Day 26- Bigne di San Giuseppe

I must say I feel like quite the writer, sitting here in my little room, overlooking the river and the little specks of gold reflecting off the basilica. This laptop should be a typewriter though.

Anyway...There have been some new developments in my knowledge of the Italian language:

Verb to be

• Io sono
• tu sei
• lei/lui è
• noi siamo
• voi siete
• loro sono

Okay so I barely wrote any of that without looking at my notes. But at least I have notes. And all 8 of the people in my class know just as much as I do, so that makes it a little less painful. So I have to log in 40 hours at the computer lab and I have class once a week with a teacher to help with any issues we might have. Allora sono pronta! I'll be fluent in no time.

Going back a few days, I forgot to mention the most beautiful thing I have eaten since I've been here. Actually I don't know if I can say that, I don't want to offend the pizza I had. Or  the cannolis. Ugh..too good. But this little piece of heaven was a gift from Valerio, as goes the tradition on the day of Festa di San Giuseppe (Italian Father's Day).  And thus it's name: Bigne di San Giuseppe, also known as zeppoli. A wonderful fried dough puff, that is unbelievable light and airy, filled with a vanilla cream custard. In other words a miracle. I looked up a recipe just to make sure someday if I need to have one I can make it.  Just in case.

Last night I got lost again. After our Italian class we went back to Coni and her roommate Pilar's house with our newest addition, Francisco from Portugal, who we picked up in class-looking just as confused as us. We made dinner and had numerous bottles of wine. And after a lot of intense conversation, that ranged from earthquakes and Charlie's Angels to religious views, Francisco and I had the journey home ahead of us, which is no small feat thanks to Rome's oh so efficient nightly transportation system. It took us 2 hours. A lot of wandering and 3 buses later we were both able to finally get back and sleep. We decided that next time we would buy more wine and just not leave. Wait out the Metro until it opens in the morning. Much better plan.

Besides that I've been reading for my English Lit. class...which so far has gone well. The books in the program have been a pleasant surprise, not nearly as dull as I thought they would be. Although not by any means anything I would choose off a bookshelf on my own, they have been surprisingly good reads...interesting styles of writing. They are after all considered classics I'm sure. So far Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway and Graham Greene's The End of the Affair. So...I'm not getting less smart.

But before more reading I'm going to go make dinner. There's some prosciutto and chicken and pesto in the fridge...so I think I'll try and be creative today.

And Friday's almost here...

Day 18

Well, finally more classes.  Ironically, I'll be studying English and Spanish lit here in Italy.  But i'm looking into Italian cinema and modern architecture, which both sound quiteee intruiguing. So going to class has kept me more busy, although today classes were cancelled because of a subway protest or something that immobilized public transformation for the day. Not too much of a let down really, I slept.

I took my Italian test...and it went as well as I thought it would. So Level 1. Back to basics. Although that would imply having been more advanced at some point, which I haven't been at, so it's more like...starting at the basics. Buongiorno.

I did make some new friends though..I went out with another Chilean girl that's here, Coni and we had our first night out.  We met a few Romans (one of which is a chef...thank you) who took us to "Testaccio", which for a Monday night was not bad at all. So we danced and had a few unpronounceable shots, and were home in time to sleep a few hours before class this morning.

And now, after a beautiful parmesan taglierini dish and half a bottle of wine, we're off again, hopefully to meet more people and discover new places. And no class tomorrow. So much better.

This Sunday is the marathon, I know I should probably make my mom proud and run part of it, buttt, let's just say it's too late and I'll be watching from my window. Valerio says they run right on our street, so watching it while having lunch seems like a perfect plan.

And this weekend, Pisa. NOT missing our train again. We're thinking Naples for next weekend. So more stories to come.......