The Pipistrello and other things that have happened recently.

            Last night was the first night that I slept in my new Bolognese apartment! I was super excited because I was kind of sick of living in the hotel and I was ready to have a place to call home. Finally having my own space also helped me deal with the reality that I’m actually going to be living here for a year. The hotel kind of felt like summer camp: just a group of rowdy Americans having a fantastic time away from home. This feels more real, more permanent.

            Ok. Before I get all deep and philosophical, on to the actual story. In the weeks preceding my move to Bologna, my mom and I battled a series of bats in our house in Rochester. Our neighbors had a colony living in their attic, so having a bat in the house became a pretty regular occurrence.

            Another important aspect to this story is that my mom and I both have a (kind of irrational) fear of bats. As my dad says, they’re just mice, but I still get pretty freaked every time I see one. It’s pretty serious. On one occasion, I drove the 20 minutes to my dad’s house at midnight to escape a bat. Another time, my mom and I slept in our living room because we were convinced that there was a bat flying around upstairs. So there you go, a full description of my chiroptophobia (fear of bats, I Wikipedia-ed it)

            In short, I spent my last two weeks at home in Rochester being freaked out that every night at dusk a bat would come swooping in. But, since I’ve had so much going on the last two weeks in Italy, I altogether forgot about the bat problem back in Rochester. It’s super hot in Bologna, so when we had our windows wide open in the apartment last night, I didn’t think twice about it. My roommates and I were just casually watching “The Big Bang Theory” on TV when Monica screamed and shouted “pipistrello!” I looked up and realized that there was a bat swooping around our kitchen/living area. After a few screams and shouts of “che schifo!” (how gross!) we all managed to shut ourselves into mine and Monica’s room.

            Once we were safe, I double-checked with my roommate what a bat is called in Italian. Yes, it’s true, the name for “bat” in Italian is “pipistrello.” This in and of itself made the situation much lighter and easier. It also made for an instant bonding experience for my new roommates and me.

            This evening my roommates came home with a candle to put in the open window. Hopefully this will work, since window screens aren’t really used here like they are in the US!

            So, I guess what I learned from this is that you really can’t escape your fears by moving across the planet. Huh.

On a lighter note, here are a few photos of the apartment like I promised! 

 Kitchen/living area.

 My bed! 

View from my bedroom window. Holla.

Shopped with my friend Jessica at IKEA. She was as enthusiastic as I was. (which was very.)

A lot else has happened. On Sunday, Noelle, Cindy and I went to a seaside town called Rimini that is about a 1.5 hour train ride from Bologna. It was beautiful, and I got to swim in the Mediterranean! Awesome. I don’t have a bucket list really, but if I did I probably would have just checked that item off of it.

 My beach reading material.

Cindy's beach reading material. Fifty Shades of Grey, in case you couldn't tell.