My friend Melissa, from LA, finished her program this week. So Wednesday night the whole group went out to eat for her going away party. It was a lot of fun but I was not ready to say bye. Every time she tried to say goodbye I would say "there are no goodbyes, only see ya laters!" That night was a really cold night too! Everyone went out to the bar after dinner but I opted out because it was already midnight and I had an exam the next day. I caught a taxi home. That was the first time since the first week in September that I have gotten a taxi. Then, Thursday was my friend Heather's birthday. So, Thursday night we all went out to eat. The food was amazing and we all had a great time! The Italians attempted to sing Happy Birthday but only sang the last line of the song. So we were a bit confused and it all turned into a big blunder of "duh duh duhs" and "la la las" and "birthday."
I had my final test for Italian level 1. This semester is going by so fast! I can't believe how quickly everything is flying by! It won't be long and I will be back in good ol' South Carolina! I am happy about that, but definitely not ready all at the same time!
So for my weekend:
Friday night was a late night because that was the last night Melissa was going to be here. She had to leave really early Saturday morning for her flight so several of us spent our time with her. We hung out at her apartment and went to the bar. That is about it. Saturday I did nothing because I wanted to sleep in and then go out of town for the day on Sunday so I stayed home and saved money. Well, Sunday came and it was the most interesting part of my week. Here is the story:
I looked all week for places to go over the weekend that would be affordable. I decided that the town of Rimini would be a nice place to go (pictures are on my facebook). It was supposed to have a nice beach and some nice ruins from the Roman period. The train was supposed to leave at 9:40am so I dragged myself out of the bed at 8:30 in the morning (when I could have been sleeping) and got to the train station by 9:15 and bought the ticket. The train never came. So, my options were to wait until 11:40 for the next train or go to a different place. I decided to wait it out.
I got to Rimini by about 3pm. I read online that I should get a bus to the historic district. So I finally found where to get the bus tickets and the bus stop. I then waited 45 minutes for the bus to come. I got on the bus and was not sure where to get off. We passed the large arch that I had read about, so I figured the next stop would be a good place to get off. Well, the next stop was residential. So I waited until we got back in town... which was another hour! I realized that I had kind of turned into the crazy old people that ride public buses for entertainment. So I jumped off the bus with the most normal looking people that were on the bus as well. I turned around and realized that we were back at the archway. I decided to walk around and take pictures and maybe try to find all the ruins that I had read about. Of course, I never found them. So I walked around and decided to take pictures of leaves, trees, and flowers. I mean, after all, I needed to have some kind of pictures!
It was about 5:00pm by this time and the last train left at 6:20 to go back to Florence. (It is about a 3-3.5 hour trip) I then saw that there were a lot of people down the road so I walked over to see what was going on. It was nothing too interesting so I kept walking to see the town. I then turned down a road and saw something that looked kind of nice. As I walked closer I realized that it was the train station! *Light Bulb* I never needed to buy the tickets or wait on the bus or even ride the bus! That was a bit frustrating. So I thought "With how this day is going, I need to just go ahead and buy my ticket and wait the last 40 minutes at the station. I don't want anything else going wrong today" (Boy was I wrong!)
I had two options: one train that went straight back to Florence or another one that required me to change stations like I had earlier. I opted for the straight shot. Yes, it was more expensive but it was quicker and left less room for human error. At about 15 minutes until I was supposed to leave I checked to see which track the train was coming in to. Of course, it was not showing. Panic mode went off in my mind for about 10 minutes. It left me just enough time to realize that that train was not coming and I had to hurry and buy another ticket so I could get on the train that went to a different station. Well, I got to the second station and was going to buy my ticket and then realized I was 55 cent short because the second ticket I bought at the previous station was a lot more expensive. I had 20 minutes to figure out what to do. So I tried to use my credit card in the machine... It would not accept the card. So then I walked around trying to find an ATM- there wasn't one. I started panicking a little again because this was the last train home. So I got in the line to buy a ticket at the window and, literally, prayed that God would help this guy work quickly. I got to the window- and in my extremely broken Italian- told the guy that I needed a ticket to Firenze. I had to put the last 55 cent on my credit card (he was not very happy about that). I got my ticket and had three minutes to stamp it and get on the train. I barely made it. However, I did make it. When I got home, I was thinking "this would only happen to me! How do two trains in one day just not show up... oh yeah... this is Italy. I forgot for a few minutes."
How is that for interesting?
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