I've seen Dante's Inferno in the form of Italian Bureaucracy

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

As my lovely, Texan roommate put so eloquently, “y’all make gourmet burgers!” I think it’s safe to say that our “American” girls’ night, though not as healthy as its Italian predecessor, was a delicious success. The night ended with my pledge (over a bowl of popcorn with M&Ms) to “parlo solo in italiano quando nell’apartamento.”

Swearing to speak only in Italian the night before a 7am wake-up call was, perhaps, poor timing on my part. My brain doesn’t function in English at that hour, let alone in a foreign language…so I might have cheated on my oath early on, but I’m attempting to make good on it this afternoon.
My alarm clock rang so early because I had to make the 20 minute walk to the Duomo by 8:15 to complete the unbelievably frustrating, unjustifiably expensive, and apparently unending paperwork for my permit to stay; a permit necessary for those living in Italy for more than three months. I’m in Italy for 3 months and 20 days. For three hours I stood outside of the police station waiting for my name to be called, only to spend 5 minutes giving my information and fingerprints before getting directions to my next meeting around the corner. A mere two and a half hours later, I climbed the stairs of another office to give my finger and hand prints (again). A bit after 2:00, six hours after my adventure began, I was finally liberated and practically skipped down the sunny streets to the Campo where I inhaled a delicious pancetta and mozzarella panini before heading over to IES for my first “Presence of the Past” class, my only class taught in Italian. We were an hour late and I was a bit too frazzled to focus entirely, but the professor seems nice and I was excited to learn that a fresco I studied in one of my classes at Fordham is actually here in Siena. Nice to think that all the work I put into the honors program really does pay off…

After class I made the dreaded trek to Conad for groceries and was pleasantly surprised by a comparatively empty store. There are few places as stressful as the one bargain grocery store in a small Italian city. In fact, I was so cheery upon leaving that I decided to be adventurous and attempt to buy fruit from one of the tiny “frutta e verdure” stores along the main street. I chose the store (if you can call it a store, it’s more like a closet) of an old man who had actually smiled and replied to my “ciao” the day before (smiles and greetings are not always common things for a stranger to receive from the Sienese). He was just as pleasant today and we had a short, cheery conversation over my bag of grapes. It’s amazing what a little friendliness can do to improve your fluency.

Once again, I’ve returned to the apartment to find that we have no internet. Thankfully, though, I just got a visit from the building’s landlord who brought in a man to remove the red lamps from our kitchen. Finally! We can cook meat and be sure our food is actually cooked!

It’s beautiful outside and late Italian dinners I’ve been enjoying have suppressed my appetite until at least 7:30, so I think I’ll walk around and take in the lovely, sunny weather while I still can (and before the internet temptation pulls me back to e-mails and skype).