Mi impegno alla pasta

I am so happy here. I love the city and the food and the language. I feel so blessed to have an opportunity like this, to study Italian with people from all over the world in a place that is so beautiful and full of hidden treasures. I love the smells and the smiles and the "ciao"s. I love that no building is simple, and especially not the school. I love how easy it is to get lost and how the city seems to shrink more and more everyday as I get a feel for my surroundings.

Today I went to the Museo Civico, which is full of frescoes from the 12-15th centuries pertaining to the government. It is incredible to me how old they are! America is less than 300 years old and these paintings are from the 1100s. How does that even work? After the Museo Civico, we went to the Complesso Museo della Santa Maria della Scala. It used to be a hospital run by the church up until about 23 years ago. The frescoes and ceilings in this place are incredible. There are multiple chapels and weird relics (like Santa Catarina's skull?!?). It is all very interesting. I have no idea what they will be having me do come monday, but i'm very excited.

I went to institute today and LOVED it. It was so interesting to talk about things like baptism and the holy ghost in Italian because i understand the concepts so well that i could really focus on vocabulary. I really am getting so much better at Italian. Its fantastic. I love this language. I am excited to go to church, but I'm missing this Sunday because I'm going to ROMA. This time around, I'm hitting up all the cheap venues like the catacombs and cathedrals and gardens. Also, the Vatican is free the last sunday of every month so we'll hit that up as well. It will be fun!

I know you are waiting to hear about dinner.

-Curly pasta again with veggies and meat that tastes like bacon and pomodoro sauce.
-Caprese salad with the freshest mozzarella you can dream of and cucumbers, tomatoes and beets from nonna's garden.
-A sort of cold-served Italian version of stuffing. Only a lot healthier.
-Peaches.

Soooooo delicious. Soooooooooo delicious.