After running around town, enjoying my first porketta panine, and getting to know Giulia, we said our goodbyes. She found me on Facebook a day later. We are going to hang out again when she comes back to Teramo. Again, another English-speaking friend who doesn’t live in my city. Oh well, perhaps I can go visit her one day.

To make my day even better, I climbed my stairs to find a package addressed to me outside of our door. From my grandparents! I opened it hurriedly, excited about my first care package in Italy. It contained M&M’s, two containers of hot chocolate mix, and a beautiful pink and purple scarf. Perfect for my spring wardrobe, since my other spring scarf is lime green!

The rest of the weekend went by normally. I didn’t do much outside of spending time on Facebook and going running. Sunday I went running, and as I was coming up the hill back to the main road, these 2 guys start yelling out there car. Really? THAT hasn’t changed either, I guess. So I roll my eyes at them and keep running. Grow up.

It didn’t get any warmer. I was liking that 60-degree weather that we had for about 2 days. And then, yesterday, it snowed all day. During the day the roads were warm, so nothing was sticking, at least. I usually love snow, but I don’t like it here. I was on my way to a free Italian lesson at the University, and the bus was PACKED. I couldn’t move, but at least that made it warm. I guess when the weather is bad, people don’t want to drive. Or the bus is usually this bad at 3:00 in the afternoon. I’ve never ridden it at that time. I’ll find out next week, I guess.

I walk into the classroom where the Italian lessons are supposed to be. These lessons are in elementary Italian, and are intended for foreign students. Best of all, they are free! So Paola suggested I go just to check it out.

There weren’t many students in the class, and from what I could tell, they already spoke great Italian. The teacher pokes her head in and asks, “Spangolo?” I thought she was referring to the nationality of the students, so I just sat back and didn’t say anything. In a matter of 5 minutes into the class, I realize I am in the wrong class. This is a Spanish class for Italian students! Oh no.

It was too late to go to the other class. And I didn’t know how to explain in Italian to the teacher how I got mixed up. So what did I do? I pretended to be Italian and sat through the 2-hour Spanish class. Thank goodness I already know a little bit of Spanish.

I must say, I think I was pretty convincing. At least, the teacher never questioned why I was there. After class, however, I pitched the worksheets and decided to check on the classroom when I got home. I’m not going back to that class. I need help with Italian, not Spanish. Although, I did learn a few things. They teach Spain-Spanish over here, not Mexico-Spanish. Things are pronounced differently, and quite frankly, I like Mexico-Spanish better. We’ll say that’s another reason I don’t intend on returning.

Coming back from my unintentional Spanish lesson, I nearly bust it on the nearly 2 inches of slush that have collected. And I think my toes have suffered frostbite. Okay, that is an exaggeration, but I couldn’t feel them when I finally got back to my apartment. I was going to go grocery shopping that night, but I didn’t consider it worth it to slowly ease across the slush, freeze my toes again, and fight the snow. So I snacked on rolls for dinner. Not the healthiest meal, but I was at the point of not caring.

And this morning, I wake up ready to fight the snow and go grocery shopping. But when I pull up the blinds, the window feels warm. What is this? I look outside, and all snow on the streets is disappeared. It was like it never happened! I check weather.com. 50 degrees? Biopolar weather. I’m convinced. Well, at least I can do my grocery shopping today and not risk falling on my rear. Perhaps this 50-degrees will turn to 60-degrees and 70-degrees soon. I can only pray.