AN ALL-AMERICAN kind of day...sort of

Well, it is the first of December.  That means that it has been 2 months since I arrived in Italy, and technically that is 9 weeks.  I cannot believe everything that has happened in the past 9 weeks and all of the amazing opportunities I have been blessed with and offered for the future.  Daily I have moments where I think, "is this my life?? How can this be??"  I never want anyone reading this or talking to me to doubt how grateful I am for this opportunity.  I want everyone to know that I fully recognize what an amazing opportunity I have been given, and I do not take it for granted.

So, why was today an All-American kind of day??  Well, it started with breakfast which was oatmeal (and Italians have NO CLUE what this is), so American breakfast.  I started working on blogs, listening to music (and some of the Christmas music made me sad)...so I was listening to WDJC which is an American station. I played around with train schedules for when my momma and Barbara are here.  I tried so desperately to work Florence into their trip, but the trains and travel time just make it impossible.  I am excited for them to see Rome though, and then I will try to show them as much of Southern Italy, and Cosenza, as possible.  I should actually take a moment to tell anyone that plans to come visit me that seeing more than Rome, maybe Naples, and Cosenza will be hard to do, especially the weeks I am working.  So, I apologize in advance for any disappointment that this causes, but discuss your individual trips with me and we'll see what we can do!

So, after a sunny morning of writing and working on things, I decided it was time to get dressed, go enjoy the sunshine, and buy some chocolate from the chocolate festival.  I was so excited to go back and look carefully, and to buy some chocolate for my momma and my Aunt Susan!  I had the perfect thing in mind.  So, I talked to Nick on the way there, but hung up when it was time for me to start speaking in Italian to the vendors!  Haha...still so nervous to speak Italian, so I cannot have the added pressure of someone listening.

I walked the Corso a few times just looking and comparing things.  There was a man making chocolate "sculpture" type things.

I stopped and asked about some things, and then I decided to try something.  One booth had an orange that was dipped in all of this stuff, and I am pretty sure that I heard nutella in there.  Some girls in front of me each got one, but I just could not bring myself to do it.  The guy told us (myself and the guy next to me) that they were better hot, and they were about to put them in the "deep fryer".  The deep fryer solidified the fact that I would not be eating this.  However, I decided to try one of their bon bons with mandorle inside (almond stuff).

When I bit into it I found sugary grainy stuff that tasted very strongly of almonds.  The Italians love their nut flavored stuff, and usually I am on board with it, but I did not really care for this so much.  I ate about half of it (Ho mangiato circa mezza del bon bon) and threw the rest away.  So then I decided to call my momma to get her opinion, as much as I could, about what I was going to buy her and Susan.  I chose the place where I had been able to actually try the chocolate for them.  I asked for them in Italian, but the guy immediately said, "di dove sei??"..."Where are you from??"  What gave me away??  The pigtails??? The Alabama jacket? The pasty white skin?  I'm pretty sure it was NOT my Italian or my accent!!!  Juuuuuuuust kidding...it was all of the above I am sure!  He talked to me for a bit asking if I was coming back by there tonight...umm sir...even if I am, you are like 40 something, if not older.  However, he did give me a free piece of chocolate!  So sweet!

There are also chocolate salami's and meats...no worries, Sofia told me that it is just cookie and chocolate, and some are just chocolates!

I just could not bring myself to try it.  I could not get over the image of it.  Next up I bought Nick a small gift...a chocolate fish.  I cannot begin to explain why, but know that it is funny!  Places also had chocolate eggs, chocolate covered clementines, etc.  They had a dog adoption thing set up, and I wanted one!!  The smell of chocolate was amazing by the way!! My next stop was the booth with the different liquores.  I definitely wanted to buy the Limoncello because I have not bought any, and these liquores are ALL made in Calabria, and specifically in a city near Cosenza.  So, like a true Italian, I must be loyal to my region!  They let me try the Crema caffè alla nocciola liquore, and it had been in the freezer....HOLY COW...amazing!! So, I bought a limoncello and the other.  Worth every penny and should last me a long time!!  So, hands full of goodies, I started heading back to my apartment.  I stopped in a few stores to look at some coats, but did not try anything on.  I do need to invest in a thicker coat.  I purposefully did not bring mine so that I would be forced to buy a new, cute one!  As I passed one of the bus stops I saw one of my students.  I heard, "Ely!!!" I turned to see "pretty boy".  The one who introduced himself that way!  He is so cute and sweet.  I cannot post the pictures of all of my purchases, but here are a few things:

The chocolate fish is at the bottom

I came back for lunch and was too full when it was finished.  I must stop buying bread...this week I will seriously do a carb fast.  I will have a little bit of pasta if necessary, but NO BREAD!!

Next I calmly, and efficiently looked at hotels for Rome, train schedules again, eliminated hotels for Reggio trip in February, and looked at how I should get to Reggio.  I handled this like a pro!  The difference between today and the other day is that I was not already super stressed about other things, so I was able to calmly look at all of this with a calm, cool, and collected attitude.  So, things are set...I have to talk to Virginia one more time, and then I will make reservations.  True to myself, I have it all written down and highlighted with prices and totals for everyone.  I am excited to have this worked out!  So, beginning of this week I will make reservations, and I feel good about this!  I talked to Nick for a few hours while doing all of this!! He is sharing his mock trial stuff with me, and it is so nice to hear someone so excited and emotional about something they care about!

So, Thursday night Alessandra, Lilla's niece, invited me to go with her friends to this place here called "Crazy Bull".  It is supposedly American.  So, true to Italian time, we were meeting between 8:30 and 9:00.  So, I decided to take a shower...and...dry my hair!!  All I could think of was, "HOLY HAIR BATMAN!!" My hair has gotten so long, and I am sure it will continue to get longer because I do not know where to go get it cut!  When I finished I was able to talk to my momma and daddy for a while.  I saw my kitties and my Chili could hear me, but could not figure out where I was.  Bella came up to the camera to see me!  Coopy did too!  It was so good to see them!  My momma has a small Christmas tree up with all of her red birds on it, and it looks pretty!  I neeeeed to look harder for a small Christmas tree to put up here!

Next I got dressed...this was stressful.  I settled on my new Italian houndstooth skirt.  Here is a picture.  I never felt great in the outfit, but I do like that it was Alabama/Italian/new.

Yes, I pushed the button to make the elevator come to my floor so that I could see my outfit in a full-length mirror.  Judge if you'd like, but it worked!!  Then I just waited for them to come.

They arrived and I got the traditional kisses from everyone, even got them once we got out of the car from those who could not give them when I first got in the car.  I love how sweet the Italians are...how welcoming and affectionate.  Once we were off, and listening to the Grease soundtrack, we had to find parking.  Then, from the minute we walked in to "Crazy Bull" I knew it was going to be interesting.  There were pictures of NYC, and a cute little bar area.  Here I saw one of my students.  She is one from Valeria's class and is always willing to speak up, and her English is excellent in my opinion!!  Nick was at a fancy dinner, but we were texting some, and I told him that I had to bring Americans here just so they could see this.  The menu was funny! They had "New Yorker Cheesecake" and pancakes and waffles for dessert.  It was just comical...Ill have to take more pictures next time.  I did take pics of my food.  For an "appetizer" we had cheese fries.  By cheese fries I mean there was a little bit of shredded cheese and  HUGE glob of cream cheese (which the Italians called Philadelphia...not cream cheese...which is a name brand, not the product!!).

It was pretty good I guess, but I did not eat many fries.  They all had coke to drink, but I just had water.  I ordered a "cheddar cheeseburger", and I was curious to see if it was actual cheddar...it was not.

They brought bbq sauce for the fries (not very good bbq sauce in my opinion) and they brought me these tube like packets of ketchup.  For dessert we had a brownie and pancakes, which took a while to choose and we had to play a game of eenie meenie miney moe...sp??.  One pancake was slathered with nutella and the other had syrup.  I had wanted to order this for dinner, and they were all shocked.  I am glad that I did not because this was not my idea of pancakes really...not for a meal.

Two of the girls thought the maple syrup was DISGUSTING!!  I was shocked!! They could not believe that we eat this for breakfast and said it was too much.  I explained that it was not something we ate every morning for breakfast.

While we waited on this we talked about so much.  They talked a lot, and I listened.  We played tic tac toe, and they argued about how to win it!   The whole time there was a soccer match on (Juventus vs. someone) and so I was surrounded by passionate young Italians screaming at the tv...it was nice though because our food did not come until 10 pm, which is when the Alabama game was starting.  So, it was appropriate to be with people cheering and showing their excitement about a game!!  They told me that drinking in Italy is bad because there is no carding process or anything; I noticed all these high school students had huge glasses of beer.  Apparently it is the really popular thing in the discotecas.  This is sad...there are no restrictions on amounts of drinking either...or at least they do not seem to be enforced.  One of my new friends is in the army here in Italy!  That was a first for me!   I had some trouble understanding some of the Italian tonight, which was frustrating, but I guess Ill get better.  Overall, the experience was interesting.  THe menus had NYC on them...there were license plates everywhere, but the one from Alabama was one I had NEVER seen!  Next time I go Ill talk more pictures!  A band came on right at 11ish and they were singing in English.

So was it ALL American?? Nah, but it was close enough...and bless them for trying!!!  I will definitely be taking other Americans there...for sure!!

When we left it was FREEZING outside.  A lot of them stopped to smoke, but not all.  Then we walked down Corso Mazzini.  There were a lot of people out and the chocolate people were still open; well, most of them were!!  It was so cold...but I enjoyed walking with them.  Alessandra and Federica walked me back to my apartment, and told me that I HAD to get a thicker coat.  We also talked about Fulbright and Alessandra is getting ready to go to Spain for a few months.  We talked about pay for these things.  They said I was making enough money to buy a car..haha...they said that there is no money in Cosenza and that the money I am making should last a long time, especially here in Cosenza...good to know!!  They also told me that the Christmas lights last year in Cosenza were ugly!

When I got upstairs I tried skyping with my momma and daddy, but then remembered that they were at Shari's house.  So, I called April for a score update.  It was not going so well.  April said she would keep me updated on facebook, so I worked on some things and watched the little field thing on cbs.com.  Then at the 4th quarter April skyped me and I watched the end of the game!  OH MY GOSH...BAMA ALMOST GAVE ME A HEART ATTACK...there were so many moments that I thought I was going to THROW UP!!! I was so sick and could barely stand to watch!!  I was so grateful that April skyped with me though!! I also got to talk to Kimberly when my momma called me on the apartment phone!! YAY!! I love being able to talk to everyone from home!  This keeps me from feeling too lonely! Gosh Bama...scared me to death...and I am pretty sure that my neighbors thought I was being tortured up here...I am surprised all of the screaming and jumping did not cause them to come up here.  However...in the end....
ROOLLLLLLLLLLLLLL TIIIIIIIIIIIIIDDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE ARE AMAZING...WE WIN...SEC CHAMPIONS....ON TO MIAMI....OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG....I was soooo excited!!

ummm...final score...but blurry

Then I was able to talk to Gracie for a while!!  I love talking to her!! I love her so much!! It is always fun to hear about what happens in middle school...and sometimes not so fun!  However, I just love her....she is so sweet and protective and amazing!! I was sad that Sarah Mason was not there.  Then I talked to Kelly and Gacie!  It was so early in the morning, but it was amazing!! I love having so many wonderful, loving, protective, amazing, kind people in my life!!  So, way too late...I went to bed.

Nick and I talked a bit longer, and then I was out.

ON TO MIAMI....#15 JUST AROUND THE CORNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now that is All-American!!