My First Saturday on the Town

Overall, today was kind of miserable. Even before I moved to Italy, I thought I was good at rolling with things, but my ability to be flexible is being further stretched.

I went to Parma yesterday, with plans of spending the whole day exploring the city. I made it three hours and then plopped myself down at a bus stop. It wasn’t that the day was unsuccessful; in fact, I enjoyed many small successes: I didn’t get abducted, I managed the bus system all on my own, my purse didn’t get stolen, I certainly didn’t go hungry, I bought an umbrella, and I got asked out. On the flip side, I was only successful in my Italian speaking half of the time, I didn’t find any of the things I needed to buy, and I was wandering around Italy with no one to keep me company.

For a while, I would stroll down the Italian street – one-thousand-year-old churches to the left and specialty shoe stores on the right – and I would do my best not to beam at the fact that I was in Italy...a dream come true. Then, ten minutes later, I would be walking with no place to go, feeling trapped by the fact that I was unable to communicate with the swarming masses around me. I think this dichotomy sums up my experiences in Italy thus far.

At one point, I went into a chocolate-bakery for a yummy baked good and walked out with three scoops of gelato in a bun. I don’t know if this is common practice in Italy, this ice-cream-in-a-bun, or if I just really messed up my order. Well, either way I really messed up my order. It was kind of the chocolate-with-rum scoop of ice cream on top of my Parma-sucks-Sundae. It was pretty tasty, though.

Also, I found out today that Nonno needs surgery for a cancer relapse. It was a lousy day.

However, I have high hopes for my next trip to Parma. I think I'll make sure to take a friend.