Un po' di tutto (a little of everything)

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Buona Sera tutti
A lot has happened since Halloween; nothing too grand, like running from the police but it's the small things that matter anyway. First off, Katie and I have made some lovely friends recently. These are the girls who are our language partners, who came to our Halloween party, who we hung out with at the international day and who, last week invited us to a birthday dinner. On a side note, I totally embarrassed myself at the international day by bringing my homemade pumpkin pie and bags of leftover snacks from the Halloween party. The flyer did say "bring a homemade dish from your country"; it did not say, "Food will be catered". Anyway, yes most of it was catered and on fancy dishes, while I entered with a messy looking pumpkin pie and bags of chips. Luckily I was not the only American to embarrass themselves, some brought deviled eggs and PB&J's. Anyway, the event wasn't wonderful, there was some music from students, which was cool, but sitting with our new friends was the fun part. So the following Monday, they invited us to their house for a birthday dinner. There were about fifteen girls there, some of whom spoke English; it was a lot of fun. And the best part was that they taught us swear words. Not just the ones that Daniele yells everyday, but ones that I could actually use against him, I wont give examples here.
The rest of that week Katie and I went out a lot, despite the fact that I was a little sick. Wednesday night we went to Blitz, one of the only bars open on a weeknight. Wednesday is student night in Viterbo, don't ask me why, I don't agree personally because I still have to wake up at 8am the next morning, which I didn't this particular week. Katie and I went to blitz, just the two of us because we were getting antsy at my house. At blitz we sat there a little bit awkwardly. We did know the drummer of the live band, so that was cool. Later, we saw Daniele's friends who Katie dragged towards after I tried to run away. Don't get me wrong, his friends are great, there is just a little hostility from the girls, maybe just a language barrier but maybe a little jealousy as well. So we said hi, it was awkward, then luckily I saw Daniele, so we talked to him and then Denisa and Alessandro came. Later my friends Hilda, Justin and Ricardo came too, and it was fun just to hang out.
The next day I didn't go to class but i made the mistake of going to the office with Alessadro where I was scolded by both program leaders separately, which is lame because Katie and I go to class way more than other USAC students of Italians for that matter. Also, its my grade, so it pisses me off that they monitored me like a high schooler. Anyway, that evening, I got too help cook at a restaurant for my cuisine class. The menu was Sicilian; we made breadsticks, arancini (breaded risotto, mozzarella balls), swordfish topped with tomatoes with a side of spinach. Our third course was couscous mixed with carrots, celery and mussels, then finally the canoli, filled with ricotta filling with orange zest and chocolate. My job was mostly to roll out the canoli dough; I had to make it really thin, which was hard. So the cook said in Italian to my teacher, “maybe a guy should do that part”, when she translated, I whipped around and gave him an evil look and a yeah-right laugh, he clearly didn’t know who he was dealing with. The rest of the night he kept giving me shit in a playful way and I gave it right back.
The meal was wonderful and afterwards we all went out to a bar called Luccios for one of the Americans birthdays. On Friday we finally went on the adventure to find the Thermae, the thermal pools. They are al over this area, free ones and one you have to pay for. So we got up on Friday and attempted to take the bus that failed so we walked. It took about an hour; it was nice to walk but lots of cars. As we approached the pools, it looked a little random. They were in the middle of a field between two roads making a right angle. But once we got close, we could barely hear to cars and it was actually a really nice setting. We got into the hot pools and relaxed. It is all natural sulfur water; some people were even filling up bottles of it. It was wonderful to law back, look up at the sky and be surrounded by warm water and plants. Before we left, I picked some mint and plantain that were growing abundantly from the sulfur water.
That night, there was a surprise party for the same American. It started about 3 hours earlier than any Italians actually go out; it was mostly Americans with two Australians that were visiting and two Spaniards who also study in Viterbo. The party was fun, it was nice to dance to some yay-area hyphy music and not look like a total idiot because at least some people from Reno know how to dance like we do in the bay. Katie also took a wonderful video of me dancing and continues to show it to everyone.
The next day, Kristen, Katie’s best friend visited from Spain. It was wonderful to have a visitor and to make a new friend. We showed her around Viterbo and at night we went out to Monasteros, a wonderful and very crowded Pizzaria in San Pellegrino, the old part of Viterbo. We had to wait for at least an hour, and ask them multiple times to check their list. Turns out Katie’s name was written “Kiri”. We finally got in and ordered some great pizza. When it came, each pizza tool up two plates!!! I ate all of my, no problem. After pizza we went to my house for a little bit then out again to Luccios. We met a few of our Italian friends there and hung out for about an hour. Sunday we didn’t do much, but I did make Tiramisu in the morning so we could eat it at night. Alessandro cooked for dinner, even though he was reluctant to make it vegetarian for Katie and Kristen. After we ate the Tiramisu that had already been nibbled at by anonymous roommates. It wasn’t bad for my first try. Then we proceeded to have about a two-hour discussion on feminism. I didn’t say much; it was nice to finally have other people who agree with me, to argue my same points. Anyway, it was a great night and weekend.
Rapping it up now. Lets jump to Wednesday. It was Daniele’s Compleano. During the day, I went to a mini protest at school for the budget cuts. Daniele, Alessandro, some of their friends and about 50 other people were there. It was small but still important. They gathered in the quad and took turns speaking. I had to go to class but luckily it was right next to the protest so I conveniently sat near the window. At one point, Francesco, one of Allesandro’s crazy friends was speaking to the crowd, it was great to watch. During my break, the protest was over so I went and talked to Alessandro and he told me a little bit about what they discussed. Then a couple of policemen came over to talk to him and his friends and I was sitting in the middle of it all. I expected them to be rude and have some sort of power trip like cops in America but they were really chill and I’m pretty sure they were discussing food. Oh Italian cops.
For Daniele’s birthday, I decided to make him a little movie of pictures and clips I have taken. Denisa and I did it together, I put everything together and she made the cuts. I will try to upload it here. He loved it when we gave it to him and later as his friends arrived, I took them into my room in groups and showed them as well. About 15 people came, all crammed into our tiny kitchen. Alessandro’s friends, Daniele’s friends and Katie came too. It was a lot of fun. I especially love Alessandro’s friends, Francesco, who is from Sicilia, has a fro and makes crazy faces and sounds, he is great. Then Vito, who is also wonderful and makes crazy sounds, they all do. Then Andrea who is so sweat and actually helps Katie and I with Italian, his girlfriend was visiting too and she was great. They all were over the night before as well and helped me for my Italian test that I had the next morning. I also love them because they are the only ones I see on bicycles in Viterbo. Katie and I want to go on rides with them.
Everyone left the house around one to go to Luccios. I was way too tired and had to get up early the next day, so I was responsible and stayed home, but I really wanted to go out. But all in all it was a wonderful night.
Ok that is really enough, I need to write more frequently instead of writing a book each time.
Ciao ciao, Baci, baci

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