Thursday, May 3, 2012

When Life Gives You Broken Eggs...Make an Omelet....

Il 2 maggio             
Assisi

On Monday, my friend, Janet and I went to the supermercato in Bastia, a town just a short drive from Assisi. Janet, like me, loves Assisi and comes here often to study Italian and because she is in Italy for three months, she has rented a car...and because she is braver than I am, she is not afraid to drive the pedestrian-laden, cobble-stoned streets of Assisi. Although we both frequent the local markets, when needing lots of items, the best place to go is the supermercato and load up the trunk with bags of groceries...which is what we did.

Getting back into Assisi was a bit challenging because Monday was Day Three of a Four Day Holiday in Italy and the city was packed. A carabiniere was directing the cars to a parking lot outside the city walls, but we told him that we lived here, which is true, and he let us through. Due to the traffic, there were many stops and starts along the way and, because I haphazardly put the carton of eggs on top of my bags, it fell over and several broke. Not to be deterred by this little inconvenience, I invited Janet to lunch and, thus, from broken eggs, a spinach omelet was born. Coupled with a salad and a glass of red wine, our lunch was a veritable feast and, along with un caffe and i biscotti, we were both very content.

Then that evening, my friend, Fausto (mio fratello italiano) came to dinner. Now this was the first time I was cooking a meal for a “real Italian in Italy” so, to be on the safe side, I prepared pasta and salad, and along with some appetizers, dessert, and the bottle of wine that Fausto brought, it was a very successful evening. (For beautiful, unique jewelry, check his website as he ships worldwide. I'm already wearing two of his bracelets!) www.assisijewels.com

Calendimaggio starts tomorrow and frenzy reigns. The bleachers have been set up in la Piazza Commune and this afternoon I checked out the location of my seat. As I write this email, I can hear the sound of drums piercing the air; tonight is the last night for practice and putting the finishing touches on scenery and floats and people of both sides (la Parte de Sopra e la Parte de Sotto) will be working into the early hours of the morning.

I have started some serious reviewing of my Italian books and, this morning, I took a placement test at school. Most probably, I'll be studying privately for a few weeks, but no decision has been made yet; that will come after a conference with the school's director on Friday morning. So, until then, I can keep playing since there's no homework to do...

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