Strange Things About Europe, Volume 8
1) Monday was an American national holiday: Memorial Day. I did not get a day off from school that day. Justification: I’m in Italy, not America.
2) Today is an Italian national holiday: Festa della Republica. I did not get a day off from school today. Justification: I’m an American, not an Italian.
Quote of the Day: “I see that many of you turned in a rough draft today. Damn you!” — Professor Alistair Duckworth, expressing his disappointment in having to comment on the rough drafts of our 2000 word papers. Turning in a draft was optional.
So as I stated above, today is a holiday here in Italy. A lot of things are closed. It was strange walking to class, which is usually a risky business because of all the cars and motorcycles whipping down the narrow streets; today there was almost no one out. I think I like Florence better like this. There are still hundreds of tourists out by the Duomo, but the vendors who harass you to buy their product aren’t out by their storefronts.
Last night was terrible. I finished all my work by 12:30 AM and went to bed. At around 2 AM Brian and Jason came home, this time each with their sorority girl sluts with them. If it weren’t happening to me it would have been funny, I suppose. Both couples are crammed into a twin bed each. Jason and his girl were both snoring; Brian and his girl were both talking. At about 3 AM, after trying to sleep through it I got up and left the room for about a half hour. I brought my Bible and read in 2 Corinthians. By the time I got back Brian and his girl had shut up, probably embarrassed that they had made me leave. One of the other two had stopped snoring, so by putting earplugs in my ears I was able to get to sleep.
It occurs to me now that I don’t paint Brian and Jason (and now, the objects of their affection) in a very good light on a consistent basis. I promise that as soon as any of them do anything worthy of praise I’ll let you know.
I’m going to spend a good bit of the rest of today reading for Modern Italy. The Day Of The Owl is actually a pretty good book. It’s about the mafia. There’s a killing on the first page. That and it’s pretty short, only about 100 pages. I need to knock it out before the trip to Rome because this Sunday I need to study for Monday’s test in Modern Italy.
