I Have Had an Electrical Mishap

Surely anyone who knows me isn't surprised by this. I don't seem to have much luck with electricity, or electrical appliances. *frown*

My other roommate Alison had to go back to Canada for a few days to sort out her visa. We figured that while she was there, she could get us a wireless router since they are so expensive here. She came back yesterday, and we were anxious to set it up.

I have been crowned the Techo Wizard of the house thanks to all my residual knowledge of computers that I gleened from dating the computer teacher for two years (thanks George!). So 0f course I was the one voted to set about getting this router thing going.

I checked the voltage thing on the plug for the router (120 volts and 60 hertz) and for some reason figured that it would be fine to plug in. I got a plug adaptor and hooked everything up.

Of course (and I do know this), the voltage is too strong here and after a few moments, the plug adaptor sparked, there was a popping noise, and all the lights went out. Figures. I had the thing out of the box for not even 5 minutes...*shakes head*

Hopefully the actual router is fine and we can just buy a new plug for it. I am thinking it will be since it didn't smell like burning plastic, only the plug did.

The Bionic Thumb

Today was my five day check up at the clinic for my thumb. Let me tell you, it was quite the ordeal! Before I go into details, rest assured that my thumb is doing great and I don't need surgery on it! They removed the ugly white splint and put on this hard plastic brace thing, which is much better because at least I can get this wet, or take it off to clean my hand properly.
But now I look like I have a bionic thumb!

Anyways, the visit to the clinic is something that I totally never want to do again. The doctors are all really nice, but the receptionist nurse people are total bitches.

I had called on Tuesday to make an appointment for 11:30am. Fine. I get to the clinic and get in line with the front desk lady. When it is my turn, I explain why I am there, and she asks me for my "impegnativa" (a form that your family doctor gives you). I had no idea what she was talking about, so I started pulling out all the papers they had given me at emerg. but none of them were what she was looking for. Well, you would have thought I had 11 heads growing out of my body the way she went on about the form: You don't have one??? Why don't you have one??? Well, you need one!!! and on and on. Finally she sent me to tell some other lady that I didn't have this form.

But when I got to the desk, the other lady wasn't there. When she finally came back, about 3 Italians tried to push in front of me, but I held my ground. I told her I didn't have the impegnativa. "What do you mean you don't have one??? Why not???" Oh the scandal!!! I explained for the second time that I was Canadian and I didn't have a doctor here in Italy to give me one. So here we go again with the whole scorning thing for not having a form. She told me to wait while she helped everyone else and then she would go and see if a doctor at the clinic would be nice enough to take pity on my poor broken-thumbed sole and do me the grand favour of writing one for me.

About 15 minutes later, out comes the lady with a form for me and she tells me to go back to the bitchy lady at the front desk. Joy. I line up again, just bursting with excitment at the prospect of dealing with this woman again. When I get to her, I show her the impegnativa, and she starts bitching about the fact that the doctor didn't fill it in properly: Why didn't he write the perscription??? Bitch, bitch, bitch. But what happened next totally blew me away:

She reached down and pulled out a stack of these forms and proceeded to write me a new one!!!

I was like 'You bitch!!! Thanks for wasting an hour of my time and totally treating me like a leaper when you could have BEEN NICE and done this for me in the first place!"' I was so mad!!!

Then I had to go pay the ticket. The women continues her cheery dialogue: Did you pay? No, of course not. You have to go to x place to pay. Do you know where that is? No, of course not. Bitch.

Anyways, I didn't have enough money to pay, so I had to walk home to get more money and then go back to the hospital. Once I paid, I went back to the bitchy lady (who was FINALLY nice to me), and then on to the doctors.

The only other bad part was when they had to make my bionic thumb costume. The first time they did it, he stretched the plastic part too tightly around my thumb so he had to fit it multiple times. Let me tell you, shoving your swollen broken thumb in and out and a hard plastic mold that is too small about 10 times really is not pleasant. I thought for sure that if I didn't need surgery before the mold fitting, I would definitely need it after. He scrapped the first one and made a second one, which fits great, and was far less painful of an ordeal.

Then I got x-rays and went home. I am supposed to go back in another 21 days for another check-up, but I am not relishing the idea too much because once again I do not have an impegnativa. And I really don't think I could go through all that again.

Kids Are Strange

I have been wearing skirts to school these past few days so that my scabby knee can air out and move more freely.

So this morning I have all my kids sitting on the carpet. I am standing at the front of the room counting down from ten to get everyone ready for the math lesson, when all of a sudden I feel 'poke' on my knee.

I look down and here is one of my kids fixated on my battered knee, which is just visible beneath the hem of my skirt. And at sitting-kid eye level no less. I guess the temptation of my injury overwhelmed the 'keep your hands to yourself' policy.

*shakes head*

Recovering

Today is four days after my accident and I seem to finally be recovering. Well, in so much as things have stopped getting progressively more swollen and bruised. I think the injuries have plateaued, which is a good thing. It really is quite disturbing to see oneself continually getting more purpley-blue and puffy by the minute.

In all the hulabaloo surrounding my broken thumb, I neglected to notice my scraped knee which promptly turned purplish, swelled up, and became virtually non-existant by Sunday night. Boy am I glad we have an elevator at school!

But today things are feeling better....or at least not worse. It can only get better from here, right? And more importantly, I feel better too. I was pretty traumatized by the whole thing really. It is quite a scary thing to happen at all, nevermind in a foreign country where you are without your family and friends. But everyone here has been pretty sweet about it, asking if I am ok and stuff. And the kids are totally fascinated by it all. They want to see everything! Like, roll up the pantleg, take off the bandages kind of thing. Too funny. One of the other second graders (not in my class) came up to me today and was like "Excuse me, but what have you done to yourself?!" It was hilarious.

Tomorrow I go back to the clinic for more x-rays. Fingers crossed (ha ha) that my bone is knitting just fine and doesn't need any help from some surgery and a metal pin.

I Hurt My Thumb

IKEA Padova just opened on Wednesday and I have been dying to get out there just to look around (and get those cool IKEA slippers because it is chilly here at night and my feet have been freezing). So yesterday Gigi and I decided to ride our bikes out to IKEA. We had looked on a map, and it didn't seem to hard to get to, so off we went.

About 20 minutes later, and after a slightly harrowing journey down the two-lane highway, we had arrived. IKEA was totally packed, this being the first weekend it was open. We found some great stuff for the apartment that we can go back and buy when we a) get paid, and b) are not on our bikes. But I did buy the slippers I set out to get.

Bonus: they are made of terrycloth, not waffle-weave cotton like back home.

After IKEA, we stopped at the mall with the WalMart-ish store to see if I could find a big plastic jar for my classroom. Since we couldn't, we went into the centre of town to the 1 Euro store. I found my jar and a big mug for tea. By this point we were pretty tired so we decided to head home. The centre streets were packed with people, so we took a less crowded and more direct street home.

The city of Padova is putting in a tram system, so some streets have street-car tracks in them. The street we took home was one of them. I was riding along to the left of the rightmost streetcar track when I heard a car coming. I attemted to move to the right so the car could pass, but my front tire got stuck in the track-groove and I fell off my little pink bike! I hit the ground, all my purchases went flying from my basket all over the road (bonus: my mug didn't break), and my bell went flying into pieces!

There were three people waiting for the bus across the street, and one of them came running over to see if I was ok. He helped me up and tried to make sure I was ok. The car that was behind me stopped and all 4 people got out to see if there was anything they could do. I was pretty shaken up at that point so all I could do was cry and point to the streetcar tracks when the asked me how I had fallen.

Then I assessed myself to see what the damage was. The results:

a) tore my jeans (the first thing I noticed of course)

b) scraped my left knee (as if it wasn't messed up enough already! It's ALWAYS the left knee. Even though I fell to the right, I still managed to hurt my left knee)

c) scraped the heel of my right hand

and

d) messed up my left thumb. I wasn't really sure what was wrong with it, but I noticed my nail was all scraped, my knuckle was looking a little pointy, and it really hurt.

Gigi let me feel sorry for myself a little before making me get back on my bike. So I rolled up my pantleg, and rode home as best I could. We stopped at the pharmacy to get peroxide and big bandages, and then at the grocery store to get tea and bags to make ice-cubes so we could ice my thumb, which was getting more and more swollen, and starting to bruise.

Somehow during the fall I had managed to get blood on my forehead even though I didn't scrape it, so here I am with my hand all bloody, bleeding knee, blood on my forehead, swollen thumb, and a tear stained face shopping for first aid and ice. I got quite a few stares, let me tell you. And it is my neighbourhood grocery store, so I will have to go back. But I got the grumpy guy behind the cash register to smile in sympathy, so it wasn't a total loss. Gigi kept telling me I looked so cool with all my wounds.

By the time I got home I had decided that I should probably go to the hospital about my thumb since it was really swollen and turning purple. I remember my dad telling me that if the bone is fractured or broken, the extremity will swell and bruise right away, which is what my thumb was doing.

So, off Gigi and I went to the hosital. Luckily we live closeby. By the time I got to the hospital, my thumb looked like this:

(Comparison with normal thumb. Note unusual pointiness of knuckle.)

And it felt like someone had driven a nail through my knuckle. *super ouch*

The doctors were really nice and funny. I got a shot in the butt for the pain, and they took 3 x-rays of my hand. If you look very carefully at the thumb in the middle x-ray, you can see a dark line on the left side of the knuckle.

Somehow I managed to fracture my thumb while falling off my bike. Who does that, really?!? Now that I think about it, my thumb probably hit my bell, which is why it went flying off my bike into many pieces.

So now I have a splint on my thumb for the next 21 days.

I have to go back for x-rays in 5 days to make sure the fracture is closing. If it isn't then they will need to put a pin in my thumb! YIKES! Let's hope that doesn't happen.

I Got Wheels

HOT PINK wheels! Yes, I have finally joined the masses and bought a bike. And I luurrrve it!

Bicycles are a common method of transportation here in Padova. Most everyone who does not own a car owns a bike. It is not uncommen to see little old men and ladies who can barely walk traipsing around on a bike, or men dressed in business suites and women in their Sunday best riding along. Young, old, dressy, casual, rich, poor, a bike is the way to go.

Several of the teachers, including Gigi, have a bike and have been on me to get one. I was going to wait until we got paid, but decided what the hell, and started checking around for one. Saturday I went walking around trying to find a bike, but to no avail. I checked Bike Store A, where I had seen a hot pink bike that I really liked days earlier, and Bike Store B near the train station, but both were closed.

So on Monday after school Gigi and I went back to Bike Store A: no bikes for sale, and Bike Store B: only one bike that was too expensive. Then we tried Bike Store C near our house: only men's bikes. By that point I was really tired since we had been walking around for about 3 hours, so we went grocery shopping and then home.

Tuesday I tried Bike Store D near the school: only small bikes and men's bikes. When I was leaving school that day, my principal told me about another bike store to try. So I went to Bike Store E: nothing out front that I liked. Too bad. But the guy told me to hold on a second while he went to talk to his boss. When he came back out, he told me to come in the shop. And that is when I saw My Little Pink Bike!

She was in rough shape: no seat, no pedals, but the guy told me they would put on a seat, pedals, new tires, new brakes, and a new light for me. The price was 10 Euro more than I wanted to spend, but I figured 'What the hell? Two-thirds of the bike will be new, AND it is HOT PINK (which is the colour I wanted all along)!!!'

So I went to pick her up from the bike shop today. My Little Pink Bike. Now I can join the Teacher Train that leaves the school every day.

So Tired...

I can't believe how exhausting it can be to chase around and keep on top of 21 little children all day. I am so tired right now I could crawl into bed, and it is only quarter after 8.

Today was the second full day of teaching (that means kids from 8:50 until 4 with a 20 minute recess and an hour lunch stuffed in there somewhere), and so far it is going pretty well. Except for the exhausted part.

I taught my kids all morning until lunch, and then this afternoon while my kids had Italian, I got pulled to cover the new first grade class because that teacher was sick. And by "new," I mean all the children who don't know English and haven't been to school before. It was an interesting experience. One of the kids is totally AWOL, and I could have sworn he was going to stab me with his pencil every time I got close to him. At one point I looked over and he was eating his pencil crayon. But they managed to understand what I taught them (even and odd numbers, and making a map of the classroom), so good on the both of us for understanding and being understood.

Who Knew Rubber Bands Had So Many Uses?

Turns out rubber bands are useful for more than just holding stuff together. Today I have used three of them to successfully fix two leaky toilets, and the shower head. Note the strategic use of rubber bands in the following pictures.



Problem: Shower head kept slipping down.

Solution: Rubber band to prevent slippage.








Problem: Toilet won't stop running.

Solution: Tie a rubber band around the little arm thing and the top part so that the rubber band will pull the arm part up so the toilet will stop running while at the same time allow the little arm thing go down when you flush.




In other news, I have discovered that I too have projectile toast.



Maybe that is why the toaster is named Tizzy.

Fait Accompli

The first week of school is over. And so is my weekend just about. Tomorrow we start with full days of school, and I am really not sure how I am going to make it teaching until 4pm. It was already exhausting teaching half-days! But we will all get into the swing of things in no time, I am sure.

After the bat incident, nothing that qualifies as "exciting" has happened lately, but I did manage to accomplish a few things:

1. I gave myself a French pedicure. It doesn't look too bad really considering that a) I haven't painted my own toes in about two years owing to the fact that pedicures were so cheap in the DR, and b) I have never actually done a French paint job before. I didn't even use the little sticker things that help you paint the white part in a straight line.

2. I bought a book in Italian to help me along. It is a kid's book, Le Streghe (The Witches) by Roald Dhal. So far so good. At least I can understand Italian even if I have problems speaking it right now.

Tomorrow, after I survive my first full day of teaching, I hope to go buy a bicycle and get a cell phone.

Batty Batty Bat

Have you ever felt like you were in the twilight zone? That was me last night. I came home after being out in "il centro" with Gigi and a few friends. We went for a bite to eat and a spritz before declaring ourselves completely exhausted and going home to bed.

I went to bed at 11:15pm I was out like a light and sleeping peacefully when all of a sudden I heard Gigi screaming and slamming doors. I was vaguely aware that something was going on, but was too tired to investigate. I was just about to return to dreamland when Gigi came bursting through my door at around 12:30am!

"Sarah!!! Are you awake???"

"Yeah..." I answered, not really sure if I was or wasn't.

"[Something, something, something] BATS!!!"

"What?"

"Sarah, there's BATS flying around in my room!!!"

"WHAT???" Much more awake now.

Gigi had left her window open, and apparently a bat had flown in while she was sleeping. She heard the flying noise and turned on the light only to discover that there were about 6 bats flying around in her room!!! So she took the bedspread off her bed, put it over her head and crawled out of her room.

She made me peak in her room just to make sure that she wasn't seeing things and indeed, there were a bunch of bats flapping about in her bedroom. I half expected The Count to pipe up in the background with "One. One Bat. Two. Two Bats. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha" *add thunder and lightning here*

We tried banging on the door and setting off my alarm clock in hopes that the noise would make them leave, but it didn't work. At around 1am I decided to go online and research about getting rid of bats. I had to laugh at the advice I found since it said the first thing to do is remain calm. A little late for that! It suggested turning on the lights and making sure the windows were wide open.

We went back to Gigi's room to turn on the light, and that is when we noticed the window was only half open (we have double- door style windows)! I suggested that Gigi use my umbrella to shelter herself with while she opened the windows all the way. So there she was with a broomstick crawling on the floor holding an umbrella prodding the windows open. It was quite a sight. We hoped that the advice was accurate and that the bats would indeed leave on their own accord. By this time it was around 1:30am so we went back to bed. Gigi slept on the couch.

When we woke up this morning, the bats were gone! Wa-hoo!!! But then I noticed a black little lump on top of the window. Gigi got the stick and poked it. And a wing flopped over the side! We both freaked out and thought it was a dead bat with a broken wing. Gigi poked it again and it started flying around!!! AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! Oh yeah, right. Remain calm.

After about 10 minutes, we looked back in her room and saw that it had latched itself to the wall and was sleeping upside down.

We set about to follow more advice from the internet and trap the bat in something and slide cardboard over the opening so we could toss the bat outside. It took us about 10 minutes to locate something big enough that we could cover with a folder. So Gigi got on her bed and trapped the bat in her garbage can. Of course it totally started going wild and scratching, flapping, and clawing around inside. I slid the folder over the opening and we both gingerly carried it over to the window and tossed it out. And away flew the bat! Talk about an adrenaline rush first thing in the morning.

I still can't get over the fact that we were terrorized by bats! It was totally freaky. I mean, I can understand one lost bat, but six!!! I still laugh every time I think about it. I guess we know not to sleep with our windows open now.

When in Italy, Bring a Map

Don't ask Italians for directions. They don't know where anything is. It has happend so many times now that I feel the need to write a post about this.

First instance: Gigi told Fabbio and Graspa about something that happened to one of the teachers in Piazza Garibaldi. Their response: "Piazza Garibaldi??? Where is?"

Second instance: Gigi and I told Pelo about what happened to one of the teachers in Piazza Garibaldi. His response: "Piazza Garibaldi??? But, where is?"

Third instance: Gigi and I were looking for Piazza dei Signori the other night and asked some Italians out in the street where it was. Their response was "Piazza dei Singori???" They looked at us quizically and pointed in a random direction, but were not sure about where it was. They only thought it was that way.

Fourth instance: Today one of the guys called to ask me to go English book shopping with him, so I said ok. He told me to meet him at the international Feltrinelli bookstore. I asked him what street it was on, and the conversation went a little something like this:

Me: "What street is that on?"

Boy: "You know the Italian book store Feltrinelli? It is on the other side of the street."

Me: "Ok, but what street is that?"

Boy: "You know where is the book store? Ok, it is next to there on the other street."

Me: "Ok. See you there"

I ended up checking the phone book to find out what street it was on. Italians.

I Hate Sundays

I really do. Sacreligious or not. I don't like Sundays. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the day after Sunday is Monday, which means back to work. Whatever the reason, I think Sunday is the most boring day of the week.

I had hoped to do something fun today and not spend my time chained to my computer all day, but alas, here I am. I figured I should plan my lessons for next week seeing as how tomorrow is the first day of school and all before going out. Well, it is now 2:30 and I have just finished. Oh well.

So here are some of the highlights of my week:

THURSDAY:
All around it was a pretty exciting day. I had my General "Getting to know the Teacher" Parents' meeting at 3. I was kind of nervous about it, so you can imagine my relief when the principal came up to me and said "You're going to have to speak quickly at your meeting today." Apparently, I had to leave the school at 3:15 to go to the Questura to get my Permesso di Sogiorno (i.e. the police station for my Permit of Stay). FUN!

So I went to my meeting, dashed out after 15 minutes and went to the police station with about 6 other teachers in the school bus.

The guy at the police station just asked me a few questions, like when I arrived and where I lived. Then he stamped my Permesso and that was it. Apparently though the document I have is not the actual thing. I have to go back in three weeks to pick up the real thing. But not really. They don't care if you do or not. Ah, Italy.

Then I went to the gym near my house for the Tone Up class. It was a very interesting experience, and totally not like gyms back home at all. But oh well. I think the guy in the tight grey tights with the pink shirt, white thong (see through pants), blue eyeshadow and pink lipstick made the journey to the gym worthwhile. It was an experience.

FRIDAY:
Gigi (my roommate) and I went over to her/our friend Pelo's house for dinner. He coooked. YUM. Then he dropped us off close to the city centre where we met up with some other teachers who were having a spritz. We all meandered over to the Danish Pub where more teachers were. We were all just sitting there talking when all of a sudden, "the boys" walk in! It was a cool coincidence. "The boys" are the friends Gigi made when she was here last summer (Lucio, Pelo (nickname), Max, Filippo, Graspa (nickname), Fabbio, etc.). So they joined us for some wine. It was a fun time.

SATURDAY:
I WENT TO VENICE!!! Finally!!! It was so amazing. I really like Venice actually, but not Piazza San Marco. The Piazza was totally packed with about a gazillion tourists and an equal number of pigeons! It was crazy! Also, I don't find the Piazza to be particularly beautiful architecture wise. But that's just me.

I went by myself and wandered around for a few hours before meeting up with Filippo, who happened to be in Vencie at some art exhibit thing. We wandered around a bit, took a traghetto to the other side of the Grande Canal, had some wine and sandwiches, and then went home to Padova. It was pretty fun.

The best part is that it is only 2.50 Euro and a 30 minute ride on the train to Venice. Very cool!

When I got back, I opened up a shared pictures website. Click here.

SQUEEEEEE for Me!!!

I totally rock! I have managed to get the internet connected at home. It turned out to be quite the ordeal. Not as simple as one would think/hope/expect.

The previous tenants in this apartment had internet, and apparently never disconnected it, so when the director called to put in an order, the people at Telecom were all like "What do you mean they don't have internet?"

So we hunted around and found the modem and cables that they left (we use ADSL here, through the phone lines) and tried to hook it up, but it didn't work. Again, when the director called to tell them that, they were all like "What do you mean they don't have internet?"

SO! Then we learned that we needed some kind of installation CD for the modem. Well of course, that is what the previous tenants didn't leave behind. We got another CD from someone, but it was for a different kind of modem, so it didn't work.

By this point we were getting a little irritated with the whole situation. But today we talked to a few other teachers and found out that you can download the installation stuff. Which would be great IF I could connect my laptop to the network at school, but the technician hasn't put me on the network yet.

Anyways, finally we were able to find the correct download at school and put in on my pendrive (yay George!) so I could install it later.

And it worked!!! Hurdle number 1 accomplished. I am indeed the Techno Wizard. Now we just have to get a router so my roommate can hook up at the same time as me.



Note: I have published some posts below about last week that I wrote in MS Word while unable to connect to the internet. The dates and times have been altered to reflect actual happenings.

Lay The Smack Down

I went grocery shopping today, and look at what I found in the cleaning section:

Gives a whole new meaning to "I'm gonna lay the smack down" now doesn't it?

Public Transit: The Better Way?

Today the school asked me to bring in 6 passport sized photos for tomorrow. No problem, but where to get them? I was advised by my roommate that the Padova Train Station has photo booths, so I decided to venture over there after school since I need to know where the train station is anyways.

I had planned on checking out a gym 15 minutes walking distance from my place after school as well, so I figured I would hit the train station on the way back. I didn’t take my map with me (aside: I don’t really believe in maps). I knew the general direction of the train station, so I was not worried. Plus, the random walking is good to help me figure out the lay of the land.

About 40 minutes after I left the gym (without getting lost), I made it to the train station and got my photos taken. No problem. But after about an hour of walking, and a full day of work, I was feeling a little tired, and didn’t exactly relish the thought of a 30 minute walk back home again. Especially since I wanted to stop at the grocery store down the street on my way.

All the public buses (APS for those acronym maniacs out there) stop right in front of the train station, so I figured “Why not take a bus back home? I need to figure that out sooner or later.” I knew I had to take the number 4 bus, so I went to the platform. Just as I got there, my bus pulled away, so I bought an inter-city ticket, which is good for 75 minutes upon boarding the bus, and waited 20 minutes for the next bus. It came. I got on, validated my ticket, and sat down, looking forward to getting a different look at the city.

40 minutes later, I began to wonder exactly which way the bus was going because it certainly wasn’t towards my apartment. As I watched the beautiful Italian countryside of corn fields and vineyards pass by, it suddenly dawned on me what had happened: I had taken the bus going the other way. At that moment, the bus reached the end of the line. I was the only passenger left. The bus driver got up to change the sign on the front of the bus and saw me sitting there trying not to laugh at my situation. He gave me this look like ‘What the hell are you still doing here?!?!?’ which made me laugh even harder. I felt like saying, “Yes, I like to ride the bus for fun. I have nothing better to do.”

So, I had to wait for the bus to go ALL THE WAY BACK to the train station. It stopped on the other side of the street from where I got on. Now I know. Then it was another 10 minutes to get to my stop. I spent the entire 75 minutes of my ticket sitting on that bus.

This is how much time I “saved” by taking the bus instead of walking:

20 minutes waiting for the bus + 40 minutes going the wrong way + 25 minutes backtracking (less traffic) + 10 minutes to my stop = 95 minutes

30 minute walk home – 95 minute bus tour of Padova= – 65 minutes

In my defense I ask, “Can you make any sense out of this bus stop sign?”

And when I finally did get home, the grocery store was closed. Of course.