More bits of strangeness in Dormitory settings
Shoes
So it is no secret that in Italy, it is all about the shoes...or something like that anyway. And it is...in the weirdest ways. A good number of people didn't realize the whole "public bath" aspect and so didn't bring flipflops for the showers. So people went out to buy flip flops. Other people just wanted to have the joy of bargaining a pair of shoes down to a better price. So people went out and haggled shoe prices down and came back with fantastic shoes. (Tall people got even taller let me tell you). And there was so much discussion about shoes at any given moment that you would think it was the sole purpose of the trip (who knows, for some people it could be).
I myself received a lot of mockery for my shoes. People back home made fun of me. People here who heard I was clumsy and those who later SAW me be clumsy made fun of me. Because my shoes are slip on shoes of a nice sandal variety with a decent sized heel. Cause I'm short. Everything I own has heels on it pretty much. "Those aren't walking shoes" was the general consensus though some would admit that they were cute.
However, in the end, I got the last laugh. My shoes are made with memory foam soles. So while i may hurt in other places while we do all our seemingly endless walking...my feet are the last to start hurting. Magnificent shoes of win.
Open door policy
As mentioned before, Natalia and I keep the window open and typically the door open as well. It creates a nice cross breeze and aside of the damn seagulls waking us up at odd hours,it is really very nice to sleep and work in such a pleasant environment. A side note to this, of course, is that our door is open to the hallway and that we can see everyone that passes by or that people pause at our door to talk. It was good for knowing what was going on at all times.
Somehow it morphed into a social setting. While it is completely and utterly fine and awesome, there are times when there are several people in her and neither Natalia and I are actually participating in the conversation. So much goes through our room that is gossipy, funny or just narrative. There are also random rant sessions as well. Much goes on. It is all interesting.
Laundry
It is no secret that I am broke. And doing laundry here costs money. Four euros for a wash/dry cycle (plus more for oversized loads etc). So while I knew from the get go that I was going to have to do laundry and pay the price, I also knew that it was going to be doubly expensive since I had a lot of clothes that couldn't be washed with something like blue jeans or my heavier pants. So, upon seeing someone else doing it, I decided to just go ahead and was a few of my delicates in the bathroom and dry them on the bar provided in the room. This all went fairly well but laying out more personal delicates can be a bit tricky when your room has people constantly walking in and out of the door.
So the solution was, when I was home mostly alone for most of the day on Saturday, to lay them out on the window sill flat. No underpants can be seen. Except when I went to buy a drink briefly, the wind caught up in a mini wind storm in my room and suddenly my underpants are out the window and onto the higher up duct work in the courtyard. To make matters worse, the courtyard is closed for a commencement ceremony. So there is no going down and sneaking in to the courtyard to attempt a rescue by myself. There was only talking to the security people. Tall ones.
After the joke had been made by all the fun fun people, and everyone had been told, the rounds of people staring out the window to see them commenced. Just when Brandon had poked his head out the window, they fell off the generator, duct work thing and they fell down to the lower area. He pointed it out and told me to go talk to the security guy and my first reaction was NO! I mean, knickers in the courtyard? What does that say? Then suddenly I hear "I'll do it." I look over to tell him no and he is GONE. A few seconds later Natalia walks in the room with a strange look on her face. "Do you know where Brandon is going? I tried to say hi to him but he ran by too fast".
After this, she and I spend the next few minute leaning out the window waiting for he and the security guy to appear in the courtyard, which they did a few minutes later. The underpants were successfully retrieved and humor was spread all around and since Natalia was the one to yell thanks first (for some reason) the security guard probably thinks they are hers.
It was an interesting time overall.