First dinner

Wow. I'll start off by saying it's almost 4 am Italy time, 10 pm US time. I have stayed awake 30 hours, and then taken a 6 hour power nap to reawaken now. Not good! I'm wide awake.

Last night was my first dinner with Patrizia and Guido. Guido is the cook of the house. First we had real Italian bread with a fish spread on it. Patrizia didn't know the English equivalent word and I can't recall the Italian word. It had a strong fish taste, but of course I liked it. I had one and told Guido "mi piace" meaning "I like it" which opened the invitation for him to hand me another one. He then dished out my pasta dish with a red sauce... Pretty sure it was some kind of ravioli. Definitely not the frozen kind you get at home! Both Patrizia and Guido asked if I liked it and I was very enthusiastic with how much I loved it. He had scooped me out a GIANT portion and I struggled to finish my plate. I finally took down the last bite and Patrizia was asking me if I wanted more. I told her I was very full but thank you anyway because it was delicious! Apparently that means I wanted 4 more. I really thought I was going to puke.

I force fed myself the rest of it, because I would've felt so rude not cleaning my plate. They took away my dish and before I could thank them for the meal they had a new plate in front of me with "insalata", a potato salad thing. They told me all the ingredients (corn, potatoes, eggs, mayo, and oil). I said we don't use oil much at home and they looked at me like I was crazy. Patrizia's mother lives in the countryside around Florence and they use special tress on their land to make this homemade oil. Pretty cool stuff :)

Now it's 4:20 am. Perhaps I'll be able to get a little shut eye before our 9 am orientation. Patrizia is taking me there since she has a little jewelry shop nearby the Duomo which is where my school is. I'll be on the internet much more than expected since I can get it in my own home :)

Buonanotte!