Broken water heaters and lots of food

***piu foto a http://www.flickr.com/photos/manda_face/ !***

Sun 22 Feb 2009

Accomplishments this week: Hours of searching for a show to see in London (as of now still unsuccessful, but Brian and I refuse to give up!); planned a last-minute trip to Barcelona for this coming weekend with Hailey; found out my roommates are actually going to Barcelona that same weekend, as are a few other kids; grated cheese, chopped peppers and tomatoes for fantastic black bean burritos and then potato soup chef'ed by WackyJacky; wore my brain out studying for the Renaissance exam Tuesday that I still need to study more for. Wowza.

So last Tuesday was when I discovered Brian sitting at his computer before our culture class, looking up shows to go see–the same thing I had been doing and spent some time on the weeks before. I told him about my list of shows I'd been writing up and found out he desperately wanted to see the Kaiser Chiefs and Black Kids as well. After class, we spent at least a good two hours trying to work out how we could get to one of their shows, unsuccessfully. But we decided not to give up and instead keep looking for ways to get to that one or find another place where our musical tastes cross and go to that show.

Most of my nights and free time these days is spent in some apartment or other up on the third floor of San Faustino. Usually, it's with Hailey, Jacky, John and Alex. Sometimes though, it's with Amy, Crystal, Fauna, Kim and their whole group. On Friday, after our (surprisingly short) trip to Pienza, Amy and Nicole were celebrating their "birthdays." Neither one was having a birthday here, so they decided to pick a random day, make some burgers and chili fries, and celebrate together. They had told me about it in Venezia, and Friday afternoon I got a call from Amy saying they were going to Ipercoop and asking if they should pick me up a veggie burger. But of course!

I picked up some of these chocolate cookies with little vanilla stars on them that are big here, probably because they taste absolutely incredible, and headed upstairs around 19:30. They were already cooking the chili for the chili cheese fries and putting up my veggie burgers so they didn't mix with the meat (thanks guys!!) i played some card game that, on the box, raved that it was big in the US. None of us had ever heard of it before. It involved French, speed limits, flat tires and traffic lights. All printed on a deck of cards. Go figure, but it was at least as fun as the Uno games where I kept having to draw 10 cards.

The food was so delicious. They had purchased some peppericino cheese for the burgers, which is the best kind I've had since I've been here. The chilifries were just spicy enough, just cheesy enough and not too fried. Spent the night just hanging out in their apartment with Amy, Nicole, Kelly, Brian, Chris, Rob, Crystal, Kayla and Carrie, having a good time.

Other highlights of the week are also based around food and cooking. Cooked dinner twice with Jacky, Hailey and the boys in their apartment; made grilled cheese at least twice, too. Did a pretty decent cheese grating and pepper/tomato chopping job, if I do say so myself. I hadn't thought I'd been craving Mexican food or American food, but during their respective meals, the burritos, potato soup (essentially mashed potatoes) and grilled cheese totally hit the spot.

Completely out of order, but I'm getting tired, the Pienza field trip was okay but not as much as I'd hoped for. We were there for about two hours. It was beautiful, but not more so than Viterbo or any other city I've seen. In fact, some of the streets looked like they were torn out of Viterbo and plopped down in a town two hours away. We took a tour of Piccolomini's palace, led by an entertaining tour guide who must've learned English listening to one of those handheld speakers that you punch numbers into at a museum and they tell you about a painting or an artifact.

Still, the view outside the palace beyond the garden was breathtaking. The chieza next door was pretty impressive too, but couldn't hold a candle to some of the others I've seen. After the tour, they told us we had an hour free for lunch. We walked around for a few minutes and then got some quick sandwiches, thinking we had to meet back because we'd be touring the rest of the town after we ate. Instead, we met back the palace only to be led back onto the buses and taken back to Viterbo.

Saturday consisted of the the first day I've been able to go for a run. I'm definitely out of shape compared to how far I was running at home, but it felt so good. It took me way longer than it should've to find some cheap running sneakers, but Ipercoop finally presented me with some dark brown, stylish kicks that supported my ankles well enough and cost five euro. You know what they say about when opportunity knocks, and now my legs are pleasantly sore from finally getting to run around this town yesterday and today.

Saturday was also a night of going out and celebrating Carnivale in Viterbo. All the bartenders at Blitz were dressed as Greek gods. Others came into the bar to buy drinks dressed as Disney characters and superheroes. At Lucio's, I stole some guy's hat to take a picture in it (don't worry, he got it back after) and we made a friend named Ned, a high school junior from Boston who was also studying in Viterbo. I marvel at anyone who's able to study abroad in high school, but I'm still much happier that I got to do it in college. I think I appreciate it more than I might've back then.

A very fun Saturday night, a very fun (or at least, eventful) most nights this week and weekend spent in Viterbo. To look forward to in the coming week: much stress tomorrow concerning my housing in Commons for next year and the big exam I have on Tuesday; and plans to plan out for Barcelona.

Ci vediamo, blog!