Time is Relative

We are really bad at being timely. But that is the Italian way, so it works

We just finished planning our weekend trip a few hours ago and the trip begins tomorrow morning. No worries. We actually lucked out with where we are staying and how we're taking the trip and all. It's just really funny how punctual we are NOT.

Monday night was crazy game night. We have a lot of fun with the girls we're living with. We played spoons and it was very intense. I am really hardcore about that game (a group of my friends and I even made shirts about the game in high school because we were so intense) so it caused some drama. Meredith and I share a love of espresso, too, which is terrible late at night (sorry, Mom. I had coffee after 3PM). However, we did have fun making popcorn and having a blast together staying up later than we should have.

Mere making popcorn. It was really stressful.

It was totally worth it, though, because the next day was BEACH TUESDAY. We left earlier than last time so we could have prime beach time. We all got a little burnt, though, even with our sunscreen (mine was even 50 and for babies, but oh well). We got back from the beach in time to shower, have dinner, and get pretty for the opera that night. We saw "Aida" which was sung in Italian (obviously) and was semi-difficult to follow. It was really neat seeing how universal theatre can be and I was more interested in watching the lights and set than what was actually happening, since I couldn't really understand it. For the most part, we all really enjoyed it and were very glad we were able to go. We went with the API group, so it was fun to see all our friends again.

Krista and I at the Opera. Below is the stage it was performed on.

Class was a struggle the next morning because the opera ran so late. We had gotten into bed at 2AM. Luckily, class was mainly in air conditioning with lots of stops for sitting and listening, which is usually rare. After class we made lunch and took naps. When we woke up we planned our day in Venice tomorrow and booked a hostel, which is going to be a mobile home, so that should be pretty funny. After booking, we went to our friends's apartment across the way for dinner, snacks, and games. We played mafia, which was so fun with all those new kids. A lot of them hadn't played before so it made it even more intense, I think. Dinner was great (the girls at that apartment made it for all of us!) and we had such a fantastic time hanging out in a big group. It felt a lot like home because we're all getting familiar and more comfortable with each other. When we got home we started finalizing the Florence part of this weekend and have been showering and packing ever since.

So, to update you for the next few days:

Tomorrow morning we'll take a train to Venice and we'll be there until Friday afternoon when we take another train to Florence. We will be back from Florence on Sunday later in the evening. We are using my Rick Steve's Italy 2008 guide a TON in helping us plan these trips (Thanks Cindy!) and our little Italian-English translators keep us busy on the train rides, along with journaling, sleeping, and reading books.

My hope is that we'll be staying somewhere that we can actually use our calling cards for once. The last two hotel phones have been finicky about our cards, so we shall see. Keep those fingers crossed for sure.

The title is pretty much self-explanatory. Things in Italy are really relaxed and not punctual. And, apparently, this has rubbed off on us a lot.

Hope all is well for everyone. We'll have a longer post for this weekend I am sure!

Here are grocery pictures for your viewing pleasure. We shop at ELITE.

We spend a lot of our time in the produce section. You bag it yourself and put it on a scale and press the corresponding button and it spits our a sticker with the price on it and a barcode. It is neat.

This is just part of the wine selection...it's crazy.

And this is Krista picking out cheese.