OK, we didn’t go to Murano today, that will be tomorrow. Guys “wooing” in their drunkenness kept me up last night. They were loud (if I wanted to hear that, I would have moved to greek row). My mother says she was watching them: it was a group of like 25 guys hanging out on the bridge, harassing all the women walking by (I can only imagine the fear at seeing the way blocked by a large crowd of drunk idiots); it sounds like they were pretty much harmless. The best part was when one of them took off his clothes down to his underwear and jumped in the canal. I bet today he’s wondering why he stinks like the sewer. [My mother says he’s probably not being bit my mosquitoes like us.]
My father got up early today to get to the store and bakery, but things were closed. So then he went two more times to get groceries and the baked goods, then he and I went out and strolled. I bought a totally cute little mobile made of wooden sea life. It would be perfect for the new babies in the family, but I bought this one for me. I wanted my mother to see it and finally cross the Accademia Bridge to get it. I also bought a couple of little necklaces for myself. Then after we got back, people were awake and my brother and I went out for a couple hours. I was shown something my brother and his friend found when
they came the other day. It was at the cathedral, along the spikes that keep pigeons off certain parts of the building. It was a dead pigeon, or the remains of a dead pigeon who was too dumb to fly away from the things that were poking him. My brother and I got lost and ended up making a gigantic circle around the island. I think we made one wrong turn pretty close to our apartment and then kept circling around San Marco square, but without seeing it. It was actually pretty nice running all over town because there weren’t any people in our way! But then we could tell we were getting close by the increase in the number of people.This apartment is really nice. It has all sorts of pictures of the same people, the owner and her daughter. I’ve decided the lady is a rich-aunt type: a dignitary with lots of money (is that redundant?) It is really nice she is renting out her apartment, but we are afraid of breaking something because all the decorations are so nice and important looking. There are two girls playing violin outside our window. They were there yesterday too. I guess it has to be better than the TV crap. On the way back from dinner there was a girl playing with fire. I think that deserves money.
7 July 2003
Finally the Murano day! I’ve been looking forward to spending money on pretties for a long time. I got some neato beads, some glass sticks to give people, a bag of clear glass squares to hopefully work into mosaics, picture frame, pendants, and a block o’ fish. My father spent $9000 on glass at the same store as last year. We tried really hard to get pieces that weren’t blue. I think the selection is very nice. They will look really good with the existing ones. And we really tried to get stuff from a different store. There was one store that had a couple nice things, and a nice blob o’ fish for like $3000. Then we got to the other store and spent lots of money, but on six items. I also took some pictures of the mosaics on the walls of buildings to get some ideas. Or to just flat out copy them.
Oh Sweet Jesus they’re playing Metallica on MTV!!!!! It’s like heaven to my ears. After dinner my brother and I strolled again to San Marco square. We didn’t get lost this time! Then we went back to the internet café and got caught up with the outside world.
8 July 2003
The last day!! Today was mostly just walking around one last time and making last minute purchases. I bought some cat stuff and water colors from our “cat store.” I found some glass giraffes when out with my mother and my father, but didn’t know I wanted to buy them until later. I think this will be the thing my boyfriend likes the best. He probably won’t like the picture frame, but that’s okay because I do. When my brother and I were getting back to the apartment in the afternoon, there was a new girl on violin. I don’t know how she knew the other girls wouldn’t be there, or if she kicked them out of their spot, but she wasn’t very good. I think if the two girls wanted their spot back they could have drowned out the crappy one. [My main problem with these girls playing violin is that they are Americans playing for American tourists. Am I the only one who finds that stupid?]
Anyway, me and my parents went out to Rialto Bridge because I had not seen it before. We were there around noon, and there were tons of people everywhere. I got some pictures of it, but I decided it wasn’t important enough for me to go across. Probably I should have gone there in the afternoon when less people would have been around.
So I guess that’s it. That’s the end of the trip. We are getting a taxi tonight (Wednesday) at 3:30 am. Yuk. [Turns out the airport doesn't open until 5 am, so leaving at 3:30 was a little overkill.] But at least we will be lugging around all our crap in the dark and cool of night. [I also hope all the purchases fit in the proper number of carry-ons.] I had such a good time here, but I am definitely ready to get back to school. I’m not looking forward to the drive back to school, and I hope I don’t fall asleep on the road! I am also looking forward to not eating the same kind of food for every meal. I think I’ll fast for a week or two. I just heard an ambulance boat go down the Grand Canal. How weird to hear the exact same siren as from the cars, but it’s coming from the water. Well, I hope the trip back is uneventful, and I hope all the glass arrives in the same number of pieces as they left [The glass arrived fine, unlike my plates. My father even did a whole new shelving system to show off everything properly.] Bye Italy! It was fun!
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