Deluge

Ciao tutti,

The Andrea Bocelli concert was very nice - and we had the misfortune of being constantly reminded of this by some American bimbo who was standing next to us enveloped in a column of smoke. Seriously, what did she think she had to prove? She was obviously showing off her perceived supreme knowledge of and deep insight in Italian music to her equally stupid friends, but did she HAVE to do it while Bocelli was singing?!?!

Anyway, the rest of the week was as usual. I still have to finish a lot of courses before June, 30th and this is pretty much defining my life. Olaf was in Tunisia last week and spent this week in Turkey so I didn't see him much. Which is good, because I don't have any time for him anyway. He made the mistake of traveling with Alitalia though, and, as expected, the lost his luggage. They delivered his suitcase two days later on Monday night and this was quite inconvenient as he had to leave again Tuesday morning and he needed all his shirts cleaned. But let's be optimistic, at least they found it back.

Paola and I went to an Italian translation of Thomas Middleton and William Rowley's 17th-century comedy 'The Changeling'. This was a really weird play (for a description, go here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Changeling_%28play%29). It was about a woman who wanted to marry her lover but was made to marry another man by her father. In her despair she hires someone to have her prospective husband killed, but this hired hand wants her for himself and forces her to pay him in sex. She then gets to marry the man she wants but has already lost her virginity and makes her chambermaid take her place in the nuptial bed for the prima notte. Afterwards, she has her maid killed by her hired hand who is found by her husband and owns up to everything. The woman and the hired hand then take their lives and the play ends with the husband's appeal for a return to the morals and values of the past and a renunciation of decadence. The execution of the play was nothing special but it was entertaining. The only thing I did not understand - although the authors apparently meant it this way - was the fact that the female lead was played by three different actresses. This was supposed to illustrate the development of her character in three stages, from caprice to guilt to dour amoralism, but in my opinion it just caused confusion over who was who and denied the actresses the chance to develop their performances to a climax.

Last Sunday, when Olaf was back for a couple of days, we went to the Cimitero Monumentale art festival with Stefano and Elke. There were supposed to be musical and theatrical performances, but unfortunately it started raining not long after we got there and everything was cancelled. Our tour guide was amazing though. Instead of cutting the tour short and trying to get inside to escape from the rain, he shepherded us all into one of the bigger monuments and started telling us about all the monuments we hadn't seen yet. He was hoping the rain would end or slow down and wanted to take us to look at the tombs he had just described. But alas, the rain did not end and as a last resort he led the way running past all the tombs we shouldn't miss before taking us back to the main building. This guy was way cool!

I've also had a near-death experience. Someone else's death by my hands, that is. Last Friday, as I was cycling back from the swimming pool through the pouring rain, I had to stop because some guy was trying to get out of a parking space. I was obviously annoyed because I was cold and wet and wanted to go home, but these things happen you know. The guy took his time though, all the while blocking my passage. When he finally got out of the parking space and onto road he pulled up really fast and I was happy I could continue my journey. 20 metres down the road, however, the guy stopped again and started trying to get into another parking space, taking his time again and blocking my way through. Shivering, soaked and really irritated, I did what any decent Italian would do in this situation, I gave him the 'Va fa in culo'-gesture. So, without parking his car well, making sure it was still blocking all the traffic on the street, he got out of his car and asked me with this quasi-innocent, pseudo-shocked, trying-to-look-sweet, arrogant face 'Ma che c'è? Perché fai così?' or something of the sort. I swear, I could have strangled him right then and there...

As you may have noticed, I have been mentioning the word 'rain' quite a lot. I don't really want to talk about this. I'm in Italy and it's June, the weather should be f*cking amazing by now, but it's not and it sucks. As Dennis Quaid said in The Day after Tomorrow: 'I think we're on the verge of a major climate shift.'

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!! The deluge has started and we will soon be living in a new ice age!!!! Does that mean I'll get to snog and cuddle up to Jake Gyllenhaal though??

That would make for a lot... Ciao, Fe