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)

This is me on the Ponte Vecchio when my parents visited.

It's December! Florence is filled with lights and Christmas trees. In the Piazza Santa Croce there is a German Christmas Market and I've already been there three times, scoping it out! They have strudel, crepes, candy, cookies, german sausage type things, and of course holiday trinkets and gifts. Everything is overpriced and most of it is delicious...

Today is Sunday, which means that we are going to eat il pranza familiare, just like every other Italian family! This morning in the kitchen I saw what we will eat: roasted pheasant with potatoes and rosemary; saltimbocca (skewers of turkey and sage); and schiacciata alla fiorentina, a flat cake with panna (whipped cream...yum...) I really like this tradition. Sunday is a day of rest and it is fun to spend it with family... even if I'm not spending it with my family!

Last night we went to a new aperitivi place: Plasma, in Piazza Ferrucci. It's in Oltrarno, really close to Ponte San Niccolo. We took the scenic route, as we often do, or at least as we often do when Emily isn't around to guide us... First we got on the D Bus which was going to take us all the way there. But after ten minutes or so, we felt a sfizio di camminare (we wanted to walk.) So we got out. But the bus had actually brought us further from Piazza Ferrucci. So we ended up walking about thirty minutes or so, I don't really keep track anymore. I asked inside a gelateria and got the face "Piazza Ferrucci?" The face that means I'm really far away.

Anyway, we arrived. Pleasant atmosphere, great food, and an amazing drink called "Cinnamon": chocolate, cream, coffee, and cinnamon. I hope to go back.

Now lunch is over and I'm trying to write my film paper on I Vitelloni. Not my favorite film but I'll try to find something to say about it (eight pages worth.) I can see the sunset from my bedroom window. It's really pretty but it's so early!!

And tomorrow is... FESTA!!! It is the last week of classes and tomorrow we have no classes. Really it's great because I have work to do... and now I can take my time.

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.