As we get older, time goes by faster and faster. My idea on why this is: once life begins to repeat itself, everything that is repetitious of a previous day or activity ends up being stored in memory as a single item. Thus, as one grows older, more and more activities turn out to be the same and time is, literally, compressed in memory--creating that time-is-flying feeling.
Simple fix to this pesky problem: uproot your life, move to somewhere else and get another profession. Easy, eh? :) Honestly, I don't see why not (if you don't have school-age kids). Packing up one's life is challenging (especially in a credit- and contract- based society like ours), admittedly, and I've been fortunate to have family helping me (to this day) wrap up a few loose ends. But once I got here, everything that I thought would be really hard has turned out to simply fall into place.
Back to the point about slowing down time: I've been gone from the US for 1 month and 4ish days. It truly feels like four months have passed. It's hard for me to imagine that I've only been in 5 total days of Italian school and haven't been in Italy for that long at all.
Every day is new, brings new people, new experiences. Every time I venture out of the house, I discover a new street that leads to an incredible vista, a useful establishment (tourist office gave me a book of bike rides today!), yummy pastry shop, chill bar or another public water fountain (no need to ever buy water here). Every single day.
Today's big adventure and success was finding a bath towel. Sad but true, I've been using a travel towel since I left hostel living. There is nothing like drying off with a terry-cloth towel and today I finally purchased one. Finding that store was sheer happiness. Next time you dry off after a shower, appreciate that towel that you've taken for granted your whole life.
The other successful adventure (but not as exciting as the towel) is that I found a new place to live! It's full of Italian students (3 or 4 others), saves me about 100 euro every month (utilities are included in the price, major stress reliever), should have better internet (this connection stinks--usually not good enough for a Skype call) and is significantly closer to school. My view is about the same (stone wall) and room is 1/2 the size of this one, but I'm a believer in small, uncomfortable bedrooms (less comfortable=more time spent out in a public place!) Bedroom = camera da letto (I learned this today in school). I've committed for 2 months so I can decide at that point whether to continue taking Italian classes or travel around a bit more in Europe. It's anyone's guess as to what I'll end up doing.
On a totally different topic, I got some questions pertaining to the last blog entry...my philosophy on dating. It's actually quite simple: I date with the intention of getting married and having a family (family may or may not include having kids--there's nothing certain about having them, even if they're really wanted). Dating is time to get to know the other person (and vice versa) and determining if this is a proper fit for a future family. Just that simple. I like the idea of how people dated back in the 50s. Go to the movies, ice cream, etc, with a variety of people until one person really stands out. Date that person solely for a few months, if all signs are good, get engaged, get married. Done. Simple.
Central Perugia is a town of one-night stands. Most young people are only temporarily here and so many are from around the world--chances are incredibly small that two people who meet here are going in the same direction (or will want to be in the same place) in the future. Italy, in general, has a reputation for being similar, but I don't know how true that is. Stereotypes can be so very wrong. From what I'm hearing others say about the United States, it's pretty shocking some of the ideas people have about it. Most of the foreigners I've met haven't been to the U.S. ever, but they assume a lot that isn't based on reality. (Nor is everything based on what they are fed from Hollywood or even the media.) In a few months, I'm sure this is a topic that will be blog-worthy. The last comment I heard that made me laugh is a girl who assumed I am an expert in gelato since Americans eat an extraordinary amount of ice creams (it's plural in some other languages).
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