Settled in my Italian town.

It is still amazing to me the way that time works.   One day I was sitting in my room thinking about something, and I was literally thinking that I had been gone since last Christmas… no not quite dear, just since Labor day weekend, same difference right?  Some days are so incredibly full of adventures that they feel like they lasted a week when I get to the end of them, yet while I am going through them, they feel so fast.  Its fascinating to me…  But all in all, I feel very comfortable and settled here in Macerata, It took a while, and I think I have been settled for a while, but I just didn't notice.  It just kind of snuck up on me.  And even if I am "settled"  I still love to try to find new places (which is really quite easy) And, believe it or not, I miss snow.  Like a lot.  I think it might be because it is still a bit chilly in the apartment, and its chilly outside, and everyday I wake up thinking that it will have snowed, and it hasn’t.

So some of the things that have been filling my week lately, I had another cooking class at Gina and Marc’s.  This time we learned to make gniocchi.  This stuff will change your life.  It is a potato pasta, but basically it is just a little ball of delicious carbs, that you then gently coat (not smother) in some sort of sauce, like a pesto or various others.  We made had it with a gorgonzola cream sauce, and I got the opportunity to show off that I can really be a bottomless pit if I want to… There was gniocchi left (we made a lot… ) and Marc proclaimed that he did not have the intention of throwing any away, and with the sauce on it, it really wouldn’t keep well… so obviously I had to be kind and help out.  It was completely worth it. 

We have been learning all sorts of new verb tenses in Italian, before our break I felt kind of like we had hit a wall and weren’t really getting all that much new material, but now it’s flying at us.  But I love learning it, and being able to have real conversations with people.  I don’t always understand everything that is being thrown at me (they talk so fast, and I am pretty sure a 4 year old has a wider vocabulary than I do, but at least I can conjugate my verbs…?)  but I do have the ablity to speak and respond if I can get someone to slow down for me!  And I can almost understand the choruses for a couple of Italian songs that I have downloaded!  Progress, even if it's small

Thursday night I went to a little concert at a theater here. It had a gorgeous neo classical ceiling, with winged victories in the corners.  (Fun fact, the greek word for victory is “nike”)  It was a quintet: piano, cello, violin, flute, and clarinet.  They played an assortment of modern “classical” music.  The theatre we were in was fascinating.  Like so many buildings in this city, it was bigger inside than should be physically possible.  It is like walking into the wardrobe or wonderland sometimes as you walk into a little door, and all of the sudden you are in this huge space that you swear based on your knowledge of he surrounding city “block”  should not be physically possible. (I don’t know what else to call the “blocks,” but I feel like the term block gives the impression of regular geometric organization and that just does not exist)  But the concert was quite cool, a few pieces leaned more toward “interesting”  and after a few minutes I had had my taste and was ready to move on, but the rest of the concert was wonderful.  For me, if you have flute, cello and piano in the same song, it can be quite hard to go wrong (perhaps I am a bit biased towards the aforementioned instruments… but you never really know…)

Friday we went to Loretto, just a short bus ride away, and home to an absolutely astounding church.  Legend states that in the year 1297, a small house was deposited on a public road near Loretto, and that house was said to be the childhood home of the Virgin Mary.  It was in this very place that the angel appeared to her and told her she would have a Son.  Word spread, and pilgrims began to flock to Loretto to leave treasures for the Virgin as offerings of thanks for her intercessions on their behalf.  This treasure began to grow, and soon a fortress was needed to protect it from thieves.  Later, a church was built around that fortress, and it is incredibly beautiful.  I actually got tears in my eyes walking in.  There are small chapels on the sides for different countries where a priest or monk will wait to hear confession in various languages.  Each chapel has its own unique décor, and the church as a whole is just filled with color from floor to soaring ceiling.  Filiberto then took us on a little walk around the walls of the city, and we all kind of wondered why… they didn’t seem all that special, however, we soon found out that the same architect that designed them designed the palace where we have class, and this makes them highly significant.

Sunday, I went to mass, and I was quite proud of myself because I figured out that the priest was speaking on the parable of the talents, I was not really sure what his take on the story was, except that he got much more impassioned than last week... but I was proud that I could at least make out what story it was!  That night Chelsea, Lisa and I made pancakes and home fries.  Our interesting kitchen situations, and the lack of utensils created what I thought was a dilemma when it came to flipping though…no spatula.  But, luckily for us, Chelsea is a certified hands free pancake flipper.  I am not kidding.  I don’t care if she has the actual piece of paper or not (but I trust her that this exists…for whatever reason)  But she is awesome at flipping the pancakes in the skillet with just a flick of the wrist. 

I also wandered around the monthly flea market and saw several accordions, I might just add that to my list of instruments to learn, so far that list really only has harp and piano (at least a bit more proficiency) so I think there is definitely room for one more.  But the flea market has tons of really cool antiques and things if you are patient and dig around a bit.  It felt like one of my wonderful weekends wandering East Town antique shops and then going to Global Infusion, except no chai tea here (not any where that I can find, and trust me, I have looked)

Fun facts for the week:
1) there is a brand of canned vegetables here called “Annalisa”  I plan to buy a can of them and save the label.

2) It took 3000 oil lamps and 3000 candles to light the theatre of Versailles for one show.  One candle was approximately equal to the wages of 1 blue collar worker for a week.  Aren’t you glad we have light bulbs?

3) The magic of a Stradavarius violin is actually mostly myth. 

4) There is nothing like a fair trade chocolate festival and a flea market full of antiques to remind me of home.

5) Thursday evening (early afternoon in Michigan) I will be waiting at the train station for my mom, and I cannot wait.