Parma, Italy
Friday, June 3, 2005
Well, I did write entries for the past few days, but haven't been able to upload them yet, so I'm going to continue in "real time" until I get a chance. Niki and I are in
Parma, but we arrived the 28th, a story which goes in that brief hiatus I mentioned. Anyway, we've been here a few days and were supposed to take a day trip today to Venice, but we cancelled it at the last minute. I was exhausted from our day trip to the beach at Cinque Terre yesterday and couldn't bear the thought of only spending 5 hours in Venice with 7 hours of train ride all in one day. It was a good thing, too, because Niki came down with some sort of allergic reaction (we believe) to something she ate last night. We went to class (a fascinating lecture about Italian Family Law, and specifically the Catholic Church's influence on it) and planned to leave for Venice right after, but Niki's hives started getting worse, so we decided to nix the trip and go to a pharmacy. She took her meds and promptly lost consciousness for 4 hours, so it was a good thing we weren't in transit! She's feeling much better now, so I think we made the right decision. The concierge downstairs was very nice when I consulted him about a possible doctor's visit (in very inarticulate terms and armed with a phrasebook no less) and even offered (I think) to drive us himself to the Clinic. I find it very telling that I felt more comfortable approaching a total stranger whose language I don't speak at all for help than our own professor. So as a result of our little health scare, I now have an improved command of Italian medical terminology and of course the international language of helpless miming (shades of poor Carl Bailey who, despite an awe-inspring inability to learn foreign languages, nonetheless managed to order "Sweet and Sour Chicken" at a Chinese restaurant in Moscow. I'm not in his league, but hold my own and am now the official sign-language interpreter for the entire group when a communication necessity surpasses our actual language skills- which is often). On the way back from class, I bought a cute pair of sneakers because my shoes are all giving me blisters and cuts (more on that also in the hiatus). When Niki woke up, we did a little browsing in the trendy boutiques on the main strip with our neighbour and classmate Justina, and I acted as everyone's shopping assistant, being the only one not too shy to read phonetically from my helpful little book at any clerk silly enough to make eye contact with me. The internet cafe is closing now, so I will write some more tomorrow. Much love to all and ciao for now! :)
