La vita va avanti

Ciao! Today is Santa Lucia's feast day. Dallas told me this because she woke up earlier than me and found out from Babbo. In fact, the three of us had a contest to see who could sleep the latest, and I won. This is not unusual. I have come to be known as la bella addormentata (sleeping beauty) because the Bandini marvel at how late I can sleep. In any case, the unusual thing is that Babbo flat-out lost the contest and somehow woke up at 8.15. Accidenti. Obviously, Chi dorme non piglia i' pesce. Translation: Early bird gets the worm / He who sleeps will not get the fish.

Yesterday was a relatively packed day. I met my conversation partner in the morning, then Dallas and I accompanied her conversation partner and his friend to Trattoria di Mario to eat bistecca alla fiorentina! This is the famous Florentine steak, taken from a special kind of cow raised in Tuscany. It is served very rare (al sangue.) As Sra. Bandini says, you can see the blood on your plate. It is very expensive and extremely delicious, as I now know.

Dallas's conversation partner is also our yoga teacher and he is legitimately one of the nicest people I've ever met. We talked a bit about the stereotypical American abroad with him. Sadly, the Americans that one sees here in Florence do not flatter America. We came to the agreement that most people behave differently outside of their county than in it. And Americans outside of their country, at least here, seem to cling to each other in groups, shout in English, and generally misbehave.

Back to Trattoria di Mario: It's near San Lorenzo and I definitely want to go back. The atmosphere is familiare, which means that the staff call you by name, give you attitude if you ask for the steak well-done, there's only one menu posted on the wall, you can watch the chefs (probably all brothers and cousins) as they prepare your food, and you sit where you find a spot, potentially with people you don't know.

Friday afternoon included our final class of Art History, a visit to the Accademia. I was definitely impressed by the David. Wow. Great art just takes you prisoner for a while.

And then we had the end-of-semester party at a really fancy hotel with not-so-fancy food. It was quite fun though.

Well, I'd like to write more but other tasks are calling out to me. I just... really love study abroad. I'm not sure how I'll ever go back to Midd but I won't think about it until I do. It doesn't matter where I am, just that I am. More than anything I am just grateful for the experience that I've had here, everyone I have met, everything I have learned, and everything I have EATEN, of course!!

--Buon natale to everyone, Happy new year and lots of fun! (Italian tv ad)
--Let's Christmas! (Italian store ad)