oh, my god, aunt kathi, did i tel you that i do that? spray izzy, i mean? there is a profumeria in downtown udine, on my walk to school. i stop in there from time to time and spray that perfume onto the little sampling strips, and i keep them in my wallet, and whenever i feel sad or lonely or scared or nostalgic i take them out and smell your perfume. it is one of the strongest sensory-tied-to-memory-tied-to-emotion things i have; when i smell that perfume you wear i remember being small and loved and safe and in nanas kitchen eating goldfish or in your bed waiting for you to come home from chattanooga, or even more recent memories, its all just wonderful. and so when i smell it now it physically calms me and makes me happy. how funny.
so...oh my god, week of hell. have an incredible, incredible amount of things to do before i go to france, and its just like trying to swim underwater in a dream. not working. but, i did finally mail off my permit of stay:
...went to the "permit of stay" office yesterday, two weeks after my inital meeting with the lady. the first time she gave me all these forms and instructions and sent me on my way. then went to the university to tell the lady "in charge" of me that i had the forms ready to mail, and she freaked and psyched me out and was convinced that the info was not right. ended up taking 2 weeks for her to give me the "necessary info", and then she told me to return to the permit office and have them retype the forms. got to the office yesterday and the lady listened to me explain why i was back and what i thought i needed. she stared at me and explained that she already knew this and that all i needed was exactly what she gave me the first time, that, as i expected and was yelled at for supposing, the other info was not, at all, necessary. but the package she gave me was dated...it was suppose to have gone into a datebase...it is now very very late. "why didnt you mail it when i told you to mail it??" she asked ernestly, with a frightened look in her eye, in manner of a doctor leaning over a dying patient, writhing in pain, asking, "why didnt you take your appendix out when i told you to take it out?" and all the patient can scream is "because my chiropractor told me not to?". was scared i had messed up bad, but she told me it was ok, and today i mailed and got it verified, so i should be a-ok.
today the wonderful, life-saving angel who is simone translated a gigantic stack of course descriptions so that i can mail in my Credit Approval Form to UGA TOMORROW (MANDATORY!!!). UGA asks for a list of courses you want to take and descriptions of them, so that they can best match them up with UGA courses and give you credit. is all fine except was all in italian and there were lots of big words and i just couldnt take 10 hours out of my day to flip through my dictionary. went to simone, pleading, "please, simone, i need you!" (he lives for this kind of thing). took an hour for him to translate all the art history, molecular biology, and mathematic terms, but i think he liked the vocabulary exercise and he laughed alot when he got to use the term "lord of the lands". could not think of the english word for these people anyway, so it stays.
still have not begun my paper, will have to write it in france, but is ok as have lots of research hoorah.

other then majormassivestress work, all is very well. have made a new friend at my dorm in cormons, a v sweet and intelligent (and terribly attractive) boy from serbia who was some kind of child-prodigy in the club (spinning records, DJ, etc) scene in prague where he lived for 15 or some odd years. now his dad owns the best winery in serbia and he is studying viticulture. showed me pictures on his computer of wine related things, and in one photo it is him and a bunch of older men on a hill overlooking a winery. he pointed and said, "and thats the guy who started Slow Foods, you know" and i almost CHOKED on my non-alcoholic beer (an accident, i did not understand the term "analcoholic" and i thought "zero" meant it was diet, and i have too much pride to admit my mistake, so i just peeled off the labels...)because the GUY WHO STARTED SLOW FOOD IS MY IDOL and i screamed and was like, oh my god, hes why im here, i want to go to his university blahblah hes a hero you know him!!!! etc. also he knows the princess of tuscany, the guy who started the revolution against Milosevic, and like everyone else who is awesome. and he has lots of desperate housewives on his computer, which we watch, and we can agree that bree is the best, edie deserves more air time, lynette is horrid and cruisin for a bruisin, and susan should just be...killed.
so last night i made potato soup and the sweet serbian came over and after he went home and the tv was off i started hearing louds hoops and chants from upstairs. the chants turned into songs, loud rousing songs, a chrus of voices. so of course im thinking, oh god, theyre at it again, they must really be smashed tonight. so i followed the sound to go spy on the italians, to witness their maddness, and the singing grew louder and louder until i found the dorm room where they were, 3 FLOOR UP. went in to find about 20 italians, sitting around, lounging, singing as loud as they could some wonderful italian classics, and in their hands...hot chocolate. they were sitting around drinking hot chocolate, a pot of melted nutella over the stove was being spooned into big cups, and the italians were drinking their melted chocolate and eating cookies and singing and laughing. it was incredible. they are just really incredible. was handed a piping cup and i "drank" (spooned) it into my mouth and smiled and watched and was just so greatful to be around such happy people.
hm, ok, i think thats about all for now. is freezing cold outside and am avoiding having to venture out to make the long journey home.
love