Il giorno di Ringraziamento

Happy Thanksgiving! I haven't written in my blog in so long. We enjoyed an enormous Thanksgiving feast at Casa Bandini: my parents, my host parents, Dallas, and me. Shrimp in avocado bowls, frittata with ham, pasta allo scoglio (with fish; lo scoglio is the rock that the sea hits against, apparently), turkey, green beans, and finally a buonissimo panettone riempito da cioccolata. E poi i cioccolatini! Era benone. I played the translator as best I could... fun.

Today my parents and I visited il Giardino dei Boboli and the Galleria dei Costumi al Palazzo Pitti. The garden is huge and beautiful and filled with stray cats. The costume museum was interesting. I tried to read the information in English and in Italian so that I could learn some new vocab. I could have just read it in Italian but I end up skimming over the parts that I don't understand instead of observing them and learning.

Basta. I've been in Italy for almost three months! Wow I can't get enough of Italy. And Florence.

Cioccolata!

The chocolate festival was really crowded. There were hundreds of bancherelle like the one above left, from different producers of all different kinds of chocolate: from funky shapes and novelties, to super-organic cruelty-free; from big names like Lindt, KitKat, and Toblerone, to makers I'd never heard of before. There was chocolate pasta (to be cooked with cream and almonds), chocolate liquor, nuts and berries covered in chocolate, extremely rich hot chocolate, and every flavor, size, and style of chocolate bar imaginable. I wish I had taken more photos but I was too busy eating and fighting my way to the free samples.

Above: Ciao Antella! On my morning walk to the bus.
Below: a special cappuccino in Arezzo.

più parole

ancheggiare: shake your hips
scutolare: shake your mele
amicissimi: very good friends

Parole del giorno

Figliola, figliolo... daughter, son
bagascia...someone making a fool of herself
vischiata...spoiled
dispreggiativo...insulting
le mele: butt cheeks (literally apples): Alza le mele!: get up!

There are so many patterns of speech in Italian that just can't be expressed in English. As Rosa told us during orientation, the culture and the language are tied together and you can't separate them. And even though it is much easier for me to express myself in English, I'm starting to think in the patterns of Italian. For example the word invece. Literally it means instead, but its uses don't correllate with the uses of instead in English. Conversationally, you use invece to distinguish yourself, usually from whom you're speaking to.
Io mangio colazione alle otto
Io invece non mangio mai prima le dieci.
You can't do that in English that I know of. Not as elegantly, at least.