This week has been pretty chill (like every other week when you're on vacation) with a lot more of exploring Montichiari and the rest of beautiful Italy. Wednesday I went to Milan with three friends. They were going to look at possible universities and then go shopping. I still can't figure out how applying to these universities works (and I can't work up gumption to ask) but it's nothing like the American system as far as I can tell. I knew where I was going to school in November last year, most people find out anywhere from January to late spring and kids over here starting college in the Fall still don't know where they are going but no one seems stressed about it-it's the norm. Milan was fun and I got to see a new part of the city which is always an adventure. I think we got lost a few times but Italians are always willing to help and strangers helped us find our way. I've decided that I love traveling with Italians. It takes so much pressure off being somewhere new because people assume that since I'm with Italians I am also Italian and thus don't peg me with any "tourist" stereotypes. Va bene, va bene. The language is another good thing about traveling with them. While in Milan I learned the words for "right" and "left" and other things I can't remember but mainly those because I listened to other people point us in the right direction. I can actually say full sentences now and generally know what people are saying around me if I pay attention and listen hard enough. Tonight, I spent at least an hour reading what I think is a level one Italian grammar book and got through 18 pages of it. It's so much fun! I love, love, love learning new languages and I'm relatively good at if I do say so myself. I can identify cognates, recognize subject-to-verb conjugations pretty well and memorize vocabulary words like nobody's business. Right now I can't put into words how much I love it, but basically I feel like a kid at Christmas-every time a learn a new word or correctly pronounce/identify a phrase it's like opening up a present each and every time. It just feels good when I say "Scusi, dov'e via Mantova?" and I've done it correctly and the other person understands me. C'e benissimo!! Anywho, what else have I been doing....ah yes, I've gone to Perini Market. It's about a ten minute walk from our apartment and sells cheap, cheap wine and food and all products for the house and home. I've gone there two days in a row and am thoroughly amazed. If I had the patience and the talent I might work up a metaphor of some sort revealing how the market functions like the town and the town is exemplary of the country's culture as a whole making it a perfect and complete symbol of life here but....I'm no Ernest Hemingway and why would I want to bore you with rhetorical devices? Long story short Perini is...so, totally Italian. In truth the only American product you can find on their shelves is Coca-Cola. The store is packed floor to ceiling with wine from all over Italy ranging from 2 euros a bottle to 500. There's all the Nutella a person could ask for, rows of canned olives, jams in all the fruits imaginable, hundreds of oils, an expansive cheese and meat counter, and not to mention the produce, gelato and almost whatever else you can think up. The Market is small so the aisles are over-packed with products waiting to be shelved but more likely to be purchased before that happens. The handful of times that I've been there I have seen a total of three employees. One cashier, the wine guy, and the girl at the cheese counter. They're all utility players. The cashier works two registers at once, the wine guy convinces you to buy that 500 euros bottle of wine all whilst stocking the shelves with the latest herbal tea shipment, and the cheese girl slices your favorite cut of prosciutto and formaggi and keeps the place dust free. It's a well oiled machine. I'll be going back no doubt.
This weekend I want to take some more pictures of town so if I do I'll be sure to put them up here. It's past 11pm now and I've grown unaccustomed to using my brain for long periods so* now I'm tired out and you're well informed on useless information. Win, win. Jessica will be here in five days! Holla.
Ciao!
(*The list of words I need to remove from my vocabulary for my sanity and yours: so, just, really, pretty, and,...I'll being adding to this-don't worry.)