June 5, 2003 – Thursday

The beginnings of the wicked sunburn

Woke up feeling like shit and didn’t want to get out of bed. Kelsey’s sunburn had gotten progressively worse, so she had turned up the air conditioning all the way the night before. Even though I had stolen all her blankets to add to my own, I still froze and woke up shivering. My nose was really stuffed up and my throat sore. Kelsey was doing just as poorly; the sunburn was actually pretty serious.

We eventually got up and went out in order to see more of the city. In the really rich section of the city where they sell all the gold and jewelry, I ran into Heidi and her friend Crystal again, the girls from the TGV train. It’s pretty amazing that we would accidentally run into each other twice like that.

I ended up convincing Kelsey to buy Micah a pair of boxer shorts from a street vendor that had a picture of the genitalia from Michelangelo’s David on it. It took a lot of convincing. After that, we headed to the museum to see the actual statue of David, which, as I flagrantly pointed out to Kelsey, is uncircumcised.

After a nap and some more shopping, we went to a restaurant for dinner called Buca Niccolino’s. The waiter was adorable, really shy and quiet, very little English, and every other word out of his mouth was “Okay!”. At the end of the meal, he brought us complimentary drinks, which was so sweet.

While we were eating, a man came by selling lighters. The man was deaf, and apparently this is kind of sales is really common with handicapped people in Europe. My dad was telling me that there is this organization that provides them with cards to pass out with prices listed, and they set samples in front of you to choose from. Kelsey and I ended up buying these really cute lighters for our friends that looked like rifles. And the guy was so cute, and he mimicked shooting a gun when we picked out the rifles.

We went out for some gelato afterwards. The sugar content of that stuff is insane. Kels felt really full afterwards, and wanted to go for a walk before bed. My dad went with us, because he wanted to stop by the train station to get a look at the schedules for the next day. My dad was way out in front of us, when Kelsey and I passed by this group of men.

As they passed by Kelsey, one of them reached over and tried to grab her. I was behind her as this happened, and was reaching out to smack his hand away, but luckily she stepped out of the way quickly. I stopped in front of the guy and stared at him with my mom’s “death look”. My brother calls it the “Ball-withering Stare.” The guy got really nervous and turned away quickly to break eye contact. He was gone when we got back. I guess I really do have the “shrewish Italian woman” thing going for me. Great.

My dad went over the train schedules with us, and I noticed this shy American girl standing off to the side, staring at us like she wanted help but was too intimidated to ask. As my dad started to leave, she shot me this really pleading look and I told my dad that I think she wanted to ask him a question. She looked relieved and thanked me, and asked my dad to help explain the schedules to her and tell her what trains she needed to take. After that, we headed back to the room and packed for the next morning.