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.