a blog about cultural differences

Cappellacci di Zucca (all'aceto balsamico) from Archibugio

It’s only 10 days until my family arrives, and I’m so excited (I’m making them let me meet them in Venice… something my father doesn’t particularly like but I feel is a necessity because Venice is a labyrinth and they do not speak any Italian… and of course I miss them that much!)

This past week, our house pretty much fell apart. Why? Maria left for London on vacation on Tuesday. Luciana also almost kicked Giuseppe out of the house at least twice (I know only about these times because they were when I was home… but there very easily could have been others). Not that I was home much anyways, because Kelsey’s friend Leah was visiting from the states this week, so after going to Bologna to pick her up last Saturday, we took her to Archibugio to get the best pumpkin pasta in Ferrara. Unfortunately, I don’t ever want to go back to that restaurant… but that’s a different story entirely.

This past week was just the usual: classes, gelato after classes, walking around, biking around, buying clothes I don’t need but that look really amazing, etc. I discovered on Tuesday that I pulled off a B+ on Luke’s exam (the one I thought I failed). How I managed this, I’m not sure… I guess if you can make an argument (even if he thinks it’s wrong) he’s still obliged to give you points for it… not sure what the policy is for incoherent arguments or claiming that Dante was infamous… whoops. I also didn’t have my four hour class on Wednesday, which made this week go by a lot more quickly. Thursday, after class, Kelsey, Leah and I went to go get gelato. I really don’t understand how my gaining weight has stopped… but it has. I eat gelato and pasta all the time. Lucky me, I guess. Doesn’t help me solve the mystery of how Italian people are so skinny. They have perfect everything. Perfect hair, perfect legs, perfect faces… you get the idea. They all look amazing. The fact that their 3-year-old children wear clean, white skinny jeans and cardigans do not help this fact.

Anyways, on Thursday, we went to go park our bikes by Piazza Municipale, and proceeded to get gently scolded by a really cute old man. I didn’t catch half of what he said to me, but apparently we were parking our bikes in the wrong place, and he showed us where we were allowed to park our bikes, and after we bid him good day, we walked to the gelato place… and it was closed. So we had to walk back to unlock our bikes. He came back over and was like… what are you doing? You just parked your bikes! So we had to explain to him. He finally realized that we weren’t Italian, and so he slowed down a little bit when he talked. He also had a bunch of friends standing by the place where he made us put our bikes, and one of them asked me why I didn’t have my jacket on. It was 65 degrees, at least. The Ferrarese are babies when it comes to the cold. I know this, because even though I hail from the midwest where it gets to be quite chilly, I’ve complained when it’s been 35 or 40 degrees here–I’d be celebrating in Wisconsin if it were that warm in March! Finally, the cute old men bid us good day, and we proceeded on to go find another gelato place.

We went back to Archibugio again that night because Leah really liked the cappellacci. About halfway through the dinner, Leah pointed out that there was a table of 3 guys who looked to be about in their mid 20s diagonal from ours. One boy in particular kept looking over at us. When I say this, I mean he would gazein our direction. For 30 seconds at a time. It was ridiculous. Of course, we totally encouraged it… oops. We sat there talking about it and looking over while giggling… looking back on the night that is something that could have easily been avoided. And should have been. We had just finished our dinner when they got up… and said guy did about 5 long glances back at our table. Think that’s all that happened? No. Think again. He came back. Not to our table, exactly, but Leah was dictating this to me as it happened. He grabbed a piece of paper from the place where the cash register was and disappeared back around the corner. Kelsey conveniently decided to pretend to go to the bathroom (which was around the corner) and I guess he stopped her on the way back (because he was waiting there…) and asked if he could speak to me. I was quite… intoxicated at this point because I had drunk a lot of wine throughout dinner, so unfortunately, I obliged. He seemed nice at first, introduced himself as Andrea and informed me that they were going to another restaurant after, and asked if they (him and another friend) should wait for us. I told him no, because we had just ordered desert and I didn’t know how long we’d be. This is how I ended up getting his phone number and promised to call him after we finished eating. After we did end up finishing, we headed to Tsunami. I waited about 1 hour before sending him a text, because I didn’t want to be rude and leave the poor boy hanging… after all, he seemed really nice, and nervous, and that he didn’t do this all the time… Ha. He called me within 5 minutes… and then proceeded to call me twice more before actually finding the place. That should have raised a red flag. It didn’t. We left abruptly after Leah became quite angry with us (rightly so, as she was a major 5th wheel). The friend he brought along proceeded to become completely enamored with Kelsey, and even now after we explained to Andrea that I had a boyfriend (which I think gave him the message, because he stopped calling), his friend (Sebastiano) calls Kelsey twice or three times a day, and sends her text messages proclaiming his undying love for her. It’s hilarious. I honestly cannot help but laugh at how I managed to pick up a guy in a restaurant, and cause his friend to become interested in my friend. But seriously… in a restaurant? This is why I can never go back to Archibugio.

Since I know you all want to know, things with Vassilis are going well. Apparently it’s understood here when you’re in a relationship, but I’m not sure if it’s weird to ask. Anyhow, we pretty much act like we’re in a relationship so that’s enough for me at this point. I don’t like to think about what’s going to happen in a month and a half, so I just don’t. Kelsey pointed out the other day how cool our “whatever we are” is: He’s Greek, and I think English is his second language and Italian is his third (because he’s only lived here for 5 years). Anyways, when we talk online, I practice writing my Italian, and when we see each other, most of the time he talks in Italian (again, so I can practice), but I also make him talk in English sometimes. Except for when we talk in English, it’s cool because neither one of us is using our first language to communicate with the other. Who would have thought that could happen?

I feel like I’ve updated you all enough. I’m probably going to go take a nap in a little bit, because it’s been raining all day (you know how those rainy days go… they make you want to sleep all day. It’s bad enough that I haven’t gotten dressed.)

Ciao!