Oggi ho fatto qualcosa italianissimo (Today I did something really Italian)

First of all, pictures from my Cologne/Brussels trip are up on my Flickr page if you feel the urge to see a photo of a leige waffle with a massive bite out of it.  And you know, some other cathedrals and art and stuff.

On a different note, I have to be honest.  I am pretty bored.  There are the mildly bored days, and then there are the bored-out-of-my-mind days, which in general averages out to a lingering boredom over all days.  I know, I know, you are all scoffing at this, thinking "What are you even saying!!??  You are in ITALY!!!"  This is true.  I am in Italy.  But I am also waiting around for a few things:

1.  To take my last exam, which is still two weeks away.

2.  For the weather to get better.  I am so done with winter.

3.  For my friends who are studying abroad for the semester to get here.  And get settled.  And then get traveling with me.

4.  For my new classes to start.  Again, a couple weeks away.

5.  For the weather to get better.

So I hate to say it, but I am in a quasi-state of limbo, where I want a little "pausa" from traveling, where I do need to spend some time studying (though I work best under pressure so that won't really happen until a few days before my test), and yet even with tutoring, studying, and doing crossword puzzles, I have a liberal amount of free time on my hands.  (Note: who would have ever guessed that there is such a thing as too much free time?  I almost - dare I say it - can't wait to have homework again next year.  Or at least to be busy).  So with this free time that I don't know what to do with, I found myself doing something so Italian, it's almost embarrassing.  I looked out my window.

Alright, go ahead and scoff again.  This probably makes no sense.  However, Italy is a country of looking.  Appearances count.  I even was taught in my Italian film class about the "strong tradition" of not just looking out the window, but looking AT people.  Think of the little old woman who sits behind the shutters of her second floor apartment and watches the street below.  Or even think of the old Italian men who sit on park benches or at cafes, watching the people go by.  And though it might be a stereotypical image, it is certainly based on truth, and continually my friends and I lament about how we can never walk outside in sweatshirts and pj bottoms as we do in the US because we would be more or less ostracized.  Get the idea?

So today, I suddenly found myself standing at my window, staring out and watching the street below.  Not to be anticlimactic, but the only thing I really concluded was that the people riding bikes must be freezing their butts off.  And yet, I had my "woah" moment when I found myself then actively looking into the windows of people's apartments across the street, at which point my imagination started to run wild with what sort of people live there and what kinds of situations might be going on behind their shutters.  At which point I freaked out at my own ability to participate in this nutty version of people watching that is such a "tradition" here.

So boredom and free time breeds transformation into an Italian elderly woman.  Good to note.

Up next - the dreaded oral exams.  And not the dentist kind.