oh my god, the funniest thing just happened. came walking in from my day, headphones on and a bag of new groceries, and when i reached the front door of my dorm my friend thomas opened it for me. he said, "eleanor," (pronounced el-EY-O-noor)"there is a man here who wants to talk to you, from the carabinieri". i said, oh christ, why? and came inside. there was a man at the front desk, not in uniform, talking to valdevit, the guy who runs our dorm. my friends thomas, federico, and paolo were also there, and everyone gathered around to see what in the world the problem was, and i suppose, to back me up, just incase, cause the first thing valdevit said was, "you speak some italian, right?". he started talking (and i must have looked totally terrified), and i finally caught the thread of what he was telling me (not, as i first suspected, that i was under arrest and at risk of deportation for...?): this man (yes, a carabinieri officer, just a coincidence) had heard of me, that there was a beautiful american girl roaming the streets of cormons. he has a 15 year old daughter who wants to "learn all about america" i.e., apparently, how we dress, what we do, what we eat, what we listen to, etc. so the man came to invite me, when i had free time, over for a cookout with his family, food, "bloody marys", conversation. i laughed and told him i would be delighted. we planned for 4pm on friday. when i turned to go all the boys were grinning at me and federico let out a collective sigh of relief and we all laughed, and they said, "well brava!".

the sun has returned!! amen!