Saturday, March 15, 2008

best week ever?

As far as Florence weeks go, I mean. More timely updates in the future. This week just flew by.

Tuesday I planned a busy morning but then slept in. I went food shopping for a few ingredients and made the lasagne for my roommates and Marissa. They approved. We finished it. Then it was suddenly four o'clock, so I showered and shaved and got presentable for Hele's first exhibit ever. (I was going in a t-shirt and jeans until I found out Giuseppe and Jack were both wearing suits. So I dressed up a little bit. Primavera is of the opinion that the three of us “should dress like this ALL THE TIME.”) Helen's art was amazing. I’d seen a picture one of of the pieces before, but you know how art is usually smaller than you expect? Well this was larger than life. Two other girls I’d met, Hannah and Ashley were also displaying. It was at a venue outside the city that their professor, a famous printmaker, had been invited to. Lots of students. Friends of the professor. Other university colleagues. Wine. Snacks. Back here, I had dinner with Marissa and John and then went to the "cultural association" with my roommates, Juan, Jack, Marissa and all the neighborhood girls except Aneet. Good times. Random drunkenness.
Then we went to another bar nearby. Liane was talking to some guys, and Anna turned to my ear and said “Americans!”
And when we started introducing ourselves, one of the guys, about my height and mustachioed, reached forward and grabbed me by the shoulder. “DID YOU GO TO GONZAGA?”
Why yes, I did. “Andrew Marin ’03.”
I was about to ask if he did, and right as I mentally shaved off his mustache he goes “Patrick Bateman ’03!”
The American Psycho himself. And he was with the little sister of another guy in our class.
Small world.

Wednesday classes flew by. Food writing was about book layout (digitally, thank God). And I don't remember Italian class because I was distracted by the sex-music R&B (like "Never Ever Gonna Give You Up") playing in the background. Our teacher taught us a song in Italian too.
I went over to Jack's because we'd planned to have "breakfast for dinner," namely waffles since he finally found a waffle iron. I walked in to find Eddie making sushi. He and Anton had planned sushi night, so the two meals were just combined. It sounds terrible, but it was amazing. Obviously you just don't eat the two things simultaneously. We made rolls with salmon, assorted vegetables, and shrimp tempura. (Not all at once. Just different combinations.) And all the leftover salmon became sashimi. The waffles were served with a selection of maple syrup, butter, freshly whipped cream, strawberries, and various gelatos.
Then Giuseppe and I rolled out to our cultural association with a bunch of our friends. And we planned a shot and few drinks at midnight. But because of his birthday we got (even I) several free shots and free drinks. There and then at Twenty One once Anton and Fabio found out. It was amazing.
Back at the apartment, I wanted drunk food that wasn't snacks so I started dicing vegetables to make a ragu and then realized we didn't have any meat. So I just made pasta with vegetables (tomatoes, garlic, onion, celery, carrot, etc). Then we got distracted so I put it in the fridge the moment it finished cooking.

Thursday food photography class was amazing because we actually photographed some dishes one of the chefs prepared. (But we did the styling. It arrived in normal form.) Then Giuseppe's "real" birthday celebration started. His original plan was "No hangover on the birthday morning" but that fell apart when we went crazy the night before. We went to dinner with a bunch of the girls at Ristorante Rubaconte and then went out the bar for double-up. Then we hit a pub near Jack and Juan's place across the river where like ten other girls and a bunch of our friends showed up. We eventually worked our way back to Salamanca, including many piggyback rides which failed miserably. But it was fun. Giuseppe and I tried to call it a night but ended up meeting the girls who live on the floor above us. (We met them on the stairs.) We had tours of each other's apartment and watched some American TV on iTunes.

Friday was supposed to be productive, but it wasn't. I went to school and Marissa happened to be there, so we abandoned work in favor of just talking and then eventually coffee. And then suddenly it was 3:30 and she and Liz had to go to the hair salon near our apartment for their appointments. Marissa saw one of her friends on the cover of a TIGI Bedhead styling book and got really excited. And she got more excited when her new hairstyle was finished. She wasn't as excited as I was about the fact that the salon people hired her ON-THE-SPOT to do a photo shoot with them in April for those hairstyle portraits salons like to hang up. She, Liz, and I ate the ragu I had made the other night. After dinner, Marissa left and Liz, Henk, and Juan and I went to go play "one" (three) game(s) of pool. Around midnight, Marissa and I went over to Jack's to hang out with him and Prima. We thought they were drunk, but they were just basking in foodgasm. (Eyes rolled back, drained of energy, lying on the couch. Like Thanksgiving.) Prima fell asleep, and I don't know what exactly happened but Jack, Marissa and I talked about a myriad of random topics, and it was suddenly four in the morning.

Saturday is laidback so far. I woke up when my parents called to say hi and then grabbed lunch with Giuseppe at Trattoria di Rocco in the market near our house. And here's this written-too-fast-without-any-pictures update. I promise lots of pictures in the near future and less parentheses.

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