It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right, I hope you have the time of your life...

It is currently 24 degrees here. Just thought you should know that.

I've become facebook friends with some of the italian students in my university class, and ALL of them have photo albums titled "NEVE!!!" (SNOW!!!) or "La neve è arrivata a Firenze!" (Snow has arrived in Florence!) or [my favorite] "La neve a Pontasieve" (la NEH-veh ah pohnt-ah-see-EH-veh. The snow in Pontasieve).  I've heard from multiple people that this is the first time it has snowed (or at least, snowed significantly) in Florence for something like 18 years.  When I was out for a walk to take pictures yesterday morning, I passed one of my favorite little old Italian ladies (there are several I chat with at the bus stop on a reasonably regular basis--I keep forgetting to ask their names) creeping along the icy sidewalk one careful step at time, who told me (quite cheerfully, and with a broad grin) that one had to watch one's footing, or else one would wind up on the ground.*  I would have offered her an arm, except that she seemed to be doing just fine on her own, and I didn't want to offend her by suggesting otherwise.  Actually, she seemed so very self-sufficient that it didn't even occur to me to offer her an arm until after we had already exchanged greetings and gone on in opposite directions.

For the most part, this seems to be the general reaction of most Florentines; ie, everyone points out that the snow and ice cause not insignificant inconveniences in a city that isn't used to them, but at the same time no one seems to mind, because it's beautiful.  Everything essentially stopped yesterday: school, work, the buses, the Florence-Milan soccer game.  Cars did drive on the streets, but veeeeery slowly (I think it's the first time EVER I've seen a car take the narrow turn coming up to our house at anything less than break-neck speed).  Parents took their kids out to play in the snow.  Teenagers wrote things like "Ciao merda" (Hey ****) in the snow-covered windows of cars.  Most bus routes were running again by mid-day, but completely off schedule and at loooong intervals (think 40 minutes or so) and the 10 was still turning around several stops before our house, but I didn't hear a single complaint from anyone about having to walk 20 minutes to a different bus stop and then having to wait half an hour for a bus.  And believe me, Florentines are not shy about voicing grievances.

This morning I passed what may have at some point been a snowman (today it was just a smallish mound of snow) with a label that said "Alfredo", which made me laugh.  Alfredo is a man's name in Italian.  However, "al freddo", although I've never heard the expression used, would translate as "cold", as in a dish which is served unheated, or possibly uncooked (the expression might actually be "a freddo", but close enough...).  So I think this was an Italian version of those awful "What do you call a..." jokes (example: What do you call a man with no arms and no legs?")  (Matt)  (I told you they were awful).  If I'm right, it will have been the first Italian joke that I understood without having to ask for an explanation, which is a not insignificant accomplishment.  Italian crossword puzzles, however are still hopeless.  I'm still working on knowing ONE word for an object or concept, let alone all the obscure or clever ways of saying the same thing.

I'll post my pictures as soon as I can.  In the meantime, you can watch this (when you get tired of watching shaky shots of snow falling at night, skip to minute 2, where the still shots start).

The title of this post, for anyone who doesn't recognize it, is a line from the chorus of a Green Day song.  It's one of those over-played songs that I wind up discovering years after everyone else has already gotten sick of it (that's what I get for having been out of the pop-culture loop as a teenager), but it has been running through my head since I woke up to snow yesterday morning after the whole airport fiasco.



*Italian uses the passive a lot more than English does, and in a very flexible way.  For example, you can say "si gira a sinistra al supermercato" (one turns left at the supermarket) in the same way we would say "you turn left at the supermarket" (although Italians also use the "you" form of verbs for the same purpose, just like we do), but I've also heard "fra 5 minuti si mangia", which literally means "in five minutes one eats" but actually means "dinner's ready in five minutes" or "Bambini, si scende qui" (Children, one gets off [the bus] here), which really means "we're getting off here, hurry up!".  What I'm getting at is that, in English, you only use the "one does this" construction in written English, or (rarely) in spoken English when trying to be funny.   Spoken Italian (both formal and informal), on the other hand, uses it all the time.

Location: not London.

My vacation was supposed to start with a weekend in London.  Four other Smithies and I had plane tickets and a hostel all booked, and lists of things we wanted to do, including Kew Gardens, the changing of the guard, the Rosetta Stone, Christmas markets, the Globe theater, mulled cider and mince pies, tea and scones, etc, etc...  On Friday morning we took a train to central Pisa, another train from there to the Pisa airport, and then sat around for several hours waiting for check in to start (we gave ourselves a little TOO much extra time--but better way early than late), excited not just because we were going to London but also because we’d heard there was snow in London.  In fact, there was a snow storm in London.  And we found out while waiting in line to check in that the airport we were supposed to be flying into had just closed.  So our flight was cancelled.  Not delayed, just outright cancelled.

Needless to say, things got complicated.  It’s all turning out all right, though.  I’m back in Florence, staying with my host mother’s mother (who herself is a host mother to some of the other Smithies who have already left.  Her name is Maria Teresa) until Mom and Ellie arrive on Tuesday (I could have tried to get a spot on another flight the next day or the day after, but they were predicting snow in London Saturday too, and if I went Sunday I’d just be turning around and flying back to Florence Monday morning).  Actually, technically I’m staying with my host mother’s uncle, Bruno, in Maria Teresa’s house, because she left this morning for Tunisia with Emilia, Francesa and Eleonora (Emilia’s twin daughters), but not before giving me a key, and explaining how to get to the house, and where the closest grocery store was, and which room I should use, and that I should make myself at home in the kitchen.

I lucked out, because even though I'm disappointed not to go to London this weekend, I can always go another time, and at least didn’t HAVE to go to London--for the other four with me, their travel plans depend on being in London to catch flights elsewhere later in the week.  Also, the London hostel cancelled my reservation without charging me for it, it looks like EasyJet will at least reimburse me for the flight TO London, and, best of all, had I gone to London, I would have missed out on the SNOW in Florence!!!

Except for up in the hills, Florence almost never gets snow.  And even when there is snow, it’s only flurries that don’t stick.  Yesterday evening it started snowing, and kept going all night, so that we woke up to at least an inch or two.  It’s gorgeous.  I took lots of pictures, but I didn’t bring my camera cord with me when I moved houses, so you’ll have to wait about a week to see them.  Did I mention that Florence only has one snowplow? Luckily, the snow on most streets melted fairly quickly (after going through a nasty icy stage that was pretty but perilous).  The buses were still completely out of whack, however, and I wound up walking about 20 minutes, loaded down with my backpack, my duffle, and a shoulder bag to a different bus stop, because when the 10 bus can’t get all the way up to Settignano, they don’t even bother going as far as our house, because there’s nowhere to turn around at that point.  And then I waited about half an hour, maybe 40 minutes before the other bus turned up.  But I got here eventually, and later Camilla (another Smithie) and I went up to San Miniato al Monte to see the spectacular view of snowy Florence, drink hot chocolate, and listen to the monks chant vespers.  It was cold (the streets up near San Miniato are still iced over, and it was definitely colder up there), but beautiful, and full of Florentines (and some stray tourists) marveling and taking lots of pictures and throwing snow balls.  Emilia told me it snows like this maybe once in 20 years.

Bread bowls and apple pie

This week it has been raining a lot.  On Wednesday I though I had soup and bread left at the Sede, only to discover (when I went to go eat it) that I didn't.  And it was pouring.  Although at least I had an umbrella and a raincoat, which was a step up from the day before, when I ran to the fornaio (bakery) in the pouring rain with neither, and gave in and bought an umbrella on the way back.  So I wandered out into the rain with vague thoughts of going to the Greek place someone discovered last week, only I couldn't remember exactly where it was.  Before I found it, though, I passed a tiny little place (all the lunch places in florence are tiny) advertising stew and a sandwich for a reasonable price.  I love stew.  Especially when it's raining.  So I ducked inside, added my umbrella to the pile at the door, and ordered.  I was very happily surprised to discover that they were using the word panino, which can mean either sandwich or the roll you make a sandwich with, to mean BREAD BOWL!!!  The only thing I adore more than stew is stew in a bread bowl.  So I was very happy.  Also, there was no surcharge to perch on a stool at the little counter by the front window, so I did, and wound up chatting (in Italian!) with a woman who was sitting next to me who, it turned out, lives near Vallombrosa, which is a beautiful wooded area with an abbey in the mountains that I've been wanting to visit.  We talked about Florence, and about the U.S. health system and how Obama's trying to change it, and how the Italian health system works.  Part-way through she asked me what I really liked about Florence, and I meant to tell her the bells--you can hear church bells ringing from almost anywhere in Tuscany, whether you're in the center of the city or up on top of a mountain where you can't hear anything but the wind--and bells.  Except that I told her I liked i campanelli--the doorbells.  The word I was looking for is campanili, which means bell towers.  That was entertaining...  She also asked me what I really, really disliked about Florence--and that was surprisingly difficult.  I mean, I know there are (must be?) things I don't like about Florence, but in the moment I couldn't come up with anything except that the University is completely disorganized, which, at least for the moment is mildly frustrating and entertaining, but not something I really strongly dislike.  All in all it turned into a lovely lunch on a rainy day.  And she left me her number, so that if I wind up going to Vallombrosa, I can call her, and she'll show me around.

Tonight Emilia isn't home, so Caitlin and Sofi and I invited (with Emilia's permission--actually, it was her idea) some of the other smithies over to watch Love Actually and eat apple pie.  The latter is currently in the oven

In fact, the timer just rang.  Hang on.

So, after I got the pie out of the oven, I remembered that I'd completely forgotten about my tea in the microwave (the reason it was in the microwave in the first place was that I forgot about it after I put the tea bag in and it got cold)--and that was more alarming that you might think.  See, this microwave is unique in that none of the buttons work.  When you shut the door, it's on.  And when you open the door, it's off.  So if you forget to take something out, it just keeps on heating indefinitely.  It also means you have to remember not to shut the door when you're done.  And 21 years of shutting the door after you take something out of the microwave, as Caitlin put it, is a hard habit to break.

Anyway.  After getting the pie out of the oven and my tea out of the microwave, it was time to start getting dinner ready.  Tonight that just meant reheating chicken, potatoes, and various side dishes.  Since the oven was still hot, we put the potatoes and sides in the oven, and the chicken in the microwave.  About ten minutes later, the potatoes were only mildly warm, so Caitlin turned the oven back on.  Except there are two knobs (like most ovens--one with temperature and one for "on"), and she  didn't realize I'd turned the temperature back down to zero after I took the pie out, and the oven, unlike the microwave, does not turn on automatically when you shut the door.  So ten minutes later, the potatoes were still only luke warm, at which point we caught on to the temperature issue, and turned it back up.  By then, though, the chicken had been sitting on the table for twenty minutes and was cold.  So it went back in the microwave.  By the time we got everything reasonably hot at the same time, it was quarter of nine (the goal was to eat at 8).  Clearly we fail at reheating dinner.

Il giorno di ringraziamento!

Some of you know that my cousin Sarah is also here in Florence for the semester, doing an art history/photography program (and taking fabulous pictures!).  We've been able to hang out occasionally, which is great, and last week her dad (my Uncle Bill) was here to visit for thanksgiving!  I went over to Sarah's apartment, and had Thanksgiving Dinner with them and Sarah's roommates and some of their family members.  There were about14 of us all together, and everyone made a dish or two.  Yes, that's right: all 14 people (well, nearly all) made at least one or two dishes.  At the same time.  In the apartment's kitchen.  Now, granted, it is not a tiny kitchen, but it's not huge either.  Add to this wine and snacks and the fact that Elizabeth (Sarah's sister, another cousin of mine) called on skype part-way through dinner prep, and the only place we could get both internet and electricity for Sarah's laptop was in the kitchen doorway.

Needless to say, there was some chaos involved.  But it was reasonably organized and cheerful chaos, and the dinner was delicious and HUGE: two chickens (I think we weren't sure a turkey would fit in the oven), mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, two kinds of stuffing, a spinach-queche sort of a thing, gravy, sweet potatoes (with butter and eggs and cinnamon!), scalloped potatoes, german bread, copious amounts of wine, pumpkin pie, chocolate cream pie, brownies, sugar cookies, ice cream, truffles, and a "digestive" liqueur for anyone who could stand it.  It was so awesome to be able have a real thanksgiving complete with family (in Florence!).