This and that

Alright it's pretty late and I have this grand plan to get up super early tomorrow. I'm going to get up at 7 so I can wash my sheets while I take a shower, then hang them to dry while we travel for the weekend. So I'm going to try and make this quick.

Which shouldn't be hard since we haven't done much the last few days. To begin with, on Wednesday and Thursday the little kids finally showed up to my internship. Both days they were a bunch of 4 year olds, and my goodness they were cute. I bambini erano troppi piccoli!! We were basically helpers for our volunteers, who did puppet shows and coloring and sang songs to teach the kids about the Trajan Market museum. And even though I seemed to freeze up and produce horrible Italian when speaking to these kids, it really was enjoyable. Today, on our seccond day, during snack time our volunteers started to tell the kids that we were American and asked if they knew what America was. No one knew; it blew my mind, they are the first people I have ever met that didn't know what it is! I know they're young, but it was interesting. Then when I told a few little girls that non sono italiana and parlo inglese, they just stared at me with mouths open. I learned the first day that the quickest way to make friends (at least with the boys) was to stick my tongue out at them when I caught them looking at me, which quickly turned into a back and forth game. Finally, today there was this one kid named Riccardo that while coloring turned to me and randomly started to tell me that he doesn't want to live in Roma, he wants to live in Sicilia. Later we asked him why he likes Sicilia, and he said something about how he likes to dance. Or at least we're pretty sure he said something to that effect; it was too funny.

After our internships today we had a 3ish hour break before classes, so I ventured off with my roommates to go find a souvenir shop Mary had heard about. It was in Piazza Navona, but she thought it was the Pantheon, so we walked quite a bit today. I really wish I had brought a pedometer with me, I'm dying to know how far we go daily. The other Natalie in the program has one, and I spoke to her roommate tonight about what the average seems to be. She said it's generally between 6-9 miles per day. And believe me, my feet are definitely feeling it. At least this way we work off all the gelato we stuff ourselves with every single day.

I went back to the apartment for lunch today. I really wanted to make some frozen french fries that I bought earlier in the week, but I couldn't get the oven to light. It's gas, so you have to throw a match in it at some point to get it to light. I didn't feel like blowing myself up today so I gave up after countless attempts. I don't like messing with gas, I don't know what I'm doing. But I just couldn't let the fries go, the ketchup bottle I bought was sitting on the shelf staring at me, tempting me the entire time. So, being as resourceful as I am, I fried frozen french fries in a skillet. Yep, on the stove. It worked... sort of, but they weren't very good. Some were fried on one side, some were just hot and soft. I really need to figure out this oven.

I also had some pear juice for lunch--so good! Interestingly, I haven't seen orange juice here, but lots of pear (and other types of fruit) juice, which I think is the equivalent over here. I have also grown to like bananas, I think it's becoming an addiction. I bought some green ones at the supermercato, then was in the Campo and saw some big beautifully yellow ones and compulsively had to buy them. I'm eating 2 or 3 a day.

And to cap off the day, we have another funny story. While cooking a quick dinner before going to watch our Rome series at the UWRC, Kelsey starts to smell something burning. She's trying to figure out what the smell is coming from, and cracks a window. She decides then to point out that our apt doesn't seem to have a smoke detector. Then, from the other room, I hear her yell "OH! I found the burning, I found the burning! I set the thing on fire!!" Apparently the thing=pot holder in her hand. Crazy woman. Then our room smelled like burning polyester for at least 30 minutes.

Alright I think that's a sufficient update. The program is taking a weekend trip together to the Umbrian region, which is basically Tuscany (well, right next to it). We will be staying in a villa in a town called Corciano, and I can't wait to see what they mean by "staying in a villa." Then Saturday will be spent in Perugia, which is the city that Amanda Knox murdered her roommate in... and I'm sure there's other cool stuff, but I'll let you know once I get back what that is. And finally Sunday morning will be spent in Assisi before coming back. They did a lecture today partially on St. Francis of Assisi (patron saint of animals btw), who basically sounds like a super saint to me, he did so much! The church there is gorgeous, look for pictures soon. I can't wait to see all these little out-of-the-way towns. I'll update once I'm back on Sunday, e poi a domenica!