Sorprese della Settimana

Sorprese della Settimana

I'm writing you this week from Berlin's Odyssee Hostel. As usual, the getting here was complicated and interesting, and did not go as planned. That's not to say it's been bad - unexpected has been the theme for my spring break, and this semester in general. Heck, let's just expand that statement to life ...

There's a lot to write, so this is just a sketch of my week. I have LOTS of pictures to put up!

Thursday night, I ran out to the grocery store just before it closed for frozen yogurt, cookies, and cheese. As I approached my apartment carrying my impulse snacks, a big black man on a scooter outside my apartment said hello to me. He greeted me with a tinge of France in his voice and had the same open face Thierry, the security guard from Tenax, and so for a moment I thought it might be him.

"Hello ... do I know you? Is your name Thierry?"

"No, no, I am Desi! I know, all black people look the same ..."

"No! Give me some credit. I have a friend who looks so much like you, with the same accent, and the last time I saw him, he was on a scooter outside of my apartment ..." And so began the conversation.

Desi is a culinary instructor at a school in Florence. I told him I was an amateur cook, always making experiments. He suggested we meet up for a coffee, and we exchanged numbers. Then I went upstairs, ate my cookies, and went to bed. We met up the following night; I had a vodka tonic and he had banana juice, since he doesn't drink.

Desi is from the Ivory Coast, speaks French, Italian, English, and German, and loves New York. He wants to move there and open a restaurant. As we spoke, I made my best efforts, but he spoke to me in Italian and English when I was having trouble understanding. I noticed as we talked that my Italian has improved greatly. Sentences come together so naturally for me sometimes, and I even find myself thinking in Italian.

After our drinks, we walked around my side of Florence and Desi showed me an old farmer's market just minutes from my apartment that I had never seen because I simply had not ventured in that direction. Then he showed me Ganzo, the restaurant where he and his students cook. I loved seeing the kitchen when it was completely empty. He invited me for lunch sometime, and I told him I'd try to come in the next week.

My night ended early, yet I slept in on Saturday. When I finally woke up, I walked around the area Desi had showed me the night before, wandering through a little antique market and beyond; parts that weren't very touristy at all. Then Saturday night, I hung out with a new friend, Massimo, and his friends. He made us dinner. We ate in his apartment, and he thought he lived close to Tenax - first right, left, right, he said, then I'd be at the bus stop.

So I followed his directions and ended up at a park, but I saw nothing that looked like a bus stop. I saw a young man walking and asked him, "Scusa. Dove può aspetto autobus?"

He asked me where I lived in a thick italian accent. I told him I needed to go to Tenax discoteca but that I lived in centro and he said the fermata was qua and he would walk me there.

We began walking in a direction I was pretty sure was opposite of where I needed to go, and so I asked several times if we were going to the bus stop. He said yes every time, pointing while saying, "La fermata è qua," and I started to get a little worried. But when I asked him once more if we were going to a bus that could get me to Tenax, he said, "Ah! Tenax!" I guess he thought I needed to get home. We went in the other direction, asked a bus driver if the bus went to Tenax, and found out we were on the wrong side of town. So we walked, and walked, and walked, almost for an hour and a half. As we walked, he asked me questions, I asked him about Italy and Italian women and Italian school; we talked about our preferences. His name is Adrian; 25, from Calabria (which explains the thick accent). He doesn't speak English. He studies biology in Firenze.

We realized at some point that Tenax was going to be an hour's walk or more from where we ended up, so he called a taxi for me and we said goodbye after we agreed to meet up for a beer Sunday night as payment for his transport service.

Tenax was fun, as usual; I talked to Troy Pierce after about being from Indiana, gave him Seth's card for the record store, realized that even though his music is beautiful to my ears, he's kind of a bimbo. No matter. I got another ride home from Thierry. We left in his car this time; it was a very nice car, comfortable and warm; conversation was much easier without the wind blasting us. I invited him up for a tea and he accepted. We had two cups of white tea each while we talked.

Sunday, I met with Adrian; I cooked (an experiment that tasted good at the time, but then Adrian called me Monday to tell me the experiment hadn't gone well for him). I'm pleased with how my Italian is progressing, and I enjoyed being able to joke around with him - at least, he joked with me and I understood the humor. We even had some intellectual conversations ...

On Monday, Anne and I didn't go to Chianti. It was too muddy. The rainy season ceased for a couple of weeks but picked up again Sunday morning. So I went to school, painted a bit, and then hung out with Anne and her husband Will at their loft apartment in the evening, where we drank Anne's homemade sangria.

On Tuesday, I got up early to talk on Skype at school with Justin. He bought a roundtrip plane ticket to join me travelling after the semester ends. We were both psyched because not only does this set our travel plans in stone, he got the ticket for under $450, which I like to think is destino. After skyping, I painted, talked to my mom and dad on Skype, and wrote letters.

Tuesday evening, I met Adrian at Duomo, went to coffee, saw Cupido on the way, explained to Adrian that I had just seen un uomo non bravo (he laughed). Proof that Firenze is a small city. After coffee, I went home and experimented with food in my kitchen - chicken marinated in the juice I have for breakfast (orange-lemon-carrot juice, not too bad!). Desi came over later for a few minutes after he finished work and brought me white chocolate raisin cookies. I asked him about Berlusconi, homosexuality in Italy, corruption and let him do the talking, since I was tired. Then he left and I went to bed.

Wednesday, I found myself sleeping in again. I went to lunch at Ganzo, where I ate octopus for the first time and got ideas from paintings in the restaurant. My lunch was gourmet, freshly prepared, and free. It pays to have friends in the restaurant business.

I never made it to school; I went home instead, wrote some letters, talked to my sister Emily on Skype, researched the spring trip, talked to Justin and Stephen, joined CouchSurfers, got excited, showered, and went to bed super late.

Yesterday, I slept in again, went to school around 1 pm, printed out my travel information, bought a travel backback, packed for Berlin. Instead of going to Vinicio Caposello, I had dinner with Anne and Will at Il Gatto e La Volpe (where their balsamic vinegar is unlike any other, because it is thick and fruity and sweet and tangy). Then I headed to the train station and towards Milan. I planned on taking a bus from there to Bergamo airport, an hour away, and staying in the Bergamo Airport Hotel. But I missed the last bus to Bergamo by minutes, so I wandered back into the train station and asked the policeman what I should do. He suggested that the safest place was in their office, so I stayed up for four hours in the police station talking to Marco, a policeman from Calabria.

It was a funny twist, being on the good side of the inside, observing the train station from the back seat of the police cart. It was the cushiest seat. Marco brought me a lemon tea from the office. I took the first bus of the day to Bergamo, then slept on the floor of the Bergamo Orio al Serio Airport until someone told me I had to sleep on una sedia.

more to come ... I'm loving Berlin style.