in a rush, but i wanted to post a little something!

still just using internet points at the moment because the wifi still doesn't work in the school building. very annoying. not sure yet if it's worth it to set up a connection in my apartment since there's an internet point next door, and in theory once all the paperwork goes through to enroll at the university there will be free wi-fi everywhere for me!

found out today that due to a very strict reevaluation of the schengen visa policies, it's technically illegal for me to go to the united states and return to italy without my official permesso di soggiorno card. furthermore, thanks to the slowness of the italian bureacracy, i will probably never have the official card. i have the receipt, which will work within the country for all other intents and purposes. neat.

watched the inauguration on a big screen in a bar and it was inspiring. i won't lie i cried a bit. my program had a mini party which was fun, and afterwards i went to an inauguration party at laurel's apartment which was most excellent. i made some awesome italian friends, and now life seems a little less dismal here, which is nice. some of the friends are even girls! i have FEMALE italian friends who not only do not detest me, but are actually quite friendly and excellent cooks to boot!

interesting facts of the day:
-in italy they call sweet potatoes "american potatoes".
-apparently tortellini are supposed to be the shape of venus/aphrodite's bellybutton. that does not make me want to eat tortellini.
-bologna is famous for the three Ts: Torri (towers), Tortellini, and Tette (boobs). bolognese women are supposedly curvier since people "eat better" here.
-in america people say "healthy as a horse", and here they say "healthy as a fish".

see i'm learning things! this week i actually started the four week intensive orientation course, which i mentioned, and it's surprisingly exciting! we're working on vocab and grammar as always of course, but we're also focusing on the proper intonation of phrases that REAL italians would use, as well as connotations and idioms and such.

now i have to go visit one of the university libraries with my program to do who knows what. they didn't provide us with an address so i don't actually know where i'm going, yay.