Mal di Gola

Translation - I lost my voice. Italians have a very interesting perspective on sickness and the process of getting sick. They believe that if your neck gets cold, or any part of your body, you will get sick. This afternoon my fake mom heard my voice and told me that I got sick because I left the window open and it was cold in our room. Very interesting. Italians are also very willing to share their opinions about sickness or dressing for the weather, even if you are a complete stranger to them. Eli got reprimanded by a complete stranger for wearing flip-flops in normal fall-type weather.

On a funnier note, last night we had a fun little slumber party with two other girls from our program. Annie, Eli, and I went to the city center and met up with Hillary. Annie and I decided to ride the bus home early. Although we warned Annie to grab her bus pass, she said, "It will be fine, they won't check tickets tonight." Ok, ok. As we were about to get on a bus to go home we saw the officers that check your tickets - we didn't get on that bus - we chose the other one thinking that we weaseled our way past the system. Little did we know that those buses have the same first stop and the officers got off on that stop and switched lines onto our bus. Annie immediately pushed the button to get off but she was caught. She hopped off the bus without me and all I could imagine was cute little Annie without her bus pass, money, or ID being thrown in the slammer for the whole night because she rode the bus without her pass. Needless to say, she got a ticket that included a hefty 40 Euro fine. It was slightly scary at the time but she handled it well and it makes for a good story now. After that, our sleepover was so fun - we pushed 3 beds together and slept any way we would fit. My back is sore and I'm exhausted but it was definitely worth it!