Ciliegiolo

So the weekend couldn't have gotten better! After a very fabulous terrace party Friday night, I was able to spend most of Saturday doing laundry and reading in preparation for class. Saturday evening I went up into the city for dinner with a few classmates and had a great time getting to know them even more. Now, the big weekend event was on Sunday. Amelia hosts a regional wine tasting event in the old cloisters of San Francesco (for non-art people, the cloisters are the open-air area in a convent/monastery- see pictures). Here we tasted around 20 local vendors' blends of Merlot, Sangiovese, Cabernet, and the local grape Ciliegiolo. All the wines were delicious.

In addition to the wine, we could taste local meats, cheese, olive oil and, the Amelia specialty, Il Dolce Frutto- which is fig, orange peel and chocolate! Talk about delicious!!!!! I bought some oil, wine and figs. Tonight I cooked with the oil and am eating the figs for dessert. Yummmm! Here is a picture of the cloisters and another of me with the roommates at the event.

So, Sunday ended peacefully with a home cooked dinner- pasta and pesto and some eggplant and zucchini straws. I must say, cooking is more fun and the end result is way better here too. One thing I do miss dearly is mexican food. When we get up to Florence I am going to the international market to get some spices and hopefully tortillas for a taco night. Its so hard being away from your favorite food!

Let me just say, however, after this wonderful weekend, Monday was a bit of a drag, personally. I mean, classes were good and I really feel like I have found a great area to study and can do awesome things with, but my body just didn't want to sync up today. I start off with a splitting headache and being woken up buy the Leonardo of landscaping. This guy was using ancient hedging tools and taking his good old time going over the hedge right outside my window. Fine, even the plants need a hair cut, but this was incessant. I'm talking over 8 hours work on this hedge area. Anyways, after that, there was no time for breakfast, I got no coffee, and had to run out to class. Um, about 20 steps out the door I tripped and almost broke a shoe. Great. After the hike up to the town I got to class, dripping with sweat and panting like a freaking dog. Ok, fine. So Noah decides to not remember class times and goes a half an hour late, cutting into lunch/siesta time. Ok, fine again. I guess I will go to the grocery after class. Lunch was great and the last half of the day went well enough.

After the market, we all come home to cook. I go first since I had my stuff out and ready. MMM beef stroganoff. The end result was delicious, but I had forgotten cream and flour, the two items used to make the freakin sauce! Whatever, I make do. BUT in the middle of cooking, there is a loud BANG and the electricity goes off. awwwwesome! My computer charger blew up, the fridge went off and my half washed laundry was stuck in the washer. Holy crap! So we called the local in the group to help us get it fixed. Some a-typical Italian man (which means he was not hot) shows at the door, flips some switches and gets everything going. Thank god!

This is where I find myself, but with one event I have left out... After I eat dinner and get laundry going again and figure out that I have not lost my entire life's work on the computer, there is a little buzz at the door. Apparently our little land-lady wanted to come make sure everything was ok and introduce herself... in Italian. Mind you, no one here speaks any Italian. I am the only one with a foreign language under my belt-ish, and French is not so close. She comes in talking about the lights and her name and phone number so we can call her (something we cannot do since we cannot communicate except through sign language) and how her name is from her husband who is from Napoli and her son or daughter, or she is a son or daughter of someone in the next town and how blah blah blah... Im just nodding at this point and randomly saying "bene". So, the adventure of Monday comes to a close with me thanking the Lord my computer didn't blow up, that the Italian language class starts tomorrow, and that I made it through alive.

Bring on the rest of the week- it can't be any worse than today! I was avoiding alcohol for a while, but a glass of wine is totally warranted. Cin Cin!