Mangiare é Vivere!!!!

I thought about devoting an entry to the food... but then I realized all it would say is... cheese, pasta, bread, more cheese, more pasta, more bread.... Oh, and lots of tomatoes. So I changed my mind. But in all reality... we eat a lot of cheese, pasta, and bread. The Italian meals are composed of three courses... First, your pasta.... this could be ravioli, tortellini, penne, spaghetti, etc. It's usually my favorite part of the meal. Last night was tortellini and I must say it was my favorite so far. It was filled with this amazing cheese. Then the second course is composed of a meat and a side. This course is always interesting to me. When I think of a normal meat for a meal I think chicken breast, steak, maybe fish, but NO. Most of the time I'm not sure what kind of meat I'm eating exactly. There has been roast beef, pork loin, meat balls, kabobs, turkey, I don't think I've seen a chicken breast yet. Not even at the grocery store.... I MISS CHICKEN!!! And when I say roast beef or meat balls... it's not like american roast beef or meat balls..... It's... different. The sides are sometimes mashed potatoes, stewed vegetables, roasted potatoes, peas, fried potatoes, fried tomatoes, or some other form of potatoes... It's really a special night when we get a healthy vegetable and when we do i always ask for seconds. I NEED VEGETABLES.... but at least now here in Cortona we are responsible for breakfast and lunch so I have been eating fruit for breakfast and making at least one form of a vegetable for lunch... trying to get something healthy down to make up for dinner every night. Then of course there is dessert every night... which is always absolutely amazing. They really know how to do sweets here. I run away from every gellateria I see. Going to the grocery store is always an experience. There is only one in town and it fits about 10 people in it at a time. Somehow us Georgia people make 20 fit. Most of the basics that you need to make a sandwich are behind the counter and you have to ask for the types that you want but of course I don't know how to do that so we just point and hope that what we get is what we thought it was. I've been eating salami sandwiches with pesto and some type of cheese for three days now. It's actually really good. They have fresh produce at these two markets in town. You can buy fresh green beans, apples, bananas, grapes, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, etc. and it's all amazing and cheap. They drink more wine than they do water... at most restaurants you get two glasses. Both look like wine glasses but one is much smaller... that one is for water. The large one is always full of wine. I'm actually beginning to enjoy the wine. I mean, I'm in italy for goodness sakes. Needless to say I've been running a good bit to avoid feeling guilty at dinner every night. My runs are really a blessing. Everywhere I go there is an amazing view of the valley bellow and every time I lose my breathe at the site. It never gets old. THERE ARE CATS EVERYWHERE!!! ugh. I was sneezing the whole first two days because I think a cat had been in our room. It's gotten better but truly there are stray cats every 20 feet. They supposedly carry pink eye and like 3 students have had it already. I've attempted to steer clear of both the cats and those students but I swear I will be the one with a swollen shut eye in the end. It's just my luck. I finished my butterfly... I'll attempt to post some pictures of it tomorrow when I go back to the ceramics studio. I finished it last night and then this morning when I went to class a wing had fallen off... I had to completely remove the wing and remake it using new clay that then had to dry to match the clay on the rest of the butterfly and then attach it again... so tomorrow morning we shall see how it held up. It really is beautiful. I'm happy with it. I learned how to throw on the wheel in some open studio time last night. One of the advanced students was kind enough to show me the ropes. I was pretty bad. I never could get it to center and several times the whole clump of clay just came off the wheel completely haha. But I loved it... Just the feeling of the wet clay spinning in your hands in therapeutic. I also made my first book yesterday!!! It's small and simple but I'm in love with it. It's 4X6 in dimensions so if I'm not mistaken pictures should fit in it perfectly... I'm gonna try to make a little bit of a scrap book out of it. Tonight is an open drawing session. It's a 2 hour session where anyone can come and they have models that you can draw. The drawing professor will walk around and help you with your technique. Sounded interesting to me and I thought about doing it but then I realized that the models were nude.... ya, I'm not so sure I could do that. The models are other students in the program who are getting paid to model. I know it's an art thing and it helps to understand the body in drawing and all that stuff but I just don't think I could sit and stare at a naked body for two hours and then look at that person the same when it's all over. I guess that's what separates me from the art students.... well that and the fact that I'm not artistic haha. It's been awesome watching them create though. There are some truly talented artists here. Well I have to get to book arts class. I'll post more pictures soon.