Let's Try... Free Ketchup!

Federica and I went to see Città Alta today! It was a really cool trip and I saw some really neat things I've never seen before, and some really sentimental things I remember seeing before. In the first category, Kika took me to what was basically a Natural History museum, except I guess it was not just history, but "contemporary" too. They had animals of every kind imaginable- REAL ones! Real, dead ones... embalmed, I think it's called? Preserved anyway. The animals were already dead when they preseved them, by the way; that made me feel better. It was pretty creepy, but at the same time, it was absolutely fantastic because there really was every kind of creature imaginable, from a girraff to hundreds of different birds, including the HUGE kind of eagles that we have in the zoo, that are probably as tall as Kenneth, and have little beards like a Chinese man from a fairytale or something. And guess what kind of bird I happened to see!? -a KIWI!!! haha, I got so excited! I took a picture, so sorry I can't show you, but just imagine it. Better yet just look up a Kiwi bird on google. I think it's pretty amusing. By the way, I hope that you still like reading my blog even though I can't put up any pictures. It seems more boring to me- personally, I would be pretty dissapointed not to get to look at pictures. I might even consider not reading all of those words without cool pictures to look at...but that's just me.

The T.V. is on in the livingroom and I just heard an old folksong that I used to listen to on these folk CDs that my dad bought. It goes something like, "If I had a hammer, i would hammer in the morning, all day long..." It was really sweet to hear.

Stefano thinks that my DVDs won't work in America because they are a different kind of disk and there is a regional limit, and now I think I remember Rachel's mom telling me that when Andrew, Rose, and I ran into her and Rachel in the mall and they told me that I should bring Wall-E... and a DVD player, and a converter, and possibly a surround-sound system, just for the full effect. So much for "Night at the Museum" and "Flushed Away." I e-mailed my Italian teacher just to check to see if she had any idea, though. Thankfully I found the reciept because for a while I thought I had lost it.

We went to a little Chinese store today where clothes are cheap and I bought two plain 5 Euro T-shirts, a 5 Euro pair of shorts, 2, 2 Euro pairs of Chinese underwear, and thankfully, a very nice swimmingsuit for 9 Euros (which is a cheaper and prettier swimsuit than I had luck finding in America before I left, so I'm very glad about that).

It has been HOT today. Hot, hot, hot. Maybe even as hot as it is in Albuquerque, or California. I really don't know because I don't really have any idea how hot it is here, much less in Albuquerque or California. It's been raining a little bit every day for probably about three days now, so it's very humid, also kind of like Albuquerque when it rains, I guess. This made it very difficult for me while trying on clothes in the Chinese store. It was pretty sad for me, but I'm thankful I found some basic clothes that will work at the sea. Sorry, I guess I haven't remembered to tell anyone- or maybe I already said it, I can't remember (that's why I forgot to tell you the first time: because I assumed I had already said it), but on Thursday we are going to go to Sardegna, the island to the west- yes, I have already written this sentence; I remember now. Well, we will drive the car onto a ferry that will take us to Sardegna, where we will stay in a house we will rent, for two weeks and about three days (17 or 18 days)! Tomorrow I am going to go return one of my DVDs (Flushed Away), incase it really doesn't work, and since Federica thinks I will only be able to do an exchange, even though I have the reciept, I might buy some chocolate and sunscreen. Definitely the sunscreen. Too bad they don't have SPF 50 here. They care about tans too much for sunscreen like that.

I guess it was kind of a hard day for me because seeing Città Alta without my family was pretty sad. Because it remembered it better than pretty much anthing else in Italy (from my first trip), I was extremely nostalgic and rather sad. It was so wonderful, though, still, to see that belltower again. When the bell rang for 11 o'clock I walked outside the doors of the huge, ancient library we were in, and looked up at the bell (campanelle), and smiled at the memmory of Melanie, my Mom, and I all screaming and covering our ears when suddenly the bell began to ring WHILE WE WERE UNDER IT! Hahaha, we were so silly :) We also walked around two of the churches behind the main square. I actually remembered these two. From the outside they look beautiful, impressive, tall...but you would still never expect the astonishing ornateness of the indescribably incredible interiors! Walking inside the doors, I ghasped each time to see the rising domes covered in gold sculptures and countless paintings. The black and white checkered marble floors extended out into little alcoves and led to marble staircases that led off to other rooms. Staircases and doorways- especially when they're made of stone or marbel like that- always arise a great curiosity in me, as if I were a little kid in an old house that needed to be explored. I loved the sound of my footsteps on the floor, the quiet presence of my rubber-soled sneakers in the silent place. Mostly silent. You could still hear cars and people from outside, even through the three-inch-thick wooden doors. In one of the cathedrals, there was a recording playing of a men's choir singing slow, medatative songs in Latin. It echoed mysteriously through the grand hall of gold, marbel, candles, crosses, and statues of saints and Mary. It took my breath away and caused me to realize that the music in that place, in that instant, held just as influential a key to the PLACE as did the incredible architecture or renouned artwork. Music gave it its identity, and it also drew me into its time, or rather its timelessness. In this particular hall, there was a dome encircled with tall rectangular windows. From one of these windows, a single patch of warm, golden light fell to the black and white marbel floor just behind a set of dark, wooden pews. I steped into that light and closed my eyes for the quickest moment and was, for an instant, lost somewhere in the golden sunlight. There was an older man kneeling on the pew closest, however, only a few feet away, and I felt extremely rude to stay there in his space while he was praying, so I quickly walked away after that, throwing another glance over my shoulder to watch the way the light reflected off of the stone floor, the way the morbid voices echoed through the walls of the building that seemed to be lost in time.

I learned something strange today from Kika. I have noticed a certain hint of disdain in her voice when she talks about Africa or Africans. There are quite a lot of people from Africa here, so I decided today to ask her about it. I found out that there has been a problem of people comming from Africa and entering Italy illegally.
The strange thing was that, because this was an issue, she said that most people in Italy, epecially in Northern Italy, not only disslike, but hate Africans, because they assume that they are here without permission, to steal things and money and jobs. She even told me "I think it is right to hate them because they do not have papers..." I wonder if "hate" means the same thing to her, because to me it is a very strong word, and that was a terrible shock to hear the words "I think it is right to hate them..." I suppose it is just part of my personality and my view, that this sentence would seem harsh and out-of-place no matter what the context. I felt very bad for people of African ethnicity (here)because of the obvious and generalized predjucice that some people assume, which I experienced today.

Ah, I bought "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" by J.K. Rowling today, in Italian! I returned the Italian copy of "The Half Blood Prince" to the library because it is too huge to read side-by-side in Italian, and it is quite exhausting, so I will stick to reading the new, smaller one I bought today alongisde mine and Melanie's English copy (our wonderful brithday present, which I happen to have brought with me!) :) And, while I'm on the subject, Federica showed me an article in the Newspaper today that had a picture of the actors who play the Weasly Twins, and it said that release date for the new movie is the July 15 here as well! She said it was very strange that is is the same as in America. Like I said, I'll be in Sardegna so it won't make much of a difference, but I wasn't wrong afterall- it will be out on the same day here! (I had looked it up on the internet before I left). I am quite jealous of anyone who will be able to go opening night, or even opening week! I am still reading the English version of the book which this movie is based on (I'm sure it will be very different from the book, but what can you expect?), and I am jittery with excitement at the thought of seeing it acted out in full... bravissima!

I think it's rather fun to talk about this sort of nonesense (though not as bad as yesterday, eh?). I had better go to bed, though, I think its...yes it's almost midnight, and I am exhausted. The heat makes me so tired! (but it also makes it difficult to fall asleep, unfortunately).

I hope you have a wonderful day (each and every one of you!)
Hope to hear from you soon! :)

(By the way, I had lunch at McDonalds, and it was actually pretty good, but it seemed totally and completely contrary to Italian culture of the importance of food and a good meal, and neither the hamburger or the fries had ketchup- I asked Federica for ketchup for the fries and she made a face and said, "Well, if you really want some, we can buy it, but it's very expensive: 50 cents (in Euros, so probably closer to $0.60) for one packet"! Jeez laweez!!! Never take your ketchup for granted again, kids! (Or your peanut butter, which I should have brought another jar of because we now have it with bread every night for desert after dinner!)).