freakin' out

So much to do before my flight HOME tomorrow at 2pm but I am so very excited! Here I come Vermont, better watch out!

beating and conquering!

I promise to write a proper blog ASAP but as I am leaving for THE UNITED STATES on Friday at 2pm (as long as it doesn't snow like it says it is going to......), and I have 4 papers and 4 exams after vacation.... I am a wee bit swamped this week trying to get ahead of the game!!!! 


As always, in bocca al lupo, baci e abbracci a tutti, and see you all oh-so-very soon!!! 

busy little bee

Things are craaaazy over here in Italia right now..... It's a scramble to get all the Christmas shopping done while attempting to conquer weeks worth of work so I won't have as much to do over break..... Then there is that whole packing thing.... That can wait until next Thursday.


Official countdown... I leave here one week from tomorrow and will be home in cozy, snowy Vermont a week from Saturday! 


Wish me luck! In bocca al lupo!


P.S. "In bocca al lupo"("in the mouth of the wolf") means good luck. It often gets the response, "Crepi," which means, "He dies..." I love you italian language.


P.P.S. Double majoring in Anthropology and Italian Studies now! Planning a great senior year of italian, anthro, viola, gym, and a waitressing job.... Dreaming, I guess you could say!


P.P.P.S. Internship at the Gola Gioconda magazine is official! I will start going in January! Translating, event planning, researching..... I absolutely cannot wait!!!

happy december 6th!

I know December 6th isn't really anything too special but it does mean that Christmas is in 18 days and I will be home in about 12! So therefore I would say it deems a special announcement.


This morning I woke up and headed downstairs for breakfast, only to find everyone just about ready to re-commence the decorating. I ran upstairs and grabbed my colored paper and proceeded to make three big 3D snowflakes and a long paper chain. The boys made me help hang ornaments on the tree, and then Silvia gave me a little blue ornament as a little gift to take home.


Anyway, the house is gorgeous, and full of lights and pretty little decorations and Christmas tunes!! It's great! And it snowed in Vermont and Massachusetts last night! Finally! Christmas is definitely on the way!

happier than any clam i've ever known

Which isn't many, mind you, but I think it is safe to say that I am very, very, very jolly.


This morning I woke up to the sound of two little Italian boys singing Christmas songs in English. It was rather delightful. Then I heard two little knocks on my door. The boys were wondering if they could please show me a little present. As I followed them over to a gorgeous nativity scene that they had just set up with Silvia. There is even a little well with real running, bubbling water! 

When I walked downstairs for breakfast, I was pleasantly surprised to see the entire living room covered in boxes of Christmas decorations AND a very lovely fake Christmas tree!! There was much bustling around as Lorenzo dug for ornaments and ran to Silvia asking where they should go and Filippo changed the Christmas songs every 4 seconds. It was very jolly! 


After eating and enjoying the holiday bustle, I left to meet Breana and walk to the market at San Lorenzo to do some Christmas shopping. We found many lovely things, and we ever bartered and got beautiful little leather bags!! 


From San Lorenzo, we wandered to Santa Croce where there was a mercatino, a little German Christmas market. We met our Italian friend Laura, Claire, Chrysanthe and Victoria and strolled for a few hours. I bought a few cute things, including some Christmas baby clothes pins for Silvia because she loves little clothes pins to close bags, and then two keychains for the boys - a santa and a snowman with the eyeballs that pop out. We tried the hot wine, and it tasted just like light, delicious hot mulled cider! Breana and I also ate a huge salted pretzel and the best freshly-made cotton candy (pure white) that I have ever tasted in my life!


Side note: let's discuss how beautiful the lights in this city are!! 

When I got home, I brought the little presents to the boys and they absolutely LOVED them. Silvia said, okay a kiss for Sera! Filippo promptly came over and stuck his head in my direction so I could kiss it. So I did! Silvia cracked up and said, alright, or she can kiss you! Lorenzo then followed suit and let me kiss his head as well - our first moment of sibling affection! 


Dinner was delicious tonight! We had fondue but with meat (fondue bourguignon?) in olive oil. We had pork, chicken, and of course, hot dogs! And Silvia's incredible roasted potatoes (I should mention that the toaster oven that she makes the potatoes in is located inside the pantry because it is not pretty nor as modern and fancy as the rest of the things in the kitchen... aka we often cook in the pantry....). For dessert we had castagnaccio which is a torte-type thing made with chestnut flour. The first few times I had it, I didn't like it all that much because it has a funny texture and not much flavor but tonight it was delicious! 


I spent a few hours after dinner watching TV with everyone, snuggled under blankets in the living room with the semi-decorated Christmas tree. We watched a series of bizarre Italian shows including one called "Chi ha incastrato Peter Pan?" which is somewhat like the American "Kids Say the Darndest Things" except there is also a huge emphasis on the hosts of the show, two or three middle-aged men who talk with the kids and do their own little skits and challenges. Its funny how they don't realize that it's odd to discuss your testicles in detail on public television..... in front of 4-year-olds... This country is very interesting....


Anyway! Off to sleep I go! Wishing for snow in Vermont!!


Bacione! 

ballets, operas and other wondrous things

Tonight was fantastic!


We got all dressed up and headed over to the Teatro Comunale to see the ballet of Carmen. They took the Carmen Suite and retold the entire story in a short ballet. It was beautiful! Colorful, happy, entertaining and gorgeous! Then, surprise! There was a little opera afterwards - Campanile. I had no idea that we had tickets to two short back-to-back shows, it was great!


Afterwards we wandered and found a snack and then headed home because it was bitterly cold and windy! Come on winter!

newest addiction

addendum

Also notable: Friday night I am going to see Carmen, the ballet, with Breana and some of the other girls. It was a Christmas present fro Monica and Giovanna/Smith and it should be fantastic!! 


http://www.maggiofiorentino.com/?q=progbiglietti


Christmas really is a pretty divine season........ 

holiday warm fuzzies: ben & jerry's, christmas carols, la fiorentina...

My host padre just left the house wearing a LIME green hat. Adorable. And I just helped Lorenzo study Spanish. Probably even more adorable. 


I have no real point for this blog.... only to share some holiday cheer with everyone. I always become a big mush during the holiday season.... I am never stressed and always happy. It helps that I love making lists so I obsessively think about Christmas presents and what things I want to do during the holiday season...... I love it all. So far I am thinking that when I return home, I must do the following things:


Christmas shop on Church Street
have a Christmas party with my girlies
hang out with my pals from work this summer
snuggle with the boyfriend
watch lots of TV with my mamma
play in the snow [please let there be snow soon.... just not when my flight comes in!]
work... somehow.... somewhere..... ideas?
bake cookies
make beer with my dad
celebrate New Year's with the entire family [aka Isadora's family]
sleep. a lot. 
read for pleasure....
eat breakfast at the Wayside!
go to the movies
get a crepe at the Skinny Pancake 
hang out with Chad and Georgeee
relax.
and unfortunately..... write two 8-10 page papers and two 4-5 page papers..... what? 


Smith really knows how to make sure we still have plenty of work overseas.... Although I am decently sure that it is just the Florence program that is this intense.... That being said.... I am feeling very good about it all.... it feels good to be working this hard in a foreign language and be surviving somewhat reasonably. Next semester is going to be much better though! I will be taking one class at the University of Firenze, therefore I will have minimum work throughout the semester but one big oral exam in front of the entire class at the end..... Then I am hopefully taking a translation corse taught by Giovanna if I am selected after doing a little translation test.... Then a Modern Art History course which will have the most work, like Art History this semester, then finally, a History of Cinema class where there are mostly likely no papers, just some tests. Doesn't seem nearly so bad after all the work I've done this year! And! This semester ends roughly January 26th. We have about one week free, and then one February 2nd or so, we leave for Sicily for a week! And then second semester starts. It will be the perfect long vacation to re-adjust to Florence and get over being homesick! I can't wait! 


Big plans this weekend. Friday I am going to go to the Galleria Palatina to see the work by Rafaello that I need to write my art history paper about, and then Breana and I are going to the art history library of the University of Fireze to start our research. Friday night we will probably do something grand. Saturday day we are getting the whole crew together to go to the German Christmas market at Santa Croce, and Sunday I think we are going to go to a Fiorentina game! 


Anyway, I must be off to read some of my Italian book for Literature - Io Non Ho Paura - I Am Not Afraid. One of my future 8-10 pages papers. Woohoo! 


Wish me luck!
Baci a tutti!!!


P.S. Perhaps I should mention the other two things that I listed in the title.... First of all, Christmas carols. Love them. Need more. Enough said. Yesterday Giovanna found the little fake Christmas tree for the sede and Breana and I decorated it while listening to the Christmas songs on my iPod. We also started making snowflakes and paper chains..... Sigh. So great! Secondly, and way more importantly, there is now a BEN & JERRYS IN FLORENCE! Literally across from the Duomo. I teared up a little when I discovered it yesterday afternoon. I now get to walk by it twice a day! I might have to go this weekend..... It's like Florence knew I was missing Vermont so it brought Vermont to me!! Thanks, Florence! 

oops....

English recipes do not work in Italy.


1.5 sticks of butter does not easily translate to grams when all you know is that 1.5 sticks = 12 tablespoons.


Tablespoons are a measure of volume.... Italians measure butter in grams... aka weight. Volume does not equal weight......


Therefore one ends up with molasses cookies that have waaaay too much butter..... Ooopsss!!!! 


Anyone want a flat, chewy, caramel-like molasses-ish cookie???

a series of rather fortunate events

I think I will continue in list form:


1. Thanksgiving Day.
Part One: Thanksgiving started out with a lovely trip to the Uffizi for Art History. We wandered around the huge and overwhelmingly beautiful rooms, each full of art by one particular artist or another. No big deal that we were surrounded by famous works of Michelangelo, Donatello and co. The funny thing was, take this piece for example. 

It's called a tondo and it depicts, obviously, mother Mary with baby Jesus (its real name is Tondo Doni). The idea of these tondos came from something called a desco da parto, otherwise known as the tray for the broth and liquids brought to a mother after she has given birth. Given that trays are only so large, I was imagining that this tondo would be roughly the same size. NOT THE CASE! It was huge! And when I say huge, I mean about 5 feet in diameter. Very big. And very gorgeous. 


Part Two: The rest of the day I spent eating lunch at the sede, sending Thanksgiving e-cards and shopping with my lovely Breana. We decided to stay out in the center the entiiiiire day because we had to be at Giovanna's around 7pm for Thanksgiving dinner, aka we walked for 6 hours....... So finally 7pm rolled around and we (very exhaustedly) arrived at Giovanna's with little gifts in tow. We bought Giovanna and Monica each some green tea and bath fizzies for relaxing and some chocolate with chili peppers to give them a little kick. 

Upon arriving I was embraced by the warm smells of Thanksgiving cooking and the lovely sound of Giovanna's husband playing his violin while Anna played viola. We sang Thanksgiving songs (yes, they exist....) and drank wine, and chatted and ate and enjoyed each other. The best part was that besides Giovanna, Monica and Pam, our old cooking teachers, all of our professors came! They were all dressed up and buzzed and very jolly and excited to be taking part in this weird American holiday. At the end of the night, our art history professor drove Breana and I home which was very much welcomed after our day of walking. 

Unfortunately, having Thanksgiving with everyone from Smith did not prove to be as anti-homesicking as one would think. When I got home, all I wanted was my mom's cranberry sauce and my dad's gravy. They were at a friends house for the night, so I promptly called them and wished everyone a happy Thanksgiving, thus making myself feel much more far away and lonely. But fortunately....


2. Friday rolled around! 
After doing some work, I met Breana and we went to Casa Buonarroti which is the museum of all things Michelangelo. Yet another fantastic experience, getting to see his wax models of now large and very famous sculptures and finally understanding the size of things such as Battaglia dei Centauri (much smaller than I imagined!! Projectors and images from Google just don't cut it!). 


After wandering around and finding some yummy pizza, we returned home. As I was standing in the kitchen, making some tea, I showed my host mamma that I had found some pre-made Ocean Spray cranberry sauce and some molasses. Lorenzo then asked her when I was cooking and she said perhaps Sunday. He then requested we please have stuffing and cranberry sauce that night because he wanted it. So therefore, I made it. We made the stuffing without mushrooms and with less garlic than usual, and I had Lorenzo as my little helper, cutting the prosciutto, toasting the bread, etc. Surprisingly enough, everything turned out rather well. The cranberry sauce that I doctored up tasted somewhat related to that which we make at home, and the stuffing was also pretty darn tasty. And! Everyone ate everything! The stuffing was gone very rapidly and everyone tried the cranberry sauce (the boys ate it without complaints or disgust, and Silvia and Enrico had seconds!) I was one proud mamma hen given that Enrico and the boys, especially Filippo, are veryyyy picky eaters! Successo! 


3. Lovely, lazy, holiday-time Saturdays
This morning I slept in a bit and then spent the day being productive. I ate lunch with my fam (incredible pasta with carrot curry sauce.... yummmm!) and then returned to studying, took a nap and got ready for.....


4. A Special Night Out on the Town

Tonight I got all dolled up, had dinner with my host family and some guests (including an adorable little girl named Marta... babysitting, hmm.... an idea...), and then hopped on the back on Enrico's motorcycle, arriving at Teatro Verdi in minutes. I went up the the ticket counter to pick up my pre-reserved ticket where I was informed that my seat had been changed. When I bought my ticket online, there were 5 seats left and I chose the best of the 5, which was in the second section on the theater, at least 3 rows back. My new seat was in the 4th row. Of the first section. With a perfect view of the orchestra. It was relatively magical. And I teared up... they played some Haydn and Jupiter from Mozart's Planets. It was a gorgeous concert, and since the orchestra was so small (6 first violins, 4 or 5 seconds, 4 violas, 4 cellos, 2 basses and very small winds, brass and percussion sections) you could hear everything and it was stunning. I will definitely be tuning in online to listen to their Christmas Eve concert and going to as much as I can when I come back in January! (Which reminds me, Enrico's gym gave him 4-one month passes to give as gifts and he is giving one to me! Pilates, yoga, pool, water aerobics, sauna, spa, hot tub, tanning, and regular gym usage allllll free for one month! A perfect way to avoid the semi-inevitable post-Christmas slump! Thanks host fam!)


Anyway, here I am back from the concert, snuggled into bed, ready for a long night's sleep and a productive day tomorrow, including cookie-baking!! 


Bacione!!

disappointed....

I swear.... there are literally NO CRANBERRIES IN THIS COUNTRY!! So much for cranberry sauce!!






Good thing the carbonara cooking downstairs smells incredible!!!

10 things that occur around the holiday season in florence that make life worth living

1. Family Gatherings.
Last night my family got together with Victoria and Chrysanthe's family because my mamma is their father's sister, aka our little sibs are cousins. Yesterday was the nonna's birthday and she came with her sister and her husband. All in all, there were 14 people at my house, eating pizza, drinking Coca Cola and beer and laughing and chatting. I sneakily tried to take some family photos and then just decided to make everyone pose! It was a night full of laughter and sweet grandmotherly moments and love. And pizza covered in sliced hot dogs. It was perfect. 

2. Beautiful Lights. 
I know I have previously mentioned this and I also promised photos, but I haven't actually seen the beautiful lights lit up yet.... well I saw them at 2pm yesterday but I don't think that has quite the same effect as seeing them at night..... Tomorrow I will take pictures! I promise! 




3. Wandering at night.
I love this city at night. During the day.... not so much, but at night, definitely. I love walking home after class in the dusk to dark period, watching parents picking up their children, wandering past the bus stops and enjoying the general happy bustle that exists after the work-day has ended. I also love having that extra 30 minutes of leisurely strolling (well, I power-walk like there's no tomorrow but still....) to think in Italian and enjoy all the Italian-ness that surrounds me.... It's very relaxing and rejuvenating.... 


4. Decorations.
Storefronts, lights, windows.... all been said before, but I still really love it! 




5. Thanksgiving Dinner with Giovanna.
Thursday night. With all 20 girls and our professors. Turkey and gravy, stuffing, salads, corn, squash, pumpkin carpaccio, cranberry sauce, corn bread, pecan pie, apple pie and pumpkin pie.... Mmmm.... Just like home! 




6. Thanksgiving Dinner with the Host Fam 
It has been decided. Sunday night I will be cooking my family's version of stuffing and some cranberry sauce along with some molasses cookies perhaps.... Silvia is getting some kind of turkey or chicken, and we are good to go! The boys probably won't like the cranberry sauce and we'll see about Silvia and Enrico! Wish me luck! 




7. Helping Older Women Cross the Street
I was walking home tonight (enjoying the peaceful darkness, of course) and as I approached a sidewalk, this most adorable older woman reached out and asked me if I would be so kind as to walk her across the street because she was scared of falling. I took her hand and we walked across very, very carefully and very slowly, all the while she was telling me how nice it was to have someone help her. Then she squeezed my hand and said, "Buona sera, signorina!" My hand was glowing with warm, fuzzy feelings for at least 10 minutes, especially because I had just come from....




8. Sitting in with a Group of Grandmothers who Pray Together Every Day. 
After my audited class at the University of Florence (Methodologies of Contemporary Art History.... very, very, very boring...), I decided to spend some time in one of my two favorite churches (that I know of so far, that is!). When I entered, there were hardly any people other than one man who was seemingly very frustrated because the priest was late for confessionals and another man who works at the church and was restocking all the candles available to light. I walked through the church looking at all the small chapels until I found one that for some reason gave me the goosebumps. There was a beautiful fresco unlike all the others. Many were dark and depicted Jesus' sacrifice or other sad Biblical stories. This one instead was the Madonna surrounded by Saints, looking up at the heavens. It was so brightly colored and there were such relaxed, content expressions on each face, that I was immediately struck by its beauty. I lit three candles at this chapel - one each for my grandparents and my uncle. It was a rare moment of strong faith which continued to get stronger as I walked behind the sacristy (completely unlit with only a few candles flickering in the eerie silence) and I realized that I heard prayers. When I walked back out past the altar, I found a group of about seven woman, all much older, praying together. I went and sat down across from them and listened with my eyes closed for about 10 minutes, although they continued easily for another 10 or 15. It was pretty incredible.... and not something I often desire, but it felt good today to be part of a group of people so full of faith....




9. Orchestral Concerts.
Last night I decided I wanted to go to an orchestral concert. It is Christmas and Christmas means music which reminded me how much I miss my viola and orchestra and classical music. Within five minutes of deciding this, I had already found one this Saturday at the Teatro Verdi in Florence. I know have a ticket and I cannot wait!! http://www.teatroverdionline.it/




10. Being Happy.
Although I have now been sick for 30 days, I am extremely happy. I am settled, I am bonding with my host family, I am less stressed, things are going well at school, the boyfriend is just lovely and it is almost Christmas! Although I am pretty excited for Thanksgiving as well! This weekend between going out with the gang and taking myself out for a night, I will just be working, commencing some Christmas shopping and cooking! Sounds like a perfect weekend to me! 


Baci a tutti! And see many of you in less than 4 weeks! AMORE! 

something I stumbled upon

In missing Vermont and fall and Thanksgiving and the prospect of snow, and in Googling images of Vermont things such as foliage, I stumbled upon this gorgeous tattoo..... uh oh! 

pancakes galore!

I just made my host fam pancakes for breakfast - a success!! 


Given that I had to make them with olive oil instead of corn or veggie oil, and I was cooking them on a gas stove, with tiny little pans, I think I did okay - they were in my top 5 batches of pancakes I would say! I heated up Vermont maple syrup for Silvia, Enrico and myself and then the boys ate Nutella and powdered sugar with theirs. Everyone looks quite satisfied, especially when I made Mickey Mouse shaped pancakes for the boys! 


Now I just have to plan my Thanksgiving meal...... 


Bacione! 

wow. fame, here I come!

If you go to Google and start typing "Sera Jane" it will automatically guess Sera Jane Goes to Firenze as the first thing.... and if you Google just plaid old "Sera Jane" my blog is halfway down the second page! Thanks guys!!!! Now I just need my dreams job and dream restaurant/bar - who's helping?

weekend thus far.

I feel the need to share with you that last night Breana and I went to this cute English pub called Kikuya (http://www.kikuyapub.it/) with some of our Italian guy-friends and a few of their girl-friends. These girls were evidently very displeased with our presence as they made many a rude comment and snide look our way. Then they decided that they wanted to play telefone.... in Italian....which naturally made Breana and I look like morons because we had no idea what they were saying because it was always some weird, long, complicated Italian phrase. Then we decided that we should get to choose one. At which point the girls panicked a little but Fiippo and Alessio said that of course we should pick one. So we did. Honkytonk Badonkadonk. Needless to say, we got them back. And then everyone started laughing and we all got over ourselves as I tried to explain in Italian what honkytonk badonkadonk means.... and then we played Jenga because for some reason it was set up on the table. Overall the night was a success, odd, but a success nonetheless.


BACIONE

UPDATE!

I was just informed today that I have an internship with the Florentine food magazine, Gola Gioconda (http://www.golagioconda.it/) helping them translate their website into English!!!!! I was daydreaming about it after and imagined myself working there after graduation as their token American who translates and writes pieces about food in the United States, and then they would let me start writing my own articles about Florence so I would get to go out and do field work and go to restaurants, and eventually I would open my own restaurant because I would have become part of the business scene in Italy..... Dreaming is great, isn't it?


P.S. Gola = throat, Gioconda = Monna Lisa

christmas is a comin'

Or rather, Natale is a comin'!

But first comes fall. Although not so much in Firenze.... There aren't a particularly large number of trees to turn beautiful colors and send their leaves twirling to the ground.... Fortunately for me, I got to go to Lucca on Friday and in Lucca there are plenty of stunning autumnal trees and even some beautifully decorated storefronts, all ready for Christmas! 


I have also learned that my Florentine family loves Christmas as much as I do. We have the Christmas tablecloth already in full use every night and at least once a day Lorenzo breaks into song. Christmas song that is!! Sometimes he sings on his own in Italian but other times he sings along to American Christmas songs such as Santa Baby and things by Bing Crosby, in English, and it is just about the cutest thing I have ever heard. 


The city of Florence is also gearing up for the holidays by stringing beautiful strings of lights all along every street, too bad they wait until a certain day much closer to Christmas to turn them all on!! 

As far as Thanksgiving goes, although I am extremely sad to not be spending it at home, Giovanna has invited all of us girls over to her house with our professors for the evening. Then either Friday, Saturday or Sunday night I am hoping that Silvia will make some delicious turkey breast and I can make my family's "Italian" stuffing and cranberry sauce that we make every year. Wish me luck!


More news coming soon!
Baci e abbracci a tutti!

a crazy, hectic week

As usual... apologies for the rareness of my blogs these days.... I really am planning on incorporating them into my schedule more frequently, but this week has been bonkers!


First of all, my parents came last Wednesday! They are renting this great little apartment along the Arno where I have been spending much time. Since they arrived, we have been going to dinner, cooking dinner, going to little museums, and checking out churches. And of course, this has been a wacky week for schoolwork and continues to be so given that next week I have two midterms and the following week two more plus a little presentation (plus the usual pages of reading and about 5-8 compositions per week..... mind you this is all in Italian so although it isn't tons of work objectively speaking, it takes much longer to do and requires much more attention.... ugh).


Sunday night we celebrated my mom's birthday just over one month late. I made pasta with a homemade zucca (squash) sauce (I cooked the squash, then sauteed onions, re-added the squash and cooked them until they were paste-like, added Italian cooking cream, lots of black pepper and ground red pepper mixed with garlic, and then tossed it with pasta), breaded chicken cutlets with lemon, and lentils served Italian-style (al dente with olive oil and salt). After dinner I made roasted chestnuts. A lovely dinner!!


Another highlight of their visit thus far was when we ate dinner with my host family on Monday. I spent the entire day worrying and becoming more and more nervous because I am generally pretty shy around my host family and I was going to have to play translator all night. When we got to my house, the table was set beautifully, the boys were on their best behavior and there was the delicious scent of homemade lasagna coming from the oven.

I am happy to report that the night was a success. We laughed all night as my mom (with some help from me) tried to talk with the boys in Italian and Enrico and Silvia did their best to use some English words. It was just about the sweetest thing I have ever seen. The boys were chatty enough and at one point ran to get a photo album from when they were about 2 until they were 4 (SO CUTE!). Toward the end of the night, the boys went to bed and Enrico decided that my parents were not going to take a taxi but instead that he would drive them home so we piled in the car (Enrico, Silvia, my parents and I) and we started toward their apartment. But then Enrico remembered how nice Fiesole (a little town on a hill overlooking Florence) is at night because you can see the whole city. So Silvia, elbowing me in the ribs, says, "Oooohhh! We could go for a little drive!" And so we drove. Up the windy, windy roads alllll the way up to Fiesole. At 11pm. Mind you, I was exhausted... and full... and within minutes very, very, very carsick. Sheesh. Regardless, it was adorable! Enrico narrated the entire drive, telling my parents all about the streets, buildings, hotels, etc. (and I was forced to rapidly translate as best I could!) It was a very wonderful evening and although I thought I might die I was so nervous, I survived and the outcome was great! (Enrico and Silvia decided that my parents are adorable and very young at heart while my parents remained ever-so content that I live with such a sweet and loving family.)


Since then I have just been swimming in work, studying, reading, writing, visit museums, having double lessons of art history... it's exhausting!!


Tomorrow my parents and I are heading to Lucca and Pisa for a little day trip! Be prepared for photos! Then I will be spending the rest of the weekend writing four more compositions, visiting a little church, and relaxing with my parents and pals over here in Italia - hopefully we will find something exciting to do because its been quiet around here lately given that everyone has swine flu! Viva la suina! (Long live the swine.... terrible joke, not funny.... it just had a nice ring to it....)


That's all for now! I promise to update at least on Sunday!!!


Baci a tutti!!

Oink!

An orchestra of coughs.

Thats what my host dad says (he is now coughing a little bit too). Last night at dinner Lorenzo, Filippo and I were all coughing and Enrico started conducting us which made us all laugh more and then in turn, cough more. I also feel the need to share that host mamma peeled me an apple last night and cut it into chunks, it was just about the cutest thing ever. They also all seemed AMAZED that it was a Fiji apple.... I guess that seems cool?

This morning I am home from school again (I came home early yesterday), as are both of the twins. They both seem better, especially Filippo. They are currently running around the house throwing things at each other so I think they're okay!

My parents are leaving Vermont today! To come here! I will be seeing them tomorrow afternoon! Bravo!

Baci!

every good day ends with a good meal

For some reason, I just can't be down in the country no matter what happens. Okay, well maybe I was down when I had bedbugs for weeks on end.... but looking back on it I already don't feel any upset. As a matter of face, after finding out today that my lil' bro Filippo does indeed have swine flu..... (which in turn means that what I have is some form of swine flu.....) I actually just smiled and laughed about it because you know what? I am in Italy. And I am having a great time. And yes, I had bedbugs for a month. Yes, I had to move to a new house. Yes, my wallet was then stolen, and yes, I now seem to have some form of swine flu...... but regardless - I am here in Florence with a FANTASTIC family and everything somehow remains pretty gosh darn incredible.

Anyway. I had a good day. Read a book in Italian, read a fable in Italian, wrote a 2 page paper in Italian. Things are lookin' up. I didn't have a fever. My bros were super cute all day. Filippo seems to be better given that he and Lorenzo were chasing each other around all day. I drank lots of tea. I cleaned my room. I got to listen to adorable Lorenzo practice Spanish in an Italian accent all afternoon. I watched the soccer game and la Fiorentina won (3-1 against Catania..... oh yeahhhh!) And then, to top it off, we had a delicious dinner!

Ravioli filled with squash or pumpkin or something of the sort (same word in Italian so I am not totally sure which it really was....), followed by bread and cheese and those amazing brussels sprouts smothered in Béchamel sauce. Perfetto!

So thank you, Florence, for torturing me but allowing me to enjoy you just the same!

Baci e abbracci as usual!

Waiting for my real Italian mamma

Bahh. Now I really am sick.


Fever approaching 100 degrees yesterday afternoon and a wretched cough, accompanied by tears and a low level of misery.


That was yesterday though. Today I feel better, although I am still in bed sipping tea, eating oranges, and reading.


Regardless, I have to think that someone is testing me.... Why else would I get bedbugs and then loose my wallet and then get sick all in 6 weeks? If anyone knows the answer to this.... please let me know! 


Fortunately, my Italian mammas - Monica, Giovanna AND Silvia - have all been taking supaaaa good care of me and my REAL Italian mamma is arriving with my real non-Italian padre on Wednesday. Thank goodness!


P.S. HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 


Italy is finally starting to celebrate Halloween. PHEW. The kiddos dress up, there are pumpkins and witches all over, and Giovanna is baking pumpkin pie. That being said, I cannot for the life of me find a haunted house or scary walk to go on or anything!! And I really want one! Too bad for me! Yesterday, before I started feeling like I might die, I was at the Sede with the other girlies watching Hocus Pocus in Italiano. It was hilarious! I still haven't watched the Halloween movie with my little bros, but Filippo is really sick too so it might not be happening today either.


We are trying to find something to do tonight with the entire gang which will probably include attending a Halloween party at a pub, and possibly going to listen to live music at this place called BeBop. We'll see. I haven't given up on a haunted something-or-other just yet..... 


Anyway, regardless of my sickness I have been very productive these past two days, and I must continue to be so right now or else I will never finish all of this work!! Ridiculous!


Baci a tutto!! And as we say in Italy - Dolcetto o scherzetto! Trick or treat! 

PART THREE or the end of a long, fantastic week and the beginning of another

Earlier today
This morning for our History of Fashion and Costume class we went to Palazzo Vecchio (literally 30 seconds from the Sede - the picture below is the view of the Palazzo from a window of the Sede) to visit the secret room of Eleanora di Toledo, the wife of Cosimo de’ Medici. No big deal. We saw all sorts of neat Renaissance clothes and witness a little reenactment of Eleanora getting dressed as she told us all about how one dressed oh-so-long ago. Not to bad for a Wednesday morning!

Today was pretty much my Friday although I do have to visit a museum tomorrow (oh, darn!) and check out my second university class. Shouldn’t be too bad of a day although we have so much work to do this weekend…. I will be spending every free moment reading or writing or something…. It’s a little insane. I have to wonder if the professors should have conferenced before giving us so much work because in all honestly, it’s going to be quasi-impossible……

Right this second
Regardless, here I am, blogging and watching la Fiorentina play la Bologna. Might as well relax before working my bum off and going out this weekend, right?

We had a most delicious dinner tonight. First some aperitivi (which we don’t often have): duck pate with tasty bread and little sliced sautéed hot dogs (Italians are obsessed with hot dogs and French fries…. They put them on pizza and call it American pizza) followed by an elaborate dinner including leftovers from last night: sausage with my new favorite curry sauce, chicken for the boys, amazing lentils with olive oil and salt, pasta that Silvia’s mother made today (I met her earlier, too – SO ADORABLE), leftover pasta with squash from last night and…. Something else…. But I can’t remember!

What’s on tap for the weekend
(Speaking of taps, have I mentioned that my dad is trying to make English cider at home right now? And when I am home for Christmas, we are going to make some beer together! Practice for my restaurant, obviously!!)

Tomorrow night the posse is headed out Tijuana for Mexican food (http://www.tijuanaristorante.it/) – don’t worry reservations were made for 22! Either tomorrow before dinner or Friday before dinner I am watching a Halloween movie with the twins. We have a new thing were we (and by we I mean me….) write messages to them on their chalkboard such as “Would you like to watch a movie tonight? Yes or no? If yes, go pick one!” I don’t know if we have plans Friday night but Saturday we are going somewhere for Halloween, of course! Somewhere amidst all these great things I have to do all of my work…. 

In boca al lupo!

Sorry this is so tremendously long, yet again. I am going to get into a new, more frequent writing schedule – I PROMISE!

Baci e abbracci a tutti!

PART TWO or the seemingly worse yet still amazing weekend

Saturday
Saturday morning I woke up at 6.30am to head off on a day of adventures. We first hit up Pienza (in this case we = all the Smith girls, Monica and Giovanna along with her husband, Alessio and his sister and our Italian friend Alex – what a crew!) where we wandered around for a good 3 hours. I went to lunch with Ali, Breana and Alayna at this really delicious ristorante where we ate incredible gnocchi. After Pienza, we bussed over to San Gimginano, the city of towers! We wandered for a few hours, ate some really delish gelato and bought supposedly famous wine (which turns out, I thought was disgusting….. too bad…)

When we got back from our little trip, I ran home, changed, freshened up and headed back out to meet the usual nightlife posse, this time to gather for aperitivi in honor of Alessio’s birthday. We ate at this cute place called Oibo (http://www.oibo.net/), although it wasn’t the best aperitivo I have eaten here (first place goes to Negroni, across the arno http://www.negronibar.it/). Something you should know about how we roll in Firenze is this: Every time we go out, we have no choice but to make a reservation, even if we are going on a Monday night to aperitivi at a strange time. This is because, on the weekends especially, we never travel in a pack less than 10. Initially this was frustrating because no one would ever make up their mind, but now by te middle of every week there has been at least one mass Facebook message to everyone stating what we are doing, when we are doing it and where we should meet. It has become a bit of a joke. Take Saturday night for example – I had to call and make a reservation for 20 people two days in advance. It’s great.

Anywho. After aperitivi, we headed to this American/English pub called the Lion’s Fountain (http://www.thelionsfountain.com/) where we spent the rest of the night. Until we left. At which point I realized someone had stolen my wallet. Oops….  I am sure that I didn’t loose it for it was in my hand all night until I put it in my purse which was on a bench right next to us with everyone else’s purses. Unfortunately there was a semi-sketch group of non-Italian men who persistently wanted to take our photo for us…. Or something…. We decided it was them. Needless to say, my cards are all cancelled, I borrowed money from Smith, and my parents will be here in a week. Perfetto.

Sunday
Sunday five of us headed to Alessio’s house for his birthday lunch with all of his friends from university as well as his family and Giovanna. It very well may have been one of the cutest things I have done so far in Florence. His mother and Giovanna greeted us all at the door, and his mom was so welcoming and excited that we were there. We were all extremely awkward, as every good Smithie should be, and we stood around waiting for people to start eating. We ate about 17 different courses and then finished up with a HUGE (I’m talking about 2 feet in diameter huge) chocolate torte which Alessio could not for the life of him figure out how to cut. His house is beautiful (and by house I mean apartment because no one in Florence lives in a house) and pretty much a museum. His dad used to be a carabinieri (police officer essentially) and he has a passion for Garibaldi. Therefore, not only has he collected rare Italian comics featuring Garibaldi, but he has two of Garibaldi’s ACTUAL uniforms in glass cases, just chilling in the hallway outside their bedrooms. Italians really are great.

After this delightful lunch, we headed over to the stadium to meet Monica and the rest of the Smithies, along with our History of Fashion professor to watch a soccer game between la Fiorentina and I Napoli. Fiorentina lost…. Bummer. It was an extremely exciting game though! And Giovanna and Monica bought us all Fiorentina scarves which was good because it was freeeeezing!! Alè alè alè alè!!!! (Did I mention that on my way to Alessio’s my sweater fell out of my bag? What a weekend!)

Monday
Monday was quiet. Nothing too exciting happened really. We found out that our super sweet art history professor has swine flu so class was cancelled for the week (aka my one class on Thursday was cancelled and therefore my weekend would begind Wednesday at approximately 5.30pm).

As I was walking home from Stilistics Monday night, I realized that due to setting the clocks back, it was already almost completely dark outside. As I approached the Duomo, I was overwhelmed by how gorgeous it looked just past dusk. There were a few tourists scattered around, taking photos with flash that lit up the gold leaf details on the façade and as I looked around, I also realized there was a crescent moon just to the right of the dome. Of course. It’s Italy. Things really are picture perfect rather often. At this point, I noticed I was standing in the middle of the street (although as of this past weekend all the streets around the Duomo are closed to traffic- woohoo!) and I decided I should move. I got out my camera and spent the next 20 minutes playing tourist and snapping gorgeous photos of this palatial piece of marble that I walk by at least twice a day.

Upon completing this touristy task, I began my walk home thinking about how I finally felt settled. I had a family, my little bros were becoming less shy, I did things every weekend with my group of friends, I had classes to go to, work to do, I finally felt okay. Reflecting on the past week I decided that even though I had just recovered from bedbugs, I didn’t sleep much, my wallet was stolen, and I was then getting a lovely sore throat and cough, I had maybe just completed one of the best weeks of my life.

Not too shabby, Florence – thanks!

Tuesday
Tuesday… let’s see. Class in the morning. Art history was cancelled so instead I attended my first course at the University of Florence (we have to audit something this semester to practice the wacky system of Italian education). I am planning on going to one class on Tuesdays (Analysis of the Preferences of the Consumer – in the department of viniculture, a lot about product development, etc.) and then one of Thursdays (Economics of Viniculture). Hey, when in Italy… study wine! The class on Tuesday was really interesting and I would say that I actually understood about 85-90% of what the professor said! I even took a few pages of notes! 

PART ONE or the beginning of the best week ever

My apologies for being the worst blogger ever! It has been just about a week and I am pretty sure that in order to catch you all up, I would have to write a small novel.  Each day that I walk home, I think about all the profound and humorous things I have to say to you, yet when I get home, I am forever consumed by eating, napping, trying to read Italian literature and…. Facebook… and Skype. Therefore, I have now lost many of my insightful and moving ideas but please allow me to at least give a brief rundown of the past week.

Wednesday evening
Alessio’s birthday, therefore we obviously had to go out… The whole gang: approximately 12 Smith girls and our 4-6 Italian friends. Oh man. After spending a bit of time at a little English pub, we headed t Yab, otherwise known as You Are Beautiful. There may possibly be no words to describe this discoteca. It was packed with hundreds of very well dressed people and unlike Twice, the first discoteca we went to, people were not embarrassingly intoxicated or aggressive in their attempts to dance with you (for the most part…). There were neon blue and purple lights everywhere and a pretty divine assortment of music, ranging from Katy Perry to the hottest Italian pop music. We got there around 12.30am (mind you, we had class the next morning at 10.30am) and we left around 3.00am. It was fantastic and the small amount of tiredness that I felt the next morning was eliminated by the fact that we were looking at some really incredible art in art history! The one negative thing I can say about Yab is that while I was waiting in line at the bathroom, one very drunk girl threw up on the back of my legs…. Fortunately it appeared to be straight vodka and therefore I hardly noticed. Oh the joys of alcohol.

Thursday
Let’s see… Fascinating art history class in the morning followed by an afternoon of wandering Florence and shivering as the temperature last week barely reached 55. This may not be as miserable as the weather some of you have been experiencing, but given that the previous week had been in the 80s…. big change! After an amazing dinner with the fam, we (we being the entire gang, of course) went out to our favorite German pub (http://www.braumeister.it/). We weren’t out for long as our lack of sleep from the night before began to catch up. I believe That’s about it? Perhaps I am forgetting something but I don’t think anything overly exciting occurred on Thursday!  

Friday
Ooops! Slept until noon – I never do that! Friday I met Breana, Ali, Victoria and Alessio at the Sede to get some work done. By work what I really mean is that Ali, Breana and I IMed each other the entire afternoon sharing stories and planning the rest of the weekend….. oops! (Aspetta, let’s discuss how Breana just got an internship at the Uffizi working in the library where they are restoring and documenting the old manuscripts from, you know, the RENESSAINCE, that were damaged during the big flood in the 60s…. BRAVA RAGAZZA!) I stayed in Friday night because….

Introducing: The Duomo!

I know you've probably all seen photos of the Duomo but regardless: I was walking this afternoon, heading home after class, and I was once again overwhelmed by the amazingly beautiful ringing bells of the Duomo. Therefore, I took a video so I could share their sound with you. Please ignore the terrible video quality and the shakiness of the camera - I was going much more for the audio and not the visual. That being said..... the Duomo looks awfully stunning when the sun is starting to set.....



Baci e abbracci! A domani!

and she falls in love...

First of all, I am sorry I am being a blogger-slacker...... But perhaps you can infer that my lack of available time has to do with the fact that I finally am living in a house where I have other things to do and other things to enjoy and therefore, I do not need to spend every moment blogging.

Secondly, I will again share how odd Italian hot chocolate is... I've decided it's the difference between hot chocolate and hot cocoa perhaps. When I got home this afternoon (yes, in Italy it is still afternoon at 5:45 in the EVENING), Silvia asked me if I wanted something hot to drink. I said yes and was in the midst of saying that some English Breakfast sounded great when she decided that I should try some "cioccolato caldo." It is just so fascinating and surprising to me that I was handed a cup of hot chocolate pudding….. Fortunately it was a bit lighter than the hot chocolate from last week, but still, I was full for about 2 hours after eating it. I tried to explain to Silvia what we had in the United States that we call hot chocolate and I am fairly positive it sounded somewhat disgusting to her.

Now, once again, I have neglected blogging for long enough that I should probably do a little timeline in order to keep my events straight.

Saturday

I am not sure if I have shared this or not but my host mother is the sister of Victoria and Chrysanthe’s host father. Therefore, my two fratellini are the cousins of their host brother and sister. Saturday afternoon we gathered the troops (Lorenzo and Filippo, their two host siblings, plus 3 of their friends, and the 3 of us made a party of 10) and strolled over the train tracks to the movie theater to see Up which only came out this past week in Italy. Mind you, I saw up in 3-D this summer and it was one of the best movies I have ever seen. Nothing changed seeing it the second time. Although it was not 3-D and it was in Italian, I still cried and I still laughed hysterically. And the fact that we all went together as a big extended family was just about the sweetest thing I have ever done.

After returning from the movies with the two fratellini in tow, I threw on something cute and headed over to Breana’s at which point we met Chrysanthe and Victoria to wander over the Arno for aperitivi with Ali and her lovely English boyfriend. In case I haven’t explained aperitivi, it is a very Italian concept somewhat similar to tapas only about 1.72 million times more fantastic. Many of the fanciest (and not so fancy) bars and restaurants have aperitivi every night, especially on the weekend. As long as you buy one drink, you can eat as much as you want at the buffet. There is always pasta and many types of salads, breads with all kinds of condiments, veggies, and meat of some kind of another so for 7-8 euros, you can sip something nice and snack away for hours. The place we ended up at Saturday night was outside and the food was great!!

After aperitivi, Breana and I headed to The William, an English/Irish pub, with Ali and Keving. This pub tends to have the most random range of music each night, ranging from live American cover bands to Miley Cyrus to heavy metal. Satuday happened to be Disney stars and heavy metal. Something to note is that since Italian students often have class Saturday morning, and there is no drinking age here, all of the young teens are out Saturday night making for quite a sight. Perhaps that’s why we were surrounded by Jonas Brothers music videos all night? Regardless, we had some great cider, and headed home somewhat early in preparation for a great Sunday!

Sunday

This is the point at which I fell in love.

At 6:45am, I woke up, took a speedy shower, threw on some warm clothes and headed to the train station where I met Breana, Julie and our Italian friend Alessio. After purchasing our tickets, we hopped on the train to Perugia where there was a chocolate festival. Yum.

The train ride to Perugia may have been my favorite part of Italy thus far. I don’t particularly like Florence – it is loud and dirty and full of tourists and beggars and dog poo. All of the little towns outside of Florence on the way to Perugia were gorgeous, each one a small cluster of buildings surrounding a piazza and a church on a hillside. My favorites by far were the small towns all around the edge of Lake Trasimeno. Alessio could tell that I was awestruck and in love because in very sweet English he said, “It appears to me that perhaps this is some place that you would like to someday live maybe?” Yes, Alessio. Yes.

When we arrived in Perugia, I fell even more in love. The chocolate festival was lovely, but it was overcrowded (and by overcrowded I mean that you literally could not pass through the crowd and as Alessio said, “How do you say this? We are like sardines all in one place tight together?”). Disregarding this chaos, Perugia is stunning. It sits up on a hill, overlooking copious churches and small towns scattered across the hills. To reach the center of the city, you must take a bus (or walk up steep streets) until you come to an semi-outdoor escalator. This escalator turns into two and then three escalators, gradually bringing you more and more underground within the hill. When you step off the final escalator, you set foot in the lower part of the old city of Perugia, which now lays underground. Today this underground city is a series of galleries used for events such as the chocolate festival, but it remains breathtakingly beautiful because it remains just as it was so many hundreds of years ago.

As I stood overlooking the hills surrounding Perugia almost teary, I was overcome with first goose bumps and then the overwhelming sense that I needed to spend more time here in the future. When I looked up, there was a patch of sunlight beaming down in vertical rays, spreading its warmth over this incredible old church off in the distance. Thank you, rosary.   

As usual, there are more pictures on Facebook!

When I arrived home Sunday later afternoon, I was greeted warmly by my lovely family. When it seemed to be time for dinner, I left my room, only to join a caravan of people already heading down the stairs. Silvia looked overjoyed when she looked up to see first Lorenzo, then Filippo, then Enrico and then me trooping down the stairs to enjoy dinner together. Throughout dinner, Lorenzo chatted about various different things and I believe that Filippo might have even said something directly to me…. Perhaps? Silvia, yet again, teased them for becoming so shy around. I swear its soon to change, I can feel it!

I might add that we had INCREDIBLE meatballs for dinner, followed by boiled potatoes and steamed green beans – both of which were very welcome because I am forever craving vegetables. The twins were very resistant to eating the “schiffo” potatoes but then Lorenzo had the great idea of smooshing his into mashed potatoes and added not just oil, salt and pepper, but also mayonnaise. You should all know that Italians LOVE mayo. They put globs of it on sandwiches, they add it to various salads, plop it on veggies – they use it as a dip and condiment for nearly everything. As Lorenzo dolloped his mayonnaise onto his potatoes, Filippo freaked out because he actually thought it was vile, but Silvia was just happy that her son was eating potatoes so she remained silent. Let me tell you, it did not look appetizing! Too each his own!

After dinner I presented them with chocolate that I bought as a thank-you gift. Little did I know that Lorenzo and Filippo adore milk chocolate with hazelnuts – and how could you not? It’s amazing! In a fit of excitement, Lorenzo remembered that he had a book with all of the musical instruments in it and he showed it to us. When Silvia asked what I played and I said viola, Lore eagerly flipped to the viola page and patiently explained the difference between all the stringed instruments. Thanks little bro!

Today

Mondays are long…. And today was no exception. I am in class from 9.30 until 5.30 with an awkward 3 hour break in the middle of the day. Fortunately, Breana and I decided to walk to the market at Sant’Ambrogio where we bought fruit, veggies, bread, cheese, meat, milk and snacks for the week. Shopping in markets is definitely the way to go around here because everything is so fresh (although fruit season is passing…. and veggies are starting to lack their incredible summery taste, but still…. very tasty!) and it is all so reasonably priced!

Anyway, when I arrived home, Filippo was home alone and greeted me cheerily, letting me know that la mamma was grocery shopping and Lore was at his music lesson (French horn, so cute).

Unfortunately, when I got upstairs and checked my email I learned that Laura Mann, the founder of the non-profit I worked at this summer, passed away this morning after fighting cancer for over 5 years. Laura was an incredible woman – powerful, brilliant, inspiring and beautiful. I know that she touched everyone who she met and changed their lives in some way or another. So Laura, good luck on this journey and we will all see you in the future!

It couldn’t have been more comforting to be able to go downstairs to my family and hear the boys teasing each other and watching the Disney channel (they LOVE “The Life of Patty”), while hearing Silvia and Enrico chat in the kitchen as they cooked and set the table. Sitting at dinner and absorbing all of the Italian language around me, savoring my spaghetti with tomatoes and pancetta, soaking up my balsamic vinegar with salt-less Tuscan bread and toasting with my host parents after dinner was an incredible feeling and it is not anything I ever felt at Luciana’s.

Mothers are always right: Everything happens for a reason. Always. And here ends my tale of falling back in love with Italian..... 

Baci e abbracci!

A domani!