So today I went down by the arena to make a test trip before the day of the show to make sure I could get there with no problems. I got down there with no problems, and it's actually a pretty cool place. They have a giant swimming pool right next to the arena, so perhaps I'll get a bathing suit and go down there if it's still blazing hot outside this week. But I probably won't. So when I got down there I discovered that it's not just an arena but that there's also a mall, a McDonald's, outlet stores, and a movie theater. I hadn't eaten anything all day at that point so I decided to walk over to the McDonald's because it's cheap to eat there. For 5 euro I got two cheeseburgers, fries, and a large Coke. That's pretty good considering most other places want like 3 euro for a tiny sandwich or one piece of pizza.
After eating my lunch I went over to the movie theater to check out which movies were playing. I should note that all the movies are dubbed in Italian if they're not Italian films. I got there and noticed that Beauty and the Beast (or La Bella e La Bestia as it's called here) was playing, as well as Men in Black 3. Beauty and the Beast had started ten minutes before I got to the theater, but it was a movie I already knew so it wouldn't be so hard to understand what they were saying. Men in Black 3 didn't start for another fifteen minutes and I also realized that Beauty and the Beast was in 3D so I decided to see Men in Black. I thought it would be a good experience to watch a movie I hadn't seen before to see if I could fully understand what was happening. When I bought my ticket I said to the girl, "Potrei avere uno per Men in Black 3?" She responded, "Si, venti euro." Apparently when I said 3 after Men in Black she thought I meant three tickets instead of the name of the movie. After clearing that up she felt the need to tell me that the movie was in Italian and not English, even though I had just spoken to her in Italian. I just kinda laughed and told her I could use the practice since I've only studied the language for two years.
So I get in the theater and it's a little different from what I'm used to in America. There are seat rows and all the seats are numbered and your ticket tells you what seat you have. But this wasn't really a problem because the movie didn't start until 2:30 and there were only a few people at the theater. So the movie started and at the beginning I was still wide awake and trying really hard to pay attention and I was actually understanding it more or less. There were a few parts, like when Will Smith used the neuralizer and explained really fast to the people what had happened, that I didn't really get, but I could follow it. It's still pretty difficult for me to fully understand Italian when it's spoken fast, and once the plot of the movie started to take off I started to not understand so much. About halfway into the movie I was getting tired and not really following what was happening because I couldn't catch everything they were saying, but then the movie turned off. They have an intermission here where they try and sell more drinks and popcorn. At first I was like wtf, but it allowed me to wake up a little and focus more on the movie.
Now that I was more awake, I could follow it a little better. I didn't quite get everything obviously, but I understood the main idea of what the characters were saying and understood the main points of the plot and what was actually happening. I really liked the ending of it regarding Will Smith's character. When I get home I'm going to watch it in English to fill in the minor details. When I got my nails painted the girl told me that she learned English from watching movies so I'm gonna start watching more Italian movies or movies dubbed in Italian. But just by being here my understanding of the language has really improved a lot. In Venice everyone would ask me how to say things to people or I had to be the translator so I got a lot of practice.
After the movie ended I decided to take a walk through the mall. There weren't really any cool stores except for a bookstore that also had music and movies. They had a cool Italian bible but it was like 35 euro so I said no thanks. Then in the back of the mall there was this huge store that's basically the Italian equivalent of Wal-Mart. It was pretty interesting since in Venice the biggest store is still only like the size of maybe a Walgreens. They had one giant isle devoted to ice cream. Both sides, filled with different ice creams. It was pretty ridiculous. They also had big bags of Crispy M&M's which I guess I'll have to buy before I leave since I forgot my box of them in Venice. I'm still pissed off at that. I paid 10 euro for those M&M's and only got to eat one bag. But whatever.
Anyway, once I got out and about I didn't quite feel as alone as I did yesterday. After spending literally all of my time with a group of people I'm not used to being alone anymore. But as long as I have something to occupy my time I'll be fine.
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