Victory Is Mine

I needed to buy a stamp yesterday. So, I went to a Tobacchi (the place where you buy stamps amongst other things) and I asked for a stamp. The guy told me to go to the post office across the street. Here's the thing- I have avoided the post office like the plague since I got here. Not only is the Italian postal service notorious for being one of the most inefficient in the world, but the people are scary. I mean, postal workers in the States scare me enough as it is...add the fact that they don't speak English and hate me because I am American and you don't really have a recipe for success. But, I gingerly wondered into the post office and found the right window. I decided that I would ask for what I wanted in Italian, (sometimes I plan on that and then I panic and just start speaking English), I figured this guy will never see me again in his life. So, if I butcher his language beyond recognition and humiliate myself and they yell at me, I can run away anonymously. So... I stepped up to the window and said, "Vorrei un franco bollo per gli Stati Uniti". The guy got me my stamps, I paid, and left. I won. I beat the Italian postal service. He didn't even yell at me. It was my victory for the day.
On the topic of being a hated American, I have just noticed something funny in the last couple of weeks. Anytime you see a Canadian who is travelling through Europe, especially backpacking, they make sure to put a HUGE Canadian flag patch on their backpacks, sometimes multiple patches, just to make sure everyone knows they are Canadian and not American. When I first noticed it I thought it was funny, but since I have been paying attention to it, I see it everywhere. It really makes you feel weird about being a loathed American.... My roommates and I decided that we should make t-shirts that will solve all of our problems with Italians. Since we are constantly being heckled by men (I'm sitting at an internet cafe right now facing a window and at least 4 men have walked by and winked/made obnoxious faces at me in the last 15 minutes) and the Italians judge what we are like because we are American, we decided we want to make t-shirts that say, "I'm Canadian, and I don't sleep with strangers".
I think that sums it up nicely.