La Stanchezza

The title means "The Tiredness" just so you know.

I'm posting late tonight, the reason being we had guests over for dinner. They arrived at 9, and we started eating at 9:15. No one in Italy believes that sometimes, in America, we eat at 5:30 in the "afternoon."

This morning, even though I went to bed at 10:30 last night, it was incredibly difficult to get out of bed. My alarm went off at 6:30, but I didn't get up until 7:10, when I heard Luca's alarm go off. All Luca does in the morning is roll out of bed and get dressed, so I knew I was in trouble. I managed to get all of my morning things done, and had time to eat breakfast before the carpool came to pick us up.

Nothing happend in school worth mentioning. I got halfway through the book mom sent me.

At noon, Luca Capodiferro, my Rotary counselor, came to pick me up from school. I go to Rotary meetings about once a month, to smile and shake people's hands. I'd say half the club (it is a big club) still doesn't know why the heck a young blonde chick is at their meeting. Usually, the food at the meetings is spectacular. Today, it was rather plain, but still good. We had pasta with tomato sauce and peas, which I have never had before. I can't say I'd ever put peas in pasta myself, but it wasn't bad. Then we had beef cooked with rosemary, and plain potatoes. For dessert (we always have dessert at Rotary meetings. Maybe that's why I like going..) we had creme caramel. Although it was good, I must say the French do it better with their creme brulee. After we ate, a woman gave an endless presentation on a dam that is being built in Varese. I didn't really understand all of it, but at the end, she asked if anyone had any questions, and somehow, two very old men got into a typical Italian, red-faced, hand-waving argument. It was kind of entertaining.

Luca Capodiferro took me home. I think this is the first time I've ever been at this house before 5 o'clock on a weekday. The house was quiet, the only sound the occasional hiss of the iron coming from the laundry room, where Annie, the colf, was doing laundry. The weather today was nasty, after the week of beautiful blue days we've had. This morning, it was drizzling, and when I got home today, it was frigid and gray and misty. The house was cold, too, so I put on [yet another] sweater, and curled up with a blanket on my bed to read. I ended up finishing the book my mom sent me, while nibbling on Andes mints. It was the perfect way to spend a cold and nasty afternoon.

After I finished the book, I got on the computer to write those darn essays.. I got halfway done with one, and called my mom to ask her a question about writing. Only, halfway through dialing the numbers, I completely forgot why I was calling her. We talked for about 5 minutes, then she had to go. I still don't have the slightest recollection why I called her. I spent the next hour having a friendly argument over AIM with one of my friends, and then Rotary called.

Maria Grazia, one of the coordinators for the 2040 Youth Exchange, was calling to ask about my school trips, and if I was going on the trip to Venice. I told her I was absolutely planning on coming to Venice, and she asked how I was planning on getting to the train station at 7:30 Sunday morning. Uhh.. I had assumed Alberto Protasoni was going, and that he would take me. Turns out, Alberto can't make it, and I've got to find another way of getting to Milan. As for the school trips, evidently I need my Permesso di Soggiorno. I (Giovanna, my old host mom, rather) filled out the papers my first week here, and it never came in. None of the American student's permessi have arrived, but I'll need it to go to Switzerland. I hope Rotary can figure things out!

I went back to my room and read a different book that my mom sent in a different package, until dinner at 9:15. Like I said, we had guests over, the couple that we went to France with for the fondue. We had a very heavy dinner, consisting of tortellini in broth, roast beef, prosciutto crudo, bresaola, fried artichokes, carrots, various kinds of cheese on crackers, salad, chocolate and pear cake with ice cream, and finally, fruit. We ate all of these things in courses, and I'm stuffed! The cheese course was interesting, because I've discovered after trying gorgonzola a couple of different times, I've developed a taste for it. We had two kinds of gorgonzola, one made with mascarpone, one without. Both were good. Then we had cheese that you eat with oil and pepper, and cheese that tasted like thickened sour cream. The cake was odd, but it had chocolate in it, so it's OK in my books!

Tomorrow, there's a party at Bea's school, and she wants me to come. Oh, I forgot to write that on Tuesday, when I went to her school, she made me sing the states song to the class. The teacher liked it, and asked me to write out all the states, so the class can learn the song too. I wrote out all the states, in alphabetical order, but when I counted at the end.. there were 49. I could not, for the life of me, remember the 50th state, so I went on a hunt through the school for an atlas. Would you believe that in an elementary school, there are no world maps? Or maps of the United States? Or atlases, even? I asked one of the students, and he showed me the only map in the whole school, a little yellowed wall hanging of Italy. In my search for a map of the U.S., I found books titled "I Nostri Tempi" or "Our Times." The year, written right under the title: 1989. I never realized how much I appreciate my almost brand-new highschool.

By the way, the state I forgot was Oklahoma.

And now, it's past 11 here already, so I'm off to bed!