Hello, Genoa!

I have been having my fair share of existential crises during this trip, especially since arriving in Genoa, where I was immediately forced to come to certain fundamental facts of life, such as: 

1) Cities alongside the Mediterranean are not always WARM. 2) It's usually good to look up the address of your hotel BEFORE you start walking in search of it. 3) Italian is not, actually, Spanish. I do not, actually, speak it. 

So there was a quick and effective learning experience that took place, and soon I had arrived somehow at the Blue Bed and Breakfast, which is actually a room in an Italian woman's apartment. More on that later. 

I have since been wandering and musing and being very, very cold, and being pleasantly surprised by how beautiful the city is, and confusing many a citizen and shop owner with the language that I have basically invented out of my sheer refusal to speak English. Nobody knows what it is or what I'm trying to say, me included, and the most basic of interactions turn into 20 minute long miming rituals with head scratching, picture drawing, and the occasional phrase in French or Spanish. ANYTHING BUT ENGLISH. This is the extent to which I am scarred from living in countries and feeling the obligation to perfect the language. 

And so of course, I am already missing France, just two hours away-- where they embrace the power of the vegetable, and nobody asked me where I was from in every interaction since I am now so obviously a tourist, and where I could have extensive dialogues about everything from buying glasses to shipping my leather jacket home, with discussion of rates and insurance and debates upon whether to roll or fold. For the record, Mom, the woman at the post, who calls herself La Reine D'Emballage, insists that it's fold. Anyway, the emotions go up and down so many times a day I can't even keep track of them anymore, and venturing into more unknown territory at least provides the necessary fuel for more stories... 

Uh oh. I should probably be careful what I wish for.