Arrived in Bologna

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Ciao a tutti! Spero che non siate morti a causa dell'inverno o dei drop bears.

So I find myself sitting in a little shared room on Via degli Angeli at 4am and I begin to ponder the vagaries of life...

Just kidding, I'm not going to bore you with my philosophical meanderings, but rather will share some of the fun and funny stuff I've been up to. But bear in mind it is 4am so if it doesn't make sense, not my fault.

So, finally arrived and settled into Bologna.

Bologna is quite an adorable town really. Its like someone forgot to tell them that the medieval period ended a few years ago - there are miles of porticos, random little shops, and most importantly, a huge number of coffee, pizza, gelati and wine venues.

We arrived at our hostel after inadventently starting an argument on the train in our carriage about how immigrants were ruining the country (apparently its also Berlusconi's fault. But predominantly the Romanians). There were a few days of laziness, the only interesting story from which is I got lost on my run and managed to run along what is officially the longest stretch of connected porticos in the world but is also unofficially a bitch of a climb and since it wound round and round I always said I'd just run a bit more but ended up doing the whole thing. It would have been a nice view at the top, but I was too unconscious...

So next port of call was house searching. After calling 14 numbers (one was a mind reader, she somehow knew I was a foreigner without me telling her) we finally found one willing to give us a tour. So we arrive at the place, and things are going well till the guy starts talking about how even though he's married, he still likes to er, fare sesso with lots and lots of girls. And how big his, er pene was. And for some stupid reason we end up taking this house, even though we're sure Emily is going to get raped by this guy.

First night there, wine and whisky flowing, he starts getting REALLY touchy feely with Em, to the point where after getting out of there, I had to call him and tell him that in Australia when a girl slaps you and says er, Fucko Offo, you have to back the hell off. Anyway, it seems to be a bit better after that and the rape-ometer isn't redlining anymore. Apart from all that, nice to have a house, though it lacks things like windows and we didn't get any receipt for the €600 we gave the guy, so there is little chance we'll ever see our bond money again.

Best part so far, however, has been the awesome exchange kids. There's a bunch of Aussies (I now understand just how good it must feel for those asian exchange students to hang out together in Australia) and a few girls from Dutchland and a few other randoms. We've had a few nice big nights out on the town, and had a beach day today (which I missed out on getting a place on the bus for. So I had to take a train for an hour, run 12km afterwards, got lost in a thistle forest and gashed open my legs. So much fun). Me and a couple of the girls ended up bailing on the beach and instead went and saw Peaches which was insane. I suppose most memorable part was when Peaches started saying 'shirts off', which like only 2 italians understood at first hehe but soon the whole hall had tops off as she was singing 'f$%& the pain away'. Raaaandom but fun.

My final story is short, but you'll like it. Was riding along the road to buy my new laptop (sorry Cynth, but I'm completely in love with it so I guess you're a little replaced) when this guy, completely oblivious to the fact he was crossing a road, waltzed right in front of me. With collision imminent, I did the only thing possible, which was slam my brakes on. Except, and this is the funny part, the brakes are the opposite here than in Ostraya so I slammed my fronties on by accident, the wheel locked and the back of the bike, carrying me, went flying over the handlebars. Epic stack.

Anyway, that's a collection of the stuff I've been doing. To the two people who will make it this far, you are either special or bored. Or especially bored. But thank you.

To everyone else that just scrolled through to here, missing you lots, but I'd miss you more if you read my blog properly, so go back and this time take notes.

Until next time, stay classy San Diego; good afternoon, good evening and goodnight; that brings you up to date the late news is on at 10; and any other sign off I can think of to plagiarise.

Ciao!

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Comments

[Sandy]

Make it three!
I read the whole way through. Haha I miss you LB.. awesome stories! Sucks about the bike accident but let's put this in a good light. At least it was before, not after you bought the laptop! In Yankee Doodle town, some dirty frat boys spiked my drink and silly sandy was like 'mm punch!' and drank it. HAHA and that resulted in me lying in bed till 5pm today. come on skype more often.. we always seem to be online at the same time! okay take care and use your taekwando to prevent em from getting raped! but in chris' words, 'mace is better than karate' heheh so she might want to invest in some. ciao tutti frutti heheh

[Dace]

reading your blog
Hi Josh, missing you lots, and finally remembered to hop onto your blog to check up on what you've been up to! Sounds like you're having a great time! I'm assuming you're taking lots of photos with your hot little camera! It sounds like you have been putting your body on the line a bit - running up the portico climb, running through thistles, bike stacks... wow! Take care of yourself! (compulsory Mum comment...) Things are ok in my life at the moment. I'm sick with a head cold today, and had to finish off an essay on teaching PE (bor-ing). But aside from that, I finished 3 weeks of teaching rounds, teaching grade 2s in French in a bilingual primary school - very challenging, but also very amazing. I learnt heaps about teaching, and got to improve my French! Although it's possibly nothing compared to your Italian at the moment! Things are great with Evan. Getting to spend more time with him now that rounds are over. I'm so glad you got to meet him before you left :) He's pretty awesome, I really like him :D Well, you probably don't have that much time to waste reading my comments, but I just wanted to say 'hi' and 'I'm reading your blog' and 'I miss you' and 'we're thinking of you back in Melb'. So there you go. Lots of love and long distant hugs, Dace