Where to Begin??

I apologize for my lack of correspondence, but life has been wonderfully busy! (And a little un-wonderful as I had a final presentation on Wednesday and an ORAL final tomorrow.)

But I would like to start by stating that I haven't received the flood of letters and packages that I was expecting. I don't know if I should complain to the Italian post office that they are losing my letters, or that maybe no one has... no, I'll go complain to the post office tomorrow.

But anyway, the funniest thing happened last night. Someone was asking me how to say something in English. I told her the answer and then turned to my roommate who speaks English and asked her if that was correct. She looked at me, I looked at her, and we just burst out laughing. I, the American, was asking the Italian how to say something in English. Another one of my roommates calls this time of night "l'ultimo fase" which literally means "the last phase", and translates more like the time of night when you just lose it.

Tonight, my class got to climb to the top of one of the Medieval towers in Bologna! In the Medieval times, there were over 100 towers in Bologna because rich families would build them to display their wealth and power (and we think some of the houses in CA can be over-the-top!). However, when a family lost its power and wealth, the tower would be torn down. So now there are only about 20 towers left. (In case anyone was wondering, I can say all of that in Italian because I have to; that is one of the topics of my final is on tomorrow... see, I'm studying...).
The man who owns the tower started by explaining some things about the tower. He kept saying the word "chiocciola" (pronounced key-o-cho-la) which means either snail or the @ symbol. I thought I must be misunderstanding because I couldn't think of how either of these could fit into the context of the history of the tower. It wasn't until the end of the night that someone explained to me that he was referring to the spiral staircase because it twists like the shell of the snail. Well that wasn't obvious...
We began to climb the steps. The tower is 60meters, but it's hard to tell how many meters you have climbed as you are walking up lots and lots of steps. It's like when you are going on a really tall roller-coaster and you have been hearing the click-click of the chains as the roller-coaster goes higher and higher. You fell like you must be almost at the top, but you just keep going and keep going. That's how it felt climbing the steps, they just kept going. But then, all of a sudden, you make it to the top and you take in the full view! Since it's one of the tallest things in Bologna, you can see everything! Right below you are the the red terra cotta roofs of the buildings. You can see all the little piazzas and the winding streets (which don't make any sense even with a bird's eye view). Then there are the church steeples and domes, the suburb surrounding the city center, and the hills in the distance. We arrived while it was still light, saw the sun setting (with lots of clouds that caught all the pink light), and then watched as the city grew dark and the full moon lit up the city. It was one of those moments when you think to yourself, "I am so lucky". But that's not what you really mean. Lucky is rolling doubles in a Monopoly game. It's deeper like the awe and gratitude that only the beautiful, the true, and the good can inspire. And this was really beautiful! (And a shout out to SMA!)
And then, on my bus ride home, I saw the bus driver of another bus wave to the bus driver on my bus. I don't know why that made me happy, but it did. :)

This post is getting too long, but I want to say one last thing. In italian, the way you say that you are ticklish literally translates into something like, "I suffer from the tickles". Shout out to SOFIA, I thought you might relate.

And actually one more thing. Here in Bologna, when you leave a party or a dinner, you say to the hostess "complimenti" which means "compliments" or something like, good job with the party/dinner. Is there a single word we use in English to say that?? (I'm sure I'll be receiving a flood of responses like I have with my letters... oh wait. I just have this funny thought that no one actually reads this. haha!)