Olive.
Olive Who?
Olive you!!! awww

But anyway… 

Fresh olive oil is amazing!! There was a festival this weekend celebrating the new olive oil that was made from the olives that had been picked the past couple of weeks. I had heard about this olio nuova (new oil) but I just didn’t believe it until I saw it. It was SO ridiculously, unbelievably, ohmygosh bright green! Green! It looks like slime- like something you would see on Nickelodeon! Ha- can you believe that? Apparently the freshest oil is green and as it ages, it loses its taste and color and turns yellowy gold. Not that it’s bad if it’s yellow, it’s just not as fresh- don’t worry. But anyway, not only does it have this crazy green color, but it tastes different, too! I don’t know how to describe it…it tastes more olive-y and has a little bit of a kick at the end. Like…a little hot almost.

So at this festival, all the farms that produced olive oil this year set up booths where they set out trays of bread drizzled with their new oil. I’m sure there were differences between them…but they all tasted similar to me. Some had a little bit more of an olive taste than others, but they were all so good! Of course you could buy anything from a tiny jar of it to a huge jug. Not only did they have this huge tent of booths, but over the course of the weekend they had various performances. One day I was just walking through the town and heard these drums and I followed the sound to find a group of men in tights throwing flags. Haha! They were dressed up in tradition garb and were tossing flags for some reason or another. There was also a little band dressed up in costume and various couples walking around in olden day clothing. I’m not totally sure what time they were from, but it was neat to see! One day there was a puppeteer putting on a puppet show, and if the puppets hadn’t been so creepy looking, it would have been really cool! Uncle Tim, you are so right- every day here is just an incredible adventure!

This past weekend was pretty relaxing. I went to a museum- actually, it was the Pitti Palace. It’s this really cool old palace with an incredible garden and a bunch of different museums for instruments, china (as in glassware, not orange chicken), costumes, art, etc… It’s huge! This weekend I went to the “modern art” museum part. I thought modern art meant that art that is like…a big red dot next to a blue button and it’s supposed to symbolize something bizarre like a chicken’s view of freedom. You know what I mean? O no…this modern art was art that was created in the past 200 years or something. Who exactly is that modern for? It was all old people’s portraits and statues and stuff. Snooooooooze. But! There was this cute, old museum guard guy that saw my friend and I walking around the museum and he gave us a little tour and let us go in the parts that were roped off! Hehe…I felt so V.I.P. I sure wish I cared more about “modern art” because I’m sure it would have been more meaningful. O well.

Speaking of old people, I went to play bocce with my old friends again on Monday. I brought them some pictures I had taken the few times before and they absolutely loved them. There were some fun action shots of them tossing the bocce balls and when they saw the pictures of that, they just laughed and laughed. They are the cutest ever. My favorite lady’s name is Fiorella (Fee-ore-ELL-uh). Isn’t that a beautiful name?! In Italian, “fiore” means flower. And hey- good news! My bocce skills are improving. I would love to have a bocce tourney when I get home. Anyway, as I was walking home, one of the old guys that plays with us was riding his bike beside me and we were having a conversation (in all Italian! I’m getting better) and he goes “You know, I am single. I am not married.” Ha!! Ew…no thanks, old guy. 

Moving on. About once a month they have a “biological market” which is a big market of all organic foods and clothing and soaps and such. It is so cool because there are booths with the most interesting sauces, spices and spreads (who is impressed with that alliteration?). There are also booths that sell old jewelry, pans, and other really cool vintage stuff. 

Speaking of markets, I bought a really cool ring at the main market this week. I didn’t really have any intention of buying it, but it was only eight Euro! Actually…that’s a lie. Here’s a little story: The guy said “It is 20 Euro, but for you, 15.” And I liked it, but it was not worth 15 Euro and I hate bargaining more than I hate tomatoes…which is a lot! So I said “no grazie” and he kept trying to get me to buy it, but I couldn’t really go anywhere because my roommate was still looking at his jewelry. So he asked what my price would be and I said eight Euro and he laughed. And I shrugged. So he grabbed the ring and put it in a bag and handed the bag to me and said “thirteen Euro”. 
“No grazie.”
“How much?”
“Eight”
“No. Twelve. That is it. Last price.”
“That’s fine. No thank you.”
“Eleven. Last time!”
“No thank you.”
“Fine! Eight. Uggggggggggh.”

Haha! I’m pretty sure that’s NOT how bargaining works- I think you’re supposed to meet in the middle. Meh…why meet in the middle when you can be stubborn and have them come down to your price? Yuck…I hate bargaining.

You know what else I hate. Writing papers. I had a five page paper due this Tuesday at 6 pm for my cooking class and in true Christy fashion, I started writing it at 3:00 that afternoon. I had done most of the research beforehand, so it wasn’t any big deal. We got to choose our topics and for some reason I thought it would be fun to write about typical Florentine diet and meal structure pre, post, and in between the world wars. It was pretty interesting, actually!  

The only other thing worth mentioning was actually a pretty cool experience. I was walking over to my friend’s apartment (apt= correct abbreviation) and on my way there I passed this big huge church whose doors were wide open. I don’t remember the name of the church, but I went inside and it was absolutely gorgeous. The church lights were off but there were a million candles lit every where and they were doing a Eucharistic adoration. There was a girl playing guitar and singing and in between songs, she would play a little instrumental background music while someone would say a prayer into the mic. It was the most beautifully serene and peaceful thing I have experienced in a long time. It was just really cool to be in God’s presence like that, ya know? To feel like He is right there with you. Sometimes I like to go to churches and just sit by myself and talk to God and just connect with Him. It is easier for me to talk to God when there aren’t a ton of people around because I get distracted pretty easily. But for some reason, this time that didn’t seem to be a big distraction. It was just really cool- you guys should try it. He’s worth it

O! One more noteworthy thing- I’m learning how to make eggplant parmesan this week! I have really gotten into eggplant over here. I’ve never really had it until I got here…and I love it! And pears…I thought I hated pears because they are gritty, but I love them. And artichokes. And banana chips! Those things are wonderful- they are sweet and crunchy and it’s fruit, so they’re good-ish for you, right? And oddly enough, I have been craving lemons lately. I like to peel them and sprinkle sugar on them and it tastes like lemonade! Mmmm. Ya know what I just can’t get into, though? Mushrooms. And hare and bacon. And you know what we had the other day that makes me want to gag just thinking about it- la guancia. La guancia is the cheek of a pig. Who eats that? Florentines, apparently. And chicken liver pâté. No matter what fancy French words you throw in there, you’re still eating chicken liver and it just doesn’t taste good. Hm…if I didn’t know me and I was reading that, I would think I was a vegetarian. I’m not! I love meat. Well…I like it. Sometimes. I like chicken! And salami and cold turkey and meatballs. 

Now that you all know what I do and don’t like to eat, I’ll let you get back to your lives . I didn’t end up going anywhere cool this past weekend, but we are planning a trip to Venice this upcoming weekend. It’s slowly sinking and I really want to see it without needing scuba gear. I love you all! 

Italian word of the day:

Buongiorno (bwon-JORE-no) – “Hello” or literally “Good day!” 

…now that you’ve practiced saying that, I should inform you that Italians roll their “r’s”. So…try it again, but this time, roll your “r”. Don’t be shy…no one’s listening. And if they are, you can teach someone an Italian word and that automatically makes you ten times cooler than you were before because you know Italian!