Today we escape.

today is the first day ever i could say: i'm glad i didn't shave this morning. it just wouldn't have been worth it.

welcome, one and all, to another edition of America's least favorite game show: things i've put in my mouth that were not meant to go in my mouth! today's addition to the list: a lighter. not a Zippo, which would've been more awesome, but just a normal crap lighter like you have three of in your couch cushions, whether you smoke or not.

Whistling: because saying the person's name is too damn hard.

and now for the actual informative part of the update:

hi everyone! i'm not dead! i'm in Cortona, in Italy. working in a garden/olive grove. it's very different from what i'm used to, it's some digging and carrying plants and trimming flowers and trees and pulling weeds and i sweat a lot. mostly because i sweat a lot, not because i'm doing sweat-making activities. but it's good so far. i've been here one week so far. according to the owners of the place, a couple named Reinhardt, i can pretty much stay as long as i like, as long as i'm contributing. so that's good. not sure how long i'll actually stay, though. at least a month, maybe. depends on how stir-crazy or homesick i get. but they'll definitely need the help in the next few weeks.

they've been feeding me three meals a day pretty regularly. sometimes i have to fend for myself for breakfast, tonight i'll have dinner alone, but they always warn me so i'm prepared. they gave me money and a ride to the store for food, so i've got a crap-ton of pasta and some fruit and meat and yeah. so i'm good for a while. they're vegetarians, so the only meat i eat is when i feed myself, but it hasn't been a problem yet. they give me too much food, it's insane. although, to be fair, i tend to eat the last bits of pretty much anything they offer, so perhaps i choose to eat too much. i'd be more worried about getting fat if i weren't sweating and working in the sun every day. maybe i'll get fat anyway, just for the heck of it.

Sunday i went to a town about 45 minutes from here, called Perugia. it's the capital of Umbria. i missed the Umbria Jazz festival, which i've been told is quite nice, but i did get to wander a bit the underground city. i had pizza and Italian coffee and bought an Italian-English dictionary and another guidebook to Italy. so i'm set on Italian reading for now. something i've been thinking about is buying a book in Italian that i've already read in English. like Dracula or a Palahniuk or something. but i'm not sure that'd be very helpful to me, so i may have to settle for See Spot Run. anyway. Perugia was nice, but mostly closed on Sundays, so i may try to go back another time and see more. and ride the Mini-Metro (it's adorable!).

here's how to make Italian coffee, near as i can tell. you need coffee grounds, boiling water, and a shot glass. one part coffee to two parts boiling water. fill the shot glass with the ingredients. add sugar and milk to taste. drink. it's... different from what i'm used to.

on either Monday or Tuesday i FINALLY met an Anti-American. worse, she was British, which means i understood everything she said. i'm kinda socially inept, so i didn't really notice the contempt dripping from her every syllable, but i've heard accounts of the meal from those who are more in tune with such things. and i know it's not just me she hated, because there was a couple from Connecticut at the meal too, and they got the same treatment. i really don't understand Nationalism like that, and i'd like to ask her about it, but i don't think she'd answer me, even if i could somehow convince her i wasn't trying to start a fight. oh well.

i flew from Prague to Vienna, Austria to Florence last Wednesday. stayed in Florence one night, then train to Camuchia-Cortona (they're both really small and close to each other, so they share the train station.) in the Prague airport, waiting for my flight, i decided to spend as much of the last of my Czech crowns as i could. it was just pocket change, so i walked into a coffee shop/snack bar/diner thing, like you would find in any airport, and i ordered an orange juice. i sit at one of the tables, take out my book and a packet of nuts i bought earlier. one minute after i finish the juice, the waitress/barista walks over to my table, sets down a bacon sandwich, takes my empty juice glass, and disappears. as soon as i realize what happened, i look around for someone to talk to ("um, i didn't order this") or even to thank. there's two other customers, but neither makes eye contact or gives any indication that they have a clue what's going on, and the barista is still missing. i wasn't even that hungry, but i ate it. i'm still trying to process how i felt about receiving the sandwich. it's a simple emotion, i think, but unfamiliar. anyway. i finished the sandwich, looked around again for someone to thank, and, finding no one, walked out. it was weird, but not in a bad way.

by the time i got to my hostel in Florence, it was 1a.m. got up the next morning, checked out, and sat around the train station for two hours until my train came. not a great story, i'll admit.

Tuesday night i went to Cortona with one of the other employees of the olive grove, a 25-year-old named Tommy. he's learning english and already pretty good at it, so we talk a lot. i'm not learning nearly enough Italian from him, i think. anyway. we met up with two of his friends and had some drinks together. so it was an American (me), an Italian, a Swiss girl, and a German. an odd mix, but it was okay. sometimes i worry that i'm forgetting how to talk to people. not that i forget words, but how to put them together in a meaningful and inoffensive, hopefully encouraging way. the night's conversations did nothing to assuage that irrational fear. but it was nice to get out a bit.

i have no TV, no computer in my "apartment" that i share with the family of another employee. husband, wife, daughter, then me. i have my own room, but everything else is shared. actually, i've been meaning to talk to Tommy about getting a TV so i can watch movies in Italian with English subtitles. i think that might help me learn. also i downloaded an app onto my phone. not so much with the talking to people yet, but it'll come.

actually, now that i mention it, i'm on a computer in the main house, just after lunch (which is an hour and a half long). i'm supposed to be making the printer work, but it's just not happening, it's ticking me off. perhaps i should finish this and get back to the printer or maybe the garden?

since i'll probably be here a while: if you want to send me something (e.g. money, books, food, money, tear-stained love letters, etc.), let me know and i'll see about getting an address to you, at which i can be reached. or if you'd like mail from me, that can be arranged too. just say the word.

alright, i think that's it. if you've made it this far into the post, i owe you a cookie. goodbye for now!