Sunday night-Thursday. Leggo.
Sunday night!!! Shannon, Diane, and I watched a Lifetime movie called "Speak" on YouTube. We ate M&M's and peanut butter and granola and rice cakes and cereal bars. Shannon cried. Good roomie bonding time. Christin came home late. We missed her so much!!! Reunited and it feels so good.
LUNEDI!!! In paring food and wine, we made lasagne from scratch. WOWZA. It was like heaven had a party in my mouth. The sauce we used was very light. It seems that we tend to go over board on dressings and sauces in the US. I like how it's a bit lighter here. We also made the chicken fried steak of Italy. Well yeah, it's delicious. The best food that I eat here is all in this class. I get to take home all of the recipes, and I can't wait to cook it all when I get back!!! I need a sauce pan. There is this stuff called "prosciutto" here. It's ham that has been aged with junk on it. I like it every other day. But holy cow Batman, it was good on this nonsense of a chicken fried steak thing. After class, I headed to my history class. We hung out in the Piazza della Signoria. He explained all of the statues and the meanings behind them. Fun fact: all of the statues in front of the palace (where the government met... meets?) are all looking to the left toward Sienna (their biggest enemy at the time) as if to anticipate their arrival if they were to attack. Interesting. After class, I rushed back to the apartment to get ready for our boat ride! We took a boat ride along the Arno River. The rower dudes were so nice, and we learned so much... in between talking about the weirdest, most random things. These girls are great. The sunset on the river through the Ponte Vecchio... wow. Bring your sig other here, friends. Ten points for Gryffindor. After the boat ride, we decided to go find a restaurant that my Italian TA (THANK YOU ARIEL! BEST TIP EVER!) recommended. She sent me and Christin a list of all of these cool places to go to, and we are slowly making out way through it. The restaurant is called Dante's Pizzeria. Well, we have become regulars. They give students free wine, and when you sit down, they bring you this bread pizza thing. That's right, folks. The wine is, indeed, cheaper than the water. At this place anyway... we had so much fun! The food was great and reasonably priced, especially because we didn't have to pay for beverages. We stayed there until 12:30 or so... I'm pretty sure they close before that, but they let us hang out. The staff there loves us. I love that restaurants here never rush you out. In America, they are so focused on turning tables. Italians really want you to sit and talk and enjoy your meal. I will definitely miss that. After dinner, we headed back to the apartment. We stumbled upon a little gelato place that was filled with locals. I met some lovely Greek boys who were trying to speak to me in Italian with a Greek accent... Complicated. Then I spilled dark chocolate gelato on my new scarf. I mean. YOFO. Chocolate wasted, I guess. OH! On the way to Dante's, we found a cafe called Caffe le Torri. WHATUUUP. Italian swag right there. After our gelato, we headed back to the apartment to get some sleep.
Lasagne! (not lasagna... it is plural)
Piazza della Signoria
Ponte Vecchio at sunset!
WHOA!
Late night gelato!
MARTEDI!!! Since we weren't going to cook in food and wine class that day, we decided to go eat lunch before class. We usually go to this little cafe near our apartment, but it was packed. So we wandered down the road and found a little pizzeria and got some yummy pizza for 2 Euro. Good deal. During pairing food and wine, we walked to a wine/candy shop. We went into their basement wine cellar and talked about wine and had a wine tasting! I think I drink wine every day here. They don't drink to get drunk. It's a cultural thing. I love that. It's going to be weird not being able to have a glass of wine with my meal when I get back to the states. Come on, homedogs. Anyway, we tasted some wine and had some delicious bruschetta. Then our teacher took us to Grom - an old, famous gelatteria. WOW. So good. I had creme something something Italian something and the flavor of the month. Definitely going back there soon! In my history class, we toured the Santa Croce Church. This is the church where Michelanglo, Galelio, and all those homeboys are buried. It's so crazy to see their tombs. The church was gorgeous. I was scribbling notes as fast as I could because we had a quiz over it the next day. Aced it. ;) PS. In November of 1966, the Arno River flooded and the city was 13 feet under water. CRAZY. They have water markers in many places. After class, I went home to get ready to go to the opera!!! I felt fancy. The first part of the opera was 30 minutes... it was a ballet type thing... no one sang... opera? I thought some of the choreography was awesome, but we didn't really get the story line... It was a little strange, but what modern dance isn't? Loved it. Then there was an hour long intermission. Yes. So we decided to go get a quick bite to eat or maybe a glass of wine. Well, we ended up at Dante's and decided to stay there. Our waiter loved us. He wanted us to Facebook him... so he gave us his phone... so I changed his Facebook status... :) We then inhaled some cheesecake before heading back to the apartment for some sleepy time.
Wine tasting in the wine cellar!
Christin being adorable.
Om nom nom.
Yummy gelato at Grom!
Opera night!
Opera!
MERCOLEDI!!! In pairing food and wine on Wednesday, I was a boss. My group made fried calamari. I cleaned and prepared the squid... This involved twisting the head off and pulling it apart to get the stomach out. Then you cut the head off. Then you cut the eyes out (which squirt ink everywhere). Then you squeeze the little tooth out of its head. Then you peel the skin off of the other big part. Then you cut it into rings. I got pretty good at it, but I smelled like squid all day... For dessert, we had a strawberry tart WITH MY FAVORITE WINE. It is the same wine from the first day of class. This is literally the best wine I have ever had. It is called Rosa Regale Brachetto d'Acqui. It is a red, sparkling wine. Seriously, go try it. Drink it with a dessert with berries. You'll fall in love. A A A WHOOP. In history, I dominated a quiz. We then reviewed for the midterm and walked around. Our professor showed us where the Jersey Shore cast lived. WHOA. Last night, we crammed for midterms. I was not very happy because I had two midterms today and my professors told us what we had to know yesterday. I didn't have a lot of time to study, and I usually start studying for tests at least one week before. So I was stressed. Yay. I went to bed really late.
Squidward!
Om nom nom.
Delicious noms.
My favorite wine!
GIOVEDI!!! Today. I did well on my midterms! I think. :) I'm so happy they are over. In food and wine, our professor cooked for us while we took the test. When we finished we ate two types of delicious pasta and two desserts. I mean, I could definitely get used to this. It was like he was apologizing for making us take a test. We got out of class early. Because we had some time, I wanted to get one of these super cool Italian coffee makers (because I'm a coffee drinker now). Well, because of apperativo, the shop was closed. :( I then went back to the apartment with Christin to study more for my test. Theeeeen I took my midterm! I think I did really well! YAY! I finished really quickly sooo I got out one hour and 45 minutes early!!! So I got to walk around the markets and go get my coffee maker! I was really happy... I made friends with some of the stand owners. One of the guys helped me with my Italian and gave me a free bracelet! Another lady gave me a really good deal on three scarves. The guy thought I was from California. He said, "Well... you're definitely not from Texas..." haha. He thought I was from California because of my peace sign ring. People think I'm funny apparently... someone goes "You're really funny," then gave me a really good deal. Cool story bro. I'M HILARIOUS AND CHARMING. So that was fun.
Happy midterms!
Tonight, we will probably go out to dinner and call it an early night. We have an early morning tomorrow because we will be heading to Venice and Verona for the weekend! I'm excited. :)
Ciao!!!
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