Doing Laundry

So here I sit at the laundromat… waiting for clothes to dry. So many of the simple things we take for granted turn out to be a little more complicated here.

Actually, one thing that really sucks is that it’s costing €15.00 to do what amounts to about two and a half loads of laundry. We do have a tiny washer in the apartment, but the weather has been kind of unpredictable as of late, so we haven’t been anxious to hang clothes outside to dry and have them get rained on. Ugh.

One of the other things that I’ve been taking for granted at home is a hot shower. Here, it’s more like: wait for the water to warm up, get wet, turn off the water, soap up and apply shampoo, rinse (by this time the water is getting quite brisk), and jump out as fast as possible to dry off. It’s tolerable right now, but it’s going to totally suck come November, since it’s against the law for the landlord to turn on the heat until November 15th. I think this is another of those things that falls under the heading of “character building,” so I’m going to mention it here by way of sharing the information, and I’m not going to say another word about it, except to curse quietly as I shiver in front of the bedroom sink. Brr!

My mom asked what it’s “like” here, so I guess I should try and find a few generalities with which to express this experience. For starters, the people here in Italy are pretty much like people everywhere. Most are friendly, some aren’t. There are a lot of tourists around, and they’re from all over the world. There are a lot of American students. Yesterday, we ran into some architecture students from the University of Boston who are here for a four-month stay. There are a lot of American tourists, too—you can usually spot them a mile away.

The Italians we interact with are usually the folks who work the counters at the cafes and tabacchi shops (that’s where you get international phone cards and bus tickets). They don’t always speak English, but seem to understand my patois of English and Italian, and I’m picking up enough Italian vocabulary to catch the gist of what’s being said to me. At any rate, I’ve been able to order in restaurants, find local points of interest, and find my way around with a minimum of difficulty, so I’d say things are working well enough.

Just put another token in the dryer (now we’re up to €18.00), so I’ve got a few more moments to ramble. For some reason, it seems odd that we’ve been here a week and have only seen one concert (the Philharmonia di Rossini last night), and have only been on one significant sightseeing hike. We’ve been doing a lot of walking around as part of our daily existence, but it hasn’t been the go-go-go pace I had expected, and to a certain extent I’m starting to get the itch to hop on a plane. I might have to check out the Ryanair website and see what’s cheap over the next couple of weeks.

Oh, and speaking of walking around, here’s a toe update: the right little toe is doing better, but now the left little toe has a blister. It’s small, but it smarts, and switching to sandals isn’t helping this time. I may have to see if I can find a pair of backup shoes to wear when this happens, I think. Like I said, walking is part of our daily existence; it’s close to a half-mile to Standa (the grocery store), about the same distance to the capa offices, maybe a quarter mile to the place where we’ve been in the habit of grabbing breakfast or lunch, and about the same to the closest internet café, which is where I end up when the CAPA offices are closed or when I lack the patience for their slow connection. It doesn’t seem like much, but it adds up when you do it several times a day. Needless to say, I’m hoping my toes can toughen up enough to handle it all without blistering like they have been. We’ll see what happens.

Looks like my laundry is about done, so I’m going to take it home and find something fun to do. Until then…

Arrivederci!
-Leanne