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