The way things are

During my first week I signed a lot of paperwork at the scuola for registration. Most of it was in Italian. At that time I asked our segretaria about paying tuition and he said I could pay in installments and that he’d rewrite the paperwork with the dates the installments will be due. That was the 9th of January and two weeks ago I went into the office to inquire about paying my first installment as I hadn’t yet received the dates. The segretaria, who is very personable and just an all-around good guy, said "Yes, come in and pay anytime but not right now. Come in tomorrow or the next day." In pure Shannon fashion, I forgot. So last week he and I met at Arci, the bar that many of the students and staff frequent, and he said "Ciao Shannon. You should come to the office to make your first payment." And I said, "I can come in today." He said, "Well, not today, tomorrow or the next day will be fine." Again I forgot to pay. Today we ran into each other again at Arci and this time he just talked about calcio.

Utilities are often an issue here, moreso than in the states. My roommates requested Internet access a few months ago and it was supposedly scheduled for installation a few months ago. As this is Italy, we still have no access. Francesca called them to inquire about the status, and they told her to go to the store. So she went to the store to inquire, and they said she should call the phone number. From the store she called the phone number. To make a long story short we still don’t have an installation date.

At this point I’m curious about how the Italian economy functions!

> View Bruno Bozzetto's Europe and Italy