hot.... too hot!

HEAT HEAT HEAT. this is the summer that will never end. giovanni, mr conspiracy theorist, says this bad weather is the beginning of the end. there's only a few more weeks left of august, so i'm sure it'll let up soon enough.

week recap: monday i worked most of the day. tuesday i took the day off to accompany aubrey to pick up her "stp" card. this is our gateway into the free italian national health system as foreigners. we had specific instructions from the midwife to go to a certain address, and ask for the "ufficio stranieri" (foreigners office), and then ask for the stp. i went online to find out where the office was, and on the website it mentioned that it closed at 12:30. i also saw some other addresses and clinics and hospitals on the list as well.

so we woke up, got our cappuccinos and cornettos and hopped the bus to go the office. we find it with no problem, except the large amounts of sweat dripping off of our shirts and foreheads. we wait in line and ask the rental cop at the entrance for the ufficio. he says give me a minute and leaves. five minutes later he comes back and says, oh no, that's not here. here's another address to go to, and gave us rough walking directions. i call the midwife and tell her. she says, oh, well i really don't know how these things work. (thanks alot...)

we're walking, we're walking and realize that we're near the san giovanni hospital. i remembered that hospital was on the list too. we take a chance, and get out of the heat, and try the hospital. the entrance is like a big office of sorts. there are about 5 "sportellos" each with large desks with old italians sitting in front of computers. there's a small coffee bar on one corner, and very uncomfortable looking chairs strewn about the place. we stop first at sportello number 3, since it was the closest. the old italian behind the desk says he's not sure where to get the stp, but if we wait a minute, his colleague will come by and help us. being the impatient american i am, i walk over to sportello number 5 where a woman is just finishing. i ask her about the stp. she tisks and waves her finger in my face, like they do, these italians, and says, "not here, not here, sportello number 6, right across the way." ok. we walk to sportello 6, and he says, "no, no, at number 5." the teller behind number 5 yells back, and says, "no sportello 3!" (right where we went the first time)

we walk back to number and i ask the guy if his "colleague" with all the information has arrived. "he's having a coffee right now, five more minutes". so we sit in the uncomfortable chairs and wait 7 minutes.

the man with all the information comes by. i tell him we need the stp. ok. he yells to the teller at sportello 5 to get the stp card. she says she doesn't have it. are you sure? yes i'm sure. then he walks over, opens a drawer and pulls out the blank stp card.

back to our original friend behind sportello 3. the man with the information is standing behind our friend, who is on the computer. another man appears from nowhere, apparantly to learn how to do the stp. aubrey hands over her passport. the man with the information is giving instructions to teller number 3. ok, open up explorer. what? explorer, internet explorer. oh ok. one click. it doesn't open. there's something wrong. the man double clicks and it opens. ok, now what? enter your password. what password? the password that you enter to log on to the system. i don't think i have one... you have to have one. oh wait, THAT password, ok. this continues in the same fashion as he types in aubrey's information, address, phone number, what have you, then he prints out the form and hand-writes it on the little stp card from sportello 5. all in all, had it not been for the man who was using the computer for the first time in his life, or the lack of organization in that hospital, we could have had it done in 3.2 minutes. instead it took about 45 minutes. for more on italian life click here.

after that ordeal, as with any ordeal in italy when you get something accomplished, we felt good about ourselves. we decided to roll up to prenatal to look again at strollers and cribs. they were closing, so we walked a little ways up gregorio xii to chicco, which is normally a very expensive store, but during the summer all of italy is on sale. we saw some things we liked, and other things we didn't really like, and after opening and closing (or at least trying) all of the strollers, we left to go back home, and wait until 4pm when they would re-open. and that's what we did. we said, let's just do it, and so we are now the proud owners of a graco stroller and a graco pack 'n play crib. and we bought some cute shoes and a little skully cap for luca. what a day! we really got some things accomplished, and despite the terrible heat, it was a fantastic day.

the day after i got an email asking my availability for the pope trip to slovakia 11-14 september. so that's where i'll be. we'll probably leave on the 9th and come back on the 16th. this will be the last trip for me, until the luca is born. (please please please pray that he's not born early while i am in slovakia!!!!)

so that's where we're at. tomorrow is ferragosto. nothing will be open. i'll probably go in to work, but not for too long. then we'll go back to the apartment and sit in front of the fans for the rest of the night. a friend from msnbc will be in town sunday and monday, so there's some dinner and drinks in our future... and a little taste of home!