It's March!?

When did that happen?

Saturday, the First of March, I went to Cremona with Rotary.

I had planned on skipping school on Saturday to catch a train to Milan, since the meeting point for going to Cremona was in Lodi, a place in Milan. Kristen and I had planned everything out, I had checked the train schedule, and we had decided to meet in the Piazza del Duomo. Then, Friday night, Alberto called. "I'm taking you to Cremona," he said, "so come to my house after school, we'll have lunch, and we'll drive to Cremona." Well, Ok then!

My host mom told me I could still skip school if I wanted, so Saturday morning I slept in, and we did the grocery shopping together. First, we went to the bakery for bread. Then we went to the water place for water. (Here in Italy, we drink water from glass bottles, all the time. This host family prefers San Pellegrino, so we buy it by the case.) After stopping for the water, we went to the market. We bought fresh pasta, fresh fruit and veg, and fresh fish. I took pictures at the market, because I was shocked by the live eels swimming in buckets, whole octopi laying in their ink, and an entire swordfish that was as big as me. Unfortunately, my host family's computer has a virus, so I can no longer upload photos.

After the market, we went to the meat shop, to get fresh cuts of meat for the week. It was charming to do the grocery shopping at the market, bakery, and meat shop, but I kind of like the convenience of supermarkets! I'm so American.

We went home, unloaded the car, and then Chicca dropped me off at Alberto's. We ate pasta and left at 1:00. It takes an hour and a half to get to Cremona, and the meeting in Cremona started at 3:30. Alberto always gets lost, though, and he likes to be early. Surprisingly, we didn't get lost on the way, but it did take us over half an hour to find a parking spot once we got to Cremona. We walked around the town center while waiting for the other students to arrive. I took pictures of the world's first clock and a tower that's important, but I can't remember why.

Finally, the other Rotary exchangees got there. I belong to Rotary district 2040, but this trip was organized by District 2050, so I met some other exchangees, too. We walked to a museum-type place, and listened to a maestro play an original Stradivarius: built in 1715. The sound was amazing, but I wasn't feeling well, so I didn't enjoy it as much as I should have. After the maestro finished playing, we were allowed to see the other instruments Stradivari and his son made. The "museum" was one room with a few violins and a cello. We were allowed into the room 10 at a time, and after everyone had seen the instruments, we left.

We walked to a violin workshop, where a man with crazy curly white hair and a vest told us about making violins. There were 20 or 30 of us, all crammed into a little room for almost 2 hours. My head was spinning by that point, so I didn't catch much of what the violin-maker was saying. Generally, people who are passionate about their work are interesting to listen to, so I was a little disappointed I wasn't able to pay better attention. We thanked the violin maker and left at about 6:15, but our restaurant reservations weren't until 7:30. Rotary took us to a bar, where we had aperitivi and talked.

One of the girls from the 2050 district, named Ray, took a small group of us to her favorite bar. I was impressed that the waiters knew her. We ordered drinks, and I was famished, so I got a plate of tramezzini to share. We sipped our drinks and munched on the tramezzini, and at 7 started talking to the restaurant.

Rotary had ordered a fixed menu for us, so there were two first courses and a choice of second course. We arrived at the restaurant at 7:30, and at 8:15 the first course arrived: risotto allo zafferano, and ravioli. The restaruant had made a mistake, though, and only made enough food for half of us! When Rotary realized this, they notified the manager. I didn't mind, I had my fill of ravioli. The boys, however, were still hungry. At 9:30, the second courses started coming out: either beef and polenta, or some kind of sausage and lentils. I had never had lentils before, so I decided to try them. The sausage was.. unusual, and I chose not to finish it. At 10:30, we left the restaurant. Alberto was taking Kailee, (the Australian) Kristen and I to Milan. By that time, I had completely lost my voice and we were all tired, so the car ride home was quiet. Alberto was going at least 95 MPH, and there was no one else on the highway, so he drifted from lane to lane. This is normal Italian driving, but it still scares the pants off me!

We got to Milan at about midnight, but traffic in Milan was awful. Alberto dropped Kristen and I off first, at about 12:30. I put on PJs and went stright to bed, but Kristen writes in her blog every day without fail, so she stayed up later than I did. I think she's crazy for doing that, because the next morning she had to get up at 5:30, to get ready for a school trip to Naples!

Sunday morning, Kristen left, and I continued to sleep. It was a tad awkward to wake up and not know if Kristen's host family knew I was still in Kristen's room, but thankfully Kristen had left a note for them. I got dressed, breakfasted with Silvia, Kristen's host sister, and ventured off into Milan on my own.