The Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day, aka: April 25th

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This story actually begins on Tuesday April 24^thbut unhappy events don’t begin until after the chime of midnight. Since I’m in Florence and church bells actually ring the hours there are actual chimes, although I didn’t hear them that evening. So Tuesday evening was the farewell event for the AIFS group from California, and to celebrate a karaoke evening was planned. Everyone from the Washington group was going to go and Michelle was even going to sing, if accompanied, because performing karaoke was one of the items on her bucket list.

The basement of the Old Stove in Palazzo Vecchio was packed full of rambunctious college students ready to celebrate the end of finals; their teacher was not as kind as ours when it comes to school work. To start off the singing were three girls from California, which makes sense since it was their farewell party, who chose a classic from their tween years, Opps I Did It Again by Brittany Spears. That out of the way there was a tribute to one of the California professors who was retiring after the quarter abroad was finished and going to travel Europe with his wife of many years. The tribute was done by Jed, one of our AIFS coordinators, and he sang If I Could Walk 1000 Miles, I forget who this is by but I’m sure everyone knows the song I’m talking about.

Many more people went and many more drinks were consumed by the group, after the third drink for our group it was time for Michelle and Taylor to get up and do their thing. Michelle let Taylor pick the song and her choice was Like a Virgin by Madonna. When their names were called I decided to go up and join them and Robin and Hannah were going to film our performance. I have not seen the video, and do not have a copy, that part of the story is to come.

About midnight people began to disperse and the Washington group, minus our teacher, decided to head out to another bar as well. We decided to journey to a place that Taylor had been to before named the Fish Pub. On our way across town to the Fish we stopped at the Duomo to sit on the stairs and watch the light things being sent up in the air with a rubber band by people who sell them. It is really pretty to watch, but I would never buy one. While sitting there a guy came up and chatted with us, we told him we were out celebrating my birthday, and I mentioned that I liked his scarf. He then took off the scarf and gave it to me! We sat there a bit longer and continued on our way.

When we arrived at our destination Taylor found her friend was there and told him what we were up to, he then pulled out a bottle of champagne to toast my birthday. While there we all danced, listened to music, and just had a good time. After a couple of hours it Hannah was ready to go home and we all decided that was a good idea, except Taylor who wasn’t ready. After we all discussed things and decided to let Taylor be and the four of us headed back to Robin, Hannah, and Taylor’s place. About halfway to their apartment we all had some worries about leaving Taylor by herself so late in the evening. Michelle was going to walk back with Hannah and Robin and I was going to go back to Taylor.

When I found my way back to the pub I found it closed but knocked and was let in. Inside it was just Taylor and her friend who was closing up the bar. The music was playing and Taylor was dancing, so I joined her for a bit and talked to her about heading home. When it was clear she was not going to change her mind about leaving I decided it was time for me to go home. I was let out of the closed up bar and the door locked behind me. It was about 3:30am and as I walked I looked for a taxi to take. Taxis in Florence don’t pick up fares by driving around, instead they wait for fares to come to them at taxi stands placed at all the major piazzas. I walked through multiple piazzas and there were no taxis. Even being the middle of the night there were still people out walking around, enough that I felt safe to continue on my way; not that I had a choice.

A couple blocks from the Ponte Vecchio a man was trying to talk to me and he followed me trying to get me in a conversation. I decided not to go back to the apartment because I didn't want him to know where I live. I however should not have turned off that street since there is always someone on the Ponte Vecchio, I was just thinking don't go home. I turned right along the river and at the first cross street/alley he pushed me into it and onto the ground. He then put one hand on my throat making me unable to scream. I was kicking like crazy though. I was also trying to remember how to get out of a choke hold but those moves don't work so well when you are already on the ground. He was grabbing things out of my pockets, my cash and ipod and he ripped the camera off of my wrist. He let go of my neck when he grabbed the camera and I screamed! He ran off and as I started walking back towards the main road when four female college exchange students from America arrived. They heard me scream and came to find me. They then walked me back to my apartment; I cried all the way home and for a bit once inside. When I got upstairs I tried calling the emergency hotline on Michelle’s phone and no one answered so I went to bed. In the morning I called the emergency line again and told Jed what happened. He got a hold of Phillipa and she came right over. She then took me to the police station and served as an interpreter for me. She also got me the insurance form and had Jed look up alternate trains to Rome for me since I was not going to make my scheduled one. She also was the one who told me I can use the ticket on any of the trains traveling the same route for up to four hours. I went back to the apartment and began to pack when Phillipa rang our apartment again and requested that I go to the ER and get checked out because both she and Jed were worried about me hitting my head. I went and all is fine, and it only costs €22, which isn't much more than my regular co pay at home.

Anyways, things I know I did wrong: Not asking Taylor’s friend at the bar to call me a cab, turning off the main street, not shoving my palm into his nose or using another self-defense move I learned. I looked for a shop to go in but everything was closed. I also should have started screaming when he was clearly following me and wouldn't take my ignoring him as a hint to leave me alone. Also just being out at 4am, I'm usually in bed by 10 or 11pm. However it could have been a lot worse, I wasn't molested, I didn't have any of my cards on me, or passport. I had just emptied out my pictures before I left to go out that night so the only pics I lost were of that evening, and I only had €20 on me. There was no blood, and I wasn't seriously injured.

The remainder of April 25^th; I only got 4 hours of sleep and had a raging headache all day. I was rushing all day, the doc doesn't want me taking pain killers, and it took me 45min to find the hostel (that was with the aid of the compass). The hostel I stayed in was called Comic Guesthouse, and the rooms were done in comic themes. I was placed in the Mario room so there was old style Mario all over the walls, it was interesting. After putting down all my things I went to take a shower and there is seriously lack of counter space in the bathroom so I have my stuff on the floor, my clothes I just got out of and my pjs I’m going to put on. I get into the shower and there is a total lack of water pressure, it is like a waterfall type of showerhead. One nice thing was there was plenty of hot water. Oh the bathroom light doesn't work so I had to take the little reading lamp from my bed and put it in the bathroom so I could see. It would have been perfect lighting for a bath. Anyways, I get out of the shower and all off my stuff on the floor is soaked! Plus the curtains over the window, and the mirror, everything is wet. The shower stall door is lower than the shower head so during my whole long shower (since I had plenty of hot water to take a long shower, which I can't do at my apartment) everything in the room was getting sprayed as well. I only brought my jeans and yoga pants with me, both wet, both cameos I brought, wet, my t-shirt, underwear, all wet. So to go find food I had to put on wet yoga pants and it took me forever to find an open place, I'm clearly not in the city center. It was not late for dinner, 8pm is eating early here and I went out about 9ish. I think. After I got food I went back to the hostel, emailed home to let them know I was safely in Rome and crashed.



One last thing to note, that at some point during the evening (before the mugging) I lost my watch. +( It was a difficult day, but the next morning I would be flying to Athens to explore the ancient ruins! Also my wonderful roommate lent me her digital camera so I would be able to take pictures in Greece!

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