rain

It has rained for the last 2 days more than I have ever seen in my life. It's quite spectacular--when you don't have to walk in it. Yesterday I spent the morning catching up on a little sleep and working on my 196- 1 cm squares that I have to fill in for watercolor class. I had to be to class at 3 so I planned for enough time to shower, get ready and leave the apartment around 2:30. My plan worked out wonderfully and I was feeling quite accomplished for the day. The second I stepped out onto the street the drizzle began. By the time I reached the city wall it was pouring. I had my leather flip flops on and a little ways into the city I gave up trying to work with them and surrendered to walking barefoot up the slippery cobblestone streets. By this point I could tell that unless by some miracle the rain stopped- I would be completely drenched and dripping by the time I reached Danti Aligheiri. I was right. After only walking for about 7-8 minutes, normal people began to duck into shops, doorways, and covered alley's to get away from the down pour- I, however, had to continue my trek in order to make it to class on time. The thought came to mind that they probably don't run the school like they do at Wimbledon--"Oh! Rain delay! Class will resume when the rain stops in order to give the students some reprieve…". No. That is not how things work in the real world- but apparently I was the only one inside of the city walls that had anywhere pressing to be because when I reached the Piazza del Campo I was the ONLY person in the whole square that trudged across the slippery wet slope to the other side…every other body in the square was taking shelter under large table umbrellas or was inside a warm, dry restaurant. I began to wonder if I was the only student making the trek or if they were following suit and pausing their journey for more suitable conditions. I arrived at the school just as the church bells were ringing 3 o'clock. Perfect timing! I walked into class and realized that a few other girls looked mildly wet but a good number of them were completely dry, due to the fact that they had an earlier class and had all stayed at the school to wait for humanities. I sat down in my chair and tried my hardest to disregard the puddle that was forming at my feet as the water dripped off my jeans and onto the ancient wooden floorboards. By the end of the hour and a half class period my clothes were more damp than soaking wet and I had accumulated a nice pond in the surrounding space at my feet. By this point the rain had ceased and the girls were ready to take a walk about the town, seeing as how the school was closing at 5 instead of 6 and in order to get us all out of the building they turned off the WiFi signal so there was nothing for us to do. We left and hung around the city a bit and made plans to all meet at the Campo at 10 for a birthday gelato celebration since Peter gave us the gift of a later curfew. The weather continued to stay decent with threatening clouds but no sign of water. Autumn decided to go out for dinner with two other girls who's families kicked them out for the night so it was just going to be me and the Tadei family! Joy. As I lay on my bed awaiting the moment for Fiorella to call us down for dinner sleep overcame me unexpectedly. Some unknown time later a knock at the door brought me back to consciousness and I grabbed the note from "lyman" stating she wouldn't be at dinner and followed Fiorella down to the dinner table. Dinner proved to be quite a silent evening for me as I sat and listened to their conversation partly because I can't speak italian and partly because I was still waiting for the cloud to clear that was still covering my mind. We had a very short discussion in italian about me not drinking the alcohol for religious reasons and the fact that yes, I am a mormon. And yes- everyone in my group is a mormon as well. This seemed to satisfy some of the curiosity. I hurried upstairs after dinner to change my jeans and grab my purse then I was out the door and racing to get to the campo because I was already 5 minutes late and I still had at least 15 minutes walking time before I arrived. I got there just as Lynzie was starting to panic and shortly after I arrived the rest of the group trickled in. Then the rain began. We took a few pictures of us in the small cove we found to take shelter in and decided to make a mad dash across the piazza to grab some gelato at the place on the corner. The gelato was a refreshing treat despite the cold weather and we all lingered in the streets a little bit longer. We discussed how it totally is a conspiracy theory that the one night we could stay out until anywhere between 12 and 1 it rains and is cold. I know Peter had something to do with it! We all split off in our pairs and headed home about 11:15, very much so disappointed to say the least. But we all were trying to be optimistic that Saturday would bring better weather. Wrong. Although it is beautiful the entire morning for the last 6 ish hours has been nothing but pouring pouring rain. The plan was to meet back at the Campo today at 1…but that is not something that I was in the mood to do. I have tried to be patient and will head out when the rain slows down. I feel as though 3 "showers" yesterday is quite sufficient and a fourth, fifth, or sixth today is not necessary. If this gets posted today you will know that it eventually stopped and I was able to hike up to the internet café and post. If not I will continue to work on the mountains of homework I still have despite my efforts to turn it into a mini hill and will just add this entry to my birthday post tomorrow!