I feel as though I've been a bad little blogger lately. Things keep happening that I think "oh, I should blog about that" - but then I never do. In reality its been less than a week since I blogged. Which really isn't that bad. I've seen much longer abscenses from certain other people who will remain nameless. ;) Anyways, you should prepare yourself for a good read in this one, cause it's gonna be long.

In any case, as projected, once I started getting bussier the blogging became less. Which is both a good and bad thing. Stefano has also moved in, which meant having to share the internet, and being forced to be more social. No more sitting at home in my pajamas messing around online all day. Yesterday though, we went and bought another ethernet cable, 15 m! Although we only needed probably 6 to reach across the hall to my room, we got 15. The nice thing is that I can now take my laptop all the way to the kitchen and use the internet. Although I would much prefer it to be wireless. In any case, I can now ues the internet again whenever I want. ie, when I wake up in the morning, or late at night before going to sleep. My favorite times to use it, as that's when people from back home are online.

Buying the cord was a bit of an experience in and of its self. Stefano told me that he saw a Media World store not far from here. So yesterday we walked over to check it out. I was expecting to see some little shop, nothing to spectacular. Boy was I in for a surprise. It was HUGE! well, by Italian standards huge anyways, and from the outside it promised to be something like a Best Buy. As we entered though, i couldnt help but laugh, as of course they had to put a spin on it. Media World took an "electronics" store to the next level, as Electronics meant anything that used electricity of any kind. That's right. Toasters, Microwaves, blenders, they were all there in the isles next to the CD players and computers. This of course meant that the selection of computer related things, was much smaller than I was expecting from the outside. It also meant that the store only carried ethernet cables of 5m. Not quite long enough.

So a little dissapointed we left, and started the walk home. When we were almost back to the apartment, we walked by a little hole in the wall shop. It really didn't look like much, rather shuffled contents on the inside, and a sense of not even knowing if it was open, or a store room. However, they had one badly organized self in the window with a few items on display that caught my eyes. CDs, ink cartridges, etc. So we ventured in. I'm not sure exactly what it is, I think some kind of computer repair place, that also sells some random items, and to our good fortune they also happened to have 15m ethernet cables. YES! for the mer price of 18 euros (a rip off back home, but somehow here it seemed like a decent price), we were made, yes, that's right, made, our very own custom 15m cable. It took a good 10 min for him to pull the cable from the box, cut it to length, and ad the ends to it. But oh was it pretty when it was done, and works like a charm. Just goes to show you that sometimes the little stores are better...

As said before, I've also become a bit bussier in this past week. With the arrival of Stefano and being forced to be more social, I've actually been hanging out more with some people from my school. The nice thing about Milan, is that it loves its foreign students. I've never been happier to admit that I was a foreigner. Here, being one means free entrance to clubs and bars, and often times free drinks as well. Of course it depends on the night where you can go, but every night there is somewhere you can go and get a special deal. There are also the aperitivos which are wonderful. You go, buy a drink for a couple euro, and you get a platter full of food to eat. Plenty for a dinner. Of course it depends on where you go, how much they'll give you, and some places you have to pay extra for the food. But I've found that out in my little neck of the woods they are quite generous with what you get. So I've been spending some time out with these folks, getting to know them a bit. They're from all different countries, although the majority of them come from Spanish speaking countries. Then there are the people who come from Holland and Isreal and such, who know English. No one however, seems to know Italian other than Stefano and I. So most of the night I end up speaking a mix of English, with some Italian, directed towards the people who speak spanish but not english, as they can understand Italian a bit. Still, it seems everyone would prefer to speak in English/spanish. A bit dissapointing as I am trying to improve my Italian. At home I get to practice though, and our conversations are usually a strange mixture of Italian with some random English words thrown in.

I've also been spending more time studying lately. Really hunkering down with my language books from previous classes, and trying to master the present conditional and past conditional tenses. I figure if I am going to be critiquing peoples work in Italian, it might be a good idea for me to learn how to do so in a more polite way. :) In addition, I've started readiing "io non ho paura" which is both challenging and rewarding. I've discovered that I can read the book without the use of a dictionary, and understand most of what is going on. I may not know the meaning of a word, but by the context I can figure out the general idea. However, using the dictionary gives me a much deeper and richer understanding. I read much slower in Italian, as I generally read a paragraph twice, and really think about the sentences to make sure I am getting them correctly. but it's a great feeling when I look up a word and suddenly everything clicks into place and makes so much sense. It also makes the story a lot more interesting to read. :)

As for how I'm doing on the health front, it could be better. While last time everything blew over pretty easily, this time I dont think I'm going to be quite so lucky. I think it is a combination of alergies and a cold. alergies to what, I dont know.but when I walk outside my nose and eyes burn (which luckily is about all that ever happens to me with alergies). I can feel it in my throat though, and its becoming increasingly more difficult to breath through my nose as each day passes. In addition I've seemed to developed a cough today, and already this morning Stefano has said to me (in Italian of course) "dont go and get sick!" Trust me. If I could avoid it, I would. Part of me wants to take some dayquil, as I know their magic will make me feel better, at least for the day. But the other part of me says NO! as I've only a limited supply and should save it for when I really need it. --- which reminds me, if anyone back home is wondering what to do for my birthday, a couple boxes of the generic store brand dayquil would be greatly appreciated, as there isnt anything here quite the equivalent ---

So I think that more or less brings me up to date on what has been happening. hopefully I'll post a little more reguarly as to avoid these longer posts which can be a pain to read. :)