Especially since I have most of my classes on Mondays. Me no likey.
Holocaust and Italian were fine, nothing special. After morning class, I went to the market, cooked, had lunch and then went back to class for cooking. This time, we met our actual teacher and...I wish I had Marco. But I think this lady will be fine, she just doesn't seem that lively or funny. And I met a friend! Okay, well I don't actually know her name but we have that bond now where almost everyone else in the class knows each other, so we can hang out. She's from Holland and seems super nice. Glad I met someone I can talk to, other than just listening to the one girl who seems to believe the class is about her and her taste preferences. The amount of information I could quote to you about what she likes to eat is just creepy.
Regardless, class was good. We made tagliolini con tartufo (I think this is the name...I could get up and look but come on, I'm in my bed), which (hopefully) is these thinner than spaghetti noodles with truffle sauce. Delicious. Didn't know I liked truffle sauce but now I can add that to the list. Then we made pesto pasta with green beans and potatoes (which I've made already so it wasn't anything new, but it was still good). Then we had...brace yourself...Asti-style rabbit. Essentially, it was rabbit with a white wine, oil, butter, garlic, rosemary, sage and bell pepper sauce. I know some people have a mental block against rabbit (like my mother, who accused me, jokingly, of eating Fluffy), which is fine but I'm not one of those people. And while rabbit isn't my favorite meat out there (I think bacon might be my favorite...or chicken...I don't know), it's still good and worth trying. I tend to believe that unless food goes against your moral code, you're allergic to it, or you really just can't eat it, you should try everything. And if you don't like it, now you know. But how are you going to know otherwise? And for dessert, we had chocolate fondue with strawberries. Again, one of my favorite sweet combinations, but nothing new so not much to say.
After class, I had a pre-departure meeting for my school trip to Rome and the Vatican. Nothing new, just going over the itinerary and what to bring and stuff. Both Liz and Jessica are going on the trip so it will be nice to have them there. I'm really excited about this trip, especially since the Pope just announced his resignation. The Vatican will definitely be all atwitter - should be exciting! I would put the itinerary on here, but you guys will hear about it once I get back, so I won't tease you now.
Now, I want to talk about some important Italian people in my life right now, namely my teachers, different merchants I deal with and others. I think it's important you guys know who I regularly have contact with that's not my roommates.
Holocaust teacher AKA I Won't Be Getting to the Point Anytime Soon - The Lagger for short: takes forever to get to a point. Literally takes five minutes to say one thing. Seems nice and is Jewish, so obviously is invested in the subject matter. Hopefully, will become a better storyteller as the course progresses. Is very wishy-washy and kind of a pushover. Wish she would be a little more affirmative - to be a teacher, you need a strong hand.
Italian teacher AKA Precious: Is an adorable teacher with the cutest bouncy accent and gestures. Makes Italian easy to understand. Seems like she would be okay if I had a problem with the language and needed to talk to her about it. Willing to help. Literally no complaints (so far - I always hold my breath with teachers).
Cooking teacher AKA Maybe English Wasn't a Requirement to Get the Job - The What for short: English isn't her strong suit. Is also not a cook but a biologist or some kind of scientist. Seems nice though and doesn't mind if I ask her stupid questions. Also is a willing participant in the cooking instead of just supervising (can't decide if this a good thing yet). Still reserving opinions and judgement on her though.
Renaissance Art teacher AKA Please Stop Talking: Short squat little man with annoying English habits who makes art boring. That is all I can describe him as. It is his encapsulating sentence. I hope, for my sake, he gets better. I have him tomorrow so we'll see.
Literature Professor AKA Can We Just Be Best Friends AKA Cute Old Man: My favorite professor, by far. Funny, laid back, interesting, charismatic. Makes general history interesting. Could possibly be a magician or a wizard.
Vegetable Merchant AKA Another Cute Old Man AKA Seriously Do You Just Grow On Trees: I'm a creature of habit so naturally, I get the same thing from the market and from this guy at least once a week. I get two hundred grams (more/less depending on how many days I'm buying for) of green beans and today, when I walked up to him, he stopped, pointed at me, and said, "Due ette di fagiolini" (which is 200g of green beans in Italian) and I smiled and laughed and said, "Si, grazie" and we laughed some more. He's just so nice and cute and he remembers me, which I think is funny but maybe an American girl getting the same thing over and over again is hard to forget.
Lady who works at the bar downstairs AKA Samantha AKA Don't You Get In Trouble for Giving Us so Much Free Stuff: One of the sweetest people I've met in awhile. She is always smiling, always happy to see us and always gives us something free when we go eat there, whether it's chocolate or a lollypop. And of course, she has this incredibly moving backstory. One of these days, we're going to get her a really nice gift of some kind, probably wine. Everybody likes wine.
Pre-Session Italian professor AKA Daniele AKA How am I Supposed to Learn Italian if I Can't Stop Laughing: Definitely stereotypical Italian. Loud, funny, charismatic, etc. I still sometimes see him around but not as often as I'd like. Was a great introduction to the Italian people.
That's about all I can think of for the moment. I know that every country has it's bad or annoying people, and too often, those are the ones we see first. But in any case, most of the people above make my life better on a daily basis. Most of them are so full of life and excitement, it's so refreshing. They have a zest for life that sometimes, it's hard to remember to have. Italians man...maybe they know something we don't.
Ciao!!
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