Abito in Venezia (I live in Venice)

Ah the first real post... well Inkblot must admit that all her parents and friends are going to be reading this. So she is abandoning the moniker for now. In addition she will now be talking in first person. haha! The fun!
Alright, so life in Venezia has been interesting thus far. I remember the first day I arrived (August 24th) we had to take a water taxi (a boat with a partial cover over it) from the airport to actually get to Venice. And one of my first thoughts as we sped through the ocean was how it smelled like home. Now I'll grant you (those of you who don't know or don't remember) that I do live on an island; however, the thought was still comforting to my terrified mind.
The first few days were spent filling out forms, exploring the house, going out to eat and the grocery store, and doing "orientation" walks around the city. These orientation walks, in my personal opinion, were of little use and took forever!! We got tired and hot and most of us had no clue where we were. They would be much more useful about a week after we arrive so we have some clue of where we are in the city.
Life in Venice is wonderful. My image of it was that one had to take a gondola everywhere! That everyone owned gondolas and there were no streets, just gondolas. I don't know why I thought that. My mind was changed at the end of my senior year of high school when I spent a day in Venice, but still, I had lingering ideas of water covered streets. Though, I must say there will be water covered streets when acqua alta hits in the rainy season. Rain boots anyone?
I think the funniest thing for me about Venice is how far one must walk (and with so many specific turns) to get where you want to go. The closest grocery store is about a 7 minute walk with a good half of it in direct sunlight. It's incredibly hot and you are sweaty by the time you get to the store. It's tiny and incredibly crowded. I'd say it's about the size of two single-car garages put side by side. Maybe slightly larger if you include the cash registers. And it crams in about thirty people at any given moment, sometimes more at peak hours. The selection is small and the prices high (though it's the cheapest grocery around). The cashiers are apathetic and no one roams the floors to help customers in need. It's very much a "get in get out" mindset. You are expected to know what you need and to know where it is. They have no frozen meals, which is rough for me since I hate cooking. They have about eighteen different types of potato chips. I need to count that. And Italy doesn't have peanut butter.
BUT. I went to another grocery store a few days ago and found peanut butter in a corner next to the honey. This incited another five or six people running to Punto for peanut butter within a two or three day span.
Well, I think I will break up my posts into more manageable segments. So the next one should come later today, perhaps soon. And I will keep posting until I have caught us up to the present as best I can muster.