Havin' it My way

Today we [Dani, her 'rents, Grazialina, and I] went to the Centro Commerciale [that is "mall" in Italy-speak], near Napoli. It was pretty much the coolet thing. They had these GORGEOUS Christmas lights up [it is already Christmastime here, since they have no Thanksgiving to delay it], but the mall itself was pretty sweet as well. It is huger than most malls I've been in [def. bigger than anything in Santa Rosa]...it has a movie theater with six screens [we didn't catch a flick this time], a food court [with a Burger King...more on that later...and a pizza place, and probably something else too], and also another area with a bar slash gelateria. Then there are a billion stores, and it is connected to the Ipercoop, which is kind of like Safeway meets Costco, but on COCAINE. It is pretty sweet, 'cause you are just walking through the mall and then you look to your right and it is like BAM! Because the check outs go straight into the rest of the mall, so you can see the loooong rows and rows of merchandise.

We went to a bunch of stores. First we went to this CD/book store [Kind of like Borders, I guess...], and Dani got "Il Diavolo Veste Prada," the book, and I got Madonna's "Erotica" CD and a two disc Marilyn Monroe comp. [They were both on sale...] When we checked out, the guy gave us each an Ice Age cellphone charm dangly bit [we all chose Sid, 'cause he is the coolest]. Then we went to the Outlet, which is pretty much what it sounds like. They had a whole bunch of brands that I have never heard of, including this one whose name I cannot remember but the initials are NPR...I almost got a sweatshirt just 'cause it said NPR, but it was too spendy to do that. They also had some Nike and Sweet Years [this crazypopular Italian brand] stuff that I was looking at, but even at outlet prices it was too much. I goofed around with the hats a bit, and Dan took a few pictures that I will post later. We also took a gander at the shoes, and there were the CUTEST little Italy coloured [that is the National Team blue, with red, white, and green stripe accents] shoes that I was dying to get, but, unfortunately, only came in kiddie sizes.

Next we went to Sephora, which ws RAD. I really want to go back there, after Paris, when I know better how much money I have, and get some make up. For now I just had to settle on some of that Clinique [dang Mom you got me hooked] spray moisturizer stuff in the pink bottle. It is really dry here [when it isn't raining], and that is wreaking havoc on my skin.

After that we wandered the mall for a bit, and then we went to this GARGANTUAN electronicsish store [they also had other things...DVDs and games, o'course, but also espresso pots and home appliances etc] to go CELLULARE SHOPPIN'! There were a billion phones I wanted [The DOlce and Gabbana Razr, OMG!], but I settled on a little black LG flip phone that is super-cute and cost 99euro. Still kind of a bunch but not a LOT for a cellphone. I was looking at another [black, of course] sliding phone that was 20 euro less, but it didn't have a camera. Mary Jane [as I have christened it, after Spider-man's ladylove, of course, and also 'cause then I can call it MJ for short] isn't too fancy, but that's okay. I have an eyepod [yay, Veronica!!] for tunes, and so I don't need that in a cell. It was kind of lame, because at that store you could get the Vodafone [the service provider I am using] SIM card and get it all set up for only 5euro instead of their usual 10 [Gra and Dan said that it is ore like 20 in SMaV], but for non-Italy folk you need your passport, and, of course, I didn't have it with me, partly becaue I don't want to lose it, and partly because I am scema ["stupid" in Italian]. God, I was killing myself for not bringing it. But, hey, I've never bought a cellphone before, let alone in Italy...I didn't know how it worked! My CA id card wasn't good enough for that, but it was fine for the lady at the check-out to verify my credit card. Obviously, I bought the phone anyways, and resigned myself to paying more in Santa Maria. But then, later, we went back with Dani's dad and he used his Italy driver's liscense. So I got the cheap deal after all! Tomorrow we are going to a centro Vodafone [that is a Vodafone Central, in case you are really slow] in SMaV to get it activated, and then I will be in business! And all the America folk can call me on that!! And I won't be entirely unreachable for the Italy folk [right now i pretty much am, as our computer is constantly online, and there's only one phone line]. Yay!

After the cell extravaganza, we window shopped around the mall for a bit more, though I restrained from purchasing anything else. It was so much fun to see all the little Christmas decoration shops all over!! I love the holidays!!

By that time Grazia was getting hungry [she didn't eat lunch], so we went to the food court. I wasn't particularly hungry [Dani had gotten gelato earlier], but though that was my chance for dinner, so I went to Burger King. Not because I wanted to be all American-don't-wanna-eat-Italy-food [heck, I eat it every day!], but because I wanted to eat BK in Italy, 'cause it would be fun especially because I never eat it in the US. Seriously, it has been YEARS. Literally. Holy crap! Burger King is so expensive in the Italy! I got a cheeseburger kid's meal [called a cheeseburger Kid's meal...no Italian here!], and it was 4,20! But it came with a toy, so that was OK. And fries. And a drink. I got Coca-Cola Light, as that is nigh impossible to find anywheres. It was a decent cheeseburger [for fast food] and the fries were pretty good. Plus Gra gave me some of her pizza. By the tiem I finished I was STUFFED, but damned if I was going to let any of my money go to waste!

My toy wasn't actually a toy at all, but a WATCH!! Not any watch, but a STAR WARS watch! It is reversible, and on one side [the one with the display] it has Darth Vader on the band, and on the other it has Anakin! On that side there is a hologram of Darth Vader where the display is on the other. So now I can wear two watches at once, one on each wrist! This one, since it is all Italian-y and whatnot, has 24 hour time, and the date is all DayMonth instead of MonthDay. I heart it muchly, though it is rather big. It dwarfs my Spidey watch, which, when I initially bought it, seemed humongo.

Then we met Dani's parents, got my SIM card, and went home. In the car on the drive back Dani got my phone all set up...yay!!

Once at home, I found out that we actually were having dinner, though, luckily, it was just make-yer-own sandwiches, and I didn't have to eat one after I had explained that I had already eaten.

Before Dani ate, we set about building this drawer table thing that her parents had gotten at the Ipercoop. It was one of those lovely contraptions with the diagrams with numbers and no words, and, as I am completely useless when it comes to these things [covered wagon, anyone?], I did my best to help without doing anything too imortant. That meant holding things whilst the glue set, and then handing Dani screws and implements with with to screw them in. Unfortunately, we ran into a few problems, and a bit of the edge of a piece got a little bashed [not my fault! yay!], and Dani's mom got frustrated, so we packed it up.

Then we internetted it up for a bit, and headed to bed. Tomorrow we don't have school [rotazione], so I am going to sleep in a little, take a shower, fold some clothes, straighten up in my room, post this, and work on some photos. And we are going to Vodafone Central to fix up MJ! And I might go out with the other exchange students later, as it is our 2 month anniversary tomorrow. It will be a good day, I reckon. Though perhaps a bit boring at times. Oh well, it's all good. Tonight I do feel a bit sick...don't think I'll be eating BK for a while...

Checking and double checking the time,
Bee Electric