Non ci posso credere... oggi e` l'ultimo giorno del semestre! Aaaayuh. Wow.
First, new words I learned today!
Caspari, perbacco: expression of positive surprise (thanks babbo) I think Caspari isn't right... I'll have to check on that.
Ciak!: equivalent to the english bam! boom! all of a sudden! basically a sound effect used for emphasis.
I love learning new words, and over the course of this semester I've noticed that my head seems to have a new-word capacity defined per day. That is, if you tell me too many new words at a time or in one day, I forget all of them. But if you tell me one or two a day, I'll remember them and be able to use them. You learn languages little by little, I think! This is what all of the Italians said to me at the beginning of the semester... piano piano! Non ti preoccupare! Also, now I am learning Arabic (3 words so far) from my host family's son-in-law's brother who just immigrated from Egypt. I can remember one word per day, or two. But the other day he told me a bunch, and now I couldn't sound out one from the other. Of course that could be because he was telling me most of the words as I sat in a zucotto-induced stupor. What is zuccotto? It is incredible. It is mind-blowing. It is a dessert (comparable to tiramisu, but made with panna--whipped cream-- instead of mascarpone.) It has liquor, coffee, whipped cream, and cake.

Back to the point. The semester is over!!! I still have one exam to take tomorrow, Art History. But all of my classes are over. Today I went to my last class, History of Contemporary Italian Cinema. That was a good class. At the beginning I was so lost because I didn't know any of the Italian film terms, nor could I understand the professor, nor could I understand the films we watched in class (no subtitles, not even in Italian, and characters speaking in dialect...) But by the end of the six weeks I was really following her, following the films, and interested. And sad to see it end.

As I'm sad to see this semester end. Thankfully I will stay in Italy until Jan 31. And I will make the most of the next six weeks...

What else is new in my life? Today I bought a pair of boots... oh I really like them. I have an indecisiveness problem, and Italian shopkeepers are really helping me to get over it. In the boot store this very nice man asked me why I didn't want to buy the boots I was trying on. "Is it the price?" "Yeah... but also I'm just indecisive," I replied. Well, he started talking about seizing the moment, taking life's pleasures, and when he got to the attimo fuggente (fleeing moment), I was hooked. Then he knocked the price down because of my smile!!

Tomorrow is the start of a five day adventure. Day one in Florence, finishing things up at school, lunch at Trattoria di Mario to share it with Hilary and Emily, yoga, dinner with Francesco and Natale, then hopefully sharing Plasma with Emily who has never been there. Friday is the day of partenza per Parigi, cioe` we're leaving for 3 days in paris!! And Tuessday, dec. 23, we'll come home. Then it will be almost christmas. I love Christmas. Florence's streets are decorated with white and yellow lights, and there are even Christmas trees up outside in the piazze. These things thrill me because I think there is less of a Christmas-y sense in the air, and seeing anything Christmas-y just makes me happy. Yesterday Dallas and I made cookies with Joann, our family's daughter-in-law from New York, and with her kids! That made me feel the Christmas spirit. Being in a home, baking, and listening to Christmas carols (and singing them...)

Merry Christmas!