eating grapes is my work, dont you see?

ahem. correction: i have been in europe two monthes. i have been in udine, at school, for one. maybe i havent done a good job of explaining exactly what it is that i do at my..."job".
when i arrived in udine, i was assigned to one simone castellarin, a doctor of viticulture who leads a team of scientists who work on projects concerning grape production in the friuli-venezia giulia region of italy. each of the scientists are concerned with different projects at the moment, but the common goal is to produce new strains of grapes that are commercially viable and able to withstand natural and unnatural diseases so that they can be made into wine. the scientists work both in the laboratory and in the field, at the experimental farm, where there is a vineyard that is comprised of hundreds of different strains of grapes. strong, regionally proficient grapes are subdivided and "mated" with different "experimental" strains, in an effort to find a mix that works. this takes many, many tries, each new plant a creation of science and then grown from a tiny transfer of cells into a live plant. once the new plants are grown, simone and the scientists go out into the vineyard and take samples. tests are run on these samples (upwards of 50 at a time), and the new strains that seem to be strong enough are then shipped to the university of verona where they are made into wine. when i work in the lab with simone, gabriele, luigi, barbara, etc, i assist them in their experiments and research. currently, simone has assigned a project to me (im not sure what makes him think that i am in any way prepared to do this kind of work, but i havent messed up yet, so thats good) in which i am to perform experiments of 4 different types of grapes and find out whether or not the size of a grape and its color is directly related to its sugar content. this is important to know, becuase the sugar content of a grape is the defining factor on how accomplished a strain of grapes will be in making wine. so if we can find a relationship between size, or color, of a grape, production for the grapes that have the potential to make better wines can be more focused. im not sure why they dont know the answer to this question already, but apparently it is still a big mystery. anyway, over the past several weeks i have been acocmpanying simone to the experimental farms to test the sugar, soil, and general health of these plants of his. we clip certain berries, and i use "my" tool (we call it "my" tool because i have taken a serious interest in the instrument, some weird device which tells sugar contents when you crush a berry into it and stare at the sun...simone says i can buy one for my very own!)to measure the sugars. the information is recorded, and the samples are then weighed and frozen using liquid nitrogen, the skin is peeled, and tests are run on the skins in some machine that simone says will make a man sterile.
so this past week i did alot of very boring prep work in an effort to get things ready for my big research project, including clipping, weighing, and exmaining hundreds of grapes. on monday when simone returns from stupid bordeaux he will show me how to use liquid nitrogen and the sterlizing amchine so that i can PEEL HUNDREDS OF GRAPES and run countless experiments on them using all sorts of dengerous equipment and then i have to write up a report in scientific terms, of which i know none...
so, while i have only been working directly with the viticulture lab and not "food people", i feel like yes, i have been getting some valuable experience and insights into how and why grapes, a leading agricultural product of italy, obviously, are grown. once my project is over, i go to work with people at the prosciutteria, so then i can learn how pigs are slaughtered, cured, and made safe for commercial sale.
so there.
anyway, today is "italian vocabulary day". hoorah. today i will go to the store and buy some notecards and spend hours making flash cards because i am sick and tired of not being able to complete a sentence in italian due to the fact that i cant remember a certain key word.
currently though i am at the internet cafe by my dorm watching travis tritt videos on youtube. i woke up this morning so so homesick...i was having a dream about me, little jane, and annabelle taking a trip through the south...we went through the tennessee mountains, over to kentucky, down into alabama, around through south georgia to savannah...it was a wonderful dream and we sang "when that sun is high in that texas sky, ill be bucking at the county fair...amarillo by morning, amarillo ill be there"...damn, i would totally marry george straight. im thinking if things with a european dont work out, ill just go west and find a cowboy...its like that funny story that toren told me about when katy met travis tritt and told him, "i promise ill lose all my baby fat after we have our love child!" totally.
so on monday i move to my dorm in cormons, which is about 15 minutes away by train. i fear that there is literally nothing to do there, it is in the country so to speak. however, i know that deep in my heart i am a country girl, so i think if it is just me and the stars ill be alright. nothing is really happening in udine anyway. i go to my precious cafe and have cappucinos with mia and benji every day before school, then i go spend hours in the lab making jokes and yes, eating grapes, with simone (and also doing tedious but rewarding grape-clipping work)...then i go see a movie in italian and act like ignatius j. reiley or wander the streets and look for friends. since the cooking situation is so dire i usually eat an orange for dinner, or maybe have benji make me something with vegetables. life is simple and nice, but a bit boring, and i am hoping that things will perk up once i find a way to crack the code on these strange italians.
i miss marion and karl heinz! and billy! i am thinking of popping into berlin in a couple weeks, maybe for halloween weekend, for some good conversation and dancing...i also want to go back to duisburg for some warmth and company and also wonderful conversation with marion, whom i adore.
anyway, i love you all