Getting to Work

Today was a work day. Our team agreed to meet at noon so that we could get a couple hours in of working together before Rita and I had to head off to our Italian class. Rita and I were about 5 minutes late (we could've actually gotten there on time, but decided to take our time since no one else ever shows up on time). We were told that we were meeting on the 2nd floor, so when we got to the MBA building, we walked up one flight to the study area where we normally work when we're there on our own. We didn't see anyone else, so we got a room and started working. About 5 minutes later, Kathleen came in and joined us. About 20 minutes later, no one else had shown up so I checked my email to see if we had the wrong location. No email. Kathleen checked her messages and there was a message that the group was in the building, but clearly somewhere else since they were not with us. It turns out the rest of the group was one floor up. Apparently, we had different notions of what constituted the second floor. When we joined the group on the "second floor" Ashley and Rita got into a debate about what constitutes the second floor. Goodness gracious. I chalked it up as unclear instructions and went about my work. Working together was cool b/c we got to talk through each others' ideas and give each other feedback. We agreed to meet three days a week - Tuesday through Thursday - so that everyone could have their long weekends. Alex wanted to meet every day b/c she's the type of person that needs things scheduled or else she won't get anything done, but that just seemed so unnecessary given that at this point, most of the desk work can be done individually or over email.
At 2:30 Rita and I left and went to our Italian class with Susanna. I'm always glad to see Susanna - even if I just saw her less than 24 hours ago, and even if I know she's going to grill me like crazy in Italian. In today's class, we definitely used a lot less English than in the previous class. We covered verbs: avere (to have) and essere (to be) and the various conjugations. I'm so glad Italian has a lot of similarities to spanish, because it makes learning the language for me so much easier. At the end of class, Susanna always give us a practice exercise. Mine for today was telling her about myself. I managed to say my name, that I have two older brothers and a younger sister, and that I am tall, with brown eyes, and short, brown hair. All in Italian! See, I'm making progress! Not long ago, I could barely say hello.
Class lasted about an hour and a half, then Rita and I left to come back to the apartment. Sergio (our landlord) had called to say that he needed to stop by the apartment to get some tool, so we rushed to get back before he got there. He arrived shortly after 6, but he couldn't find the tool so he left empty handed. He is allowing Rita to stay in the apartment through mid August (I'm still not clear on whether or not he is charging her for August but doesn't quite matter since I'll be gone) and he told us today that he is renting the apartment to some other people when she leaves. Apparently, next week is the last week for the cleaning lady, because she's leaving to go back to Turkey, so he asked us to clean the apartment before we leave. Not a problem. I happen to think I'd do a better job than the cleaning lady anyway. She only does surface cleaning.
After Sergio left, I attempted to pass out, but since I had started to drift off right before he got here, I had trouble taking another nap. Finally, I just got up and decided I would cook. Now that I know how to work the oven, I decided to make turkey burgers (well, I didn't have much choice - I left them in the fridge yesterday so I had to cook them today or they'd go bad). It took me about 15 minutes of twiddling with the oven before I could cook because apparently, you have to take the bottom out of the oven in order to light it. However, it's kinda tricky to put the bottom back in with a fire burning directly underneath it, especially since it has to align in these grooves on the side. I kept thinking I was going to burn my fingers - and I haven't seen anything that even looks like a potholder in the kitchen. I was doing it the old fashioned way - with a washrag. Anyway, I made turkey burgers and fries, and I seasoned the burgers with the only seasonings I could find in the kitchen: salt, pepper, and some unknown seasoning for "carne" (meat - I still don't know exactly what it was). The burger came out very tasty! The fries were good too, but it's kinda hard to mess up fries. It's just a heat and eat kinda thing. I left what was left for Rita, although she's on a no carb diet, and has picky tastes, so I'm not sure if she ate it or not. The rest of the evening, I basically did nothing, b/c my internet connection was out most of the night and it was too hot to move. I just laid on my bed taking repetitive 15 minute naps. Now I'm nice and awake at 1:30 in the morning :-) Tomorrow is July 4th! So we're planning to go in search of an American bar to celebrate. Supposedly there is a place in the Brera area that has an American "cookout" buffet for 20 euros or something. I'm not getting my hopes up too high but I'll check it out. Have a great holiday!