Life in Padova

  Padua, Veneto, Italy
Friday, October 3, 2008

Ok, apparently, some of you actually really do check in here to see how things are going. And I think frequently about things I should be writing about ... so here's an update for you on life in Padova.

First I'll talk about...yes, last weekend, when Elissa came to visit and my Italian host parents met her. I showed Elissa all around Padova on Saturday, which is good because it just perfectly fills up one day haha. What are the things we did...typical Italian/Paduan things I guess. We got a "caffè Pedrocchi" at Caffè Pedrocchi; it's a tasty hot coffee drink with a thick layer of COLD mint cream on top, sprinkled with sugar and cocoa powder. I almost wrote coca powder...no, NOT that.
Then dinner at the fantastic pizza place here (Mandrillo, which I've only known about for 1.5 weeks), then a spritz on the Piazza delle Erbe, which is the Northern Italian thing to do (bitter orange fizzy aperitif), and then gelato at GROM, the best place here as far as I'm concerned. Elissa and I also went to Biasetto for the tasty cappuccini and mini pastries some time...
Dinner on Sunday was at my host house, and there was the entire world there! Mary and Federico (my host parents), Alberto (host brother), Federico's brother + his wife and two children, the grandmother, and Elissa and me. That adds up to 10 people... and I could have sworn there were actually 11 or 12... huh. Anyway, it was fantastically delicious. My favorite was the pasticcio which was like a lasagna with fluffier pasta, and crunchy and soft spots, and with a delicious ragù. YUM. Anyway, dinner was tasty basically, and I also enjoyed the torta di riso (rice cake) dessert. And we all had a really great time and it wasn't a big deal that Elissa doesn't speak Italian, especially because she actually is kind of understanding a lot of it anyway!

Anyway, on another front... Classes have begun! It's actually really exciting. I went to about 5 classes the first two days to figure out what I want to take, but now it's going to be:1) Economia del Territorio (Economics of Territory -- basically, looking at the city, in general, as an economic phenomenon, from medieval times to the era of globalization. I think I'll get econ credit for this class too...actually, it might count as two classes!)2) Storia Contemporanea (Contemporary History -- from Napoleon to the present, with the class's theme being "Wars and Peaces." The Professoressa is into social history, which I am to, and she's teaching a class on mass culture right after I leave, which I find reallyyy interesting so...she might let me read one of the books on Mass Culture instead of on the World Wars!!! And she was so nice to me when I talked to her, it's amazing haha.)3) Storia Moderna (Modern History -- from the 1400's to eh...about the 1600's? It goes up until 1815, but I'm not taking the second half of the class. It's pretty difficult, but I feel like figuring out how to understand this guy. I guess.)

Also, purchases.... I bought a beautiful Longchamp bag yesterday haha. So in order to make sure I didn't buy a really cool jacket today, I bought 0,89€ sour coca cola bottle gummies to avoid spending more.
Oh and on one other note... I went into the Centro Linguistico del Ateneo today (Linguistic Center of the Uni) to see about getting an internship, and it sounds like a yes. I'll be doing a combination or selection of a) leading informal English discussion groups for Italians to practice English, b) translating different things like newspaper articles, c) editing/revising English language exercises, d) participating in in-class discussions in English classes at the university.
Ok, on to adding up how much I've spent this month! It's gonna be ugly.