On the Run

Hey all,

enjoyed this morning's classes – am actually understanding what I am being taught now, even if it is baby level language. Were only five of us today, me, two Germans, one Brit, one Greek – not a single Romance language. Makes life so much easier when everyone is thinking “what does that verb mean again.” The two Austrian girls have not shown up since finding out that our teacher is also a cop. It is possible they are on the run somewhere in Romania, with dyed hair, dark sunglasses, nervous pale faces. Oh well.

Opera singer took a heap of photos on his uber-camera of me in front of the statue of Dante, reading, or attempting to read, Winnie the Pooh. I tried to ruin a few of his shots by reading from the book aloud, mangling all the words, and making him and a few passers by laugh at me. But it didn't work – they came out really well, Dante glaring over my shoulder in outrage at what I am reading. I think opera singer plans to take the photos home and show them to his friends, have a bit of a laugh... which is not really fair – it is not like I make fun of him. I took some photos of myself the other day – emailed them home – here is what one of my more supportive friends said about them: “Day release from Victoria's prisons has certainly gone big budget. It used to be ten pin bowling, now it's Florence.” Here is what my Dad said: “No wonder total strangers are trying to do deals with you.”

Speaking of opera singer – his bike got stolen. He left it locked up at the train station for the weekend. When he returned he found the bike was still there, but the lock had been tampered with and broken, and he could not unlock the cable or retrieve his bike. He then realised that his long coiled cable-lock was not actually locked through any part of the bike, but rather just looped around the outside of the whole bike. So he managed to retrieve his bike simply by pulling it out of what was merely a big loop of cable – the thief was as incompetent at getting around security as opera singer was in setting it up. Anyway, the next day opera singer made the fundamental error of leaving it outside the school without a lock. It was gone by lunchtime.

Work out now, then homework, then, if any of the day is left before I talk to K, I will have a look at my luggage and make some decisions about what to ditch.

Photos – the little corner store near my apartment. They have these kind of cross-over things between bar, cafe, tobacconist – every night there are probably about 20 or so people there – no one ever seems to get tanked – I have seen exactly one person drunk in public in the five weeks I have been in Italy. Another random street shot and another view through a window at school – there is a person up there if you look closely.

Cheers, B.