This hasn't been the best week in our kitchen. On Monday, Renee placed the sieve on the hot stove and now it's melted. On Tuesday, I caught one of dishclothes on fire. I don't know if anything happened on Wednesday, but yesterday both Gina and I burned ourselves. Tonight has been harmless... but only she has cooked so far. Emily won't be cooking at all - she's gone to apertivo.
The Mafia is not just on TV and in the Godfather. It's real here. They killed a black youth a couple months ago up here in the north. And yesterday, an Italian told me that they ARE the government in the South. So I hope there's no Mafia in my neighborhood. I don't think so? Because today someone added anarchy signs and wrote something about Bologna. I don't know.
Last night I made a successful risotto. Tonight I'm going to make a chicken fettucine alfredo with asparagus. I just haven't wanted to cook yet. I've been nonstop GO GO GO all day.
Yesterday we met our psych teacher's Italian fiance. He told us all kinds of things and answered our questions. It was really interesting. He told us about the Mafia thing, and he said that the North pays 80% of Italy's taxes, while the South pays only 20% and that is because of the Mafia. P.S. The South is anything under Tuscany.
Today has been long. I was up until almost three in the morning finishing The Time Traveler's Wife and I woke up at 10 30. Emily's Italian class was joining mine because we went to the Palazzo Davanzatti today (which, P.S., I went to yesterday with my Ren Art class.) It was pretty cool. It's a big medieval tower palace.
But on the way back to CAPA she drove me NUTS! She went off to get lunch and I met Pati at CAPA to go to the San Ambrosio market.
It's a half indoor, half outdoor market, and their veggies are cheap and fresh. I bought a big beautiful garlic there today, because my supermarket ones are tiny and puny. We bought all kinds of things for this dinner Pati was going to make tonight. Then I went to Il Centro and bought lunch (3 euro and I paid with CARD! That's so exciting and different here!) But then I walked the 20 minute walk home to put the groceries away, the bus was 5 minutes early so I walked the 20 minutes to school, forgot that CAPA closes at 3 30 on Fridays, got kicked out, and STILL hadn't eaten my sandwich. Which I just remembered I still have half of, and it is sitting on my bed. Dang it.
I got manzo today, which is this weird kind of red beef I've never tried before. It wasn't bad. I don't know if it was good either.
So Gina, Emily, Kevin and I head towards Ponte Vecchio, because it's covered in jewelry stores and they're looking for charms. Kevin leaves us, Pati meets us, Emily is driving me crazy, and we find an American bakery. It's super far away, but cheap and good and I think I might start going there to study. They have bagels, which is ASTOUNDING.
On the way back, we stopped in a shoe store with rain boots. I've been thinking, maybe I wouldn't get sick so often if I had dry feet and jeans. So I tried on like ten pairs, because giant dancer calves aren't condusive to rain boots, but I finally find like ankle rain boots. So my three year search for rain boots is at an end, and when I go back to the monsoon season at OU, I won't have constantly wet feet there either.
I came home, went to Coop, missed my turn, walked FOREVER, and finally got here. You can't imagine how much walking I have done today. I'm just so tired. This is my first time to rest.
Oh, and Pati isn't making the dinner she was going to make anymore. There's a bus strike in town tonight, and she lives really far away, so she went home before they stopped running.
Gina, Pati, and I might be going to a town called Volterra tomorrow. It's supposedly really beautiful, and get this, is Edward Cullen's favorite place in the world. Yeah, that means nothing to me either.
Cheri and her family are also coming tomorrow. I may not go to Volterra if Cheri flys directly into Florence, because it's now a toss up as to where they're going to land.
Honestly. Italian transportation. UGH!
A useful thing to know about our buses: You will NEVER know if they are late or if they are early. There will be one 14 bus scheduled to arrive at like... 11:47 AM and the second 14 bus is supposed to arrive at 11:54. Now, because of these closely timed schedules, you'll just never know. Unless of course, the 14 B and the 14 C drive up right after each other. Or if both of them come 5 minutes early and you sadly watch them drive away as you exit your apartment building.
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