Lessons learned.

Okay, still no camera cord. Sorry folks. Wasting time looking at my updates seems a lot less interesting all of a sudden, eh?

So with no pictures, no recipes, and no insightful books being read [I'm 16% of the way through David Copperfield–the book not the magician–and there's not huge selection of enlightening quotes to share], I'll revert to my other method of blogging: lists.

Here's a list of a few things I've learned: 

[aside from a couple words of Italian]

• Eat slowly. If you finish first, they'll just give you more food, 

even though it was already two times more than you needed the first go-round.

•People smoke a lot in Europe. Period.

• Italians talk fast. (And when I give the request Parli piano, per favore, they comply...for about 1/2 a sentence. Ayyy, Madonna...)

• It seems to be perfectly normal here to be comfortable with yourself in public,
whether that means unrestrained cuddling in a public park,
"readjusting" oneself on the sidewalk,
or checking one's nose for...shall we say...unwanted matter.

• Zoning out in the middle of a conversation–while generally passable
back home–doesn't fly here. Not for me anyway.
I have to concentrate on the conversation 100% of the time all the time
(in order to understand about 38% of the content).

I'm sure I will learn a lot more over my remaining 26 days here. [e.g. See my last facebook status (circa 1:30p EST, 4/10/12) for a potentially unfortunate learning experience with train-ticket-buying...]   Here's to hoping the lessons are relatively painless! [...now raising invisible glass in the air towards the screen. Cin-cin! Salute!]

-M