Fast Forward. Pause. Rewind.

Written this weekend:
November has been quite the busy month with every weekend filled with some adventure or travel. I’m going to leave you in suspense and skip to present. You’ll have to find me when I am back to hear about Venice and Florence. I’m horrible right? Well, just making sure you will still want to hear some stories when I’m back in the states. 

First glimpse of Venice! Beautiful!

Florence

Here and now, I’m sitting at kitchen table drinking some tea (yeah, should be some espresso if I was truly Italian. I still need to teach myself to how to make it) and typing this blog in Word. No internet. One thing is for sure; do not expect to accomplish anything in a timely manner if you are in Italy.  We have been attempting to switch our internet since the first week of school and the modem was finally put in a couple days ago, but we are waiting for the company to connect the internet. In the meantime, the pizza shop below us changed the internet password since we are not paying this month. Now, I am quite a laid back person, but this is a problem. Sad how much I rely on the internet.

Back to the present: I am sitting here waiting for my Mom and Aunt to arrive so we can take the bus to the Appian Way and explore catacombs. Sounds like a creepy, fun day to me. Too bad the rain stopped or it would be the perfect setting for a suspense movie, where we are racing to discover an ancient secret before the Mafia or something similar. I’ll never tell the sun to go away though, even to help my imagination.

So far my Mom and Aunt are surviving even though I am a slave driver of a tour guide. (Sorry Bianca) First day I kept them out until 1 am and the next day would you believe a 7 hour walking tour? There were breaks in my defense. My endurance has increased greatly since September. I might forget what it was like not to walk at least 5 miles a day.

From today: 
Last night, I put my chef's hat on and attempted to cook dinner for 4 of my friends, my mom, and my aunt. 

It turned into quite the production. Far too much cooking need to occur at the same time for me to handle alone, but more than one person in our tiny kitchen turns into chaos. At one point there was cake in the oven, 3 burners in use, bread in the toasters, and veggies being chopped. Utter chaos, coupled by laughter, music from the TV show, Glee, and taste testing. My Aunt said she wished she had a video camera. 

It all came together beautifully though... except the funfetti cake. Apparently I fail at baking in Italy. This country does not understand American baking. I have yet to come across a baking aisle, maybe a baking shelf. Our oven has a dial with numbers 1 through 8 as the temperature options. Please tell me how to convert this into degrees. I choose 4/5. This results in burnt cake in a matter of 5 minutes. One of the best parts of funfetti is the way it makes the kitchen smell. I got burnt funfetti smell. Not quite as a pleasurable. Needless to say, the resulting cake was some sort of cakey, soupy hybrid with crystallized frosting (the attempt to cook it longer already frosted was not successful either). I'm thinking my third try will be the charm, so the next thing I make must be delicious.

Saying goodbye to my Mom and Aunt was sad, but I am happy they could experience everything I do on a daily basis and enjoy the city I call home. It was so much fun to share all my new knowledge and navigate throughout the city. I have a much better layout of the city in my mind now. All the monuments seem so far apart, but they are really very close. It is so easy to take them for granted when you have seen you're 50th obelisk in the day or think you found a new part of the city and then look ahead to see the colosseum yet again. How can I complain? Yes, it is possible to get tired of seeing the Pantheon. I will miss it when I'm gone though. You cannot find a building like that in San Francisco.
Time is passing by far too fast. I wish I could pause and rewind. There are so many restaurants still to try, streets to wander down, churches and museums to visit, and hidden treasures to find. This all feels so normal. Sometimes I forget I am in a foreign country. Every day from here on out is extra precious and I will make the most out of the 32 days left.

Had to take a picture with the Ferrari vespa for my dad!