After dinner last night we heard presentations from a few of our professors on their life accomplishments and then went into town to celebrate Holly’s birthday. There are four Sigma Kappas and all of them have their birthday’s within one week! As we were walking to the Lion’s Well, I decided gelato over alcohol and was pleasantly surprised with the best treat I’ve had since my snickers. Cheesecake with a scoop of dark chocolate underneath. Perfection! I was honestly starting to doubt the gelato, and I must have had some crappy kinds, because now I understand what everyone’s talking about! As we’re walking to meet up with everyone we hear a few whistles. Not bothering to turn around, I hear “ohh breetanny” and it’s none other than one of the guys I met our first night in town… Christian and his gang. By the time midnight we decided to call it a night and Kellie and I got up at 9am to start our day off right with a run.
Today was a free day for the program, so I woke up early and went for a 2.5 miles run around the mountain. I had to stop and walk at times – my lungs just can’t take this altitude yet, and my legs certainly aren’t used to the mountainous incline and cobble stones. Feelin good, we came back for some breakfast, and I decided that yogurt is the only thing I like that they offer so Kellie (my precious roomie) and I galloped off down to town and went produce shopping. I haven’t been carrying my camera around Cortona like I should, but I promise to post some produce pics as soon as possible, because their little fruit stands are hole-in-the-wall shops providing the most colorful array of fruits, veggies and nuts. We got peaches, nectarines, lettuce for salads, strawberries, eggs for breakfast, tomatoes, onions, oil and vinegar (only dressing in Italy…no such thing as Italian dressing here). It’s not accepted to just grab your food here when shopping we practiced our Italian and pointed at what we want. They’d ask if we wanted our fruit soft or hard, ready for today or later, etc. It was a very enjoyable learning experience. We kept giggling because we feel like true Cortonese in the making!
Then I picked up some post-cards to send you all and including postage it cost me 16 Euro! Yikes! We had lunch at our favorite grocery store and I got my second stamp on my sandwich card (if I get 10 I get one free!) I had another snickers – a piece of home I’m GLAD to have with me still!! We picked up some quick art supplies from the store and hiked back up to JDK where I was extremely productive! I washed 3 loads of laundry BY HAND! Yes, mom – be proud. I’ve learned the full process of suds-ing, pre-rinse and final rinse, and it’s hard work! It’s something that has really helped me to see how much we take for granted in the states.. and it’s also shown me how dirty our clothes get! We never see all the dirt and grime come out in the washing machine, but it was sickkkkkk. Hand-washing and then hanging all the clothes on clothes line out back was so fulfilling. I know it sounds like a monotonous chore, but we had a little party in the laundry room. Its nice to have control over exactly how your clothes are handled and it made me realize that there are so many things I can actually live without. Ok… enough about laundry!
I continued my day by writing all my post cards, finishing my hand-written journal by taping in all the things I’ve been collecting, and heading on down to dinner. It was just one of those good ole getter done kinda afternoons.
At dinner Holly got a giant cake! It was my favorite desert yet.
After dinner we were all encourage to go into Piazza Signorelli for a concert that the town was putting on for us. We didn’t really know what to expect, but when we arrived they had an entire orchestra set-up and the instrumentalists were all dressed to the t for a nice show like one you’d see at the Fox. They had the chairman of the Cortona Philharmonic Symphony address the town (there are 900 Cortonese total, and I’d say a good half of them were there) to welcome the students of UGA. They had a translator for us, and the first song they did was our national anthem followed by the Italian national anthem. GOOSEBUMPS. We were all practically swooning in our seats at how these people were greeting and almost romancing us. They were SO generous and had an hour and a half show prepared for the 100 of us that had just arrived. They played a little Bach and classical pieces but most of it were songs that the conductor had picked out for “the young Americans.” The philharmonic here had risked dying out a few years back but has since been revived largely thanks to a partnership with the schools here. The young musicians did a few songs for us as well and there was a 9-year-old drummer that was out of this world. It was the most magical moment I’ve had yet, watching the sun go down with the hundreds of birds flying overhead and all of us integrated with the Cortonese, watching this welcome show. I saw my friends Christian and Michele and they greeted me with kisses (which I’m learning isn’t so weird at all for me anymore). It was the perfect ending to the first few days of Cortona.
X
-B
P.S. Peter found out that Milan fashion week starts Saturday, so we’re looking into going!
No comments:
Post a Comment