i just had a dinner of pork tenderloin cutlets, cherry yougrt, and bizarre chocolate sandwich cookies...feeling quite replete...

ok, so, lets see where we left off...
ah yes, i was eating a salad and waiting for the greek to come ring my bell...
but, of course, he didnt show.
for about 45 min i contemplated suicide, stared at my pores in the mirror (convinced that they were the culprit!), whimpered and mumbled, and , yes, drank campari straight from the bottle. but, at 9:15, i turned my sorrow off like a light and went out. i figured, there's already been so much fate and coincidences and strange happenings in the past 24 hours, something has to come from all of this, so i had better go see what it is.
i put on a pretty dress and my lucky tiger pumps, nana's pink ring and my mama's bracelet, and hit the town. i wandered down into trastevere, the crazy locals neighborhood across the river, and waded through the throngs of people, trying to keep my spirits up. it must have been a good half hour of walking arond and around, through alleys and piazzas, all the while watching the italians go mad for a saturday night in rome. just when i was starting to get mopey again, and had decided that i had better just go home and watch clips from moulin rouge on youtube because no one loves me and there is nothing special about this night, my phone rang. thinking it was john or someone, i answered "buona sera!?!", in a sharp, relieved, overexcited voice. the voice on the other end of the phone said, "uh...haha, buona sera! um, eleanor?". turns out it was this absolute angel alessandro, a guy from siscily, who i had met, ironically, at the greek's cafe. i guess i had been so worked up over spilled (chocolate) milk that i forgot entirely that i had had a date planned for saturday night. alessandro was sitting at the cafe earlier in the week (the day, i believe, that tony had told me he was from greece and i freaked and locked my keys in), and he had started talking to me about 'a confederacy of dunces' , which i was reading, because he said that he had read it once before, too. turns out alessandro makes olive oil on his family's farm in siscily, and is a chemist who works with wine and olive oil, and had even been to the university of udine to aid in some research (univ. of udine, btw, is a food science college...i havent just been making this whole thing up). anyway, he was very sweet and had eyes the color of olives, but i guess i had been so distracted that i forgot i had given him my number and he said we'd have dinner saturday, "roman time".
so alessandro and i decided to meet in the big piazza at the foot of the bridge to trastevere. he took me to this sweet little trattoria that served mussels in white wine and we had tiramisu and a beer i was so glad that i was already dressed up and ready for a night out instead of sitting in my nightgown frowning at the wall. we talked about food and he told me all about olive oil and i told him all about the Slow Food Movement's immersion into american life (which is pocketed, but promising), and he gave me the run down on all the different areas of italy and the ways of life and how they differ and i told him about the differences between yankees and southerners. afterward we walked the streets and watched the people, and i had no idea where i was, it is all such a maze, but then i turned a corner...and there was the cookbook bar!!! i looked in the doorway and alessio, the sweet owner, saw me and smiled and waved. i said i wanted to go in, and alessandro said that he needed to go on home cause he was going to the roma-napoli football match in the morning, so we embraced and promised to keep in touch.
the rest of the night was a wonderful blur...the people at the cookbook bar all remembered me, of course, because i had acted like a maniac the other night, but they were so sweet and funny about it and everyone remembered my name and told me that they were so glad to see me again. we made toasts and one sweet boy named paolo made the toast "to udine!", because they think its hilarious that im going there ("its like going to study in connecticut!"). i talked to alessio, the owner, who is too cute for words, about REM, and hung out with my most favorite italian ever, the chilean boy, estevan, and we blew bubbles in the street and went to get gyro wraps and discussed japan. it was just so wonderful and nice to have friends and feel like i knew people after being alone for so long. also, its strange in those situations when you realize that, for the first time in a long time, you can mke friends and have conversations with stangers, like in kindergarten when like, anyone was a potential friend and cliques and social consciousness and judgements had not been formed, and only common interests and immediate events factored in. feel like in alot of ways i am the same but theres different sides of myself that i never realized existed. im actually quite charming and witty, who knew?
so, anyway, despite the loss of the greek boy, rome ended on more of a high note then i ever thought it would. the whole trip was incredible, but i feel like it will take some time before i can really understand what it all meant or how i feel or what that city means to me. ill reflect on it all and get back to you.
now, however, i am in GERMANY!!! oh my god, its been 2 days and i have so so much to say...
not now though...now i have to go to sleep, because i am going to get up early and go to the harbour with carl heinz...something to do with steel...
love!