Stranded at Ikea.... gelato anyone?

So today I think I laughed more than I have in a long time...we had a ridiculous experience at Ikea that was definitely worth noting.  The day sarted off with Italian class at 9am as usual... well mostly as usual, we didn't realize that Mere and Linds slept through their alarms this morning so on our way out to class, we knocked on their door and realized they were still asleep hahah rough start to their morning for sure.

After class, we decided it was a good day to go to Ikea and get some household items like bedding, lights, etc.  Simple trip to Ikea right?  Take the green line to the red line, take the red to the end, and catch the Ikea bus to the store.  Right.  So, we get to the end of the red line and realize that the Ikea bus only comes every hour and we just missed it.  It's okay, we take a van taxi to Ikea and have a delicious lunch there (who knew?) including small gelato filled cones.  Then we spent about an hour and a half wandering around Ikea and about an hour of that time was spent looking at bedding.  Needless to say, I have never been so flustered and confused about bedding as I was today!  There were about a million options and about a small isle that seemed to fit our needs... for example, after we meticuously picked out which color/pattern we liked the best, we realized we spent the entire time looking at duvet covers instead of sheet sets.  The whole situation was hilarious, I can't tell you how many times we went back and forth between aisles and walls bewildered and puzzled, trying to figure out what exactly the labels said and what exactly would fit our beds and of course what color we liked best/would go the best with our room (at this point, patterns were out of the question -- we were limited to solid colors, much to our dismay). 

Decisions about bedding having been made, we checked out and tried to catch the 2:15 Ikea bus back to the metro stop.  We got to the bus stop at 2:20 and saw that the next bus wasn't coming until 3:15.  Mind you- we were supposed to attent a "culture shock" seminar at 3:30 which we were planning on going to but there was another one at 5... at this point, the 3:30 one was out of the question.  So, there we are, the 6 of us obviously American girls standing at an empty bus stop with giant blue Ikea bags... and what are American girls to do when they need to get somewhere and there's no bus or metro within walking distance?  We call a cab!  Perfetto!  Only the cab company says there are no cabs available and to call back in 5.  What, no cabs, really?!  Literally we are all standing at the bus stop, completely stranded.  Okay, we decide to stay at Ikea and have another gelato cone... we suppose there are worse places to be stranded with giant blue Ikea bags.  So, we go back inside and as we attempt to go upstairs to the cafe, we are promptly stopped by the attendee who says we can't go upstairs with our Ikea bags unless we check them in or something.  We are, however, allowed to hang out at the other cafe that is outside of the check out area.  We decide to go to the bathroom and come out and see Ann with a security guard checking her bag.  Somehow she slipped past us and accidentally went upstairs.  We hysterically laugh because of the ridiculous situation (I think delirium from lack of sleep and overall hecticness of the past weekend had set in at this point).  Ann is cleared to leave the area and we go to the cafe and have our gelato aka our saving grace. 

At 3:10 we mosey on out to the bus stop and Ann steps on the bus via the back doors.  Jen attempts to follow her and gets the bus doors promptly shut on her face.  Hmm, okay we try the front doors.  We are swiftly shooed away by the bus driver with no explanation.  So, Ann is alone and distraught sitting on the bus and we have no way of entering the bus that is idling at the bus stop and not leaving for another 5 minutes.  We naturally burst out into incontrollable laughter at the situation before us.  I haven't laughed that hard in a longgg time... the entire situation was too much.  We had already spent wayy more time at Ikea that we had planned and now we are STILL stranded there with giant blue Ikea bags and an almost empty bus right in front of us.  Eventually, we are cleared to enter the bus and we are on our way back to the metro stop.  When we get off the bus, two other English-speaking Ikea-bag-clad exchange students strike up a conversation with us... we are amused at the fact that it took us 2 weeks to get to Ikea and it only took them 1 day (they arrived yesterday).  More tight pants, but getting used to them.  We FINALLY make it to our apartment after a million metro stops, changing of metro lines, long walk through the metro station, and a walk from the station to our apartment. 

We drop everything off and make our way to the "culture shock" seminar IES put together where a psychotherapist talked about various topics like the stages of adapting to a new culture, how to greet Italians, and why they stare so much.  We especially related to the last topic as we often feel we are either one of 2 strange oddities in Milan: either zoo animals or aliens with 5 heads.  Among other reasons the therapist gave for their staring, she mentioned that sometimes Italians stare because they think you are very pretty and are curious about you.  We liked this reason and now tell ourselves this is true everytime we are being intensely stared down on the metro :)

Another eventful day in Milano down, hopefully many many more to come.  Prague was fabulous, we had a great time!  Next blog entry will be about our weekend there!  Here's a little teaser....