I've got to admit, it's getting better

Hi again, faithful readers!
So, I'm clearly in a much better mood than I was last time. I'm settling in more and things are less scary, which is always a good thing. Adam and I are on the verge of having a place to live - after searching for a very long two weeks, we finally found someone who says she'll give us an apartment. It's not exactly central, but it's certainly not too far away from everything. It's very beautiful, and fully equipped. All we need to do, basically, is buy linens and it's completely liveable. The reason that we're not there right now is that there is no electricity at the moment. The landlady has called someone who's responsible for that, and this someone will turn on the electricity by next Wednesday. And then we can sign the contract and move in! I don't want to jinx it though, since there's something in the back of my mind that's nagging me, telling me that there are no guarantees until there's a signed contract, so I'm still kinda holding my breath. We'll see.
Adam and I did a bit more traveling yesterday - he had an appointment with an instrument-maker in Padua early in the morning (he reaaaally wants a cello... I hope he finds one soon, because that would make a very, very happy Feb), so I took a later train and met up with him in the early afternoon. Yeah, we did get a little bit lost trying to find each other, but it was fine. We say two big churches, which were pretty, and in one of the churches were the relics of St. Anthony, which were gross (I saw St. Anthony's tongue. And jaw. Enclosed in separate golden chalices. WTF?). After that, we didn't really know what to do/see in Padua (although apparently we missed some AMAZING art in another church... we'll have to go back again), and so Adam said, "hey, we're really close to Venice. Wanna go have dinner there?" So, we got on a train to Venice, arrived during a very murky sunset, and wandered through the streets of Venice, getting pretty damn lost along the way. We were clearly not along the touristy path. Eventually we found a restaurant (can we note how I needed to look up the spelling of that word? I had forgotten how to spell it in English. Whee! Go Italian!) and had a nice little meal. Adam’s dad gave him a call on his cellphone and gave us enough of a clue to finally find the main drag of Venice, which was pretty spectacular. We walked for a while, looking for a good place to get desert, and then when the road ended, we walked back, finding a little gelateria that we hadn’t seen before which had mint chocolate flavored gelato (the first I’ve seen here so far) and it was a done deal. Then we headed back to the train station, ran into Noah and Selene (a Middkid who was in Ferrara last year, and his Italian girlfriend, who’s also a friend of Anna, and sorta the landlady of the house that two of the kids on the Midd program are living in), chatted with them for a while, and then got onto the Train of Awkward Seating Arrangements, and a whop-bam-boom, two and a half hours later we were back in the hotel. I went to bed nearly instantly, had some weird dreams that woke me up at quarter of nine, and then fell asleep again until nearly eleven, when I decided it’d be best to hustle out of the hotel so I could let the scary lady clean my room. Saving the shower for later, I packed up my laptop, and walked over to the University, on the steps outside of which I am currently sitting with my back up against a closed door (because everything is closed on Sundays) writing this entry for y’all. Since I can’t give you any more up-to-date updates, I think it’s best I publish this and scoot before my battery spontaneously dies.

Rockstar.

Peace,

Hi, world

Okay, so, some people, many of whom are Colin Penley, have bugged me to update my blog. Essential facts: I have been living in a hotel since I got here and I do not yet have an apartment. Rooms are generally not available until the beginning of February, and all the places that Adam and I have been looking at are either kinda sketchy, really far away, or are no longer available when one of us calls to say we'd take it. (clarification: we're looking for seperate rooms/apartments, but are doing the research together. Which really confuses most of the people we see.) On Monday I got my suitcase and yesterday I got my backpack. Italian airports are not very helpful. Long story, maybe to be told later. University classes start the middle of February, and right now the nine kids in the Ferrara program are taking a class at a language learning agency, which isn't too bad, but nothing too terribly exciting. I'm still pushing for the "come to class one day dressed as pirates" idea, but we'll see. When I get a chance to gather my thoughts, I will try to do so in the hotel, so that y'all get a nice, coherent, composed post that I can write at my leisure without having to think about how much it's costing me to use the computer at this internet point.
So basically, I'm well, a little bit confused, and miss you all, but it's all good.
Peace and Love

Evening Red and Morning Gray Sends the Traveler on his Way

I'm really doing this, it seems. I'm leaving for Italy tomorrow. I'll be flying from Boston to Newark, then Newark to Milan, and then Milan to Bologna. I'll take a train from Bologna to Ferrara, find a hotel, check in and sleep the rest of the day. Well, that is if everything goes according to plan. But we'll have to wait and see.
The past week has been interesting, and on the whole pleasant. I saw a chicken cross the road one morning. It really had no reason as far as I could tell, since staying on its own side of the road really would have been the much safer option, but fortunately my dad is a good driver, and doesn't want our neighbor getting angry if she were to lose a chicken. (Any of you who have seen my neighborhood, you are correct: it is no place for chickens. Or cows. But, Shirley seems to think otherwise. I digress.) I got to see some friends, spent New Year's at Shannon's house, and sat in on part of a rehearsal at my high school's fantastic new black box theatre. I just finished the last dinner that I will share with my family for quite some time. It was an excellent dinner, with delightful conversation - everyone was in a good mood, if a bit tired, for my brother moved into his new apartment today and so he, his girlfriend and my dad spent the day moving furniture. I won't be able to see it until I return from Europe, but I am told that it is in a lovely Jewish neighborhood, so I am sure he will be just fine. As soon as he buys some plates, glasses, pots and pans and learns how to cook.
As for me, I think I will be just fine, too. I was freaking out for a while, since it's all so big and unknown, but I finally realized (thanks to a phone call with Laura between the hours of 1:30 and 3:00am this morning) that this big and scary thing is made up of small and manageable components. I don't need to do everything all at once. Italy as a country is rather chill, I hear. No one seems to be in too much of a rush. I have everything I need and everything is backed up. My bags are packed, except for my computer and my toothbrush, and tomorrow afternoon my parents will drive me to Logan Airport and I will fly away.
It's good. It really is.
(I watched some home videos of my great-grandmother's nintieth birthday party. She told story after story of her life - her childhood, her family, and the trip from Italy to the United States when she was a newlywed girl of fourteen. I'm going back, Nonnie. Thank you for the stories, and the history, the good lies and the memories, and all the reasons for my return.)