Il Corso di Cucina

ciao a tutti amici,

This week i have been attending cooking classes! This has been one of the best experiences of my life. I have been soaking the cooking techniques and recipes like a sponge. I sit breathless in ecstatic wonder the entire time. For both the classes and the cooking shows that are on TV in the afternoon. I have written a dozen or more pages of recipes that i intend to share with my friends and community upon my return to the states. I was even voted best pasta maker in the class!! The students say i have a knack for making the pasta because of my curly hair hahaha. This is very good for me because i am by far the worst student of language in my class. The other students have been to classes before and have 2-5 years of studies in Italian behind them.
I have been thinking that maybe i will even give some Italian cooking workshops when i return. wow. Maybe i can earn some money for my return trip next year in this way. The only problem may be getting some of the more unique, unusual or maybe very expensive ingredients in the states.

Amazing, Quirky and Odd Things.

Here in Italy i am seeing extensive footage on the news of protests regarding Tibet in America, inc the banner hanging on the Golden Gate. awesome. The Italians love it when we make loud and radical protests. I am also seeing extensive footage of the war in Iraq.

There are at least 7 types of uniformed forces here in this very small (7000)town of Otranto. These include, the local police, the military, the coast guard, the forest service, the fish and game and the most numerous and common by far is the Guardia di Finanza. The Guardians of Finance i guess equate to the IRS. They run around in packs of 4-8 in special cars that are bright colors with lights and all. One amazing factoid is... that the major clothing design house Versace has the contract to designand produce get the uniforms and they are very sharp.

The wild life here seems less fearful of people. The birds approach me fearlessly for handouts and i was approached by a fox the other day. I could swear it smiled and winked at me. It must have been a male. They
Blessings:
- The poppies are beginning to bloom in mass. They are the most vivid crimson i have ever seen.
- The flower market on Wednesday in the central park. There are many many flower growers, the competition makes the prices very very low. I bought a dozen roses for .70 cents.
- The windless days.
- Making pasta!!! best in class.
- La palomi (the doves)
- getting discounts from the merchants now.
Cappuccino 1/2 price and bottled water 1/3 price etc. I have been trying hard to give the Italians a good/better opinion of Americans. No, we are not all fat, ugly, stupid and arrogant. We can be gracious, intelligent, sweet and pretty too. hehehe. I think the merchants that are getting to know me like me very much. plus they can see how hard i am trying to learn their language and respect their culture.
Curses:
- Being the weakest student in the class despite working sooooo hard. There are concepts that my hard head refuses to accept. For example: Machines are feminine and flowers are masculine. The sea and fashion is masculine as well. sheeeesh will i ever get it. In English: we talk, you talk, they talk, he talks, she talks. In Italian... parli, parlo, parla, parlato, parlammo, parliamo, parliate etc...
- the windy days.

I am praying for my Homesteader friends back home who are now in the fight of their lives. I have much faith in your strength to overcome this challenge. I also believe you will all teach the politicians a thing or two in the process! Thanks to Kim Sallaway for the information and the images of this struggle.

Are you out there reading this my Humbold friends? i have not heard from you on my blog or by e-mail since i left home. give me a shout and let me know you are okay.

more soon, i love you all sooooo