the aftermath...

with out going into too much graphic and sensory detail, i will just say this:

the pork sandwiches must have the same chemical composition as firecrackers soaked in Drano.
b-c the net effect on one's g.i. tract seems to be the same.
like all thing delicious, decadent and phenomanally greasy, pork sandwiches carry a heavy tariff.

on a different note, i bought a 105 dieci veloce cassetta yesterday afternoon for 55Euro. which doesnt seem to be too bad of price. i dont know what the exchange rate is currently but the lady at the counter at Falciani 's gave me a discount. if they ordered a SRAM cassette for me, it wouldnt be in until monday or tuesday of next week, which is not an option.

switching gears again (pun intended), as i was walking back from the Tigre (local grocery store), i thought that i should start being more philosophical in my posts. i made a mental list of a couple of things that i could write about, observations and cultural comparisons. i told myself to write them down when i got home and further ruminate on those ideas throughout the evening.
guess what i didnt do? exactly; i didnt write them down.
instead, i came home to the door to our apartment wide open (strange b-c Alex always seems a bit jittery when i leave it open during the evening) and a service-man checking out the stove.
Alex tripped the breaker b-c he was running the stove and the lights. which was definately not an extrordinary load, but apparently enough to trip the breaker.
Il tecnico pantomimed 'dont use the stove anymore' to Alex and left. so Alex turned the stove back on, tripped the breaker, and i had to play 'man' and find and flip the breaker switch. oh well...

but in any case, one of the things that i need to over come while i am here (ingeneral as well, but it would be best to do b-c of the language barrier) is to say the right things at the right time.
for instance; on our trip to Amalfi, the first time Charlie let me use his swimtrunks, i asked our bus driver, 'Posso a cambia en l'autobus?' which means 'i can change in the bus?'. he said yes, so i changed and exited the bus.
then he said, 'Posso?' which literally means 'Can i?'; he was saying 'can i lock it?.
i said 'Si, grazie' and waved goodbye.
i should have said, 'Si, poui.' which means 'yes, you can.?
now that is not a big thing. you know? you can get by with alot of pantomime actions and please's and thankyou's, but it would have been a personal vistory.
then later on in the weekend, the lovely barista, from on the corner near the hotel, after seeing me a couple of times for a quick breakfast (the only kind here, no heaping plates of eggs and breakfast meats and toast, AHHHHH!) [sorry], asked me if i was here per vacanze.
i said, yes and that i was an american student studying in ascoli for 3 months and that my group of students/friends were in Sorento for 3 or 4 days for a small trip.
she asked where i was from. and i said, sono di gli stati uniti, cerca bi Boston.
then she said that she wanted to go to the united states, to arizona, which was where her father was from or was there currently (not sure).
we said a couple more pleasant phrases and then i said goodbye.
but i wish i could have said that she should visit boston and the east coast b-c there really isnt much in the desert and plain states. you shoudl come to newhampshire and see the mountains and ocean in the same day. and go to boston or NYC or philadelphia b-c those are our Rome's, venice's and milan's.
i wish i could make talking more betterer!

people here are like people everywhere.
if you are polite, act kindly and try to communicate as best you can, they are interested to talk to you, interested in where you come from, what you are doing in their neck of the woods, what you study, what your home is like, do you like there town, how is your town different from theirs; they want to know about you.

just like if you were to meet someone from Spinetolli or Colli del Tronto (aside from first asking them, where the hell is that?), you would want to know all about them, b-c i dont care who you are, it's just neat to meet someone from 4500 miles from where your home.

on a similar note, i want to tell people jokes! now, im not funny like a comedian or 'that guy' but i can get a laugh. but i dont have the language skills to make cracks to people i know. this is just a small thing.

but for now i have to thrash my way through the italian language leaving bloody chunks of bad grammar in my wake. how ever, i still have something like 15 weeks left. so we'll see how this issue evolves.