Oddities of Italy, and There Are Many...

Lots of things are weird here in the south of Europe. Today we had a train strike... Needless to say I did not know about it until like 5 trains went by (two were ridiculously full and the rest were already striking early). What a morning! I did get a lot done in studio and have included the template I have created for my final design on this first project. I have my review for that on Monday with my Italian language final on Tuesday... Lots to do so no plans for the weekend but working. We also have put off our plans for Sicily, just too dang far away from our ending point on a separate island (my goodness Capri is sooooo beautiful that our Italian language teacher is jealous).

Anyways, here is a short list of things I have noticed that are odd about Italy (and DEFINITELY comically stereotyped to the extreme):

- Every woman between the age of 30 and 50 must walk with a lit cigarette in hand.
- Older women in Italy only yell and shake their fists. Especially when crossing roads...
- Everyone languidly smokes cigarettes while waiting... for anything...
- Public restrooms? Why?
- Stores don't need to have products organized logically as long as they are inside.
- Women in Italy must wear boots. (Mainly due to dog poop)
- They have significantly fewer organizations like the FCC here to coordinate lewdness on TV and in street advertisements.
- Dogs can poop anywhere, so long as they weigh less than 15 pounds. And they must pee on at least three objects owned by the state per walk.
- If you buy a beer at a bar/restaurant you must leave the bottle in a public park or bus stop.
- You can smoke anywhere as long as you palm the cigarette while indoors.
- Stores will close at random times with no correlation throughout the week.
- You must include an expletive in front of Silvio Berlusconi's name (Prime Minister).
- "Sardine-ify" the tram and bus because Italians invented Sardines.
- You can park anywhere.
- Talk with as much arm movement as possible. Use the hand with the cigarette in it when emphasizing something.
- Scooters can drive anywhere.
- What is a speed limit?
- Horns on vehicles are meant to be abused.
- Why would you put a turn signal on a car? They are not necessary...
- Coffee can only be sold in servings less than 6 ounces.
- Never refrigerate juice, beer, fruits or vegetables.
- People under 25 must ride with a passenger of the same gender on a scooter or motorcycle.
- Everyone is in a hurry to go absolutely nowhere... Just to facilitate more standing around and smoking while talking to other people.
- Pretend not to speak English until the people bumble through loads of terrible nonsensical Italian.
- Putting scaffolding on a building means that something on it will change that decade.
- Nothing gets "fixed" just wiggled around and griped at.

Most of these aren't really true for all of Italy, but they are have happened at certain times to me and my flat mates. Most of these things also happen in other cities around the world (I have seen lots of these in New York too), but they are more noticeable here abroad.

Here is a random set of pictures to go along with a sarcastic set of pictures.

A fountain one block from studio

This is apple juice... Yes. Apple juice.

My final drawing template piece.

Scott Mead sits to my left in studio...

And Sam Mullholland to my right...

You may recognize Mike, he is across from Sam...

Anne sits in the corner across the way...

No one sits across from me...

Mike Krause sits across from Scott... (he posed for this picture)

And another Mike (Vander Ploeg) sits in the other spot next to the window.

The most random assortment of things bought at the grocery store: Green Fanta, a quarter of cheap cheese, a scented candle, a birthday cake for Matt Gaul (ISU student who lives below me who celebrated his birthday today, so we had him over for dinner), and a cheap frozen pizza. All coming in around 10 euro... Random.

I am a little busy right now catching up from being sick on Thursday and Monday, so tomorrow may be light. I will have pictures of new things from history class so tune in!