The Venice way of life

So I am starting to figure everything out right now, including the italian keyboard, which is the same except for a few key punctuation marks such as the at symbol.  I had an epiphany this morning when I hit ctrl+alt and the key that had 3 symbols including the @ and it worked!  I honestly cheered. 

The canals are very pretty and are everywhere.  I don't think I could count how many bridges we cross every day.  The water does not smell bad (like some people told me), but there are streets that dead end right up to the canals, which is an interesting addition.  I wonder if drunken Venetians ever fall in.  Last night when we were walking home from the bars one of my friends mentioned that it is so quiet at night that it feels like we're on some strange movie set.  Which is probably the best way to describe how it feels to be here right now.  Every once in a while I am just waiting for Ashton to jump out and say "You've been Punk'd!!"  because everything seems so new.

At dinner the other night we made a sort of bucket list of things we need to while we're here so we don't waste our short amount of time. One is to eat only gelato all day one day another is to have a bonfire on the island.  Since we made it people have been coming up to me with new ideas.  By the end of this trip we might have a bucket book. 

We went to an irish pub that night, which was kinda hokey, and they definitely turned the music up like 7 decibels after we came. It was as if they thought "look! Americans! Lets blast loud 80s pop music and YMCA." There was also a table of 13 year olds, which was an interesting addition to the atmosphere.  Although, they were probably louder than we were, which is a nice change.

Today we tried to buy train tickets for a day trip to Verona, but the website rejected all our credit cards.  So then we looked it up online and apparently that happens to almost every American credit card because of problems with their system.  So, we're just going to buy them at the station.  So much for having technology...  

Speaking of technology though, I got a sim card for my British phone, hoping to save money and the environment by not getting a new one.  The guys at the store were quite nice, and spoke English pretty well, and this morning my phone is working beautifully.  Added bonus, I only had to pay for the minutes rather than the Sim Card or phone as well.

Ok, well I have to be at the "Freshman's Fair"  which is some kind of lecture in about 5 minutes, so I will update again tomorrow.  Ciao!

<3 Allie