Weekend in wonderland....

Why wonderland?? Well, because there are more and more Christmas lights here in Cosenza.  They lit the tree, which has green and blue lights so it reminds me of my Erin, and the city is starting to feel a little magical.

Saturday was a rather dreary day outside, but it was a holiday!  It was Immacolata, or the immaculate conception (of Mary, not Jesus).  We had some of the homemade sweets for breakfast, and then headed out to go get some bread and other dialect sweets before the bakeries for later.  The place I usually buy bread was closed, so then we headed to the other place for sweets!  The lady was so sweet and patient with our inquiries and failures to pronounce the dialect words.  She let us taste one of the treats too!  So, we bought our treats and were off!

To the far right you have turdiddri, the middle is scaliddri, and the far left is susumelli!

Nick and his first tudiddri

So, we came back to the apartment, Nick had his first tudiddri, and we killed time watching youtube videos, listening to music, etc. while it was RAINING! I know, rain in Cosenza, shocking!  Haha.  Sense the sarcasm.  When we finally gave in an decided to brave the rain, we headed to the market where I went last night.  We tasted some cheese, bought some fresh mozzarella, tasted and bought some wine for next weekend, and tasted some meat.  Due to incorrect change on Nick's part and the wine guy's part, we got the bottle for like 2 euros cheaper than it should have been!  6 euros for a local wine!  I love Italy!

So, then we started the search for lunch.  Now, in Italy this should be easy, but it is not!  Most things actually close around this time!  It is not like Florence where there are sandwich shops everywhere!!  So, we stopped at this one place I keep wanting to go, but then found out that they were not serving actual food today!  So, Nick ordered a coffee and then we headed out to find food.  THey did have these cool nativities (presepe) made out of sweets!

We went and got my tiny Christmas tree for only 5 euros...the cheapest one I could find!  I was excited though!  Then we tried to find this book store that Alessandra told me about, but we could not find it!  We came across places selling the cuddruriaddri in the other dialect spelling...no wonder it is so hard!!

So, we searched for lunch.  Stopped a few places, but we did not want anything too heavy! So, we decided just to go to the grocery store and get some sliced turkey, tomatoes, and bread.  We wanted this to go with our fresh mozzarella and olive oil!  It was an AMAZING lunch!  I never thought I'd see the day that I ate tomatoes the way I do here!  We closed down the grocery store, brought our stuff home, and had the simplest, Italian lunch!

it won't turn...but this was our lunch! 

We spent the rest of the afternoon just talking, hanging out, and listening to Adele...because who does NOT love Adele??

We decided that because the rain had slacked up, we would head out to the Corso for a passeggiata.  We walked this other road that runs parallel to the Corso.  We went in a grocery store to get the rest of our dinner ingredients.  Then we walked down the Coros and saw a lot of the new lights (lit up words) being put up! HOwever, they were not lit yet!!  So, I am excited to see them when they are!

On the way to the apartment we stopped and got Nick his first cuddruriaddri, and took pictures with the newly lit Christmas tree.  It has green and blue lights on it, which make me think of my Erin.

We got back to the apartment and started making dinner!  Nick encouraged me to see if April was on skype so that we could talk to her!  Then, he was able to also skype with his mom while I finished talking to April!  I love to see my Aprile, aka \a!  

Our dinner was a traditional Gubbian recipe.  Ill post the link to it here, and then in the recipe blog (found on the right hand side) I will translate it and such (maybe tomorrow?).  It is called Friccò.  http://www.cookaround.com/cucina-regionale/umbria/secondi-piatti/fricco

It was DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!! We put pasta with pesto on the side because that is our favorite kind of pasta!  Then, for after dinner we watched an Italian film called, Cinema Paradiso, which I actually watched in "Film and Lit" class with Maurizio!  It was easier to understand this time with English subtitles so I could check my comprehension!  It was funny...sweet...and so good!  It was so much fun to watch it now that I live here and see some of the things that are so uniquely Italian!!  The man walking into the movie theatre and yelling, "BUONA SERA TUTTI!!!" makes me laugh...we are STILL laughing about this!!  THe other favorite line is, "da vent'anni vengo al cinema, non ho visto mai un bacio!"  The buona sera moment in the moment is SO ITALIAN that I cannot stand it!

Sunday, December 9, 2012

So, we had to get up early because Nick had to try and catch a bus to get to the train station for his 10:10 train.  I got ready for church, and he packed his things up.  We walked to the nearest bus stop.  After asking a bus driver, we walked to a different bus stop looking for a bus I'd never heard of before.  Then, after asking another guy, we discovered that the bus running on Sunday to the station only runs every 50 minutes, so chances were that we had missed it! Well, he did, not me!  So, he had already looked up how to walk there. So, I walked part of the way with him, and then turned on my street while he went on to the station!  I was sad to see him go, but he'll be back on Thursday night, so it is not too bad!

Pic before Nick left! 

I walked back to my apartment, made my last two eggs in anticipation of it being a looong time before I ate lunch (this was a GREAT decision).  Then I walked to Piazza Europa to met Francisco.  We had the traditional greeting and then we were off to church,; I was excited that he had on English worship music when I got in the car!  Crazy thing...the church is on the path of the bus I sometimes ride.  I have passed the building where they meet many times!  CRAZY!!  I met some sweet people who all kissed me and greeted me with open arms!  Francisco and Sofia warmed up...Sofia's voice is like the voice of an Angel!!

So, I was surprised at how much of everything I was able to understand!  I was able to pick up some of the songs and worship with everyone else!  This was amazing...they were in search of the Holy Spirit, they recognized His presence, and it was just amazing!  You could tell that everyone there loves the Lord!  We sang about how Christ is not dead, but alive...we sang about wanting to work in Christ's name...we sang about the floodgates of heaven opening up...we sang "The More I seek you", but in Italian...well, i sang in English, and they sang in Italian.  Without some of the words in front of me I could not pick up exactly what they were saying!  However, Francisco has promised to type them out for me for next week!  Francisco would talk between songs...well, pray...and I could understand about 85% of what he said!  I love that the were so in tune with God's presence.  It was just amazing!  At one moment I almost started crying!!  I was so excited to be there...with like-minded Christians, worshipping our amazing Father.  They talked about how we have Victory in Jesus; how He can break all of the chains on our life, our spirit, our hearts, our everything!; they talked about waiting on His timing; and so much more!  It was so amazing, and I just kept thanking God for such a wonderful opportunity!  What an answer to my prayers...and the prayers of others! So, thank you all for praying for this...prayers are still needed as I try to navigate the language and become more involved!  I am so grateful that God has opened this door!  After the service I talked to a girl who lived in Staten Island for a while.  She is from South America and is now studying at the University here in Cosenza.  She was really sweet and we talked about how there are not many non-catholic churches in the area!  I really liked her...and everyone I met.  We talked about rituals, traditions, idolatry, etc.  It was an interesting conversation!  I was so excited to be surrounded by people who love Jesus!

It was freezing in there though...like whoa!  Then, the bathroom area had NO heat...wow...Italians do not like to be cold...and think it will make you sick...but their heating situation just plain sucks!

However, I had an amazing day.  I was just so excited and so in awe of this!  On the way home Francisco told me that he could also pick me up on Tuesday nights for a Bible study with people close to my age.  So, I cannot go this week because I am going to the Ballet, but next week for sure!!

I do not remember much else about Sunday!  However, this was the most important part!  I am pretty sure that I skyped with April.

I do know that I called Erin and got to talk to her for a few minutes.  It was brief, but always amazing!

So, two beautiful, wonderful, loving, kind friends in one day...on top of church...not a bad deal!