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livingalone.

This is my first time ever living alone. I mean ALONE alone, like I have to make my own meals, clean my own bathroom, take care of my own maintenance problems, do ALL my own dishes, etc. I am so spoiled at home and at school. The Gustavus cafeteria tricks us into thinking we're independent because we pick the PARTS of our meals on our own and pay for it with a card that has money on it, but in reality they came up with all of the delicious food and recipes and we just scooped it onto a plate. Actually NO, the cafeteria workers scooped it onto our plate. And at home I'm all "oh hey I make my own meals when my parents aren't around..." which is a complete lie, I now realize. By make my own meals, I mean that I make macaroni and cheese, burritos or salads with ingredients my parents bought or prepared and left in the fridge. When it comes to maintenence, we have full time people for that at home AND at school. At school, they are called janitors and maintenance people, and at home he is called my DAD. If something breaks or looks like it might break or isn't working right, they take care of it. If there is a BUG, my dad takes care of it (or at school, my rooommate Nicole takes care of it). 
NOW I'M IN ITALY, LIVING IN MY FIRST APARTMENT (with roommates who hate bugs as much as or even more than I do).

What do I eat when I make my own meals in my apartment?
Cheese and bread. And it is DELICIOUS cheese and FRESH bread. But it's still just cheese and bread. Sometimes I get adventurous and put pesto or tomatoes on it. Sometimes I trade the bread for lettuce and have a salad with the same ingredients. I bought a kiwi yesterday and that was serious business. For breakfast I have yogurt and granola.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME? I decided to pass up all of my mother's gracious cooking lesson opportunities and wait til I was stuck in a foreign country to realize I needed to learn how to cook. KEWL.
((This is a shoutout to my mama...send recipes??))

Next problem:
WE HAVE BUGS. If you know me at all, you know how much I HATE BUGS. Nasty little things. Out to get me. GAH I HATE THEM. And we have them in our apartment. BAD. Over the past few days, my roommates and I have been waking up with nasty, welty, red bites all over our bodies. Okay, "all over" is not the correct explanation. The bites are only in the spots where our skin is pretty much NEVER exposed and in places that are not very appropriate to itch in public. GET IT? It's violating. We had our house/beds searched, and no, it is not bed bugs. Turns out, the bites are probably (most likely) from TIGER MOSQUITOES. I am going to a attach a link about tiger mosquitoes here, so you can fully understands what little bitches these insects are. As my roommate Crystal says, they are "super mosquitos." They are tiny, vicious, angry little monsters with night vision that apparently really love our apartment and all of the sweet, sweet girls that live in it.

SEE MORE HERE (if you dare): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aedes_albopictus

NASTY.

Anyways, we have applied all possible protection against these enemies to our apartment. We have these things that plug in the wall and emit chemicals/some sort of aroma that's supposed to keep the mosquitoes away. We never have our windows open anymore, especially if the lights are on. We spray our rooms with this exterminating spray every day before we leave the apartment. We bath in bug spray. It's kind of helping.

NEEDLESS TO SAY, living alone for the first time in a foreign country without American food, custodians, or my parents here to fix my problems has been interesting so far, and it's only been one week. My main goal for this week: find new recipes. ASAP.

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