Parco Sibilini and Polizia

Wednesday i rode with Franceso. we went to Roccafluvione, then toward Montegallo (chicken mountian, he told me), then through Uscerno. we climbed for about 10km, i think, but it was gradual and nothing like the misery Brian or Vince subjected me to. Francesco said the the last 3km were tough and i'm sure if you did it at race pace it would be miserable.

then we turned around and went to the race course where Francesco will be racing on Sunday.
which was flat and goes through the industrial zone.

we did 53 miles at about 18.5mph average, which was alot faster than i am used to lately. my legs were jello after our ride.

then today, Friday, we had to be at the Police station at 9am to finalize our Permisso di Sogiorno (temporary visa's). we (the group and myself) were not the first ones there but were promptly there at 9am. we all threw our documents in the little plastic bin and waited. and waited. and waited.
we were at the american equivalent to the DMV except they also processed visas and immagration type documents. we waited until about 10:30 when we were called up to a window, and told we needed copies of our passports (allpages, every single page) and a letter from our school and an offical stamp; all of which we had completed 3 weeks earlier at the post office.
the other kids hit the roof, were generally livid. i called Cristian, our director and he said just to hang tough and wait. then an arab fellow (not exactly sure of his nationality) helped translate what the lady at the window said; he confirmed that we had to re-do all that stuff. but also told us that students usually get called from another room to have security things done somewhere else. this was generally what Cristian had explained to me, so it seemed like we were on track, although no one was staying the least bit calm.
another kid from the group called Cristian, who was enroute to come help us.
by this time, tempers were flairing. but i just hung tough and waited. an who would have guessed it, but two minutes before Cristian arrived with our sponsorship letters from the school, they start calling groups of two of us back to be fingerprinted, thereby finalizing our temporary status! who would have f___ing guessed that, you impaitent little ragamuffins!

me: Cristian, ciao. we're all a bit confused about what to do here. theyre telling us we need to fill out more forms.
Cristian: no, you just give them your documents and then wait. theyll call you, then you wait some more. i suggest you find a seat because you will have to wait a while.

so, at 12:30pm, i walked out of the Ascoli Piceno police department into the rain, after 3 and half hours of waiting, huffing middle eastern peoples bodily musk and sitting on a marble floor. thank god it was raining because if it that was how i would have had to spend a beautiful sunny morning, i would have been a little impaitient too.

now... off to shoot a movie.