Il Giorno di Ringraziemento
HAPPY TURKEY DAY!! Today will be my first ever Thanksgiving in Italy and I am very excited.
We’ve been experimenting with a few cooking ideas for a quite a while now. First we tried to get Margherita to bake the pumpkin for pumpkin pie, but that did not turn out so well. The pumpkins ended up really dry and crusty like and we were not able to use that for the pie filling.
Then two days ago, we had a cooking trial for pumpkin pie and cornbread. It was amazing! The pumpkin pie was made first. Chelsea mixed and kneaded the dough for the crust while Amanda and Dr. Webb made the pumpkin filling, and Mr. Ed and I were cracking walnuts for the topping. Since I was done cracking walnuts while everyone was still working, I decided to take the left over dough from Chelsea's crust and experiment with it; I mostly just played around with it. I guess I just got really bored after I had finished the walnuts. Messing around with the dough was pretty fun. For some reason, I decide to cut out a shape of a hand and made a turkey from it; I even cut out the beck and the wattle. Dr. Webb and everyone else had liked it so much that the hand turkey ended up being on top of the pie. While I was putting the final touches on my hand turkey, Jenna started the trial of cornbread.
The first to be baked was the pumpkin pie. About twenty minutes after the pie was in the oven, Amanda put my turkey on the pie and I came downstairs to Dr. Webb’s apartment to put arrange the walnuts on the pie. The pumpkin pie cooked for a total of about fifty minutes. After the pumpkin pie was done, it was time to bake the cornbread.
After the entire test trials were done cooking, it was time to rate and critic the food and to perfect it for today. The pumpkin pie was amazing and so was the cornbread! I did not think that either recipe needed adjustments.
Yesterday, we had to make a total of six pumpkin pies for today. We were lucky to have had the crew we had because everyone pitched in and did a part of the pies; it was almost as if it was an assembly line. It was just like the day before at the test trial where Chelsea made the crusts, Amanda and Dr. Webb made the fillings, and I made the toppings. We were pretty efficient. I had fun making all six pies with different designs on them. On two of the pies, I wrote out the word “Happy” and “Day.” On another pie, I made a hand turkey. On another pie, I got creative and made a pilgrim like hat and a really cool looking feather joined by a small heart in the middle. On another pie I was able to do the lattice and for the last one, I decided to braid a few strands of dough and make the crust have a braided texture.
The first three to be baked were the pies that consisted of the word “Happy,” “Day,” and the hand turkey. When I arrange the pumpkin pies correctly, they ‘spell out’ “Happy ‘Turkey’ Day;” our turkey was brown too! As for the pie with the pilgrim hat and the feather, the hat puffed up and it was as if the hat came to live because it gave it a three dimensional figure to it; it was pretty neat.
Well it is now time to go help Jenna with her cornbread; so I will be back to explain more about Il Giorno di Ringraziemente in Italia soon.
* * * * * *
It is now mezzonotte and we just got back from our Thanksgiving dinner at Santa Maria dei Servi. It was a long but very fun night. After Amanda and I helped Jenna with her cornbread, we rushed off to get dress and head down to the Servi to help set up tables and do last minute things. We were in the first shift to be down there and helping. Amanda and I ended up staying from four until a little past six working, more than our shift. I had a lot of fun helping Sergio decorate the place because it seems as if he likes to decorate himself; it was fun and perfect working with him. He let me arrange many things that Alessandra said he preferred to do himself so I felt honored to be able to help in such ways. Later on, I got bored and played with a few crops I saw laying around and made a gorgeous centerpiece with walnuts, leaves, hazel nuts, and persimmons. Alessandra and Sergio liked it so much that they wanted me to make more; so I ended up making eight center piece plates and placing them around the columns.
As soon as that was done I ran back to the palazzo to finish getting ready; which only took my about fifteen more minutes. Then Amanda and I had to escort Samantha down to the Servi because she was sick and we did not want her to be alone in anyway, we made sure that someone was with her at all times; but she seemed to have enjoy herself.
It was seven o’clock and people started filing into the dining hall of the Servi. Around seven thirty was when the rush of people coming in had slowed down. My host family, my service learning teacher, and my friends made it to dinner tonight with an exception of a few people. My host family even brought gifts for Nicole and me; it was a gorgeous necklace for the each of us. It was amazing to see them all spending the day of thanks with Le Ragazze Americane in Italy! Who can actually say that they spent Thanksgiving in Italy with people that care? The Immortal 9 can!
People started to leave around ten o’clock. As more and more people left, we started to clean up; it took us quite a while to wrap everything up and reorder the dining hall.
Well, all I can really say is that, tonight was a very successful night and the first of many American holidays celebrated in Italy! Tonight was amazing and I am thankful for all the people that I have met here and all the memories we share together, there is nothing more that I can ask for, except of course my real family.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Today in Sara’s class, we were all abruptly reminded about family dinners tonight! There will be four girls going tonight to a family dinner, Samantha and Lauren, and Nicole and I. Tonight, Nicole and I are going to Chiara’s family. It was a shock to only be allowed a few hours to know beforehand but luckily it all turned out okay. Since I have never been to a family dinner with ‘strangers,’ I was nervous all day long leading up to tonight’s event. I had no clue of what to expect or how the family would be like. Sara had said that our family was one of the new ones this year, which made me even more nervous because no one had known them yet.
It was time to get ready and calm down before I go see the host family for dinner. Being that I’m shy and very quiet in front of people I do not know, I could not process the fact that I was going to eat with people I have never met before without my professors; I had to think of some kind of an ice break to get to know the family. Luckily I am not going by myself; I would probably die of not knowing what to say.
Well it was time to go downstairs to the lounge beside the class room and patiently wait for our host to come and take us to dinner; Bekah came down with us in case someone needed a translator. After a short time of waiting, we decided to go down to the main door incase the hosts did not know where to go. Right as we came down, Nicole's and my host came. At the time, Chiara was on the phone and confused us all because she mentioned in Italian something on the lines of, “there are five girls waiting and I don’t think we have enough room for all of them.” The five of us, Samantha, Lauren, Bekah, Nicole and I, were completely confused but then, Bekah jumps in to tell Chiara that there are only two girls going with her.
After Chiara got off the phone, it was our cue to go with her to her house. I had thought that we had to walk to her car and drive to her house, but her house is fairly close; it was just straight out Porto Fiorentino and towards the Coop (apparently, I seem to pass her house every time I go to school for my service learning). It was only a few minutes of a walk. Walking up the steps, I was feeling nervous all over again; then we were greeted graciously by her mother and her sister standing at the door so that made me feel a lot better, like a load had just been lifted off my shoulders. I figured that the family would be kindhearted and all but I was just still too nervous about what would happen throughout the night.
At the time of our arrival, I immediately gave my gifts to the mother, but she had refused to take it until I smiled and said, “Niente,” which means, “it’s nothing.” The father was not home yet because he was at work, but during the time he was not there, Chiara gave Nicole and me a tour of their lovely house. I was nice to be in an Italian house for a change. I have always wondered how the Italian house would compare to the American house; they do not differ very much at all, the big difference is that they speak Italian.
Even though the father was on his way home, the family decided to start dinner anyway. I was able to know a little bit about the family and relax some. Luckily, I also had Nicole; she was able to speak to them without a problem of nervousness or anything. Having her gave me a little room to think about what I wanted to ask or my input on certain topics. Soon after, Chiara’s father comes home and joins us at dinner table.
Throughout dinner, I learned quite a bit about my host family. My host’s name is Chiara and she is twenty-four years old. She and her family have been in Sansepolcro for a long time now but she and her sister, Marta, does not like it here because they said Sansepolcro is too small and they have been here for too long. Marta is Chiara's only sibling and is only eighteen years old. Marta attends the high school that Jenna goes to on Fridays and Chiara works around the corner at a clothing store. Their mother is a nurse and their father is a representative for Sansepolcro.
Since we were going to go to Matera this weekend, Nicole and I had asked about what it was like down south compared to Toscana. Chiara’s mother did not have much to say negatively about the city which was good to hear. She did tell us that the movie Passion of the Christ was filmed there and that it is a beautiful city and that we must visit it. This made me really excited because I had watched that movie and I cried my eyes out; I have always wanted to go see the place of filming for that movie.
Over all, they are a cute Italian family. They asked us a lot about how the American culture was, how we had liked Sansepolcro thus far, what we were studying, and where we have been in Italy. It was nice to have a gracious family to welcome us to the family bonding in an Italian culture. It was quite an exciting and wonderful experience. And I cannot wait until I get to see Matera for myself!
It was time to get ready and calm down before I go see the host family for dinner. Being that I’m shy and very quiet in front of people I do not know, I could not process the fact that I was going to eat with people I have never met before without my professors; I had to think of some kind of an ice break to get to know the family. Luckily I am not going by myself; I would probably die of not knowing what to say.
Well it was time to go downstairs to the lounge beside the class room and patiently wait for our host to come and take us to dinner; Bekah came down with us in case someone needed a translator. After a short time of waiting, we decided to go down to the main door incase the hosts did not know where to go. Right as we came down, Nicole's and my host came. At the time, Chiara was on the phone and confused us all because she mentioned in Italian something on the lines of, “there are five girls waiting and I don’t think we have enough room for all of them.” The five of us, Samantha, Lauren, Bekah, Nicole and I, were completely confused but then, Bekah jumps in to tell Chiara that there are only two girls going with her.
After Chiara got off the phone, it was our cue to go with her to her house. I had thought that we had to walk to her car and drive to her house, but her house is fairly close; it was just straight out Porto Fiorentino and towards the Coop (apparently, I seem to pass her house every time I go to school for my service learning). It was only a few minutes of a walk. Walking up the steps, I was feeling nervous all over again; then we were greeted graciously by her mother and her sister standing at the door so that made me feel a lot better, like a load had just been lifted off my shoulders. I figured that the family would be kindhearted and all but I was just still too nervous about what would happen throughout the night.
At the time of our arrival, I immediately gave my gifts to the mother, but she had refused to take it until I smiled and said, “Niente,” which means, “it’s nothing.” The father was not home yet because he was at work, but during the time he was not there, Chiara gave Nicole and me a tour of their lovely house. I was nice to be in an Italian house for a change. I have always wondered how the Italian house would compare to the American house; they do not differ very much at all, the big difference is that they speak Italian.
Even though the father was on his way home, the family decided to start dinner anyway. I was able to know a little bit about the family and relax some. Luckily, I also had Nicole; she was able to speak to them without a problem of nervousness or anything. Having her gave me a little room to think about what I wanted to ask or my input on certain topics. Soon after, Chiara’s father comes home and joins us at dinner table.
Throughout dinner, I learned quite a bit about my host family. My host’s name is Chiara and she is twenty-four years old. She and her family have been in Sansepolcro for a long time now but she and her sister, Marta, does not like it here because they said Sansepolcro is too small and they have been here for too long. Marta is Chiara's only sibling and is only eighteen years old. Marta attends the high school that Jenna goes to on Fridays and Chiara works around the corner at a clothing store. Their mother is a nurse and their father is a representative for Sansepolcro.
Since we were going to go to Matera this weekend, Nicole and I had asked about what it was like down south compared to Toscana. Chiara’s mother did not have much to say negatively about the city which was good to hear. She did tell us that the movie Passion of the Christ was filmed there and that it is a beautiful city and that we must visit it. This made me really excited because I had watched that movie and I cried my eyes out; I have always wanted to go see the place of filming for that movie.
Over all, they are a cute Italian family. They asked us a lot about how the American culture was, how we had liked Sansepolcro thus far, what we were studying, and where we have been in Italy. It was nice to have a gracious family to welcome us to the family bonding in an Italian culture. It was quite an exciting and wonderful experience. And I cannot wait until I get to see Matera for myself!
Saturday, November 7, 2009
It was early Saturday morning and I had to get ready for our little Science and Society excursion. The weather was cloudy and damp, but it was not raining at the time; it was also fairly cold because I could see my breath. On our way to Gubbio, the sky gets a bit foggy and hard to see.
On our way there, I noticed a part of the road that was covered in litter. Normally, the roads in Italy are clean and litter free, so I have no clue why this particular spot was littered on. Whoever did the littering must have no sense of cleanliness for our environment. It just seemed to be completely rude of them to trash the land that they live on. I understand that the United States is pretty trashy on the side of the roads and all but the trash is pretty evened out and not just in one spot of the road. But yet in Italy, the roads are all clean, except for this random spot out of nowhere; I just felt like I needed to get off the bus and clean it up, but that was not the case because we were headed to Gubbio.
Our first stop in Gubbio was the Mausoleum of the Dead 40. This mausoleum was a memorial in honor of the forty random people that were shot to death by the Germans. Of the forty, thirty-eight of them were men and two of them were women, a mother and her daughter. The ages of the men and women ranged from the youngest at seventeen and the oldest at sixty-one. Inside the mausoleum, there were the tombs and memorial of each person with their name and a picture of them. However, of the forty tombs, there was one tomb that only enclosed of a name and no picture was posted of the elderly gentleman. It was really touching to hear about the story of the forty martyrs and have one of our guests to be a son of one of the martyrs.
After the Mausoleum, the bus driver drove us into the center of the town for us to migrate off into. The first activity that we all wanted to do was to go on a lift into the tall part of Gubbio. The lift seemed to close for lunch so we all hurried our way towards it. We finally made it! It turns out that it was only five Euros to ride up and return, so I bought my ticket. My being afraid of heights, I had to find someone quick to ride with, so my riding partner was Jackie. As the toll lift came down and around, people had to ‘jump’ onto it because it does not stop, seeing that made me petrified of trying the lift. It was nauseating to be high up in the air but also jump on the lift, I was thinking in my head, “Yea, no thanks!” But soon, it was Jackie’s and my turn to get on. There were big red circles on the ground to show us where to ‘jump’ on at and Jackie went first. By seeing her jump on made me nervous because it meant that I was next. Here I go! “THUD!” and “CLICK!” was all I heard. It turns out that I made it safely and it was just my weight bearing on the lift and the click of the gate that I heard so there was nothing to worry about.
As I was up high in the sky, it was amazing to see all the scenery around me; as long as I did not look down, I was perfectly fine. I was in awe seeing almost all of Gubbio from above on the lift. It was as if I was daydreaming about the gorgeous scenery. As Jackie and I were getting close to the top, I was panicking about how I would get off because it seemed as if people were merrily jumping off. As we were getting closer, I knew it was time for me to turn around and face reality. At the top was a young man helping us get out and down from the lift, and he wasn’t too bad looking either, he was fairly cute! But back to reality, as I was led to jump off, I felt like I was going to fall flat on my face, but luckily the guy grabbed a hold of me and I was okay. I made it to the top!
It was an amazing sight up there; there are no photos that can do justice for what was seen that day. As we walked up to the church, in our good luck, there was a wedding going on at the time, just like our time in La Verna.
As we circled around the top, it was time to return back down to the center of the town before the men on duty of the lift closes off for lunch. Going down for me was a bit different. I am more scared of going down lifts where I can see as oppose to going up things that I cannot look down on. Luckily, I was with Jackie again and she jumped on first, so her height covered my ability to look over the edge and freak out. Like before, I started to panic about jumping off the lift. If I could choose, I would just stay on the lift until it stopped for me to get off, but this was not the case, it could not stop like that. I did not seem to panic as much as I did the first time just because I knew how it was to jump off the lift; it was just a matter of doing it again.
As we returned to the center of the town, we all wandered to find a nice but reasonable place for lunch. We ended up wandering for about half an hour to an hour; however, it was a nice way to enjoy the town. Half of the group went off by themselves and found other places to eat, and a few of us stuck with Dr. Webb and John Rose. As Dr. Webb would always say, “If you follow John Rose, you will never starve!” so that is what the rest of us ended up doing.
On our way there, I noticed a part of the road that was covered in litter. Normally, the roads in Italy are clean and litter free, so I have no clue why this particular spot was littered on. Whoever did the littering must have no sense of cleanliness for our environment. It just seemed to be completely rude of them to trash the land that they live on. I understand that the United States is pretty trashy on the side of the roads and all but the trash is pretty evened out and not just in one spot of the road. But yet in Italy, the roads are all clean, except for this random spot out of nowhere; I just felt like I needed to get off the bus and clean it up, but that was not the case because we were headed to Gubbio.
Our first stop in Gubbio was the Mausoleum of the Dead 40. This mausoleum was a memorial in honor of the forty random people that were shot to death by the Germans. Of the forty, thirty-eight of them were men and two of them were women, a mother and her daughter. The ages of the men and women ranged from the youngest at seventeen and the oldest at sixty-one. Inside the mausoleum, there were the tombs and memorial of each person with their name and a picture of them. However, of the forty tombs, there was one tomb that only enclosed of a name and no picture was posted of the elderly gentleman. It was really touching to hear about the story of the forty martyrs and have one of our guests to be a son of one of the martyrs.
After the Mausoleum, the bus driver drove us into the center of the town for us to migrate off into. The first activity that we all wanted to do was to go on a lift into the tall part of Gubbio. The lift seemed to close for lunch so we all hurried our way towards it. We finally made it! It turns out that it was only five Euros to ride up and return, so I bought my ticket. My being afraid of heights, I had to find someone quick to ride with, so my riding partner was Jackie. As the toll lift came down and around, people had to ‘jump’ onto it because it does not stop, seeing that made me petrified of trying the lift. It was nauseating to be high up in the air but also jump on the lift, I was thinking in my head, “Yea, no thanks!” But soon, it was Jackie’s and my turn to get on. There were big red circles on the ground to show us where to ‘jump’ on at and Jackie went first. By seeing her jump on made me nervous because it meant that I was next. Here I go! “THUD!” and “CLICK!” was all I heard. It turns out that I made it safely and it was just my weight bearing on the lift and the click of the gate that I heard so there was nothing to worry about.
As I was up high in the sky, it was amazing to see all the scenery around me; as long as I did not look down, I was perfectly fine. I was in awe seeing almost all of Gubbio from above on the lift. It was as if I was daydreaming about the gorgeous scenery. As Jackie and I were getting close to the top, I was panicking about how I would get off because it seemed as if people were merrily jumping off. As we were getting closer, I knew it was time for me to turn around and face reality. At the top was a young man helping us get out and down from the lift, and he wasn’t too bad looking either, he was fairly cute! But back to reality, as I was led to jump off, I felt like I was going to fall flat on my face, but luckily the guy grabbed a hold of me and I was okay. I made it to the top!
It was an amazing sight up there; there are no photos that can do justice for what was seen that day. As we walked up to the church, in our good luck, there was a wedding going on at the time, just like our time in La Verna.
As we circled around the top, it was time to return back down to the center of the town before the men on duty of the lift closes off for lunch. Going down for me was a bit different. I am more scared of going down lifts where I can see as oppose to going up things that I cannot look down on. Luckily, I was with Jackie again and she jumped on first, so her height covered my ability to look over the edge and freak out. Like before, I started to panic about jumping off the lift. If I could choose, I would just stay on the lift until it stopped for me to get off, but this was not the case, it could not stop like that. I did not seem to panic as much as I did the first time just because I knew how it was to jump off the lift; it was just a matter of doing it again.
As we returned to the center of the town, we all wandered to find a nice but reasonable place for lunch. We ended up wandering for about half an hour to an hour; however, it was a nice way to enjoy the town. Half of the group went off by themselves and found other places to eat, and a few of us stuck with Dr. Webb and John Rose. As Dr. Webb would always say, “If you follow John Rose, you will never starve!” so that is what the rest of us ended up doing.
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