Shopping Trip and Mental Glory

Yesterday (Saturday 27th) Joe, Anne, Kate L, I, and about 30 other JCU students piled onto a bus at 7 am and trekked to Tuscany to find some major shopping outlets. We did find some good deals, but most of items were 300 Euros off of 12,000 Euro items. I purchased a grand total of two shirts and a date planner, Anne two belts and a shirt, while Joe and Kate L were not so fortunate. The other members of our expedition were less afraid than we were to spend mommy and daddy’s hard earned cash. The girls sitting in front of us dropped 3000 Euros a piece easily, and the rest of the people on the bus were within close proximity.

To give you an idea of how much money in US dollars 3000 Euros is, each US dollar is roughly 2/3 of 1 Euro. 100 US dollars will give you 73 Euros at most locations that do not charge a transaction fee for changing the cash. With that in mind, 3000 Euros spent on purses and scarves actually cost these girls is roughly 4000 US dollars. Personally, I am not so much into brand names, but there are always opportunities to find well made clothes that are discounted at these high end outlets. I spent a grand total of 44 Euros and felt pretty good about my purchases.

Other than the joy I felt at having cheated the system from robbing me of my hard earned cash, the trip was a bit of a downer. Here were these girls, smothered in make up, thinking nothing of spending 4000 Dollars without blinking an eye. I was feeling bad about my personal self worth as might be measured by my own personal bank account when I started listening to the conversation that was taking place in the eight seats behind me. Here I will relate a general idea of the topics and information that was discussed on the three hour trip to the outlets, and the three hours back.

When we first hoped on the bus, everyone was tired. I heard the girls mumbling something about drinking too much the night before and passed out sprawled over Joe, and leaning my feet on Anne across the aisle. When I woke up, we were two hours into the trip and we off loaded for a bathroom break and some breakfast. As I stood in line to order a sandwich and a glass of juice, I saw several sleepy looking companions and asked how they were doing, and didn’t a cup of coffee sound good? All three frowned and shook their heads and each related a personal story about feeling as if they were about to puke and how they still felt that their stomachs were full of vodka. Sighing and shaking my head, I did not respond, obtained my food, and wandered back to the bus.

Thinking my interactions with these girls was over, I took over my seat and Joe’s and attempted to go back to sleep. This was not possible, as the girls behind me were now talking at the level one would have to in order to be heard in a club. The conversation, when I actually paid attention to what they were saying, was about a girl who had paid 400 Euros for what she had thought was A grade hash. Instead, when she had opened the wrapping, it was a lettuce leaf. “There wasn’t even oregano or anything! He could have at least given me a nice salad or something” was her response.

They moved on to discuss their level of skiing ability, one girl claiming that she had been skiing three times before and felt totally prepared to go down the alps. Laughing to myself and imagining this girl in her 5000-dollar Gucci suit falling off a cliff, the conversation turned to discuss “world politics and economics”. All eight girls agreed that having to convert dollars into Euros was a silly ordeal, and it would be much easier if everything the world over cost the same amount in the same currency. They also felt cheated, having to learn European languages when traveling in the EU and decided that all people should simply speak English. Furthermore, it was far too cold in Italty (it has been about 45 – 75 degrees during the day) and they should have gone to school abroad on a tropical island.

On the return trip the topics changed course. When we were putting away the massive piles of shopping bags in the holds above the seats one girl, who happened to be in my Italian class, wanted to practice the few phrases we had learned with me. “Arrivaderci” she said to me, looking expectant.
“Goodbye? We only just met!”
“Oh, I though that meant ‘What is your name?’ “.
I do not know about anyone’s level of Italian knowledge, but I think “Come ti chiami” isn’t even close to goodbye.

While we worked on a bit of Italian so she wouldn’t flunk the course, the other girls started talking about the purposes of going abroad. They claimed that school was over rated and simply a tool to find good drinking buddies and hot Italian men. One girl in particular had met and had sex thus far with two different Italian men named Felipo. Having plugged both numbers into her phone she had failed to differentiate between the two different men, one of which was a total sleaze. Having waited for the hot Felipo to call, when the ugly one did, she picked up and arranged a date and hotel room. When she found it was the wrong one, and not wanting to upset the young man, she went to dinner and had sex with him that evening. Her friend responded,
“It was an understandable mistake. Felipo is like John around here”.

The conversation dropped off as the girls got tired, they slept for about an hour, and then woke up complaining of full bladders and an intense desire to get off the bus. We were about 45 minutes away from our drop off point, and 10 minutes outside of Rome. In their intense displeasure , they were failing to read the signs along the side of the road which listed the distance and the city about every 2 minutes.

“If we do not get there in ten minutes I am jumping off of this bus”
“I think we have two more hours, we just went through the same toll booth that was near Tuscany”
“They only have one toll booth in Italy?”
“That was the only one I saw on the way there”
“Wernt you sleeping?”
“Only half of the way”
“Oh, then that must be the only one”
“If we have two more hours I am getting off right now”
“Im jumping out the window and getting a taxi”

When we finally arrived at JCU I got off of the bus as fast as I could. Joe, Anne, Kate L and I, in desperate need of a political conversation, went home and made gnocchi. Now, I know I tend to be judgmental, but Anne and Kate tend to be very forgiving of others mental short comings. They too were stunned that over the course of eight hours, these were the only things discussed and there had been no desire shown by any of the girls to talk about something meaningful. If wealth means utter stupidity, maybe I should just give up my dreams of being a princess and be a professor for the rest of my life. At least I will be in good company with intellectual thought. For now it is time to talk about anything intelligent. Ciao.