The Neighbors: Part 1

When Alberto and I first moved into our apartment in May we thought it was cool that we enter from a communal courtyard, the neighbors seemed quirky and interesting... until we got to know them.

Exhibit 1: the 80-year-old pervert

Signore Brambilla is the 80-year-year neighbor in the apartment to our left (if you're looking at our front door). He likes to chat. The first problem... he only likes to chat in Milanese, the local dialect, which I don't understand very well. Luckily Alberto's dad has given me some experience with this language, but it's not really spoken by anyone under the age of 60, so I've never really needed to become fluent in it. Brambilla doesn't seem to understand or care that I don't understand him most of the time. He just keeps talking and I just keep smiling and nodding. But this really isn't the problem. The problem is that he seems to always be waiting by his window to see when we come home or when we leave the apartment, and he comes out and traps us in a fifteen minute one-sided conversation in which my face gets tired from smiling and nodding. He never fails to tell me how pretty I am, and try to kiss me. Now, it's common practice in Italy to give a couple of kisses on the cheek, but he always grabs my face and plants one on me wherever he's old man tremors allow... the eyeball seems to be his preferred target.

Time on my hands

Time is something I once thought I could never have enough of, but this week, I've a got surplus.

Alberto and I got back from Minnesota on Thursday, but most of my lessons don't start up again until next week. Hours of work this week = 6. Awesome... or not?

This morning I was up at 7am for a morning coffee date. More on that later. By 8 I was home. By 10:30 I was in the gym, lunch at 12:30, my only lesson of the day from 1:30-3:00. By 5pm I had already got my facebook fix and had no idea what to do. My house was clean, the dishes and laundry were done, grocery shopping won't be necessary for another couple of days. I was so bored I almost considered going back to the gym. Luckily, I realized there was a How I Met Your Mother episode I hadn't seen yet. 20 minutes later... what to do, what to do?

Alberto was closed up in the only other room of our 2 room apartment, diligently making some final edits on the book he recently finished writing. Me? Cuddling our cat on the couch. How's that for focus? I really need some new hobbies for times like these. A girl can only cuddle a kitten for so long.

Now Alberto insisted on making dinner. No complaints from me... even if I think it's just his way of getting out of washing the dishes after dinner.

Maybe I'll update the blog. I haven't done this in months. Let's see if I can make it a habit.

random fact: it's colder in Milan today than it was on any of the 18 days we spent in MN this winter.