The Poignant Final Blog

I know you've all been anxiously awaiting the Poignant Final Post.  I think I'm supposed to write about how the copious hills and valleys of Italy have changed my life in ambiguously cheesy ways.  Maybe throw in a quote about not crying because it's over, but smiling because it happened.  Going to try and refrain from doing that.  Instead, I will recap the past couple days and my feelings on the following one, with the clear goal of inducing the least amount of vomit possible.  Andiamo.

The last time I left you all I told the story of Kelsey and I's last weekend in Italy/Roma/Ascoli.  Things happened and got moved around and her and I ended up staying in Ascoli last weekend.  We were able to make our final rounds and really cap off the trip with one last Ascoli weekend.  Each meal was planned out days in advanced, down to the food choices (every type of pizza and pasta imaginable was properly represented during our final weekend).  We shut down Murphy's, hung out in the piazza, and got enough bizarre encounters with our bizarre Ascoli characters in to last us until the next time we come back.  

Sunday came and I got to celebrate Easter in San Severo, which is close to Bari.  Roberto and his family were kind enough to have me with them!  It was fantastic.  Still full from all the amazing food I had.  One dish came and went and then another, and another, and another.  I felt very much like a true Italian.  After a day in San Severo we went to San Menaio, which a beach town on the Adriatic.  You can say hi to Croatia from there.  I loved that I got the chance to see the ocean before I left.  Although I I could go to Lake Michigan with a slice of pizza and a vino bianco and pretend it's the Adriatic, it wouldn't be the same.  

Thus began the beginning of the lasts and goodbyes.  It started with goodbye to Roberto, followed by one of my first and lasts Italian train rides.  Equally upsetting. (joke).  I returned to Ascoli Piceno with dread in my heart and an Easter Scarcella in hand.  The school lasts and goodbyes flew by.  A culture final, turning in a food paper, and an Italian final.  The harder parts were saying goodbye to my new friends and home for three months.  However, I did not cry and have yet to.  This is shocking seeing as I am the girl who from the age of 8 onwards would sob while being dragged off of cruise ships that my parents and I were on for two weeks.  I like to think the lack of waterworks are because I know deep down that I'll be in Italy and Ascoli Piceno again.  Next summer I hope to teach English in an Italian city for a couple weeks, and I would do whatever it takes to come back to Ascoli, close down Murphy's, get some pizza at Cavallino, and eat as much Kinder gelato as possible. 

We've been in Venice for two days.  Kelsey already left a couple hours ago and I'm already in plane mode, thinking about my charging i-devices and mentally preparing myself due to my flight anxiety.  If My cliché feelings summed up in a cliché word would be bittersweet.  Leaving Italy is bitter.  Leaving speaking Italian on the daily is bitter.  Leaving the kind of life where eating pizza on a daily basis is acceptable is bitter.  But I know sweet is coming.  My home is sweet.  Chipotle is sweet.  Jury Duty, which I am doing for the first time on Tuesday, is SWEET!!!!!!

I'm not going shopping for a permanent home on Memory Lane.  Studying abroad was a phenomenal time in my life, and I am eternally grateful and happy that I had this opportunity.  I truly think this experience was a door opener for Italy and the Italian culture to be ever more present in my life from now on. 

Ciao, Italia. A dopo. 

NUMBER ONE HOOLIGAN!!

This past weekend was our last weekend in Italy.  Our last weekend in Ascoli, no less.  To get ourselves distracted from this depressing fact, Kelsey and I went to Rome on Saturday to go to a soccer game.  It was AS Roma versus Atalanta.  My mother was apprehensive as I'm sure she had visions of me tipping over cars and looting gelato shops.  Unfortunately none of that occurred, but it was still an eventful and great night.

We got to the area around the stadium very early and decided to do some exploring.  I don't know what we expected, but a carnival was certainly not one of them.  And I need you all not to picture a nice, Six Flags or Kiddieland carnival.  No.  This was a carny carnival.  The first red flag was that we were a good five to seven years older than every other patron of this lawsuit playland.  We stocked up on tickets for three rides and went to the most popular ride first, without really looking at what the ride entailed.

If you look closely at this ride, you will see that it is a gigantic circular bench.  If you look even closer you might be able to notice that there are no seat belts or safety precautions.  The point of this ride is you sit down and hold onto the two bars lest you get thrown off of this swirling, jumping circle of mayhem.  Kelsey was laughing uncontrollably throughout the two minutes of terror, but I couldn't even move my face.  I was 100% focused on holding onto these bars.  I couldn't go like this.  Not surrounded by grungy Italian youths.  

Another note about this ride, our biceps still hurt from holding on so hard, and we went on this ride two days ago now.  Which is a sad commentary on our lives I suppose. 

The next rides were similar in that they were terrifying and completely illegal.  Seriously.  None of these rides would fly in the USA.  Here is a picture of a ride called "Jamaica's King". 

Just some family friendly carnival rides.  This ride was especially horrific because the operator was watching Kelsey and I scream in terror and pain whilst controlling the ride.  He loved it. 

After the carnival we got some food where we made some great friends!  They offered to help us sell our tickets so we could sit in the curve section (read: hooligans and bombs).  We declined.  Which is great because our seats were AMAZING!  There were a lot of Americans around us, and we had a great view of the hooligan debauchery in the curve section.

LOOK AT ALL THE DEBAUCHERY!!!  There were bombs, smoke bombs, chants, songs, it was seriously nuts.  Definitely not for the faint of heart.  Roma had a great game and got three goals and beat Atalanta 3-1.  At the end of the game they play this song over the loud speaker called "Grazie Roma" which I actually already knew!  

From here you can see the rough location of our seats.  We were at midfield a few rows back.  The field was pretty far from the first row though, which was weird.  We hit up the AS Roma store hard so we can represent our favorite soccer club when we're home.

Home.  I think the count is in single digits now which is INSANE.  NOT READY.

The face of multiple three hour bus rides in one weekend.

The Gattini Saga

     Remember when I was young and stupid and thought "Yes!  I am SO excited to have three four day old kittens to take care of!!"..?  Old Mary Rose, you were so impressionable.  I got distracted by microscopic paws and whiskers.  Those kittens were insane.  Yeah, they were cute for the first day when they were wiped out from their long journey, but once they got settled in our homes it was a whole different story.  We had to wake up every two to three hours to feed them from a bottle, after which we had to calm down their meows so the entire Marche region didn't wake up.

      Don't get me wrong, I loved those kittens.  But when the other apartment's landlord said she would take them off our hands, I think we were all relieved.  Yesterday we received the great news that they found the gattini's mother and the gattinis actually have another sibling!!  The mother was moving them and got started and left behind the three (bad parenting of the year), but mother and kittens have been reunited and it all went well.  We're supposed to go visit them next week in their new home which I will surely update you all on.

The kittens in one of their more tranquil states

HIS. TONGUE. WAS. STICKING. OUT. WHILE. HE. WAS. SLEEPING.

      We went to a farm to do hard labor for our Philosophy of Food class.  That's as detailed as I can get about it for a couple reasons.  One, I have already mentally blocked out that entire day.  Two, if I think about it too hard I might cry.  But I think the trip was positive in the aspect that it confirmed I was right when I, at a young age, decided that I never wanted to be a farmer.  Ever.

My crew.

      The bambinos are still great.  Next week is my last week teaching with them and they are already starting to freak out (as am I).  We're going to have a huge photoshoot next week, but decided to get some selfie practice in today.

One of my bambinos presented me with a chocolate bunny.

It's hard to believe that the beginning of the lasts are coming.  Next week is my last week of teaching.  Next week we are going to Nice, France, as our last trip (other than the two days in Venice prior to my flight back to Chicago).  I'll write a more poignant post about these lasts later.  Don't want to think about it at the moment because I'm about to go get some pizza and watch a movie for class.

Ciao tutti!!

Kittens and Wine!

Believe me- during my past two months in Ascoli Piceno, I've done my fair share of wine tasting.  But last week our Philosophy of Food class did it for real.  I think it really helped me step up my vino game.

How I entered wine tasting

The first thing the Australian-Italian (I know.) wine connoisseur (I know.) told us Ugly Americans was that we are not here to DRINK, we are here to EXPERIENCE the wine.  I think it was that moment that I accepted how extremely uppity wine is.  I went for the full experience though.  And by that I mean I repeated the phrase "It's an oaky little wine" over and over again in my best Barefoot Contessa voice.  We tried one white and one red wine.  The white wine was actually pretty good, but I felt like I couldn't kill it lest my professor and our new AussItalian friend think I was turnt up too much.  The red wine was not to my liking but I think that could just be me still being scarred from church wine.

After wine tasting

Today my life was blessed by three little angels.  Three little Italian kitten angels.  Lauren and Katie found them on the street, some guy handed them to them or something and people were grossed out because they thought the kittens were dead.  They are not!  I ran over to the other groups apartment and we got to work on feeding, cleaning, and playing with the kittens.  Playing with is more just petting them and squealing over how cute they are.  The kittens can't be more than a week old.  They still have not opened their eyes and we have to almost force feed them with an eye dropper.  We named them Cappuccino, Espresso, and Macchiato.  

The lovely Cappuccino and me.

THERE IS A KITTEN IN THE PALM OF MY HAND

KITTEN SELFIES EXCEPT WAIT THE KITTEN IS ASLEEP ON MY HAND

Things other than kittens and wine have been good as well.  The bambini refuse to believe that I do not personally know Barack Obama or Beyoncé.  Learned some Polish at Murph's.  Ate gelato every day for the past five days which is acceptable because... I only have three weeks left in Italy!  AGHHH!!