01/21/10

I'm having a rough time getting pictures up on this blog, so sorry for that. For some reason I can't connect to the wireless network in AHA...yes, I tried everything you will tell me to try, so don't bother. I don't know why. I can go to the library I guess, or to a cafe. Today I'll just write again because I don't have much time and because I didn't write yesterday...or the day before. I've been busy. Our toilet broke again. This time the flusher completely came out of the ceiling. I don't mind the bucket method really, but we had to tell Serena because we'd get charged for damages. Anyway...

Did I tell you I bought a bottle of white wine? It was pretty cheap I think, but here that doesn't mean it's bad. It's hard to find bad wine here, Filiberto said. You can buy a liter for like £.60 I think. It's like water. Anyway, I made myself some spaghetti the other night and I wanted to open my wine bottle, but I guess I never carefully watched Mom and Dad do it because it's sitting on our table right now with the opener still stuck in the cork.

We're going to Civitanova-Marche on Saturday. Apparently it's a city on the beach (Adriatic Sea) and has good shopping and seafood (yay!). Friday Filiberto's leading us on another tour around Macerata. I've seen all the other apartments now and am starting to sort of get my groundings. Wednesday morning after painting we all walked around the market (basically a huge street sale that takes place inside the whole city center every Wednesday morning, with everything from fresh fruit-the oranges here come from Sicily-to housewares to shoes) and, after I wandered off from the other students I was with somehow found my way back home. Most of the vendors didn't speak any English at all so it was fun trying to communicate. I've been depending on, "Sto provando imparare italiano," alot or "I'm trying to learn Italian." Other than that, I rely on Spanish sometimes. Just trying to speak their italian with them usually has gone a long way. We're getting tandem partners soon (italian students) to practice language with and learn the culture. So that's exciting...
In Cross-Cultural Communication we take excursions on Fridays, sometimes lasting through the weekend, like to Firenze and Roma. But on Wednesday, Angelica taught us some italian ways to cook and gave us little recipe books with things like Pesto and Tiramisu and ethnic dishes. Yum.


Random fact: Marche, the region Macerata is in, means "the end of the territory." So it was named because the expansion of the Roman Empire in Italy ended in Urbino, the region below Marche. So Marche was the "end" of the Empire's territory.


Tiramisu = "pick me up" or "cheer me up"