Dorm life...and more food..

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Last night gave rise to one of the greatest memories of my life. And where did it take place? Where else but the dorms, ha...... Life in the dorms has become truly amazing, irreplaceable. In all honesty I was a tiny bit upset the first couple of weeks of living in the dorms because we are so far from the rest of our friends in town and from all the excitement in the city, but at this point I wouldnt have it any other way. The best thing about this place is the group of students that live here. There are a few of us Americans, but also Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese students, along with some others...and we have finally gotten to that point where we all know each other and are actually able to communicate enough to spend time together, so it has become just beautiful to be here. So first, maybe a little summary of some of the best people I have come to know:

Matteo- an Italian student with a pretty rugged look...he has messy hair and a beard, but is one of the kindest people I have met. He always greets me, and when I struggle with Italian, he is very helpful. He speaks some English, but the point is for us to practice my Italian, so that is really all that we speak. But he explains things to me a lot of the time if I dont understand them, or he teaches me common Italian phrases and more colloquial language structures. He helps me with my homework sometimes too, though the other night we had an exercise that was so hard even he didnt understand it (which made him feel terrible for "not being able to speak Italian" but made me feel a little better about asking for help). The other night we gathered in his room to watch Ice Age II in Italian, which was also a neat experience...watching animated movies and seeing grown up people become so excited about them is wonderful. =)

Carlo- a curly, reddish-haired Italian who comes from a small village of only 21 people, somewhere about 2 hours away from Viterbo by car. I met him one night when he began helping me with a certain composition I had to write. He speaks no English, but is very patient...so he has actually been probably the greatest help towards my learning Italian and becoming more comfortable trying to say something, even when its wrong. Very very kind character...always willing to stop by and see how you are doing, or help out in any way possible. He came over to help me with my homework today at school without my even asking him...little things, but they demonstrate his overall character...a very giving, kind person.

Diogo- a Portuguese student who speaks pretty much perfect English and great Italian. Spending time with him is very comfortable because we can always understand each other, so its always a very relaxed encounter. He is always very happy, and also really caring. He always makes sure Seul and I get home safe if we are leaving someplace late.

Wojtek- a Polish guy studying Italian language...so he speaks Polish, Italian, and perfect English. When I have trouble saying or explaining something to the Italians (or if there is a word I dont know, like "bleach") he is one of the people I go to first for help...him and Diogo. He is a very quiet character, but one of the people who you know is always listening, always aware even if they arent saying anything. Which doesnt mean that he is a reserved person...if you ask him something, he will talk just normally and is very comfortable socially...but also just quiet at times.

Nashua- an Italian girl who is also one of the most approachable people we have met. She speaks some English and lots of Italian...but is just neat to know overall. I dont know a whole lot about her, but shes a friendly face for sure.

Gabriele- another Portuguese student who likes soccer a lot. I havent talked to him a whole lot, because we can only really communicate in Italian, but he is another good person to see around.

I know that there are more that Im missing, but for now those are the key ones at least....when we gather there are like 15 or 20 of us all joking around, but a lot of them I dont know the names of or I just dont talk to them too often..


In any case, there you have the backdrop of some of the people I have been spending time with. So what exactly happened last night? Well imagine this...its Wednesday night and Seul and I are getting back from some grocery shopping and walking up to the second floor (American third floor) where we live. As we are passing the first floor we hear a lot of noise in one of the hallways. We look to see what is happening, and there are about 7 or 8 students just having a meeting in the hallway...some cards out, some wine, just chatting and having a jolly old time. They invite us to sit down with them, but we tell them we need to upstairs to drop off our stuff first, so we will be back in a few minutes. So we go upstairs, unload, and come back down to find that the group has doubled. All of the people that I described above were there, plus 10 or 15 more. So Seul and I join in...we are all standing or sitting and chatting in the hallway, when Matteo and Carlo take Seul and I into Carlos (new) room so we can see what it looks like, because word was that he basically had a suite. Which is true. His room is humongous...very very impressive compared to our rooms, which are still decently sized. Either way, we are getting our own little private tour when we see that Carlo owns an accordeon. We ask him to play something, and he breaks out into this amazing song...fast-paced, catchy, perfectly executed. When he finishes Seul and I are basically staring in awe (he plays it really really well), and stand there for a couple more minutes trying to express our appreciation before heading out into the hallway again to talk to all the others. We open the door and hear that someone has brought their guitar out into the corridor and is playing songs while everyone else sings along (Seul and I, of course, had no idea what the songs were..). When one of the other people in the hallway noticed that Carlo was still holding his accordeon, everyone started begging him to play...and there it was, a minute later Carlo is playing away on the accordeon, everyone else is either clapping or dancing or jumping or laughing...and we all just became one big jolly crew in the middle of the corridor of the first floor. It may not sound like much seeing it written down like this, but it was just incredible at the time. I only wish I had had a camera, but this will be one of those memories that is just locked away in my head I guess. Nevertheless, those 10 or 15 minutes in that hallway have become one of my favorite memories of all time...theres not much else to say about it.





In other news...because we have been spending more time doing homework and just living in our own spaces at the dorms or spending time with the Italians/Spanish/Portuguese, Seul and I havent been seeing everyone else from USAC nearly as much. The theme dinners are still going...a couple of weeks ago was Canadian night, which basically meant it was "Breakfast for Dinner" night. We ate pancakes and eggs and maple syrup and orange juice. This week was "Vegetarian Night" which pretty much everyone agreed was the best that we have had so far...homemade mashed potatoes, green salad, Indian daal, eggplant, curry with rice, a soup of sorts, a pasta salad...so divine, all of it! But next week (to compensate for the lack of meat this week I guess) will be "Carnivore and Dessert Night"...which basically means that whoever wants meat will have no shortage of it, and the other two vegetarians here and I will just spend all night feasting on desserts. =) Nice compromise, eh?

Speaking of themed food nights, Tuesday night has basically become "dorm night" wherein the 6 or 7 of us Americans and Wojtek go to the cafeteria down the street from the dorms and dine there together. The food is always good and always accessible, but this is really the only time of the week that Seul and I ever eat there...the rest of the time we just cook ourselves or arent around the dorms for meals at all. Dorm night has turned out to be pretty cool though...we all get along very well and the cafeteria feeds us students WELL. This Tuesday turned out pretty interestingly because there was this little old man sitting in the back, and he just really wanted someone to talk to. So we were eating in there at one table, a group of the Spanish students were eating at another table, and this little man was sitting in the back of the restaurant playing a harmonica and joking around with the waitresses. When the meal ended and we were all just standing around talking he came and started telling us stories of his youth. And then he did a little dance and sang some Spanish and Italian songs while everyone else danced and clapped...pretty entertaining. And to top it off...the women at the restaurant made us a....get this!...a NUTELLA PIZZA for dessert that they gave us for free at the end. It was so sweet, so unexpected, and a totally new experience (Italy is probably the only place you could ever find a Nutella pizza..)!


Hmmm...what else? Well, tomorrow we head to Venice for Carnivale, so I will probably have a lot to say about that next week when we return. Negotiations are also now underway for a few of us to head to Egypt for Spring Break in April, assuming we can find satisfactory flights and accomodations...aaaaaaannnnddddd...Happy Valentines day to everyone this weekend!

Enjoy the snow!

And....spend some time dancing this weekend, its healthy and it feels good! =)

Much love.

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