oh Italia!

June 5/6

Holy canoli! I get to have an epic little catch up session! I hope I don't miss anything!

This week, I was able to present a chapter on Alexander the Great in class which was very entertaining. To make things a bit more interesting, I drew a huge pictures of Alex and made everything on him signify something else about his life - like his cape suggested his hero status and his 6 rings depicted his 6 lovers and his sword pointed east represented how he wanted to conquer the east. That was fun! We had the great opportunity to visit the Etruscan museums here in Tuscania as well as Tarquinia. Afterwards, we aw a real Etruscan necropolis. (I didn't know this at the time until I asked, but a necropolis is pretty much a city of tombs and sarcophagi!) the only problem with this little adventure is that after a while, everything started looking kinda the same. Besides that, it was 100 degrees outside and super bright which meant that our eyes were getting quite the workout adjusting from the dark of the tombs to the bright of the outside world each time we went in and out.

We also went to Giglio Island on the 5th - quite an amazing day trip! It was just our 6 person API group for this one…which made it all the more fun! We left super early in the morning and spent a bit of the morning traveling through Tuscany proper. The countryside was absolutely gorgeous! It's really frustrating taking pictures now, because I feel like the lens just isn't able to capture the beauty of the moment. I wish I could put a little camera in my eye so that you can see what I see. In any case, the views had rolling green and yellow hills accentuated by prairies and dotted with cyprus trees stretching their branches tall into a limitless clear blue sky. The island itself was so beautiful! I felt like I was in a vacation magazine or something! We took a big boat from the mainland to the isola and with the wind and the sun and the beautiful indigo water, I felt like I was on some crazy vacation or something! We spent the morning walking around Giglio and then took a packed bus (like you couldn't fit a penny into that bus with all the people crowded in it but it was still great fun) up to the ancient Mediterranean village on the top of the island. Around afternoon time, we took a 12 mile small boat tour around the entire island. The sun beat down so strongly that even I put on sunscreen! I couldn't help but be absolutely astounded by how gorgeous the water was. Sparkling in the light from the sun, I felt like I was skimming along the top of an aqua cerulean paradise. I loved the smell of the sea air and the sight of the rich brown and green coast. It made me realize how much I love the water!

I never thought I'd actually get the opportunity to jump in the water - I mean the odds were looking bleak when our API director and our group talked that morning while walking through the ancient village. But our captain stopped the boat and said that we could jump in --- and I did! Just…up and dived into the Mediterranean! Wow! What an amazing experience! I've never been in the sea before and it was so cool! Haha, literally too! I couldn't believe how clear the water was - I mean, I could see my feet beneath the water! What more, I could see to the bottom! And the salt…I felt like I was being marinated to be cooked or something with how salty my body was!

We spent the rest of the evening looking at all the shops and gift shops along the coast -- I've decided that I definitely want a room in my future house to be beach themed…white washed wood and red and blue stripes and seashells and everything! A lot of the stuff in the gift shops even looked very creatable….maybe that's what I'll do with the rest of my summer - make crafts!

Oh, and of course, don't think that Gelata wasn't on the lookout for more gelato flavors… I mean, considering how dedicated I am to Falleroni and their family business goodness, I just consider this doing research on the top regional gelato competitors haha. In any case, I tried a little bit of torrone, orange and chocolate, and castelli. Torrone is like an amazing explosion of white chocolate fudge, honey, and almonds (my favorite combo)  and castelli is kinda like a fruit cake - all delicious although nothing like the quality of falleroni - and alas, my loyalties will lie with him!

On the subject of food, I guess I'm so lucky to be living in a host family - not only directly because I'm saving so much money on all my daily meals but also because I get the opportunity to help with cooking and seeing how traditional Italian dishes are made!

Ah! Speaking of families, Maria Carla's daughter came in this week! I guess I was a bit naïve in thinking that only she would be visiting so boy was I in for a surprise! I came home from school and here was a full and busy house! I definitely met Frederica alright - as well as her husband Giovanni, their children cute Francesco (5) and beautiful baby Carlotta (1), as well as Giovanni's parents Marie and Frederico. He was just a bit overwhelming to be quite honest - I mean going from one person Maria Carla to a kajillion was a bit difficult. Here I am in trying to speak Italian  and not knowing if they would like me or not! I went to my room to put my books and bag away after meeting everyone and walking by and bathroom, I saw someone just leaving it - wait a second! That's MY BATHROOM! This is MY house! What are these people doing?! Then, reality kinda smacked me and I  realized how stupid I was being…I reconsidered…this is way more their home than it is mine - by far! I saw how lovingly maria carla looked at her daughter and grandchildren and saw that if anyone was to be imposing, it was me. I couldn't help but feel like I was intruding on family and that I was somewhere that I really didn't

 belong. It kinda hurt, truth be told. At the time, I didn't know how I could possibly make it for another 3 weeks with the rest of the family (they would only leave june 20) but then I realized that there was no point of focusing on this aspect of the experience - I started to look at it as a positive, and a positive it became!

2 days later, I was super happy to be part of a fully, busy household once again! I guess everything reminded me of home - or being in india….family meals times all together and little Francesco reminded me a lot of my little brother Max. Frederica is really cool - I kinda see her as the bigger sister I never had. I mean, she's so cute and knows a bit of English and is really friendly and stylish and likes to bake and cook like her mom. She's a bit fiery too -- there's always a bit of a defensiveness in her tone of voice when she has to answer to someone else although with the little winks she gives me, I can deduce that she's joking half the time. She actually reminds me of a mix between my sister Chrystal and one of my best friends, Hannah :) Frederica is 5 years older than giovanni and although she pretty much runs the house (bills, cooking, mainly taking care of the kids) she still ahs to answer to Giovanni. That's the one thing I noticed right away - Italy is a very masculine dominated country.  I mean, right there at the dinner table, the only men in the house were sitting around waiting for food to appear in front of them even though everyone else was running around (including me) preparing the meal and setting the table. Quite frustrating! Good news though, I found Giovanni helping out a few days later with dinner stuff.

Speaking of Giovanni, I think it's so cute to see how he is with kids - I mean, yes he can be a bit of an ass sometimes,, but I can tell that he's a good dad. I love being a part of a big household now - things are always going on and everything is just a lot more lively. I'm getting to know everyone - whether that's helping Frederica and Maria Carla cook dinner or offering all the mom's in the house massages (that was a hit!) It's such a blessing to be able to experience true Italian family life - I mean yesterday, (june 14) we watched the Italy vs. Paraguya FIFA game before and during dinner and it was great! They were all yelling and getting excited and dancing around - it was so cool! Italians use their hands SO much in conversation (even little Francesco!) I can't help but laugh watching them! It's also very entertaining because it's like they're inherently bipolar or something - they going from angry to happy in as little time as it takes to spread some warm mozarella on bruschetta! Oh! That reminds me of another thing - CHEESE!  Italians eat so much cheese! But it's all so fresh and yummy! Actually, they call cream cheese "Philadelphia" because that's what it says on the packaging! Haha! And they just cut up a block of it and eat it just like that! Every course of the meal has to be on it's own separate plate as well. They looked at me like I was crazy when I put some salad on my half eaten pasta dish (I mean, I was only pulling a classic Christine and mixing everything in sight!).

On Thursday, I helped Fredericka make pizza in the cool outdoor wood oven I made crostatas win! We made a mozarella and fior di zucca (zucchini flower), a delicious margarita one, and frederica made some meat ones - I couldn't help with those because our API group went to Viterbo's thermal baths as a cool culture event. That was really neat - they are these natural hot mineral springs that's really good for your skin. We stayed about an hour there. Of course, we had to go home and eat the pizza I helped make and Maria Carla wanted Gabrielle and Emily over for dinner since they live in apartments and don't have host families to feed them. Everything was delicious! Quite a success!