Paris... too soon

I didn't think I'd be writing mid-way through my trip home. Yep, that's right... I'm not home yet. This morning, Maria Pia dropped me off at the airport in Florence at 8 am. The place was flooded with Americans that were going home after their semester abroad. I was pleased to see that they were all waiting in a different line than I was. Little did I know, they'd get home today, and I wouldn't. I spoke with the check-in lady and she wasn't able to get anyone taken care of right away because they were waiting to see if my flight had been cancelled (it was coming from Paris to get us in Florence and bring us back to Paris). An hour later, it wasn't cancelled, but just slightly delayed. I was relieved. So, I got checked in and even had a chance to buy a special treat for my family from duty free. By the way, all of this trouble was because it snowed about 2 inches in Paris last night. So, I got on the plane around 11:30 (original time would have been 10:15 am), but we didn't take off until 12:15pm. On board, I was assured that I would not miss my connector to the States (scheduled for 1:40) because "all of the flights are delayed due to the snow."

We landed in Paris around 2pm and I rushed to the info counter. "Your flight left at 1:40, miss." Sweet. The reality didn't hit me until I reached the terminal that I was meant to take off in. (Charles de Gaulle Airport is enormous, so I had to go to another building about 15 minutes away.) Once I arrived at my terminal, I tried asking people where to go, but no one spoke English. So, I found a Customer Services desk and got in line. I was in line breaking the news to Paul via text and started to cry. Two Japanese girls turned around and actually spoke to me in English, asking if everything was ok. I looked like a fool, but I couldn't help it because it was my first time flying alone and I had no idea what I was doing. One of them helped to make sure I was in the right place. She brought me around the airport while her sister held her place in line. She brought me to another area, which ended up being wrong, so I found myself back in line with them. We waited for three hours. That line CRAWLED. Her sister bought me coffee because she felt so badly for me. She didn't speak any English, but was adorable. I don't know what I would have done if I had waited in that line all alone. It was really nice to have someone to calm me down and just talk to me about things unrelated to airport troubles.

At 5pm, I made it to the ticket counter and waited 5 minutes for the lady to finish typing all this crazy stuff for me. At that point she broke the news: "There is absolutely nothing available tonight." I started tearing up and I could tell she felt so badly. We talked about availabilities and I tried to get myself on a flight to JFK instead of Newark that was scheduled to arrive at 10:00am EST tomorrow. Unfortunately, it was completely booked and I ended up getting a flight into Newark, same time as it was supposed to be today. The lady handed me a hotel and meal voucher, told me not to talk to anyone, and go straight to the hotel and then come back in the morning. So, now I'm here, writing this unfortunate blog entry. The airline has my checked luggage with tons of money's worth of Christmas presents. They said that it will safely arrive in Newark with me tomorrow. I have my carry on, but am without a toothbrush, etc. So, I'm going to go on a search for something. I'm glad I have my computer to keep me occupied. I'm waking up at the crack of dawn tomorrow. I can't wait to get out of here. Who would have thought I'd say that about Paris? Not to worry, I'll like it when I come back on the 30th for New Years, when I'm SUPPOSED to be here.

Well, that's about it. Off to find something to eat and I'll hope for a smoother day tomorrow.

Telaio

Ciao a tutti!

Last night, we had a great time together at one of our favorite bars, Kikuya. There, we exchanged our final Secret Santa gifts. I had Grace and gave her a Universita' di Firenze long sleeve t-shirt, which I had heard her say she wanted to buy. She loved it. Jeff had me and bought me a Pane D'oro cake which I have now packed away in my suitcase for Christmas. He also ordered me a mysterious book that hasn't arrived in the bookstore yet. He did an awesome job!

Today, we didn't have class, but Elisa set up a visit to see real silk looms (telaio/telai) in action. We thought it was going to be boring, but we ended up loving it! Students in attendance included me, Andrea, Grace and Carla because we all take History of Costume together. During the semester, our teacher had explained how a loom worked, but it was too complicated for us to understand. So, Elisa had us go to this place and get a tour of everything in English. The woman who gave us the tour was, of course, a master at fabrics and weaving, etc. I can't even describe how crazy the process was. The looms were enormous and sooooo old. They worked by manual operation, and we watched one woman weave very intricate and expensive velvet. The other woman weaved brocaded silk. Our tour guide said that all their clients are strictly the very wealthy including, kings, queens, the Pope, Versace, Fendi, Gucci, etc. We even saw some of the fabrics woven with with emblems of the designers. It was awesome! Now, I can really understand and appreciate why nice clothes can cost as much as they do. Fancy silks and velvets can't be machine woven; it's all done by hand!

After the telaio, I visited the Galleria Palatina to confirm what I had in my notes for Museologia. Then, I came home and packed. Everything is ready to go! My suitcase looks hilarious. Maria Pia helped me put wine bottles into huge water bottles, and then tape them up to keep them from leaking if they break. The Pane D'oro box is enormous, and I have a ton of little gifts everywhere! I just hope that everything goes smoothly at the airport tomorrow. Maggie flew out today and called me when she was at the airport. She told me that there was a lot of trouble with the personnel there because there were so many American students pissing them off. Everyone was trying to get away with going over weight, etc. Of course, I'm going to be grouped in with the rude Americans who don't bother to learn Italian. So tomorrow, I'm going to try to prove them wrong and speak all in Italian and be really nice. It won't be that hard. I hope they don't address me in English.

Anyway, that wraps up the first semester... I'll be home in America from Dec. 18th thru the 29th. Then, I'm flying out to Paris, where I will spend New Years with almost everyone from Holy Cross that is studying abroad (it's HC study abroad tradition). Then, I'll be back in Florence on the 3rd of January, ready to start studying for finals. Ugh. I may send an update from the US. We'll see.

Tanti Auguri, Buone Feste, e Buon Natale!

Saturday night

Last night was soooo much fun, but started off a little annoyingly. Andrea and I were hoping to grab the 8:06 bus into the center, knowing that there had been a strike that day. We knew that we risked not being able to get a bus, but we had seen a bunch of buses go by, so we thought everything would be ok. Nope, it wasn't. We waited for a half hour in the freezing cold and then had to call Maria Pia to take us in to town. We felt so bad, but she didn't seem to mind. She had told us beforehand that she would take us anyway.

So, we met Kevin, Benedetta and Eleonora at this pizza place called Yellow. I knew it was popular, but I didn't expect to see the mob of people standing outside the door, waiting for a table. Eleonora and Benedetta had made a reservation for 8:30, but we didn't end up sitting until 9:45. They didn't have a list or anything, so the reservation did absolutely nothing. That's Italy for you. We almost went to another place, but obviously, we didn't. Anyway, we had a really nice dinner together and spoke a little Italian and a little English, to please both parties. Benedetta and Eleonora's friend Giulia also joined us. She was really nice.

After dinner, we went to Cafe Bigallo and met up with Grace and Carla for some drinks all together. We had a great time! Then, we walked over to a bar at Santa Croce called "The William." We had never been there before and it was definitely a very Italian place. I really liked the atmosphere. I think we're going to go again tomorrow. I just love hanging out with Benedetta and her friends, and I think that they really enjoy it too. It's such a good exchange for each of us with the language and cultural differences. We always have so much fun together.

Tomorrow will be a really long day but I'm looking forward to the evening. We'll be going out to dinner with a Holy Cross professor that's on sabbatical here this year. He's from Italy, so we'll be speaking in Italian. I had him as a sub once in my philosophy class. He's a crazy, really funny guy. I can't wait!

More soon. Ciao.

Lunch in Fiesole and Christmas shopping

Buona sera! Today, I reluctantly got up really early to meet Maggie Wright, Jeff, and Elia (our cultural advisor) for lunch. Andrea came as well. We all met up near Piazza San Marco and took Elia's car to Fiesole. We saw this cool Etruscan museum and the ancient amphitheater below it. It was sooo cool! And so old! We got to walk all over it and had lots of fun.

After that, we had lunch at a nice restaurant. Holy Cross paid for everything (yay!), so we ate bruschetta and assorted crostinis for apps, and each had a bowl of pasta. We also ordered a cheese platter and after lunch, coffees and cappuccinos. It was really nice to be able to have a long conversation in Italian. Elia made fun of me for the way I speak. He said that I pronounce every syllable and speak slowly- like an old woman! This was no surprise because I know I speak the same way in English. Oh well, that just means that people can understand me even better, right?! I hope so.

After lunch, Andrea, Maggie and I went downtown and I finished up my Christmas shopping. Andrea and I found a great gift for Maria Pia at the Luca della Robbia ceramics store. It's a wine carafe and it's beautiful! I can't wait to give it to her! We made friends with Mr. della Robbia, the guy who runs the place. We talked for about a half hour and he gave us a discount on our purchases! What a nice guy. I'll be going back there a lot.

Tonight, Kevin, Andrea, Benedetta, Benedetta's friend (Eleonora) and myself are going out to dinner in the center at this really good pizza place. They want to talk about America haha. Italians are crazy about America and it's so funny to hear! I'm really looking forward to speaking more Italian and hanging out with them. I really enjoy their company. They are so much fun... and Italian!

Perhaps I'll have more to report tomorrow, after my evening has finished...

Ciao!

Pranzo in Chianti

Buona sera a tutti!

Today was the Festa della Madonna, so nobody had school. So, we met the directors of CLIDA (Gabriella and Alberto) and our teacher, Maria (who looks like Donatella Versace) and her husband in the center. First, the 7 of us exchanged Secret Santa gift #1's. (Maggie Wright was away for the day, but we already had her gift thrown in there). We used Maria to mask our identities. Then, we got in separate cars and drove to Chianti to a beautiful villa with vineyards and olive groves. One of the guys who runs the place is friends with Maria and her husband, so that's how all this happened.

We got a great tour of the villa and the Italian-style garden (that's the kind with the bushes all pruned to geometric shapes). Then, we even got a tour of the private part of the residence (where the owners live when they are there). They had just left yesterday, so everything was perfect and spotless and the caretaker was happy to show us around. They had the most amazing libraries. There were three of them, one after another, and they all smelled like old books! It was so cozy. The villa was from the Renaissance, so that's pretty old. It was soooo cool.

After seeing the villa, we went and saw the wine cellars where they make Chianti. I love the smell of wine cellars. Fermented grapes! Mmmm. Everything was so clean and perfect. It was awesome. I can't even really describe everything. There were just rows and rows of huge oak barrels that were taller than I am. The wine was in there aging for a few years. I'm not sure when it was supposed to be done.

After the cellar tour, we were brought to a nice little lunch room where we ate for about 2.5 hours, I think. We started with antipasto, which included a buffet of bruschetta, 2 types of salami, 2 types of pecorino, spinach pie, and liver crostini. The rest of the courses were not buffet style, but were served to us. The first course was a lasagna covered in bechemel sauce. The second was two types of beef with rosemary potatoes and beans. One of the beefs was kind of like roast beef soaked in olive oil. The other kind was beef that was slow-cooked for 8 hours and very tender and juicy. Both were great. Throughout the first three courses, we were drinking Chianti Classico, and then the reserve label of Chianti Classico. Both were fabulous. For dessert, we had Cantucci (which is like a biscotti) and Vin Santo (dessert wine), along with an amazing cake. It was kind of like a cheesecake, but much lighter. It was called Torta della Nonna, which means "Grandma's cake." However, I feel like a lot of different cakes that I've eaten are called that... who knows. After lunch, we were informed that every single thing on that table had come right from the villa and its surrounding area. The wine and olive oil were made right in the villa, along with the bread, pasta, etc. The vegetables and beans were grown right there, and the meat was purchased from a place right below the hill where the villa sits. It was so easy to tell how fresh everything was.

After lunch, we had a nice tour of the area where they make Vin Santo and Balsamic Vinegar. They even had grapes hanging to dry in one of the rooms for the Vin Santo. It was so cool and of course, the view outside of every window of this villa was spectacular. We then toured the inn part of the villa, which was unbelievably beautiful. Clearly, it's very expensive for people to stay there. Everything was so cute and perfect and Renaissance. I loved it. The place is called VIGNAMAGGIO and their website is: http://www.vignamaggio.com. If I had money, I'd certainly stay there! They even had tennis courts and a pool. I had yet to see those accommodations in any of the Italian hotels.

Well, I think that's about it. We had a great day and now I have a terrible stomach ache. I think I'm going to be full until lunch tomorrow! Of course, Maria Pia insists on something for dinner. I told her all I wanted was fresh vegetables. We'll see what she ends up making. Anyway, now I have lots of homework and a wine headache, so this evening will be interesting.

The rest of the week is going to be terrible with the presentations and homework that I have due. I should have more to report by Saturday. Until then, I'll just be studying.

Ciao!

PS- Totally forgot to say that the movie "Much Ado About Nothing" was filmed at this villa, and Mona Lisa lived there when she was alive! The painting of the Mona Lisa by da Vinci was painted on this site. We even saw the background of the Chianti countryside that was used! Soooo crazy!

Space and Arezzo

Last night, Benedetta and her friend Eleonora came out with us. WE HAD A BLAST. Of course, they wanted to practice their English on us and we wanted to practice our Italian on them, but it worked out fine. We took them dancing at Space, the really American discoteca that we go to. They had an awesome time. Eleonora actually just contacted Kevin asking to please let them know every time we go dancing! I'm so excited! Italians to hang out with! Woo!

Today, Maggie Rossi, Kevin and myself took the train to Arezzo for a little day trip to get out of the city. It was such an adorable town. All of the streets were narrow, sloped, and cobblestoned. We also went on a great day because every first Sunday of every month, the town sets up an antique marketplace that stretches all over the place! They had some really random and unique stuff. The only thing I bought though, was a postcard, and that wasn't even from the marketplace! I just enjoyed the browsing.

We had a nice lunch at a restaurant that we stumbled upon... The food was delicious but the service was terrible. All we ordered were beans for an appetizer to share (which never came) and noodles, and it took us two hours to get our food, eat it, and then get the check. Whatever. The best part about Arezzo though, is that La Vita e' Bella (Life is Beautiful) was filmed there! So, we went to all the piazzas from the different scenes and took some pictures. As soon as I get back home to the States, I'm going to watch that movie again. I love it. It was really cool to picture the scenes happening.

Anyway, I'm going to lay down and watch a movie because I'm really tired of doing homework. I'll update more on Tuesday night. We'll be going to pranzo with the Materassi's in Chianti, so I know I'll have a lot to say.

Buona notte!

English lesson, tutoring session

Ciao!

So yesterday, after being very productive on my work, I took the bus an hour away to Benedetta's house to teach her parents English, as promised. Antonio seemed to know a lot more than Annarita, but they were both hilarious and fun to work with. I didn't know where to begin, but there were a lot of things that Antonio wanted to work on, so we just started from there. It was soooo funny to hear them try to pronounce their th's and ed's. They had a really hard time with that... it's a work in progress!

We had dinner as a break between the lesson and it was very good. Roasted potatoes, green beans, salad, and steak, sausage and peppers on sticks. It was much more healthy than Maria Pia's cooking, thank goodness. (By the way, I asked Maria Pia to stop making me pasta and only serve me the main course. She fortunately complied. Phew. Save a few calories there.) For dessert, we had fruit, and cantucci with Vin Santo. So yummy. Then, we got back to the lesson!

Poor Annarita was having a lot of trouble with the alphabet because, in Italian, the letter E, sounds like the English letter A, and I sounds like the English letter E. So, she kept messing it up. Sometimes I do too when I'm saying the alphabet, so it's ok. We ended the lesson around 10:30 and I was sooooo tired.

Side note: Of course, Benedetta was there and was telling me about this huge party that she's having in January for her 18th birthday (18 is big here, just like 16 is big at home). It's going to be in a castle in Fiesole! Soooo cool! And, she has invited me, Kevin, Maggie, Maggie and Andrea! It was sooo nice of her and I'm really excited. Except, it's formal, so I'm going to have to find a dress when I get home for Christmas. Ugh.

So anyway, after all that, Annarita and Antonio brought me home.

Today was also a big day. However, it was exhausting. For Museologia tutoring, we all met at the Uffizi Gallery to do a quick run-through of the important pieces of art, etc. The biggest treat came second, with the Vasarian Corridor. The Vasarian Corridor is a long corridor (duh) that starts from the Uffizi, runs along the private area of the Uffizi, through the Palazzo Vecchio, over the Ponte Vecchio and the Arno, through the top of a church, and finishes in the Boboli Gardens behind Palazzo Pitti. It is about 1 km long and is filled with paintings on both sides of the corridor.

In the past, it's original use was for the Medici family. They used to use the corridor as a cut through from the Uffizi (their gallery) to their home in Palazzo Pitti (Boboli Gardens out back). Naturally (ha), they didn't want to have to go outside and walk to their home for risk of dirtying their shoes! They also created this corridor as a way of "walking over the heads" of the regular townspeople. Hmmm... a little arrogant I would say?

The special thing about the Vasarian Corridor nowadays is that it's not opened to the public because none of the works are protected by glass or rails, and the corridor is too small to handle large masses of people. The only way to see the Vasarian Corridor is by making a reservation WAY in advance and paying a TON of money. The Corridor is usually closed, so the reason it costs so much is because they have to turn everything on, and get a staff member to accompany you the whole way. Plus, you can only bring a max of about 10 or so people. To get idea, most websites I went to said that the admission price for one person was around 90 euro. I'm assuming that part of our tuition this year went to this tour, because we didn't have to pay anything today.

It was the coolest thing to see! We got to walk over the Arno and look down on all the places that we usually walk. The paintings were beautiful and we were able to get our faces right up next to them! Nothing in the way! It was also amazing to be all alone in this huge corridor. Elisa, despite being evil, is still incredibly knowledgeable about all of the artwork, so she made a great tour guide. That is one experience that I will never forget. So many Florentines still have not seen the Corridor and never will! Also, come January, it will be closing for 2 years for restorations. I didn't see anything that needed restoring, but whatever.

So after that, we had our Storia del Costume tutoring and now I'm back home. I'm dead and I have mountains of work today because I have two presentations due for next week and my internship resumes to work on. I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday!

More to come this weekend! Ciao!

Pranzo with the Aiello's

Last night I ended up not going out, which was probably a good thing considering the fact that I had to get up really early this morning to go to pranzo. I took the bus around 11 and Antonio (Benedetta's dad) picked me up at the bus stop in their area 1 hour later. We had planned this pranzo last Sunday at the Thanksgiving party.

Their house is very nice and has plenty of room. It's located outside Florence in a little town called Pontassieve which is very green and scenic. They (Anarita, Antonio, and Benedetta) of course made me an enormous lunch. I have such a headache from eating and drinking so much! We started with mini pizzas, liver crostinis, sausage crostinis, and bread stuffed with zucchini and cheese. Then, we had a typical Tuscan soup with broth and some type of noodle-y starch. Then, we had very thin meat (I think it was veal) covered in cheese and porcini mushrooms, and creamy spinach. For dessert, we had tiramisu and tea. Amazing!!!!! There was also this great sweet wine. I loved it so much that they gave me a bottle.

After lunch, Benedetta and I hung around in her room and shopped for her on Abercrombie.com. She's obsessed, so I told her that when I go back to the states I'll pick up what she wants. The prices at the Abercrombie in Milan are apparently obscene, so it's better to do it this way.

Around 4, we went to the designer outlets for a little Christmas shopping. I couldn't believe all the stuff they had! All of the famous Italian designers at discount prices!? Of course, everything was still really expensive, but it was a lot of fun to look. Anarita told me that my Grandmother used to go there all the time. I'm not surprised. Grandma was always in style.

Afterwards, Anarita and I dropped Benedetta off back at home because she had to study. Then, we went to Alberto (the crazy old guy at Thanksgiving) and Maria's house to pick up Maria. Maria and Alberto are Anarita's parents, for the record. As soon as I got in the house, Alberto dragged me through the place to show me the room where my Grandma used to sleep. He had told me at the party that I had to come see it. He was so excited that he was practically yelling and couldn't hear a word I was saying. Then, he hit me on the cheek. Love tap, but a strong one haha.

Afterwards, Anarita asked if I could come back on Thursday for dinner and for an English lesson. I guess she and Antonio want to learn English and are willing to pay me to teach them. I don't know where to begin! I guess I'll look in my first Italian book and do it the same way, but in English. Anyway, I have a splitting headache and I'm not hungry. But, I know Maria Pia is going to make me eat again. Ugh. Italy is trying to give me a heart attack with all its oil and butter.

More next time. Ciao.

Pranzo in Fiesole... and then the day got weird

Today was very interesting and entertaining... I did the normal school thing at CLIDA from 9-11. At 11, I left to find the bus and headed to Fiesole for pranzo with Edurne (the lady, Aunt Gail's friend, that I met at Thanksgiving that wanted to have me for lunch). She picked me up at the bus stop and we walked to the school that she teaches at. Now, this wasn't just any school, as I had thought. This was, in fact, a VERY prestigious university where people come from all over the world to do their PhDs! It's called the European University Institute, and Edurne is the Spanish teacher there.

She showed me around for a while because I arrived a little early (12:15), and our lunch was scheduled for 1. The campus was absolutely gorgeous. Some of the University departments were even in 12th century buildings!!! There was a beautiful view overlooking all of Florence and amazing gardens. The libraries were insane! As she was showing me the library, she rattled off some stats and features and said one thing that caught my attention: "We have every book you could ever want." I thought about the book that Elisa had us all order from America. It's called "Princes and Artists," it's very random and hard to find, and the only book that we are allowed to read in English for our class. We had all ordered it over a month ago, and it still hasn't arrived. Since the semester is almost over, Elisa gave us the photocopied Italian version to read instead. We were pissed that we had to read in the Italian the one thing that we were actually allowed to read in English. So, I went out on a limb and asked Edurne if maaybbbeee they had "Princes and Artists" in English. Turns out, they did! She immediately checked it out for me and made photocopies of the entire book, one section for each of us students (me, Jeff, Grace, Maggie and Andrea). The best part was that the photocopies were free since she's a teacher there. Elisa had made her Italian version photocopies for us, but had to get 5 euro from each of us because in Italy, you have to pay copyright fees in order to have a photocopied book. Not in this case! I can't wait to tell my friends. They are going to be soooo excited.

So, after thanking Edurne a million times, we met her students for lunch in the cafeteria. There were about 7 of them from all over the world. We all had lunch together and talked for about an hour. Of course, they all spoke English and whatever their native language was. So, I didn't have to worry. But seriously, EVERYONE KNOWS ENGLISH! I have to catch up on learning Italian! And then move onto foreign language #2! Naturally, they were all ridiculously brilliant and making all these historical jokes that went over my head. It was really cool to be around such smart people though. I felt like I was back at Holy Cross with the way the students were and the campus was set up. We had a really nice time and the students invited me to a party tonight. I don't think I'm going to go though because the cab will cost me about 40 euro, and I just can't swing it. So, after a lovely lunch, Edurne drove me back downtown and I walked to the bus stop to head home. This is where it got interesting...

I was standing at the bus stop minding my own business, but overheard an attempt at a conversation between two Italian women and an American woman. The American woman was struggling hardcore and trying to get directions on the right bus to take. The Italian women noticed me and of course, since I look totally American, said in Italian "Do you speak English!?" And I answered back in Italian, "Yes, I speak English and Italian." Then, they handed the American woman over to me. Turns out she needed the same bus I did, so we got on together, and started chatting. Her name was Sasha, and she was 66 years old, but didn't look it from all the plastic surgery she'd had. She was from LA and spending 4 months in Italy, exploring and trying to learn Italian. But, she was definitely doing more exploring than she was learning. She seemed so amazed at my ability to speak Italian and kept asking me lots of questions. Next thing I knew she asked "do you have a job?" I told her "no" and she then asked "Do you want a job? I'm on my way to this dentist that a pharmacist near the Duomo recommended to me. I broke my tooth a week ago and have gone once, but the dentist doesn't speak English and I don't speak Italian. I'll pay you to translate for me." Since I was in NO position to pass up money for simply speaking Italian, which I love to do anyway, I totally agreed. The dentists' office was right on the way to my house anyway!

So, we chatted a little on our walk from the bus stop to the office. When we got there, I introduced myself to the dentist and she was absolutely gorgeous! Blonde, tall, skinny and very very Italian. I started talking to her about what Sasha had said to me, and the dentist explained the procedure of fixing her crown. She explained that there were two types of crowns. One was the traditional way, which cost 1000 euro per tooth. The other was a new "high tech" way, which cost 1800 euro per tooth. Sasha kept telling me over and over that her insurance in the US only covered 500 euro's worth and that she wanted a discount. I of course conveyed the message to the dentist, but she wasn't into it, as I expected. I tried to explain to Sasha that the dentist had nothing to do with the strength of the euro versus the dollar and that procedures cost what they do. Perhaps materials are more expensive here than they are in the US, etc. Europe is just naturally more expensive than America in most ways. Finally, Sasha started to understand and decided to just take care of the hurt tooth, and worry about the other tooth and aesthetics when she got back to the US. (She was VERY concerned with how it would look and I told her to just do the less expensive procedure because she was so upset by the price. It would still be white, just not all the way through. I then told her to worry about the other tooth when she could pay what she wanted in the United States. Beauty wasn't an immediate necessity. Well, maybe it was for her, but I talked her out of it). Sasha ended up paying me 15 euro and asked for my phone number in case she ever needed a translator again. That would be awesome if I could help her again! And now I have money to go out tonight! The dentist also thanked me and told me that I could always come by if I needed anything.

I feel soooo cool right now :) And I can't wait to go out tonight! Yay weekend!

Ciao!

La Festa del Ringraziamento

Buona sera!

Today was AWESOME. I left my house around 1 to catch the bus to Aunt Gail's and Uncle Ellis'. I arrived much earlier than I was supposed to (2:00 pm) but it didn't matter because Aunt Gail needed some help anyway. She had given this Thanksgiving the theme of "New York chic," so I dressed completely in black. When I walked in, the living room furniture was gone, and in its place were gorgeous tables, set perfectly with tan and brown sparkling linens, pretty centerpieces, wine glasses, etc. The chairs were covered with beautiful quilted covers and everything looked amazing. Since New York is "The Big Apple," the biggest apples I had ever seen were placed on every table, and there was an enormous tower of apples as a centerpiece on the main food table.

I went downstairs and Aunt Gail was not in the kitchen. Instead, a team of chefs were in there cooking our Thanksgiving meal! Aunt Gail was outside slicing apples for "Big Apple Martini's" with one of the waiters. Again, there were huge apples everywhere. They were hanging from trees and everything!

Once everyone arrived, we all congregated outside and waiters continuously passed out awesome hors d'oeuvres, champagne, and "Big Apple Martinis." I spent most of my time chatting with Benedetta, Andrea, Arianna, and their respective parents. I think I relate best with all of them. Of course though, every time another person came through the door, they had to hug and kiss me and tell me about the time they came to the United States and saw me when I was 5. They even had pictures! One grandma made me her special cookies! It was so funny because I knew almost none of them, and they all knew me. One women, who was just a friend of Aunt Gail's and Uncle Ellis', wasted no time in scheduling lunch with me on Friday. She's Spanish and teaches foreign and Italian students in Fiesole. She really wants me to see the school, so I'll be going there for lunch with her on Friday. That should be fun. She was really nice. Benedetta's mom also made sure to remind me that on Sunday, we are having lunch together and going shopping at the outlets outside of Florence. Italian designers at discount price? Definitely. So much for having a free weekend ahead of me. Oh well. I'm looking forward to it.

Another interesting character would be my 87 year cousin, Alberto. Apparently, my grandmother used to stay with him and his wife every year that she came to Florence. He's really old, but still walks very well and speaks REALLY loudly. He kept getting in my face every 10 minutes, yelling the same thing every time in Italian. "You have to come to our house and see where you're grandmother used to stay! You have to eat the cookies that Maria (his wife) makes! Don't just say "ok," you HAVE to come!" Then, he would shove me (a love shove), and since he's huge and I'm small, I'd fall off balance every time. Funny guy, but everyone was getting really annoyed with him. It was humorous.

After 2 hours of hors d'oeuvres, we sat down to dinner upstairs. The turkey weighed 35 pounds! There was also a 20 pound ham, stuffing, sweet potatoes, spinach salad with pomegranate, green bean almondine, pumpkin and cheese pie, corn... and the list goes on.. We had an awesome dinner and chatted a lot. Afterwards, I felt like I was in a different world because I was so tired. For dessert, there was pumpkin pie, cheesecake, a huge apple pie shaped like an apple, and more champagne! An Italian man sang a beautiful love song because it was an attending couple's 25th year wedding anniversary. He also sang a Christmas song.

I didn't hang around much longer because I was exhausted and had homework to do (which I still haven't started because I was too excited to wait to write this entry). Benedetta and her mom and dad drove me home.

I had such an awesome time! At points, I was completely overwhelmed with all the Italian and wanted to cry. But everyone kept telling me that I was doing great and everyone wanted to hear what I had to say. We had such a wonderful time. I even broke down and agreed to speak a little English with Benedetta and Andrea because they really wanted to practice (they're really good). I'm also really excited because Benedetta is coming to the States to study this summer (July and August). We are going to have so much fun together!

So, that's all for now. On to another torturous week of work. I'll write more when something else exciting happens.

A presto!

quick hello

SO BUSY. I CAN'T SEE THE END OF THIS WORKLOAD. AHHHHHHH. Updates this weekend when something not related to sitting in my room and reading happens!!! I'm in the midst of applying to an internship with TIME magazine, so we'll hope for the best! Weekend so soon! Can't wait!

Ciao!

Birthday weekend

Today is Carla's birthday, but we celebrated it last night. She chose Antico Noe (naturally) for her birthday dinner. Yes, it is the sandwich place, but there is also a restaurant side to this delightful location. So, Andrea and I of course missed drinks beforehand (because the bus is a nightmare), but made it downtown in time for dinner at 9pm. Carla looked fabulous, as always, in her little birthday dress. Her parents had set up the menu and pricing with Antico Noe beforehand, and we certainly did not go hungry. We were served by Carla's now boyfriend (Andrea, the one that I have mentioned before who works there). We had unlimited Chianti and amazing antipasti consisting of bruschetta, mozzarella burrata, salami, proscuitto, pecorino with honey (soooo awesome), and arugula and tomato salad. For dinner, we were given spaghetti carbonara and rigatoni "ala noe." Everything was sooooo delicious.

After dinner, Andrea (the boy) called Andrea (my roommate) to the back to ask how to present the American cake that we had bought for Carla. Next thing we knew, the lights and music in the whole place went out. We thought that it was a black out. Instead, it was just Andrea (boy) doing a very thorough job at the American birthday celebration. He came out singing "Happy Birthday" in his thick Italian accent and put the cake in front of Carla with a small candle in it. It was adorable. And he got everything right! Andrea's (the boy) Dad, who owns the place, brought us out some champagne to celebrate. Once everything was finished, Andrea rushed home to change and then came back to get us to bring us dancing.

He took us too a small discoteca near the Uffizi that I NEVER would have found on my own. It was called GLAMOUR, but was completely filled with Italians! No Americans, yay!!! So, we were able to use our Italian a lot. We were all having a good time, but a few people in our group started to get sick from dinner. I was surprised that I wasn't one of them because I'm usually the one complaining of a stomach ache. So, around 2:30am we decided to go home.

This morning, I managed to sleep until noon! I never do that, so I must have been really tired. At 1pm, we all met at "The Diner" which is an American-style diner with the breakfast foods that we miss so dearly. I had an egg-white omelet and Maggie had chocolate chip pancakes. Everyone else chose breakfast sandwiches.

All in all, it was a very fun weekend, but I am exhausted and not very happy to start the week again. Next weekend, is the Thanksgiving celebration at Uncle Ellis' and Aunt Gail's. I can't wait! Now, I'm off to bed. Buona notte!

Dinner with the relatives

Yesterday evening, I had the joy of taking a one hour bus ride across Florence to my cousins' house just outside the city. My cousin, Arianna, picked me up at the bus stop and as soon as we got to her house, her Mom (Antonella) gave me lots of hugs and kisses. Andrea, the boy cousin, greeted me kindly too. I felt so welcome right from the beginning. I had seen Arianna and Andrea in the beginning of the semester here, but I hadn't seen Antonella since Dec 2007. Now, Antonella knows no English, Arianna knows a little, and Andrea knows a conversational amount. But, we spoke all in Italian the whole time! It was sooooo cool! I felt fluent because we just kept talking and talking! It was a great experience because I was with no one else that had to learn Italian, so I could talk as much as I wanted! They were sooo interested to hear everything I had to say and they even said that they were really impressed with my language skills! Yay!

Benedetta showed up around 8:30. We sat down for dinner around 9 pm and had tagliatelle with mushrooms, pork roast, french fries, and salad. For dessert, she had 3 cakes- all of which she insisted I try, and roasted chestnuts. I was soooooo full! And she kept trying to get me to eat more! Those darn Italians. After dinner, Benedetta's parents came over (I had also met them in Dec 2007). We all sat and talked for a while. It was so much fun! I got home from their house around midnight and I was completely exhausted but really happy to have family here in Florence. Even though it was only my second time hanging out with all of them, I felt like I had known them forever! They are so nice and easy to talk to... and so funny- especially when they bicker. I can't wait to see them for Thanksgiving at Aunt Gail and Uncle Ellis' house! We are going to have lots of fun chatting in Italian! Yay!

Ok, I have to write my paper now because we are going to aperitivo with Kevin's mom in a few hours. She's visiting from New York.

Ciao!

Paul visits Italy!

Ciao!

It has been a while since my last update, but I'm swamped with work so I'm going to try to give a brief overview of my week with Paul...

He arrived on schedule Tuesday morning (11:30) and we met at the hotel downtown. Once all was settled, I took him for sandwiches at Antico Noe (our regular place). He seemed to really like it but, after all, who wouldn't like Antico Noe?! After that, we toured Santa Croce, walked around the Ponte Vecchio and got gelato at one of my favorite places. For dinner, we did aperitivo with my friends and then had "pub night" at Kukuya and the Lion's Fountain. It was a great first day!

On Wednesday, it rained and we toured the Uffizi Gallery, which was incredible. One masterpiece after another. I was so overwhelmed with the amazing layout of the museum and the beautiful artwork! It was great though, and I can't wait to go back and spend some more time there. For lunch, I took Paul to Pizzaiuolo and we each got a personal pizza and split a bottle of wine. It was a nice thing to do on a rainy day. After lunch, we visited the Leather School at Santa Croce. Their products are incredible! I think I'm going to go back there to get some Christmas presents for people. We did some more shopping and then rested. At 7:30, we went to Maria Pia's for dinner. She made a ridiculous spread and really enjoyed meeting Paul. Paul was a little nervous at first, but he did just fine. He understood a lot of the Italian too! :)

Thursday was a beautiful day weather-wise, and we went to Fiesole to see an oil press. This was a program set up through Holy Cross and Grace wasn't able to go, so Paul got to take her spot! We got the scoop on harvesting olives and got to see the machines in action. We sampled the olive oil in a light lunch. Paul and I both bought bottles because it was sooo good! After the oil press, I had to go to my tutoring session. Paul's college friend Colleen has been living in Parma, Italy since graduation and decided to take a day trip to Florence with her Italian boyfriend. So, Paul was able to meet up with them while I was in my tutoring session. They climbed the Duomo because Paul had never done it. I was glad that he had someone to go up with. After my tutoring session, I met up with Paul, Colleen and her boyfriend for cocktails. Colleen and her boyfriend left about 2 hours later and at 9:30, Paul and I went to dinner at Il Latini. Paul was sooo excited to be back to his favorite Florentine restaurant, and we had a great time eating everything! We were so full that we ended up with some bad indigestion the next day.

On Friday morning, we headed to the train station around 5 am to catch the train to Rome. It took us a frustrating 15 minutes or so to find a place to sit in the train. This train happened to be a predominantly sleeping train. So, we had to push through all the way to the end, where we found a private room with seats instead of beds. It was actually really enjoyable and comfortable once we got settled in there.

We arrived in Rome around 9am and checked into the hotel right away. It was raining a little, but we decided to go with the original plan anyway. So, we grabbed some breakfast and then walked to Piazza Navona, which was beautiful. Then, we saw the Pantheon. The inside was so cool! Paul told me everything he knew about it and then we continued onto the next sites. We passed Largo Argentina and checked out the ancient ruins there. Then, we went to the Roman Forum and took about 2 hours exploring the whole place. Paul had so much to say about it, so it was really cool to be able to understand what all the ruins had been! After the Forum, we went to the Colosseum. I was completely blown away by its size and architecture. It is such an impressive structure for having been built so long ago! I really don't have the words for it because it was that amazing to see in real life. Everyone MUST see the Colosseum! After the Colosseum, we went to a church (I forget the name) and saw San Pietro in Vincoli (chains). We grabbed a quick lunch at one of Paul's favorite hangouts, Miscellanea. We then returned to the hotel, dried off (we were completely drenched from the rain), and napped. Around 8:00, we headed to Trestevere for dinner. We took a little walk around the area because it was so quaint and enjoyable, and then went to Dar Poeta for dinner. We started with a bruschetta assortment, which was awesome. Then, we each had our own pizzas. I can't believe I am saying this, but they were better than Pizzaiuolo's! We split a nutella and ricotta calzone for dinner. Everything was out of this world. After dinner, we walked around for a little while to get rid of the food and then went to one of Paul's favorite bars (Scholar's) for a drink. It was very crowded and had a great atmosphere. I really enjoyed it, but we got tired pretty quickly.

On Saturday, we woke up early planning to go to the Papal blessing at the Vatican. However, we discovered that it was actually on Sunday. So, since we didn't do that, we were able to fit some more things into our schedule. We had breakfast at the hotel and then went right to the Vatican Museum. I had never been in such an enormous and rich museum! There was sooooo much to see, but we moved at a brisk pace because it was ridiculously overwhelming. We did see just about everything though. My biggest excitements were Raphael's School of Athens and Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. The Sistine Chapel was especially breathtaking. We spent about 20 minutes staring at the ceiling. Needless to say, I had a bit of a neckache after that. But, it was totally worth it! After the Vatican museum we walked to St. Peter's Square itself and saw the basilica from the outside, and the inside. It was enormous! Again, no words to describe it. Inside the basilica was Michelangelo's Pieta, which I studied in my art history class freshman year. It was so cool to see it up close and in real life! After we toured the inside of the basilica, we climbed the 521 (I think) steps to the top of the cupola to get a view of Rome. The weather was perfect and Rome was beautiful. After the Vatican, we went to one of Paul's favorite panini places for lunch. He calls it "Mrs. Panini's" even though it's actually just called "Pane e Dolci." She recognized him from his time abroad and made us two delicious sandwiches. After lunch, we walked to Paul's apartment and then found an internet cafe to catch up with people. We then grabbed a cab and saw the Ara Pacis and Augustus' mausoleum. Then, we shopped around for a little but I bought nothing. We quickly saw the Trevi Fountain and then went back to the hotel for a nap. Around 7, we went up to the hotel's terrace for a glass of wine and spent about 45 minutes chatting and looking at the Vatican all lit up. Then, we went to dinner at Ristorante Carbornara at Campo de' Fiori. The food was delicious! After dinner, we walked through Campo de' Fiori and then to the Pantheon. We got gelato at this great place and tried to find a club that had apparently been closed down. From the Pantheon, we walked to the Trevi Fountain, threw coins in, and took some pictures. It was sooo beautiful. Then, we walked to the Spanish Steps and enjoyed the scenery.

This morning we woke up and had breakfast. We hung around the hotel for a little while and then checked out. Paul managed to get me on an earlier train so we didn't have much time for goodbyes. So, at this point, he's in the air and I'm back in Florence.

Obviously, we had a wonderful time. Paul was such a great tour guide for Rome and I hope that I did okay for Florence. I feel so refreshed that he was able to visit me. It was nice to take a break from my every day life and really get to enjoy Italy. I saw and learned so much and I'm so glad that Paul was able to make it over to share everything with me!

Now, I have a ton of homework to do so I'm going to stop procrastinating and get to it. I actually have to go to school tomorrow.

Ciao!

Halloween in Barcelona

Hola people!

So, I spent the weekend in Barcelona and it was fun, interesting, scary, and exciting. We left very early Friday morning and had a long journey consisting of a train from Florence to Pisa, a plane from Pisa to the Barcelona airport, a bus from Barcelona airport to Girona, a train from Girona to the center, and our feet from the center to our hostel. We arrived at the hostel around 4 pm and got settled in. We were happy to see that the hostel was very secure and right in the middle of all the fun.

Once all of our friends from the other study abroad programs arrived, we met up and went out for some tapas. They weren't very good, but we still had fun catching up. In Barcelona, no one goes out at night until 2 am, so we had some sangria and hung around and chatted for a while. When it was time to go out, Kevin, Kathryn, myself and Andrea met up with the other Holy Cross kids and started following them to a club. They led us down an alley and got a little ahead of us. Next thing we knew, a little trouble was starting.

Three Spanish boys (not much older than us) starting following us down the alley and started hitting and pushing Kevin on his chest and back. We were all really confused and thought that they were trying to either start a fight, or sell us something. So, we sort of ignored them and Kathryn cursed at them in Spanish, telling them to go away. Within a few seconds, they had managed to distract and confuse us all so much that they succeeded in ripping Kevin's necklace right off his neck from under his shirt! You couldn't even see it under there! We concluded that they had done all that patting to actually find out if something was under his shirt. After that, we were so sad and freaked out. I felt horrible for Kevin because it was a very expensive white gold necklace that had been given to him by his aunt (who has survived cancer three times). The rest of the night had a bit of a damper on it, and I was REALLY nervous to be out on the streets. We also found out that Carla's parents' digital camera had been stolen from right under their noses :(

After that incident, we soon were able to meet up with one of Kat's old friends, who is Spanish, and he was able to protect us a little better. He took us to a cool club and we danced there until about 4 am. That was really fun! I guess we got into the hostel around 5 am and I slept until 9 am Saturday morning. We were all completely exhausted, but still managed to get some sightseeing in. We saw Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia church and it was the coolest thing I had ever seen. It won't be completed for another 30 years, or something crazy like that. It was soooo intricate! I had never seen anything like it before. Sadly, we were unable to go in because the line was really long. However, we did enjoy admiring it from the outside. After seeing La Sagrada Familia, we searched for and saw a few more Gaudi-designed houses. Then, we stopped for lunch on Las Ramblas (the main strip in Barcelona). I tried a "tortilla" for lunch, which is scrambled eggs and potatoes. However, I didn't think the food at this place was that great. After lunch, we went back to the hostel and napped, and then got ready for Halloween festivities!

We (Kathryn, Kevin, Andrea and I) started Halloween at a little restaurant, where we ate some falafels. After that, we went to an outdoor terrace and had Sangria. After that, we met up with some more of our Holy Cross friends (Carla, Annie and Hadley) at an Irish Pub nearby. When we arrived, they had already met some Irish guys, so we hung around and chatted with them for a while. After a few hours of hanging, everyone was ready to go dancing (except for me because the Sangria made me feel gross). So, Carla, Annie and the Irish men jumped into a cab and then the rest of us searched for another. We finally made it to Club Opium (right on the water) but could not contact anyone that had left in front of us. So, we stood around while Kat tried calling people. After about 1.5 hours, Kat had not come back and we were confused. I called her and came to find out that she had found everyone, and was in the club. Since she had already gone, Kevin, Andrea, Hadley and I just decided to go home because the mood had been killed. So much for a crazy Halloween. We didn't care that much though. We were soooo exhausted.

On Sunday morning, we started off our sightseeing at Gaudi's Park Guell. It was sooooo amazing! Again, his unique style was completely captivating and the whole place was swarming with tourists. I got some great pictures, though! The mosaics were so intricate and everything was clean, flowery, and beautiful. I bought a really cute decorative mosaic plate as a little personal souvenir. After the park, we took the metro and headed to the Picasso Museum. It was packed because museums are free on Sundays, but I still enjoyed it. Unfortunately, I had to go through it fast because everyone was hungry and no one wanted to really see the museum, so they were all waiting for me on the other end. I wish I could have stayed longer, but I certainly enjoyed it.

After the museum, we stopped at a restaurant for some tapas for lunch. They were pretty good, but still not that great. After lunch, everyone was tired and wanted to head back. I chose to take a walk down to the harbor with Andrea, Jenny and Aiden. They were still going strong and I wanted to see what was down there. It was very pretty, but it started to get cloudy. So, we took some pictures and then went back to the hostel. I took a 2 hour nap and then woke up with a terrible stomach ache. Pretty soon after, I got really sick from lunch. Ugh. I felt better after re-hydrating and resting for a little while.

For dinner, we decided on Japanese and had heard of this really cool place. It certainly was one of the best Japanese restaurants I had been to. Dinner was all you could eat for 14 euro. All of the tables were set up along a conveyor belt and mini plates of sushi, seaweed, tempura, salads, dumplings, etc came around all evening. AND YOU COULD TAKE WHATEVER YOU WANTED! There was also a hibachi station that was all-you-could-eat. There were 13 of us and we went nuts. We probably went through about 20-40 mini plates each. The boys were in heaven. It was a great thing to do on our last night.

After dinner, we hung around with everyone in Placa Cataluyna and chatted for a while. Then, everyone went back to their hostels because creepy Spaniards started closing in. Kevin, Andrea and I decided to sleep for a few hours. At 4 am, we got up, and started our journey home to Florence. We had to take a cab from the hostel to the bus station, a bus to the airport (1.5 hrs), a plane to Pisa (1.5 hrs), a train from Pisa to Florence (1.5 hrs), and finally, a bus from the Florence station to our houses. We arrived around 11 and were exhausted. I chose to go to class today; Andrea did not.

So overall, Barcelona was a ton of fun but I liked it a lot better in the day time. The night life was too crazy and unsafe for me. Florence has a great party scene, but it's much more controlled and manageable than the nightlife of Barcelona. The party animals in Barcelona all seemed to be tripping on some crazy (and dangerous) drugs. So, we all had to be on high alert for thieves and pick pockets every second. They were everywhere! Also, the food was really sub-par. Obviously, I set my standards high living in Italy, but I didn't like that it made me sick. I definitely loved the city though! It was so interesting and modern. I'd like to go back one day. Everyone should definitely go and check it out!

I'm exhausted but soooooo excited because Paul is coming tomorrow and we have so much planned! We will be in Florence from Tuesday-Friday morning and then heading off to Rome early Friday morning. We will be there until Sunday. I'm not sure when I'll be able to update next, but I'll do my best.

Ciao a tutti!

Barcelona

Ciao a tutti!

Can't talk long but I just wanted to let everyone know that after a ridiculously difficult and emotional week, it's all over! Tonight, Carla's parents are taking us out to dinner and tomorrow at 6:15 am, we leave for Barcelona. Elisa is going to be nasty about us skipping class but she's going to have to deal with it because she's the one that made me need this vacation so badly. I'll be back Monday morning and then Paul comes Tuesday morning! I have a whirlwind week and a half ahead of me! I can't wait!

I will be back from Barcelona with a lot of stories!

Happy Halloween!

Elsa

The Weekend

So last night, we did something a little different, which was lots of fun. Carla's mom is here visiting from the States, and once they got out of dinner everyone who was in Florence for the weekend (not Maggie Wright or Andrea) went to their hotel to hang out. They are staying in a beautiful hotel right on the Arno, called Hotel Orafi. Carla's mom was able to get us up on the terrace for drinks and snacks (which she had brought from the States). It was so funny because we couldn't just bring the drinks and snacks, even though they were ours. We had to give them to the waitstaff, and then have them served. So, Mrs. Katigbak gave them our Fritoes and Cheetoes and bottles of wine. 5 minutes later, they brought everything out on a silver platter. It was hilarious to see the junk food come out in its original bag on this silver platter. And the waiter was taking it sooooo seriously! We laughed about that for a while. The terrace was beautiful, of course. It had a great view of the Duomo and the Piazza della Signoria. We had a really nice time, but unfortunately, I ended up paying 15 euro for a cab ride home. I hate the taxis here.

This morning, we got to the train station around 9:30 to head to Lucca for a day trip. The trip took about 1.5 hours, so it really wasn't that bad. As soon as we arrived, we got lunch at a cute little place. We were even able to sit outside because the weather was picture-perfect! After lunch, we walked around for a few hours and climbed the famous tower "Guinigi" for an amazing view. We were amused by the fact that there were trees planted all the way on top of this tower. We spent about 20 minutes up there, just checking out the mountains and breathing in the fresh air.

When we came down, we decided to walk around the outskirts of Lucca, along the famous Renaissance wall. It was really nice because they had a bike path and there were no cars, so we thoroughly enjoyed the stroll. There was actually a lot of grass in Lucca! I have yet to find any in Florence. Around 3, we became really tired and decided to cut through the city to get to the other side of the wall where we had entered. We caught the train right away and now, here I am!

I'm so glad we decided to do a little day trip. Florence drives me crazy during the week, with the terrible bus system and crazy people. It felt good to get to a quaint, old-fashioned town where I didn't have to rush anywhere. I hate rushing. And Lucca was just so cultural and cute!

Anyway, we have a busy week ahead of us. We'll all be preparing for Barcelona on Friday and then when I return, Paul's coming! There's so much to look forward to, but I will have soooo much work to catch up on. Ugh.

Buona serata!

Pranzo with Aunt Gale and Uncle Ellis

This morning was ordinary. I sat in CLIDA class for 1.5 completely fed up with the Italian language. I didn't want to do anything, and couldn't understand any of the grammar points that we were learning. We had History of Costume at 11 and Elisa showed up late again, 30 minutes into class. Once class was over, I was happy to walk down along the Arno for lunch with Aunt Gale and Uncle Ellis.

They arrived from the States late Wednesday night and had called yesterday with a lunch invitation, which I was happy to accept. I made it to their house in about 20 minutes and Uncle Ellis was standing at the door waiting for me because apparently, I'm a slow walker. I already knew that, considering my 5'2" stature.

He brought me inside and I greeted Aunt Gale and their friend Dino who had come along for the ride. Then, I got a tour. Their house is completely incredible! It used to be an office building which they bought in 2001. It took them 4 years to get it completely renovated. Uncle Ellis had all the before and after pictures and I was shocked. I couldn't even figure out how it looked the way it did. During the renovation, they had discovered 4 fresco-ed ceilings which they also had uncovered and restored. They were absolutely magnificent and soooo colorful! Everything was state-of-the-art. The kitchen was beautiful tiled and just the right size. The bathrooms had those tiny mosaic tiles that started on the floor as dark blue and tapered off to white as you reached the ceiling. I wish I could have taken pictures, but I didn't want to be weird.

We had a really nice lunch. We started with cheesy parmesan pasta and zucchini, and the main course included a great fish in a light olive oil and tomato sauce. There was also awesome salted spinach. Dessert included an apple tart, berries with sugar, and espresso. It was all wonderful and we had a really nice time talking and catching up. I'll also be going there for Thanksgiving when they return in November. They have a tradition to have all their Italian friends over (about 30 people) for an American style Thanksgiving. Each year, they have a theme. This year, it will be NYC, so everyone has to wear black. Easy enough. I'm really looking forward to it.

Anyway, this week has been a rough one, so I'm excited to go out tonight. Not sure what we're doing yet, but we want to find a new bar and just hang out. We'll see what happens. I'm totally sleeping in tomorrow.

Ciao!

Reese's PB Cups

I couldn't let this go unacknowledged...

I just gave Maria Pia one of the Reese's Peanut Butter Crunchy Cups that Mrs. Fanelli sent me. SHE WENT NUTS. "Squisito!!" she exclaimed. (That means exquisite). I have never seen her react that crazily before. It was hilarious. Thanks Mrs. Fanelli! Maria Pia says thanks too :)

Buona notte

Not terrible

I arose from my bed this morning, dreading the day. Elisa tutoring session day. Following a little grammar lesson at CLIDA, the five of us tutorees headed to Il Museo Nazionale del Bargello. Dobby was there to greet us, and we breathed a sigh of relief. When she soon informed us that she wasn't joining us on the tour, we frowned- it meant we had to be alone with Elisa! Elisa arrived and chatted with us for a while... yes, CHATTED. That was our first shocker.

We spent 2 hours going through the Bargello, which was an awesome museum. This time, she didn't fly through everything as much as she had last week. I was still tired, but very interested in what she had to say. We saw one of the largest and most famous ivory collections in the world, Donatello's David, sculptures by Michelangelo, and a bunch of really cool bronze statues. I definitely have to go back. At the end of the tutoring session, she gave us a quiz on our readings. We all failed miserably. I spent countless hours on those readings and still could not understand what was important and what wasn't. My problems were certainly evident in the quiz. We weren't graded; Elisa just wanted to show us how important it is to learn the dates (UGH) and minute details. This class is going to be ridiculously hard. At least I like museums!

To assess Elisa at that session, she was intense, but not mean. There were points at the end where she made some faces about how stupid our answers were, etc, but that was the extent of it. Following the session, we quickly grabbed lunch and booked it back to CLIDA. We didn't want to be late after last week's incident.

We arrived on time for our History of Costume tutoring session and Elisa actually said hello and greeted Carla (she doesn't take Museologia, so it was the first time they had seen each other for the week). Then, we got down to business. We had a lot of questions on the readings, but she seemed pretty open to answer them all and understood why we had those particular questions. At the end, she gave us a quiz, and we all did pretty well. There were a few I didn't know, but remembered once we went over it.

So, we left our second tutoring session a little confused. Elisa had been fairly normal all day. She didn't look approachable, but she certainly had a calm delivery and didn't make anyone cry. We're thinking that this change might have happened as a result of someone saying something. Gabriella was very upset by her behavior last week, so we think that she may have called Holy Cross. Either something was done, or it's just another reason to think that Elisa could be bi-polar. Anyway, the week is coming to a close and I am so glad. I am exhausted. Tomorrow, I have class from 9-1 and then I'm going to my Uncle Ellis' and Aunt Gale's for lunch. They just arrived from the US and have a house along the Arno. I'm really excited to see some American family members.

I'll update tomorrow after lunch.

Ciao

La Questura and a family style dinner

Ciao,

So, I had my second week of my ICIP yesterday morning. I ended up taking the 5th grade English speakers into a smaller room and reading them "The Happy Prince." All of them liked the story, except for Oliver (the troubled kid), who was of course playing devil's advocate. But whatever. I'm not his teacher, so I challenged him a lot and definitely got him a little confused. Sometimes, kids like that need to hear the hard truth with a kind delivery. It makes them wake the heck up and listen. As for the 1st graders, I ended up staying in the classroom because they were out of control and Eleonora definitely needed help. I was pretty tired after that, but fairly happy about what we had done as a class.

After that, I headed straight to the Questura (immigration office) in hopes of getting my Permesso di Soggiorno (so that I don't get deported when they realize I'm not on vacation). All 8 of us went, got a number, and waited from 1:30 to 4:30 until our numbers were called. I got up to the window, gave them my passport and my appointment paper, and they told me that I was missing paperwork and couldn't have my Permesso. This happened to 5 out of the 8 of us and we were absolutely fuming. Kevin, Carla and Maggie Rossi happened to coincidentally have their extra papers with them. The rest of us had left them home in safekeeping. We were only told to bring our appointment papers. We weren't even told to bring our passports, but we had decided to just in case. We soon learned after waiting 3 hours that, yes indeed, we needed EVERYTHING. Fools. I must say that the Italian government and legal system is very poorly organized and an enormous pain in the neck. Was it too difficult to write on our appointment papers what we needed to bring?! Guess so.

Anyway, after that disaster, we hung around town until dinner. At 7:00, we met both of the Maggies' parents and the rest of our group of 8 in Piazza della Repubblica. Then, we walked to the restaurant where they had chosen to treat us to dinner. It was called "Il Latini," and when we arrived, there was already a big line outside. It was obviously very popular. Fortunately, we had a reservation for the 12 of us. The atmosphere was awesome and very family-style oriented. We had a nice table set for us in a little corner, with three 2 liter bottles of Chianti on it. Once we got settled in, the food appeared in masses. There was no menu to order from. Instead, the waiters just brought whatever was being made for the night.

First, let me point out that everything we ate was family style. The portions set on the table were enormous! We started with freshly sliced proscuitto, mozzarella balls, tomatoes, liver crostini (which was actually really good), buckwheat salad, stuffed peppers and bread. I think that was it for the first course. Regardless, everything was absolutely amazing. The first course included a soup with beans and barley, ravioli stuffed with ricotta and spinach in a red sauce, pasta with wild boar meat and red sauce, and ribollita (a typical Tuscan bread soup). Everything was incredible! The main course consisted of a huge plate of different meats (chicken, rabbit, steak, pork and lamb). I had the chicken and also tried the rabbit- which tasted just like chicken anyway. For the main course, there was also a plate of awesome beans, spinach, and rosemary potatoes. For dessert, our waiter brought out a plate of sweets including fruit tarts, panna cotta, caramel flan, profiteroles and some almond cake. With dessert, we had biscotti dipped in Vin Santo dessert wine, which is out of this world. They also brought us a dessert champagne that tasted soooo fresh and crisp- exactly like a perfect pear! Afterwards, the waiter decided that he liked us and brought us a bottle of limoncello (which the other tables didn't get).

At this point, we had been sitting, eating and talking for 3 hours, and were pretty full and drunk. We had such an amazing time getting to know the parents, and I think they were really happy with the solid group that we have here in Florence. Everyone is friends and takes good care of one another. We were all so grateful of the Rossi's and the Wright's for taking us out to such an amazing dinner. I'm sure it was incredibly expensive. I can't even imagine. Such wonderful parents. It was a little bit of a bummer for me though since my family is on the fence about visiting. It seems that this month has randomly become parents' month- all of the students' parents have come, and all at the same time!

Anyway, Andrea and I got home around 11 and just about went straight to bed. We were exhausted. Today, we re-visited the Questura to try again for our Permessos. We arrived earlier, got better numbers, and sat for about 2 hours. 20 numbers before ours, the power went out in the whole building. The computers stopped, and the numbers stopped moving. We couldn't believe that something so ridiculous was happening to us again. So, we sat in the dark for about 30 minutes, wondering what to do. Finally, one of the policemen made an announcement asking all those who had electronic work to go home because the computers weren't functioning. Thankfully, the permessos were not included in that large bunch. So, we waited another hour (in the dark) for our numbers to come up and FINALLY got our permessos after a completely wasted day. I am soooo glad that I will never have to go back to that stupid office. Italy really needs to get it's stuff together when it comes to legal business. Now, I have a ton of homework to do for Voldemort (Elisa) so that's all for now.

Ciao.

Eurochocolate 2009

Ciao!

This morning, Andrea and I woke up at 6:30am and took the 8:00 train to Perugia for the Eurochocolate 2009 festival. We arrived in Perugia around 11:15 and then crammed into a bus at the station to get to the actual festival. It was quite a hike. Anyway, we arrived at the festival and met up with Maggie Wright and her parents, who are visiting from Chicago for the week. As soon as we ran into them, Maggie's mom and dad gave us both huge hugs! We had never met them before! They were such nice people and really fun to hang around with. It's great to have some parent figures visiting. Everyone's been getting a little lonely and homesick.

The Wright's helped us purchase Chococards for 5 euro a piece. These cards were pretty cool because they allowed us to go to a bunch of stands for free chocolate, drinks, etc. Our first stop was the Grand Marnier stand, where we each tried a shot and a Sicilian orange peel covered in dark chocolate. Soooo good. Next, we hit the hot chocolate stand-- and it was NOTHING like Swiss Miss in the states. This was literally melted chocolate with cream added to it. It was so rich and amazing. Our next stop was another hot chocolate stand. I got hot chocolate with pepperoncini. It was so perfect because it was doubly warming- the temperature and the spice! I loved it.

Next, the Wright's took us out for a wonderful lunch. We shared scrambled egg and truffle mushrooms crostini for an appetizer. I ordered paparadelle with pumpkin and pecorino cheese for my main course. We all shared a chocolate cake for dessert. Mr. and Mrs. Wright were so genuine and warm to us. We really appreciated that they wanted so badly to treat us to lunch. We all had a really nice time and the atmosphere in the restaurant was awesome (like a warm basement den with a fireplace).

After lunch, we went to another stand and I bought some chocolate souvenirs for people. Then, I bought a piece of a cake covered in chocolate and hazelnuts for everyone to try. I had to find a way to pay the Wright's back, even if it was just a little. It was delicious. Next, we bought large chocolate covered Sicilian orange peels. Then, we stopped at the Toblerone Swiss chocolate stand for a small sample. Last, but not least, we all shared a double layer brownie filled with apricot jam and topped with melted chocolate and whipped cream. It was out of this world!

Needless to say, we all had stomach aches and were ready to get going around 4. It was starting to get cold anyway. There was of course a mad rush to find seats on the train, but we all managed to sit together and we just about napped the whole way.

All in all, it was a great experience for us. We were probably the only Americans, which was a shock considering how celebrated this festival is. All I heard was Italian, which was great practice! The Wright's were such a great family and I'm pretty sure we all left each other very happy. The Wright's (Maggie's parents- from Chicago) and the Rossi's (the other Maggie's parents- from New York) are going to take all of us kids out to dinner on Tuesday night. I can't wait! It will be fun to hang with everyone again.

I have a very busy week ahead of me with lots of reading, and my ICIP to work on. I'm going to try to go into this one prepared for anything. I know Elisa is going to give us a hard time again this week, but I'm going to try to look at the bigger picture. I don't want to let her ruin my day again.

Now, I'm putting my sugar-comotose self into bed.

Buona notte!

Worst day thus far

I know not every day during my study abroad experience is going to be awesome. Yesterday (Thursday) was one of those awful days.


Thursdays are the days that we have our tutoring sessions with Elisa for both Museology and History of Costume. All of the students last year absolutely hated Elisa (she made girls cry, etc), but none of us could understand why. Since we've arrived, she has been taking us to all these cool places and being really nice. We thought she had turned over a new leaf... until we had to spend the whole day with her yesterday.

We started with our Museology tutoring session at Il Museo di San Marco, which is an old convent. It was really cool, except that Elisa flew through it. The entire time we followed her around the museum, scribbling furiously while she spoke 100 miles a minute in Italian. Needless to say, we didn't get all the information. A few times, some of us stopped her to repeat dates. She would repeat them, as fast as she could, and continue talking. That didn't help. When someone asked a question, she got angry because we had "interrupted" her. So, we followed her around like little slaves for 1 hour in Il Museo di San Marco (which I need to go back and really SEE on my own time), and then we went to L'Opificio Delle Pietre Dure. I thought this was a really cool museum too, but she did all the same things that she had done in San Marco, so I didn't get to examine much. At this point, my hand was about to fall off anyway, so I was ready to get the heck out. We ended our tutoring session 15 minutes late. That gave us 45 minutes to grab lunch and get back to CLIDA for our second tutoring session (History of Costume). Of course, she held me behind to talk to me about my ICIP. I was really excited, but her talking AT me completely stressed me out and made me soooo nervous. All she did was repeat herself for 15 minutes and tell me how she couldn't help me and didn't have the answers. At 1:30, I walked as quickly as I could to meet the rest of the students for lunch. Next thing I knew, I was lost. I finally made it to our usual sandwich place, got some lunch, and basically ran to CLIDA.

I caught up with the girls on their way there as well, and as soon as I saw them, I started to cry. I couldn't help it. Elisa had been so intense and insincere that I burst. The girls helped me as best as they could on our way to CLIDA. We all arrived at the same time (2:10). Elisa was already in the classroom and she did not greet us, she just began yelling at us as soon as we walked in the door. I'll make a little monologue here. It was half English, half Italian:

Elisa: "You girls need to start acting like adults. It's not right to show up late to class. I'm not late, and you shouldn't be either. That is very disrespectful and I will not tolerate this."

(we say nothing and sit down, Elisa turns to Grace)


Elisa: "You didn't go to class yesterday. That will never happen again. Everyone is to be in class every day. You are to arrive on time, sit down, listen to the professor and write the entire time. You cannot look at the ceiling, you cannot sleep. I don't care if you have to drink 10 espressos or eat 5 bars of chocolate to stay awake. You have to place complete focus on paying attention. I don't care what is wrong with you, you will come to class."

(one of us tells her that we have a really hard time understanding the teacher because she doesn't have a microphone, speaks quickly and has a Florentine accent)

Elisa: "I can hear her just fine. There is nothing wrong with the way she talks. She speaks very clearly. You all just have to listen!"

(Carla tells Elisa that she has to leave the tutoring session early to go to her ICIP with Elisa's assisstant, Maria Cristina)

Elisa: "Are you kidding me!? I sent you an email 10 days ago telling you about this tutoring session. You should have known about it. You can't miss something like this. This is very important! I can't believe you would be so careless! Don't ever do that again!"

 (I take out my small box of chili. At this point, it's 2:30 and I haven't eaten since 7:30 in the morning and I am famished.)


Elisa: "Don't even think about eating in my class! That is rude and disrespectful. You never do something like that. You can eat when I'm finished. Put that away!"

(I put my head in my hands and start to cry right across the table from her. She ignores me and starts the lesson. 10 minutes later...)

 Elisa: "Elsa, if you need a minute or something, just take a minute and go outside."

(I shake my head no)

Elisa: "Was it something I said? Was is about the food? Because you still can't eat in class. It's rude and disrespectful. Go outside if you need a minute."

Ok, so.... that was her rant that lasted about 15 minutes. I cried for the rest of the class and didn't hear a word she said. So much for that tutoring session.

Afterwards, all of us were a huge mess. Fortunately, Grace's mom was here visiting from Chicago and she did a very good job of being motherly and trying to calm us down. No one could understand her horrible, power-trip behavior. People are sometimes late, things happen, Elsa gets lost. So she yells?!?! Grace had missed class because her mother flew all the way from Chicago to visit with her! Carla had to miss because she was going to her ICIP with Elisa's assistant. Um, Hi, Elisa... Shouldn't YOU be the one communicating with YOUR assistant? Thought so. I was so hungry I had a headache, and she tells me I can't eat when everyone else had had the chance to. What if I was a diabetic or something!?

Anyway, we decided that this lady has ALOT of problems. She has a Ph D. And in Italy, a Ph D. in art history is like being God. She has absolutely no emotions, and all she ever tries to do is cover her ass. When Holy Cross called her out on her actions in the past, she made excuses and danced around the whole situation. I guess Holy Cross knows she's "fuori della testa" (out of her mind), but they keep her as an adviser because she has a ton of contacts within Florentine society and knows everything about the program.

Grace spoke with her sister, who studied here last year. She said that Elisa made her cry at least 10 times. She urged Grace to talk to us about trying not to let her bother us. She is going to attempt to guilt us into coming to class, because if we fail our classes, she fails and Holy Cross rips her a new one. Grace's sister wanted us to know that Elisa was not worth the tears, and that we should be traveling and enjoying ourselves, while also getting the education that we want. We are Holy Cross students. We already have a work ethic. Elisa does NOT need to treat us like we are in high school.

We've decided to construct an email to the head of the department at Holy Cross. They told the study abroad students last year that they wished something had been said sooner. So, that's what we're going to do.

Allow me to point out that today, Elisa showed up 20 minutes late to our History of Costume class. We stared her down as she walked through the door. Now, why aren't we allowed to yell at her? And, throughout the entire class, she watched us to make sure we were paying attention.

We had our CLIDA conversation in the afternoon and Gabriella (the owner whose house we went to for lunch on Sunday) felt soooo badly that she hugged me and kissed me and told us that she would make us dessert on Monday. Can we skip University and tutors and go to CLIDA forever?!

I can't wait for Elisa to get put in her place. Someone has to figure something out, because she is out of control. I guess it's funny to think of how stupid she sounds. But she also scares the hell out of me. I'm going to try to not be scared, but it's going to be hard.

I decided to stay in tonight because of yesterday. I'm way behind on my work because she assigned us 70 pages of reading (all in Italian of course) and there is absolutely no way that I can read this all before Thursday. Especially since she tells us to read it 5 times. This woman is a freaking robot.

Tomorrow, I'm doing a little organizing and then going downtown to walk around. I need it.

A domani.

Week 1 at Sacro Cuore

Today was my first official day at the site of my Independent Cultural Immersion Project. I left Museologia a little early to get the bus but of course, it was late. So, I was late. No one seemed to care though. After all, this is Italy, and 10 minutes late means on time (which I refuse to adapt to). Madre Carol showed me to the 5th grade English classroom, introduced me to Eleonora (the English teacher) and said "Have fun."

I had NO CLUE what I was supposed to be doing. Eleonora quickly said, "You can go and help the kids write their stories." That meant almost nothing to me, and I was really confused, so I just walked around the classroom a little bit to get an idea of what they were doing. Some kids were working with Eleonora from a workbook, and a smaller handful of kids were writing personal stories in English. Eleonora had me lead one exercise in the workbook which was totally weird. I guess I did fine, except for the fact that these kids are learning BRITISH English, not American. So there's nothing I can do about that.

I started getting a little more comfortable and settled in checking the kids' grammar in their stories. One of the boys was very cute, but a huge pain. He was always insulting the poor boy next to him, telling him that he sucked, and that his own work was better. Allow me to point out that the jerk had A LOT more spelling mistakes than the boy he was giving a hard time to. The kid even said something nasty to me. I don't remember what it was, except that he didn't want me to read his story because I wasn't good enough for it.. or something like that. I finally got him to let me read it and discovered why he was such a disturbance- his past seemed very traumatic, according to his story. Or, he just has a huge imagination and feels like being an asshole to get some attention. Though terribly misspelled, he started off by writing "I'm not supposed to talk about this but..." He continued to write about how his parents used to be married and happy together, and then his Dad and Mom fought. His Dad went from "sympathetic to mean" and doesn't sound like he treated his son very well. One day, he explained, he watched his Dad get into a fight with another woman and a bunch of cops came. Now, he's living in Italy with his Mom. I almost teared up when I read that. It was also hard to correct him because I didn't want to risk hurting his self esteem even more! But, I used constructive criticism and told him that it was well-written and easy to understand.

After that class, I followed Eleonora to a first grade English class (more my idea of what I was going to be doing). They too, were ridiculously un-controlled. I stood in the back and kept the kids seated while she stood up front and taught them colors and the weather. One little girl seemed to take a liking to me after I told her that I had a teddy, just like hers. All she did the whole time was hug her teddy and smile at me. There was also the cutest little boy (with glasses- my favorite!) sitting in the back, kind of slower in the exercises than the other kids. I helped him one on one so that he could keep up with the rest of the class. It took him a while to color his triangle ORANGE and the square PURPLE. I think he was still having trouble understanding what the translations were. Such a sweet kid, though.

I could tell that Eleonora was getting very frustrated with the kids because no one would listen or stay in their seats. She had to raise her voice a few times. I came to find out (through Elisa) that this is her first year. That explained a lot. Anyway, I got a little time to talk to Eleonora and her plan (which was really no plan at all) was to have me take the native English speakers to a separate room and teach them at a more advanced level. In the 5th grade class, there are 5 English speakers and in the 1st grade class, there are 2. I asked her, "Ok, but what do you want me to do with them?" She said "I don't know. Just help them." You have to be kidding me. I just said "OK" and that I'd start that next week. I don't know what Eleonora was thinking. I don't have a teaching degree. These kids get graded and there's no way that I want to be responsible for their grades.

So, I talked to Elisa after Storia del Costume about the morning. She completely agreed with me that they were leaving the class too open-ended and that, for a person coming just once a week, I shouldn't be doing something so serious. She too thought that I would really just be a teacher's aid, and help the kids with words here and there. She also didn't like that Eleonora expected me to plan a lesson for kids. Sure, they're English speaking, but I still don't know the proper, structured way to teach English grammar! Elisa is going to get in touch with Eleonora. We think that she might have been nervous and unsure of what to do with me. I really don't mind helping out, as long as I interact with kids and speak a little Italian (which I did today). To clarify, I really do like the project, and I'm really excited. I just can't wait for a little more structure. That will be good. The Italian school system is certainly a lot different that the American school system...

And good news! Elisa said that this program can certainly go on my resume as an internship. PERFECT! I needed one really badly, and I was getting a little nervous about it. This will be soooo great because I'm doing it all the way through March, so I'll get a lot of experience. Great resume booster for sure! And a good way to secure another internship for this summer!

Anyway, after this long day, I decided to skip out on my 5:00 class. I have wayyyy to much to do and not enough time to do it with these long class hours. So, I'm going now.

More later. Ciao!

Pranzo in compagna

Today was one of the best days I've had since my arrival here in Italy. The owners of CLIDA (Gabriella and Alberto Materassi) invited us to their villa in the countryside (a village called San Donato in Collina) for a relaxing day of eating and drinking. This couple is the one that I spent my first afternoon with when I arrived in August (because Maria Pia hadn't returned from Canada yet).

In order to get there, we took the bus from the train station for about a half hour. Then, Gabriella and Alberto picked us up at the bus stop and drove us up, up, up a windy road for another half hour. On our way up the hill, we saw the most breathtaking views of the city/countryside below us. When we finally made it to their villa, the air was crisp and much cooler than in Florence. I actually felt that I could breathe better as well. The air didn't feel as heavy. It was amazing.

Since I had been to their house before, Alberto and Gabriella asked me to show the rest of the gang around while she got lunch ready. Before we sat down, they had us try a pairing of cold sausage, peppered pecorino cheese, and sparkling red wine. The wine was awesome! It tasted just like sparkling grape juice. Allow me to also mention that in the kitchen, there was a huge metal barrel of olive oil for Gabriella's cooking. It just sat there like one of those huge water jugs that people have in their houses and offices! Unbelievable. They swear by their olive oil.

Once everything was set for pranzo, we sat down at a long table and the 2.5 hour eating and drinking process began. First, she brought out an antipasto with homemade crispy pasta, ricotta cheese, tomatoes and basil. AWESOME. The second antipasto was mozzarella burrata (buttered mozzarella), which was amazing. The soft outer shell seemed to taste like the mozzarella everyone knows here in Italy, but the inside was much softer and creamier and had a very buttery taste. The next dish, which I guess was a main dish, was lasagna bolognese made completely from scratch (pasta and all). I liked that the pasta was a little tough, and much thinner than the stuff that comes in the packages. Of course, the meat was unexplainably delicious and naturally, there was a good selection of cheeses in the center. After the lasagna came Italian sausages soaked in red wine and freshly crushed grapes (and their juices) with onions. Also served with that course was a potato puree which is soooo much better than the mashed potatoes in the states! After the lunch part, she brought out homemade Sicilian marzipan cookies (she had spent 3 days making the marzipan), homemade chocolate mousse with fresh pear and strawberry topping, and a raisin cake. She topped it all with homemade panna (whipped cream).

And that was the end of lunch. Yep, only 6 courses! No big deal. And all of it was indescribably amazing. After cleanup, we went inside, played some foosball in the basement (they love their soccer in all forms), and then migrated into the living room for some Wii Mario Kart in Italian. Almost all 8 of us kids managed to smoosh on their one couch. At that point, we were totally in a food coma and nearly dead, so Gabriella made us some incredibly strong espresso shots. Grace, Kevin, Carla and Maggie Wright all fell asleep after a few rounds of Mario Kart, but I wanted to go out an explore. So, Alberto took Maggie Rossi and me on a little nature walk. It was so peaceful and beautiful. I felt perfectly happy. I wasn't worrying about anything and it felt awesome! We trekked a little ways into the woods and the path started disappearing and getting steep, so we asked Alberto to go back. We weren't exactly dressed for a legitimate hike, but we definitely had fun. I had collected some chestnuts along the way, so when we returned, Gabriella started a fire and roasted them for us. They weren't that great because chestnut season doesn't start for another month. So, they were a little premature. Oh well, it was still fun!

After a little more Wii, Gabriella and Alberto announced that they had to bring us back to the city. :( :( They invited us back for another pranzo before Christmas though!

Being up in the countryside had such a great affect on me. Living in the city has created so many stresses (some that I didn't even realize), so a day in the hills really helped to calm me down. I am happy that something so simple could make me feel so alive. It helped to remind me why I wanted to study abroad in the first place. I am seeing so many things that a lot of people in the world will never get to enjoy. I'll enjoy it for them! :) That was the most perfect way to spend a Sunday in Italy.

We came back home around 7:30 and Maria Pia had dinner ready for us... UGH. We had caprese salad, toasted bread, and proscuitto. We had asked her to make something light because we knew she would never allow us to just skip out on dinner. So, we attempted to eat what we could, and now I'm in my room just doing some homework.

And, I have a terrible stomach ache.

A domani, or maybe a few days later!

Ciao :)

Sciopero

Ciao!

Today was an odd day. Rainy, and odd. Andrea and I decided to skip the morning session of language classes since our real teacher is still sick and we were looking for some extra sleep. So, instead of leaving the house at 8:20, we left at 10:20. Our university class (museologia) was at 11. The bus picked us up on schedule and we headed downtown. We didn't get very far when we hit a ridiculous amount of traffic. Flash forward and we ended up being on the bus for an hour. It usually takes 20 minutes to get downtown, but we crawled the whole way. As we were melting in the bus, we remembered that we had heard that there was supposed to be a strike (sciopero). So, that's what the holdup was. Needless to say, we never were able to make it to class and had to get out of the bus and walk downtown. We arrived in the center around 11:45 and there was a huge parade of protesters. It was pouring and there was no chance at getting to the university. We walked around until lunch and also bought a hairdryer.

The rest of the day was normal. I came home, took a nap, had dinner, and now I'm here. We're debating whether or not to go out tonight because it's absolutely pouring and there is thunder and lightening. We'll see what we decide.

A domani!

Aperitivo, ICIP, tutors

Ciao ragazzi,

Last night, Christiana (our 5:15 teacher at CLIDA) took us to this amazing pasticceria, called Pasticceria Giorgio, for some treats and conversation. The place was adorable and had some awesome pastries! It was also in a part of Florence that we had never seen before, so we were pretty excited about that. I had a pastry that looked like a chocolate covered cream puff. I forget the Italian name though. Either way, it was awesome!

After the pasticceria, we met up with a former Holy Cross teacher (she was there for everyone's freshman year- before I got there) for aperitivo. It was pretty funny because we ended up going to the place right next to the place that Elia took us a few weeks ago. The food was great and we had a nice time. I was exhausted though, so I had to leave early. I wasn't fun to be around anyway.

This morning, Dobby took me to the site of my Independent Cultural Immersion Project (ICIP). It's across the river at a little Catholic school, run by nuns. The director, Madre Carol was soooo nice and spoke perfect English. I'm pretty sure she's American, but she also spoke beautifully in Italian. Her plan is to make me a teacher's assistant to Eleonora. The class is a 5th grade level and I will be helping 6 kids learn English. I talked to them today and they are already amazing at it anyway. The scary part is that Dobby for some reason told Madre Carol that I was qualified in English literature and grammar!?!?! Sure, I know some things, but the US has a terrible way of not teaching English grammar to kids. Therefore, I know how to use my grammar, but not to explain it very well. I can do a little bit of sentence structure, but I have no idea what the terms are! This should be interesting... I'm also a little disappointed because the kids are so old. I had told Elisa that I wanted to work with kids ages 3-5, because that's the focus of my studies at Holy Cross. I'm also upset that I am not able to speak Italian to the kids. I was hoping to do a little bit of both English and Italian. I'm going to go to the first session and see how I like it. If I don't feel that it's right, I'm going to try to convince Elisa to set me up with something else. She's tough to deal with when it comes to changing things, though.

After that little session, we met Elisa at a museum called La Specola for our tutoring session. I had a really nice time walking through the museum. In the beginning, I thought she would be explaining all the pieces, but instead, she wanted us to look at the overall organization of a museum, placement, etc. It was pretty cool though. After the walk-through, we sat down and got some readings, etc. It's going to be pretty intense, I think. There are lots of Italian works that we are going to have to read which will take me 3x longer to get through than English readings. She is very thorough though and has a great reputation for her tutoring. A girl from HC actually got a perfect score on her Museology exam last year because Elisa was her tutor. Hopefully, she's just trying to scare us with all this work because it seems like they did less than expected last year.

After tutoring, we all met for lunch at our usual spot, Antica Noe. From the beginning, Carla had had an interest in the boy (Andrea) that works there. Everything changed last night when he called her and took her out on his Vespa!!! So now they have a little thing going on. So exciting and fun to hear about!

We're going out tonight and hopefully meeting up with Andrea. He said he's going to take us to some Italian places. I'm excited! I think I'm skipping out on the homework tonight. It's not due for a while.

A dopo!