Oh the Weather Outside is Weather

I'm just going to steal a phrase from my good friend Sarah (who actually stole it from Peter Griffin anyway, so I don't feel as bad), something has really been grinding my gears lately. When I signed up to go on this trip, a large part of my deciding was due to the fact that it was in the town where Under the Tuscan Sun takes place, operative word being SUN. Now, I'm no meteorologist, but we haven't seen a whole lot of this sun. It's been cold and rainy/snowy here for about a month and a half now. That's not to say that we haven't had a few pretty days here, we have, but I'm getting just about sick of statuses on the 'book saying things like "i got so sunburned today :(" and "can't wait to get to the beach :)" and "is loving this warm weather, summer's on the way!" I'll ignore the use of emoticons for now (though I disagree with them on so many levels) and just get to my point: why does God hate Italy? I know many of the Italians are sleazy and creepy and live with their parents for entirely too long (it's completely normal for a 30 year old to still live with Mom and Pop), but is that any reason to punish the whole country? More importantly, is that any reason to punish me? I'm just saying, it's really sad when I see that the high is going to be 64 and get excited. No one recycles in this country and they all drive diesel cars, so why the hell hasn't global warming picked up? I'm cold and I don't like it.
Moving on, another thing that grinds my gears: creepy Italian men. Now, there are plenty of creepy men in Amurrica, but at least there we don't have a language barrier so I can get rid of them easily. Here, when you speak English to them they pretend they don't understand and when you speak Italian to them they act like you're mispronouncing/misusing every word so they still don't understand you. They always understand you. And they're not just creepy, they're rude. Last night, for example, a drunken man spit on 3 of my friends and me, and when I say spit, I mean hocked the biggest loogie I have EVER seen. It was rather upsetting. We told the bartender, Gianluca, who we're friends with. He responded with "Oh, I'm so sorry, I can't do anything though." Wow, thanks Gianluca, quite chivalrous of you. Also, when you are coming to Italy, people will try to tell you that Italian men think all American women are sluts. And they will be right. I know this because I asked. Here's the conversation:
"Hey, Michele, do all Italian men think all American women are sluts?"
[no hesitation]
"Yes."
That's pretty much how it went. Michele is Gianluca's brother and they are actually shining stars compared to most of the other men we've met here, which is not saying much. To be fair, there are some really nice guys here who look out for all of us in the program, so don't get too bad of an impression about the men. The majority are creeps, but the minority are actually quite possibly better than guys at home.
I don't want anyone to think that I'm anti-Italy or that I'm not having any fun. On the contrary, it's a blast. Despite the weather and the men, it's freaking Italy. Even the ridiculous things that happen just make for really good stories. I might never come home.