The Kookaburra's Kackle

Bringing Up Bébé

2012-02-12T14:25:00.004-05:00

Ok, so I'll be first to admit that I really am not all that great with kids and I have no clue what it is like to be a parent, but hearing about this new book on NPR (Pamela Druckerman’s Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting) and reading the related Times article Why American Kids are Brats really radiated with me. Basically, I realized I am always happy to attend to a well-mannered, pleasant kid; a bit of old-fashioned politeness goes a looong way with me. Adults shouldn't have to completely give up their own lives once they have children (or even when they mind someone else's), and to me it isn't worth the effort spending time with sour lemons, whether young or old.

Mixing things up

2012-01-19T07:16:00.002-05:00

So, this morning I am doing what I imagine 90% of all other Americans do when they get out of bed: I took a shower, I am having breakfast, and will soon go off to school/work. What is different for me is that I am NOT exercising, which is a nice change in some ways but also bumming me out. This is the first time in nearly a year and a half (since August 10th, 2010, to be exact) that I have not gone running.

Why this change? I didn't get some sudden injury or illness, thank goodness, and the weather is good, though a bit cold. Well, I went in for my annual checkup two days ago and my doctor asked if I exercise and if so, how much. When I told her I run about 6.5-7.5 miles a day, every day (about 45 miles a week), she seemed fairly disgusted, especially when I told her my shins are sensitive to the touch... and have been for the past 5 years. In my own defense, my shins have not been getting any worse in the past year an a half, though they also are not getting any better. I figure I can't keep up my consistent track record forever (though in comparison Seth seems to have done well for himself), and if I am to miss a day or two, I should do it on my own terms and not wait until my shins start getting really bad again. So, I figure it couldn't hurt to have a day off from trotting through the dark woods once a week, though I still do plan to hit the FSU gym after my morning class :o)

Long Holiday

2012-01-15T15:00:00.004-05:00

Seth and I sure had a nice slow holiday--while I caught up on my reading of fun books and magazines, Seth pounded away at his course syllabi and worked his way back into the spotlight by playing guitar and singing at his favorite Chapel Hill haunt, The Cave.

Immediately after my finals, we drove to Geneva, NY, just in time to spend Christmas with Seth's family. A few days later we hit the road again to celebrate the new year Southern style in Raleigh. After a week and a half here we took off back up north to NY, with an overnight stop to visit Mark, Gina, Kate, and Adah at their new home in Fairfax, VA, not too far from their old home. We used to enjoy paying them a visit on our way between NC and NY, and it is nice to be able do that once again. Now that we are back in Waltham, it is time to start concentrating on the start of the semester...

On New Years Day I went with my family to Topsail Island for their annual Dolphin Dip. This started as a fundraiser a few years ago but now everyone in the community participates 'for fun'. Basically, it involves a mass of people jumping into the chilly ocean at the stroke of midday (ie. at noon there is a countdown and everyone rushes in, gets hit by a wave or two, then almost immediately rushes back out). After all the hype I was convinced the water would be deathly cold (my brother was dramatizing the urgency for medics to be on hand), but it was a warm day, about 70 degrees, and the water, though cold, was not 'bone-freezing cold'. In fact, there were a couple girls, about 7 or 8, splashing around in the waves even before the countdown began.

Dad, Andrew, and I did the Dip

Dinner at Stromboli's

Carter and I were both extremely impressed by the Krispy Kreme snowman doughnut.

Carter helping Mom pack away the Christmas decorations

Meeting up with Meghan in Chapel Hill before Seth's big gig. It was quite a plate of hummus, a nice change from eating meat twice a day for several weeks (I think I filled my yearly quota of Animal during the break).

Seth rocking out with John, old-school style, at the Cave.

Christmas in New York

2011-12-18T21:07:00.013-05:00

Instead of staying in town and studying for finals for a week, Seth and I took off for a three-night stay in New York City. It is always nice to be in a big city for Christmas (such as Paris, last year), though it would have been extra nice to have had some snow on the ground (not complaining here; the weather was fantastic, and we left just before the temps plummeted today).

We stayed in an HI hostel in the Upper West Side. This was my first time staying in a hostel in the US, and in fact, it happens to be the largest in the world, with over 660 beds. Holy mackerel! Very clean, but noisy and with little personality, in case you find yourself looking for accommodation in the Big Apple.

The view from the Chinatown Bus of Manhattan rising up from behind this massive cemetery

Little Italy (uncanny, except the street is too wide)

Our first night we met with Ting Chun, a friend of Seth's from Brandeis. Here we are at the amazing Shake Shack, after having eaten hamburgers! Made with beef! I haven't had a full-size (beef) hamburger in probably a couple years. It was so good I went back for seconds :o) We spent the mornings in classic New York fashion, running through Central Park

One of the lakes in Central Park

Friday morning we visited the American Museum of Natural History with the main objective of saying hello to our dinosaur friends.

I really like the hat on this big guy

After museum number one, we met with my cousin, Christina, at museum number two, the Met. After getting a quick taste for the museum (it is GINGANTIC), we joined up with her husband, Kevin, for dinner and a show. We ate at a Japanese ramen place in the very funky East Village.

So good!

The four of us went to a very eclectic concert in "Alphabet City", at an exceptionally tiny (though famous, of course) venue called The Stone, owned by John Zorn. All non-profit, it has two sets a night, does not sell drinks or other refreshments, and consists of a single room with concrete floors and fold-out chairs. It is truly 'all about the music'. Our show consisted of a Gamelan 'invocation' and awkwardly transitioned into a strangely charismatic band from Tennessee called the Terror Pigeons. The funniest part of the evening was that the band brought a variety of homemade desserts that corresponded with stories from their songs. Since no food is allowed in the club, the audience shared cookies, root beer floats, and cake shaped like pizza on the sidewalk outside after the set.

The band brought dessert for its audience. How thoughtful!

The cake really did resemble pizza, though we had to avoid swallowing the Juicy Fruit gum cheese.

Seth and I with Christina and Kevin outside the inconspicuous club, The Stone. Only in New York.

The next day Seth and I took a walk through midtown. Here is Union Square, wearing its winter coat.

The flatiron building

A close-up of the hanging paper cup exhibit at the nose of the flatiron

A guy pushing a tree in a shopping cart. Creativity is directly proportional to city size.

A visit to the New York Public Library gave way to a surprise exhibit--they were showing a host of interesting items such as a Gutenberg Bible, Virginia Woolf's walking stick and diary, sketches by Beethoven, and T.S. Eliot's typescript of "The Wasteland" with Ezra Pound's scribbled comments.
We eventually made our way to Rockefeller Center to see The Tree. It was quite a tree, indeed. The crowds of pushy people and megaphones from the surrounding cop cars squalling 'keep on the sidewalk' dramatically took away from the Christmas in New York romance, but at least we were warned of what to expect in advance. It was nice to see the spectacle nonetheless.
While we were in Rockefeller Center we got hooked by a mysterious countdown on the side of the Saks building. Of course, we waited alongside hundreds of other curious passersby to see what would happen after 13minutes. I won't divulge what surprise awaited us, you'll have to see it for yourself ;o)

Seth wondering what would happen after 11 minutes and 30 seconds. Saks sure knows how to build suspense!

After trying in vain to see a few of the famous 5th Avenue window displays (of course we had to go the weekend before Christmas!), we gave up and went underground to speed our way to Tribeca, to a small theater called The Flea (see? small!). We saw a really cool play called "She Kills Monsters", about an ultra geek girl who plays Dungeon and Dragons. I was totally unable to relate.

The show was awesome, and the only way to make the evening even better was to follow it with a fantastic Vietnamese dinner on the edge of Chinatown. God, why does Waltham (or even Boston) not have any place even remotely like this??

After a chilly start this morning we headed back to Waltham. It was a really wonderful trip, and the getaway was long sought-after. I figure if they are going to run my final exams up until Dec. 22nd, the least I can do for myself is get out of town! It was also wonderful to see Ting Chun and Christina and Kevin. It is nice having people to visit :o)

As a side note, I must declare that during our time in NYC Seth and I were extremely impressed by how courteous and friendly New Yorkers were. In one morning we saw an elderly woman dash to hold open a door for a lady with a stroller, a man pick up a random bicycle that was blown over by the wind (the bike was not his), a fellow in a suit trip while crossing the road only to have an onlooker rush to his aid, and time after time on the subway people were offering their seats to others. People we met off the street were ultra nice (they were not even trying to sell us crap), and no one was pushy or creepy, like the stereotypes would have you would expect. Even the runners and dog-walkers in Central Park at 7am were greeting us and smiling. Not even the Christmas Spirit can invoke this sort of compassion from Florentines or Bostonians, or the "cheery" Aussies.

Gingerbread gents

2011-12-12T11:24:00.005-05:00

Over the weekend we tried building on the Winter festivities by hosting a mini Christmas party. Since I only have a few friends remaining in MA, I had both of them for dinner (which I botched, as usual), then we spent the rest of the evening baking and decorating gingerbread guys. Apparently there were gingerbread women in there somewhere--they were hard to identify because they were not wearing skirts, like good women should ;o)

Concentrating!

Patty's people were quite impressive. Bert and Ernie?

Seth and... St. John the Baptist??? Why???

Bo's modern art-inspired (Mondrian, perhaps?) guy in one hand and a snowman in the other.

Piet Mondrian, Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow, 1930. It is uncanny!!!

I couldn't get the self-timer to work...

Watch out, Seth--these are my new men!

Seth's and my complete gingerbread civilization

Dinner guests

2011-11-27T12:45:00.006-05:00

Thanksgiving week has been progressing nicely, and I can already tell it will be really hard getting back to school tomorrow to wrap up the last two and a half weeks of class before finals. I really hate these 15 week semesters.

In the days leading up to the time when turkeys really should be laying low in hiding, we were graced with the company of our group of twelve! In the early morning before Thanksgiving, they were right in our neighborhood again, even wandering up to our front porch! As charming as it was, I couldn't help but to feel bad knowing that they really ought to be out in the woods, not dodging traffic and going door to door looking for handouts. (Our neighbor was tossing them bread from her front steps, but thankfully other than that we haven't seen people feed them.) At least they seem to be doing well and their numbers have not diminished since we first saw them a couple weeks ago.

The next day, we ate one of their domestic cousins at the home of Bud (Seth's uncle) and Jean. They had all their kids over, including Seth's cousins Karen, Beth, and Mark and their families. It was nice to see Gina, Mark, Adah, and Kate again. Besides spending a day with Gina and the girls in Raleigh over the summer, we hadn't seen the gang since they moved to VA about a year and a half ago. We were also happy to see Chrissy and her family, even though they live practically down the road. It was such a great time catching up with our 'New England family'!

Jean putting the finishing touches on the 7 or 8 types of sweet potato and squash (YUM!)

The kids' table with the respective parents

Like so many others, this weekend we put out our Christmas decorations, ours being particularly sparse and mediocre (the showpieces include a large Santa Clause candle and about 10 nutcrackers of various sizes). However, with the weather persisting in the 60s--interrupted by a small scattering of days in the low 40s--it feels rather out of season...

Turkey Time

2011-11-21T10:37:00.005-05:00

It is nice to be in the US, where Thanksgiving and the over-marketing of Christmas really help to make the holiday season festive (I am being only slightly critical here; I really do love this time of year in this country!).

One of the nice surprises is that a few of my classes/labs will not be held this week, which means I only have ONE class during these NINE days! Besides the pesky distraction of a project and exam to prepare for, I am totally on Turkey Time :o) So, I finally have some time to go through the massive cookbook my parents got for me as a late birthday gift (they waited to order the second edition which just came out a month or so ago). It is 1500 pages of Italian cuisine, but with some other influences, mostly French.

Here is the grand-daddy of cookbooks, The Silver Spoon.

Two nights ago I made eggplant fricassee (stewed eggplant with an egg-lemon sauce--must be French), and last night we had spinach ricotta gnocchi (the picture shown here in the book; I was too lazy and hungry to photograph the dish before eating it, hah).

Besides cooking, Seth and I spent an evening watching a show suggested by my microbiology professor. Thankfully it aired on PBS, which meant we could watch it streaming off the internet (this is very nice for those of us who are TV-deficient). It is a wonderful and extremely fascinating story called My Life as a Turkey (click the link), about a man who becomes the mother of 16 wild turkeys. After watching it I can't stop thinking about those 12 that live in our neighborhood!

A weekend away

2011-11-20T14:40:00.006-05:00

Two weeks ago Seth went off to sunny California for the annual AMS meeting. While he was spending 5 days scoping out the sea lions, hippies, and Occupy protesters in San Francisco and Berkeley I was home hitting the books, working on presentations, and studying for exams. It is always strange being home alone for more than a few hours at a time (especially without Lorenzo for company), but the busy week was broken up with my own trip out of town for the annual church retreat to Vermont. It was mostly time to relax, gawk at all the wonderful scenery, and do some hiking up Magic Mountain (yes, that is its real name!).

Near the summit of Magic Mountain

Heading back down--it was steeper (and slipperier) than I recalled!

It was also pretty wet, so we let the pastor go first.

Sammy, who just came from Rwanda, saw his first icicles.

We were glad to return to the lodge before sunset (ie 4:20pm)

Everyone was busy painting on Sunday morning

Don't be fooled by the bunnies

Tricks and Treats

2011-11-05T16:24:00.004-04:00

So, as predicted, there was indeed another, larger, round of snow that hit last weekend. It dumped about 6 inches of very heavy, wet snow, not unlike what North Carolina might get in January. That, combined with the dusting we had two nights prior, smashed the previous October snow fall record of a whopping 1.25 inches. As strange at that was, many of the trees here still have their leaves! They began changing colors like they were supposed to back in mid-September, but they should have all fallen by mid-October. I'd reckon at least half the deciduous trees still have branches full of leaves, many of which are still green!! It is like we are frozen in time! This made the snow last week especially annoying because icy, snowy branches are rather heavy, and many downed branches and trees blocked roadways and toppled power lines. Our run Sunday morning through Prospect Hill seemed risky (we could hear the cracking of trees and limbs all around us), but the rare spectacle of the fresh snow combined with colorful fall foliage drooping downwards into long tunnels was also extremely beautiful. I am still kicking myself for not bringing my camera!

A splendid February morning

Oh wait, it is still October...

The snow didn't last long and by Monday we were certainly good to head to Salem for some Halloween fun. I decided I had to do pull together some sort of costume again this year so I joined an estimated 25% of all other girls and I put on some cat ears. At least I made my own. As lame as the costume was, I am sure I was warmer than the other 75% of the girls out there!

Salem!

This guy we found slinking around had the coolest mask
Some more very awesome and spooky costumes

Salem always has these religious people strutting around and shouting things. I never know if they are in costume or if they are the real deal, which would be infinitely more creepy.

We found where all the high schoolers were hanging out

How cute!

I loved these big, fuzzy horses. They looked so warm.

A quick Fall

2011-10-28T15:07:00.006-04:00

I can't believe how quickly we have flown through Fall. Just three weeks ago it was in the mid-80s, and last night we had our first snow! Ok, more like a wet, 'wintry mix', but there was definitely snow on the ground and a thick layer of ice on the car this morning. More is predicted tomorrow... and it isn't even Halloween yet :o( At least I can confidently say that it was colder in Florence this time last year. Also, we can actually turn on our heater in our Waltham apartment before November 1st if we so choose, and we won't have to sell a kidney to fund its use. Thank goodness for cheap American energy.

First 'snow' of the season

Cool ice designs on the passenger window (as a daily commuter I officially have to start thinking about scraping ice and snow everyday... ergh).

The past couple weeks have been pretty busy. Not hard, but busy. Now that mid-term week has passed I can finally do house chores again, catch up on little things, and maybe even bake something for Halloween.

Like I mentioned before, my classes are really not hard, but they do require a little bit of time. Here is how I spend a couple hours of my life every week, slaving away in my food and culture lab:

After all that hard work we get to sit down and pig out! (This meal was our first project.)

I have heard that this is the 'fun class'. Even the following courses that have food labs are rarely described so nicely. When the semester ends I will have to look at these pictures every now and then so that I can remember these happy times.

While we get to eat home cookin' in the food lab, the campus squirrels are on the typical college diet.

Great music at Fall Fest

2011-10-03T10:39:00.005-04:00

We were watching the clouds this weekend and kept our fingers crossed that the rain wouldn't continue past Sunday morning. The Waltham Library was hosting the second annual Fall Fest, organized by REACH (an organization aimed at preventing domestic violence), and Seth was given a spot to perform at the community event. It was supposed to be Saturday but it was called off due to threats of rain, so it was held yesterday instead, under cloudy skies.

It was the first time Seth had played out in a while, but he sounded fantastic and seemed to get back into it so naturally. Our next step is to find some places in the neighboring towns that have live music so he can make his way back into the scene. Unfortunately the pickings are rather slim around here, but what good it is writing so many wonderful songs if no one gets to hear them?

(Most of the people were in the other half of the lawn,
where all the events were taking place.)

Let's go shroomin'!

2011-09-25T16:37:00.007-04:00

This particular Fall in New England is THE TIME for mushrooms. The semi-cool weather, persistent rainfall, and I am sure numerous other factors have combined to produce the perfect conditions for an unusually fantastic mushroom season. This past week Seth and I have seen the entire Prospect Hill forest floor bloom with 'shrooms. They aren't especially unusual and deadly looking (like the ones we saw in Australia), and not quite as bizarre as what we saw sold in Sant'Ambrogio market in Florence, but they are numerous. According to Yulia--who used to go mushroom picking before she moved to the US--most of them, especially in Cape Cod, are edible. I told Seth to go out with her husband and pick a few but he said he wouldn't trust a Russian in identifying American mushrooms, haha.

Since the mushrooms change almost daily (they seem to burst out of the ground in a matter of minutes only to die off within a couple days, if they manage to escape being gobbled up by a squirrel), you never know who to expect out in the park. Finally this morning I remembered to grab my camera to document some of our favorites, before they disappear.

A great morning with the fungi! Now time for some muffins ;o)

The time for birthdays

2011-09-25T15:37:00.007-04:00

Besides school, the past couple weeks have been dotted with birthdays. Two weeks ago Seth and I went the Cambridge to check out an exhibit on depictions of scientific observations in Renaissance Art at the Harvard Art Museum. We then stuffed ourselves with Ben & Jerry's before heading to the North End for an AWESOME dinner at Giacomo's. The seafood pasta was totally worth the hour-long wait in line outside, especially since we had the company of Bo and Song. A fantastic birthday of art, science, food, and friends :o)

Waiting in the line that wrapped around the block. (Thankfully we got there when it was a little shorter.)

Bo and Song, looking apprehensive about their meal...

Having cake with Bo in Verona

Seth celebrated his big day last weekend with a trip to Lowell. Yes, Lowell. Though it may appear sleepy, it is shameless in promoting itself as the 'Birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution'. There was a nice National Historical Park visitor center smack-dab downtown, complete with a continuously running 20min film about the history of the mill town, so you know it is the 'real deal'. Lowell is also famous as the hometown of the famous beat generation writer Jack Kerouac, but we bypassed the pilgrimage to his home and burial site. We did, however, treat ourselves to one of the numerous coffee shops--each very colorful and cozy. This was the coziest, and a great way to spend a little time. I wish Waltham (or even downtown Boston) had a coffee shop as cute as this!

One of the Merrimack River canals flowing through Lowell. Doesn't take a big imagination to see why this city is called the Venice of America ;o)

Birthday wishes

Also, since this is the time for birthdays, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Dad today! And to Seth's mother on Thursday :o)

Survived the first week!

2011-09-09T16:17:00.004-04:00

I can finally say, without guilt, that I am happy the weekend is here! I made it through my first week after re-entering the world of full-time students. I am only taking 3 classes, nothing too crazy, but two are each 4 hours a week (one is only 2), and they all have 3-hour labs. So that is 19 hours of classroom time per week... for only three classes... However, one class I took twice before (anatomy and physiology), one class is devoted to healthy cooking, and the other will be just a pain in the butt, but at least the professor seems nice (microbiology). Not too shabby. As a total surprise and bonus, the nutrition lab is a cooking lab! We modify recipes, learn cooking and baking techniques, look at ethnic cuisine, etc. Next week we will be making cocoa meringues and vinaigrettes. This is where being an 'older student' comes in handy--I have probably 7 years of recipe modification experience on most of the other students. Joke's on them!

The worst part of this week really was just dealing with the Registrar, IT, and Student Accounts, and also getting used to commuting. After stressing for months over the drive, I am quite proud that after just four days of practice I have gotten my driving time down from about 40min to 30min. This is assuming the traffic isn't too terrible, which it usually is, but I have been driving at strange hours and avoiding peak traffic, leaving the house as early as 6:45am and driving home as late as 8:15pm. In the following weeks I will be having even longer days, and will be getting home at 8:00pm two nights a week, and at 10:00pm once a week. UGH.

Today was tricky with a morning class. Too early to go running with Seth, I instead went after class and explored the neighborhood around the university. It wasn't a great outing (lots of traffic, often without shoulders, lots of poison ivy on the roadside, etc), but at least I was able to sneak it in and keep up with my streak. As of today, I have been able to run every day for the past 13 months! This of course includes days traveling--Seth and I went running at the Iceland airport, and I had to run at 2:30am two days this summer due to early flights. Somehow I have been able to fend off illness and injury, too, and have not come up with a health reason to take a day off. Slowly I am learning Seth's secrets to fulfilling this addiction ;o)

2011-08-24T21:45:00.000-04:00

Getting ready to hit the classroom!

2011-08-22T21:48:00.002-04:00

Today was the graduate student orientation at FSU. Besides hearing about Campus Police, Blackboard, and Career Services, it was nice to have a second look at the campus--it is fairly compact and well maintained. The main student center seems to house about 80% of the admin offices, which is convenient, and the library and fitness center are decent-sized. It was also exciting to start looking at the books for my (2) classes. The nice thing is that I am super thrilled to be back in a classroom, even though I really haven't left since being an undergraduate. It will be fun to take notes, be inundated with homework, and after several stressful exams, actually earn credits towards a degree. So far, hands down the biggest stress for me in starting on September 6th is the commute. It took 40 minutes to get to campus today, and I even had Seth to help navigate. I can't imagine driving those CRAZY roads without someone telling me where to go. Oh my god, I am so worried about the driving out there 4 or 5 days a week for the next three or four years.... :o(

Unpacking with a new friend

2011-08-17T16:14:00.004-04:00

Heading back to Waltham in a great full car

So, after nearly two fulls days of nonstop cleaning and unpacking, Seth and I are finally making some progress getting re-settled in the old apartment in Waltham. We sublet the place and were welcomed home to a dirty apartment, which was a pleasant surprise. Actually, it could have been much worse, but when you have been traveling for over a year, the last thing you want to do when you finally come home is immediately begin sweeping balls of cat hair, scrubbing a moldy shower curtain, and re-washing scuzzy silverware.

The next thing you don't want to do is go into your storage area (in our case, a densely-packed walk-in closet) and pull out box after box of crap that you never knew you had and obviously did not miss. This is yet another lesson for why it is good to only keep those things that you really need and actually use. By now I am trained to have the urge to clear out as much stuff as possible ASAP because, according to the trend, I am sure we will be moving again soon... Finally, after being away, you really, really, don't want to go through storage and find mouse poos and pea spots EVERYWHERE, along with moths hiding in a storage tub full of food. While this is totally disgusting, I was slightly charmed to find the mouse nest cozily built inside one of my hiking shoes. At least it was no longer occupied.

The mouse nest in my boot was kinda sweet

It has been a little weird but nice to be back in Waltham, particularly since we have never returned to a town (or state) we moved away from. Of course it feels like we never left! All our neighbors are still around, and so far we have seen a couple of the old 'usuals' in Prospect Hill, as well as a few new joggers. It is so much the same that unfortunately the Dosa Factory across from Patel Brothers on Moody Street is still 'Coming Soon'. They started working on it about two years ago and it seems like not much progress has been made. I hope I can get my hands on some nice Indian desserts before we have to move again :P

With all this excitement moving back, we were sure to make a trip across town to pick up a new addition--we adopted an older female gerbil friend for Lorenzo. She is just a month or two older than Lorenzo (so she is near post-breeding age), but she has never had a litter before so she is believed to be infertile. Her name is Ariadne, but Arianna is the Italian form, so we might change it to match with our theme. :o) Unfortunately she is a nipper, so neither of us has been able to hold her, but hopefully with some patience she will warm up to us. For now she has to be in a split-cage with Lorenzo so they can get used to each other without fighting, but after a few days we can let them try to be together. Lorenzo is not pleased to be downgraded to a tiny little cage, but we still let him run free for a couple hours in the evening, and once he can move back into his palace with his new lady friend I think he will be much happier. *The idea behind adopting another (adult) gerbil was to have a companion for Lorenzo. Seth and I can't always play with him, and being naturally social critters, gerbils are happiest when they are in the company of other clan-mates. I hope Arianna works out!

10 gallon slit-cage. Ariana on the left, Lorenzo on the right.

Lorenzo was not a happy camper in his mini cage, but at least he is a little more calm now

One last move

2011-08-14T21:54:00.003-04:00

So tomorrow the three of us hit the road one last time to move back to Waltham. This will be my 5th move in a month and a half, and each time it becomes less and less fun. Not only that, but we have to move everything back into our gutted apartment in Waltham, which means the poor car is loaded to its eyebrows with suitcases, bags, bedding and linens, the massive gerbil house, etc. to bring back. There are also boxes and books stashed in Seth's office at Brandeis as well as our storage closet in the apartment that we will have to unload, and a great big pantry and refrigerator to refill. It will be a long next few days...

Summer in New York

2011-08-12T15:15:00.012-04:00

Seth, Lorenzo, and I have been in Upstate New York for just over two weeks now. I took a red-eye flight from Minneapolis and met my two guys in Boston, just after they arrived from Florence. Lorenzo was quite a sport, flying in two more airplanes and hanging tight in his mini travel box for over 36 hours, sealing his status as a veteran world traveler. From Boston we rented a car, made a quick stop to meet Chrissy, Erik, and Annika for lunch in Brighton, then drove to Syracuse to drop off the car and meet Rich and Linda. T'was a long day for all.

Since then we have been spending a good deal of time at the local library in the very small town of Gorham, where I have been reading, watching videos, and preparing for our big move back to Waltham while Seth works on his research and now on his complicated 2010 taxes, lucky guy. Thankfully we have also managed to visit a bit with the family (Chrissy and the kids are here, too!), and catch a couple stinky Finger Lakes festivals.

Lorenzo reunited with his old, teeny tiny aquarium

After being spoiled by his mega tank in Florence, we decided to upgrade

We took Cora out go-karting

Tory's masterpiece: a pipe-cleaner go-kart

Last weekend Seth, Melissa, and I went to the Sauerkraut Festival in Phelps, NY, and there was even a parade!! Not even a little rain could keep people away.

Italian parades are typically Renaissance themed. This being America, it is all Colonial...

...and cows...

...and crappy cars (Mustangs)

The beach-inspired Finger Lakes Credit Union float, passing out frisbees (Seth's Mom works at the FLCU)

After the parade, it was time for kraut!

The first cup was really good, but the second was a bit much

Kraut-eating contest. (The guy standing just finished and won.)

Melissa picking up some Pierogis. Poor girl, they were still frozen in the middle... But she returned them and was given a bonus one!

The decorated cabbages were very cute

The next day at the Garlic Festival at Fox Run Winery
overlooking Seneca Lake

So many types of garlic, and we got to try them all! My stomach was still burning by the end of the day....
Old guys making garlic braids

Lorenzo, doing his thing

Hats off before entering the library
Running around here would be ideal, except for the sun and the hard, crested roads. At least it is really pretty and we get out early.

Chickens roasting

They have been working on some water system lately and there are all these super neat hydrants scattered around. I am totally fascinated.

The surprises while running through the country never end! My alpaca buddies!

Silly turf grass

2011-08-01T11:28:00.008-04:00

This guy sums up quite well how I feel about front lawns in America. These grassy patches that have their homeowners wrapped around their soft little blades are a microcosm of America's less ideal qualities: over-indulgence, wastefulness, excessiveness, and impracticality. Thanks, status quo bias, for making everyone's lives a bit more stressful.

Your Lawn

On the Road with Dad to visit the new addition

2011-07-27T16:43:00.008-04:00

Andrew and Jennifer's Sawyer Adams Landstrom was born on July 15th, and thankfully everything went as well as hoped, except for the tragedy of the missed final Harry Potter movie. Mom was able to stay in Rochester with the family for a couple days after the birth, then just after she returned to Raleigh, Dad and I decided to drive to Minnesota to have a visit for ourselves. We spent two days in the car, appropriately listening to the audio-book of 'On the Road', and enjoyed the greenery along the way.

I think this was in Kentucky

I couldn't believe my eyes; a Rally's in Indianapolis. I hadn't seen a Rally's since growing up near one in California.

It is nice being in Rochester with the newly enhanced Landstrom clan. I haven't seen them since Grandpa's funeral a year and a half ago in Colorado, so it has been wonderful to visit and spend time with Carter. Carter is such a good kid--leaning towards the mild and sensitive side--and really fun to be with, so I wouldn't mind staying for much longer. Poor baby Sawyer is still too tiny for my comfort level so I am afraid I haven't been much help in that department. Andrew has been on call almost the entire time since we have been here, so Dad and I are happy to lend a hand as we can, so that means lots time with Carter playing frisbee and t-ball, walking the river trail to the grocery store, checking up on his dinosaur, and watching 2-minute monster truck videos!

These could be branches but they are more certainly a dinosaur skeleton. We had the duty of checking up on it twice a day to make sure it was ok, until a lawnmower got hold of it yesterday. A terrible loss indeed, but Carter said he was ok with it.

A rare spotting of Andrew. He was 'allowed' for the first time to skip work and go to Jennifer and Sawyer's doctor appointment.

We had a special dessert one night at a great, local ice cream place. I got a kick out of all the Midwest, Scandinavian (slightly chunky) blondies in the shop! After leaving Italy, one notices these things.

Yesterday was extra special in that we managed to get Jennifer and Sawyer out of the house for a few minutes to join us at the county fair!
This little guy for some reason reminded me of Lorenzo. I don't even know what kind of animal he is.

Pink was Carter's favorite color, until Dad had to go and ask him what color those "scary" pigs were.

I love the giant corn rising above the horizon

Corn dog time!

I had never seen award-winning veggies before

I was pleased to make the acquaintance of the Best in Show

And the prize-winning baked goods :o)A big family dinner!

While at the mall today, once again I had to notice that nearly all the kids were blonde. Silly me for thinking it was a recessive trait!

Chatting with Seth for the last time before he left Florence. His plane should be just about to take off from Milan right now. I can't wait to see him and Lorenzo in Boston tomorrow!

Dog days in Raleigh

2011-07-27T16:32:00.004-04:00

The last days in Raleigh were spent catching up with friends, eating BBQ in Chapel Hill, and finding good books to read while I still have the time. There was even a surprise visit by Gina, Adah, and Kate when they passed through NC during their road trip through the south. It was great to spend the afternoon with them, especially since Seth and I didn't get to see them off when they moved from Massachusetts last summer.

Dinner in Chapel Hill to celebrate Christina's birthday

Dad and I spent the day at an auction out in rural Wake Forest. There was lots of good southern culture going on here.

What do you do with Meghan when you have a little time to kill? Hang out at the pet store with the rats.

More rodent spotting. This is raw entertainment.

La Passeggiata

2011-07-15T14:16:00.005-04:00

One thing I have sorely missed the past few weeks is walking--whether for pleasure or for necessity. In Italy, as in many countries, in fact, towns and cities are not designed for motorized transportation and walking is still the major form of getting around. It is easy, too--the butcher, baker, market, post office, school, etc. are all within a few minutes away by foot. Owning a car is not necessary and is in fact burdensome. (Where in the world would you park it, anyway?) So for longer distances, bike, motorbike, or public transportation would more than suffice. Sure, there is the downside of walking in poor weather and facing an occasional inconvenience (what to do if you must go across town asap but the bus would take too long?), but this is usually overlooked as a fact of life and quickly ignored.

In Italy, even if someone doesn't have to walk somewhere, they just love strolling for pleasure: what they call una passeggiata. On any given afternoon or early evening nearly the entire city hits the road and walks up and down the main pedestrian-friendly streets (gli strusci), often with gelato in hand. Whole families, people coming home from work, old couples arm-in-arm, kids, everyone is always out walking, often bumping (quite literally) into neighbors and friends and catching up on the latest news. This must serve a huge social function, which I imagine anyone would agree contributes to longevity and overall happiness.

I recently read that the average American walks only 1.4 miles per week. While in Florence I probably walked 3 or 4 miles a day, admittedly because I usually had to, already I miss it. I feel so lazy sitting back all day in a semi-reclined position; I can almost feel my muscles atrophying. I try to think of errands that would involve walking (we live about two blocks from a large shopping center), but I usually feel like a weirdo crossing the large intersection without a car to help. The drivers whizzing past me stare. Dad likes to remind me of the time he and Mom decided to do the unthinkable and walk the 7 minutes to the nearby grocery store and they were discovered by a neighbor driving by in her SUV. She stopped, asked if they were ok, and offered them a lift!

I would just get up and go for a walk but the weather and the UV index are so unfavorable that I wait until after dinner when the sun is nearly gone (the benefit of being in a city like Florence is that the buildings provide a respectable amount of shade). Dusk is a great time to be out; the birds have reappeared briefly for an evening snack, the fireflies begin to light up, and the roads are nearly car-free. However, there is nothing social about this passeggiata. I usually only pass a couple dog walkers, and of course the dogs almost always bark at me. From the road you can see through curtainless windows and it is no secret where everyone is -- after a long day of sitting in a semi-reclined position at their desks, they are in front of their flickering big screen TVs, letting their muscles atrophy.

A different sort of Americana

2011-07-14T14:41:00.010-04:00

The days following the wedding were spent with Mom's family, though Dad's family continued to make guest appearances, and we were accompanied all the while with huge amounts of food.

Tasty homemade banh mi (Vietnamese sandwiches)

One afternoon Dad had the brilliant idea of going to Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Park. It would have been wonderful if it was not 1pm and in the mid 90s. I don't know who was crazier, Dad for suggesting or me for caving in and actually going along with him. The birds and other wildlife knew better than us--they were certainly laying low.

Hot and dry, we didn't see a single piece of fauna

In the other direction we had a perfect view of the Rockies, completely unobstructed by trees and other things of interest

Dad and Uncle Peter carrying Austin. Austin was the only smart one.

At least there was a 'lake'

Back at the house, food was being prepared!

Uncle Mark, Aunt Gayle and Erik were invited for a little cultural lessonTiny quail. I felt bad eating such a little bird, plus there was hardly any meat. One of the tables (there were probably 30 people scattered about the house)

The next morning, July 4th, started off all-American with brunch at Denny's with the Donnellys. Gosh, I sure had been craving pancakes for the past few months!

In the afternoon we went to celebrate the 4th with a sort of cookout. Here is the view of Aunt Nancy's yard from Uncle Tan's balcony. They live next door to each other.

Lynn doing Mom's toes

Remember those quail from last night? Well here are their eggs, wrapped in ground shrimp and deep fried. I couldn't quite get myself to try one.

Uncle Tan and Uncle Kiet putting the finishing touches on Uncle Tan's new smoking lodge.

My youngest cousins on Mom's side. Somehow this reminds me of 15-20 years ago, when I used to play with my cousins on Dad's side.

The ladies of the grill. Aunt Amy and I tried to pick up a few secrets from Aunt Lieu.

Grilled mussels and kababs

The women's table

The men in their cave

From the balconies we could see, just above the highway, a few fireworks

The next and final day, a visit to see Grandpa

The night before we left Colorado we had one final family dinner at a restaurant specializing in Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup), and Danielle, who lives only 20min from Aunt Amy's house, joined us. It was nice to see her and to confirm that she survived her trip to Italy.

The next morning I woke up at 1:30am (I probably should have just pulled an all-nighter), reacquainted myself to the treadmill, then headed to the airport at 3am for our 6am flight. Conveniently for us, Uncle Kiet works early mornings at the airport and drove us, along with Uncle Peter, Austin, and Angeline, who were on their way to Virginia that same morning. Mom went her separate way to Minnesota to be with Andrew, Jennifer, and Carter as they await Baby #2. Dad and I took our leave to steamy old Raleigh.

Christina's big day!

2011-07-14T10:22:00.010-04:00

The next day, Saturday, naturally was the wedding. The ceremony was held in the family church just around the block.

And now for the party! The Baileys had set up a huge, beautiful tent in their yard for the reception.

Just checking out some silly settings on the new camera

A lovely, classy dance!

The cousins' table :o)

Ok, here is the real reason why I left Italy early: Mexican taco and enchilada bar!!!

Christina and the (original) Kevin

Kisses all around!

The dance floor

In typical summertime fashion, there was a brief but strong hail storm in the afternoon

Darlene and me

Erik and Eileen

A St Pauli Girl

The cousins

A seedy farewell

First (real) night back in the US: Christina's wedding reshearsal dinner

2011-07-12T16:14:00.007-04:00

So, as mentioned before, when I finally made it to Denver I stayed with my aunt's family on Mom's side. Very wonderfully I have some of Mom's family and well as Dad's family and a few friends concentrated within this small part of Colorado.

Within three hours of arriving I made friends with a treadmill, which I had never been so happy to see (being 1pm it was hot and extremely sunny outside and I was very grateful to not have to slap on sunblock and hit the road for my daily run), showered off several days worth of airport gunk, ate a huge Vietnamese lunch with three types of grilled meat, received my BRAND NEW CAMERA (a rather boring-looking yet compact and surprisingly powerful Canon S95) and drove out to Colorado Springs with Mom and Dad for Christina's rehearsal dinner.

All sky and hills on the way to Colorado Springs

The rehearsal dinner was held at the Bailey household and hosted by the groom, Kevin, and his friends and family from Malaysia and London. They were very diligent chefs!

Kevin's mother and cousin. It will be fun having more Asians married into the Swedish family :o)

Uncle Kevin (yes, Christina married a guy with the same name as her father) whipping Patrick into action.

Eileen with the bride-to-be

Oh my, tiny hamburgers and lots of other types of meat (I am truly back in the US!)

Since I finally got a new camera I decided I had to test its low-light capability. Result: it is better than my last camera.

Watch that flame!

Wrapping up Florence

2011-07-11T10:53:00.012-04:00

We had exactly a day and a half from when Tory and Melissa departed until when I had to check out of Florence myself, so unfortunately I spent it most of that time stressing out over packing and making sure my bags would not be over weight. This was difficult because with Iceland Express I would be allowed only one checked bag of 20kg (flying here last year with Iceland Air we were allowed two bags of 23kg), and the carry-on bag must be less than 10kg. In the meantime, though, we did wrap up a few loose ends and pause for the end-of-the-year fellows' party at I Tatti. Obviously, it was my last time (as well as the last time for many of the fellows) at the fairytale-like villa, and my last chance to really soak up la dolce vita d'Italia.

The fellows end-of-the-year party at the Villa I Tatti

The lineup was a 'light' buffet

Una bella vista davvero!

I love the uniforms! And the dessert.

Gathering around the brand new pool

Not sure what is going on here (I missed that announcement)

Seth splashing around with Gerardo and Rubber Duckie

The aftermath

On our way home, I finally got to stop at Il Procopio for my first (and probably last) granita. Given the choice, I would probably go for gelato instead, but it was still really good -- like a super fresh slushy. They are actually mostly made just of frozen, slushed-up fruit.

All that food requires lots of exercise! Here are some pictures (taken on the morning before I left) of our daily running route up to the Piazzale.

It might be overcast, but it was muggy as can be!

A rich neighborhood behind the Piazzale

A final look out the window
Our last morning was spent visiting our final site, the Chiesa di Santa Maria del Carmine. I would have hated myself if I were in Florence for an entire year and didn't see the Brancacci Chapel (Masaccio's masterpiece). Here is the market in the Piazza di Santo Spirito, just around the corner. It seemed very exotic being at the other side of the river!
During lunch we finally finished reading Pinocchio together! What a wonderful story, and a great way to learn vocabulary. (Though not particularly modern, at least the dialect is Tuscan!)
Me and Lorenzo!
La Signora (aka The Old Lady) who lived in the apartments facing ours. She would shout silly things at us from her window pretty much whenever we arrived or left. And yes, Italians actually do lower baskets from their windows to lift things from the street :o)

A last look at the Oblate. A really nice, though extremely hot and horribly over-populated public library. I really hated this place (the only available seats were on the ground and there were no outlets for laptops), but at least it lent good movies and had a great view of the Duomo.

Our last dinner out in the Piazza Sant'Ambrogio. It is hard to capture the very crazy 6-way intersection in just one photo, but from the steps of the church you can see everything.
Not a particularly flattering photo, but we tried

Las Palmas--the series of performances in the piazza behind our apartment held every night during the summer.

Lorenzo stayed back to keep Seth company. I already miss the little guy!

Our beloved and very popular street. It wasn't very cute at night, however, when the noise was too intense to allow for sleep. Good bye, Florence!

Tory and Melissa

2011-07-09T14:11:00.007-04:00

About an hour after Seth and I returned from Verona, Seth's brother, Tory, and his girlfriend, Melissa, showed up on our doorstep to visit for three days. We had been trying to get them over to Florence the entire year and they finally came out in my last couple days in the country. Even though it was hot, crowded, and I had to prepare to move, it was better late than never!

Luckily for Tory and Melissa, they arrived just in time to celebrate Lorenzo's 2nd birthday. I made Lorenzo a mini Tiramisu cake, which just so happened to be one of Melissa's all-time favorite foods.

And of course we sampled lots of gelato...

...and wine at the local vino sfuso, Bacco Nudo (or, "Nude Bacchus"). This is the place where you bring in an empty wine bottles and have them refilled. Brilliant!

Melissa was hired on the spot

Melissa, Tory, and I drinking our wine in front of one of Seth's favorite monuments, the Loggia dei lanzi (and specifically Cellini's Perseus)

Dinner at Trattoria Nella In my final dinner out in Florence I finally got to order coniglio (rabbit) alla cacciatore. It was really good! Like a tiny, bony chichen.

It was a nice dinner

...topped off by a bit more Tiramisu!

Taking an evening stroll since it was too hot and unpleasant to walk much during the day

We found these really tough looking guys (pirates, perhaps?) carrying a litter through the streets. After following them for a little while they took a pause, took a smoke from the cigarette in Tory's mouth, and tried to explain that they were getting ready for Mezzo Mediceo, whatever that is...

Stopping in front of Seth's favorite building, Orsanmichele

Mantova and Verona (finally)

2011-07-07T14:36:00.015-04:00

Ok, so now that I have lots of time on my hands, finally, here are some pictures from Mantua (Mantova) and Verona.

The day after Aunt Dee and Eileen departed for Fresno, Seth and I left took a little trip up north, spending one night in Mantua and two nights in Verona. The inspiration for the outing was to attend the opera festival in Verona, and since we were there, we decided to spend a little time in Manuta, too. Mantua is very important for Seth's research so he also managed to look at a few manuscripts in their library during our short stay.

Mantua, a fairly small city, was pretty quiet!

I took myself out for coffee and shopping while Seth was sweating away (literally) in the library.

Next to a blind accordion player was a very cool fill-your-own milk booth. I wish Florence had one of these (the latteria, not necessarily the accordion player).

Interesting sweets!Piazza SordelloPicnic dinner in Piazza Virgiliana,
named after one of Mantua's famous former residents, Virgil
I love these funky, crunchy rolls. Seth is less impressed by them.
The view of Manova from across the Lago Inferiore
The next morning there was a huge outdoor clothing market downtown
Rotonda di San Lorenzo We had wanted to go to the Palazzo Ducale, but instead trekked across town to the Palazzo Te, a giant two-storey building packed with fascinating 16th-century mannerist frescoes

In the afternoon we hopped on a train to Verona. The city is quite a bit larger than Mantova and attracts a fair few tourists, most notably for its Romeo and Juliet lore and for the annual Opera festival.

The old Roman arches leading into Verona's large Piazza Bra

Piazza Bra and the spruced up ancient Roman Arena
Chiesa di San Fermo
The view from Ponte Navi
From Ponte Pietra
After a fantastic kabab dinner, we walked through the Piazza Bra by night
The next morning we went running across the Ponte di Castelvecchio...

...and up to a lookout at Castel S. Pietro

Our small B&B. Actually, it was a 4-bedroom apartment with all the rooms for rent.

Basilica di San Zeno

I love 600-year-old graffiti

An altarpiece by Andrea MontegnaThe Roman Porta Borsari

Piazza Erbe (originally a Roman Forum)

The 500 year old whale bone hanging under the second arch that is supposed to fall when a person who has never told a lie walks under it... and is subsequently killed

Piazza SignoriThe alley leading to the courtyard of "Juliet's House" (La Casa di Giulietta), decorated with the graffiti of thousands of love-struck pilgrims. Pretty much all the tourists in the city are crammed here between the alley and the courtyard. As you might imagine, it took a lot of convincing to get Seth to come here.

Doesn't anyone realise that Juliet was fictional? Maybe they are just curious, like me. At least I didn't bother to pay a visit to the very popular "Tomb of Juliet".

Within the neighborhood of the Montecchi (or Montague) family ... which
really did inspire Shakespeare's feuding families

A slick Italian version of a frat boy.Inside the really pretty Chiesa di San Lorenzo

In the evening, after resting the hot afternoon away, we headed for the opera La Traviata

Inside the Roman arena

La Traviata. It actually got really windy, and despite the afternoon heat, it felt pretty cold so high up!

Running our last morning on top of the old city walls which were converted to a park.

Coming home(?)

2011-07-06T21:20:00.002-04:00

Topping off a week of reintroduction to the US, Dad and I took a red-eye flight from Denver to Raleigh today; Mom took a separate flight to Rochester, MN to help with Carter as Jennifer prepares to have her baby. I went from feeling in the dark in Italy, to feeling in the dark with my own Vietnamese-speaking family, to going to the most confounding place of all, the American southeast.

Compared to the dryness of Denver, stepping out of the airport in Raleigh was seriously like walking into a sauna. CO spoiled me. Then the drive home felt strange because the area is changing so rapidly that even in one year's time I noticed many new buildings, roads, and developments popping up (woohoo!). Even here in our old house, my parents had made so many renovations that most of the rooms are at least a bit different. At least the house still has that old familiar smell that I remember from when we first moved in.

Readjusting

2011-07-06T20:15:00.004-04:00

During the first few days in Denver, including the time at the wedding, I was quickly reminded of the good, the bad, and the different aspects of American culture. First off, I was pleased and yet strangely horrified to see people walking around in t-shirts and frumpy shorts and tennis shoes. Where were the collard shirts for men, and big, flashy accessories for women? Finally, I can feel comfortable leaving the house wearing whatever the heck I want. Also, it was very nice to be able to walk around in a crowd and not be brushed up against or have people bump into me. I do appreciate the American sense of personal space, though this personal space is compromised in the Boston area. It is also nice to be acknowledged and have people look me in the eyes and say 'hello' or 'excuse me', etc. Additionally, while I do love Italian food, it is wonderful to have the option of Mexican, Asian, and all sorts of other ethnic cuisine. Screens on windows are also a nice touch, as well as is the relative improvement in water and air quality, good radio stations, accurate weather reports, and not having to use a converter every time I want to plug in my computers.

At the same time, I have to get re-accustomed to the less savory side of the American way of life, including high fructose corn syrup, pre-shredded 'mozzarella' in a bag, expensive lettuce, cheap and abundant (though not necessarily ethical and healthy) meat, and seeing the prevalence of over-weightness alongside extensive fast food establishments. While convenient, strip malls and suburbs are more of an eye sore than ever before. General wastefulness, such as big, nasty cars and overuse of air conditioning and other utilities, is both heartbreaking and obnoxious; it is so counter-intuitive to have to wear a hoodie when going grocery shopping in the middle of summer. I must say that I also already miss the social aspect that is so important to Italians, including the afternoon passeggiata, or evening stroll, and joining half the neighborhood in the piazza for dinner every night. Of course, I also already miss watching the open market from our kitchen window and waving to the old lady and carpenter across the street every time I step out of my apartment.

Some other things are not necessarily good or bad, but just require some personal adjustments, such has reverting from kissing cheeks to hugging and hand shaking, and figuring out how best to answer the question "where are you from?". I had to field this question multiple times during the wedding and even at the airport and I never know what to say. I don't really live in Massachusetts (though I do pay MA taxes), I haven't officially lived in North Carolina for 5 years, and I was only a long-term visitor of Italy... In fact, it is strange to think that Seth and I have been so mobile that since graduating from UNC 5 years ago we have moved 4 times and have spent 3 of those years out of the country. As exciting as going to new places might be, it is also very exhausting and makes it difficult to establish solid roots.

Catching up--Eileen and Aunt Dee

2011-07-04T14:50:00.012-04:00

First off, happy July 4th! It is nice to be able to celebrate the holiday actually in the United States.

After spending my grand re-entry into the US getting to know Logan airport, I finally made it to Denver on Friday afternoon. My parents picked me up at the airport and we are staying with my Aunt Be (Amy) and Uncle Peter and my littlest cousins, Austin (4) and Angeline (7). Friday evening we drove into Colorado Springs for another cousin, Christina's, wedding rehearsal dinner, and the wedding was Saturday. More on that a little later--here are a few old photos from my last week and a half in Florence.

**some of these pictures are from our guests**

Lunch at home after returning from our trip to Chianti

Eileen and I went in for much overdue hair cuts at the salon around the corner. After 7 months since the last cut, it was time.

The great thing about getting a haircut in Italy is that you can drink coffee at the same time! This is similar to Australia, where people drink beer while at the barber. That evening when we had dinner we joined 'the alternatives' on the steps of the church of Sant'AmbrogioSunday we attended a service at the only Lutheran church in Florence. I had gone to this church once before back in September, but the mass was in German and seemed to be mostly visitors, so I was too intimidated to return. However, this time it was in Italian and the congregation seemed much more welcoming. They even invited us to coffee hour :o)
Sunday out in the Piazza That afternoon we took the city bus to the nearby town of Fiesole for a picnic. Seth and I had gone here in the winter, but it was too hazy to enjoy the views its known for.
From the top of the hill you could see for miles!
Aunt Dee finally got a close-up look at one of Tuscany's famous cypress trees Downtown Fiesole
The following day I caught up with Eileen and Aunt Dee at the Pitti Palace to walk through the Boboli Gardens
A very comical statue

Buontalenti's Grotto

There were some really spectacular views from the gardens That evening we had our final dinner together at Le Campane, a trattoria around the corner (next to the hair salon). After walking by it nearly every day, it was fun to finally try it out!

Airports

2011-07-01T07:58:00.003-04:00

After getting up at 3am for my final run up to the Piazzale Michelangelo with Seth, it has been about 32 hours since I said good bye to him, Lorenzo, and the apartment, and caught the 6am cab to the Florence Airport. However, I still have not arrived in Colorado....

Since I left the house yesterday I never was able to relax because there were hurdles during the entire trip, starting with a passport check in Florence. I was almost certain they would notice I didn't have a visa to be in Italy for so long and that I would be in big trouble. I never got a permesso (permission to stay in the country), so for the past 7 months I have been illegal. Well, they didn't seem to care and they didn't ask any questions. In fact, when I entered the country back in August they never even asked to see my passport, so I probably didn't have anything to worry about.

After arriving in London I was too tired to do much during the 7-hour layover besides catnap and watch the BBC. Turns out there were big strikes across the UK and they were predicting hold-ups in the airports, but in fact there were none. This didn't stop the budget airline I was flying with, Iceland Express, from having a 2-hour delay. Also, as I checked into the flight I had to arrange my bags so that my carry-on backpack only weighed 10kg. Out of all the budget airlines we have flown with, this was the first to actually weigh the carry on. And, to give some perspective, 10kg is almost nothing. It seriously was only one full backpack. For every 1kg of weight over, they would charge 11euro. I had my 10kg backpack plus a 6kg backpack full of mostly food (they wouldn't feed us on the planes--in fact, I was only given water. A soda would have been $2). I thought it was so ridiculous that they would weigh carry-ons, even if they were only full of food for lunch and dinner, that I hid the backpack behind the counter so they wouldn't weigh it and charge me 66euro.

I propose that if an airline insists on weighing a carry on, they might as well make weight restrictions for people, too. It isn't fair that a person weighing twice as much as me (which is not uncommon, especially in the US), to be able to bring the same amount of weight onto the plane. They should make a rule like the total weight of both passenger and carry on baggage can not be greater than, say, 210lb. This rewards people for being within a relatively healthy weight range and encourages people to drop a few pounds if they need to. Everyone wins. However, I imagine this idea would be just as popular as my idea of taxing families with more than two kids, but this is a different topic...

Anyways, I made it onto the plane with my smuggled lunch, but the connecting flight in Iceland also ended up being delayed two hours. I don't understand the hold up--it took nearly 45min just to board the plane, then the plane sat on the runway for another large amount of time. All the while I was flipping out because I was going to miss my final flight to CO, which was also the final flight of the night. Well, I did miss my flight from Boston to Denver, and I did have to rebook for this morning. I was pleased though that they at least gave me a 'one-time courtesy re-booking' so that I didn't have to buy another $240 ticket. (Thank you, JetBlue!)

So, I have been hanging out in Logan since then. At least they have free wireless (woohoo!), but unfortunately no showers or lockers, so I couldn't go for a jog. I slept on a bench at an Au Bon Pain in the food court, but they were doing some construction nearby so it was very loud, and then the cafe opened at 4am so I just decided to get up. I can at least sleep on the plane.

Last Day

2011-06-29T11:49:00.003-04:00

So today is my last day in Florence, which appeared very suddenly. This past week, the day after Aunt Dee and Eileen left, we left for a four day trip to Mantua and Verona. When we returned from Verona at 3:30pm, Seth's brother, Tory, and his partner, Melissa, arrived at our doorstep at 4:00pm. They spent a long weekend with us and they departed yesterday at noon. Last night was the I Tatti farewell dinner, and I leave for the US tomorrow at 7:50am. I am spending my precious day packing, doing last-minute sightseeing (we had a 12:00 reservation at the Brancacci Chapel this afternoon), fighting off the heatwave, petting Lorenzo, and I am just about to head out to see Claudia one last time. I wish I had another day (or week!) to enjoy the city and relax, but I suppose I can relax when I arrive in Raleigh (after my cousin's wedding in Colorado) next week.

For now, I must figure out how to pare down my luggage as much as possible (down to 30kg, including carry-on baggage) and come up with a game plan in case I miss any of my connecting flights tomorrow (I am on three separate itineraries!!!). Wish me luck!

Images from Chianti

2011-06-26T11:21:00.008-04:00

Thursday afternoon last week I took the bus to meet Aunt Dee and Eileen in the grand Campo of Siena.

Inside the extravagant Duomo

I love how even though you pay to enter the church you still have to pay 0.50 euro to use the bathroom. This one even had a cash register and issued receipts!

Our hostel in the town of Tavarnelle, located 'in the heart of Chianti'.

Dinner that night was at one of the few restaurants in town. Luckily it was actually really good!

Friday morning, out running early to the nearby village of Barberino
By 10am we were out the door for a wine tour and tasting at a farm down the road. Our drinking started early :o)
After a rather long tour in the hot sun we were finally treated to some nice wines (Chianti, of course).
Dipping our Cantucci in Vin Santo, the Tuscan way
Eileen playing in the vineyardsWe tried to get Aunt Dee to do a high-kick but I think she felt embarrassed because a car was coming. I guess she didn't have enough to drink.After walking off the wine we hit the road

A quick lunch of cheese, crackers and tomato sauce in the cramped Medieval village of Greve

More wine (and afternoon coffee) in Volpaia

Continuing on our drive, we spotted a really beautiful bee-eater on a wire

Photos from around town

2011-06-26T11:00:00.003-04:00

A visit to Santa Felicita on the other side of the river to see the Capponi Chapel. Architecture a typical design by Brunelleschi and drunken Mannerist paintings by Pontormo.

Through the window in the back of the church you can see the Vasari Corridor where the Medici Grand Dukes could observe mass without mingling with 'the people'.

I have been trying to get rid of odds-and-ends ingredients in the cupboards before leaving. The result: chicken pot pie and a sfogliatelle pastry I had frozen months ago and forgot about in the back of the freezer.

Seth in his office at I Tatti. Out the window we are treated to a lovely view of a real Tuscan bush.

We climbed through a little window in our apartment and sat on the roof, four stories above the city. A little terrifying, but there was a great view! I imagine if we were here for San Giovanni Day last Friday (the feast day for Florence's patron saint, St. John the Baptist), we would have had excellent vantage point to watch the fireworks.

A great view of the Duomo, Palazzo Vecchio, and the setting sun. Ironically, this was just an hour or two before the full lunar eclipse... which we basically missed...I love seeing the antennas and the rooftops. So interesting!

The Donnelly girls, coming back around

2011-06-23T02:47:00.007-04:00

Last week I met up with Aunt Dee and Eileen in Siena as they were closing up their Italy tour. After spending the day at the Duomo and checking out the Campo, we headed for the heart of Chianti (the region roughly between Florence and Siena). We stayed two nights at a hostel in the small town of Tavarnelle and spent our time cruising the beautiful cypress-dotted hills, drinking wine (Aunt Dee and Eileen swapped being the responsible DD), having our afternoon caffè (epresso), shopping, and wandering through the tiny little medieval villages. Eileen drove that little rental car like a champ--cautiously aggressive and confident, just like a true Italian! Back in Florence, they spent three more days with us sightseeing, getting hair cuts, making tiramisu, and relaxing. What a great trip for all of us! I hated seeing them leave on Tuesday, but at least I will see them in about a week in Colorado!

I don't have pictures ready yet, but here are some from Claudia's carbonara night at our place a couple weeks ago (it seems like such a long time ago already!).

Counting down

2011-06-14T09:38:00.012-04:00

With only 15 days left before leaving Italy, Seth and I have been trying to cram in as much as we can before it is too late. For Seth, this is a combination of sightseeing and gathering material from the libraries. For me, I only have one day before the rest of my time will be spent with guests, so I have been trying to organize and sort all my notes, papers, and trip itineraries, as well as visit as many obscure artworks as possible before it is too late!

Here are a few things from around town the past couple weeks:

A party hosted by Gerardo, a fellow who lives in one of the apartments up at I Tatti. The apartments are actually attached to a church and during the pre-Berenson years were part of a convent.

After the party we headed to a theater near the Arno to see Claudia's Modern Jazz dance performance.

Last week I made for the first time in Italy a lasagna. Pretty ugly, but it tasted great!

The lasagna sheets here are typically a very thin, flat rectangle and come in egg (yellow) or spinach (green)

A typical way we start lunch: giant salads, tuscan bread (with garlic, oil, and salt), tea, and Pinocchio!

I wanted to show off a few things at the large grocery store, Coop, where I shop once or twice a week. Here are just mozzarella balls and fresh pastas!

The pasta aisle is just that: a pasta aisle

Rows of olive oil... and ketchup

I thought this was kinda neat: baby food of bunny

Also interesting is that a lot of the baby food is not fortified. I wonder what would happen, then, if a baby ate only bunny?

Excuse the side-ways picture, but here is tuna frozen pizza, actually very popular. Tuna is also a favorite in tomato sauce, though I have not yet tried these. I do, however, really love the store-brand Capricciosa frozen pizza to the right ... well, bottom (ham, olives, artichoke, and mushrooms).

The isle of bizzare canned and jarred meat and fishy-things. Note the very Italian jarred tuna fillets (which I got for Seth for his birthday and were very good) and pop-top tripe.

This Saturday was the last day of the art exhibit at the Palazzo Vecchio--Damien Hirst's For the Love of God, a platinum cast of a human skull, encrusted in diamonds, including a gigantic pink diamond in the forehead. In total, over 1000 carats. Since it was the last day, it was open for free until 2am, but when Seth and I went at 9:30pm there was nearly no line, so we went through three times (3min allotted per visit). Twice would have been enough but Seth really liked the waiting room (Francesco de Medici's Studiolo), so we went one more time. By this point the guards started to recognize us. As a piece of art it wasn't very original, but as a whole (and being a girl) I was impressed to see so many diamonds packed together so nicely.

(Internet photo)

Sunday we finally made it out to the Pitti Palace, though we only had time to wander through the Palatine Galley. It was much bigger than we had anticipated! We spent about 3 1/2 hours wandering its magnificent rooms. Here is the view of the Boboli Gardens, which we will have to cover the next time around.

Yesterday we went to Santo Spirito (though it closed early, before we had a chance to see anything, so the visit doesn't count), then wandered through Palazzo Davanzati, and finally the Museum of Orsanmichele. We were in luck because we thought the museum was still closed for restoration, but when we poked our heads into the church there was a sign saying the museum was open one day a week now, and today was the day ... and also a special free day!

The museum consisted of the original statues that sit in the niches surrounding the exterior of the church (except for Donatello's St. George, which is housed in the Bargello). These three here (along with Donatello's St. George) are the most famous: Ghiberti's St. John the Baptist (left), Verrocchio's Doubting Thomas, and Gianbologna's St. Luke.

View from the top floor of the building

I love looking at the rooftops!

The Orsanmichele tower and lamby

The view from the bridge connecting the church to some other building.

Here are our (fake) boys, guarding one of our favorite Florentine buildings! (That is, a view of the exterior of Orsanmichele.)

I Tatti festivities

2011-06-11T11:57:00.009-04:00

The second half of this week was packed with events to celebrate the 50th anniversary of I Tatti. Wednesday night we had dinner--complete with pre-dinner drinks and antipasti, a four-course meal, and post-dinner coffee and treats--at the Castello di Vincigliata at the end of the road and at the top of the hill where I Tatti is located. This was quite a formal and fancy affair, probably the nicest I have ever been to (rumor was that it was 90 euro, or $130, a head). The dramatic, beautiful setting and the luxurious dinner was very much like a pricey wedding reception, without music and the chicken dance, unfortunately.

There are supposedly records of the castle dating back about a thousand years, but it went to ruins and had been reconstructed so much that today it is basically a 19th-century reproduction. Still, not too shabby!

Located at the top of the hill, the castle had a very impressive view! It had been storming for the past three days, but fortuitously the storm cleared about 2 hours before the dinner.Being seated between two Italians, I was too embarrassed to take photos of the rest of my meal, but I couldn't resist creating a memento of the creamy, chocolaty, caramelly, dessert! You know a dish is fancy when the name is really, really long

The 15 fellows being presented with their studies in the new loggiato

The following day was packed with speeches culminating in the inauguration of the new loggiato at I Tatti. This is basically a state-of-the-art building containing the 15 studies for the fellows. The celebration finished with yet another elegant and overwhelming 'garden party'. Usually I Tatti is self-sufficient and has the resources to pull together large, beautiful events with its own staff, but it was catered, so you know it was to be good and expensive. I wish I had taken photos of the aperativi--they were by far the most exquisite I have ever seen.

Beyond being the 50th anniversary of I Tatti, I imagine these were also important fund raising events, so while the donors were wooed, we got to ride the coattails to excellent food and a beautiful (though somewhat stuffy) atmosphere.

Debbie Loeb Brice preparing to cut the ribbon to the Deborah Loeb Brice Loggiato Checking out the new studies. (Seth's is the one on the lower left.)The 'Garden Party'

One of the many, many tables of food, each different. Oh my.

I couldn't believe it, they had actually hired a 'famous' marching band from northern Tuscany to hang out and eat with us

School's out

2011-06-11T11:20:00.008-04:00

Despite the grand events at I Tatti this week, they did not obscure the final days of my Italian course. I really enjoyed taking these classes--they provided an outlet to other non-Italians also trying to integrate in a different country (sometimes I wondered if my aunts and uncles from Vietnam felt like I felt taking these classes when they were trying to get settled in the US), as well as a valuable, solid structure to the day. However, it was a bit of a challenge to get up daily at 5:30am for the past 5 months, though with the sun and the traffic being so problematic, we will continue to try to stick to our usual early routine. Both classes in which I participated (medio and medio-avanzato) ended up being all-female--a couple guys started in each but about half-way through disappeared. This made for a fairly relaxed and friendly atmosphere, and we were very lucky to have wonderful instructors for both courses (I heard other teachers were not nearly so good). Also, I befriended the two Vietnamese nuns who were in the previous course with me, and I think I will miss them the most. On the last day of class they wrote and sang a song for the instructor, making it an especially sentimental day for all of us.

Yesterday was the opening of an art exhibition by one of the students in the class. After meeting with Claudia for gelato, I bumped into a couple girls from class also on their way to the exhibition. It was nice to spend the afternoon with everyone, outside the classroom, and it was equally fantastic to see some creative artwork by one of our fellow students. I hope I can keep in touch with a few of these girls, and I will need to practice my Italian so that I can continue to communicate with them!

Gule and pregnant Chargre (both from Turkey, I am sure I spelled their names incorrectly), Kuniko, Hiroaki (the husband of Tubasa), Tubasa, and me at the opening of Tubasa and Hiroaki's joint art exhibition. No, that is not wall paper behind us.

The exhibition was inside a hotel that displays works by local artists, at least I think that is what they normally do.

Guests, round one

2011-06-07T12:10:00.006-04:00

This post is a bit late since I have been waiting for a few pictures from our visitors. I will have to keep waiting a little while longer, so I will need to make do with the pictures I have so far ;o)

Despite the horrible weather (in the low 90s, without AC, and a bit humid) and the accident, I think (or at least I hope) Seth's parents had a good visit. We familiarized ourselves with the city taxies and managed to get Linda out to the Accademia and then to the Uffizi and the Piazza della Signoria, so I suppose not all was lost.

Upon the arrival of Seth's parents, we had lunch at Trattoria da Rocco (Sant'Ambrogio Market), moments before... the accident.

The next day, Rich got hyped up to try Lampredotto. Oh, and the reaction shot. Not so hot.

While Rich and Linda were here my cousin Eileen and Aunt Dee arrived from California. Eileen had just completed her masters degree and she and her mother came out to Italy for a full month. Their itinerary included a few days in Florence, then a week-long cruise followed by two weeks on the road driving around up north, then back to Florence. They were able to pack in quite a few sites while they were here, and we all still managed to eat dinner at home together, my family and Seth's.

Rich, Aunt Dee, Linda, and Eileen

Our first dinner together we had a certain Italian friend, Claudia, come over and show us how to make Spaghetti Carbonara. Being home-bound and not having many opportunities to meet the locals and eat food made by Italians, it was really nice Linda could meet Claudia. Claudia was a great representative for her country :o)

As a side note, some notions I had formed in my head about Italians during this past year were solidified that evening. These include 1) Italians are VERY particular about their food and there is pretty much only one right way to do anything. Being extremely traditional and proud of regional cuisine, recipes have very little wiggle-room. 2) Italians are exceedingly generous, witty, and warm-hearted if you can break the initial ice. This ice is quite a bit thicker when dealing with Florentines. Luckily for us Claudia is from Umbria. 3) In terms of food, ALWAYS drench your entire plate in olive oil. If it is not saturated in oil, you did not add enough. Also, there is a myth that one should add a spoon of salt to boiling pasta water. It is not a spoon of salt, it is more like 1/4c or 1/3c of salt. Seriously, it should taste like sea water. I have seen two other Italians make pasta and they all pretty much empty the box of salt into the water. Of course, it is very important that the salt is large rock salt, not fine-ground. There is no explanation why this is important. Also, NEVER rinse pasta after draining!

The second night we were all together Seth and I ditched our families, though we had good reason (we did feel bad, by the way). Seth's mentors from UNC, Dr. Haar and Dr. Nadas, whom we had met with during our first visit to Florence two years ago, were back in town and wanted to get together for dinner. We met them at a really nice restaurant downtown and were able to catch up with them for a bit.

Us with Dr. Nadas and Dr. Haar. Not a very good picture, which is why I am getting a new camera when I return to the US.

When Seth and I returned to the apartment it looked as if our families were keeping each other company and were passing around photos over pizza and a bottle of wine. Very cute!

After a week-long visit, Seth's parents left early Friday morning. We were worried that Linda wouldn't be allowed on the plane with a full-leg cast (their regulations require one's legs to be bent at a 90 degree angle under the seat), but somehow she managed it. Of course they had more problems with delays and lost luggage getting home, so hopefully this trip wasn't so horrible that they never want to leave Geneva, NY again!

A few hours later, Eileen and Aunt Dee hopped on the train to Venice to catch their cruise. I hope they had a nice introduction to Florence, and we look forward to seeing them again soon!

Seth and I had the rest of the afternoon to recover, grocery shop, and spot-clean the apartment in preparation for Danielle's visit. She is one of my closest friends since middle school and we did everything in band together (we both played clarinet and would always room together during the trips). I last saw her a year and a half ago in Denver, and of course she hasn't changed one bit.

Coming to Italy for business, Danielle stayed with us over the weekend before heading to a small town near Parma to visit a solar power plant. Her goal for Florence included walking the town, shopping, and lots of gelato eating, and I think we covered these bases quite well.

Danielle with our snack from the Saturday market: strawberries, apples, Pugliese bread (salted, what a treat!), and pecorino cheese. Mmmm!

Luckily for our visitors, this was also the week of the Gelato Festival.

Sunday morning, after climbing the Piazzale Michelangelo, we stopped by the monthly antiques fair around the corner at the Piazza dei Ciompi

Coffee and chocolatey things at one of my favorite pasticcerieThe gelato festival continued all the way to the Palazzo Pitti

Dinner with the anarchists on the steps of Saint'Ambrogio

Shaky start

2011-05-23T06:36:00.004-04:00

Seth's folks have finally come out to visit us in Florence! This is their first time out of the country so it was very exciting for them to get a taste of Italy. They arrived Friday, which was a day late because their original flight was canceled. They made it over to our apartment nonetheless, and dropped their bags and grabbed a quick lunch with us at the Trattoria Da Rocco inside Sant'Ambrogio market. This was about as far as we got, because as soon as we left to go see David Seth's poor mom slipped off the very uneven sidewalk and landed hard on her knees. She could barely move and was in a lot of pain so we shuffled over to the hospital that was luckily only two blocks away. We checked her into the ER and waited about 6 hours before she was helped. Though it wasn't exacly David, waiting in the hospital was at least an interesting lesson on Italian culture.

Poor Linda had broken her right kneecap and was placed in a very heavy full-leg cast. Of course the hospital didn't loan crutches--in fact, they didn't even have any in supply to sell--so we had to buy a set from a medical supply store downtown the next day after a consultation with an orthopedic doctor. Though at times dealing with the hospital seemed haphazard (in the typical Italian sense), we do have to hand it to them--after a CAT scan (she hit her head hard), two x-rays, the cast, and doctor visit, they were only billed 300euro (about $420), and the crutches were only 40 euro. This all probably would have cost thousands in the US.

Upon getting home we didn't think Linda would be able to make it up the three flights of very narrow stairs to our apartment, but she did, but she hasn't been able to leave since then. Seth went with his dad to Rome yesterday for two nights since we couldn't cancel the B&B they had booked (the Domus Livia -- this was an issue in itself that involved them lying to us about their inability to cancel or change the booking despite the emergency and over 40 hours notice), and I have been hanging out with Linda. At least I don't have school today so I can spend time at home with her and prepare for Aunt Dee and Eileen's arrival tonight. It is funny Seth's parents and my aunt and cousin's visit will overlap by several days, but we are just happy that everyone could come out. Poor Linda, though--I hope we can think of a way to get her out to see a few sights, at least the Duomo!

Hidden gems

2011-05-19T08:54:00.007-04:00

This week we have been getting a closer look at yet more interesting little things around the city. Sunday we went to Claudia's apartment for lunch--she is my (one) friend from Conversation Exchange and she invited us over because her housemate had shown her how to make ragu' toscano (Tuscan-style meat sauce). Her housemate's boyfriend's brother, conveniently, works in a trattoria and provided a huge plate of homemade egg pasta (tagliatelle) to cover in the sauce. I would love to learn how to make this sauce, but I don't think I would be willing to spend three hours to make it. The same goes for the fresh pasta.

On the way out we took advantage of Claudia's apartment being in a different part of town and walked down Via il Prato, the road where they store the Brindellone. This is the cart they explode every year for Easter and they keep it in this massive yet shockingly narrow compartment. Even though we just saw the door, that was almost enough for me. It was like sneaking a peak at a celebrity's home.

I'm so content to be so close to the Brindellone! What is almost more impressive is its door (yup, that tall and skinny brown thing!).

We next visited the Basilica di Santa Trinita to have a look at the Cappella Sassetti, frescoed by Ghirlandaio around 1485.

This morning (I had the day off from school) we met with Giovanni, an art historian fellow at I Tatti who lives a couple blocks away. He took Seth and me to see the Chiostro dello Scalzo, a beautiful cloister elegantly frescoed in gray tones by Andrea del Sarto (1508-1526).

Who would have thought something so striking would be hidden within the walls of this modest little facade?

As a bonus Giovanni drove us just out of town to see Andrea del Sarto's Cenacolo (Last Supper) at San Salvi. Maybe not as elegant as the Scalzo, but just as impressive. The nice thing about all these frescoes is that they are rarely removed from their wall and you have to visit them on-site. This makes it hard for museums to plunder them and more fun to track down individually. With just over a month left in Florence, we still have many more to see!

Flights home

2011-05-10T15:43:00.003-04:00

I can't believe how quickly this year has flown! I have been having to think about finally leaving Florence and this afternoon I sealed the deal by booking flights back to the US. I will check out of here on June 30th and head straight to Denver, just in time for my cousin, Christina's, wedding. Seth will remain in Florence for a couple weeks so that he can have all the mosquitoes and all the tourists to himself, haha. I am just starting to feel comfortable here and I really wish I could stay longer (two years in one place seems to be the trend lately), but I suppose I will have to go back to reality at some point.

Now that the flights are taken care of I can start thinking about other things, like how to get Lorenzo back into the US, how to reduce our resident mosquito population before we have visitors these next couple weeks, how to bring back all our crap to the US, and figure out which classes to register for this Fall semester at Framingham. But for now I can really put my mind to pondering why on earth there was a huge piece of soaked Baccala (salt cod) in the middle of the residential road this morning during our run...

Another kind of market

2011-05-08T05:48:00.005-04:00

I just wanted to mention that I really like the food sold in Italian grocery stores. Don't get me wrong, I still LOVE the fresh produce markets like Saint Ambrogio, but the packaged products here are miles simpler and less processed than 98% of everything found in American grocery stores. The past several years I had almost completely avoided buying ANYTHING processed (i.e., products bagged, boxed, or frozen) from the grocery stores in the US. Our weekly groceries included milk, fresh produce, basic unsweetened cereal (like grape nuts and oats), dry grains and beans, canned vegetables, etc. Admittedly, we would often buy flavored yogurt and pasta sauce and occasionally ice cream, but that is pretty much it. I would willingly eat processed food if it were organic (or at least not full of ingredients I can't recognize), but those sorts of things are way out of our budget so we would keep things cheap and simple and cook from whole ingredients.

Italy, however, has spoiled me! You can pick up almost anything and it would use real sugar (high fructose corn syrup is almost exclusively an American thing), usually use real fat like butter or (natural) oil (although I have seen a couple productsthat use fully hydrogenated crap), have simple ingredients, and not be loaded in unnecessary salts and laundry lists of preservatives. As a result I have to be very careful when buying something to make sure I use it up asap, before it is taken over by mold. Though annoying, at least it reminds me that the food is NOT loaded with fake chemicals. Admittedly, this is not true of everything (coloring agents, some preservatives, and other strange ingredients do exist), but like I said, it still beats 98% of what you find in the US!

For example, we even let ourselves have frozen pizza every couple weeks, which I haven't eaten since I was in high school. If any country makes excellent frozen pizza, leave it to the Italians!

The ingredients: flour, water, tomato, mozzarella (milk, salt, rennet, milk enzymes), iodized salt, vegetable oil, extra-virgin olive oil, yeast, modified starch, basil, oregano. Also, this is kinda off-subject, but I really appreciate how this cream, chocolate, and whiskey colomba (dove cake) actually resembles the photo on the box.

After eating all these little snacks, I will seriously have to go on a diet when I get back to the US! Or at least go back to soaking beans...

Arezzo

2011-05-08T05:12:00.005-04:00

Yesterday we took a quick trip to Arezzo. For some reason Seth has been fascinated by this Chianti town 80km outside Florence, maybe because he kept getting it confused with Assisi, haha. Or because of the famous 11th-century music theorist, Guido d'Arezzo. I mostly knew it for its popular, monthly antiques fair, and for being the setting of Roberto Benigni's La vita è bella. Either way, we could get their really fast via the train station near our apartment (Campo di Marte), which we love, so we packed a picnic lunch and zipped down there.

Arezzo, not a huge tourist destination, was a relief from huge swarms of tourists, though it had well beyond its fare share of Germans (the Japanese were absent, tending to avoid these less grand cities). Like most towns, I suppose, it has a modern exterior with all the typical shops and grocery stores, but still maintains a lively struscio ('main drag'), and a lovely, old core.

The bell tower of Santa Maria della Pieve rising through the middle of the narrow street
The very sloping Piazza Grande
There were little signs scattered around the city center illustrating where scenes from La vita è bella were shot. Along with the Piazza Grande, do you recognize this house from the movie? Seth is pretending to catch the key that kept falling for Guido, but we later figured out he is standing in front of the wrong door. The correct door is actually the one that the man in the foreground is unlocking ... with a massive set of keys!

The Vasari Loggia bordering the piazza

A park where we had lunch, outside the Medici Fortress

After a good walk through town and a peek inside a couple churches, it was still early enough to catch a bus to nearby Cortona (an even smaller town just a few kilometers away, the setting for another book and film, Under the Tuscan Sun), but we were not feeling the motivation and called it an early day. Maybe next time!

A couple rodents

2011-05-04T12:43:00.004-04:00

Poor Lorenzo has been a bit under the weather lately. Two weeks ago he had a little fall, and it took us a day or two to notice that he wasn't chewing cardboard like normal, and he wasn't really drinking water or going after the bird seed we feed him. We soon realized he busted at least one tooth in his fall and we gave him some time to see if it would regrow. In the meantime we began feeding him a mash of soft foods mixed with a bit of water, which he seems to really love (who wouldn't like soggy unsalted bread with oatmeal, banana, wheat germ and fiber pellets?).

After a week and a half Lorenzo still didn't improve. In fact, he had been rubbing his nose a whole lot and sleeping more than normal, but we figure Seth just passed on his cold to the little guy. However, by Monday we did notice for the first time the big broken tooth, slanting awkwardly in his mouth, so we found a vet who specializes in rodents and exotic animals (like gerbils) in a town outside Florence. We packed up the guy with a busted tooth (Lorenzo, not Seth this time), and we trotted a mile through a sudden downpour to the train station. We road the train, soaking wet, to Sesto Fiorentino, about 30min away.

The vet, a young guy with lots of piercings, was very nice and handled Lorenzo very well. I think Lorenzo even charmed him (I could tell by the way the vet giggled!), and he didn't even charge us to pull out the broken tooth. Everyone in the vet clinic, including a little boy, also admired Lorenzo, oohing and awing, calling him bellino (beautiful little one). Indeed, not many people in Italy have ever seen a gerbil, but we won't tell Lorenzo that is why he got all the attention.

Since Monday we hoped Lorenzo would go back to his normal chipper self, but he still refuses to chew hard foods and drink from his water bottle, even though the vet said he should be fine. Since he doesn't even want to chew cardboard, he has no other way to occupy himself and just sleeps all day and looks miserable until we let him out in the bedroom for a few hours in the evening (when he really perks up). Poor Lorenzo! Maybe we should send him to a counselor... Hopefully he starts chewing again before his other teeth get too long and we have to send him back to the vet to have them clipped, too!

On to another type of rodent. After waiting a respectable amount of time after Easter, this week I finally tried coniglio, rabbit, for the first time. I really want to eventually try roast rabbit, but for now I settled for a jar of bunny sauce from the grocery store. Rabbit is actually very popular in Italy (like it is in most of Europe), as are pigeon and horse. I think I would like to try pigeon before leaving, but I don't know about horse...

Not sure why Annibale Carracci's The Beaneater is used as the image on the label, but I do like how the picture of the bunny on the lid helps to clear up any confusion.

Pasta con ragù di coniglio

A visit by MTV and a trip to Lucca

2011-04-25T06:16:00.007-04:00

Last week MTV's TRL Award Show came to Santa Croce for a night, attracting quite a big crowd! We took a peek to see what was going on. Considering the stage was extremely low and the giant video screens were the same height as the stage, we couldn't see much. It was pretty neat though to hear some Italian artists we had been listening to on the radio the past few months.
Saturday we took a quick half-day trip to Lucca, about an hour and a half to the west by train. One of the nicest things about Lucca is its fully intact wall, which is very rare. People use this long green space for biking, walking, jogging, and all around socializing, which I think makes for a much more laid-back and peaceful city.

Picnic on the wall

Old jewelry shop

Tower houses

Roman amphitheater-turned piazza

San Michele

San Martino (the Duomo)

View through the walls

Lucca had some cute streets and a nice wall to explore, and was certainly less hectic than Florence, but we could already feel the crush of our fellow tourists. I wish we could have gone several weeks earlier to have avoided the crowds, but I'm glad we got to see it!

Buona Pasqua!

2011-04-25T04:49:00.009-04:00

I hope everyone had a great Easter! Italians sure know how to celebrate the big day (perhaps the biggest day of the year in Florence, behind San Giovanni's day in July), and in fact the Monday after Easter, Pasquetta, is also a holiday. It is without a doubt the time to unwind after all the excitement!

Florence is known for Lo Scoppio del Carro, The Explosion of the Cart. In this tradition a 500 year old, 30ft-tall cart is paraded through the city by a pair of giant white oxen decorated with garlands of flowers and accompanied by flag wavers. The cart is parked between the Duomo and the Baptistry, and during Easter Mass in the cathedral, a dove-rocket is launched from behind the altar and shoots along a zipline attached the cart. When the dove collides with the cart it sets of an elaborate series of pyrotechnics, including colored smoke, whistles, fireworks, flames, and twirly sparklers. Luckily, the oxen are detached from the cart before this happens.

During the second half of his run early yesterday morning, Seth was fortunate enough to see the white oxen being walked through the Parco delle Cascine before event, and he even got to see the cart (nicknamed Il Brindellone) preparing to leave its tall, skinny house near Porta al Prato (I was a bit jealous).

We made it to the Duomo a half an hour early, which clearly was not early enough, but we did manage to see some of the action between the arms of people holding up their digital cameras and iPods. Of course, all the loud fireworks, smoke, and fire in the middle of the crowded piazza seemed really dangerous to me, but I suppose after 500 years of experience they have everything under control.

Seth took a peek inside the Duomo to see what was going on

The cart, just before its explosion

The first thing that happened after the impact of the dove was clouds of purple and red smoke

And a waterfall of sparks

And finally, a check-up by a fireman

After we navigated our way out of the crowds, we hopped on a bus and headed for an Easter lunch hosted by two people at I Tatti. In addition to great food (we had traditional lamb... the Lamb of God...), there was also an egg hunt!
Since ham is hard to come by around here, and I didn't feel like eating more lamb of god, for dinner I made a Torta Pasqualina--a pie filled with spinach, ricotta, beaten egg, cheese, and whole eggs baked under the crust.

The Easter Bunny found us!

Instead of elaborate Easter baskets, kids usually get one gigantic chocolate egg, usually filled with a toy. This was filled with a tiny round Nemo magnet... oooh, fun.

Parma

2011-04-16T05:13:00.008-04:00

Last weekend I Tatti took their Spring trip to Parma, and I got to tag along. Early morning Friday the 30-or-so of us loaded onto a hired bus and spent the entire day hopping amongst three of the two-dozen castles that dot the province of Parma. By the early evening we checked into our hotels in Parma, then spent half of Saturday visiting some sites of art around the city. Seth and I have never been a part of a large tour group like this before (outside of trips in high school), and I must admit that while it does make one a much more passive traveler, it is also very comfortable and relaxing to be whisked around from place to place. The most draining aspect of the trip was the sun and the heat--Parma hit a record high of 31 C (about 88 F) while we were there!

The first stop was the fortress of Rocca Sanvitale, in the center of the town of Fontanellato. Here we saw the Sala di Diana e Acteon, a room frescoed by Parmagianino (Tim, one of the fellows, led the tour).

Sanvitale in the town of Fontanellato

I love the trash bins in front of the tiny drawbridge
We escaped the group (and the sun!) for a picnic lunch in a park just outside the old city walls
The next castle was Rocca dei Rosso (San Secondo), known for its well-preserved grotesques (spindly imaginary creatures) and scenes from fables frescoed on the walls and ceilings
Here, our tour guide is explaining why Pop Art is mixed in with the grotesques. I didn't really understand.
The last castle, Torrechiara, was parked on a big hill and had very wonderful views of the countryside.
Tim led a discussion on the mysterious Camera d'Oro

After finally checking into Parma, everyone went out for drinks and dinner. They made reservations for 9pm, which was a bit late for Seth and me (we had to wake up at 4am and would have to wake up early again the next morning), so we had a quicker dinner somewhere else.

Trattoria Corrieri
This area is indeed famous for its Parmigiano-Reggiano (aka Parmesan cheese) and Proscuitto. We are trying cheese and proscuitto-stuffed tortelli (regional pasta similar to ravioli) and tagliatelle with rocket and proscuitto cotto (basically ham).

Even though my plate was only eight little tortelli and Seth only had a small bowl of tagliatelle, it was so rich we had to to cancel our secondo!

The next morning: a pre-dawn run along the river and then to the Parco Ducale. We had to burn off all that cheese and butter-soaked pasta from dinner the night before!
In the morning we met the I Tattians for a tour of several sites around Parma, led by another fellow. First stop: the duomo.
One of the most impressive aspects was the choir stalls, carved by the Canozi workshop.
They had intricate wood-in-wood intarsia panels that depict geometric shapes, objects, and people, using an early form of perspective (see how it looks like the guitar is sitting on a window sill?). Some panels looked more like a Picasso painting, but they were still very impressive!
The mish-mosh Baptistry next door

Our last stop as a group was to see the Camera di S. Paolo, a small room frescoed by Correggio, then a bunch of us hopped over to the National Gallery of Parma before it closed. From here Seth and I broke off for a quick lunch.

A proscuitto sandwich! If an Italian saw me pulling off the large clumps of fat the meat is known for, I would have been kicked out of the country.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the very, very hot city and checking out a couple of the other churches before heading to the train station. All in all it was a wonderful, very culture-heavy trip, which is what Italy (and I Tatti) do best!

Spring

2011-04-10T05:18:00.005-04:00

Spring has struck us very suddenly, so much so that before we knew it the flowers had bloomed, the trees had became bright green, the tourist mobs had returned, and the heat had skyrocketed. In fact, some regions have already reached record highs in the upper 80s. I think it will be a looooong summer...

Last weekend we took a little walk up the Piazzale Michelangelo to see San Miniato al Monte. We run up this long hill that overlooks the city every morning, usually beating the sun. This was our first time visiting during the day when all the cafes and stalls are open and the stairs are buzzing with people licking gelatos. Compared with the pre-dawn calm which we are accustomed to, it was like, well, night and day.

Piazzale Michelangelo during the day!

Heading up to the Basilica di San Miniato al Monte

San Miniato

Joining the crowds to head back down into the cityAfter spending the winter indoors, Seth returned to his usual perch in the Loggia

Day 7: Heading home

2011-03-31T07:54:00.006-04:00

Our last run in Sardinia--the hills around Castello di San Michele in Cagliari

A view of the residential area where we stayed (this is near the airport)

Castello di San Michele

The B&B where we stayed was actually a cute little old lady's apartment and organized by her granddaughter. It was a little strange being in such close quarters with the owner but it was cozy and comfy, much like how I imagine it would be to stay with a grandma (or great-grandma).

Breakfast

More breakfast in the little porch connected to our room

La Signora

We made it to the airport with lots of time to spare, which was good because we had to deal with the car rental place and explain how we scratched up their car. After managing dirt roads full of goats, tiny twisty city streets, and miles of hairpin roads, we had backed into a stone marking a parking spot in the luxory resort of Porto Cervo...

A 500euro (over $700) scratch. This is partly why we had cold beans and tomato sauce two meals a day, every day.

We drove about 1300km (~800miles) over the 7 days. This really isn't that much but we could only drive between 40-60km/hr (about 25-40mi/hr) pretty much the entire way due to the twistiness of the roads. Also, we got really held up by the poorly marked (or rather overly and inefficiently marked) roads and had to do lots of stopping. At least we had a small little fuel efficient Lancia, which kept fuel costs down--we only had to put in about 110 euro ($170) for fuel (at about 1.50euro/liter, $8/gallon). Americans should not complain about their 'high cost' of fuel!

Day 6: The big city by the sea

2011-03-29T11:19:00.015-04:00

After a morning run through some of the nearby hills, we checked out of Ulassai and headed back down south, taking the slow and scenic road (SS125) down in the valley between the mountains.

Early morning in Ulassai

Goat art high up on the cliff

Our eco-friendly hotel room with great big windows!

The drive along SS125 was colored by wildflowers of all shades of green and yellow

Past Muravera we stopped to visit the Nuraghe Asoru by the roadside (10th-8th centuries BC)

The inner courtyard (people were very tiny back then)

Seth was embarrassed to take this photo of me with the nice cactusBack on the road, winding through the southeastern Sette Fratelli mountains

We finished our grand tour of Sardinia by returning to Cagliari. We checked into our little B&B--located in a residential area on the edge of town--early enough to take the bus into town for the afternoon.

After a full week, our last meal of cold beans and tomato sauce with bread! Thank god.
Lots of Easter eggs!

This is where we bumped into the couple from Luxembourg that we met at the Coop hotel in Oliena (they were the only other guests at the hotel).

A great view from the Bastione San Remy

La Torre dell'Elefante

Day 5: Over the hills

2011-03-28T12:29:00.009-04:00

We spent the next day weaving through the mountains heading south. Off the beaten path, the towns we passed were a little kooky, to say the least.

The back of the Coop hotel near Oliena. The piles of bags are actually filled with olive pits, which they use as an alternative energy to power the hotel. Very Italian, and very weird.

One of the large grocery stores we frequented sold oh-so-tempting tripe in a can. I wonder why Florence doesn't sell canned Lampredotto?

We took the twisty scenic route through Genna Silana's Pass.

Cars may fall off the side of the mountain, but goats may not

and neither will pigsLittle town (Gairo) near where the mountains meet the sea

Lunch break in Lanusei, which appeared (like many of the small towns) to be devoid of all its women

A typical lunch bag. I was so happy it was easy to find recycling bins in most locations!

Too much signage! Ironically there were many, many signs yet it was still insufficient to find your way. As a rule of thumb, within 2 minutes of seeing a sign pointing in our direction, we would be stopping to ask for directions.

We passed two eerie abandoned towns that faced each other from across the same valley. We were informed there was a flood and mudslide in the 1951 that wiped out the towns, and they were rebuilt in safer locations about 100 meters uphill.

Our eco-friendly hotel in the town of Ulassai. I am glad it was a nice place to stay, considering it was the only hotel for miles!

Downtown Ulassai

Going for a hike through the canyon and up the cliff overlooking the town. The trail was too poorly marked (of course) to go very far.

Too steep for me. I sent Seth climbing up the rocks by himself.

Looking down on Ulassai It is hard to believe people live in these little shelters built into the rocks on the side of the mountain
Spooky

Beans and sauce at a table this time ... and heated up!

After dinner we hopped over to a little film festival that was going on in town. This night they were showing a couple documentaries at the local community center. Strangely the film we saw was in English with Italian subtitles (a foreign film, I suppose).

Day 4: Mountain respite

2011-03-28T06:09:00.010-04:00

Oliena was the only area we stayed for more than one night, and I think it was a good location to do so. The mountains, parks, small towns and deep caves were calling our names.

Running up Mount Corrasi

The view of a neighboring village

Our hotel (the Tourist Coop Eni) a few kilometers from Oliena along a steep, squiggly road on Monte Maccione

The town of Oliena

Murals are very popular in these mountain towns

The pure sorgenti, or springs, of Su Gologone

We took a walk along the nearby hill

This beetle was rolling his prize backwards down the hill. So disgusting yet so fascinating...

A tap of that wonderful spring water. Cars were pulled alongside and people were actually filling jugs to take home. From here you can see the Valle di Lanaitho down below.

We were the only ones down in the valley, besides a couple maintenance vehicles. This area has several grotte (caves), gorges, and ancient villages, but they were closed. We were content just to do a bit of poking around instead.

Giants' Tomb (Nuraghic burial site)

A hike up to one of the caves
Lunch on a wall

Heading back up the mountains, we stopped for a peek inside La Grotta del Guano, named for the bats that flew out of it when we came by.

Another place to fill up on spring water

We spent the rest of the afternoon lazying around Oliena. We found a nice bench to watch cars roll by, which is when we saw the fellow who gave us directions earlier in the morning.

Yes, this is some punk kid galloping his horse alongside the traffic.

Lady in the traditional black widow's dress

Day 3: Luxory resorts and mountain tops

2011-03-27T10:51:00.011-04:00

After whizzing through the west coast and much of the north, we put on the brakes in the eastern part of the island. Much of this area, particularly the mountainous inland region, is overlooked, even in the peak of tourist season. The people who live in these isolated little villages boast the second longest lifespan in the world, just behind Okinawans. I imagine that in addition to climbing hills all day and drinking warm goat's milk, the secret to their longevity must lie in the very fresh water, which we made sure to drink a lot of ;o)

But first, we started off with a run from our hotel near Arzachena, called La Borgata. The hotel website made it appear that there were endless trails for lovers of the outdoors, but we were disappointed to find out that there was nothing of the sort, so we made-do with the busy road and a maintenance trail under the power lines. Not very lovely, but at least there was some dirt involved.

The view from the back of the hotel/bar/restaurant. It reminded us of a fancy Australian-style roadhouse.

Under the glare of the flat screen TV and a slot machine, we had our breakfast of typical bar food (a cappuccino and brioche), embellished with fruit. Very amusing.

We checked out and took a little tour of the Costa Smeralda, a cape just to the north. In the last 20 years this extremely beautiful part of the coast with sparkling blue water has become a luxury resort for the rich and famous. Though we could care less about posh resorts, we heard so much about this place that we just had to have a gawk, especially since we knew it would be a ghost town during this time of year (it would be just 'too cold' to lie out on the beach before July).

Heading towards the Costa Smeralda

Spacey stucco buildings

Not many yachts docking today

A roadside cheese and salami van stands lonely and bored, but enjoys a fabulous view! This is our little injured rental car in the background.

Moving on down south and more inland, we pass lots of rocks...

and cows

and gnarly cork groves.

Heading into the mountains again

We made a stop for our typical lunch in the deserted town of Bitti

Another traditional flat bread. This is softer, like a pita.

We made a stop in the city of Nuoro. Not very picturesque, but still interesting. Many things were closed until April, including the tourist information office, but the town was lively and had a nice atmosphere.

Nuoro's duomoSome ladies wearing the traditional Sardinian black dress. This was a common sight in the mountain towns.

We drove up nearby Mt. Ortobene to the observatory which was capped with a gigantic Christ the Redeemer ('Il Redentore'). He was under restoration, unfortunately. (There were updates on his progress on the morning news.)

The view from the top of Mt Ortobene, looking at our next destination on the north side of Mt. Corrasi

After checking into our hotel outside of Oliena, we were pleasantly surprised by both a room upgrade (because the hotel was only occupied by one other couple and the room was free) and a spectacular view of the sunset from the porch (looking back at Nuoro and Monte Ortobene).