Morning Revelations

Buongiorno! After sleeping off the jet lag for nearly 12 hours, I woke up this morning to a slightly overcast (and thus slightly cooler!) day. Last night I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open, but I stayed up to the very late hour of 10 pm waiting to hear the results of my interview. I called this post "Morning Revelations" not because all the revelations came this morning, but because I was too tired to post them last night. They are as follows:

1. Dara, the person who runs the tour guide company, and who has been communicating with me since March, is not, as I had assumed, a woman. He is in fact a young Irish man.

2. Despite my misconception of Dara (which I prudently kept to myself), he chose to hire me as a tour guide (yay!). I suspect this has something to do with the fact that I not only blatantly overachieved on my interview speech, but that I made a reference to Fight Club in favorable comparison to his company.

3. The strange students I have seen wandering around the Centro are actually the first ever study abroad program from the University of Wisconsin Madison. Talk about a small world.

4. Ideal Bar, our old Centro haunt on the Viale Quattro Venti, still makes the best cappucino in the neighborhood, and Donatello still rings you up at the counter.

And finally:
5. Aqueduct water, as it flows out of the various fountains in the city, really does have magical powers. I have always held this to be true. Once, I was homesick, and I drank aqueduct water, and I felt better. Once, I had a sunburn, but when I drank aqueduct water, that felt better. I surreptitiously filled up my nalgene with it this morning, and it is incomparably delicious. I know, I know, how can water taste different? Must be magic.