Mastering the Art of (attempted) Italian Cooking

Usually my host mom Alessandra is at work when I come home for lunch but she always has lunch waiting for me in the fridge or on the stove. One day this week, I told her not to worry about it, thinking I could manage spaghetti on my own. I thought, "How exciting, my first Italian cooking experience!". The fact that the stove was out of gas when I started should have been a warning for me to STOP NOW, but I continued anyway. I called Alessandra when the stove didn't work and she told me to go to the apartment next door, where he mother, Nonna (grandma) Mira lives. So, I headed next door and finished boiling my water and then came back in the apartment to finish up with the butter and parmesan cheese. Unfortunately, I have never had a more disgusting plate of spaghetti, not even for school lunch. I guess I will never be "Mr. Italian Chef", and I will leave Italian cooking to the pros but I'm satisfied just eating it. I only regret that I won't be able to come home and cook everybody some Italian recipe because I fear another disaster.

A slight change

On Monday, I switched host families after "irreconcilable differences" I suppose. Anyway, I was placed with another host "family" and conveniently did not have to change schools or anything else. I live with a new host mother who is a physics researcher at the University of Cagliari. She speaks English as well as French but we tend to speak only in Italian at home. Anyway, I was able to live near friends so it has turned out very well and I hope the next two months will be filled with more fun experiences. The summer is quickly coming as the heat and humidity start to kick in and I've heard nothing but complaints about how hot the summer gets but we have a beach, so we can't complain too much. I got to race last Sunday on a beautiful course along the beach. I ran an 8K with my teammates Fabio and Mattia. We had a very enjoyable morning.

Easter

Easter is shockingly similar in Italy. We have a six-day break from school for the holiday. Italians also paint and hide eggs, though the Easter bunny is a little less heard-of. I went to an Easter vigil with friends at 10:30 Saturday night. Easter, my family took me to Nora, Italy, an excavation site in southern Sardinia. Excavators have discovered ruins from the both the Roman age (the city is thought to be the first Roman city) and remains from the Phoenicians, from which the name Sardegna came from. We also took a cave tour and hiked up to the top of castle on a very high hill. A very fun day, though I got a little car sick with the narrow roads and drastic curves.

Church

Italy is overwhelmingly Catholic and is full of old and beautiful churches. Mass is attended every Sunday but while most Italians claim to be "practicing" Catholics, it's becoming less and less common to attend mass every Sunday. I go with friends Sunday morning. This photo is of The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Bonaria, a church near the port of Cagliari that houses a statue of the Madonna that was thrown off a Spanish ship and washed ashore here near Cagliari. It was built in 1324-1329. Today it's a famous landmark in Sardinia.

Six-day Easter break... I like it.

St. Patrick's Day

I was horribly shocked to arrive at school and not see a single person wearing green with the exception of myself. Unfortunately, St. Patrick's Day is not a holiday here and I was completely bummed. No leprechauns? No chocolate gold coins? I'm going to have to wait another year now.

For those of you who are familiar with a film called 'A Christmas Story', fra-jee-lay is actually the Italian word for fragile (it's spelled the same as in English though). Who would have thought?