Un po' di panettone non fa niente male...

...invece fa bene!

Oggi abbiamo mangiato la bistecca fiorentina! It's really raw and delicious. Dallas and I came home this morning. We left Prague yesterday at 1pm, then took a night train from Vienna to Firenze (7:30pm to 7am.) Instead of buying beds, which we did for the trip out, we bought chairs. Much better choice. The beds are like coffins-- 6 in one compartment-- and I did not sleep at all on the way to Vienna. Last night though we slept well enough, because the chairs slide out flat and our compartment had only two other people in it. At 11pm we turned off the light and the guy in the cabin said, "Facciamo un letto matrimoniale." So we slid all the chairs down and slept.

Then we came home and walked up the hill. We had to wake up Babbo to get into the house because the outside gate was locked... so he made us both big cappuccini and we ate breakast together (panettone di tre marie con marmellata e yogurt!) Later on this morning we went to an Italian supermarket, Babbo's favorite. He told us several times that Americans invented supermarkets... but I love Italian supermarkets more. They have some sweet inventions-- for one, you put in a 1 euro deposit to take your cart and get it back when you bring the cart back to its place... this way people don't leave their carts all over the parking lot. The other invention is a little wand that you use to scan all of your groceries as you put them in your cart. When you get to the check out, you hand it to the cashier, she reads the price and you pay-- senza attesa! Not to mention the buona roba che hanno dentro il supermercato.... caspita`!



When we got home, it was already lunch time so I set the table (apparecchiare) and Babbo showed us how to make the bistecca alla fiorentina. We made a salad and sliced the bread we bought.

Volevo raccontare le pezzette di saggezza che ci ha raccontato il Babbo:
- he doesn't understand vegetarians (they're half human.) oh, i have to agree after 4 months in italy!
- voipcheap is the way to go for overseas calling. wish i had understood when he told me that 4 months ago.
- secondo babbo a me piace mangiare cosi` tanto che basta mangiare e sono contenta. e` vero! diceva che e` una bella cosa... d'accordo. lo scrivo in italiano perche' va bene dice mi piace mangiare, ma in inglese c'e` qualche vergogna sul mangiare. beh io non l'avro` mai piu`.

For dessert we had torrone and panforte. Both are italian desserts eaten only in winter. Panforte is made out of figs and almonds and canditi... it's from Siena. Torrone is made from hazelnuts and fluffy stuff and yumminess...

This lunch also included 3 different wines: 1) aperitivo white wine, homemade from a former Bandini studentessa who married a Roman. 2) special red wine. every night we drink vino nobile montepulciano from this season... this bottle was from 2004. 3) dessert wine... veramente incredibile. from a small island south of sicilia where all of the clandestini land.

later i will upload photos!

L'ultimo post di 2008

Volevo dire:
Buon anno!!!
Sono grata per la mia 2008...
e auguro a tutti un anno favoloso e misterioso in 2009.

abracci!
beth

Livelli di bonta`

Come si descrive il cibo:

Eccellente
Ottimo
Buonissimo
Molto buono
Discreto
Buono
Sufficiente
Mangiabile (Bevibile)
Immangiabile
Velenoso

Menu del Pranzo di Natale:
Salmone, ostriche crude, mushroom pastries with cheese melted on top
Zuppa: ravioli (stelle) in brodo di cappone
Lesso (Cappone)
Gherkins, Funghi, Olivi, Carciofi
Insalata
Tacchino arrosto con dentro i carciofi
DOLCI: frutta secca (mandorle, noci, nocciole), Pandoro, cioccolatini, e la frutta
Fichi con burro e noci
pisolino...

ora si riposa, e si sdraia nella terra, e si digiuna!

Buon natale! Tanti auguri!

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!

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.