Lost? Me? Never... OK, well maybe just a tad.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008. The city with no directions, Italy.

Since I last posted, some big things have been happening. Well not BIG persay, but bigger than my usual nap, eat, work, skype routine. Sunday morning, I tried out a church in Venice! It was an Anglican Church, which I had never been to, so I dont have much to compare, but it was interesting. It was funny, though, because I didnt know where the church was. I printed out directions and spend maybe 20 mins looking around for it earlier in the week, but never found it. I was hoping that Kalya or Elizabeth would be able to help--I knew it wasnt that far because they said they were near the Accadamia bridge, same side as we are. When we left, though, it was POURING and we stopped along the way at a owning to wait for the rain to pass, and we had a chat about how dedicated we were to finding the church, when we looked up and saw "St. George's Anglican Church." I have pass by the church EVERY time I leave the house and never knew it was there! CRAZY!! The actual service was different. There was one part where we prayed for the Queen, and I thought to myself.. what queen?! Then I remembered that the Anglican church was the Church of England that Henry VIII essentially formed so that he could divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn. (hows that for some history from the NON-history person?! I just hope that is right...) Anyway, history lesson aside, it was interesting. I am going to try their "more contemporary" service that they have on Thursday evenings.

The rest of the day was uneventful. Grocery store run and lots of cuddling. It was a dreary day and I wanted to be in my pjs in my bed! Monday was just a regular day of classes. After class we had a house meeting where David, looking DIRECTLY, at me asked all members of the house if anyone would be interested in babysitting for a family that has 2 girls. They lived in New York for a few years and want their girls to continue learning English. My hand SHOT up! I had been looking for an opportunity like this!

Today, I got the phone number of the family and called. They want to meet today!! I needed to go to the train station, so I thought that I would find their house after that. On the way to the train station, I saw a girl sitting on a bench with a Duke shirt on and a Duke hat, so I stopped and asked her if she went to Duke. Logical, right? She looks up at me like she is going to tell me in VERY FAST Italian that she has no idea what I am talking about... but she didnt! She is indeed a Duke student (as was her friend sitting next to her) and they are studying for the semester in Venice! We told them that we hang out in Santa Margarita a lot, and to stop us if they ever see us! I love this place!!!

So I finally got to the train station to buy my tickets for this weekend to Rimini and San Marino and got in the wrong line TWICE before they told me that this train didnt require reservations, all I needed was to validate my Eurail pass. Cool. 45 mins DOWN THE DRAIN. So then I walked back towards Casa Artom to find this house. I walked for over an hour trying to find number 401. If you know anything about Venice, you know there is no rhyme or reason to the numbering system here, so every time I would get close to 401, it would jump to like 1352 or something. I was SO frustrated. I finally found 399 where some men were talking and asked them in PERFECT (or as perfect as I can be...) Italian where 401 was. They gave me directions IN ITALIAN and then I found it!! It is conveniently enough about 4 minutes from the house yet took me over an hour to find. This was my first TRUE Venetian getting-lost-story! And I couldnt be more proud! :)

So I am going to eat tonight here at the house, meet this babysitting family, then perhaps meet back up with the group who is going out! Fewf, what a day!!
love love love!!
xoxo
mckin