i woke in Italy today.

I woke up in Italy today.

my trip went fine.
on the way i saw:
- a wind farm off the coast of da nederlands
- people riding bicycles from the air (also over da nederlands)
- the sun rise at 2:55 am over the atlantic

those were the cool things of note.
some other neat things are:
toilet paper here is much more robust than even the heartiest US brands
i have a bidet in my apartment
i rode my bicycle 2.73 miles last night in order to see if it was in working order (a spoke is pinging alittle on my powerstrokes)

oh and the best part is that the airline only charged me $50 to ship my bike instead of $150 and it actually got there with no broken parts.

i saw a guy riding an Epic Marathon thru Piazzo Del Popolo this morning . and Cristian is going to introduce me to a roadie he for me.
the group seems nice. i am rooming with Alex and i think it will be a good fit b/c... well im not sure but he seems laid back and is more courageous than i am.

i have a phone now and at the advise of our program director YOU SHOULD CALL ME instead of me calling you.

country code = 011 39 then my number 327 733 6807

it will be an international call but we can keep it short. we were advised to do it this way b-c there is a ridiculous amount of ringamarole associated with international calling on cell phones.

check back in another day or two for more complete ruminations.