A Better Day

September 3, 2010

Day 6

            According to my calculations, today was *pauses* 648% better than yesterday!

            Of course, today had it’s low parts, which I will say now to get out of the way so I can end on a positive note. Firstly, I only managed a few hours sleep because I couldn’t sleep until well after 5am (I stopped checking the clock).

(See last night’s video link here. Worse, much worse was the food for today. If you read this blog consistently then (well firstly props to you, as it’s not very interesting) you’ll know that food is superbly delicious and that yesterday it was the highlight of my day. Today was very different.

For lunch my mum served me hamburger patties. Oooh, that was an awkward situation.  I haven’t eaten red meat in about 3 years and greasy bun-less ground beef did not seem to be the way to break that record. Yet I couldn’t merely refuse to eat it, it seemed to be quite the quandary. Just between you and me, I can share how I got out of it. As soon as her back turned, I wrapped my hand in a napkin, snatched the first patty and hid it in my lap until I could surreptitiously throw it away. I’m a sneaky bastard, I know.

However, my food situation did not improve from there. As you may or may not know, I have never eaten pig meat of any kind. Today, I did. It was awful; I did it completely by accident. A friend’s mother handed me a tin foil wrapped package and I, in my confused, sleep deprived state, I unwrapped it and took a bite. That one bit proved it not to be a roll of bread, but a sandwich, containing some pinkish meat. Unhappily, I thought I’d eaten turkey, but I swallowed anyway and then set the sandwich aside. A little while later, after a few jokes that the meat was cow tongue a girl there reassured me that it was ham.  I was horrified and felt utterly nauseous. My spirits were a bit dampened then but I tried my best to enjoy the day, which I will describe now :)

More of the chocolate cake and the unexpected presence of my sister, Bianca, brightened what I had thought would be a slow morning. Bianca and I chatted about juice for a good time. After I’d eaten, around 10, my mum sent Bianca and me to walk down to the bank. We were eager and willing, but both rather clueless. We walked up and down and back and forth and left and writing, asking many shopkeepers before we reached the ATM. Once we finally got there it took several rough tries to actually get it to work. I’m apparently extremely technologically impaired in this country, ATMs, cell phones, Internet keys, computers… However, when I finally got it to work, we happily returned home to eat pasta with pesto (along with the burgers :-/) and Bianca popped in the Italian Aladdin for us to watch.

The last part of my day was to meet up with Grace and a few other friends in the city. We chatted amiably for hours, and I managed to get some cell phone numbers on our kind-of working phone! (Yes! Technology going my way!)

At 7 we went to a piazza to find a seat and wait for the statue, which didn’t come until after 9. That was an unpleasant ordeal as there was one more many person than there were chairs, so we played a slow, grotesque version of musical chairs where each person dreads the music stopping as it means half an hour of more discomfort and dirt.

I was very sleepy at this point, and only the hope of seeing the statue kept my lids open. It was gorgeous when we finally saw it.  I really ought to put a picture in here… 

Ah well

ciao, Thalia