BERLIN!!!!!
hoorah! thought i would not even make it here, as i slept through my alarm and ended up having to take a train that may-or-may-not get me to the airport on time. these trains are really tricky things. you think because you are told since childhood that thing about trains always being on time that they are...on time. but is not true. trains are evil and, in italy, pretty smelly and given to lateness and weird delays.
anyway, am here, safe and sound. billy met me in the S-Bahn terminal at Alexanderplatz at 5pm yesterday, looking shockingly dapper in his fancy work suit and buttonless black overcoat (an outfit so fancy, he explained, that he could not carry my backpack for fear of rumples and creases...). he is the same as last time,totally insane and hilarious and irreverent, given to moments of enlightenment and severity. really think i am starting to like...like him or something. weird. ironic, at least.
last night was "poker night" which, though it is on a wednesday, pretty much means "drunken gambling night". a whole mess of adorable german boys flooded the flat between the hours of 8 and 3, and i sat nestled in the couch between the two cutest ones reading my book (a prayer for own meany, currently)and listening to them talk and giggle in german with delight. billys friends are all incrdibly friendly to me (except this one irish asshole, but to hell with him) and seem very interested in what i am doing and are chatty and kind. billys friends are so incredibly intelligent and well spoken and witty, seriously every one of them that i have me have impressed me greatly. the only thing is, you kind of have to prove yourself to them; they are very stereo-type-influenced and seriously assume that because i am from america i a) cannot read b) shop at wallmart c) vote republican d) have no clue about...anything e) am shallow, vague, dumb, and pretty much like the girls in american teenage booze and sex comedies. once they talk to me though (and i impress them with my 160 pt IQ and massive knowledge of german history and democratic ideals) they lighten up. now i think they love me! we had a great night, and i used my feminine wiles to help the really cute one win poker by cheating and spying on the other boys cards and then giving him a "tell". evil, i know.
woke up latish today and ventured out into the freezer-crossed-with-swimmingpool-like-world that is berlin. positively brutal weather. i, naturally, have no heavy coat, gloves, closed toed shoes, or sweaters, so i am pretty sure that i am going to come down with pnemonia and die before the weekends over. but at least im having fun!!
berlin is absolutely one of the best places that i have ever been; i totally understand both grant and blakes obsession with this city. it is as though the berliners are saying, "whew, thank god, all that bullshits over, now we can finally be born!". the city is like a breath of fresh air. its exciting, its inviting, its art, its drama, its romance...but in a way that cuts all the froo-froo poetic shit and just goes boldly through he present, like this city knows what pain is and now it cares for nothing but truth and art and adventure. i feel young here.
i cooked for billy and a couple of his friends tonight. i made potato soup and roasted chicken and pan-tossed zucchini. the boys, between the 3 of them, ate the entire pot of potato soup, a pot big enough to have fed a family of 12. they loved it, said it was the best soup theyd ever had. we cooked two hens, and they were devoured as well. love feeding boys. appetites are one of my favorite things to nourish.
so now the boys are watching "independence day" and making fun of american patriotism but agreeing that they would totally be proud to be an american if bill pullman was in charge. totally agree. i think billy and i will go out tonight, but we have to take it easy cause tomorrow is the "big party", at the home of some fancy rich russian artist. billy is going to wear a tuxedo and i am going to wear the FABULOUS hand-made french-silk dress that i got in ROMA. apparently there is to be what billy calls a "wodker fountain", so thats great.
ill keep you posted...
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Saturday, October 25, 2008
"boy, you gotta prayer in memphis..."
"she said 'tell me, are you a christian, child' and i said, 'ma'am i am tonight!'"
that part always gives me goosebumps!
have come back into the big city (udine) to spend some time preparing for the ginormous anthropology research paper that i am to have completed by tuesday. i use the internet in the western union office run by koreans who wear all white designer track suits and have sunglasses with opaque images of cartoon frogs on. it costs a little bit of money but i can watch youtube aerosmith videos, which always makes me happy.
went to dinner at my old cafe last night, where benji and mia work. it was wonderful to see them, and benji made me a fantastic pizza with eggplant, prosciutto cotto, funghi, and mozzarella. was having a fine time making italian flashcards and eating too much and sipping my campari, when mia came over and said, "there a boy here, who want you". looked at her for a second, sort of terrified, and then said, "dont say that mia. say, 'theres a boy here who likes you'". this is mia, btw, who speaks such funny english that whenever i come into the cafe she exclaims, "what happened to you?!" and i get startled and start looking at myself, wondering if i am covered in blood or something. need to explain "how have you been" to her, too. anyway, was a bit weary because mia, even though she is exsquisitely beautiful, dates albanian boys with potbellies, and i feared she might be trying to set me up with someone similar. was correct. the boy who "want" me was a greek-albanian with absolutely no teeth...or rather, rotten blue stubs where proper teeth should have been. he came over and smiled this huge, grotesque smile, and then totally freaked me out by saying, in a perfect british accent, "can i buy you a glass of the house white, my sweet?". except he has a lisp, sort of, because his tongue had nowhere to push when he pronounced his t's...i adamantly refused. he kept offering and i just said, no. no. seriously. he left and mia and benji seemed like, shocked that i wouldnt go for it. "but he speak english!!" benji cried, as though this meant the world. had to exlain to them gently that i am from a country where people have braces and teeth whitening gels, and i am not culturally...accepting enough to forget that.
made my way back to my apartment. cormons is so dark at night i can see other galaxies and the milky way and the constellations shine so bright! its quiet and i can see silhouettes of bats flying about through the light mist.
so another weekend with no one to hang out with...i think after i am done doing my research i will go home, make a nice dinner, and then take the train to gorizia i.e. cuter boy town and see what i can find there.
hm, thats all for now...love!
p.s. aunt keli, if its cute boys you want (which, i dont know why you would be interested, you have the most handsome brilliant husband in the world right there in marietta), then i suggest yall take a trip to greece. those boys are just...divine! everything you could want out of an italian, looks wise, but with green eyes and cunning smiles...mmm, think will go back there, actually...
that part always gives me goosebumps!
have come back into the big city (udine) to spend some time preparing for the ginormous anthropology research paper that i am to have completed by tuesday. i use the internet in the western union office run by koreans who wear all white designer track suits and have sunglasses with opaque images of cartoon frogs on. it costs a little bit of money but i can watch youtube aerosmith videos, which always makes me happy.
went to dinner at my old cafe last night, where benji and mia work. it was wonderful to see them, and benji made me a fantastic pizza with eggplant, prosciutto cotto, funghi, and mozzarella. was having a fine time making italian flashcards and eating too much and sipping my campari, when mia came over and said, "there a boy here, who want you". looked at her for a second, sort of terrified, and then said, "dont say that mia. say, 'theres a boy here who likes you'". this is mia, btw, who speaks such funny english that whenever i come into the cafe she exclaims, "what happened to you?!" and i get startled and start looking at myself, wondering if i am covered in blood or something. need to explain "how have you been" to her, too. anyway, was a bit weary because mia, even though she is exsquisitely beautiful, dates albanian boys with potbellies, and i feared she might be trying to set me up with someone similar. was correct. the boy who "want" me was a greek-albanian with absolutely no teeth...or rather, rotten blue stubs where proper teeth should have been. he came over and smiled this huge, grotesque smile, and then totally freaked me out by saying, in a perfect british accent, "can i buy you a glass of the house white, my sweet?". except he has a lisp, sort of, because his tongue had nowhere to push when he pronounced his t's...i adamantly refused. he kept offering and i just said, no. no. seriously. he left and mia and benji seemed like, shocked that i wouldnt go for it. "but he speak english!!" benji cried, as though this meant the world. had to exlain to them gently that i am from a country where people have braces and teeth whitening gels, and i am not culturally...accepting enough to forget that.
made my way back to my apartment. cormons is so dark at night i can see other galaxies and the milky way and the constellations shine so bright! its quiet and i can see silhouettes of bats flying about through the light mist.
so another weekend with no one to hang out with...i think after i am done doing my research i will go home, make a nice dinner, and then take the train to gorizia i.e. cuter boy town and see what i can find there.
hm, thats all for now...love!
p.s. aunt keli, if its cute boys you want (which, i dont know why you would be interested, you have the most handsome brilliant husband in the world right there in marietta), then i suggest yall take a trip to greece. those boys are just...divine! everything you could want out of an italian, looks wise, but with green eyes and cunning smiles...mmm, think will go back there, actually...
well, actually, since i dont know enough italian vocabulary to read the political section of an italian "news source"...
i get my news from cnn, msnbc, and, occasionally, i go onto foxnews.com to spy and see what egregious offense against humanity it is that they are "reporting". and im not so sure that europeans are "biased" toward obama, i just think they have an outsiders perspective and are a bit more liberal overall, so yes, most of the europeans i meet are definitely pro-obama. what happens in america directly and, in alot of cases severely, effects what happens in the rest of the world, so their interests are at stake here, too. ive found that most of the people that i speak with over here are incredibly informed on american current events, as well as american history, and this election is a big deal to them, so they are not taking either candidate lightly.
i am well aware of what it is joe biden said, thank you. i think its the stupidest thing i have ever heard and an obvious misstep, but the message he was trying to convey was, you will see how strong our candidate is. the quote was taken out of context and used as a weapon of doubt by the mccain campaign, and what they turned it into was a threat, a threat that if people dont vote one way, dreadful things will happen, so if you dont want ahmadinejad kicking down your door in the middle of the night, vote for me.
but, you know, this is all a matter of opinion, all a matter of how one wants to view the situation.
however i find it a little insulting that i am accused of merely "jumping on a bandwagon" because i am voting for obama, insinuating that i am merely young and uninformed and doing the popular thing, instead of maybe considering that i take this very seriously, i am conscious of both sides of the debate and what is at stake for our country, and my passion for obama comes from my love for america and what i think it is that we need to become a stronger country. i am not dim to how much "manure" is being slopped around these days, how much manure has been allowed to be slopped around for a long, long time, which is why i am making the decision that i am.
what is this, if not fear mongering?
i love you all.
love, eleanor
i am well aware of what it is joe biden said, thank you. i think its the stupidest thing i have ever heard and an obvious misstep, but the message he was trying to convey was, you will see how strong our candidate is. the quote was taken out of context and used as a weapon of doubt by the mccain campaign, and what they turned it into was a threat, a threat that if people dont vote one way, dreadful things will happen, so if you dont want ahmadinejad kicking down your door in the middle of the night, vote for me.
but, you know, this is all a matter of opinion, all a matter of how one wants to view the situation.
however i find it a little insulting that i am accused of merely "jumping on a bandwagon" because i am voting for obama, insinuating that i am merely young and uninformed and doing the popular thing, instead of maybe considering that i take this very seriously, i am conscious of both sides of the debate and what is at stake for our country, and my passion for obama comes from my love for america and what i think it is that we need to become a stronger country. i am not dim to how much "manure" is being slopped around these days, how much manure has been allowed to be slopped around for a long, long time, which is why i am making the decision that i am.
what is this, if not fear mongering?
i love you all.
love, eleanor
Friday, October 24, 2008
i'm the only one in the laboratory wearing a dress
i think the udinese sense in me a denial of their values, and this is making them fearful. the scientists are looking at me like i am crazy because i am wearing armani exchange and singing 'rocky top' while i peel kryogenically frozen grapes. 1,000 of them...is tedious, daunting work, and i am begining to think that simone is a sadist and i am merely a gullibul pawn in this strange world of viticulture. have literally no interest what so ever as to whether or not "there is a corrolation between the size of the grape and its color and sugars" etc. i am merely here to anthropologically observe. they know this, and this is also making them fearful.
god! i have literally been completely way too busy this week to blog for one second. i mentioned in my last blog that last week professor zerbi took me around the campus, introducing me to way too many people to keep track of, in an attempt to find me something to do. v. greatful for his enthusiasm. on monday i got a frantic call from someone who, after several minutes of speaking a flow of italian, paused at the end to say, "hai capire?", and when i said, "um...no. no ho capisco" ("i dont understand"), said simply, "oh. luisa dalla costa is looking for you. go to her office. bye!". turns out that luisa had sent me an email to my uga account, which i never ever check, and had set up a luncheon for me- just for me!- on the basis of wanting me to meet with an anthropologist, an agriculturalist, a horticulturalist, and a professor of italian studies, who are all writing a book together about some village or other in the mountains that makes a particular kind of polenta. she had made plans for us all to have lunch together that day. i apoligized, mortified at not responding sooner, and we went down to the lunch room together. all the professors had brought different dishes from home and homemade wine and we had a veritable feast together. they all seemed to think that i am seriously already an anthropologist and that i am like, very important or something, and said that they would be honored to have me travel with them, sit in on their classes, help create lectures in english, give me anthropological books to read, etc. was marvelous! am making fantastic contacts. what a boost. as soon as i finish this damned grape assignment i can begin an internship in another department...god help me...
lord above, though. i really think these people have me pegged all wrong. on tuesday i got yet another frantic call, this one from alessia bruno, the v. unhelpful and kind of...cranky lady in charge of my program. she said that there was to be a conference of sorts for the exchange students, and that the lady who is in charge of the FIFPSE grant program (the one that is giving me all the money) will be there and wants to meet me, as apparently i am the only person who received that grant this year. so after an hour of trying to find the correct building i came into the conference hall, where about 200 italian students were sitting and watching a panel of official looking people on stage. one lady was giving this incredibly dull presentation in italian, and on the overhead projector there was information about, as far as i could gather, the FIFPSE grant and exchange opportunities. so i slunk to the back and started biting my nails or whatever, not really paying attention, and all of a sudden i see alessia bruno up front motioning to me. did the thing where you look over your shoulder to see if it is actually you being summoned, because, what the hell does she want, but was up against the wall so was forced to accept that it was me. people were starting to turn around and look at me so i finally gave in and started walking down the aisle toward alessia. when i got close enough she said, "no, no, go up there. up there. yes, up there, to the stage!". immediate panic stations in brain (and stomach) and i walked like a robot up onto the stage where the woman was still droning on and on. some man smiled and offered me a seat at the table and i perched awkwardly on the edge of my chair, trying to figure out why in the world i was on stage in front of 200 italian people. finally gathered that the topic of the presentation being given was about the type of applicant who would be granted such a prestegious award, who should bother to apply, and what it would take to be the chosen FIFPSE candidate. by this point i was sweating yet freezing cold with fear. my stomach was about to jump out of my butt, i couldnt see straight, my head was tingling, and my mouth was dry i.e. panic attack mode. looked out into the crowd of italian faces to see that they were all. staring. at. me. tried to smile. wound up making what i am sure was a manic, histerical upward-turned-mouth-type pose. suddenly the woman pointed to me and began saying, "responsabile (responsible), dedito (dedicated), ingegnoso (ingenious), creativo, affermato (successful)...". realized that those were adjectives that i was suppose to posess. the italians stared at me and nodded their heads, like, "oh, like that girl" and took notes. suddenly thought i was going to burst out laughing. or explode. then began to worry that the lady was going to ask me something in italian, something like, "tell the audience about your experience as an amazing person worthy of this grant" or something similarly obscene...but i was afraid she was going to ask me something in italian! and expect me to answer in italian! in front of 200 italians! was terrified. knew that if that woman spoke to me in italian while i was on stage i would vomit. prayed for the horror to end.
finally it did. evil alessia bruno came up to me laughing and patted me on the back and said, "you look sick! but good job! you're the US ambassador!". gave her filthy look but smiled. really should alert people to the fact that they are going to be on display. really. after that i felt like Dorian Greene from 'a confederacy of dunces' when he cries, "oh my god, now i'm going to be on pills all night!"
anyway. got through that. had to make up for lost time wed and thursday by working incredibly long hours in the lab, as i need to finish this project by tuesday, and write a anthropology paper, and attend the second round of italian courses (i got a b on my first level exam, hoorah).
oh, so, another big thing happening this week and adding hours to my days: i have moved, to the country, so to speak. cormons is a little town about 20 min outside of udine where they have lots of viticulture labs and make fantastic wine. the strange thing is that my new dorm is an apartment attached to the building where they hold classes. my front door opens up onto a sidewalk and next door is a classroom. so when i come stumbling out of my apartment in to morning, late for my train and cramming a banana in my mouth, there are students, usually boys, standing outside my front door with bookbags on. weird to have private home literally inside a school, but i like it. it atleast keeps me from going out without makeup on. apparently i have a argentinian roommate, but i have not met her yet. the apartment is actually pretty nice. we have a kitchen, and cable tv, and a bathtub (!!) and a little patio. the neighbors (on the other side from the classroom) are very sweet and chatty. i think cormons might be fun only because there is literally nothing to do, so everyone is forced to hang out together. the town is literally deserted at night, and dark, and you can see so many stars and smell grapes from all directions, and on the mountains you can see old castles lit up. they look like they are floating because there is no light on the mountains. i actually like it quite alot. the commute is lame, though, and takes like, over an hour, with the train and the bus to school, but its ok.
was v. exciting last night. i rode home from school on the bus, screaming into the phone at john about how i had almost had a SIEZURE FIT and fallen out of my chair when i saw that obscene, blasphemous, blatantly unpatriotic quote from john mccain in the news about how if obama's elected he will be "tested" or whatever, insinuating that f-ing terrorists will attack us if he is elected just because they can. i was flaming mad over this, still am, as FEAR MONGERING is disgusting, trying to fucking scare the american people into voting a certain way, planting doubts into the minds of american citizens as to the capabilities of our homeland security, not to mention being so retarded as to assume (and thinking the american people are retarded enough to believe!) that terrorists are even an issue anymore. FEAR MONGERING is dispicable, and i refuse to in anyway respect a man, or a party, who tries to scare people into giving them their vote. americans have quite enough to worry about right now, without some old asshole pounding it into our heads that we are physically at risk, when that is an obvious untruth. ugh. anyway. so i was going on and on about that, the whole while john laughing and trying to shhhsh me, telling me that he totally agrees, its disgusting, but he doesnt really think we have to worry because, lalala, it will not work and obama08 soon, and when i got to my apartment my absentee ballot had arrived! v. excited. filled it out right away and have mailed it off to cobb county so that i will have my say in this wonderful (but positively nerveracking) election.
so...monday and tuesday i work my fanny off. but...wednesday i go to berlin!! to see billy kunzler!! for halloween!!
i love you all
god! i have literally been completely way too busy this week to blog for one second. i mentioned in my last blog that last week professor zerbi took me around the campus, introducing me to way too many people to keep track of, in an attempt to find me something to do. v. greatful for his enthusiasm. on monday i got a frantic call from someone who, after several minutes of speaking a flow of italian, paused at the end to say, "hai capire?", and when i said, "um...no. no ho capisco" ("i dont understand"), said simply, "oh. luisa dalla costa is looking for you. go to her office. bye!". turns out that luisa had sent me an email to my uga account, which i never ever check, and had set up a luncheon for me- just for me!- on the basis of wanting me to meet with an anthropologist, an agriculturalist, a horticulturalist, and a professor of italian studies, who are all writing a book together about some village or other in the mountains that makes a particular kind of polenta. she had made plans for us all to have lunch together that day. i apoligized, mortified at not responding sooner, and we went down to the lunch room together. all the professors had brought different dishes from home and homemade wine and we had a veritable feast together. they all seemed to think that i am seriously already an anthropologist and that i am like, very important or something, and said that they would be honored to have me travel with them, sit in on their classes, help create lectures in english, give me anthropological books to read, etc. was marvelous! am making fantastic contacts. what a boost. as soon as i finish this damned grape assignment i can begin an internship in another department...god help me...
lord above, though. i really think these people have me pegged all wrong. on tuesday i got yet another frantic call, this one from alessia bruno, the v. unhelpful and kind of...cranky lady in charge of my program. she said that there was to be a conference of sorts for the exchange students, and that the lady who is in charge of the FIFPSE grant program (the one that is giving me all the money) will be there and wants to meet me, as apparently i am the only person who received that grant this year. so after an hour of trying to find the correct building i came into the conference hall, where about 200 italian students were sitting and watching a panel of official looking people on stage. one lady was giving this incredibly dull presentation in italian, and on the overhead projector there was information about, as far as i could gather, the FIFPSE grant and exchange opportunities. so i slunk to the back and started biting my nails or whatever, not really paying attention, and all of a sudden i see alessia bruno up front motioning to me. did the thing where you look over your shoulder to see if it is actually you being summoned, because, what the hell does she want, but was up against the wall so was forced to accept that it was me. people were starting to turn around and look at me so i finally gave in and started walking down the aisle toward alessia. when i got close enough she said, "no, no, go up there. up there. yes, up there, to the stage!". immediate panic stations in brain (and stomach) and i walked like a robot up onto the stage where the woman was still droning on and on. some man smiled and offered me a seat at the table and i perched awkwardly on the edge of my chair, trying to figure out why in the world i was on stage in front of 200 italian people. finally gathered that the topic of the presentation being given was about the type of applicant who would be granted such a prestegious award, who should bother to apply, and what it would take to be the chosen FIFPSE candidate. by this point i was sweating yet freezing cold with fear. my stomach was about to jump out of my butt, i couldnt see straight, my head was tingling, and my mouth was dry i.e. panic attack mode. looked out into the crowd of italian faces to see that they were all. staring. at. me. tried to smile. wound up making what i am sure was a manic, histerical upward-turned-mouth-type pose. suddenly the woman pointed to me and began saying, "responsabile (responsible), dedito (dedicated), ingegnoso (ingenious), creativo, affermato (successful)...". realized that those were adjectives that i was suppose to posess. the italians stared at me and nodded their heads, like, "oh, like that girl" and took notes. suddenly thought i was going to burst out laughing. or explode. then began to worry that the lady was going to ask me something in italian, something like, "tell the audience about your experience as an amazing person worthy of this grant" or something similarly obscene...but i was afraid she was going to ask me something in italian! and expect me to answer in italian! in front of 200 italians! was terrified. knew that if that woman spoke to me in italian while i was on stage i would vomit. prayed for the horror to end.
finally it did. evil alessia bruno came up to me laughing and patted me on the back and said, "you look sick! but good job! you're the US ambassador!". gave her filthy look but smiled. really should alert people to the fact that they are going to be on display. really. after that i felt like Dorian Greene from 'a confederacy of dunces' when he cries, "oh my god, now i'm going to be on pills all night!"
anyway. got through that. had to make up for lost time wed and thursday by working incredibly long hours in the lab, as i need to finish this project by tuesday, and write a anthropology paper, and attend the second round of italian courses (i got a b on my first level exam, hoorah).
oh, so, another big thing happening this week and adding hours to my days: i have moved, to the country, so to speak. cormons is a little town about 20 min outside of udine where they have lots of viticulture labs and make fantastic wine. the strange thing is that my new dorm is an apartment attached to the building where they hold classes. my front door opens up onto a sidewalk and next door is a classroom. so when i come stumbling out of my apartment in to morning, late for my train and cramming a banana in my mouth, there are students, usually boys, standing outside my front door with bookbags on. weird to have private home literally inside a school, but i like it. it atleast keeps me from going out without makeup on. apparently i have a argentinian roommate, but i have not met her yet. the apartment is actually pretty nice. we have a kitchen, and cable tv, and a bathtub (!!) and a little patio. the neighbors (on the other side from the classroom) are very sweet and chatty. i think cormons might be fun only because there is literally nothing to do, so everyone is forced to hang out together. the town is literally deserted at night, and dark, and you can see so many stars and smell grapes from all directions, and on the mountains you can see old castles lit up. they look like they are floating because there is no light on the mountains. i actually like it quite alot. the commute is lame, though, and takes like, over an hour, with the train and the bus to school, but its ok.
was v. exciting last night. i rode home from school on the bus, screaming into the phone at john about how i had almost had a SIEZURE FIT and fallen out of my chair when i saw that obscene, blasphemous, blatantly unpatriotic quote from john mccain in the news about how if obama's elected he will be "tested" or whatever, insinuating that f-ing terrorists will attack us if he is elected just because they can. i was flaming mad over this, still am, as FEAR MONGERING is disgusting, trying to fucking scare the american people into voting a certain way, planting doubts into the minds of american citizens as to the capabilities of our homeland security, not to mention being so retarded as to assume (and thinking the american people are retarded enough to believe!) that terrorists are even an issue anymore. FEAR MONGERING is dispicable, and i refuse to in anyway respect a man, or a party, who tries to scare people into giving them their vote. americans have quite enough to worry about right now, without some old asshole pounding it into our heads that we are physically at risk, when that is an obvious untruth. ugh. anyway. so i was going on and on about that, the whole while john laughing and trying to shhhsh me, telling me that he totally agrees, its disgusting, but he doesnt really think we have to worry because, lalala, it will not work and obama08 soon, and when i got to my apartment my absentee ballot had arrived! v. excited. filled it out right away and have mailed it off to cobb county so that i will have my say in this wonderful (but positively nerveracking) election.
so...monday and tuesday i work my fanny off. but...wednesday i go to berlin!! to see billy kunzler!! for halloween!!
i love you all
Saturday, October 18, 2008
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
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
Thursday, October 16, 2008
pictures!
blake took some fabulous shots
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2283648&l=ca276&id=2709650 (general roma)
and
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2283669&l=e2067&id=2709650 (5lb sparkle shirt photo shoot)
do not worry, AK, i am definitely coming home for christmas. i have a first class ticket for a delta flight from rome to atlanta on dec.15. you and the kids can pick me up from the airport! sure you're thrilled i designated you to do that job
anywhoo
ok, so udine is kind of lame. i have decided to take the day (or...evening at this point) and go to gorizia, that town about half an hour from here where they had the food festival i.e. i met cute boys.
i am hoping that the people there, who seemed a bit more edgy and lively then the people in udine, will befriend me. because i am getting very bored.
ok, ill write later, i promise
blake took some fabulous shots
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2283648&l=ca276&id=2709650 (general roma)
and
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2283669&l=e2067&id=2709650 (5lb sparkle shirt photo shoot)
do not worry, AK, i am definitely coming home for christmas. i have a first class ticket for a delta flight from rome to atlanta on dec.15. you and the kids can pick me up from the airport! sure you're thrilled i designated you to do that job
anywhoo
ok, so udine is kind of lame. i have decided to take the day (or...evening at this point) and go to gorizia, that town about half an hour from here where they had the food festival i.e. i met cute boys.
i am hoping that the people there, who seemed a bit more edgy and lively then the people in udine, will befriend me. because i am getting very bored.
ok, ill write later, i promise
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
gah, everything has been going so fast!
blake came and visited me in udine and we had a blast. the myth here in this city is that there is nothing to do, nowhere to go, no one to see...
we totally proved everyone wrong. our night out friday in udine was classic...we made friends with french boys (one whom i adore), a russian, kids from spain and portugal, one guy from italy who was born in north carolina, more italians, and a romanian girl. this wild, wonderlust-filled pack of udine pirates roamed the streets until 7am. blake fell in love with a girl from spain and picked her entire plants out of a flower pot, i sang songs to the french boy in massacred italian. we walked home finally at 7am, starving and desperately in need of water. we walked over to the wonderful cafe by my dorm, where the man from positano and the romanian girl work. benji was inside, setting up for the day. i banged on the windows and cried, "benji, ho fame! ho sette!", and he laughed, and opened the door, and made us warm paninis and gave us asprin and diet coke and let us watch MTV2 until we felt sleepy enough to go home. we slept latish saturday, and then made our way to venice for the customary one-night-stop in that city. blake and i agreed that venice is really a fantastic place, but definitely the best place to end your trip to italy, because you dont want to stay there. one night is quite enough, thank you.
i left blake at the venezia bus station that morning, and i boarded a train to casarsa, a town about 30 minutes from udine where simone lives. simone was having a bar b q with his family at his house, and i had been invited, which was exciting. his house was adorable, right on a main road through the little town. there were tents set up in his back yard and his mother and aunts were in the kitchen making fabulous baked goods and polenta cakes and pastas, while his dad and uncles were outside drinking homemade grappa and cooking like 10 different types of meat over the grill. we drank white wine that simone made himself, and listened to fun music that im sure he picked up in california, and the italians were all incredibly jovial and adorable, and the ones who could speak english tried to engage me, and i tried horribly to engage the italians in their language. really ends up being so stupid, because when i do finally attenpt to talk to someone in italian, they end up staring at me, and then repeating what i asked them in english. like, the only time i talk to someone they had known english all along, and then the whole thing is just ridiculous. but i am trying, damnit, and i will succeed.
the party was great, the food was INCREDIBLE, the homemade grappa was superb.
on the way home i got a call from frederic, the french boy, who asked me to come out with him and his friend that evening. i went and met them and we had so much fun and i learned a few french phrases and now i am sad that frederic does not live in udine, but in AIX-IN-PROVENCE...totally unfair, all the way around...
interesting things are going on in my program. for one, no call was made alerting the people who own the organic farm that i was coming. as a result, i cannot come, becuase someone else is already there. when i found this out, i was shocked. what would i do?? naturally, simone took the reins. he made about 8 phone calls, and then finally walked me down to some man named zerbi's office. zerbi listened to why i was there, and scrtached his head and then said, "ok. this will we ok. come see me tomorrow". when i returned today, zerbi took me all over the campus, introducing me to about 10 different people, all of them somehow related to what it was i wanted to do: people who make cheese, people who make prosciutto, people who conduct classes on the traditions of italy, someone who teaches a class of food and culture in italy, horticulturalists, food scientists, etc. each one of them said of course, i was welcome to come work with them. so now i am set! really was mindblowing. also...i have been offered a position on an organic farm in TUSCANY in february, and another organic farm outside of venice in january...these will be live-on situations and will count as continuing my internship. i think, definitely, i am going to accept the offer.
also...i am speaking with someone tomorrow about signing up for spring semester, which runs from february until july, and taking my mandatory math and science, plus my last italian and another final elective, here in udine. i dont see why not. i only see why definitely. so, as long as i can work this out...im staying in italy! wish me luck...all my credits will transfer fine and ill get my loans and HOPE still...and i am not ready to leave. i am just getting started. i want to master this language and this culture and the opportunities that i have been presented with are just not something that i could pass up.
um...pictures!!!!
we have great great photos from roma, but i will have to post them in a bit...and heres some from udine...beware, they are pretty much just blake acting like a crazy person, uprooting flowers and breaking into cars...and the bar b q, etc
www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2439605&l=ac061&id=4913936
blake came and visited me in udine and we had a blast. the myth here in this city is that there is nothing to do, nowhere to go, no one to see...
we totally proved everyone wrong. our night out friday in udine was classic...we made friends with french boys (one whom i adore), a russian, kids from spain and portugal, one guy from italy who was born in north carolina, more italians, and a romanian girl. this wild, wonderlust-filled pack of udine pirates roamed the streets until 7am. blake fell in love with a girl from spain and picked her entire plants out of a flower pot, i sang songs to the french boy in massacred italian. we walked home finally at 7am, starving and desperately in need of water. we walked over to the wonderful cafe by my dorm, where the man from positano and the romanian girl work. benji was inside, setting up for the day. i banged on the windows and cried, "benji, ho fame! ho sette!", and he laughed, and opened the door, and made us warm paninis and gave us asprin and diet coke and let us watch MTV2 until we felt sleepy enough to go home. we slept latish saturday, and then made our way to venice for the customary one-night-stop in that city. blake and i agreed that venice is really a fantastic place, but definitely the best place to end your trip to italy, because you dont want to stay there. one night is quite enough, thank you.
i left blake at the venezia bus station that morning, and i boarded a train to casarsa, a town about 30 minutes from udine where simone lives. simone was having a bar b q with his family at his house, and i had been invited, which was exciting. his house was adorable, right on a main road through the little town. there were tents set up in his back yard and his mother and aunts were in the kitchen making fabulous baked goods and polenta cakes and pastas, while his dad and uncles were outside drinking homemade grappa and cooking like 10 different types of meat over the grill. we drank white wine that simone made himself, and listened to fun music that im sure he picked up in california, and the italians were all incredibly jovial and adorable, and the ones who could speak english tried to engage me, and i tried horribly to engage the italians in their language. really ends up being so stupid, because when i do finally attenpt to talk to someone in italian, they end up staring at me, and then repeating what i asked them in english. like, the only time i talk to someone they had known english all along, and then the whole thing is just ridiculous. but i am trying, damnit, and i will succeed.
the party was great, the food was INCREDIBLE, the homemade grappa was superb.
on the way home i got a call from frederic, the french boy, who asked me to come out with him and his friend that evening. i went and met them and we had so much fun and i learned a few french phrases and now i am sad that frederic does not live in udine, but in AIX-IN-PROVENCE...totally unfair, all the way around...
interesting things are going on in my program. for one, no call was made alerting the people who own the organic farm that i was coming. as a result, i cannot come, becuase someone else is already there. when i found this out, i was shocked. what would i do?? naturally, simone took the reins. he made about 8 phone calls, and then finally walked me down to some man named zerbi's office. zerbi listened to why i was there, and scrtached his head and then said, "ok. this will we ok. come see me tomorrow". when i returned today, zerbi took me all over the campus, introducing me to about 10 different people, all of them somehow related to what it was i wanted to do: people who make cheese, people who make prosciutto, people who conduct classes on the traditions of italy, someone who teaches a class of food and culture in italy, horticulturalists, food scientists, etc. each one of them said of course, i was welcome to come work with them. so now i am set! really was mindblowing. also...i have been offered a position on an organic farm in TUSCANY in february, and another organic farm outside of venice in january...these will be live-on situations and will count as continuing my internship. i think, definitely, i am going to accept the offer.
also...i am speaking with someone tomorrow about signing up for spring semester, which runs from february until july, and taking my mandatory math and science, plus my last italian and another final elective, here in udine. i dont see why not. i only see why definitely. so, as long as i can work this out...im staying in italy! wish me luck...all my credits will transfer fine and ill get my loans and HOPE still...and i am not ready to leave. i am just getting started. i want to master this language and this culture and the opportunities that i have been presented with are just not something that i could pass up.
um...pictures!!!!
we have great great photos from roma, but i will have to post them in a bit...and heres some from udine...beware, they are pretty much just blake acting like a crazy person, uprooting flowers and breaking into cars...and the bar b q, etc
www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2439605&l=ac061&id=4913936
Friday, October 10, 2008
"puicitade" is friulian for "pig killing celebration"
oh my heavens, it is actually HOT in udine today! how wonderful. first day ive actually felt justified in wearing my flip flops; the looks i am getting now are envious.
i had the final exam for my italian course today...i hope i did ok. i studied all last night at the pizzeria down the block. the sweet man from positano, benji, helped me all evening, bringing me cups of tea and tasty snacks and correcting my work over my shoulder. i think he enjoyed helping me, and this morning when i went in to grab a cup of coffee on the way to school he gave me a capuccino for free, and wished me "fortuna" on my exam.
yesterday i started to buck up about being back in udine.
i went to the dentist yesterday morning, to get my tooth situation fixed. the dentist was a very kind man with salt and pepper hair and blue eyes. he spoke wonderful english, and refered to my tooth as "you're tiny problem", in an effort, i think, to help me remain calm. i felt very safe in his hands, i think because he reminded me of dr. gentry...good smelling and gentle and obviously loaded but in a way that assures you that he makes lots of money for a reason. instead of numbing my mouth out with a six foot needle like they do in the states, they used this tiny little gun, about the size of a glue gun, with a needle maybe 2 centimeters long. the needle was put into my gum and then the gun used like, vibrations to send the novicane out to the rest of my mouth. i lost all feeling in about 5 seconds.
so now i can eat again and it doesnt even look like theres a filling, hoorah!
i spent the rest of the day yesterday sipping coffee and doing busy work for simone, positively mind-numbing grape math.
i was suppose to help barbara in the lab today, but simone and luigi and gabrielle all decided that it was much more important for me to go with them to the vineyards for the harvest. ive kind of been taken under the wing of these sweet grape scientists. i go with them to eat in the cafeteria (the awesome italian cafeteria, mind you, with a full bar and carpaccio and other fancy things), and i feel super cool sitting with a bunch of cute italian boys. i am trying to get them to speak italian at all times, but they are too sweet and forget and ask me adorable questions about america or music or food in their perfectly butchered english (simone speaks nearly perfect english, though).
turns out the one guy gabrielle, who i think is kind of a higher-up around here, has a big party at the end of every november at his parents house, where everyone comes togetehr for the slaughtering of a pig, and then they make salami and prosciutto, etc!! simone told me about this and i squealed with delight and told them that such a thing was my main goal in italy. today on the way to lunch, luigi pointed to me and said to gabrielle, "she want to keel your pig". turns out the killing of the pig is actually kind of an event. you have to actaully capture the pig by hand and strangle it or something (definitely, as the swiss boys told me, not as humane a killing as they do in switzerland). simone said his family does their pig killing party in january, and i am so so tempted to just stick it out over here through christmas to participate in that.
blake is here in udine now...he just called me from a taxi cab to have me tell the taxi driver where to take him...
im hoping that we can go out tonight and find some fun people in this town. the boys here are incredibly good looking but so so shy, no one will talk to me. am determinded to make friends...
anyway, all is well. ill have blake upload the fabulous pictures from roma!!!
i had the final exam for my italian course today...i hope i did ok. i studied all last night at the pizzeria down the block. the sweet man from positano, benji, helped me all evening, bringing me cups of tea and tasty snacks and correcting my work over my shoulder. i think he enjoyed helping me, and this morning when i went in to grab a cup of coffee on the way to school he gave me a capuccino for free, and wished me "fortuna" on my exam.
yesterday i started to buck up about being back in udine.
i went to the dentist yesterday morning, to get my tooth situation fixed. the dentist was a very kind man with salt and pepper hair and blue eyes. he spoke wonderful english, and refered to my tooth as "you're tiny problem", in an effort, i think, to help me remain calm. i felt very safe in his hands, i think because he reminded me of dr. gentry...good smelling and gentle and obviously loaded but in a way that assures you that he makes lots of money for a reason. instead of numbing my mouth out with a six foot needle like they do in the states, they used this tiny little gun, about the size of a glue gun, with a needle maybe 2 centimeters long. the needle was put into my gum and then the gun used like, vibrations to send the novicane out to the rest of my mouth. i lost all feeling in about 5 seconds.
so now i can eat again and it doesnt even look like theres a filling, hoorah!
i spent the rest of the day yesterday sipping coffee and doing busy work for simone, positively mind-numbing grape math.
i was suppose to help barbara in the lab today, but simone and luigi and gabrielle all decided that it was much more important for me to go with them to the vineyards for the harvest. ive kind of been taken under the wing of these sweet grape scientists. i go with them to eat in the cafeteria (the awesome italian cafeteria, mind you, with a full bar and carpaccio and other fancy things), and i feel super cool sitting with a bunch of cute italian boys. i am trying to get them to speak italian at all times, but they are too sweet and forget and ask me adorable questions about america or music or food in their perfectly butchered english (simone speaks nearly perfect english, though).
turns out the one guy gabrielle, who i think is kind of a higher-up around here, has a big party at the end of every november at his parents house, where everyone comes togetehr for the slaughtering of a pig, and then they make salami and prosciutto, etc!! simone told me about this and i squealed with delight and told them that such a thing was my main goal in italy. today on the way to lunch, luigi pointed to me and said to gabrielle, "she want to keel your pig". turns out the killing of the pig is actually kind of an event. you have to actaully capture the pig by hand and strangle it or something (definitely, as the swiss boys told me, not as humane a killing as they do in switzerland). simone said his family does their pig killing party in january, and i am so so tempted to just stick it out over here through christmas to participate in that.
blake is here in udine now...he just called me from a taxi cab to have me tell the taxi driver where to take him...
im hoping that we can go out tonight and find some fun people in this town. the boys here are incredibly good looking but so so shy, no one will talk to me. am determinded to make friends...
anyway, all is well. ill have blake upload the fabulous pictures from roma!!!
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
my 5-day vaca to roma with blake was just...priceless. that city is my happy place, my heart, my favorite thing about earth (other then annabelle).
god, what did we even do? what do you do in roma? blake and i walked the city, sipped espressos, made friends, saw the sistine chapel, ate fantastic food, laughed constantly, contemplated higher powers, considered catholicism, made campari a regular fixture (as all good romans do), had lessons in roman slang, spent a bit more money then we had, and sang moulin rouge love songs, as promised, to the wonderful antonio.
i thought blake was going to have a heart attack around every turn. the city took his breath away, as it does mine, every time. and the italians are just so so wonderful. they are alot more...chatty then i had realised. they are very sweet and encouraging and eager to talk and help. and more then that, theyre just cool. blake and i decided that even the sort of sleazy ones were awesome, with they fancy levis and cigarettes, and its just such a joy and a privledge to be in so different a society, with people so genuinely foreign but absolutely relatable.
i'm just so frustrated with my italian. i want to speak it so badly, but i have such a hard time understanding it when it is spoken to me in a regular pace. my brain still tries to grasp at each individual word, conjugating and translating, and by the time im through figuring out what was said its been like, 5 minutes, and whoever it is im talking to just starts speaking in english. i need to get some tapes or something, or just refuse to be pampered by the always-kind italians and force them to just speak to me in italian and leave it at that. i dont think i realised how badly i would want to know the language, how desperate i am to be able to actually speak to these people. my respect for italians overall is enormous; my respect for their culture grows everyday. and at first i wanted to know the language because its was beautiful and fun, but now i want to know it because i want to know IT. whatever IT is. i want to know it all, all about everything.
on sunday night blake and i had a roman fashion shoot. i lugged that amazingly ridiculous copper-sequined shirt of my mothers (the one she wore to fancy dinner parties around 1986)all the way to rome in my purse (sacrificing space for other, more practical clothes i.e. sweaters). blake had brought his fancy camera and tripod to europe with him, an endeavour i admire him for. i let him take the reigns as photographer for this trip, and his shots were great. anyway, sunday night i got all dressed up in that shirt and we went around rome, me posing this way and that, blake taking shot after shot. the quote of the night was "people think im marc jacobs and youre a starlett", because, with the tripod and my bizarre shirt, we looked like professionals, and people were stopping to watch us, staring at us, clearly thinking that we were doing something important (we were!). we got shots in campo de fiori, the pantheon, the trevi fountains, etc, and by the end of the night i didnt feel so much like i did in kindergarten at the thanksgiving play, i felt kind of free and excited, and we had such fun just roaming the city documenting ourselves.
monday we went to the sistine chapel, which, of course, was terrific. i remembered the actual SC, but not that fantastic hallway that leads to it, full of all those painted maps of the different regions of italy. now that i know the area a little better, i found the maps fascinating! how could they even conceive a visual so acurate and lifelike? i found udine and had blake take my picture pointing to it.
in the mornings we would wake up in antonios glorious apartment, and hear the sounds from the street and see the sun shining across the yellow stucco walls of the building next door, and no matter how late we had been out, we got up out of bed bright and early. we woke up happy there, excited for the day, and i would literally walk to the window, and stick my head out, and say "buongiorno, roma!". then wed go out, and have a coffee, and take a walk...
in the evenings we cooked in antonios kitchen...the first night i made indian food with spices that i had bought at the market in venice. the second, we very frugally had left overs.
i took blake (like, every night) to the cookbook bar, which is full of wonderful roman boys who make my heart flutter. blake and i would hang out for hours, discussing politics and cinema with the romans, being goofy and singing songs and watching the locals and tourists alike walk the tangly, cobblestone streets of trastevere. the owner of the cookbook bar, alessio, who is a licensed somellier and a roman by birth, was so, so incredible to us. he recommended places for us to eat (sadly, when we went to the restaurant, it was necessary to have a reservation, at least for tourists), and told us all about the mafia, and introduced us to all the friends of his who straggle into the tiny bar throughout the night. we had such fun in trastevere, that without even trying wed suddenly find that it was 3am, and everyone else in the streets had gone home, and we had the place to ourselves.
antonio came back to rome from siene monday night, which was really exciting because hes fantastic, and i wanted blake to meet him. we took him out to dinner at a little restaurant in the jewish ghetto, where we had fried artichokes (note: sheryl! friend artichokes are the best. we will make some immediately upon my return to suwanee. so excited!) and linguine with clams in manner of john gotti and a house wine from montepulciano. the streets of the jewish ghetto were quiet and sparse and dark, and it felt very authentic and roman. the last night i cooked dinner at the apartment, which is something that i promised to do for antonio as totally-less-then-adequate repayment for his kindness. i made chicken breasts stuffed with marinated carcioffi (artichokes), blue cheese, and parsley, wrapped in prosciutto and lemon, cooked in white wine, parsley, and butter...i served it with pan tossed zucchini and oricchiette with arugula and frech tomatoes. antonio ate all of his dinner, which was wonderful- i love boys with big appetites.
antonio is so increidble, i really cant get over what i gift he is, how fated finding him on craigslist has been. hes so genuine and smart and peaceful, and he loves books and music and history, and hes one of the sweetest people i have ever known. we took him out to the cookbook bar, which was fun, and we ran through the streets singing 'blue moon'.
my flight for venice left at 6:30am this morning. blake and i stayed out in trastevere till 3. i was suppose to leave the apartment at 4. at 5am, blake rolled over and said, "um. its 5. dont you need to go?". silently, not in a panic what so ever, i got dressed, grabbed my bag, and left the apartment. it was still pitch black outside. i ran full speed to the taxi stand on via emanuelle, exclaimed "Ciampino! molto tardi! pronto!" to the taxi driver, and that man drove like a bat out of hell through the night streets of rome, going probobly 75mph, making it to ciampino airport in record time, but still managing to swing me by the colluseum, which was lit up grandly in the pre-dawn light. best taxi ride of my life, despite the sadness that comes over me everytime i leave that city.
so now i am back in udine. im trying to not sink into gloom. i do love it here, but roma...roma! anyway, simone and the wonderful friends i made at the pizzeria down the street make this place worthwhile. theres work to be done, and my italian course is finished on friday (??)and blake and i will go to slovenia this weekend, and then on suday i am going to a barbq at simones parents house which will be great.
i love you all...
god, what did we even do? what do you do in roma? blake and i walked the city, sipped espressos, made friends, saw the sistine chapel, ate fantastic food, laughed constantly, contemplated higher powers, considered catholicism, made campari a regular fixture (as all good romans do), had lessons in roman slang, spent a bit more money then we had, and sang moulin rouge love songs, as promised, to the wonderful antonio.
i thought blake was going to have a heart attack around every turn. the city took his breath away, as it does mine, every time. and the italians are just so so wonderful. they are alot more...chatty then i had realised. they are very sweet and encouraging and eager to talk and help. and more then that, theyre just cool. blake and i decided that even the sort of sleazy ones were awesome, with they fancy levis and cigarettes, and its just such a joy and a privledge to be in so different a society, with people so genuinely foreign but absolutely relatable.
i'm just so frustrated with my italian. i want to speak it so badly, but i have such a hard time understanding it when it is spoken to me in a regular pace. my brain still tries to grasp at each individual word, conjugating and translating, and by the time im through figuring out what was said its been like, 5 minutes, and whoever it is im talking to just starts speaking in english. i need to get some tapes or something, or just refuse to be pampered by the always-kind italians and force them to just speak to me in italian and leave it at that. i dont think i realised how badly i would want to know the language, how desperate i am to be able to actually speak to these people. my respect for italians overall is enormous; my respect for their culture grows everyday. and at first i wanted to know the language because its was beautiful and fun, but now i want to know it because i want to know IT. whatever IT is. i want to know it all, all about everything.
on sunday night blake and i had a roman fashion shoot. i lugged that amazingly ridiculous copper-sequined shirt of my mothers (the one she wore to fancy dinner parties around 1986)all the way to rome in my purse (sacrificing space for other, more practical clothes i.e. sweaters). blake had brought his fancy camera and tripod to europe with him, an endeavour i admire him for. i let him take the reigns as photographer for this trip, and his shots were great. anyway, sunday night i got all dressed up in that shirt and we went around rome, me posing this way and that, blake taking shot after shot. the quote of the night was "people think im marc jacobs and youre a starlett", because, with the tripod and my bizarre shirt, we looked like professionals, and people were stopping to watch us, staring at us, clearly thinking that we were doing something important (we were!). we got shots in campo de fiori, the pantheon, the trevi fountains, etc, and by the end of the night i didnt feel so much like i did in kindergarten at the thanksgiving play, i felt kind of free and excited, and we had such fun just roaming the city documenting ourselves.
monday we went to the sistine chapel, which, of course, was terrific. i remembered the actual SC, but not that fantastic hallway that leads to it, full of all those painted maps of the different regions of italy. now that i know the area a little better, i found the maps fascinating! how could they even conceive a visual so acurate and lifelike? i found udine and had blake take my picture pointing to it.
in the mornings we would wake up in antonios glorious apartment, and hear the sounds from the street and see the sun shining across the yellow stucco walls of the building next door, and no matter how late we had been out, we got up out of bed bright and early. we woke up happy there, excited for the day, and i would literally walk to the window, and stick my head out, and say "buongiorno, roma!". then wed go out, and have a coffee, and take a walk...
in the evenings we cooked in antonios kitchen...the first night i made indian food with spices that i had bought at the market in venice. the second, we very frugally had left overs.
i took blake (like, every night) to the cookbook bar, which is full of wonderful roman boys who make my heart flutter. blake and i would hang out for hours, discussing politics and cinema with the romans, being goofy and singing songs and watching the locals and tourists alike walk the tangly, cobblestone streets of trastevere. the owner of the cookbook bar, alessio, who is a licensed somellier and a roman by birth, was so, so incredible to us. he recommended places for us to eat (sadly, when we went to the restaurant, it was necessary to have a reservation, at least for tourists), and told us all about the mafia, and introduced us to all the friends of his who straggle into the tiny bar throughout the night. we had such fun in trastevere, that without even trying wed suddenly find that it was 3am, and everyone else in the streets had gone home, and we had the place to ourselves.
antonio came back to rome from siene monday night, which was really exciting because hes fantastic, and i wanted blake to meet him. we took him out to dinner at a little restaurant in the jewish ghetto, where we had fried artichokes (note: sheryl! friend artichokes are the best. we will make some immediately upon my return to suwanee. so excited!) and linguine with clams in manner of john gotti and a house wine from montepulciano. the streets of the jewish ghetto were quiet and sparse and dark, and it felt very authentic and roman. the last night i cooked dinner at the apartment, which is something that i promised to do for antonio as totally-less-then-adequate repayment for his kindness. i made chicken breasts stuffed with marinated carcioffi (artichokes), blue cheese, and parsley, wrapped in prosciutto and lemon, cooked in white wine, parsley, and butter...i served it with pan tossed zucchini and oricchiette with arugula and frech tomatoes. antonio ate all of his dinner, which was wonderful- i love boys with big appetites.
antonio is so increidble, i really cant get over what i gift he is, how fated finding him on craigslist has been. hes so genuine and smart and peaceful, and he loves books and music and history, and hes one of the sweetest people i have ever known. we took him out to the cookbook bar, which was fun, and we ran through the streets singing 'blue moon'.
my flight for venice left at 6:30am this morning. blake and i stayed out in trastevere till 3. i was suppose to leave the apartment at 4. at 5am, blake rolled over and said, "um. its 5. dont you need to go?". silently, not in a panic what so ever, i got dressed, grabbed my bag, and left the apartment. it was still pitch black outside. i ran full speed to the taxi stand on via emanuelle, exclaimed "Ciampino! molto tardi! pronto!" to the taxi driver, and that man drove like a bat out of hell through the night streets of rome, going probobly 75mph, making it to ciampino airport in record time, but still managing to swing me by the colluseum, which was lit up grandly in the pre-dawn light. best taxi ride of my life, despite the sadness that comes over me everytime i leave that city.
so now i am back in udine. im trying to not sink into gloom. i do love it here, but roma...roma! anyway, simone and the wonderful friends i made at the pizzeria down the street make this place worthwhile. theres work to be done, and my italian course is finished on friday (??)and blake and i will go to slovenia this weekend, and then on suday i am going to a barbq at simones parents house which will be great.
i love you all...
Sunday, October 5, 2008
roma ti amo
yesterday was a truly marvelous day.
as i said, i ran into rachael ray and her hubby in campo de fiori. shortly after i got over my fit of giggles at this unlikely encounter, i turned around to face the La Carbonara building, and there was blake, weighed down by his 70lb backpack, looking flushed and exhausted. we embraced and i took his camera bag and led him toward antonios apartment, the whole while blake exclaiming, "this is incredible! look at this place!". i was thirlled with his positive response to rome so far, and my mood went from jubilent to ecstatic.
once we got to antonios,we had a celebratory campari, and blake settled onto the futon for a brief nap (his plane had left berlin at 6am, so he had not slept the night before). while he was sleeping,i went out to the market to shop for vegetables for dinner. the cooking situation at my dorm in udine is dismal at best. there is a ginormous kitchen in the basement,a huge warehouse sized room, that contains 2 tiny electric stove burners, a spaghetti pot, a collander, and a small wooden spoon that one might,say, serve an hourdeurve-sized tasting of caviar in. this is all. oh, and a tiny sink with no soap or sponge. needless to say, despite my best efforts, i have not been able to cook very much over the last month. even though antonios kitchen is the size of a broom closet and also only has 2 small electric stove tops, it is equipped with sharp knives of all sized, cutting boards, silverware, and everything else necessary to make a great meal. at the market i bought lots of fresh vegetables: eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, snow peas, carrots, parsley and cilantro. i went to the butchers and got two huge chicken breasts, went to the cheese shop and bought a bit of parmesean, and at the grocery store i bought a 3euro bottle of delicious white wine from montepulciano.
i woke blake up when i got home,and we went out exploring. it was a rainy stormy day in rome, the first one i think i have ever experienced. we decided that such weather in rome is a treat, as the dark sky makes the city look even more daunting,even more severe and beautiful. we went to the pantheon and saw the rain falling in through the hole in the ceiling, and to the spanish steps, where we huddled under an umbrella and watched the tourists skitter through the puddles at the foot of the stairs.
that evening we hung out at the apartment, waiting for the rain to clear, watching moulin rouge and cooking dinner. when the stars began to show through the clouds, we began to get ourselves dressed for a night out in trastevere. it was during this period of after-dinner wine glasses and outkast-on-the-stereo and lipstick application (for me, not blake), that i decided that seeing racheal ray in campo de fiori was funny enough to warrant ntoifying my favorite celebrity gossip sight, dlisted.com. dlisted is written by this vicious young queen in new york city, a guy named michael k, whose positively hilarious, mercilous attack on celebrities and commentary about the entertainment world is one of my truest pleasures in life. i read dlisted almost every day. i went to the website, got his address, and wrote in an email: sighted! rachael ray and her husband in campo de fiori etc etc. rachael ray is on michael k's "dispise list" (most everyone is; the only nice things ive heard him say were in regards to paul newman, REM, natalie portman, brad pitt,etc...good, or at least not totally obnoxious, celebrities). anyway, i wrote him about my celebrity sighting, and about 45 minutes when i went to check my email before leaving the apartment, i found that MICHAEL K FROM DLISTED HAD WRITTEN ME BACK!!!!!!!! it was a brief, bitchy message, and one that i will cherish forever:
In Italy? UGH! Gross. Thanks Eleanor!
x
when i read it i shreiked loudly, frightening a pigeon that had been resting on the roof of the building across from ours. i yelled, "oh my god,he wrote me back, i just got an email from michael k! hes my most favorite homo!"
blake thought this was hilarious.
i was hopping around the apartment in excitement, clapping my hands and giggling madly when my cell phone rang. it said 'private number' so i assumed that it was john or someone. i answered "hello!!!!!" ready to relay the news of my double brush with fame, but the person on the other end of the line said, "oh, uh, hello!! this is brian!" at first i thought it was my father. was confused. finally figured out that it was my old friend brian davies, who had been blakes very good friend when he was living in beijing. when i came to stay with blake in beijing, brian had hung out with us all the time, and he became one of blake and my most colorful life characters, and someone who we will both love forever and speak of fondly, no matter how long we may go without seeing him again, if we ever even do. i was thrilled to hear from brian, "a rare pleasure!" as blake described it, and we chatted for a while, it finally coming out that blake had given him my number and told him to call (i was like, did he call my mom or something?) anyway, the combination of my dlisted success and the call from darling brian and the fact that it was our first night in rome was all just so wonderful. blake and i went down to trastevere, which was teeming with life and laughter as usual. i took him to my most favorite haunt, the cookbook bar, where i was greeting with cheek kisses from the beautiful alessio, the owner. blake and i hung out there all evening, chatting with alessio and my dear friend estevan who had been so sweet to me my time before in rome. people who i had met before kept coming in and greeting me warmly, and the conversation and wine was ust wonderful and warm, despite the uncharictaristically cold weather outside. blake and i walked home late that evening,munching on paninis and avoiding racing mopeds. blake and i agreed that it had been one of our very best days, and a fantastic beginning to what is sure to be one of out best adventures ever.
as i said, i ran into rachael ray and her hubby in campo de fiori. shortly after i got over my fit of giggles at this unlikely encounter, i turned around to face the La Carbonara building, and there was blake, weighed down by his 70lb backpack, looking flushed and exhausted. we embraced and i took his camera bag and led him toward antonios apartment, the whole while blake exclaiming, "this is incredible! look at this place!". i was thirlled with his positive response to rome so far, and my mood went from jubilent to ecstatic.
once we got to antonios,we had a celebratory campari, and blake settled onto the futon for a brief nap (his plane had left berlin at 6am, so he had not slept the night before). while he was sleeping,i went out to the market to shop for vegetables for dinner. the cooking situation at my dorm in udine is dismal at best. there is a ginormous kitchen in the basement,a huge warehouse sized room, that contains 2 tiny electric stove burners, a spaghetti pot, a collander, and a small wooden spoon that one might,say, serve an hourdeurve-sized tasting of caviar in. this is all. oh, and a tiny sink with no soap or sponge. needless to say, despite my best efforts, i have not been able to cook very much over the last month. even though antonios kitchen is the size of a broom closet and also only has 2 small electric stove tops, it is equipped with sharp knives of all sized, cutting boards, silverware, and everything else necessary to make a great meal. at the market i bought lots of fresh vegetables: eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, snow peas, carrots, parsley and cilantro. i went to the butchers and got two huge chicken breasts, went to the cheese shop and bought a bit of parmesean, and at the grocery store i bought a 3euro bottle of delicious white wine from montepulciano.
i woke blake up when i got home,and we went out exploring. it was a rainy stormy day in rome, the first one i think i have ever experienced. we decided that such weather in rome is a treat, as the dark sky makes the city look even more daunting,even more severe and beautiful. we went to the pantheon and saw the rain falling in through the hole in the ceiling, and to the spanish steps, where we huddled under an umbrella and watched the tourists skitter through the puddles at the foot of the stairs.
that evening we hung out at the apartment, waiting for the rain to clear, watching moulin rouge and cooking dinner. when the stars began to show through the clouds, we began to get ourselves dressed for a night out in trastevere. it was during this period of after-dinner wine glasses and outkast-on-the-stereo and lipstick application (for me, not blake), that i decided that seeing racheal ray in campo de fiori was funny enough to warrant ntoifying my favorite celebrity gossip sight, dlisted.com. dlisted is written by this vicious young queen in new york city, a guy named michael k, whose positively hilarious, mercilous attack on celebrities and commentary about the entertainment world is one of my truest pleasures in life. i read dlisted almost every day. i went to the website, got his address, and wrote in an email: sighted! rachael ray and her husband in campo de fiori etc etc. rachael ray is on michael k's "dispise list" (most everyone is; the only nice things ive heard him say were in regards to paul newman, REM, natalie portman, brad pitt,etc...good, or at least not totally obnoxious, celebrities). anyway, i wrote him about my celebrity sighting, and about 45 minutes when i went to check my email before leaving the apartment, i found that MICHAEL K FROM DLISTED HAD WRITTEN ME BACK!!!!!!!! it was a brief, bitchy message, and one that i will cherish forever:
In Italy? UGH! Gross. Thanks Eleanor!
x
when i read it i shreiked loudly, frightening a pigeon that had been resting on the roof of the building across from ours. i yelled, "oh my god,he wrote me back, i just got an email from michael k! hes my most favorite homo!"
blake thought this was hilarious.
i was hopping around the apartment in excitement, clapping my hands and giggling madly when my cell phone rang. it said 'private number' so i assumed that it was john or someone. i answered "hello!!!!!" ready to relay the news of my double brush with fame, but the person on the other end of the line said, "oh, uh, hello!! this is brian!" at first i thought it was my father. was confused. finally figured out that it was my old friend brian davies, who had been blakes very good friend when he was living in beijing. when i came to stay with blake in beijing, brian had hung out with us all the time, and he became one of blake and my most colorful life characters, and someone who we will both love forever and speak of fondly, no matter how long we may go without seeing him again, if we ever even do. i was thrilled to hear from brian, "a rare pleasure!" as blake described it, and we chatted for a while, it finally coming out that blake had given him my number and told him to call (i was like, did he call my mom or something?) anyway, the combination of my dlisted success and the call from darling brian and the fact that it was our first night in rome was all just so wonderful. blake and i went down to trastevere, which was teeming with life and laughter as usual. i took him to my most favorite haunt, the cookbook bar, where i was greeting with cheek kisses from the beautiful alessio, the owner. blake and i hung out there all evening, chatting with alessio and my dear friend estevan who had been so sweet to me my time before in rome. people who i had met before kept coming in and greeting me warmly, and the conversation and wine was ust wonderful and warm, despite the uncharictaristically cold weather outside. blake and i walked home late that evening,munching on paninis and avoiding racing mopeds. blake and i agreed that it had been one of our very best days, and a fantastic beginning to what is sure to be one of out best adventures ever.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
ahahahaha. this morning while waiting for blake to arrive in campo de fiori,a cab pulled up beside me. exiting the cab: that chubby food-fraud RACHAEL RAY and her short husband. they commenced to walk about taking photographs of vegetables. blah.
anyway blake is here now and he loves it! i took him to the pantheon and the rain was falling in through the hole in the top and it was magnificent.
anyway blake is here now and he loves it! i took him to the pantheon and the rain was falling in through the hole in the top and it was magnificent.
Friday, October 3, 2008
have returned! after much hassle and anticipation, i am back in the eternal city.
antonio is absolutely just... a gift from God. i emailed him about 2 weeks ago, and very dramatically promised that if he would let me and blake stay here for a few nights we would not only cook him fabulous meals (including FRIED CHICKEN...stay tuned for that) but we would sing him Moulin Rouge love songs (he loves moulin rouge, as do i) and make him laugh. so he agreed, and at 10am this morning, 3 hours after climbing out of my evil, ungracious sleeper-train-from-venice bed, antonio and i embraced and did the cute italian cheek pecks and i came back to my favorite apartment in the world.
blake has been in berlin this past month on a journalist-convention type trip where they pay for very smart, inquisitive people to go to deutschland and get educated about the countrys history. he had a week off between the convention and his plane ticket home, so he agreed to come to italy to visit me (i say agree because blake is a little bit of a snob about italy...bedbugs, misogynists, not germany, etc...). we are going to stay in rome for a few days, and then i will return to udine for school, and meet up with him in venice next saturday.
i left for rome yesterday afternoon. i had a 7 o'clock flight out of venice on ryanair, so i figured getting to venice 2 hours before my flight would be pleanty of time. unfortunately, i am a bit of a jump-the-gun-type non-researcher, and forgot that there are 2 airports out of venice: marco polo, the big one, which has busses running to-and-from every 15 minutes for the 5 minute ride, and treviso. which is in Treviso. an hour away. and has one bus that runs every hour. so when i arrived in venice at 5:04, i had missed the 5 o'clock bus. at 6 my bus finally arrived. and at 7 we got to the airport, in time to see my plane take off without me. was. sad. i went to the info desk and was advised that i could either a) sleep on a bench and then pay 90euro for the 8am flight, or b) take a night train from venice. a night train sounded romantic enough, and certainly cheaper. so at 11:30, after a beautiful evening walking around venice and watching an orchestra perform in st.marks square, i hopped into my 2-feet wide cot in a train car with 3 women from napoli and managed to fall asleep. wasnt too terribly bad, actually, though the blanket was even thinner then the matress and i had to chose between covering my butt or my knees.
arrived in rome 7am. breakfasted at a cafe in campo de fiori. washed face, armpits, bangs in sink in bathroom of cafe where women kept coming in and peeing in a hole in the ground behind me, changed into a clean dress, and sauntered to meet antonio.
apartment is just how i remember, though antonio has taken to taping up inspirational messages to himself on random surfaces. is good; i read them and feel...inspired.
so now i am here and in love all over again.
oh, but, oh no! aside from it being my favorite place and blake being able to come etc, i totally returned to rome to find the jude law boy. but today, when i strategically positioned myself behind a thin metal pole in an effort to hide myself in manner of an osterich, and stared into the cafe where he works, he was not there! fear the worst. will be so distraught if i cannot find him again and show him how composed and alluring i am these days...oh well, anyway, greeks are silly.
so now it is evening and i have the apartment and, in a sense, the city, to myself. blake arrives tomorrow morning at 9 (trying to give him directions to campo de fiori was hilarious...he is so use toberlin, orderly, straight lines and road maps...i was like "just sort of walk up and around and to the right, in the generally opposite direction of where the sun will be rising, and if you hit the tiber youve gone too far"), so i will meet him at a cafe and say "ciao" and other cute things. i think tonight im going to go into trastevere if the rain holds off...
antonio is absolutely just... a gift from God. i emailed him about 2 weeks ago, and very dramatically promised that if he would let me and blake stay here for a few nights we would not only cook him fabulous meals (including FRIED CHICKEN...stay tuned for that) but we would sing him Moulin Rouge love songs (he loves moulin rouge, as do i) and make him laugh. so he agreed, and at 10am this morning, 3 hours after climbing out of my evil, ungracious sleeper-train-from-venice bed, antonio and i embraced and did the cute italian cheek pecks and i came back to my favorite apartment in the world.
blake has been in berlin this past month on a journalist-convention type trip where they pay for very smart, inquisitive people to go to deutschland and get educated about the countrys history. he had a week off between the convention and his plane ticket home, so he agreed to come to italy to visit me (i say agree because blake is a little bit of a snob about italy...bedbugs, misogynists, not germany, etc...). we are going to stay in rome for a few days, and then i will return to udine for school, and meet up with him in venice next saturday.
i left for rome yesterday afternoon. i had a 7 o'clock flight out of venice on ryanair, so i figured getting to venice 2 hours before my flight would be pleanty of time. unfortunately, i am a bit of a jump-the-gun-type non-researcher, and forgot that there are 2 airports out of venice: marco polo, the big one, which has busses running to-and-from every 15 minutes for the 5 minute ride, and treviso. which is in Treviso. an hour away. and has one bus that runs every hour. so when i arrived in venice at 5:04, i had missed the 5 o'clock bus. at 6 my bus finally arrived. and at 7 we got to the airport, in time to see my plane take off without me. was. sad. i went to the info desk and was advised that i could either a) sleep on a bench and then pay 90euro for the 8am flight, or b) take a night train from venice. a night train sounded romantic enough, and certainly cheaper. so at 11:30, after a beautiful evening walking around venice and watching an orchestra perform in st.marks square, i hopped into my 2-feet wide cot in a train car with 3 women from napoli and managed to fall asleep. wasnt too terribly bad, actually, though the blanket was even thinner then the matress and i had to chose between covering my butt or my knees.
arrived in rome 7am. breakfasted at a cafe in campo de fiori. washed face, armpits, bangs in sink in bathroom of cafe where women kept coming in and peeing in a hole in the ground behind me, changed into a clean dress, and sauntered to meet antonio.
apartment is just how i remember, though antonio has taken to taping up inspirational messages to himself on random surfaces. is good; i read them and feel...inspired.
so now i am here and in love all over again.
oh, but, oh no! aside from it being my favorite place and blake being able to come etc, i totally returned to rome to find the jude law boy. but today, when i strategically positioned myself behind a thin metal pole in an effort to hide myself in manner of an osterich, and stared into the cafe where he works, he was not there! fear the worst. will be so distraught if i cannot find him again and show him how composed and alluring i am these days...oh well, anyway, greeks are silly.
so now it is evening and i have the apartment and, in a sense, the city, to myself. blake arrives tomorrow morning at 9 (trying to give him directions to campo de fiori was hilarious...he is so use toberlin, orderly, straight lines and road maps...i was like "just sort of walk up and around and to the right, in the generally opposite direction of where the sun will be rising, and if you hit the tiber youve gone too far"), so i will meet him at a cafe and say "ciao" and other cute things. i think tonight im going to go into trastevere if the rain holds off...
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Friuli-Venezia Giulia
The following is an assignment which i was asked to write for my Anthropology-While-Abroad class that i am taking from Professor Julie Velasquez-Runk at UGA. Professor Velasquez-Runk is a renowned anthropologist at the university, and she teaches a class called "The Anthropology of Eating", which i adored. Her assignment for me was to write a paper detailing the relationship between culture and food based on my experiences so far here in Italy, and then to send it as a letter to five members of my family. I said, well how about i just post it on my blog, since that way it is sure to be viewed by all of my loved ones. so here it is:The allure for me of travelling to Italy is, above all else, the food. I am sure that there are many who would agree with me. Italy has managed to hold a high standard in the world of cuisine, both for its native, much-sought after and infamous dishes, and its use of high quality, fresh, and inspiring ingredients. When I was offered the opportunity to travel to Italy and take part in the creation and growth of localized Italian food, I jumped at the chance. Italy has long been a country that I have dreamed of, and a country that allows my passion for food and culture to reach its pinnacle. Over the course of four months, I will have the chance to work one on one with agriculturalists, scientists, and local food producers within the region to learn first hand what goes into Italian food, both its creation and its consciousness. Italian culture and the foods that they strive for go hand in hand, and it is obvious that a country that holds such high standards to its gastronomic success has a strong, vibrant, and impressive way of life to appreciate such an undertaking.
I study at the University of Udine, a national university that specializes in food science and agriculture. Udine is situated in the hills of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy, in the far north eastern corner, near the borders of Austria and Slovenia. Friuli-Venezia Giulia in its entirety did not become a sovereign region of Italy until 1963, before which time it traded hands between Austrian and Slavic control, and a brief period after World War II when it was partially awarded to Yugoslavia. Due to this turn-around, the region reels from influences outside of Italy, including most prominently Austrian and Slovenian. People within the region speak dialects of Italian specific even to their towns and cities, and the cuisine is vastly different from other more well known areas of Italy. The main source of commerce for this region is agriculture, and the demand and conscientiousness of locally grown, community supported agriculture (CSA) is dominant. I have been here in this region for a little over two weeks now, during which time I have attended two large-scale locally based food and wine festivals, both of which promoted products that had been grown and transported to coincide with the ideology and actions of the Slow Food movement. Slow Food is an international organization which strives to protect the lifestyle, environment, and health behind locally-based, culturally inspired, sustainable food production. As was explained to me at the first of these festivals by my university mentor Simone Castellarin, the Slow Food movement was born in Italy, and accepted amongst those who cherish food, cuisine, health, and the environment, as simply a way of life. These passions and convictions were prevalent in both of the food and wine festivals which I attended. The difference between the two festivals was the locality and regional culture which inspired the wares available to the public. The first festival that I attended was right in the center of Udine, the Friuli Food and Wine Festival, which promoted the sale of local specialties that are in accordance with the DOC. The second festival was called Gusti Di Frontiera, which took place in another town in the region, and encompassed local specialties from the surrounding border countries, including Austria, Slovenia, and France.
The Friuli Food and Wine festival occurred on my first weekend in Udine, and it could not have come at a better time. Udine is a fantastic town, quaint and clean and brimming with kind people, but it is not exactly the most exciting city. When I first got to town, however, I noticed that almost every street had some sort of specialty store, offering locally cured meats, cheeses, breads, pastas, or sweets. Not being quite acquainted enough with the language (or the dormitory kitchen) to want to tackle the butcher quite yet, I opted for testing out the local cuisine in the form of paninis, coffee shops, and ready-made offerings from around town. When the festival came, however, I was starved for fresh, hand crafted food, and I ate till my hearts content. Enveloping the entirety of the historic downtown, the festival filled the streets with tents and caravans full of locally made cheeses, pork products roasted and cured before your eyes, and other, subtler gastronomic expressions of heritage and environment. People flocked into town from all over Italy, and I was told that the Friuli Food and Wine Festival is nationally famous not only for its foods, but specifically for its wines. The Friuli region is one of the most successful in Italy for its wine production, specifically its white wines. Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Friulano, Refosco, and Pinot Gris, are among some of the most regionally important wines produced here. At the Friuli Food and Wine festival, wine makers and drinkers alike were paying homage to the local craft, each booth offering not only glasses and bottles for sale, but giving presentations as to the specific area of the region and necessary components to the wines’ production. It was exciting to be able to see the actual growers and makers of the wine face to face, to see them take pride in their product and be able to note the differences between each type. The crowds were genuinely pleased to see some of their local favorites, and it was apparent that each booth seemed to have a fan base of loyal vineyard supporters, people who would find their booth and a good seat and settle in for the evening to talk and people watch and enjoy their fare. At many of the booths, local vineyards teamed up with chefs or other food producers, and meats and cheeses, or plates of other regionally inspired dishes were served alongside the wines as compliments to the taste, and vice versa. Prosciutto cruddo, salame, pancetta, and fresh roasted pork straight off the bone were offered practically everywhere you looked, and stands full of stacks of cheeses pleased the crowds by offering samples and slicing up fresh bread to accompany the different varieties. Aside from the mountains of fresh pork and cheese, there were other, larger tents which focused more on sit-down style cuisine. These tents had rows of stalls, each advertising a different menu of local dishes. It was interesting to note just how different these dishes seemed from what is usually thought of as “Italian food”. There was no pasta, no stuffed manicotti, and no veal picatta. Instead there were very obviously Germanic and Slovik-inspired dishes, including bratwurst, schnitzel, goulash, herbed snails, polenta cakes, and plates piled high with stewed vegetables and slices of cured horse meat. As people ate their meals, bands or orchestras or soloists would play national and international favorites.
I study at the University of Udine, a national university that specializes in food science and agriculture. Udine is situated in the hills of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy, in the far north eastern corner, near the borders of Austria and Slovenia. Friuli-Venezia Giulia in its entirety did not become a sovereign region of Italy until 1963, before which time it traded hands between Austrian and Slavic control, and a brief period after World War II when it was partially awarded to Yugoslavia. Due to this turn-around, the region reels from influences outside of Italy, including most prominently Austrian and Slovenian. People within the region speak dialects of Italian specific even to their towns and cities, and the cuisine is vastly different from other more well known areas of Italy. The main source of commerce for this region is agriculture, and the demand and conscientiousness of locally grown, community supported agriculture (CSA) is dominant. I have been here in this region for a little over two weeks now, during which time I have attended two large-scale locally based food and wine festivals, both of which promoted products that had been grown and transported to coincide with the ideology and actions of the Slow Food movement. Slow Food is an international organization which strives to protect the lifestyle, environment, and health behind locally-based, culturally inspired, sustainable food production. As was explained to me at the first of these festivals by my university mentor Simone Castellarin, the Slow Food movement was born in Italy, and accepted amongst those who cherish food, cuisine, health, and the environment, as simply a way of life. These passions and convictions were prevalent in both of the food and wine festivals which I attended. The difference between the two festivals was the locality and regional culture which inspired the wares available to the public. The first festival that I attended was right in the center of Udine, the Friuli Food and Wine Festival, which promoted the sale of local specialties that are in accordance with the DOC. The second festival was called Gusti Di Frontiera, which took place in another town in the region, and encompassed local specialties from the surrounding border countries, including Austria, Slovenia, and France.
The Friuli Food and Wine festival occurred on my first weekend in Udine, and it could not have come at a better time. Udine is a fantastic town, quaint and clean and brimming with kind people, but it is not exactly the most exciting city. When I first got to town, however, I noticed that almost every street had some sort of specialty store, offering locally cured meats, cheeses, breads, pastas, or sweets. Not being quite acquainted enough with the language (or the dormitory kitchen) to want to tackle the butcher quite yet, I opted for testing out the local cuisine in the form of paninis, coffee shops, and ready-made offerings from around town. When the festival came, however, I was starved for fresh, hand crafted food, and I ate till my hearts content. Enveloping the entirety of the historic downtown, the festival filled the streets with tents and caravans full of locally made cheeses, pork products roasted and cured before your eyes, and other, subtler gastronomic expressions of heritage and environment. People flocked into town from all over Italy, and I was told that the Friuli Food and Wine Festival is nationally famous not only for its foods, but specifically for its wines. The Friuli region is one of the most successful in Italy for its wine production, specifically its white wines. Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Friulano, Refosco, and Pinot Gris, are among some of the most regionally important wines produced here. At the Friuli Food and Wine festival, wine makers and drinkers alike were paying homage to the local craft, each booth offering not only glasses and bottles for sale, but giving presentations as to the specific area of the region and necessary components to the wines’ production. It was exciting to be able to see the actual growers and makers of the wine face to face, to see them take pride in their product and be able to note the differences between each type. The crowds were genuinely pleased to see some of their local favorites, and it was apparent that each booth seemed to have a fan base of loyal vineyard supporters, people who would find their booth and a good seat and settle in for the evening to talk and people watch and enjoy their fare. At many of the booths, local vineyards teamed up with chefs or other food producers, and meats and cheeses, or plates of other regionally inspired dishes were served alongside the wines as compliments to the taste, and vice versa. Prosciutto cruddo, salame, pancetta, and fresh roasted pork straight off the bone were offered practically everywhere you looked, and stands full of stacks of cheeses pleased the crowds by offering samples and slicing up fresh bread to accompany the different varieties. Aside from the mountains of fresh pork and cheese, there were other, larger tents which focused more on sit-down style cuisine. These tents had rows of stalls, each advertising a different menu of local dishes. It was interesting to note just how different these dishes seemed from what is usually thought of as “Italian food”. There was no pasta, no stuffed manicotti, and no veal picatta. Instead there were very obviously Germanic and Slovik-inspired dishes, including bratwurst, schnitzel, goulash, herbed snails, polenta cakes, and plates piled high with stewed vegetables and slices of cured horse meat. As people ate their meals, bands or orchestras or soloists would play national and international favorites.
The Friuli Food and Wine festival went on for three days, and the locals that I spoke with agreed on the fact that this festival was their city’s night on the town. When I asked my friend Luigi jokingly, “where’s the after-party,” he responded, “you come back, one year!” This seems evident now that the town has gone back to normal; early nights and early mornings are the norm in this area, where the people are “uncharacteristically” Italian in their desire to work hard and play later. Infact, it is in a way necessary for the wine producers in this region, in fact all over Italy, to dedicate a serious amount of energy to maintaining high quality standards for their wine. There is a specific label, Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC), that certifies that wines within the country meet specific quality standards reflecting the environment and creation processes of the product. With this stamp of quality placed securely on the wines’ label, consumers are “guaranteed” a good bottle of wine. It has been said, of course, that the DOC labelling is something to be wary of. Just as certain “organic” products are not necessarily animal friendly and, likewise, “cage free” in no way means “without horomones”, a DOC label is something that the vintner must, in a way, purchase. In order to be granted a quality check, wine producers must pay a fee; and even if their product passes the quality test, the taste and value of the wine is negotiable. Likewise, wine makers who do not pay for a quality inspection, or simply do not give into the necessity of having a “national quality stamp” on their product, could produce perfectly wonderful wines- only to be snubbed by certificate-abiding consumers. It is unfortunate, then, that the Friuli Food and Wine Festival was also called “Friuli DOC”, for in a way that means that some fascinating and earth-friendly local wines were not allowed to participate in the ceremonies. When I learned of the DOC I made it my goal to accept the stamp of quality, but to look beyond the title into other, lesser known and promoted local wines.A week after my introduction to local food and wine, I was granted the chance to attend another, broader reaching food festival. This festival was especially intriguing to me, because it did not just focus on Friuli products, but on products and cultural expressions from the surrounding countries which had so much influence on Friuli-Venezia Giulia in the first place: France, Austria, and Slovenia. Thirty kilometres east of Udine is the town of Gorizia, a beautiful old town in the shadow of a castle on the border of Slovenia. Gorizia hosted this years Gusti Di Frontiera, which covered the town in tents full of food, wine, and beer, made with reference to cultural favorites within those countries that influenced this region of Italy. I noticed right off that this festival was a bit different. It could have just been that the locals were different- Italy is surprisingly diverse in personality and culture even within the distance of a few kilometres. There seemed a more rambunctious air about the festival, the crowd seemed younger, and the variety of products, obviously, was much more vast. It could have just been the addition of beer. However, the music was also different. On every street corner a different band was playing a style of music that I had only heard in movies set in Paris, Vienna, or similar; guitars and snare drums and French horns, played by men in lederhosen, checkered caps, or three-piece suits. The food was all locally produced, and the city was divided into sections relevant to the directions of the border country: the West side was French fare, the North was Austrian, the East was Slovenian, and in the center, Friulian. Everything on sale, whether to eat or to drink or to take home as a souvenir, was crafted by hand and genuinely loved, the man who cured the pork slicing it for you, or the man who made the beer explaining the subtle difference between this variety or that (I didn’t understand this lecture, but the friends I was with told me what was going on). It was so refreshing to see such a large crowd travel from far and wide to be at a festival where the main goal was to present to the public the foods and beverages which they eat on a regular basis! It seemed the epitome of community supported agriculture, everyone so proud and in love with their culture and their food that an entire weekend event was based around celebrating it.
A lot of time and care goes into the agriculture in this region. During the week days I work with a group of food scientists from the university. Currently their project is to create a new strain of wine (or multiple strains) that are resistant to local fungi and adverse elements. The scientist’s names are Simone, Luigi, and Barabara, and they are all dedicated not necessarily to the scientific aspect of their job, but to the grapes that they are saving. Three times now we have been out into the experimental vineyard, where regional grapes are grown and cross pollinated and sampled. The vineyards are vast and various; vine by vine the variety of grape and the condition of the berries changes. In an effort to make the grapes stronger, they have to be hurt. As Simone explained, it may be easier to make wine out of a berry that has been irrigated, but the grapes that have to work for their nutrients taste the best. “Stressed” grapes, they are called, make themselves stronger by struggling for their condition. Certain vines, therefore, are irrigated, and others are not, and experiments are performed to find out just how well the stressed grapes fared. Mold is examined for its root cause and sick grapes are studied under microscope after being dosed with medicines. Once the University of Udine scientists have found a set of grapes that work, the grapes are harvested, analysed, and sorted, and then driven in a refrigerated van into Verona, where the PhD students there make the wine. Such extreme care is exhibited with each bunch; the grapes are handled like precious bubbles and treated individually. It is as though the harvesters know that within each one there is an individual ability to hit or miss, and in order to produce the best product each needs to be respected. I imagine that the production of other foods in this region goes along similar lines, especially when that food is to be eaten personally, and not just used for experiments.
I am excited to continue my work here. The chance to see food treated with such love is something that I have never witnessed before from a farming-and-harvesting standpoint. While I stake my claim in a kitchen, the passion there is with ingredients that have already been created for my use. To be able to witness the birth of foods I love will help me to be able to use them in an even more gratifying way. The Italians that I have so far had the pleasure of witnessing are, wonderfully, exactly as I imagined. There is such an importance put on what they eat, and it is directly parallel to how they live their lives. To them, food is more then a necessity, it is a pleasure. There is happiness in the consumption of food and drink that highlights the meaning of the study of gastronomy; Italians, at least those who I have been near, are in all ways gastronomes. Their food and culture are intertwined, to the point where food inspires art, music, celebration, relationships, and labour. Their craft in many ways is their cuisine, and their culture is situated around their love and respect for their craft.**for more fascinating photos from the Gorizia festival and my day harvesting grapes with simone, go to www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2434733&l=6cbbd&id=4913936.
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