Cooking classes, mosquito bites, and orange slippers

The bad news is that I am sick.  My sore throat and runny nose are just the latest in a string of illness among the Smithies here in Florence--Giovanna says this always happens in the first few weeks, due to all the new foreign germs we're coming into contact with.  The good news is that a) it's not that bad, I just feel kind of bleh (plus everyone is taking very good care of me, and I bought myself large quantities of kleenex on my way home), and, b) it means I have been all but ordered to stay home and rest this weekend.  So I have time to update all you lovely people on what I've been up to, without feeling guilty about not being out and about seeing Important Landmark X or Talking to Italians and Making the Most of My Year Abroad, and all that.

Orientation classes started Monday, and continue until mid October, at which point regular classes at the Sede and UNIFI (the Florentine University) begin.  For orientation, we have a daily Italian language lesson with Giovanna, as well as weekly or bi-weekly orientations to Florentine history, art (including field trips), and cooking!  We also have a class called "in giro per Firenze" with a fabulous woman named Costanza, who I love already, and who also teaches the history of Costume and Fashion class in the fall.  She is friendly and irreverant and enthusiastic and wears great outfits, and essentially we meander around Florence all evening, learning how to take the bus, where to go for the best ice cream, or good dancing, or cheap notebooks, where and how to get your train ticket validated, etc.  I really want to take her class in the fall. 

The cooking class is at Giovanna's house with a woman named Pam; essentially we cook lots of delicious food and then eat it.  Actually, Pam cooks lots of delicious food, and we help (mostly with things like grating chocolate, or mixing ingredients, tasks that aren't easily messed up).  This week the theme was a phrase I can't remember now, but translated roughly as "peasant food"--relatively simple dishes historically made by poorer families in the countryside.  Two of the dishes were recipies that called for stale bread: Pappa al Pomodoro, a sort of porridge that reminded me of couscous, with onions, tomatoes, olive oil, peppers, etc.; and Panzanella, a delicious, tomato-sauce-and-stale-bread based savory dish.  We also made Pollo in Fricassea, a dish that predates tomatoes in Italy, and hence has a sauce of nearly-raw egg, olive oil, minimal flour, salt, pepper, and parsely.  It sounds odd, but it was REALLY good.  And there was a white wine that went very well with it (yes, I am continuing to practice drinking alcohol with meals.  This one I actually enjoyed enough to realize it went well with the chicken, but not the dessert).  And the dessert was Tiramisù, which is technically not a peasant dish, but, I mean, really, how can you complain?  My host mother also cooks well, and I am quickly running out of ways to say "this is really good!".  I will have to work on my food vocabulary, since I've only been here a week, and it needs to last all year...

And the conversation (led by Pam) over this heavenly lunch (more accurately dinner in the middle of the day) of hers was as follows: vomit (and the details of how one of the students present can't eat much at the moment because it makes her do so), mosquito bites (of which we all have many), ticks, lyme disease, other types of bug bites, and (sorry) pus.  This is very, very Italian.  I am learning that for many Italians, the details of your (and everyone else's) health are considered public, and are perfectly valid dinner table conversation.  And, oddly enough, it feels perfectly normal.  It only occurred to me half way through lunch what, exactly, we'd been discussing so casually, at which point it was amusing rather than gross.

Finally, (and then enough, because this is getting long), some details about my host family, because I realized I got sidetracked in the last post.  Sophia, Caitlin, and I are living with a woman named Emilia, who has two twin 21-year-old daughters who live elsewhere, but come home frequently for dinner and a visit.  Francesca studies art (specifically sculpture) in Bolognia, while Leonora studies math (!) here in Florence.  All three of them are lovely people, friendly and welcoming and easy-going.  Emilia teaches karate to kids nearby, and the house (which is unusually large by Italian standards) is outside of Florence, towards Fiesole, about 20 minutes by bus.  At some point we're going to try walking it, but Emilia says it'll take at least an hour, if not longer, so we're saving it for a day when we're not in a hurry.  The area is not what I would call rural--we live on a somewhat busy street, with other houses and small businesses next to and across from us.  There's an elementary school down the street, a free book swap table on the way to the bus stop (I found an elementary school math work book, to help with learning vocabulary!), and a lovely path a few blocks away that winds up through fields to a villa.  And did I mention the view of the mountains from my window?

Each of us has our own room, and the three of share a bathroom.  Each of the bedrooms has a color theme (not that the entire room and everything in it is that color--just enough to be a nice theme without over doing it): mine is red/yellow/orange, with a massive bunk bed; Caitlin's is blue, and Sophie's is green.  Emilia got us each a pair of IKEA slippers that match our room colors.

I will send pictures of the house, of us, of various trips when I get a chance. At the moment they're all on my laptop, and I'm using Emilia's.  Let me know if you want to receive email updates whenever I post something to this blog--I can add you to a list, and Blogger will automatically email you each new post.

A dopo,
Emily