Sunshine after the Rain

The weather these past two days has become the perfect metaphor for the days themselves.  Yesterday was cloudy, rainy, and cold.  It never let up.  And it never got warm.  Today is beautiful and almost 60 and sunny.  So draw your own conclusions.

Yesterday a large group of us had to go get our residency permits, which basically tell the government of Venezia that we can support ourselves while we're here and we aren't criminals.  In past semesters, students have had to pay the 73 euro, but their date for getting the permit was after they left.  So it was only a minor hassle.  However, it seems the immigration office has cut some of the red tape because we received dates only two weeks after we brought our forms to the post office!!  Luckily 2 groups of students had gone before us, and so we had some idea of what to expect and how to get to the office in Mestre.

We woke up around 6:30 to catch the 7:05 boat to San Marco, and then a 7:23 boat to Piazzale Roma, where we caught the 6/ bus.  (Apparently they have too many buses for #s, and instead of adding letters they just put a slash...)  Anyway, that was all any of us knew.  I somehow became unofficial leader, so I asked to make sure it was going the right direction, and then stood by the bus driver so she could tell me what stop we were supposed to get off at.  Once we embarked, we noticed a line of umbrellas all walking the same direction, so assuming they were going where we needed to be, we followed.  They were and we stood in a rather long line to go up to a window and receive a ticket.  (Our original paperwork had a time on it, but that apparently meant nothing because those of us with earlier times did not finish before those with later times....in fact, the more we tried to figure out the order the more random it seemed.)

When we reached the front we spoke with the man at the ticket window who spoke only italian, and just said "Si" and handed us a number.  The strangest part was among the 6 of us, applying for the same thing, we received 3 different colored tickets. (See what I mean about order...)  Then we waited.....and waited.....and waited....and waited.

I was the first to be called into a room with a large orange door and a friendly man with a purple sweater and absolutely no grasp of English.  I am so glad I took Italian!  It was not that  hard to understand him and he gathered my paperwork, asked for my phone number and whether or not I was studying, stamped my papers and told me to wait to be called.

I waited with Nick and Rich who finished after and before me respectively, but Nick was the first one called into the office for fingerprinting.  In fact, Rich and I weren't called till about an hour later.  Then we sat at a table with some supremely attractive cops and put each finger on a scanner.  And then were given papers to go get finger printed again, by more professional seeming people.  This whole process should've taken about 10 minutes, but instead took an hour between all the waiting.

While waiting for the second fingerprinting I started chatting with a little old Italian man from Mestre.  He spoke no English, but was super friendly, and so I used my scattered Italian to tell him I was a student living in Venice.  He said that he has lived in Mestre his entire life and his mom is 100 years old.  He also asked me if I liked Venice and what I had seen.  After I got fingerprinted he waited for me to say goodbye and "Tanti Auguri." Which basically made my day.

Once everyone was finished (I was 3rd, and Amanda who had the 1st ticket was the very last one done....)  we headed back out into the grey rain and to San Servolo.  We stopped for a mini-lunch as we were starving (It was 3:45!)  and then grabbed our boat back to the Island.  I did homework and skyped and went to bed early.  I was exhausted...from waiting!

Today, by contrast, was beautiful. And not particularly interesting, but still a very good day.

UPDATE: We  went back to Piazza San Marco today because it was all lit up....like for a movie!  So we went to see if any action was taking place.  Our Vaporetto driver  asked us where we were going (as if his Vaporetto moonlights as a water taxi) but we told him, "Just the normal spot please." and waited for Brangelina.  The square was even more lit up and there were people standing around the lights.  So I, the brave one, went and asked what was going on.  I am sure he laughed at my Spantalianish, but he got across the point that it was just being shot for a panorama.  No Brangelina to be spotted.  But we still strutted across a few times, in case they were shooting from the air.  And then retired to our island abode.