Whew!

It seems like it's been forever since I've posted! Strangely, I haven't been able to find the time. Here are some of the highlights of my week:

Monday- I decided to rebell against fashion. I wore black, navy blue, dark brown, and grey all in the same outfit. Take that, fashion police! Also, I did the quadro svedese, "Sweedish Square" in gym. I have a video of me doing it, which I will post as soon as I find time.

Tuesday- I wen't to Beatrice's school, like usual. Instead of having an Enlgish lesson, they had an extra music class. I listened to a bunch of 9-year-0lds play the recorder for an hour, but then we played 7Up. They picked me every time, which was flattering.

Wednesday- I went on a quest for peanut butter, because I'm running out. Marta, the colf at the Cuccirelli house, told me of a store that sells peanut butter. I found the store, a little Islamic supermarket, and worked up the guts to go in. I was met by a rather unpleasant odor, coming from bags of dried fish laying about the store. I asked the woman at the register if they had peanut butter, but she didn't speak Italian very well, and she told me to look around. Hesitantly, I looked around the store. The prices of items were written with permanant marker on the items themselves. Seeing no peanut butter, I thanked the woman, and left. I stoped at the bancomat to get some more cash, put money on my cellphone, and continued my quest for peanut butter.

There's another international supermarket near the station, and since I really wanted peanut butter, I decided it would be worth it to walk all the way there. This supermarket, from the outside, looked clean and organized. I entered, again met by a rather unpleasant odor. There was only one aisle, and I walked down it, doubtful that I'd find anything. But then I saw it, written in English: Peanut butter! It was by a brand I've never heard of before, but it looked like peanut butter, and it was only 2 euro! The man at the register gave me a quizzical look, then smiled, and rang up the peanut butter. Everything he said sounded like it had three exclamation points at the end. "Will that be all?!!!" "Would you like a bag?!!!" "That'll be two euro!!!" And so on. I left, feeling triumphant, and proceeded to the gym

Thursday- we had a fire alarm at school. Not a fire drill, a fire alarm. The bell for break started to ring, and we all started to get our snacks out of our backpacks. The bell, however, did not stop ringing. I thought it must be jammed, and continued peeling my orange. After about thirty seconds, somone came in and told us it was a fire drill. One of the boys in the class said "Why did they do it during intervallo? I'm staying inside!" We all agreed with him, but of course put down our snacks, grabbed our coats, and walked outside. I spotted the tecnici (computer geek guys who work at the school) running to their tecnico room. It made me chuckle to see them running, becuase one is a short, round man, while the other is tall, thin, and looks straight from the '70s. Then I wondered why on earth they were running. We got outside, and I saw the tecnici running out of the parking lot wearing bright orange vests, holding the Italian version of a traffic director. This made me laugh out loud: imagine, tecnici doubling as crossing guards! We stayed outside for a good 15 minutes, and someone mentioned it wasn't a drill. I saw no smoke pouring from the building, though, so I wasn't worried. It turned out to be a false alarm, so we all filed back into the classrooms, grumy about losing our break.

Friday- Nonna and I broke the law. We raked up some leaves and dead grass from her yard, then set fire to them. Burning leaves is illegal in Lombardia, but we did it anyway! We live on the edge, man!

Chicca picked me up from nonna's, and we went to the French version of Home Depot. I've never been to a Home Depot in Italy before, but the smell of wood and paint made me get a little misty.. not because of the fumes, but because it made me think of my Daddy.

Today, Saturday- The math teacher was interrogating today, so we did nothing. The next teacher, whom I have for 2 hours, was absent, so we had a subsitute! I asked to go to the library, and now here I am, keeping you updated. Tonight, I may go to a gospel choir concert (snort! Gospel in Italy? I don't think so!) with some friends if I can find a ride to Gallarate. We'll see how that goes!

P.S. Check out Bia's post on the differences between Italians and the rest of Europe! It's SO TRUE! Click here to watch the video