Il Papo. The Pope.

Hello everyone!! Well, 2 more days have passed. I can't believe I'm half way done with my school week already. Yikes. Well, yesterday I got up and got ready for school. I was planning on waking up at 8, but when my alarm went off, I didn't hit snooze, rather I completely changed my alarm to 9 am and went back to sleep. (That is my kind of snooze!) I had planned to meet up with one of my friends from school before our class. I was going to show him Paninopoli- which is Sarah's secret panino place. Both of us were running later than we had planned, but eventually we met up and headed out to get lunch. When we got to Paninopoli there were 5 other people from our program there! (Word is quickly getting out!) This time I opted for prosciutto crudo, salame, maionese, and lattuga. It was very good!

 

 

 

Then after hanging out at school for a little bit and working on homework, I had my literature class. We talked about some of the romantic images of Italy that books and movies present, and then talked about their accuracy. We watched portions of the movies "Roman Holiday" and "Eat, Pray, Love". Very different movies, from very different times, but with a similar kind of idea. It was a very good class. During class our professor offered us a snack. Her colleague brought a very large bag of dried figs and prunes from Sardenia I believe.

This is one of the dried figs that I ate. (Yes, Dad, I ate it!!!) It actually was pretty good. I only had one though because I forgot my water bottle that day and they were kind of chewy and sticky.

 

During our break our professor told us to go get some coffee because we looked like we were all about to fall asleep. I opted for a bar of 71% Cacao (cocoa). It was wonderful, and I ate the whole thing! One thing I would like to mention is the relationship with food that Italians (or Europeans as a whole) have versus the U.S. We've talked about this relationship in a few of my classes (psychology and consumerism) and it is very interesting to note the changes. Italians often eat more, but it is much healthier food. You all have seen the food I've been eating, and yet I can tell that I am losing weight. It really is an interesting thing. And with this chocolate bar, I ate the entire thing and didn't care. Now, I don't have a complex about my weight, but in the U.S. I would usually have a passing thought about how that isn't really a healthy thing to do. Here, that wasn't the case. I've found that I haven't had any thoughts about how many calories are in this or that or trying to decide what is healthy and what isn't. I simply enjoy the food and move on with my day. I think this makes for more peace of mind and some better eating habits without consciously thinking about it. Just some food for thought. (No pun intended.)

 

After class my I leaving my classroom and my friend came over to me with a stack of envelopes. He said "Jeez, you need to check your mail more often!" I informed him that I had just checked it last week and that I was just on my way over to check it again.

I got 4 Valentine's Day cards! Thank you to those of you who sent them! :)

After class I headed over to some friends house for a little bit. We had an aperitivo with our program at 6:45 and class got out at 5 so it was pointless to go home just to come right back. An aperitivo is a cheap way to have dinner. Many bars have them. Basically you pay for a drink (alcoholic obviously) and then you get access to a buffet of food. The more you pay the better the food usually.

 

We left my friends' apartment and this was the view that was waiting for me right around the corner!

While I love living out of the craziness of the city center, it must be pretty cool to literally have the Duomo in your backyard. After the aperitivo was over I went home so I could work on some homework. It was already about 10:30 by the time I got home, which is why I didn't have time to do my homework and write my blog.

Plus, Stella decided she was going to try and prevent me from doing my homework and laid down on my notebook.

Luckily I convinced her to let me do it and I got it all finished and was able to head to bed.

Oh, I almost forgot! The Pope announced his resignation. Obviously this is big news throughout the world, but it is pretty crazy (and cool) to be in Italy while this is happening. It will be interesting to watch it all play out being only a few hours away from Rome!