Rainy Shopping Day 9-8-10

Today started out with a thunderstorm and pouring rain but the thunder didn’t last long. I had a little more lazy morning and then started out when the rain let up for a while. FYI- apparently it rains quite frequently in Padova and in the winter it snows often too. This morning I had to go to the Central Post Office to send the residency packet that I had been preparing and getting the documents for, for the past 5 days. After a bit of a wait and some confusion about which window I was supposed to go to the woman at the counter got all of my papers in order and sent them off. It is quite expensive to submit the residency packet, about 58 Euros. After that was done I could relax a little bit but not completely. At the end of the transaction the woman told me that I have been scheduled an appointment at the Immigration Office on September 23rd and I must bring a bunch of stuff to present there too. Hopefully that will be the last stop.

The central post office is in the center of town where the market is and a lot of shops so I wandered around the area for a while. In a bookstore I found a few guides to Padova in English. I plan on going back to purchase one or two when I get my first Scholarship payment. In the market I bought a kilo of apples for 1 Euro. The prices and the fruit there are really good. I wonder if the market is open year round? I hope so! I also found a store that sells all of the stuff you might find in the health and beauty section at Target. I got laundry detergent, a small broom and dustpan, and Air Wick air freshener. I brought everything back to the dorm and unpacked it. I am very impressed with the Air Wick gel air freshener. It is making my whole closet smell like roses. I had gotten some lavender air fresheners a few days ago but they don’t seem to be doing much.

This afternoon I went the other direction, out of the city, to where the newer part of the city is. This is where the McDonalds is and all of the car dealers and the mall. The Central Giotto Mall has a really large supermarket inside that has everything I think I could need. I got scotch tape, scissors, a screwdriver, rags, a daily planner, an Italian-English dictionary, a 24 piece set of silverware, a soup mug, and AA batteries. They have lots of kitchen stuff so I might go back to get a pot or water heater. It also has a full grocery store. I didn’t want to carry groceries back with me too so I will have to check out their prices later.

One of the best things about walking around in Padova is that most of the sidewalks are covered. This made shopping on a rainy day not bad at all. The second floor of most of the buildings goes out over the sidewalks and makes a covered walkway. I will add pictures to show what I mean if I get a chance. I don’t know if this was the reason for building the buildings this way but it sure is nice. Most people carry around umbrellas on rainy days in Padova instead of wearing rain jackets. They flip them open as they go out from under one of the covered walk ways to cross a street and then close them quickly again as they enter the next covered walkway.