6. Im complete! Oh shit!

Wednesday April 15th, 2008

Ciao!

My body is so tired from all the walking and also trying to get used to the time change. I finally moved into my apartment on Sunday and I’m waiting for Claudio to move all his stuff in, hopefully by this upcoming Monday. Oh and today was one of the first days that it was sunny when I woke up! Finally! I thought to myself, yes, today is the day I will jog to Piazza Michelangelo. But unfortunately, it was still chilly outside, super chilly actually. The weather is weird here, like everywhere else in the world. But it was sunny, chilly in the morning, and then it was humid during mid day and then chilly again at night. I was debating, scarf no scarf, jacket or sweater, umbrella or no umbrella. Oh and I finally got my phone today!!!!! I felt so handicapped for the last couple of days. Now im connected to the world! I’ve been waiting for an answer for the wireless connection for my apartment and found out to get a key would be 150 Euro, so $225 which is super costly so I would rather walk to the internet café down the street. So yes, Im finally, finally done with my move, my apartment is done, I have my phone and I will be walking down the street to the internet café. Now I can focus on my next step, which is learning Italian.


But let me recap what I’ve been doing for the last couple days. Lets see, Monday evening, Mr. Uomo and I had dinner at one of his friends restaurant. I decided that I want a big fat juicy steak. And that’s it. No appetizers, no primi pratti, just give me a steak. But im still trying to shake this cold I caught last week, oh, I had a cold last week, Mr. Uomo gave it to me and my body has been weak due to the jet lag and the forever changing weather here in Florence. Anyways, his friends restaurant has soup! And oh how I’ve craved soup! Only the touristy restaurants serve soup, not the local restaurants so I order soup before my steak. There is a couple next to us and me and Mr. Uomo are guessing where they’re from. He says New York, I say Florida. Well, after dessert Mr. Uomo goes to speak with the owner of the restaurant and the guy of the couple next to us gets up to use the restroom. Davia looks at me and says, “it’s cold huh?” That was all that was needed to get us started. I learn that Davia and Peter are from Chicago and that it was their last night in Italy. So Mr. Uomo and Peter get back and I’m chatting with Peter while Mr. Uomo is talking with Davia. They spent only a week in Italy and tried really hard to not do the tourist ‘thing’ and wanted to meet locals and they tell me that meeting me and Mr. Uomo is the closest they have come to being off the beaten path. After dinner, Mr. Uomo and I were heading over to Slowly, which is a lounge/bar that a lot of the locals go too. Very nice two story dark lounge with music. We ask if Davia and Peter would like to come with us. They have a flight at 9 in the morning, but come on, its your last night in Florence, come with us. They come with us and immediately love Slowly and tells us over and over again how they wished they met us sooner. I say the only thing you should think about is how we met tonight and lets just have fun. So we dance and dance and dance. But first, champagne glasses are given to us by Mr. M., he is one of the managers at the new Four Seasons opening up in Florence. We met him earlier when we walked in, now we’re drinking champagne and dancing in the middle of Slowly. Peter keeps the drinks coming and I couldn’t have been anymore….. buzzed. Lets see, a bottle of wine for dinner, limonchello, more wine at slowly and then some of Davia’s gin and tonic. I can hold my liquor, but mixing, no good. By the end of the night, Mr. Uomo and I have an invite to Chicago. Ill be spending the month of July in Texas and maybe, just maybe going to Chicago in August? And then coming back to Italy in September. Mr. Uomo tells me at the end of the night, “you have no idea how many people you’re going to meet in the next couple of months.” My answer? “I cant wait.”


So the next day I wake up with a headache and go back to sleep until 3pm. I wake up and get ready to hit the town. Im meeting up with Arash at his bar and then we’re meeting up with Kari leigh. I meet Arash and he’s so tired from working that he walks me over to Kari’s and I meet her friends, while Arash goes home. Jay and Chad are professional photographers from San Francisco that are just visiting and Tracy has lived in Florence for 18 years and she is also from San Francisco. They’re going to do a photo shoot of Florence by night. Kari and Tracy are the models. We first head to Santa Croce and go to an appretivo at the corner. An appreitvo is a restaurant where there’s appetizers lined up, buffet style and you go in and order a drink and you just pay for your drinks while you can keep on going back for appetizers. So an appetizers buffet. Conversation ensues and Jay cant get over that I’ve been in Florence for 8 days and I already have a boyfriend. So I tell them my story of how I met Mr. Uomo and Tracy looks at me, tells me the name of Mr. Uomo’s restaurant and then tells me that she’s known Mr. Uomo and his whole family for years because of the trunks shows they do together in the states. I smile because Mr. Uomo knows everybody. I swear. Here in Italy and also in the states. Florence is a big but small city. Anyways, so off we go walking around Florence and finding places to shoot. Its amazing how many people gather around just to watch, point, laugh, yell, comment, everything while we were shooting. I ended up being the stylist and their assistant. At the end of the night, I have a photo shoot at 10am with Jay and Chad and Im pooped. I take my time walking back home and just take in all the sights of Florence, the river, the reflections off the river, the dog shit.


Oh, I didn’t tell you guys, there’s dog shit everywhere! Usually I do not walk with my head down, but here, I have to walk with my head down, because I’m watching my step! Not a really big concern to pick up after their dogs. One of the things that I do not love about Florence, the poop. Its okay now, because its raining and the rain washes it down the drains, but I cant imagine in summer how its going to be like. Ewww.


So here we are to Wednesday. The day that I finally feel complete and can move on to my next step. So before I go out and find Italian schools and to meet my exchange conversation partner, I want to eat Vietnamese food. Yes, yes, I said in my other bog that I didn’t miss Vietnamese food when I was visiting, but its different when you’re living here. I miss my mom’s cooking. So I decided this morning, im going to cook Vietnamese food. As most of you know, I don’t cook. I can wash the heck out of a dish, but I’ve had the luxury of not needing to cook all my life. My ex- boyfriend was a culinary chef and his aunt cooked for us all day long and if that wasn’t enough, there was always my parents house to eat. Or I would go to eat at restaurants. Oh, but I loved watching the food network. Weird, I could watch the food network all day long, but never have the urge to cook, bake? Yes. Cook? No. so I found a mini market that sold Asian items, from Japanese to Thailand rice. Pretty cool actually. I ask Mr. Uomo if he would like to have dinner with me. Okay, this is where I held back the truth a little. This is my first attempt by myself to prepare a Vietnamese dinner, let alone for me, but for anyone else. I should have just tried it tonight by myself to see if it was good because Mr. Uomo is so nice that he would probably just shove it down his throat even if it wasn’t good. Too late, I already asked him. I haven’t cooked rice in over 10 years. I just kind of left it to everyone else who didn’t want super dry of super wet rice. Anyways, im excited, not because im cooking for Mr. Uomo, no I’m excited because finally, finally I get to eat rice!!!!!!!! But im kind of scared of how Mr. Uomo’s reaction would be. I asked him if he’s ever eaten Vietnamese food and he’s said yes of course, a couple times. So what I found at the market was cauliflower and meat and ended up making rice, cauliflower soup (canh) and sautéed meat and cauliflower. Once again first attempt at soup, wasn’t really happening. Mr. Uomo agreed, but he ate two plates of rice with the sautéed meat and cauliflower! And my rice came out perfecto!!! Or it could be that I miss rice so much that even if there was something wrong with the rice, I didn’t notice or care. Dinner was awesome, I cant wait to cook more often, since I am living on my own and I cant wait for Claudio to move in. He’s off on Sundays and Mondays and I hear that he usually cooks dinner on Mondays. I can already foresee Monday s at my place, Mr. Uomo singing, Claudio cooking, Susie (the owner of the apartment) dancing and I will be playing host to the other guests coming to have dinner with us, and then of course, dancing along with Susie. Va bene!