Day 32

I've had a pretty efficient day today. Despite the fact that I slept through my three alarms, I managed to get to the exchange program office by 11 to finally have a paper that I needed signed sent to Chile. After the whole 10 minutes that took, after a week-long search I finally found stamps- or francobolli- to send off a few post cards I bought in Pisa. All the stamps I had to put on covered some of what I wrote though...but hopefully it will be decipherable (which is a real word by the way). Then I proceeded to the computer lab to put in some time for Italian class. After all, I was starting to wonder where my obsessively responsible self had gone this whole time. Granted the 2 hours I sat there won't make up for all the time I'll be missing while away, but...it's a start.

After that, with somewhat of a studious rhythm going, being that I have to walk through the park that's in front of the basilica I thought I'd hang out and read the short story for English that I would also be missing because of the trip. Of course my attention span lasted only so long before I was daydreaming and looking around. It's funny how typical everything is. You think you're being free spirited, reading in the park...but how free spirited is that really? Everyone's sitting under a tree reading. Or sprawled on the grass with a boyfriend or girlfriend. And a little girl runs after her dog laughing. Typical. I know this sounds a little cynical, but don't get me wrong, I love all of it. I smiled as the little girl ran after her dog...because it's cute. I was just surprised how things can be typical like that. The same anywhere you go. Sort of classic. I think maybe that at any given time around the world in some park there's someone sitting on a bench reading a book, or a group hanging out eating lunch. That's what parks are for after all. Wouldn't it be odd seeing a park empty all the time.

Anyway, amidst this typicality...I also realized I have never seen such an obvious spring. Maybe I never caught it in time to really notice it...but I looked around and you could literally see the transformation of the trees. Some were still brown, others were spotted by a few buds and leaves, and some had already bloomed with these unusual purple flowers. It looked different than last time I was there, two days ago. Really, how could anyone not like spring?

At around 3 I realized I should probably get going because my characteristic to-do list was not getting any shorter. And on my way back, two things happened: One, I finally figured out what was moving in the bushes. Every time I had walked past green areas with little bushes, I always heard little things scattering. And at first I thought it might be lizards, but it didn't really make sense to me in the middle of a city.  But, today it happened again and I managed to spot one of them, and yes, there are lizards. Little blue and green Roman lizards. Mystery solved.

Two, as I walked on over the bridge towards my street, I looked around and it dawned on me again that I was in Italy. I forget sometimes. It's like you slowly and unconsciously assimilate where you are and what you're doing at a certain point in life and then it comes at you like a wave and you suddenly think about it for a second and it surprises you. It seemed like everything just looked foreign at that moment..and it was like I was watching myself walk along a bridge in some movie and it was like oh look, there's Nasha in Italy. I'm laughing at myself as I type. Anyway...

I'm taking too long to write this. I have to throw some sort of lunch together that involves as much of the food in the fridge as possible so it doesn't go to waste. I have to get organized and pack. I'm thinking I'm not going to have any time to run today...I would if I had gotten up earlier. If I had...

How many times have I said that before.