We made dinner last night...but by we I mean our friend Sammy. He lost his key to his apartment the first night here so yesterday he got locked out of his apartment. We invited him over and he offered to make dinner for us since he loves cooking. It was amazing. Of course it was pasta but it was delicious and spicey AND fun to make. It was a good way to get out of our usual evening activities.
Italian beaurocracy does not go well with Italian time telling. I spent nearly four hours in a Roman post office today waiting for a five minute appointment to process my Permesso di Soggiorno—permit to stay. For whatever reason, Italians must think it is fun to make their paperwork as difficult as possible for foreigners to fill out. There can be no mistakes or you have to start over AND they require all sorts of extra papers like copies of entire passports, insurance letters, consulate letters, etc. It gets pretty ridiculous. Like I have said before, I’m pretty sure Italians have absolutely NO concept of time. The first four or five appointments in my group lasted at least 20 minutes each when in reality they only needed to last 5 minutes. We just filled out a paper, gave them some money and went on our way. We had a very friendly (maybe a little too friendly) Italian man waiting on us and he wanted to know everything about where each of us was from, what we studied, what it was like in America, etc. It was nice to talk to someone so enthusiastic about America but I ended up missing my only class today. It turned out to be ok because the 20 IES student who had appointments today just sat around in the office chatting and looking at the beautiful frescoes painted on the ceiling of the office while eating panini and gelato. This must be why Italians are so laid back about time… they get rewarded with food and beautiful art for hanging out!
Getting lost is a daily occurrence for me. I rather like it except when I’m in a hurry…like today. I haven’t gotten used to Italian time yet and I was under the impression that I needed to be at the post office ON TIME for my appointment. Well, of course, I got lost with a few of my friends and we ended up needed to take a taxi because we had no idea where we were in relation to the post office. It turned out to be a great adventure because we came across a police barricade in the middle of a huge intersection. As we were waiting dozens of police cars with their flashing blue lights followed by policemen on motocycles wearing traditional military uniforms who were in turn followed by a limosine carrying Il Presidente, the president of Italy. It was just as I thought a motorcade accompanying a famous political figure would be…except a little more chaotic. They didn't really travel in a straight line like they do in the United States rather, they traveled in clumps here and there. They are Italians after all!
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