Yesterday I locked my keys inside the apartment. I realized this at lunch when looking for something else in my purse. My two friends said "Lynne, look again. They aren't in your computer bag? Maybe your pocket? Please you must have a spare". Their look of panic (and laughter) suggested that this would not be an easy problem to solve. Especially because my landlord lives over an hour away, and we all know now that it is not easy to get him to visit our apartment (moldy couch was here for how long? right. 4 months). I called the landlord and he was happy to help, minus the distance. Although my colleague's husband works in the same province as my landlord and we thought he could bring the spare keys up in the evening, the two men were still about 80 km apart. Translation: not close. To make matters worse, my friends (and boss) kept saying "you really need to have a spare!". I replied in angst "yeah well the spare is usually with my husband, and well, he is in the US. So, go figure".
In the midst of trying to solve this problem, and probably due to the look of panic on my face (since the idea of not accessing my apartment, my safe haven from all that is Calabria, was not very appealing) another colleague picked up the phone and called the fire department! They kindly agreed to go directly to my apartment and let me in, free of charge. So my friend Laura drove me home, and as we were approaching my street we saw a large fire truck with its lights on. I thought, oh sh*t that is for me! The laughing began here. We pulled up to the apartment right behind the fire truck. I expected one man to hop out and somehow pick the lock on my door. Oh no. This truck was like a clown car. One after another, approximately six Italian fireman stepped out of the truck, ready to save the day. The head guy asked me several questions about whose apartment this was, where I was from, etc. I provided sufficient documentation (as you know I am always prepared now for such situations) and convinced the man it was ok to let me in. I think it helped that I batted my eyelashes and stumbled through broken Italian. He gave the ok to one guy, who seemed to have something resembling a metal rod in his hand. I thought he was about to break my door down until unrolled said object into a plastic sheet. Like a giant credit card, he slid it between the lock while another man pushed the door open. "Hooray!" I exclaimed. Then the men proceeded to ask Laura and me about what we do here in Rende/Cosenza and even asked our thoughts on air quality in Japan right now. Mostly I think they wanted to demonstrate that they could speak some English (and as usual, they were convinced that Laura was also American, or perhaps Russian. Not Italian, which she is. This happens to us ALL the time). Eventually they left and I happily retrieved my keys from inside the house. Laura and I laughed hysterically several times about this situation, both yesterday and today. As usual, the two of us when faced with needing something from some Italian officials were able to get what we asked for. We make a good team :-)
In other news, I bought a couch tonight (finally). And today was one of those really good Italian-speaking days. All by myself (even though Laura was there) I managed to ask the salesman about different models and purchase the couch I wanted. Afterward, Laura said to me "Lynne you did that all by yourself! You are doing so well!". I felt really proud, because for once I believed her compliment about my language skills. We celebrated by going for pizza and beer. Pizza, because tomorrow is the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy (and therefore a national holiday), and beer because tomorrow is also St. Patty's day. Tomorrow for the holiday I am going hiking with my friend Giovanni. I am really looking forward to it. I only wish my handsome husband could be here to join us, since I know he would love it. I will scope out the trails for him.
In summary, Happy 17 of March to all, whether you are celebrating Italian unification day, St Paddy's day, the start of March Madness, or in my case all three!
Love,
Lynne
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