Buon San Valentino!

Today was our first jewelry and bronze class.  We had to ride a school bus to Andrea’s house, because it was too far to walk to.  The school bus, unfortunately, was so loud the engine might as well have been inside the vehicle, and I swear the sides of the bus were going to fall off at any second.  Since I live at the top of a hill, we had to go down some steep streets.  We weaved back and forth and turned a corner to the same hill Kelsey and I had to hike up from La Pievuccia (where we took several stops but reluctantly survived).  As we started down the hill, I was frantically looking around for things to hold on to and begging for a seat belt – I honestly thought we were going to die.  Hauling down this hill in a rickety old school bus and I was in the front seat watching the street fly past.  We barely made it to the bottom of the hill, squeaked past other cars on the narrow roads, and safely arrived at our teacher’s house.  When we went inside there were art pieces everywhere, finished and unfinished, of beautiful bronze pieces.  Andrea is preparing for an exhibit so he was very busy today, but we got to play with wax and fire, molding small pieces getting used to the medium.  We made rings with little roses on them, and they will be cast into bronze when we got back next week!

Since it is Valentine’s Day, we got little treats from La Perla café for dessert at lunch.  They were adorable little pastries and were super tasty!  Tonight A&M is putting on a Valentine’s day party at Pirate Bar where only students from Santa Chiara are admitted (in other words no creepy Italians staring at us).  I am currently in studio listening to loud music on the speakers we found with the K-State stuff, sub-woofers included, so I might be here for a while.  (Current song is Walkin' on Broken Glass)

Another thing I am going to start is a list of words Italians have trouble pronouncing.  Our current favorites are unique and focus.  Unique always comes out "EU-nich," making us all think twice before understanding the sentence.  With "focus," well they all seem to put too much emphasis on the first syllable.  I'll let you imagine how that one comes out.   Very hard to hold back laughter, especially in the museums and cathedrals.

Buon San Valentino!!

Cara Marie

Almost forgot...spill of the day!  Tonight we had red sauce on our pasta, and I got a little ambitious and tried to wipe up a bunch of it onto my bread, but I failed in getting it to my mouth in time, and it spilled on my jacket...right on the zipper. IMPOSSIBLE to get out.  And I had three spills in one day this weekend, again, but I don't remember what they were.  Too much traveling!