Jet lag, Euros and kissing: Oh my.

I have arrived in safely in Italy. A rather uneventful flight actually, when in all honesty I was expecting something to go wrong. Instead my flight to Amsterdam was filled with intermittent sleep and the layover was only an hour and a half, which gave me enough time to do some duty free shopping and have my bottle of water stolen from the customs guy. Because you know a bottle of Dasani is going to cause harm… yet neither the Vancouver nor Amsterdam security had a problem with my 150ml of hand lotion or my tweezers. I guess I only look like I could be a minor terrorist (they saw neither of my passports, if they saw those they would realize that yes, I could be a potential threat with the way those pictures look). Landing in Venice went smooth, a little too smooth for my taste. I’m used to waiting a long time for my luggage and being harassed by customs people, instead I waited 5 minutes for my suitcases (for those keeping count there were three and they were packed to the max) and walked through the doors after speaking with a total of 0 customs officials.

Anyways, after all that travel I got to my aunt and uncles house in Schio, last time I was here was 13-14 years ago (Dad says 13, I like to think 14, whatever, it was a long time) and when asked what I could remember I said three things: the cross memorial that is just around the corner from the house, the cereal bowls that I eat my breakfast out of and the smell of the bathroom… which is not a bad thing. It’s a good smelling bathroom and I argue that I remember things by smells so this smell reminds me of Italy but they thinks it’s an odd thing to mention (when have I been known for being not-odd though?)

Apparently it’s unusually hot, well it was until I got here. It was about 32 the day I arrived and since my first full day here it’s been rainy and cooler. I swear on Friday I heard more thunder than a year in Vancouver and quiet frankly, this place could rival Vancouver on the rain aspect as well.

I have learned a few things in my 3 days here. Such as jet lag is a bitch. I’m tired all the time and I wake up every morning at 5am like clockwork and stare at the ceiling until about 8 when I fall back asleep. Mid afternoon naps are a must and I’m still tired all the time. Another fun fact about Italy, if at all possible, the host of Who Wants to be a Millionaire is more annoying than Regis, I don’t even understand what he says (but I do get the questions right a lot of the time) but he takes 3-5 minutes to get to the correct answer. Also, Italians have stopped clapping for plane landings. The 3 previous times I was here, every time we landed the Italians clapped for the pilot, I looked forward to it, but alas, they did not pull through. I thought that maybe because I was on KLM and the majority of the people were from the Netherlands they didn’t know about this custom but my aunt and uncle inform me that Italians no longer do this, maybe they realized that it was silly to clap for people because they do their jobs or that the whole thing was just odd. I dunno, I mean I think we should clap for people for doing their jobs, we clap at concerts, plays, speeches, those are all people just doing their job. Lauren claps for the waitress when she brings her her spiked frapps, I would think we should clap for people that do their jobs correctly, I mean it’s often a miracle for people to do things correctly (you know I have a point here) and by encouraging them it might make them want to do it more. Ponder that a bit…

What else? Euros confuse me. I was going to buy my last Starbucks for a long time in the Amsterdam airport but I wasn’t quite sure if I was getting ripped off, turns out I would have been so good thing I abstained. The whole concept of a different currency and prices throw me off… much like learning a new language, but that’s for another day. I like to say I’m still too tired to wrap my brain around another language. As my cousin Jessica put it yesterday “It’s too early to be speaking English” I think that’s my motto for the next couple of days (except English is substituted with Italian of course).

And finally, to wrap this thing up, I went out last night with my cousins Jessica and Christian and their friends (all whom were very nice an some spoke English which was great for me). And for my family reading this, met Christian’s girlfriend, Julia, very nice girl who speaks English very well, I had the honor of meeting her before Livi and Meraldo. I also saw Jessica’s place, very nice and for those of you that know my Italian goals, she claims marriage wont happen for 20 years, but she already has baby names picked out and when she gave me the tour of the place she called the spare room the baby’s room… take what you want from that.
Anyways, we all went out for dinner and had a really great time, came home at 2:30 which works wonders for my sleepiness, although I hoped I wouldn’t wake at 5am, I still did. For those wondering (aka mom and dad) I ate duck (on the pasta) and tried polenta, which was good. I also tried to convince one guy that I lived in an igloo in Canada, I had him going until Christian corrected me, although I’m not sure if he actually believed me since we weren’t communicating in the same language. Also, a source of confusion, the cheek kissing. I always thought it was one on each cheek, people were doing 3 last night, others 4. I sense an anthropological study in the art of greeting people in Italy coming on. Btw, this custom is also common among the men with other men (I challenge the guys in Canada to start that) and another note on the guys here, very chivalrous to their girlfriends (when was the last time a guy got out of the car to get the umbrella and hold it for you as you got out the car ladies?).