Segundo Giorno

The bathroom...

Oh what a day! I woke up early to see if I could change flats when reception opened at 0700. After a very one sided conversation with Paolo I gathered that someone who could help me would arrive at 0900. I emailed Raffaella at the office to let her know I would be arriving around 0930. I did my best to try and communicate in all Italian (good thing I had my dictionary next to me) and thought I did pretty well. I turned the water on in the shower and waited and waited for it to get warm but alas it did not. I decided it was best to wait and ask reception as taking a cold shower was not really an option. I checked my blackberry and received a reply from Raffaella…I must have gotten my point about being late across as she replied in all Italian. Again, thankfully I had my dictionary with me as there were a couple words I didn’t know but I am pretty sure I got the jist. I watched a couple episodes of How I Met Your Mother and Hope and Faith as I waited for 0900 to come around. It is very odd to be in a situation where you do not understand anything that is going on. Every television station is in Italian at my flat except for the occasional MTV video. I actually sat and watched the video for that stupid new Katy Parry song just because I needed to hear some English! Oh and if any one every watched Hope and Faith can someone let me know if Robert Wagner (who I think is Hope and Faith’s father) is the father of Jenny McCarthy’s baby on the show. I am not really sure what happened but now I feel the need to know!

At 0900 I went down and asked the girl if I could change flats and she said she would check and let me know. I also told her I had no hot water and she said she would send someone up soon. I went back upstairs to find an instant message from my friend Carter who many of you know is living in Hong Kong. I mentioned not having hot water and she asked if I turned on the hot water heater as that is what she had to do when she lived in Spain. Of course I was unaware that I had to turn on the hot water heater but noticed that there was a switch next to the bathroom lights that I was not sure what it did…Eureka it turned on the hot water heater. Grazie Carter! The picture is of the water heater I had to turn on with the lightswtich that is outside of the bathroom while the hot water heater is in the kitchen. Now I just had to wait for it to warm up. I decided to go in search of a farmicia in order to buy shampoo and conditioner (as mine is currently sitting on the kitchen counter in Chicago). Good thing one is located right around the corner and I fumbled my way through buying some but think I have conditioner for color treated blond hair. Oh well it is better then the alternative which was to use shower gel! Taking a shower while kneeling is pretty uncomfortable and very cold as you have no way to get your whole body under the shower head as there is no shower head just the hand held one and your arm gets pretty tired holding it above your head. After the quick shower I got dressed and got ready to head into the office. As I do not have a hair dryer yet and already felt like I was running super late I dried my hair as best as I could with a towel…which was not that well.
I got to the office in about twenty minutes. It is snowing a little here but melting as it hits the ground. You know what is super slick when it gets wet…marble! I few of the sidewalks here are marble and my balance was tested trying to walk on it. I can report there were no wipeouts on the walk here! I found the office and was quickly welcomed by everyone. Raffaella took me around and reintroduced me to everyone and it seems that people are excited to have me here…of course I am not completely sure as most of them were speaking in Italian…man do I need to get on that Rosetta Stone.

I share an office with two other girls Veronica and Elena. They are both very nice and it is very good to listen to them speak Italian all day. We went to lunch and surprise surprise I had pasta! It was perfect. Everybody pretty much speaks Italian which will help me learn it more quickly but is also exhausting as I spend so much time concentrating.
On the way home from work I stopped at the grocery store and got a few things and failed in my search for a hair dryer. I was going to go to the large grocery store but it was getting late nad I wanted to put some quality Rosetta Stone tieme in tonight. I did learn how to use the Torino version of Trip Planner on transitchicago...and I am making myself use the Italian version!

Apparently there are no bowls in the apartment so I ate my cereal from a pot…whatever works right! I thought you guys would get a kick out of the improvisation.

Dinner...