Jess 1-22-08

Well, I'm sick again :( this time it feels like a regular flu/cold though -- aches and grogginess, fatigue, congestion, sore throat. I may have had a low grade fever last night, I'm not sure. The weather isn't helping much -- it's gray and wet and cold, but at least that makes me feel less guilty when I stay inside and nap. I decided that although having almost an entire day off on Mondays and Wednesdays was convenient, having class all day from 9am-6:30pm with only two insufficient 1/2 hour breaks, most of which are used to get to my next class since classes often run over, is just too much. So I dropped one of my art classes, not the painting but the Renaissance workshop one. I'm sad for it but the busy schedule is keeping me sick and making my health fluctuate from okay after a day of rest to very bad after a full day of school. Instead I am now taking "Italy in the Renaissance: The Medici Story." I think I remember thinking that the class sounded interesting when they presented it at orientation, but we will see. The Renaissance workshop seemed interesting but it was just too long and too much, and half of the things we were going to do in that class we are also covering in my painting course. Oh well... but from what it sounds like when everyone else talks about their classes I was sort of missing out on the historical classes, since my art classes don't provide much history. So that will be nice to come out of here with a better understanding of the history of the culture.

Luckily, although very unfortunately for my teacher, my Italian class is cancelled today due to instructor illness, so I can go home earlier than usual. I need that rest, so hopefully with my new schedule I can finally kick this stupid virus in the butt and start my sightseeing.

Last night Bill and I made a very good (albeit American) dinner. I cheese-grated some potatoes into strips for hashbrowns (taste even better than the ones out of the box, if I do say so myself, and a great way to get rid of potatoes), and made some french toast out of the stale-ish bread leftover from a few nights ago. We sliced them bread pieces open and filled them with marscapone (tastes like smoother cream cheese), then grilled them with caramelized apples on top. And with some old coffee we saved in the fridge from a few days ago we made caffelatte. So I guess it was breakfast for dinner but it was a pretty good breakfast.

I think if there is one thing I will take away from Italian cooking theory it is to be creative in the kitchen and to waste as little as possible. Although I have to disagree with their theory about bread -- only buy as much bread as you need for one meal so it's fresh and you don't have to reuse it. There are so many things you can do with excess bread besides just eat it! I don't think that from all the loaves we've bought Bill or I have wasted any bread at all, even though when it's no longer fresh. Worse comes to worst you just bake it and crumble it into bread crumbs or make bread pudding or something. Tonight I believe we will pick up some chicken and bouillon cubes and make some chicken soup. Bill's getting a little sick too so I think it will be a good option, as well as stores for a while. I should get the French onion soup recipe I made once from that soup magazine at home, it'd be a good way to get rid of excess onions and stale bread. Two birds with one stone, although with Italian cooking I don't know if you can ever have excess onions by the looks of the recipe book the cooking instructor gave us. Nonetheless, I think it is a good idea (especially as a poor college student) to use everything we buy.

Eggs. Italian (or European?) eggs are weird. First of all, there are no white shelled ones anywhere, they must use a different kind of bird. But the freaky part is that the yolk is orange. We are assured that there's nothing wrong with it, but having a fried egg oozing orange instead of yellow is very odd. Bill made himself some orange scrambled eggs the other night. I'll have to remember to take a picture of it so you can see. The other strange thing is that there is no brown sugar.... anywhere. I didn't realize it was such a New World thing, brown sugar. Which when I think about it makes sense, since brown sugar requires molasses, another New World commodity. Oh, and I bought a bottle of Fanta the other day. Fanta tastes totally different here, more like... well, it tastes more like actual oranges than American Fanta, I guess. If you've ever tried Orangina, the Fanta here tastes more like Orangina than Orange Cola. I don't bother with Coke, which is way too sweet here, even moreso than at home.

I think, maybe out of lack of giant gallons of milk or juice to drink, I have developed an appreciation for water. I do miss ice, which you can't find anywhere (the first ice I saw was in my alcoholic drink at Loch Ness, that's it) but they at least keep it chilled. I wonder if Italians find the fact that we put ice in everything odd. Probably. In any case, I never much liked to drink water, but here I have it a lot and actually prefer it to many other things. Oh, speaking of drinks, another odd thing is that the dairy here -- like milk, cream, etc. -- can and often does come unrefrigerated. It's something called UHT, or ultra high temperature, dairy. Apparently UHT products can stay on the shelf, unrefrigerated, for a long time. After they are opened, however, it will sour at the same rate as regular dairy. It's a little unnerving but I haven't gotten sick from it yet, and it tastes the same, so I guess it works.

Anyway, classtime in 15 minutes, then a small break to get my painting clothes, painting class, and then finally home for the day since David my Italian teacher is sick. Ciao :)