Still feeling stupid

Hey all

Another day where I spend six hours feeling like I have some kind of head injury – today was a little better than yesterday – was lost only 70-80% of the time, as opposed to well over 95%, so I guess I should look at that in a kind of glass-half-full (or at least slightly wet) kind of way. More dramas for the German opera singer today – the push-bike he bought to get to school broke half-way there – the pedal fell off. Anger, outrage – he was going to skip class in the afternoon and take it back to the shop, demand a new one, or his money back, or both. I assured him not to worry, - Italians in general are probably afraid of Germans (they have, after all, gone rogue and tried to take over the world more often than normal countries have civil wars), so he would certainly get his money back, but, before he spent the afternoon doing that, perhaps I could have a look at it first? I screwed the pedal back on. Once again, I am a god.

Thanked the secretaries today for all their help in finding me a new place – they are both fluent in about a dozen languages – I explained that my girlfriend in Australia also has to deal with student administration: “Ah!” they squealed, “she understands! We love your girlfriend!”

Watched the sun set from some plaza or piazza or something above the town, which was beautiful – well worth the walk up there. Then met up with a bunch of people from the school in the city, and went out for drinks – quite amazing to be sitting at a table on the pavement right next to that church in all the photos. They are all European so they don't stop to look at it - but I couldn't stop. Was a lot of fun – eight people, seven of which have at least two languages, some about half a dozen, having this kind of broken conversation that kept slipping from one language to the next and then via a third person in yet another language who could translate to a fourth who could then get the point across to the first. Nuts. Then they come out with things like “Oh, my English is really bad. It is really difficult for me to speak clearly in English...” and continue to rattle on fluently and clearly about their deficiencies in grammar, in pronunciation, etc. etc.

"Brad [Brradda] how many languages do you speak?"

"Oh, well, I'm Australian."

"...Oh. Si."

Photos – why I did not want to catch the bus every day – now I walk to school and get to look up. Three of Florence as the sun goes down – finally a statue of Dante – who was thrown out of this town in his thirties, never to return – but no one talks about that.

Cheers, B

PS – read The Australian and The Age every couple of days – the election back there seems to be getting more surreal by the day – I almost wish I was home just to experience the insanity of it all.