mary borrmann, pasta making and my disabled bici

this week has been eventful and uneventful at the same time. 

it started off with paris tickets, but that's been written about already. on tuesday emma's mom arrived in ferrara. so i got to meet mary borrmann and her friend diane! emma and i gave them a tour of ferrara from centro all the way past the diamond palace and to the renaissance park and back. we even stopped by the library which is really awesome and toasty and warm and i think that if they have wireless i might start spending some serious time there. we went to maricaibo for apertivo, fragolitas for emma and i, chianti for mary and diane, and a spritz for adrienne and a RIDICULOUS apertivo spread... mini pizza, potatoes, bread, pasta salad. for serious maricaibo knows how to do it up. then we went to the woodpecker for dinner. i had penne al'arribiata and everyone else had cappellacci con zucca. then we walked mary and co. back to the carlton and emma and i rode our bikes back to darsena. wednesday we had an art history tour at the Cosme Tura exhibit. it was an excruciating 2.5 hours. i spent a lot of time doodling and emma made a fortune teller. we went out for pizza that night with her mom and diane and kelsey came along. it was delish. oh pizza. oh mary borrmann. i got a nice mom hug goodbye. thanks mb. yesterday after class was the pasta making workshop! we learned how to make basic linguini. it was very fun and a little messy. and then we had apertivo and a lovely 4 course dinner concluding in the most delicious chocolatey brownie-like cake ever. here are some pics of us pasta making.

alex missed the part about not letting the egg leave the flour circle.
here i am kneading.

and rolling

here are our floury hands.
allen and eric are pasta making masters.
kels and i aren't too bad either...

also yesterday my bike tire exploded. emma and i were riding our bikes with katie from italian class to art history and she said that our back tires looked a little low so we went to the shop to get them filled up. the bike shop guy filled our tires, no problem but when he was filling mine he looked at it and said "ah, rota" (broken in italian) and i said, "molto vecchia" (very old in italian) and he said "no, non e vecchia, e rota" and then he made a poof motion with his hand explaining that he thought my tire was going to pop. i brushed it off as nothing because seriously, i've been riding this bike for almost two months and it's been fine, why all of the sudden would the tire pop. we thank him for the air and ride away, around the corner to ciee. as i ride up the curb to the ciee building--- *pop* there goes my tire. literally, not even 3 minutes after the bike guy said it would. i was mystified. sooo, i rode emma's bike back and today i brought my bike to the shop and he remembered me and laughed and said my bike will be fixed on monday, 19 euro for a new tire and the labor, not so bad i guess. way better than having to buy a new bike. other things that happened today--- kels and i went to la mensa for lunch. when i was pouring my usual little cup of pepper olive oil the top of the container fell off and the oil filled my cup. embarrassing, yes. then i went to get a fork and like 4 fell out of the fork holder. then when i went to walk away my lanyard from my keys hooked to the drawer on the table and i got stuck and the drawer was pulled out. it was very eventful. also, we got 1 euro gloves, very necessary. also today i talked to mom for a while online. she told me about the fires in california. i knew there were fires but i had no idea of the details. i guess i should start reading the times more often. living here is kind of like living in a bubble. anyway, i miss my mom. she's a really good mom. i received an incredible package from her on tuesday. it made my life. here's a pic of me with some of the most exciting parts of it, even though the entire package was exciting and wonderful and amazing! thanks mom!

in other news... i got to talk to my dear friend christopher balin the other day. he imed me from india where is is currently living. he's been city hopping all semester. it's so cool. i miss that boy a lot. he'll be back when i get back, but he leaves to spend next semester in india in early february. oh christopher balin, you better live in the city again this summer. 

in even more news. tomorrow i'm going to venice with dave and alex. it should be a real adventure. i don' t think any of us have venice guide books or maps or anything. we might have to acquire one when we arrive there. we're going to do st. marks square and some glass hunting and we'll probably also spend a good amount of time wandering and getting lost. i heard that's the best way to see venice. well, pictures to follow. 

<3

oh, p.s.- i really miss this boy.

oh ya, and this one too.

i'm paris bound.

I don't really believe it, but it is true. Emma, Kelsey and I scored tickets to Paris for All Saints weekend!!!!!

We'll have to skip class next wednesday but we've got an overnight train, bologna to paris. I honestly don't think any of us were really coherent while we were buying the tickets, because we weren't really expecting there to be tickets available after the past 2 days of trying to buy them, we had pretty much all given up on getting to paris. BUT WE DID IT! We are going to arrive in Paris early, next Wednesday morning and we have an overnight train back on the following Saturday. We'll be back in Ferrara by Sunday morning and have the entire day to veggggg before we have to return to class on Monday. YAY. I'm so excited. 4 days in Paris. 

In addition to this WONDERFUL fall break in Paris, I'm going to visit Oxford after Thanksgiving. I am SO excited about Oxford. There are only about two hands worth of people at SLC who I can call really good friends and three of them are at Oxford for the year. Spending a weekend there with them will be more than worth the price of my travel. PLUS I'll get to see London! At first I was feeling like these trips were going to make the 53 I have left here go even slower, but now that i have some good markers, I think the time is going to fly by. I hope I still have time for Rome! 

In other news, it's getting cold in Italy. FINALLY. The only problem is that I can't find the gloves I thought I packed and my hands are getting destroyed by the cold and the dryness of the air while riding my bike. Perhaps I'll go to the market early on friday and find some. 

Scott sent me a program called visual thesaurus, it's very fun to play with. Speaking of Scott--Hi, I miss you.

things i miss.

i don't have any of these things in italy. boy oh boy do i miss them. i also miss new york city, poptarts, chef boy-r-dee, eggo waffles, peanut butter and jelly on oatbran bread, chinese food, being able to shop at lunch time, ketchup not costing a billion dollars, my fuzzy boots, eastern standard time, having an oven, having camera phone, my hair straightener and wireless internet. but i miss the things below more.

54 days left in italy.

Today marks the official halfway point of my time in italy. Scott called today the pinnacle, because it's the mid point of us being apart, and we've made it this far, so now it can only get better. 

I wrote those sentences yesterday. Today was actually the first day after the halfway point. I slept till three. This weekend was so uneventful that I don't even feel like it is worth blogging about. I had dinner with Kelsey last night, that was an event, and then we went to the grocery store... oh my exciting italian existence. What I should really do is go back through all of my journal entries and back-date blog, that is what I should do. I will do that eventually. Perhaps tomorrow after my Italian Culture and Civilization midterm. Yes SLC friends, I said MIDTERM. I don't remember how to study, and because of that, I seem to not be studying at all. 

i was going to make this into a "things i miss post" but for some reason blogger isn't in the mood to upload pictures. maybe next time. <3

spending money is hard (or easy?)

today i booked my trip to london/oxford/kelly, neil and matt. ryan air fights might be retardedly cheap but they get you with all those other stupid charges. i have to pay to check in, 6 euro! tomorrow kelsey, emma and i (plus emma's friends) are going to venice. on our way we're buying out tickets to paris. whoa paris. i can't believe i'm going to two of the most amazing cities in the world in the next two months. so much money. i will be broke upon my return to new york. i will be broke, but i will have seen amazing things, i'll be a world traveler. a broke world traveler ready to return to my post office job and my babysitting job and start saving again. 

it's time for me to go sit in kelsey's room and be a bum with her and dave. that's one of my favorite hobbies. ciao.

another tuesday.

ciao. tonight it is tuesday. so we're going out.

I am ready to go home. i've had enough of these classes and of not being home. and of not eating asian cuisine, and of not being with my friends. and with not being in my house and with missing my mom and my dad and my sister. I cant wait to be home and spend time with lexi. we don't spend much hang out together time together officially. but man. I just miss sitting on the couch with her. hearing her ridiculous stories.

right now i'm going to make garlic toast and get dressed and go to kelsey's and have some drinks and then get free pasta at tsunami and then bike home with emma and make garlic fries and watch gilmore girls.

kelsey is kind of like Confucius.

kelsey made a good point tonight. i'd rather fail my midterms and finals because I saw rome and venice, than failing because I was lazy. at least then, it'll be worth it.

this whole thing is so much more stressful than I thought it was going to be. I miss intensive italian. My first midterm is on monday and i'm scared. i'm scared but i'm not scared enough to study, which means that this weekend, if I stay at darsena, i'll do nothing. I wont get anything done, I won't see an amazing city, and I still wont study. I think I need to go somewhere. or do something, I also need to figure out how to get to london for cheap, soon. that's way more important than ace-ing a midterm. I made lauren a card today and wrote scott a letter and wrote some post cards home. yeesh I miss everyone. this trip is almost half over. only 8 weekends left. I need to start figuring things out.

tonight we sat in kelseys room and played drinking games and talked. dave did magic tricks and told us stories. he's a good story teller. we talked a lot about ghosts.

emma is right, this is way more legit than live journal.

i'm in italy. i'm in italy and i keep forgetting to write about my days. i keep forgetting to write about the amazing things i'm seeing every day. i live in a town with a castle for goodness sake. i should be writing about it. i've seen some of the most famous artwork to ever exist and i'm taking billions of pictures... but pictures need stories. so here are my stories- here is my life in italy.

bologna on my birthday and the days which followed.

ciao. i've been 20 for about 4 days now. I feel as though I should write about the incredibly kick-butt party I had. it was AMAZING. seriously. ridiculous. I bought a handful of liters of booze and a lot of liters of mixers and everyone brought wine and snacks and it was SUCH A SUCCESS! EVERYONE CAME! Jamie and Sarah even brought a gelato cake! it was on friday, the 14th and we had the bologna trip the next day and I didn't think anyone was gonna show up, BUT EVERYONE CAME! I felt so good. I got so drunk. most people got drunker than I did. it was true american fun. we even played kings. at like 1 some italian guy came and said that everyone had 5 minutes to leave, so they did, everyone except alex and jay and then dave came back. so it was me and molly and alex and jay and dave and I was on the futon falling asleep in my delaware tshirt and they were all laughing and alex had the hiccups and it was so silly. eventually everyone left and scott called me to say happy birthday and then I brushed my teeth and went to sleep. in the morning I woke up to an open futon and a common room which looked like there was a bread tornado/explosion in it. we left the bread hurricane alone and went to bologna!!!

Bologna was super fun. the day was long because we were TIRED. from partying so hard for my birfday but it was a good day. bologna is a really neat city. I like it, I wish I had more time to play around and shop. I wish I had brianna here with me to go shopping. I think at least alex and I will go back to shop soon, probably emma too, and some of the other girls. we saw a lot of cool things, nothing I remembered from art history, probably because most of bologna was re-built and most of the really historical stuff is under ground now. or at least that's what I got from what I could understand from the tour guide. we ate lunch there, I think i'm starting to like meat sauce more, I didn't eat the veal, that's not me. and it was hard to eat the cold cuts but I did eat most of them. the fried bread was pretty fab though. when we had our free hour and a half alex and I bought post cards for our respective bf/gf and we mailed them from there. it was cute. and fun. and we also got gelato and did some window shopping, we went into the h&m there! and we also looked around this wacky little store with random coffee table books in it, they had one on manhattan so obvz I took a picture. in bologna I saw a blue chalk drawn heart and I took a picture of it, it reminded me of scott. not that I need a reminder. I think about him all the time. when we got back from bologna me and molly and kelsey and emma and adrienne and dave and alex and jay and nickolo went out for dinner for my birthday, we went to il ciclone it is so good there, I love it. I got marinera pizza as usual and it was SO GOOD I ate the whole thing. and it wasn't tiny like the place alex and I call our favorite! we drank sparkly white wine, per my request and it was such a wonderful birthday. i've never had people I knew for such a short amount of time really treat me special on my birthday. after dinner we went to a bar for drinks. dave said it's the birthday bar now, because they went there on kelsey's birthday and then we went on mine. everyone chipped in and bought me a B-52 shot. a B-52 is baileys, khaloua, and something else and everclear which they light on fire and then you need to suck it through a straw before the straw melts. it was HARD TO DO. because it's not like the size of a shot, it's the size of a real drink and it was in a martini glass! so I almost choked and almost puked but I did it! and there's even video footage by emma. after that molly and kels bought me a rossini which is the actual name for a fragolita, it was SO GOOD. I was the only drunk one, but I guess that's what happens when it's your birthday in italy and you do a B-52. it was A LOT of fun.

on sunday molly and I cleaned the room. we borrowed emma's swiffer and attached a hand towel to it and mopped the floor with it and mr. clean. it worked really well. the party produced 5 bags of trash. it was nuts. after our apt was SO CLEAN, like cleaner than it was when we moved in, I made us pancakes for brunch. they were SO GOOD. seriously some of the best breakfast food i've had since we've been here. they were all I ate all day. I ate the cold ones while I did my homework at night. so good.

yesterday I did a lot of my packet work for italian. and eventually I came home and ate sausage and eggs for linner. because I never ate lunch. I did the same thing today. except today we didn't have class till 1:30 so before class I worked on homework and drank tea and ate toast. and then I was almost late to class. but I was there in time I think. maybe just a couple of minutes late. we got our midterms back today and I got an 84.5, well actually an 83.5 because she gave me a point and I didn't actually get any of that part right. oh well I guess. 83.5 isn't too bad. she said the test was really easy though... our final is on friday. i'm a little afraid, but I guess there's nothing I can do but review and study. the past tense is hard. and I still don't know the meanings of a lot of verbs. I need to work on that. also yesterday emma came over and did homework with me for a while, we mostly just ended up talking about our lives and gossiping, but I was happy because I really like emma and it's nice to have girl talk sometimes.

tomorrow ciee is bringing us to the ferrari factory. that should be cool I guess. scott thinks it's cool. I just think it's dumb for them to schedule a trip the wednesday before our final. maybe they'll buy us dinner. that would be nice, it probly wont happen though. maybe alex and I will go out for pizza though. or maybe i'll just make myself some rice and call it a night. we will have homework to do anyway. and a final to study for.

it's 1:30, i'm ready to go to sleep, i'm listening to rufus, he's pretty amazing. “life is a game and true love is a trophy” such a poet, he is. ugh, class in 8 hours. ciao

2 days till i'm 20.

yesterday was interesting. it was wednesday and wednesday is party night in ferrara. after the midterm we did a little packet work and then headed home. we had dinner at alex and allen's tonight. we had chicken and sausage and potatoes and bread and salad. it was a super good dinner with allen and alex and krissy and ed and leland and kelsey and molly. there was good bread and olive oil and good sparkly rose wine and great conversation. eventually alex and I bizzounced and went up to emmas and we went into town... we went to the blue bar and stood outside for a long time. Eventually alex and I went to get drinks they couldn't make me a fraggolita so I asked emma what she got and she said she didn't know because she just ordered “something sweet” so I thought, I like sweet i'll have the same. so I did and it's taste was the equivalent of children's tylenol. so gross. I couldn't drink it. alex and I left to go home kind of early and we got gelato for the walk back and that was good. I made scott a birthday card last night and I mailed him a letter with the card inside today. it was so fat that it cost me 1,60 euro to mail it to him. it's worth it because long letters are the greatest.

tomorrow molly and I are having people over for my birthday, which is on saturday. on saturday we're going to be in bologna all day. so tomorrow is party night. I hope people really come, and I hope it's really fun.

ravenna, pomposa, comacchio

yesterday we went to ravenna pomposa and comacchio. it was amazing. seriously the things I saw yesterday I never thought I could have seen. we went to san vitale. SAN FREAKING VITALE. do you know what that is!!! it's one of the most famous basilicas to ever exist! it was SO impressive. ive seen pictures before but oh my gosh they don't do the place even the slightest bit of justice. the place is covered, literally covered in mosaic. covered. the main asp is ridiculous, ridiculous. seeing it in real life was one of those experiences that I will never let go of. it was just so fantastic. I took an unbelievable number of pictures. I can't believe ive seen something that they put in art history textbooks. I feel like new york is so much less important than these places like that. or really, I just wonder if people come to new york and feel the same way that I felt when I walked into san vitale in ravenna. it was such a strong feeling. I still can't get over it. it was beautiful. we also saw galla placidia's mausoleum. that is another thing that I read all about in art history. the most beautiful thing i've seen so far was the ceiling of that building. the golden cross surrounded by circles of golden stars on the ceiling is probably one of the most peaceful pieces of artwork I have ever experienced. it was wonderful. we saw so much more than that. another basilica another famous one, but I cant remember its name. it was pretty beautiful too, and I recognized it from db's class. it was the one with the hands with missing bodies. I love that. we also saw dante's tomb and that was cool, but less cool than the ridiculous artwork. we got back on the bus and stopped in pomposa at an italian rest stop. we ate lunch there and then we went to a church and baptistry it was cool but sort of strange. most of it was rebuilt because it was all completely destroyed at some point. the front façade of the church was extremely beautiful and so was the bell tower. after our short trip in pomposa we got back on the bus and went to comacchio. they are known for their eel so we went to an eel factory museum. there were no actual eel involved in the trip. it was pretty cool I guess, but really, it wasn't that cool at all. it was pretty boring. comacchio was great though. the city used to be an island. and it isnt anymore but its a lot like venice they call it the little venice and it's really cute. there are tons of bridges and they are beautiful. the town is very small but very pretty. I explored a little and ended up sitting at a trattoria with jay and alex for a bit then we boarded the bus again and went to ricardo's restaurant for dinner. it was a brazilian restaurant and it was fantastic. it started off great with a grapefruitjuice spritzy drink and the most amazing chips i've ever eaten for apertivo and then dinner. it was buffet style which I love cause I could take a lot of rice and chicken and not a lot of the other stuff. it was DELICIOUS. I was shocked at how much I liked it. we drank wine and ate bread and eventually had delicious dessert too.there were these little fudge balls and some prunes with cake like stuff on them and coconut balls and flan and I tried everything but the flan and it was all fantastic. we were there forever and we were all SO SO SO tired by the end of the night. we finally got back to darsena at like 12:30. long day!

today I slept till like 1:30 and then I got up and made myself eggs and toast and tea for brunch. it was fantastic. I talked to mommy a bit and to scott too once he woke up and then eventually I started my homework. I also started uploading pictures to facebook. I got both done eventually. I got to video chat with the kids a little bit because lex was at grandma's with her computer. that was nice. I miss them a lot.

I made myself gnocchi for dinner and I put ketchup on it and it was delicious. I wonder if I wake up early enough tomorrow if I can make my parmgarlicherbtoast. probably not. I need to buy some more delicious bread the last one I bought was not good at all. it needs lots of jam... ok I need to sleep. class tomorrow at 9:30.

san vitale

inside san vitale.

outside galla placidia's mausoleum 

the ceiling of galla placidia's mausoleum

Dante's Tomb

bell tower in pomposa with emma

comacchio "little venice"

on a bridge in comacchio-- alex, me, sarah, eric, jamie

glorious internet passwords.

today after super early class we got internet passwords. so basically all day as soon as I got home from town I was online. I uploaded my pictures to facebook and I got to talk to mom and to scott. it was good. at like 8 alex and I went out for our favorite pizzeria and it was super wonderful delicious happy joy again. then we got gelato. I got pear and grapefruit. so excellent. I could eat a whole cup of the grapefruit but the pear was too thick for me. daddy would like it. it really tasted like a pear. we tried to wait for the opening ceremony of the flag thing this weekend to start but we were restless and tired so we just came back home and now i'm about to go to bed. tomorrow is ravenna with the group. I hope ravenna is nice. I hope the tour isnt long and boring. I hope we don't eat anything tooooo cheesy or meaty. maybe i'll be vegi if they ask. I miss home a lot. i'm having a really good time though. really good. it's just people I miss a lot. I talked to jonny today, he got a facebook and he started high school and he says it's good. i'm proud of him. I miss scott a lot.

wednesdays at the cathedral it's poppin'.

ok sooo. starting with yesterday. alex's bike got locked in the basement the other day. I can't remember if it was yesterday or on tuesday. but either way, it happened. i'm watching gilmore girls and it's the episode where rory and dean broke up and she goes to madeline's party and loralie goes to see max and they end up making out hard core and it is making me miss scott.

yesterday after class I just went home. I wrote some post cards and did my homework and talked to scott. I also started sewing my zebra fish and now it just needs decorating. I ate lunch and I don't even remember what I had for dinner, oh ya we had eggs and bread. but kelsey came over to eat and to go over homework and we ended up talking for hours. 9:00 rolled around and we realized we should start getting ready for emma's wine pong party. so kelsey left and molly and I spent about 2 hours deciding what to wear and getting ready. dave and kelsey met us here. and we all went up to emma's... I drank a couple vodka tons with alessandro and then we all walked into town. I instantly regretted my decision to wear heels I couldn't walk fast enough to keep up with everyone, ugh. eventually, with throbbing feet we made it to the square. the square is POPPIN' on wednesdaysssss!!! so poppin. so we walked to tsunami bar and emma and I had fragolitas and they were beautiful. we sat with alex and eric and talked for a longish time. then eventually we started back home. it took us about 30 minutes to get home and when we got there molly and I took out the cold spaghetti and bread and munched for a while. we went to bed at like 3. and totally passed out. it was a tiring night.

this morning alex and I were going to have eggs but that didn't work out, he called me at 11 when I had just woken up and asked if instead of eggs I wanted to just get into town early and have pizza. so we left the apartment at 12 and tried to go to our favorite pizzeria but it was closed so we went to another pizzeria and ordered our pizzas and proceeded to wait for 45 minutes without receiving any food. that was way too long and we had class and we were going to be late so I went up to the guy and said ho classe in cinque minuti... and he said ok and that we could just go. so we did. we biked to school and stopped at the little café on the way. I got a mini pizza for 1,50 euro and it was super delicious. alex got a sandwich and he said it was weird but good. class was good today. we tried a listening task and I was kind of terrible at it. that makes me a little nervous because understanding what people are saying is kind of important. I can read pretty well so far and I can pronounce things kind of well I think, but listening at full speed I suck at that. bleh. we had a lot of homework tonight and I didn't start it till like 10. after class I stayed late and worked on the packet. I did 2.5 reading exercises and was there for about 45 minutes and it was good. I hope I can get the whole thing done in time. I think tomorrow i'll stay after for a good while and try to do the rest of the first exercises in the books. we have the ravenna trip on saturday so that's pretty sweet. I hope they give us our internet passwords soon. they said it would be tomorrow or monday. I really hope it happens this time... I really really want to have normal constant contact with the outside world.

AND FINALLY, A CELL PHONE!

yesterday afternoon alex and I biked back into town around like 4. we went cell phone hunting. the first place we went to only had cellphones that were like 100 euro. soooo the guy gave us directions to the other store and we went there and bought phones for 49 euro and the sim cards were 10. but really like 5 cause they start out with 5 euro on them. I was happy with the purchase. it's a light blue nokia... it has an alarm and it sends messages and makes phone calls. sooo it does all of the things I need it to do and now I can call people here.

after alex and I bought cell phones we went online at the internet cafe for a little while and I emailed mom some pictures. I also emailed some to scott. then I went to mail him a letter and after that, to call mom and say happy birthday. my phone card died. I ran into travis and eric and dave and talked to them for a bit and then I rode my bike home, took a shower and shortly after that molly and I went grocery shopping for dinner. we bought ground meat and made garlic-oregano burgers and had corn and bread with them. it was a good and filling dinner. the meat was cheap. only 3.49 for a whole package. sweet deal. scott called after dinner and alex came up to hang out. we drank a little wine. molly and I got our cell phones working and I called dave to get my number and then we got molly's and kelseys too. yay cell phones! eventually last night I did my homework and re-wrote my notes into my real notebook while drinking tea and listening to the beatles and eating frosties. I finally got to bed at like 2. and I woke up this morning around 10:30. I think afternoon class days are going to be a good thing. at like 10:34 alex called and I went down to his room for eggs and toast. and then I came back up here and got dressed. now i'm drinking tea and eating frosties again. I have to meet alex on A to get our bikes in like 10 minutes. then we're riding into town to class. a 30 minute walk away, OR about a 10 minute bike ride. YAY BIKE!!

now i have a bici!

i'm sitting in my room eating red pepper slices and bread. it's going to be hard to eat meat here. it's too expensive. also, I don't like meat that much. so I guess it's not so terrible, I just need to make sure I keep getting protein... today I had eggs for breakfast with alex. they were pretty much pink. the yolk parts anyway. italian eggs are weird, they also don't refrigerate them in the stores. anyway, alex and I ate six eggs and bread with them and we were late to meet the group this morning. it took us about 20 minutes to walk from the apartment to the cathedral. which I guess isn't that bad, unless you leave at 8:25 and need to be there at 8:30. Patricia walked us to the university and showed us the classroom where our class is every day but we were early so we waited in the student lounge... which is a table and a bunch of chairs and 2 benches. at 9:30 class started. our teacher's name is anna and she's very nice. today we learned to say my name is, what's your name. i'm from where are you from then we learned about agreeing adjectives with nouns and how to pluralize. we also learned to count and I think that's pretty much it. we have homework which makes me happy because it gives me something to do with my time. after we left the school I was walking back with alex and we saw a bike shop so of course we went in and guess what! they had 2 bikes one for a girl and one for a guy and they were pretty cheap. so we got them. mine is white and has pink writing on it and alex's is black. mine only cost me 40 euro and alex's was 65 but good prices anyway. both bikes work and mine even has a bell. really cute. we rode them back and went to the euro shop. I got a mirror and a little digital clock and a knife and a dish towel and some tupperware for 5 euro sweet. then I went grocery shopping. I bought .50 euro gnocci and lots of other stuff... spices and olive oil, I just forgot garlic. there were a lot of olive oils to choose from so I chose the one that was on sale which had the least on the shelf I figure that means people were glad it was on sale and bought it so it must be good I hope i'm right. I ate some red pepper and bread and a small yogurt for lunch. now i'm drinking tea, and I even bought some italian frosted flakes... frosties, they still have tony the tiger on them. that made me happy. yesterday at the market I bought rice so today I bought soy sauce. I figured that some days I wont feel like eating oil and garlic. and then i'll have rice with soy sauce. woo hoo. anyway on my list of things to do today is get a phone. sooo I think i'm going to bike back into town with alex and do that. then i'll call mom from a pay phone and then probably just come back home and charge the phone and do homework and perhaps work on my zebra fish.

the endless ferrara tour.

today we had our tour of ferrara. it was SO long. three hours. ugh. before it started I walked into town with alex and kelsey and molly. we bought some fruit at the farmers market. in the past two days I have had the best pears of my life. seriously, so so so good. the tour was so long I can't even remember it. the best part to me was finally seeing green places in ferrara. in the city center it's all so cobble stone and store-filled that I couldn't even figure out where people go to relax, i'm really glad that I now know that there is grass in ferrara. I was thinking about it yesterday when scott was telling me that people were laying out at school. and I realized that I had not yet seen anything green. we got gelato, I got kinder and nutella. it wasn't as good as I was expecting. so far i've had about 6 flavors of gelato. hazelnut at the rome airport, white chocolate, pineapple, strawberry, kinder and nutella. the only ones i've really liked so far have been hazelnut, strawberry and pineapple. I also have tried alex's pistachio and that was good too. once we finally got back to the center of town alex and I went to the farmers market and got some fruit, I got pears and also a package of short grain rice. and he got peaches for allen and some cheese. then I went to the craft market and I bought a bracelet. I met everyone else back at a bar and we went for dinner for kelsey's birthday. I finally got to have pasta with olive oil and garlic and it was SO GOOD. dominic got me some bread after and I sopped up the extra olive oil with it. so so so so good. between yesterday and today, food has been SO SO SO good. it's hard to order pasta with garlic and oil because it's never on the menu so today travis tried to teach me to say it but under pressure I forgot so he ordered it for me. we ate pretty early today considering the way it's been the past few days. but that was good because we were all so so so tired from the tour all day. I walked home with alex and molly and leland and allen and krissy and ed and alex and I picked up eggs on the way for the morning. I put them in my fridge so i'll bring them over in the morning to eat.

tomorrow is our first day of class. alex kelsey molly allen ed and I are all in the same class. after class tomorrow alex and I are going to buy phones and look for bikes also we'll probly go to the eurostore and get wine glasses and things to decorate. I need to grocery shop too.I need olive oil, eggs, sushi rice making supplies, soy sauce, chicken, salad, bread, etc.I miss scott a lot today. I have to remember that the grocery store is closed on sundays. I have to remember to call mom tomorrow. it's her birthday.

cathedral.

bell tower.

diamond palace.

the group after a gelato break.

you can not buy groceries on sunday in ferrara.

right now I am sitting in my room waiting for alex. this morning we tried to buy eggs to have for breakfast again, but the store was closed because it's sunday. lame. so I went back to sleep and didn't wake up till noon. now i'm dressed. today is our tour of ferrara. i'm hungry. I hope we find some food first. I miss scott a lot.

the liter of wine with alex adventure.

today was our first day sans things we HAD to do. we woke up at like 10 and alex and I went grocery shopping a bit. we bought eggs and bread and butter and such and went back up to my room to cook. then I realized that I forgot the ketchup and molly and I ran back down and brought it back up. meanwhile alex made the scrambled eggs and tended to the toast I started earlier. when we got back upstairs alex was all finished cooking and we sat down to eat. it was so nice. it felt really good to be eating eggs and ketchup with my friends. at the store I also bought a mug and tea and sugar and milk. so now i'm all set for tea. after breakfast we all got ready and walked into town. me molly kelsey, alex and allen, and ed krissy and leland. we went to look for bikes. we failed again, that sucked. however we did stop and buy stamps and I bought a phone card. before that I called mom on a pay phone with change. it was an expensive phone call but it made me feel a lot better about life. they say we should have the internet by like monday or so. and I can't wait. after we walked to the vodafone store and then on a never ending walk to another bike shop alex and I broke away from the group and went to the other cellphone place which was closed, but we ran into travis who pointed us in the right direction of the internet cafe. we spent about an hour there. alex and I both need the internet. that's good. once we got out of there we ran into allen and krissy and ed and started walking home but then we stopped at a market for fruit. I had an amazing pear and alex had an apple. we walked home and on the way we stopped at another super market. looking at wine we realized that it was the cheapest wine we have seen so far. we bought a huge bottle for about 1,50 euro. no joke. wine is as cheap as water in italy. then we went to the 99 cent store to buya cork screw and ran into molly and kelsey. they wanted to make dinner tonight but alex and I both really wanted to find pay phones to use our phone cards to call our significant others. so we went upstairs and got ready and walked back into town. it takes 15 minutes almost exactly to get to ciee from here, not that bad. we went to the pay phones outside the hotel and each spent about 25 minutes on the phone. after we got off the phones we went for dinner. it was almost 9 when we got to the pizzeria but we sat down for dinner. I ordered a marinera (sauce and garlic) pizza and alex ordered one with a lot of meat and artichokes on it. he also ordered a half liter of sparkling white wine. he did not realize that a half liter is a pitcher of vino. when it got there we both laughed because I guess we already knew drunkness was on it's way. I think alex was drunk before he even got his pizza and I started helping him sooo, by the end of our unbelievably fantastic meal we were both drunk. alex more than me, but both of us for sure. we both finished every inch of our pizza and when we finally finished the wine and paid the bill we started walking, hoping to find gelato. it's hard to not find gelato in ferrara. when we got to the gelato place alex go tirrimesu and coconut and I got strawberry and pineapple. it was delicioussssss the best i've had yet. actually all of todays food was the best yet. when we got our gelato we kept walking home and when we got there we walked up to my room and had some of alex's 1,50 wine and pretzels and nutella so so good. it was a ridiculously fun night. tomorrow- waking up at 9 for eggs again.

morning eggs.

post vino.

roomie.

look, it's me and molly in our room!

my discovery of the rossini.

Today. the second DAY in ferrara. so far I think it's been the best yet. We started out this morning with breakfast again it again was very good, also, I discovered the nutella today and so it was better. also, we ate with travis, we= me molly and kelsey. travis was fun. after breakfast they talked to us a bit about the apartments and then we walked to the ciee center to take our placement exams. most of the L&C kids spent about 5-10 minutes on it and then gave up, I was one of those. it wasn't something to be ashamed of really, it was just something. I want to start at the beginning anyway, and so do my friends. when we got out the the oral part of the exam which basically consisted of me telling the lady that even though I am very italian I don't know any and i'd like to start at the beginning. she said that if I learn fast I can move up. once we finished that we went looking for bikes. we were told to purchase second hand bikes and so we learned to say bicicleta secondo mano and then walked to a bike shop. they only had one, so kelsey is getting it. the rest of us need to get on that, before all the good bikes are taken. it started raining at the bike shop and we walked back to the hotel, grabbed umbrellas and hoodies and tried to find another bike shop, however it was lunch time so everything was closed. we ate at the cutest sandwich shop where I got a delicious cibatta with oil and salt and oregano and a bottle of aqua natuale for due euro. so good. molte bene. then we walked back to the hotel to meet richard and ricardo and patricia to find out our roommates and get taxi-ed to the apartamente. it took a LONG time to find out get here and then get into the apartments. the whole time I was thinking i'd be able to get online when I got here and no. my roommate is molly. who I lived with at the hotel with kelsey. it feels like alex lives a mile away when he really just lives in the next tower. I wish we were on the same floor though. after we got into the apartments today I unpacked. YAY. now I feel like I have a home here. which is SO nice. but we only had like an hour to do that because at 6 we went to the bar by ciee for drinks ad appetizers. I'm still getting used to being able to legally drink all the time, it's pretty fun. tonight we had a bunch of different drinks. there was sangria, spritz (orange soda/champagne) and a strawberry drink. the strawberry was my favorite and I proceeded to order 2 more after they ran out of the pitcher. we stayed there for a WHILE. when we finally left we were in a huge group that stopped for gelato, I took a chance and got white chocolate and it was a bad chance, I ended up giving it to dave. after the gelato alex and I broke away from the masses and walked home. it took us a while and we needed a map but we did it.

i'm SO tired and its past 3 am and i'm waking up at like 9:30 tomorrow to have eggs with alex.

day two.

Today was the first day/second night in ferrara. WAY better than the first, that's for sure. We woke up this morning to a continental breakfast which was delicious! Lots of bread and fruit and I got to have english breakfast tea with milk and sugar, just like at home and they had red orange juice which was completely delicious. I ate with my current roomates Kelsey and Molly. it was a nice breakfast. I just really hope that whoever I room with doesn't like to get to bed early and is neat neat neat. tonight alex and I sat with allen, joy and adrienne. dinner was a surprise tonight, it turned out to be lasanga, beef, and artichokes it was hard but I ate enough of it. it tasted just like what I had for lunch, gnocci with meat sauce. it was okay, I don't really like meat sauce I decided. the trattoria we ate at was nice and cute but far away. cheap though. big lunch for 8 euro.

alex being super euro-gay in front of the castle.

tomorrow breakfast again.

edit: also, at dinner, which I did not enjoy, 4 courses, lasagna, artichokes, beef, marscarpone cheese (good), allen broke his wine glass. very funny.

day one.

day one al italia has ended. i'm in my pseudo bed at this hotel in ferrara. we didn't arrive here until after 8pm and went straight to have pizza with the rest of the group. by we, I mean me, alex, jay and christina. we all arrived together. I felt gross all day, still wearing the same clothes from yesterday and being sweaty. alex and I spent 8 hours in rome WAITING for our flight. I got to talk to scott and that was good, I also emailed mom to say I was alive. i'm so tired. we have to wake up at like 7:30 tomorrow for breakfast. good thing I like breakfast.

upon my arrival in italy i thought this sign was pointing in the direction of ferrara. turns out it's a hotel sign, we were on our way to hotel carlton.

on the airplane.

I am on the plane to rome. We left almost 2 hours late and therefore we will be arriving almost 2 hours late and because of this I will miss my flight to bologna which I believe leaves at 9:30. This plane won't land until about 9:46. Because of this I decided I should probably figure out how to say: “My flight was delayed, I have to get to bologna, when is the flight?” in italian... “Mi volo retardo. Devo andane Bologna. cuando c'e (cheh) un volo per bologna?” Hopefully that will get me on a plane. Also, I'm hoping for english speakers.

There is no place, that I can find, to plug my computer in on this plane. I have 3 hours and 31 minutes left on the battery and I was trying to save it for the airport in rome but they shut off the tvs on the plane and while they said they would be back on in 5 minutes, it has been far more than 5 minutes and I can't sleep. I suppose it is hardly midnight in New York and my body isn't used to sleeping before about 3 these days. so maybe i'll fall asleep eventually. I mean, there are more than 4 hours left of this flight.

I miss scott. My ipod froze. I'm tired and hungry. I am currently in the middle of the atlantic ocean. I'm going to eat my other can of canned pasta.

edit: 10-22-07 i now know that that is not how you say "my flight is delayed"