Well, after 4 days of getting up early and going to bed late, I am officially exhausted. However, I have felt very accomplished. I am currently fully packed for our trip next week, and I hope to get some much-needed rest before then. I studied some today, did 3 loads of laundry, cleaned, and am now relaxing by reading Rick Steves' "Europe Through the Back Door"....2006. I found it humerous to see that apparently an ant perished back then.
The man next door keeps listening and singing to Christian songs that I haven't heard in years and had forgotten even existed. Right now it's "Father I Adore You" in English. Sometimes I sing along...I mean, it's loud enough. Often he can also be heard shouting--turns out he's apparently practicing a speech, which makes me wonder if he's a pastor. It sure sounds like a sermon. But I hope he's not Adventist because there's only one SDA church in Milan and I don't want my ears boxed tomorrow if I can't understand what's being yelled at me.Speaking of church, 3 people all found and gave me the information for the same church...so thank you! From those 3, I was able to find the church name, service times, and location. It's an easy metro ride away. I have to admit I feel awkward going to a church where I won't know anyone OR understand anything being said. Maybe they'll have translation devices. Either way, I've felt like a "Badventist" for having not gone to church since we got here (although we were away traveling all but one time). So it will still be nice to go since we know about it now.
Last night was interesting, but not really in a good way. Wednesday night we went to an aperitivo with Shane's classmates again. It was a crowded, noisy place but had good food. Last night a few others were going to a different one called "Royalto", a luxurious, white, fancy place with 7 buffets and servers, all underneath a humongous crystal chandelier. (But still only 8 Euro for a drink and all you can eat.) It took us 3 switches on the trams (a system we hadn't yet tried) and a long frigid walk to get there. Once inside, Shane's classmates were nowhere to be seen, and all the empty couches were reserved. We were told we could sit at the bar, but it was full too. On further exploration, we discovered most of the buffets (consisting of 1-2 dishes each) contained meat we didn't care to experience, so we opted to leave. As we left, we saw his classmates coming in, but based on the food selection, we left anyways. The trip back was slightly horrid due to the outside temperatures. You don't get the semi-comfort of being underground when waiting for trams, and we usually had to wait up to 10 minutes. Seemed to me the night was more frigid than most. To make a long story short, we trammed, walked, and metroed all the way home, looking for other aperitivos along the way with no luck. By the time we reached home it was nearly 10pm...we had headed out around 7. And we still hadn't eaten. We ended up going down the street to an "Old Wild West" restaurant, where we ate a good ol' American meal of burgers, fries, and "Old Wild West Peanuts" out of the shell.
Thank you to everyone who emailed me about my blog! I enjoy your comments. However, for future reference, that gmail address is only in existence because it's required in order to have a blogger account, so I rarely ever check it. My primary email is ashelle_troyer@hotmail.com, and I check it daily . Or you can post comments on the blogs themselves--those go to my hotmail address too.
Paris and Barcelona start on Monday, so if you're itching to have a souvenir from there, let us know soon!
