Italian Charades

This is a picture of Krysta, Amanda and I on the first night all in the front seat for the ride to the restaurant. 

Pizza Lunch- Gorgonzola 

Brittany and Leah

Yesterday Brittany, Leah and I went off on a random path around the town and ended up on the most beautiful path surrounded by thick stone walls that gave amazing views of the hillside. We found what we thought were apricots on a tree on the other side of the wall and they worked together to hoist me up so I could grab one. It ended up not being an apricot so we were too scared to completely eat it but I had a little taste of it and it tasted almost like a sweet lemon. I took a picture of it so I'll ask one of the Italian brothers today what it is...I'm still alive so it's probably not poisonous (apparently I didn't listen well in the risk management class we had to take before coming on this trip). I think I know what it is though because it seems like something I bought at the fruit stand today.

On the way back we kind of lost our way and had to stop this high school boy who was walking home, we asked him where the mare (sea) was but we weren't saying it with the right accent or he probably thought we were saying an english word to him so we had to try and play a little charades with him, making ocean wave motions with our hands, or pretending to lick gelato from a cone. He mostly just laughed at us but then we think he said both ways on the fork of the road were okay to take. We are getting pretty good at playing charades with the locals to try and figure things out.

Before dinner we had Italian language class with Eduardo, who can speak English but not perfectly, which is actually good because then most of our lesson is just in Italian. It was really fun, I think our favorite part was hearing what all of our names are in Italian, mine wasn't that exciting Alexandra=Alessandra, but some were really funny. For dinner last night we had the zucchini flowers that we learned about the day before in cooking class as well as the eggplant parmigiana. We also had veal that was topped with a tomato marinara and crispy prosciutto and lemon pasta (lemon grind with cream)

Eggplant on the left, veal on the right

Last night my night was made because I got to hold one of the brother's baby who we see every night at dinner. We've all wanted to hold him this whole week because he is so cute with the biggest blue eyes. (I have the most adorable picture of him but I won't post since his parents probably wouldn't like that)

On the way to school this morning we stopped at the fruit stand to get some snacks for class from the lovely elderly lady that runs it. We go there pretty much every morning and there is always this cute younger Italian man (who is extremely respectful and never makes comments at us when we are there). who works there re-stocking all the fruit. Katie and I were waiting on the side for Brittany to pay for her fruit and when she came out she held up her fruit bag and exclaimed MMMMM! The man was bent over stocking fruit and shot up turning toward Brittany and smiling because he thought she was saying mmm to him. We ended up laughing really hard with him and Brittany tried to show him she meant mmm to her fruit bag but we're not sure if he really got it. We'll see what happens tomorrow when we go back, she may have a new Italian boyfriend. 

This was a really good morning because after laughing hysterically at Brittany we ran into a baby black lab that was adorable. I have a black lab at home called Josh, so whenever I see a baby one I call him/her a baby Josh.

After we stopped petting her and walked away, she howled for us to come back. Our hearts melted. 

-A