Whatever happened to the days when my posts were about parties and dream analysis? On the suspicion that I'm getting too serious for my own good, I will now recap my Week di Merda, first gushing that I love how Filippo and I speak Englian (or Italish?) by mixing the two languages in one sentence.
In case it's not obvious from the title, I've had a really weird week. Saturday was great, as you see in the little thumbnails below: we went for a ~40km bikeride along the Serio river, it was 26 degrees (thumbs-up for Vichy Spray SPF 15 from Shoppers Drug Mart), I fed some very sweet donkeys and saw horses grazing along the way. We actually rode on a bikes-only trail almost all the way from our house to Filippo's new job site: it takes about 1hr if you pedal at a reasonable pace.
Everything started to go downhill on Sunday: we power-washed the sundeck, and I power-washed a hole in the wall that will now have to be patched and painted over. I was trying to clean off the scum and dirt that had accumulated there over the winter, and ignored Filippo when he repeatedly told me not to... But there's more: that particular incident transpired approximately 1 hr after I locked us out of the apartment by leaving my house keys in the basket of my bike (inside the garage) and not realising it until after Filippo had pulled the door down behind him and turned the handle shut. His mom had to leave her afternoon visit with friends, drive to her house to get her spare key, then drive to ours to drop it off.
I should've known that the week to come would be difficult.
I ended up having to go to the central post office 3 times to pick up a package mom and dad sent by boat at the beginning of February --postal workers were on strike on Monday, "couldn't find" the package on Tuesday, then finally got their act together on Thursday. As an aside: F's cousin Stefania (who lives in the next building over) casually asked me whether I had received the notification of the package delivery --she apparently found it on the sidewalk outside our apartment complex, and walked over to our tower and plopped it in our mailbox. Not only did the mailman not write any pick-up information whatsoever on the delivery notification slip (!) but he was too lazy to even walk the extra 100 metres and slip it into an actual mailbox.
Tuesday I spent the entire afternoon buying our tickets to Louise's upcoming wedding in Cardiff. All transport (air plus two busses) was through low-cost first-come-first-serve companies and the price was going up before my eyes, but there was absolutely nothing I could do about it because one stupid website wouldn't work properly and I literally had to re-do the transaction 3 times from beginning to end. After much effort, I booked Bergamo to/from Luton Airport and Luton Airport to/from London Centre...but all to/from Cardiff tickets were completely sold out, and I couldn't even book the one trip that had availability because the site kept rejecting my credit card. A few minor heart attacks later, patient Louise helped me find another bus company that could take us. I had left a few harassed phone messages for Anju throughout the afternoon, and she called back yesterday asking me what the heck I was talking about: as of yesterday, the website selling tickets to/from Cardiff hadn't even posted availability for the weekend in question yet, never mind sold out of all its tickets...
I do not understand.
Anyway, things now seem to be on the upswing: I ripped open my package yesterday and was delighted to discover that my parents had slipped in an incredibly cute yellow tie-dye Old Navy t-shirt (am wearing it now). Today I made friends with the man who works at the nearby post office, which is a good person to have "on my side" if you ask me.
Tonight I had wanted to go out to a big party in Milan to celebrate the Salone del Mobile which has been going on here all week --it's arguably the biggest annual design show in the world, and there are all kinds of festivities and free exhibits to check out...but Filippo is tired and he also wants to get up early tomorrow because we're going to meet a prospective buyer for his house, and it's about a 1.5 hour drive to get there... So I'll pick him up at the train station at 6:20pm and we'll head to collect the new curtain rods, etc. that he ordered --which he plans to put up on Sunday. I'll finally get to hang the white curtains mom bought me when I was home for Christmas!
I'm disappointed to not be going into Milan for the weekend, but in the end must really be saving my pennies: Louise's Bachelorette Weekend in Nice is coming up soon, and to ensure that I can cover all related costs (rumour is we're going to the Casino Monte Carlo!), it's best to curb my spending until then.
Must run to my Italian classes now --still no word about my Residency Permit, so must keep attending for the time being. Here's hoping for a less hysterical week to come...