Le Vacanze

So I didn't find the cilantro, but the dinner was a success anyway. I miss spicy food! It wasn't as spicy as I make it in Santa Barbara, but it was still good. Seung and Cat came over to eat with me and Seung brought gelato from the gelateria down the street from me. It was so good. Afterwards Cat was asking if I had any cards and said she'd bring them next time. She wanted to play a game like we had in middle school, where you ask questions about relationships etc. We played this other game I used to play in middle school. It was really funny because it actually helped us learn Italian better. The lemon game...you write names of guys in the first column, something you can do to a lemon in the next, a body part, a girl's name and the name of a room or place. You end up with a funny sentence like, Mario kissed Maria's hand in the kitchen. We were laughing so much at the results. Cat says that she'll cook for us next week. Mmmm.

After that I went to meet Vini at Capocaccia. We ended up going to another bar since there were too many people at Capocaccia. We had a drink and then went to the Festa De L'Unita. We met up with Violet and Leonardo. Violet and I danced for awhile and then we all went home.

Saturday morning, I got up really early to go with Zuynep to school. We had to meet at 8:00 to go to Palmeria. We were both tired and ended up sleeping a lot on the bus. We got into Porto Venere, which is a little town near Cinque Terre. It was really beautiful. We took a ferry to Palmeria and stayed there for a few hours. It was really pretty. There were rock beaches as well as a sandy part of the beach. We had to hike up and over this rocky place in order to get to the best part of the beach. It was actually sort of scary and I think we were all scared we were going to fall onto the rocks below. We tanned for awhile and took a dip into the ocean. Afterwards, we took the ferry back to Porto Venere and I ate with Zuynep and Seung. We got pizza and a little pesto sandwich. After that we got some gelato. When we stopped at a gas station/food shop on the way, Zuynep and I both bought some CDs. I got an 80's CD collection. It's really funny because it has such different songs on it than what was popular in the US. I don't know if it's just a funny compilation or if it's the songs that were popular in Europe. Zuynep also let me copy her Turkish CD. I still have yet to listen to it. Anyway, we got back to Florence around 7:30 and then I got ready to go out with Vini. I walked with Violet to the Festa De L'Unita and we got something to drink and Vini and I danced for awhile. I was in heaven because they were playing Brazilian and Spanish music. I had so much fun!

Today, I got up really late and made some more Mexican food. I made it better this time actually than I did on Friday. Vini ate with me and he really liked it. Zuynep and Kayoko also helped me finish it all. They all really liked it. Violet made dinner for Leonardo, Vini and me. We pretty much spent the day eating, sleeping and watching movies on TV. I think I'm getting better at listening and understanding Italian. It's still hard of course, but it's getting easier. I didn't see Wibi all weekend even though we messaged each other a lot, and she just messaged me to see if I wanted to eat lunch with her tomorrow. I guess she got back together with Fabio and she has a lot to tell me. That is a whole other can of worms.

Enza also wrote me a message today. I didn't even realize, but I'm going to Sicily next weekend with Seung. It crept up on me really quickly! I can't wait though...it will be so much fun to see Enza again and hear all about what has happened to her in Sicily. She hadn't seen her "one true love" in a long time and she did get to see him. She told me she'd tell me all of it when I got there. It's going to be a long train ride though, something like 14 hours. Most of it we'll be sleeping though since we'll be going at night.

Anyway, this week should fly by and I'll be on "le vacanze" in no time.

Ciao!
Amy