muralgirl

I thought that all those romantically-shabby apartments in Rome (like in Eat, Pray, Love etc.) were fictional, but apparently not. Well, this place isn’t quite so extreme. It has Ikea furniture, but has been stripped down to its “original” wall decoration.

The building is in the area northeast of the train station, which is a part of town where a lot of immigrants live. The population is very diverse; the signs are in all different languages; and there are stores selling all kinds of cool stuff. Still pretty sure I will be able to find a regular Italian coffee bar in the morning, though.

People staying in another room in this apartment just came into the main, shared area. I am holed up in my bedroom, because I need more rest before I interact with other human beings. It’s bothering me that I can’t tell what language they’re speaking. It sounds a bit like English, but though I can hear them clearly, I can’t understand them.

(Nevermind, I just heard someone say, “Oh really?” And then someone else belched. And now I can clearly hear English spoken with an Australian accent. Strange how it was completely incomprehensible to me a few minutes ago.)