Day two in Genova solved many of the problems day one
provided! We began the day by attending an orientation at the school we will be
taking our class at. As we started walking to class, it began pouring rain,
which made it difficult to navigate the unknown streets and ruined one of our
maps! After the orientation, we stopped for lunch at a small little ristorante.
One thing we have noticed in Italy is that whatever price is printed on the
menu/sales tag is the price you pay. Tax
is already included! It definitely helps when adding up items and splitting
costs among our group.
After lunch, we were a little lost on what to do next. We decided just to walk and see what we
found. We ended up making our way to the
pier and walked along the shops near the water.
All of a sudden, we found a small cellphone and computer store and the
word “wi-fi” just stood out! I’m pretty sure the store had a halo and flashing
lights around it the way we were looking at it.
What happened next was a miracle.
We walked in the store (four young, naïve, girls) and asked
the two men if either of them spoke English.
One said “a little” so we said “Great!” and went for it! We told him that we wanted a hot-spot or
portable Wi-Fi. He knew exactly what we
were talking about and helped us out. Not only did he help us purchase the
right one, he even tested it on his own computer and set it up because the
initial set up was in Italian. He
underestimated his English speaking ability, though, because he knew the word
“simultaneously.” That impressed us all! For 120 euro, we were able to purchase
100 hours of Wi-Fi that we just plug in wherever we’d like. We can hook up 5
devices at a time and it works wonderfully, definitely better than the
StuWireless connection at TCU. Problem 1… SOLVED!
After our technology adventures, we decided to start our
site-seeing adventures. We went to the
aquarium, which is actually the largest aquarium in all of Europe. It was really fun and a great way to ease us
into the site-seeing mode. My favorite part of the aquarium was the Finding
Nemo tank. It was a fish tank with all the species of fish in Finding Nemo.
That being one of my favorite movies, I got super excited! Below are some
pictures of that and more from the aquarium.
After the aquarium, we regrouped and went out for my new
favorite Italian tradition, one I will be bringing back to the states with me…
Aperitivo. This is a small meal and drink in the evening, usually after work,
but more food than a typical American happy hour. This is to hold you over
until dinner which is later in Italy, around 9:00 or so! Below is what my first
aperitif included, a Bellini and buffet of finger food!
After that, we walked around some more and found this man!
Poor guy… his wife clearly has a leash on him! Good thing he won’t get lost!
We ended our night with late night aperitivo as our dinner
overlooking the port and the crazy fancy yachts that are parked there. We had
the nicest waiter who said he had been to Florida before but that it was too
hot for him! I guess it doesn’t get as hot here in Italy. We had our drinks and
a wonderful bruschetta as we talked for hours about our upcoming adventures in
Italy!
Upon coming back to the apartment, we noticed this random
box thing in our kitchen that had a knob with the words gas and a little water
droplet. We weren’t sure what it was so we turned it on (smart, right?)! Turns
out you have to turn your hot water heaters on in Italy! It may be strange, but
we don’t care… WE HAVE HOT WATER! Would you notice this right away and know
what it is?
Problem 2… SOLVED!
Today was definitely an improvement from the first day, but
we are looking forward to getting to know the city a little better. It’s
comforting having Wi-Fi to look things up and map where we’re going… oh and
talk to our families I guess! Tomorrow is our first day of class and we are all
really excited! Just got to get our homework done first! Ciao!
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