La Vita a Bologna

Sorry for the huge delay in posts!  I was completely out of contact with everyone in Greece (I had to write a message on a napkin and beg someone with a laptop to email it to my parents so they'd know I was alive) and since getting to Bologna everything has been hectic, to say the least.

I'm not sure what to say about Bologna yet.  It's a beautiful city, and the food is better, in my opinion, than in Lecce, but now that I'm expected to settle in to the place where I'll be spending the rest of my time, I'm finding everything to be a lot more stressful.  Luckily, I have internet access in my room now, so at least I'll feel more in touch with everyone (my Italian cell phone causes more problems than it solves--it keeps tricking me into signing up for things I don't need, and then when I go to the phone store they keep making me add more money to my account--but, 20 or so unnecessary euros later, I think I've finally figured that out, too).

It turns out that my dorm actually is the closer one, which is great, since I only have a 10 minute walk to class instead of 30 minutes.  My roommate is really nice--her name is Berina and she's from Bosnia.  She was surprised that I'm only here for the semester, because she's enrolled in a med program here that lasts for 6 years.  It's reassuring that she had to learn Italian too, and now she speaks it perfectly (at least compared to me).  Two other girls share our kitchen and bathroom, but they're just finishing up exams and are going to be leaving when the semester begins at the end of September, and they'll be replaced by someone else.  I think I'm supposed to clean the bathroom on Wednesdays, and I'm embarrassed to admit to my roommates that I've never mopped before, but once I face up to my lazy American ways I'm sure they'll be willing to show me what to do--they were very patient about helping me light the stove (one of the first things I bought was a lighter with a loooooong handle). 

For the most part, everyone I've met here has been friendly and helpful, but I definitely feel like much more of an outsider now that I'm no longer in a tourist town.  I'll admit here that I'm homesick, but Berina informs me that there's no Italian translation for that word, so I guess I'll just have to keep working at making this my new (temporary) home.