We went to the midnight Mass and it was lovely. The music was nice and some of my friends came and attended the mass. One minute before the Mass, the church was half full; the next, it was crowded. Mummy, Florence, and I sang in the choir and we had the organ and french horns. For once, I wasn't falling asleep, which is a miracle. Maybe because it was cold enough that I could see my own breath in the church.
This morning we went and had pastries, freshly squeezed orange juice, and coffee. I wasn't expecting anyone to be out, but there were a couple of people here and there. It was nice to have a breakfast with the family again because, with school, I can't do that.
When we got home, after looking at the beautiful nativity in the piazza, we opened our presents. Thank you everyone for our presents! Even our three-foot tree is covered in amazingly painted ornaments. It's been a very peaceful Christmas and I can't wait until New Year's.
We don't have any plans for the rest of the day, but we'll take it as time goes on. Mummy's preparing lunch and Eleanor's playing her Christmas music on the piano. Maybe later I'll pull out one of my guitars.
Over here, there are some different standards, for example:
Our teachers frequently call us names (mostly Eleanor's teachers, but sometimes my teachers call us names too)
For Religion class we learn about Catholicism (and we visited a church today)
The finger wagging just means that I don't agree
During Christmas, there are many more nativities than there are Santas
I can't get the point of a drive-thru nativity across to my friends here (wait. You stay IN your cars?) and here the nativity itself will go through town.
People will stop their cars in the middle of the street (traffic piling up behind them) and go into shops or have a conversation
The shopkeepers can tell you what people want for Christmas-- and be correct, since they know everyone!
With the end of the world rapidly approaching, some of my classmates decided to organize one last get-together, appropriately titled "L'ultima cena". We established at the beginning of December that a class dinner would exist, but left the less important details-- such as where and when-- until last week. After a couple of changes, we decided to set it for Tuesday at a classmate's house. Saturday during a substitute's class we determined who would bring what-- and since it's legal here, we had written on the whiteboard who would be bringing the beer!
Tuesday rolled around and we all found various modes of getting down to the appointed location, which was outsides of Todi, a full (gasp!) fifteen-minute drive. Without much ado, we confirmed the fact that this was a dinner get-together-- and, yes, the Italians know how to cook. We had several courses, all of which were cooked by my wonderful classmates.
First of all was the antipasto, an assortment of bruschetta, prosciutto, salami, and bread with various delicious spreads. A toast of beer and wine, followed shortly afterwards by bucatini all'amatriciana, a delicious pasta dish with bacon and red pepper flakes. Next we had pork chops, cooked on the open grill by another classmate with rosemary and olive oil, accompanied by homemade flatbread. Then sausages-- and let me tell you, Italian sausage is fabulous! Finally, for those who still had room, dessert: three types of cake plus cookies.
The meal was punctuated with short breaks while the kitchen elves cleared the dishes away between courses and the rest of us got up and played fusball, took photos, or grouped around the guitar and bongo and had a little music group. And served more beer.
After dinner, more of the same for those of us who didn't feel like playing the drinking game that a classmate brought. We had a lot of fun just hanging out together-- we don't have a lot of free time at school! By about twelve, we were all tired, and some a bit tipsy, so we brought the evening to a close.
A fun cultural note to a fun evening: the next day at school our teacher asked about how the party had gone, and we had a great time recounting all of the details to her-- what we ate, who went, who drank how much-- one person even showed her a copy of the drinking game! Again, different mindset since it's legal here!
Eleanor
PS I will remind you that while drinking is legal at our age, driving is not. We needed parents to drive us home.
Michael & I went to Perugia yesterday for the third time to work on his permesso di soggiorno. By now, we're pros at getting there and back; it's so tough, given that there's an early bus that leaves from the Piazza Jacopone. That means that we walk out our door and onto the bus.
Up we got and were in the bus at 6:35. It left at 6:36 and duly arrived at Perugia's main train station at 7:37. On to the mini metro, and away we went to the Questura! I'll come back to the mini metro later. We were about 6th in line outside the Questura, braving the cold to get our coveted number...they hand out 25 per day, and if you don't get a number you won't be seen.
At 8:06, they started handing out tickets, beginning at 37; we had number 42. Upon receiving our number, we filed into the room that resembles an ancient ticket booth: a broad glass panel with speaking holes and slots below for passing money/items through to the other side. Number 37 was called after the bureaucrat's first coffee break (around 8:30 or so, I'm guessing). And we waited. And waited. By 9:52, they had just called 38. This is not an exaggeration. What you have to understand is that, while the people whose turn it was were talking to the govt agent, there were also other people (members of the public at large) talking over his/her shoulder to the agent (who sometimes ignored them studiously and other times interrupted what she was doing to deal with them).
At 10:30, our number was called -- aren't you impressed? I was afraid it would take all day, and then Michael was suggesting that they'd close at 1 for lunch and if we hadn't been seen we'd be out of luck! It's a good thing my knitting was helping keep my blood pressure low...
She processed and stamped and looked at and smiled on and otherwise shuffled the 97 pieces of paperwork that were required to apply. Several of these included statements that said that the Comune of Todi has my data on file at its offices. Never mind that in order to receive my identity card, which I have, they have to have said data on file. Um, really? And, no, originals won't do -- they have to have copies of everything.
After this, she smiled up at us, and when I asked if we were all set, she suddenly gasped and said that Michael needed to have his fingerprints taken. Around the building we went (which is one of the most hideous examples of 1950s architecture, by the way), and to the fingerprinting office. I ambled in and was sharply told to wait outside. Um...it was about 38 degrees, but sure, whatever. After all, we need to protect people's privacy, and wouldn't want to embarrass them by seeing them have their fingerprints taken -- after the complete lack of privacy in the other office, this struck me as ludicrous! When we were finally allowed into the overheated office, the pair in there was actually very friendly and nice. As Michael said -- a possibly typical bureaucratic setup: a guy lounging and a woman doing all the actual work...
And then we were the proud owners of a receipt of application for a permesso di soggiorno! The actual permesso, you ask? Well, we're to call in a couple of months to see if it's available. At that point, we return to Perugia, provide Michael's fingerprints, and come home triumphant! I'm not holding my breath, though.
The Mini Metro
The mini metro is the highlight of any visit to Perugia, according to me. I think it is the cutest ever. It consists of one tiny car that appears rather tall for its width or length. Using fun-fair technology (bumpers and cables) it toodles between stations on a very regular basis (every 2 minutes, I'd guess). The stations are small and spare, but clean, and the cars are in beautiful condition. It goes up and down hills with joyous abandon -- unthinkable in any kind of regular metro system -- and is very quiet. The most adorable part, though, is how it turns around at the end: there's a little turntable with a pair of tracks on it at each end. The car goes onto the turntable, and is swung around as on a lazy susan, and of it goes again! So sweet, I had to get a video to share with you.
Hooray, I made it back from Atlanta in one piece! No real surprise there: the return trip was as uneventful as you could wish.
Leonardo did give me a nice car tour of Rome, during which I got to see some of the most chaotic traffic that exists in a western city. Picture a busy six-way intersection on a broad piazza where the limited traffic markings and signals are broadly ignored. Now add buses, trams, pedestrians, reserved bus/tram/taxi lanes, lost tourists, and famous landmarks and you have a reasonable picture. If you have ever seen Richard Scarry's depictions of traffic in Rome, he got it exactly right. I didn't see any accidents, so the locals must be used to it.
Now back to the title of the post. Since Todi, an in fact all of Italy, has limited non-Italian dining opportunities, I made it a goal to sample as much different fare in Atlanta as time allowed. In my one week there I managed cuisine from the American South, Ethiopia, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, and India. I also got a quintessential American food--a hamburger--made with bison (at Ted's). Oh, yes, I also have to include the classic Jewish bagel with cream cheese, lox, tomato, onion, and capers that I picked up at 6:30 in the morning at that classic Atlanta institution, The Bagel Palace. Thank you to all my friends and family who helped my quest, and to America for welcoming wonderful favors from around the world,
(although truth be told, I hate that particular song...)
Tonight, Michael & I went with the boys for a musical party. A friend had about 10 over to her house, where they had a mini-concert (a friend who is a soprano sang several song cycles as well as some early 19th century French music) accompanied by light refreshments.
On our way home, we noticed (how could we not?) that the Piazza del Popolo was crawling with people! They were having a big family festival, with free refreshments, including popcorn (yes, it was made with olive oil, much to my amusement and gustatory pleasure!), bruschetta, polenta with sauce, and so on. Delizioso! It was really nice to see everyone out and about, just enjoying their families and friends. All the Christmas lights were on, and the presepi around town have all been completed now.
The boys & I went on the trenino, and were amused by the fact that it made an unscheduled stop to allow someone to pass a plateful of fresh bruschetta (toasted on an open wood-fired grill) into the engineer's booth! At one point, we were stopped because a clown needed to pass candies in through the windows; we later were assailed with balloon dogs and other creations.
We visited the most elaborate diorama purporting to display Todi in the 13th century. Being flat made it lack a good bit of realism, however!
With Jeremy, for scale
I finally bought a creche for myself, a Christmas present from my parents (thank you again!). I love it -- it's all handmade papier-mâché, which is a traditional style, apparently. (And, yes, it is rather funny in the richness of the ornamentation -- in stark contrast to what we understand to be the reality of His birth, but it's SO gorgeous I'm willing to overlook that!).
