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| Venice from an areal view!! So excited! |
Today, besides being a school day, turned into a logistics day since we have to leave early tomorrow for Venice, so this post probably won't be very long! Waking up just seems to get harder as the days go on because we fill our days with so much activity and sleeping is often hard to come by... But this morning I met up with Carrie at a cafe on Verdi for a cappuccino and a croissant! It was nice to have a change of pace for the morning.
Italian class was actually more productive today because we learned the gerund (present participle), or the -ing ending after we took a quiz. It's funny because classes at University of Florida are only fifty minutes long, so that is usually the length of an exam, whereas here the classes are two and a half hours, so when Marta said that we had a small quiz that would take forty minutes... well lets just say that seems pretty long. NOT a short quiz!! The hardest part is actually getting used to sitting in class for two and a half hours... it's harder than it sounds. Really. Allora, the quiz was really easy because it covered all the review material that Alessia had already taught us. Go Alessia! Anyway, the new information doesn't seem too complicated, yet. The thing about languages is that something can seem easy, but then there are ALWAYS irregulars and exceptions to the rule... it makes something that is seemingly so easy, so hard!
It always surprises me that English is supposedly the hardest language to learn... I guess it is probably because I can speak it, but still... Let's just say I am glad I am not learning Chinese right now. Now that language looks impossible!
After our break during Italian class, where I ate an apple for lunch, we played a team game where we formulated a question from a statement, and the other team had to decide if what we said was correct or not. I will start with saying that "un costume di bagno" is NOT a dressing room in a department store, but a bathing suit... Rookie mistake. My team... team "Ciao Bella" lost. Big time. I don't know what we were thinking but we were all just struggling. One of the statements said, "a friend invites you to a party, but you don't know if you want to go." The girl on my team responds with "is he fun or is he annoying?" So basically she was forming her response on the basis that she would only go to the party if the host was fun. My teacher didn't understand that at all. It was pretty comical.
After class we headed to Wine tasting class, where I almost fell asleep. I don't know what it is about three o'clock in the afternoon, but it must be nap time because EVERYONE practically ran out of the place at the break in search of COFFEE!!! Maybe Livia just goes way too far in depth for our little brains and two and half hours is a lot to listen to... anyway, by the time the actual tasting came about we were ready for something other than lecture! The wines today were all delicious! We first tasted a "feminine" white wine, a Pinot Noir, and then a Barolo. They were all so different but offered such great flavor! I felt actually, for the first time I might add, like I understood what the smells were. In the Barolo I definitely smelled essences of chocolate and licorice, while in the white, pear and green apples! This is real. What?
After class, Carrie and I went to the "Tutto 99 Cent" store and Conad to get some snacks for Venice and some other toiletries needed for the apartment. Shopping for living purposes! Ahh! It's continuing to hit me... I LIVE HERE! I don't know why but we go through toilet paper like water here... I know everything in the US is bigger, but seriously! The size of these rolls is sub par at best. There are eight of us in this apartment! Oh well... I always go back to the fact that, it doesn't matter because I'm in ITALY!
I got back to the apartment with no real plans until Erika invited me to go to the Gelato Festival with her and Cole. It was ONLY five euro for five little cups of gelato (small meaning my normal size). When we walked up to the meeting area accidentally, the guide of the gelato walk (which provided us with the discounted price) asked us for our names... we told her that we signed up late and she just wrote our names down. We pretty much snuck into the festival. It was legit. We were only tasting our second cup when we heard that they were doing a free gelato seminar... so of course we went and listened for an hour as they handed out free samples of the WEIRDEST type, but homemade gelati ever! One was Gorgonzola with honey drizzle, walnuts and pistachios. Now I know I told you I like cheese... and I DO, but that might have been the strangest thing I have EVER tasted. It was kinda good, but it was just so unexpected that it was almost gross. It's hard to explain... They also provided us with a small orange gelato cocktail and an apple sorbet with persecco. The apple one was so awesome, but the cocktail was a bit strange...
After that we were pretty much full and we still had two free gelato tastings left on our coupon! Luckily the festival is open until Sunday night, so we can come back after Venice! WOO! Once it started getting chilly we decided it was time to go, and I thought that my other roommates might be curious where I was at this point... so we started back when we saw a mob of people surrounding this man in a hat. He was doing this weird magical routine where he would pull random people out of the crowd, dress them up, and make them do strange things. Only in Europe would people be so captivated by an old man performing magic in the middle of the road. He would scare people when they weren't pay attention and carried out a language to his contestants through a whistle. It was pretty entertaining, but Erika and I were standing in the front row... starting to feel nervous that we would be dragged into the show. We left after leaving a few cents in his hat and headed back to the apartment to pack for VENICE!
What started off as a casual, not super exciting day ended with a BANG! I am glad Erika and Cole got me to join them at the festival. Small gestures of kindness are awesome, as is gelato! Sorry for the short, pictureless post, but I didn't get may pictures in today and I have to get to sleep because I have to wake up early for... I think you know... VENICE!! (I hope the weather lied... because supposedly it is no higher than 70 degrees Fahrenheit and rainy!!) Gah! Wish me luck!
Ci vediamo sabato sera o domenica!
PS: Mom, see Erika and I do hang out! I will add a picture when I get a copy when she posts them on facebook! Love you <3 Baby Bear
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