It's Closed

Every learning experience is an evolutionary process. Of course typically there is some type of progress or at least evidence of improvement.

It is said that insanity is defined by the repetition of the same action expecting a different result. Below is an overview of our week. We'll let you decide where we rank.

This week has been a test of the wills. Last Sunday was a national holiday here, so we planned accordingly and stayed in. We had it on good authority that after the holiday people would be returning and stores would be open. With this knowledge we planned our entire week, packed with sightseeing and places we wanted to check out. We were, as usual, wrong. Instead of people returning,even more places have closed. Most painfully our new favorite "dollar store", fabulous bakery, and most practically the cell phone store (more on this one later).

Today for example we planned a nice day in our neighborhood including: visiting the hair salon, checking out what is supposed to be a fab accessories store, and getting our phones fixed. Unless we have been in the city center where it's a tourist mecca, everything has been closed for August, yet we continue to make plans rationalizing that of course THIS place will be open. The biggest problem is that there is no warning that the store will be closed, or for how long. One day you just show up and the gate is down. Or more annoyingly most stores have their names inside the gate, so you're never even sure if you've made it to the right place.

Discovering why a store is closed is like a multiple choice game:

Why is the cell phone store closed?
A. Siesta
B. Holiday/Vacation
C. National holiday
D. Didn't feel like opening


This afternoon we were 0-3. We walked five plus miles, spent 35 minutes zigzagging amongst parallel streets, and 15 blocks trying to turn right. Which brings us to the next issue.. directions.


We previously mentioned constantly arriving at our destination during siesta. Well now it seems we need to start out before dawn to FIND the place before closing time. We'll be getting ready to go out, and suddenly Courtney is a maniac about getting on our way. We could have five hours before a place is set to close and somehow we'll still be sweating getting there in time. (Of course it's probably been closed all day anyway). The main problem is that you'll be walking along and next thing you know the name of the road changes. But it doesn't change just once, if the road is long enough it could change dozens of times.


Google Maps is no help because they use things like addresses, street names, and instructions, in order, to get from Point A to Point B. Street signs are hard enough to find, let alone an address. Walking yesterday we literally passed a store whose address was 25, the very next store was 28. Okay, so odd and even numbers on the same side of the street, check. (But wait... where did 26 and 27 go?) Directly across the street, the building's address was 452. Huh?! There also seems to be a miscommunication between Google's definition of a right turn vs. a slight right and Rome's definition. Arriving at our destination is always a surprise because we normally can only understand half the directions, and whichever side Google tells us the store will be on using those directions, we arrive from the opposite direction.


Our new rule is that if somewhere is extremely important to us to get to, and we're taking a taxi anyway, the taxi is to drop us off at the exact place we need. Unfortunately, the most important place -our apartment- seems to be the one place the taxis never know how to get to. A few nights ago upon handing over our address...


Driver: Via Anghiari?
Us: Yes.
Driver: Are you sure this is right?
Us: Yes.
Driver: You've been there before?
Us: Yes, we live there.
(5 minutes spent looking at map)


 In their minds we are so far removed, they take the fastest way possible to drop us off and return to the city center.


(Same taxi, upon arrival at our destination)


Driver: You sure this is right?
Us: Yes.
Driver: But the building doesn't have a door.
Us: The door is right there.
Driver: Have you been in there before?
Us: Yes.
Driver: You sure you want to go in?
Us: Yes.


The city's taxis are getting quite the education from two little American girls. At the very least their city maps are getting a workout, We love watching drivers' facial expressions upon receiving the address. Yesterday we spent 15 minutes in the back seat of a taxi, while the driver looked at various maps, which he continued to consult throughout the journey.


While walking in circles or arriving at our destination only to find the gate down, Rach has had to hear many times, "I am about to have a fit!", from Court. Her outburst is similar to this....

In an effort to avoid Courtney's own supermarket meltdown, we're keeping our daily goals modest. Tomorrow's goal: get paper towels.


Observations:

• Italian cherry soda is not like American cherry soda. Remember the last time you were sick and needed cold medicine? You know how 'cherry' is the flavor that is supposed to make the idea of drinking the medicine better-- and it doesn't? Well that's Italian cherry soda. 
• Courtney is totally unable to eat gelato without getting it all over her hands. Courtney now carries hand wipes in her purse in the event we decide to get gelato. Just the other day Courtney pointed out a child who was crying. The mother gave her daughter hand wipes to remove what Court refers to as 'the sticky' and she immediately stopped crying. Court's point was that 'the sticky' is a serious thing. Rach sees this as an example of how getting gelato all over you is only supposed to happen to children. Italians always eat their gelato in a cone, Court can't even master the cup. Cones will not be in her future.
• Recharging the minutes on your cell phone is supposed to be one of the easiest things to do here. You can charge it online, add minutes from the ATM or various vending machines, just to name a few. So far we haven't been able to get any option to work. Why not bring the phones to the store? Yes, we've been planning on it. We've gone 3 times this week- closed every time.
• While doing research for sightseeing we learned (according to the web) that Rome's Piramide is man-made. This came as a shock since previously we had been under the impression they sprouted from the ground. 

Thoughts from Rachel:

• "You know, when I'd be driving at home sometimes I would get so mad at certain traffic laws. Like why did I need them? Having now spent time in a place where there are virtually no traffic laws, and the few there are aren't enforced, has given me a new found appreciation of traffic laws."
• Found written in her notebook, in her own handwriting..."What are we talking about?"

On the Upside:

• The food here is- as imagined- fantastic. Sure it's a lot pizza, pasta, and gelato, but every place puts their unique mark on it. We've been having a great time eating our way through the city and comparing. The fresh produce markets are the best. The cantaloupe here is literally the best we've ever had. Not to mention the tuna fish- delicious!
• We did find the American store, where peanut butter, hot sauce, and mustard were selected to come home with us. We've also been fortunate enough find several Irish/English pubs to fulfill any burger and fry cravings.

Communication of the Week: "What...I couldn't hear you, I was in the refrigerator" - Rach

Sight of the Week: Dinner and a Show, 60+ year old man "exercising" outdoors. This included: climbing street signs, balancing on bike racks, doing hand stands, and fake jump roping.

Song of the Week:  See you in September by The Happenings

Also for those of you keeping track of our shower struggles.... after nearly a week of successful showering, today a major setback. Rach's overflowed the tub.