Exhaustion

Yesterday afternoon I met with my Italian friend Linda again and her sister Laura. We sat in un bar and talked for a long time before walking home. I love spending time we both of them. They help me with my Italian a lot and it's fun to exchange words and teach each other new things. Linda is extremely helpful. She sent me some Italian songs so I can learn them and fit in with the college crowd. I met my friend Judith and her Italian sisters and their friends for dinner. Their family owns a restaurant in town so we ate there. Then it happened. We were all laughing and having a grand old time with language barriers when we got yelled at by the table behind us for being too loud!! Thankfully I was with Italians and it wasn't just me! Afterwards we went to the piazza. It's very interesting because all the bars in Padova are really small so after you order your drink, you go back outside and everyone hangs out in the piazza....except it's winter and cold. The sisters told us that in the summer the piazza is so busy on Wednesday nights that it's filled with people and you can't move. After we went to a discoteca, except the discotecas don't open until 12:30...Italians like to stay out realllly late, til 2, 3, or 4 in the morning! It was a lot of fun dancing finally because no one dances at the bars. We took a taxi at 2:30 and thus today has definitely been a struggle due to lack of sleep. I don't understand how they do it. When I go out during the week at Bucknell, I'm still home by 12:30. So that will take some adjusting, though after my intensive month of language class, I don't think I have class quite so early. This afternoon I met with my other e-pen pal Annachiara and we chatted over un caffe, as is the best thing to do. She talks in English and I talk in Italian so we are both able to practice, but right now my brain is very tired of speaking Italian. It needs some sleep tonight. It's ridiculous though, no matter what I do I have AMERICAN plastered across my forehead. Tommaso says my accent sounds like the English recording on the train. When I walked into a cafe yesterday and said "Vorrei un panino," the lady at the counter yells "Inglese! They don't speak Italian well!" But regardless, I keep trying.