Did that just happen?

I was going to begin my blog by backtracking to when I landed in Italy last week, but today was such an odd day that I had to write about it first. Today was supposed to be a nice relaxing day. A group of us were going to take a train from Florence to Viareggio and hang out at the beach, maybe get a little surfing in if Jeff could teach us how. Well...that never happened. We got to the train station and all of us bought our train tickets. Approximately 30 seconds after the last person bought their ticket they canceled our train and the train that was scheduled to leave a half hour later. Bummer. I know.
We decided that it wouldn't be worth waiting for the 1 PM train because we wouldn't get to the beach until around 3. So we had a group pow wow and decided to find a pool and spend the day there. Because we had no idea where one was, Kelley reached into her Mary Poppins bag and pulled out the guide our school gave us that has things to do in it, and we thought it might suggest a pool. We were right. It had a couple different pools, so Ryan went into a store and asked the woman working there about the pools. She told us which one was her favorite and told us to take the number 10 bus to get there. As we were walking to the bus stop we read about the pool in the guide and it said that the pool would be open on Saturdays and Sundays. Score! The pool is a go. And that's when we found out that we walked the opposite way of the bus stop. Oops.
Anyways, we find the bus and get going. We weren't sure exactly which stop to get off at, so we got off where one of the men on the bus told us to get off. He was wrong. Luckily for us there was a park right by the bus stop and someone there told us how to get there. Finally, we find the pool. Guess what? It was closed. The pool is a not a go.
After a couple group pictures of everyone looking sad, we decide to take the bus back to where we live and we would go swimming in the pool at Dani, Isabell, and Emily's Hostel. We literally run down the street to catch the bus and we get on. We are riding the bus and realize we are going the wrong way. But it all worked out because it drove us just outside of the main city and we saw the beautiful buildings and views that Italy has to offer, and eventually the bus turned around and took us back to where we needed to go.
Eventually we get to the Hostel and go swimming. The pool is really cool. It has lights inside of it that change color, so one second it is blue then the next it is orange or purple. Plus there is a Turkish bath, a sauna, and a shower that automatically dispenses soap into the water. How sweet is that?
After we finished swimming we were going to go up to the terrace on the 5th floor. We almost made it. You know when an elevator says how many people can fit? Well ours said 8, but there were 12 of us. Dilemma. Being the bright young college students we are we decided to go for the 12. Bad idea. We get 99% of the way up; we are seriously a foot away from being where we needed to be. We can see the hallway outside of the elevator doors, and you can guess what happened. The elevator broke. At first we weren't sure weather it was just an old, slow elevator or that we were stuck. So we waited a little bit, and nothing. We start to press buttons in the elevator. Nothing. We ring the HELP bell. It rings, but no one comes to save us. This blows. Let me remind you that there are 12 college students, who had just finished swimming, stuck in an elevator that is about the size of the box a refrigerator comes in. It's really hot and really moist in the elevator. Fun right? Then people start to panic. We are stuck in an elevator, no one is coming to save us, and our phones have no service. Kelley looks like she could pass out, Dani threatened to kill anyone that farted and use their body as a battering ram to get out, and everyone is yelling at anyone that says anything about claustrophobia, running out of air, etc. I kinda thought it was funny. We would get stuck in an elevator today. 2 trains canceled, walked the wrong way to the bus, pool was closed. Why not get stuck in an elevator? Eventually some idiots come trying to figure out what the awful ringing (the HELP button) was coming from. And when I say idiot I mean idiot. Here's the conversation.
Us: HELP!!!!
Idiots: Do you need help?
Us: YES!
Idiots: Are you stuck?
Us: YES!
Idiots: You want us to get someone?
Us: YES! HELP!
and so on. Not the brightest crayons in the box. Well anyway, they must have figured out we needed help and so they went to the front desk and got us help.
Eventually we get out after being stuck in this elevator for 20 minutes. After the elevator fiasco we decided to take a walk and get some fresh air. We walked and then decided to go relax at our respective homes and then meet up later for a group dinner at our place and after dinner we would walk up to Piazza de Michelangelo. That was the best idea we have ever had. This place is a piazza that sits high above the city and you can look out at the whole city. By the time we got there it was sunset and I don't think I have ever seen anything as beautiful.
We leave and head back towards the main part of the city where we live and people keep leaving as we pass their apartments. So Ryan, Zach, Jeff (my roommates), and I get to our apartment. We get to the door of our building just as an older Italian lady and a younger man are leaving. She doesn't speak a word of English, and she asks us if we live on the 3rd floor, which we do. As soon as we tell her that we do, she unleashes on us. None of us know what she is saying, but she is mad, that much we do know. She yells at us for about 10 minutes and we are all staring at her with blank looks on our faces. All the while the guy she was with is just standing there as though we were all having a nice conversation and not getting chewed out. After all was said and done, we think she didn't like the fact that we were hanging out with friends and playing guitar late at night. We apologized and she yelled some more. We apologized again followed by more yelling and eventually she left.
There you have it. A very strange day. It had it's ups and downs, but I wouldn't have wanted to do it any other way.