Celebrating with Spumante

Lidia and Nick, cooking lasagna for our

lunches for the week and a cake for the

peeps who work in the coffee bar

Oh Happy Unification Italy!!

The fireworks from my apartment

Rome Marathon

Yes I know it looks like I just got punched in the face

and may as well have run the marathon, although I did not

That's just the look of a month long diet of prosciutto

As you know, I'm very far behind in this blog, so I will post this that I had started before I returned to America to try to catch up.

Italy anniversary - Happy Anniversary Italia!!!! A little info about what this is actually an anniversary of: "1861 is the year recognized as the beginning of an independent and unified Italy, when the first Italian Parliament was assembled and the first King of Italy was declared – which is why 2011 is going to be such a big deal in Italy." Apparently this is the first year that people have actually had off work for this day (except me of course). In honor of the celebration all museums and a lot of buildings not normally open to the public at all were open the night before the big day until midnight. I celebrated my anniversary with Italy by partaking in some of the same activities I enjoyed two years ago, by strolling around with some other FAOers sipping prosecco and wandering in and out of piazzas, palazzos, and museums.

Rome Marathon - I've discussed how it's a bit more difficult to be fit in Italy and when I first arrived I thought maybe I would try to run the Rome Marathon. Clearly I have been too busy eating (and working) to make that happen, so I settled for donning my running clothes and my huge camera (thanks family!!) and running alongside the course snapping pics. When someone then asked for my press pass I realized how ridiculous I looked. Even though I wasn't running it, it was still so exciting and if I am here next year, definitely going to try to power through the prosciutto haze and do it. Although one item of note that I might not enjoy while running is that everyone on the sidelines of the course is yelling - "Dai, Dai, Dai!!" which sounds like Die Die Die, and really means go, go go (or so I'm told although it doesn't translate). That might not motivate me when I feel like I want to die

Italian - Still struggling along and definitely not practicing speaking enough. I try to speak Italian whenever I can (in shops, at the coffee bar at work, to myself while I'm cooking, etc.) but it's not enough. Most recent example - 10am in the coffee bar and I decide to order a juice (which they make fresh squeezed from blood oranges and it is AMAZING). So I say - "Io vorrei un spumante". And my good pal Carol laughs and just looks at me, then Lidia orders a coffee, and Carol says and what would you like to me. And I say "Un spumante". At which point she's like - "So would I dear". Well, what I wanted to say was Spremuta (juice) and what I asked for was champagne (spumante). So now my Italian (or lack thereof) is making me known as an alcoholic at work

Eating - Working at the Food and Agriculture organization in Italy, you'd think that they would have a good cafeteria. Now it's not terrible, but it got old real fast. Partly because everything is laden in grease, and partly because it's always a mob scene of disorganization. I decided instead to institute a little tradition of cooking with my colleagues on Sunday for the week, not only to avoid the cafeteria but also expand my Italian repertoire of recipes. Lidia, Nik, and I cooked up some vegetarian lasagna with alfredo sauce, and decided while we were at it to bake a chocolate espresso cake for our favourite workers in the coffee bar (and maybe make them forget about my alcoholism). While we felt awesome about it, bringing your lunch is not de rigueur to say the least. People frequently say, "Oh I knew you were American cause I've seen you walking around with your water bottle and tupperware".