10th December, 2014: Catch-up

I have fallen behind again.

Oh well.

So, on Sunday, Giuliana took me to a 'fun run' sort of thing. For those of you who didn't believe that I would try new things, there. Don't worry though. I only walked. I am still Craig. We walked 16 kilometres (between us). But really, it was very nice to walk through the country lanes of Roncajette (that is the suburb of Ponte San Niccolo where I am) in the crisp winter morning air. We had planned to walk 6 kilometres, but as we were passing the detour for the eight kilometre walk, we decided, why not?

I did a lot of thinking on the walk, and I found that it was a very useful analogy for my stay here. Each kilometre represents one week. When you are at the start, 8 kilometres sounds very long. But by the time you reach the tea stand at 5 kilometres, you realise that no period of time is ever as long as it seems, and that one needs to realise that, with the mindset that there is 'heaps of time', one will find themself surprised by the end.

Anyway.

At 2 o'clock was Luca's lunch. This was the part of the celebration for the family, especially those who had to work and couldn't attend the ceremony and tea on Wednesday. It was a traditional Italian meal, and it was huge. In the car, I had asked if there were any special table manners that I mightn't be aware of. I was told: "there will be a lot of food and it is better if you eat."

And I ate. First was the appetiser, thin slices of parma ham, a very creamy, but still solid cheese and a fried bread called Gnocca Fritta, a specialty of the area. Then there was the pasta, tortellini filled with pumpkin and ricotta, with a light pumpkin sauce. Then there was a pork and bean risotto. Then there was the roast beef, with some raddicchio, a very bitter 'leaf chicory.' Then there was potatos fried with garlic, chips, like french fries, cauliflower, and silverbeet. Then there was the cake. I love Italian cakes. This one was similar, possibly the same as the one at the graduation tea, but it was a little bit more strawberry-focused. I managed to get through it all, but I had to say no when the waitstaff came around offering more pasta, risotto and beef. We certainly didn't need any dinner.

I am going to put a few days in this one post, as a punishment to myself for falling behind. Those of you who know me will understand my natural tendency towards messiness and disorganisation. Those of you who know me even better, however, will also know that I love organisation. In fact, that, along with being friendly and outgoing, is one of my major goals for my time here in Italy. So far it is going relatively well (better than my other goal, unfortunately).

Monday was a public holiday in honour of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. We went to meet one of Giuliana's friends in the Centre (of Padova). We were planning to see the Festival dell'Oriente, but, since it was a beautiful day, we thought it best to go next week and just wander around the beautiful city, soaking up what could possibly be the last real sunshine for a few weeks. After a few hours, Giuliana's friend, whose name I have forgotten, went home and we met Stefania (Giuliana's neighbour) and her daughter Elisa, and walked around with them. I had told Giuliana about my desire to be less shy and she had suggested that I write a list of conversation topics. Elisa was the lucky first customer of that list, and I am glad that I wrote it. I think it will prove itself very useful.

We returned home, and had minestra di zucca, pumpkin soup with small pasta, for dinner.

On Tuesday I returned to school. It was an uneventful day, though in the afternoon Alessio came for his lesson and I did some speaking exercises with him. Afterwards, Irene, Giuliana's 14 year-old niece came for her English lesson. Afterwards, I helped her with some of her exercises while Giuliana cooked hamburgers and potatoes with rosemary and garlic for dinner. After tea, I played Jenga with her, before she went home and I went to bed. It was a very nice afternoon and evening.

And Wednesday, today. It was very cold, 1 degree when I left this morning. It is expected to get down to -2 tonight. I have almost worked out when I need to leave so I am at the bus stop with a couple of minutes to spare but so I don't have to wait outside for too long: about 7:17.

In English we had to come up with some arguments as to why football (soccer) players should be paid less. Did you know that some are paid 40 million Euro each year? That is almost $60 million! We started looking at the effects of air resistance in physics. My classmates tell me that we should hear about our test results tomorrow, though I am not particularly excited. Third hour was Latin Literature, something that I expect will be quite boring in the future, but today we talked about Roman theatres, the construction, the difference between tragedies and comedies and generally how theatre was. It was especially interesting knowing all the details after visiting some theatres in Athens and Turkey earlier this year. Afterwards we had Philosophy and Latin, but it was private study as the teachers were conducting oral tests with individual students. The oral test is evidently quite popular here.

After school I caught the bus home and Giuliana had made pasta with zucchini for lunch. I love the simplicity of Italian pasta, and I'm sure some of you can expect a sample when I come back. Then, Luca came over so we could proofread his thesis before he sends it back to the United States to be published. However, he was waiting to hear back from his professor, so we just chatted, drank tea and ate wafers.

That is now. He went home before I started writing this, and we are about to start preparing dinner.
I am glad I am up to date again.

To answer Kerryn's question, all of my classmates speak English to some degree. There are a few who are very good, who the others keep asking for translations. I have noticed that it, in most cases, it is the very talkative people who are best, so I keep telling myself that I need to speak Italian in order to improve.

Thank you for reading this, it is very long. Below are some photos I took on Monday night, at the olive, sundried tomato and smallgoods stands, just in the street. The final photo is just a little game. Can you guess what time it was taken?