It has been an interesting week. I forgot in my last post to talk about the two Fridays ago trip to Tarquinia. Tarquinia is a town on the Mediterranean Sea. It is about 45 minutes by bus. We went there, saw the museum, which was lovely. The town of Tarquinia has a lot of Etruscan tombs, and that is what it is most famous for, but it is getting to be a big tourist location. We went to see the actual tombs at the archaeological site, where I bought a black terracotta vase that has a swan on the front. I didn’t look at the back when I saw it, and it has a weird half man half bird thing on it. Anyway, the big highlight for me was getting to go to the sea. It is hard to not call it the ocean, because we only have Oceans in the states. We got pelted with sand or playful “mean looks” from Stefano when we would say “ocean” and not “sea,” haha. It was a good time, except that I lost my bracelet.
We had a pretty busy week. Most of it consisted of job and apartment hunts, eating chocolate fiber cookies (like two packs!), and getting caught in the rain. Overall, I applied for like 7 jobs, and Kevin applied for 3 or 4, but he has a guaranteed job with IT if he wants it. We found lots of apartments, and we sent my poor mother all these places to call to ask about the places we are interested in since we aren’t even in the area. My brother gave her some really good questions to ask, since he just found an apartment recently.
Thursday, I went to my literature class, and the professor forgot my paper, so I am a little frustrated. I turned in my proposal for my next paper, so I really want feedback so I can start working on my final paper. I don’t want to do work on a paper if he doesn’t like the way I write or my thesis. I really have to talk to him. After class, Holly, Kevin and I went to the free Terme. We had a blast, and I can’t believe that this is the first time we decided to go. It rained, but it basically rained all week. When we got back, I convinced Kevin to go on a Quasi-Mexican run to the ipercoop for chips and salsa, and for tortillas so we could make Italian-esque fajitas. They will have to tide me over for the next three weeks.
We had an interesting weekend. We had class on Friday, and we were scheduled to meet with our landpeople on Friday night. They were also supposed to bring the plumber to fix our sink, and check out the water heater for the warranty. We waited two hours, during which time we got to play "fight with the landlords over the gas bill" again, and they are now insisting that we are to pay almost 650 euros for gas from 3 months... again, based on THEIR math, and not the bill that actually comes.
Part of me is glad we're coming home soon, because I am starting to get a little bitter, here's why: In Italy, the gas company only takes the numbers you ACTUALLY use... every. other. bill. YES, taht's right, and then you pay them on their estimate on the other bills. So here's how it works out:
On an "A" bill (let's say January to March) you use a lot of heat, because it's cold. They take your actual numbers, and then on your "B" bill (April to June) they charge you an "estimate" based off of the months you used ALLL THAT heat! Then on your "C" bill, they take your real numbers, but since you probably WAY over paid on your B Bill, you will have an exceedingly low amount to pay, and sometimes you don't pay at all because you have paid to much. Now, call me an American, but I like to pay for exactly what I have used. No estimates. No bullshit. Apparently that is really a hard thing to understand here. I do not think that I should have to pay what my landlord thinks is correct math, and I don't think I should have to pay THEM. I should have to pay the gas company. The gas company should come and take readings or something like the electric company does at my house. Yes, I am being ethnocentric or whatever, and NO, I don't care. I don't like that I have to spend 3/4s of a year here to actually be made to pay what I OWE, and not what I am "estimated" to owe. I will be glad to come home for at least that reason.
Stefano was "too busy" to come and basically said to tell them we aren't paying til we see a bill. There is ANOTHER meeting scheduled (this is like the 3rd, and both parties claim that the other party didn't come to the other 2 and they were the party that was responsible and in attendance). We'll see what happens. We're kind of annoyed.
Even with all of this apartment drama, we basically decided that when we get our apartment in Marietta, that we will make sure that the bills come to US and that WE pay the companies and not the landlord, because this is just getting ridiculous. Oh, and on Sunday, we checked the numbers, and we WAY overpaid them, because we were going on what they had written instead of what we had in our records, because we trusted them. How stupid of us. Kevin is actually talking to Stefano about it right now. Hopefully it all gets worked out.
Sorry this is so whiney, but it is what is on my mind right now.
The rest of Friday was good, though. Holly, Kevin, and I all went to the Spagheteria. Holly got Nero (which is cuttlefish and ink), I got Carbonara, and Kevin got Geonovese. All very tasty. We started walking home from dinner, and we bumped into a big group of USAC kids who convinced us to go get a drink with Abby and her parents. They were really great people, and they would not let us pay. I kinda felt bad, but since we paid all that money in rent and utilities, we were out of money for a while, and it would have almost wiped us out just buying a drink each.
On a good note, there was a flower festival here in Viterbo this weekend. The way they put it all together is interesting: there aren't a lot of green spaces here, so they put plants (still in their pots) down and put sod down on the cobblestones on top of the pots. They created some very lovely landscapes with their pot and sod combinations. Very strange, haha... but it is pretty. This weekend also coincided with a historical event. The Swiss Guard came through our town on their 500th Anniversary of the walk they made from Switzerland to Rome to being protecting the Pope. I love thier funny purple and yellow outfits with red underneath... they're so Ren-Faire-Tacky! We went to Piazza Plebescito to see them arrive. They were supposed to come at 10am. We were there at 9:45. We waited… and then we thought we may have missed them, so we went to their second arrival point at 10:30. So we went to San Pellegrino. And waited. And waited. And waited. And got rained on. And waited. Did I say we waited? How can you not wait for an event that hasn’t happened for 500 years? In total we waited about 3 hours. They had these kids come in to twirl flags and play drums, and they wore little renaissance suits. We joked about if they were the high school marching band. We went to mass with them (which was weird, but hey, whatever). We left early cuz it was all in Italian, and having not been raised catholic, I missed a lot of the significance.
Today, we went to Vignanello to see the gardens, and talk to the middle schoolers there. We got a goody bag and a poster at the library. But that’s another journal.
A Presto!
Doreen