Magiorenne!!!

As some of you may or may not know, I recently (sort of) had a birthday-- I'm now a legal adult here in Italy and I've been proving it by signing all my absence slips (there have been quite a few), buying a ton of beer (and cigarettes), pawning my parents' stuff (SURPRISE, dearest givers-of-life!), and... well ok maybe not, but 18 is still a huge deal here and I was told by my parents, my friends, and random people on the street that I needed to celebrate.

I've been to quite a few 18esimi here, but while the food is always of utmost importance, it has always been Italian-- after all, why eat anything else??  But I (and by "I" I mean "my revered family", as I was not at all present during the planning or preparation of the party, instead studying for a particularly nasty test) didn't feel like conforming to those standards.  So my dad brought all kinds of exotic and mysterious ingredients (like brown sugar and Goldfish and chili powder) from the US, and I (again, "they") concocted a very American meal-- or rather, a meal of very American food, as in any self-respecting establishment they would never have been served together:  Southern biscuits and sausage, chili and cornbread, burritos, chicken-pot-pie, chips and dip (this took a lot of explaining and many wary looks before the guests actually decided it was edible, if not officially "food"), and as a slight concession, chicken tetrazzini.  Although some dishes were more popular than others-- and some guests more picky than others-- desert went down universally quite well.  Chocolate-chip-cookies (known here simply as "cookies" with a cute accent), brownies, and assortment of "fun-size" candies that Daddy managed to pick up on his trip in October... a week afterwards people were still telling me that Americans absolutely know how to make dessert.

I had 40-50 of my closest friends (ha!), from classmates, to Scouts buddies, to church friends, to some others that I know from around... a number even managed to make it over from Perugia!  Although it was a greatly varied group, my mother managed to sum up the guest list pretty neatly, as she put it to me when we got home at 2.30 in the morning: "There was so much love in that room for you... it really touches a mother's heart to see that she's not the only one who knows her daughter's awesome."  And really, that's what it was all about: forget the great number of years I've been walking this earth, forget the celebration of world-renowned American food (although it was pretty good)... but I can never, ever forget my friends and family and how special they made me feel that night.

Yes, my mother made my dress since I couldn't find the one I wanted.  And the cake.

BFFs!

Such a serious class

...not!

The Perugia crowd

Cecilia <3

It took forever to convince people that cheese dip is actually a food (well, sort of...)