Ho Hum days

I have to be honest and say that I don't like Milan. Of course there's the Duomo, which I haven't yet seen, but the part we're in at least has absolutely nothing interesting in it. There are plenty of shops, but with a tight budget like ours we can't afford to really buy anything. Bummer.

We all spent yesterday lazing around enjoying our free pilfered internet, watching Glee, and eating pasta. We went shopping at the train station grocery store 10 minutes away, which is the closest and only one we have so far found within walking distance. We bought basic necessities: pasta, salt, jelly, bread, dish soap and scrubbers, water, yogurt, fruit, and a few small snack items. Guess how much all that cost? About $40 worth. It wasn't even that much! We've actually already eaten about a third of it, and it's only been one day. Depressing, to say the least. We have got to find a decent larger grocery store that doesn't suck the life out of our meager funds.

I stupidly wore my knit boots on that little trip to the grocery store. I guess there was a reason someone was selling them at a garage sale. As a result I was squishing water between my toes by the time we got home. That makes zero clean/dry socks I have left. We really need to do laundry--but our washing machine literally might hold about 3 pairs of my jeans, 2 pairs of Shane's.

On the bright side, our apartment was warm when we got back last night! It has been raining for a few days now, making any adventure that may be outside an impossibility, or at least miserable. I can't help but think that if we lived in a place like Sorrento, even the rain couldn't take away from me wanting to go stand and look at the gorgeous sea view. On a more optimistic note, maybe the lack of excitement outdoors will make me want to study more for boards while I'm here. I've been pretty stressed about that lately. We figured out that minus all the weeks we'll be gone traveling while here, I have about 6 weeks to finish studying before we head back. 6 weeks! In about 4 months I've barely gotten halfway through the study book! Of course, that includes not really studying for the past month, and not really studying for the first month either. But still. The stress of my impending doom really takes away from my excitement over this spur-of-the-moment adventure. Not only that but money is getting very tight over here, what with prices of everything being sky-high for New Year's and the Euro taking over the dollar. I guess I'll need all the mercy from God I can possibly get right now.

Today was another Sabbath for us. I searched in vain for Adventist churches in Milan before we came here, but to no avail. Either there are none or I'm just not finding them. I'm starting to wonder if I just won't be able to attend church for the next 3 months. Kind of a sad thought. I guess we'll have to improvise in the future.

I awoke this morning to what sounded like the murmur of a crowd below my window. Upon finally getting out of bed for the morning, I discovered that I hadn't just been dreaming--while I snoozed, a 3-street flea market had been set up right in front of our building. White tents protected the wares from getting wet from the ever-present rain, and a surprising number of people were out and about perusing the contents. Since we had nothing better to do, Shane, Ryan and I went and scouted out what I can only describe as the most exciting thing that's happened in Milan since we got here. Sad, I know. Unfortunately it wasn't that fun, because the rain, cold, and sogginess seeped into my pores once again, chilling me to the bone.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in complete boredom, because the internet we had been pilfering had suddenly been blocked. Guess they figured out someone was stealing from them. When you are in a foreign country, have nowhere to go because of the rain, no internet, no phones, no communication with the outside world, and only an internetless laptop to keep you entertained, it makes for a pretty boring time. I didn't even bring any books to read.

By evening time we were so bored that we decided to take a trip across town and visit the two other girls from Shane and Ryan's school who had also been a part of the exchange team. Secretly we hoped that they had internet for us to use. The rainy trek didn't do well for my slowly developing sick feeling, and I'm sure it was bad on Shane's too. However we finally found the building, which is like a dorm of sorts. This is where Ryan will be staying, since he's not allowed to stay as the third person in our apartment. The second I walked in I fell in love with it. It was WARM, it was bright, and there were tables all around the lobby room with people hunkered over their laptops, which meant internet. Unfortunately the front desk informed us that we couldn't go to the girl's rooms unless we had our passports, which Shane and I didn't but Ryan did. So he went up to look at the rooms while Shane and I sat waiting and I wished in my mind that we could live there too. When Ryan came back down with one of the girls, we checked our email and Ryan went to talk to the guy about moving in. In 10 minutes he had the key and was checked in! After hearing descriptions of the place, I wish even more that Shane and I could live there too. We would each have our own room with a shared bathroom, and a community kitchen. The kitchen, we were told, is extremely ghetto, with only 2-3 burners, no oven, no fridge, and no dishes. Fortunately there are personal fridges in each person's room. Regardless, I would feel so much happier living there than our drafty, dark, cold apartment.

Upon getting back to said apartment, I looked around and realized it really wasn't THAT bad. Since it had warmed up it was a bit more homey, and we did have dishes and a decent kitchen after all. We emailed the woman in charge of our housing to request the switch, but this particular woman seems to be very selective of who and what she chooses to respond to. Several emails sent to her by Ryan and Shane just haven't gotten answered, while still others have been answered, but very vaguely. We'll see if she responds to this one or not. If it doesn't work out, I'll just have to be happy where I'm at. Maybe it will teach me something. I'm pretty spoiled after all. :)