This was a good deal more difficult than we anticipated as pronouncing IKEA in Italian turned out to be nearly impossible. My friend asked several people where we could find the IKEA bus stop, and each time the person questioned stared at us in confusion for a second before quizzically responding with some variant of "ee-kay-uh". No matter, we found the bus, boarded and were on our way, zooming through the narrow streets on a coach bus, like we were headed on a long-distance school field trip.
After some time on the highway, we arrived at a large shopping complex outside the city. Beyond the parking lot, we could see mountains and vineyards and a generally picturesque view of the country. We felt small twinges of guilt as we turned into the behemoth of the generic big box store. The guilt didn't last long. We wandered through the show rooms, fantasizing about our apartments if we ever lived anywhere long enough to furnish the place. We filled our shopping bag with adorable items we didn't strictly need. Dozens of vanilla-scented tea lights? Yes, please! Picture frames with stock art inside? Absolutely! A house plant? Of course!
When I list out our purchases it sounds like our trip was very quick and efficient. It wasn't in the slightest. IKEA is designed to make you linger, either through distraction by their quirky furniture designs or confusion by their quirky store layout. You couldn't get out of an IKEA in a hurry if you wanted to, and we didn't want to. So we agonized over choosing pictures and frames and potted plants like the future of the universe hung in the balance. Is this color too green? Is this candleholder too plain or too fancy? Should we get one or five?
Thankfully, our shopping styles complemented each other and after endless discussion, we each ended with almost exactly the same items. I bought a peace lily and she bought a different plant, but that's pretty much the only difference in our decorating choices. We dragged our bags up to the cashier, about 4 miles away from the rest of the store, and there received gift cards in the amount of our bus tickets. The cashier told us we could use them on our next trip to IKEA. Considering we had just spent the better part of a day there, we weren't really planning on coming back. Besides, then we would just get another gift card and the cycle would being anew. After a quick refreshment of generic soda, at last we wandered outside into the fresh air.
Down by the bus stop we met a couple other students who had also made the expedition to IKEA. One of them had a pillow in her bag. It was then my friend realized that she had forgotten to buy one. The time was 7:50. The store closed at 8:00. Could we get in, find and buy a pillow, and get out of an IKEA in that timeframe? It was a challenge we embraced. We ran back into the store, bounded up a flight of stairs and down another, whirled through the aisles to the bedding department and started feeling up pillows. I found a big pile of decorative ones that cost about the value of my gift card. Maybe I wouldn't have to come back to IKEA after all! I grabbed one in an electric blue. My friend located a pillow that suited her needs, and we were off like a shot to check-out where we hoped to cheat the system.
Using the gift cards worked without a hitch, and we ran back outside with a few minutes to spare before the very last bus back to the city. It was almost a perfect night, if not for the mosquito that bit me on my face. That was unfortunate. However, having done a tad of home decoration, I can honestly say it was well worth it. It's amazing what a plant and a few generic pictures can do for a place. I'm home, home at last.
Please send or post pictures of your new home
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