La Reina Rana has been living in Italy for (pam pararampam pam pam) 5 DAYS! And it already seems like I've been here for ages. This, in terms of missing the people at home, and in terms of having been used to being here. Of course I know this is a false feeling, since I didn't do anything unusual or unfamiliar or undone before since I arrived.
To start with the beginning, on Saturday we got ourselves some laptop supports, his for the desk, mine for sitting in bed (since all my activity, including the reading, is being done on the laptop, I have to be a comfortable Reina Rana). His is from Media World, mine is from IKEA, both of them situated in a huge (not huge, but HUUUUUUUUUUGE) commercial center near Carugate which is a village in the province of Monza e Brianza.
The funny thing is that we literally had to run to get them, as we arrived in the commercial center not long before 5 p.m. on 31st of December and when all the shops were closing around that time. But, we made it, and arrived home just in time to prepare ourselves for the New Year's Eve. Which, being both busy thinking about important stuff such as the big trip, we had no idea where we would spend until a few hours before.
So the New Year's Eve started with a traditional dinner at a friend's boyfriend's place, where we had quite some fun despite knowing only 1 person out of 10. The menu included antipasti (some bruschette with tomatoes and with salmon), spaghetti alle vongole (vongole are a species of sea shells), gamberoni (BIG shrimps), some roquefort cheese served with nut bread, a pie filled with zucchine and cheese, and, in the end, cotechino con lenticchie which is the most traditional New Year dish in Italy (ever). And as desert, the unbeatable tiramisu which my man's mom prepared specially for the occasion (and which we brought with us to the venue).
After 1 a.m., we headed to the salsa party at Bahia which had been a blast the year before. Big mistake. This year they had either changed the DJ, or the policy, and we ended up counting endless bachatas and desperately waiting for a salsa. But the show of Marco Ferrigno and Natalia was great, though, and we also got to dance with them :D.
My man's ambition to make both of us run every morning in order to return to our normal shape started to come true even from the first day of the year, when we ran a lot and also walked into the fields. And it continued on Monday, with (almost) the same determination. Yesterday we skipped the run as we went for a little dance instead. And today we skipped the run because we skipped the run :).
I\m really proud that I managed to mobilize myself to study and read and write even from the second day of the year. Which means that, while the whole Italy is still on vacation, La Reina Rana is struggling to finish her paper that is due this weekend. The whole Italy which is still on vacation includes the University, AND the library, which will both open on Monday 9th of January. Which can only mean one thing: I had to dig through Amazon to get the books I need for this part of the research. 2 days of intense book shopping and 200 euro thrown away. But, if it's for science, it's for science :). Yet also another reminder for the fact that you can go from deadly rich to deadly broke without living your bedroom.
2 Italian myths that I busted these days:
- Italians eat a lot of pasta with everything and there is no meal without pasta. WRONG. I have been here for 5 days and I only ate pasta 3 times. That's practicly NOTHING, right? :))
- Italian mothers are annoying and intrusive. Well sorry, but not HIS mom :) (we even now have some sort of coalition against the male side of the household - mwuhahaha)
2 Italian myths that are unfortunately true:
- EVERYTHING is in Italian. No, I mean really, everything!!! even Google, Yahoo, and this stupid Blogger that I use for posting. Any .com that has a .it version will automatically take you to the .it. And that's IT, you like it or not (btw anyone knows any setting to change this?)
- Italian public administration employees have no idea about their work. I'm not surprised, considering how bureaucratic this country is, that they sometime get confused. But the lady we met today at the Agenzia delle Entrate (where I got my Codice Fiscale that identifies me as a person in Italy) was really the maximum so far. Obviously, she had not much idea about the order of the next steps or even about the fact of either having to do a medical insurance or not (considering that I have one in Romania and also the European Health Insurance card). But of course this was said in the most Italian Italian, without even minding that I am foreign. Probably because my Italian is so good already :))).
2 things that literally suck:
- we haven't found an apartment yet. Everyone is on vacation including the real estate agencies, but we hope that they will answer soon
- the weather which is either rainy either foggy either cold either any combination of 2 or 3 of the above mentioned
Things that are nice so far:
- love, love, love, love!!!!
- peace and serenity and time to finally concentrate on my study
- the non-existance of the return ticket
- DISCOUNTS start tomorrow!!! Which means La Reina Rana and Il Pesce will finally buy each-other Christmas gifts!!!
- I will cook ciorba on Friday :D
Lots to come.
Love,
La Reina Rana
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