there's no crying in business class

I can’t believe I'm sitting in the JFK airport writing this post…because that means it’s over. Some of the best months of my life have come to a conclusion so very much the way they started. I arrived to and departed from Venice in fog so thick the water taxis could barely navigate. I was as anxious to come in the first place as I was to leave. I had to contend with hundreds of pounds of baggage. My first and last official meals in Venice were with all 19 of my housemates at our favorite restaurant. I had to say some incredibly difficult goodbyes in order to leave for Venice and some even harder ones when it was time to leave from the city. And just like I left something in the Charlotte airport on the way there (my favorite black perfectly fitted cardigan), I left something in the Venice airport on my way back (this time a little bit of me). But like the post says, there’s no crying in business class : )

It was, without a doubt, harder to leave this time. That’s not to say I hated my first group or experience at Casa Artom—if that were true, I never would have returned. But, this was just a completely different semester thanks to both David and the group he compiled. I’ll be the first to admit that I was questioning my decision at the beginning when I thought the group was crazy and that I wouldn’t make any friends. Four months later, I can safely say the group is crazy, but, in that good way that makes you want to constantly spend time with them. And David made the experience everything it should have been and more for the group—something I wish my original spring 07 group could have had. It was also so hard to leave this time because it had more of a sense of finality. Last time when I left, I had this feeling I’d be back (and was right, thank goodness). But this time, I have to be more realistic. I fully plan to study abroad again IF I go to law school, but that’s obviously not set in stone, plus, it wouldn’t be in Venice, so I knew this was the last time (at least for a long time) that I’d be living in Venice.

The time between second break and the time we left positively flew and I’m already struggling to remember exactly how I spent my days, especially after Thanksgiving. The week after Thanksgiving was exam week for the students, so I instituted “bake-a-palooza” (inspired by Tom’s proposed “drink-a-palooza” that was set to start immediately after exams concluded). Bake-a-palooza involved my experimenting in the kitchen each day they had exams (to give them something to look forward to or get them through studying)…Tuesday was chocolate chip cookies, Wednesday was banana bread, Thursday was lemon pound cake, and Friday was tiramisu…and clearly I stood to benefit from this, too! And of course we did the obligatory things like our last few nights out in Santa Margherita, our last slices of pizza al volo, our last cones of gelato, etc. Kayla and I like to refer to it as “hugging Venice goodbye”.

Despite all of that, I think I’m still in denial that it’s over. I actually haven’t really cried (yet?). Not at our last dinner, not at our departure ritual, not when everyone said goodbye. I’ve come close twice…once in Bar da Gino (which, appropriately, is when I got sad last time I was leaving) and once at JFK (where I had a flat out breakdown last time I was leaving)…mostly at JFK because it’s SO overwhelming for everything to be in English and to have rude New Yorkers yelling at you when you’re clearly jet lagged as anything (sorry my Northern friends). It’s probably just because I don’t want it to be over. I don’t want to go see every doctor in Cornelius (which I skipped out on last minute back in August). I don’t want to drive. I don’t want to get my coffee from Starbucks. I don’t want to fight the crowds at malls. I don’t want to stop cooking and baking. I don’t want to not be living with 19 of THE most amazing, talented, hilarious, entertaining, fabulous people I’ve ever met. I don’t want to not be able to get on a train to wherever I please every weekend. I don’t want to stop speaking and hearing Italian.

But clearly I don’t have a choice, because I don’t think Laura and Roberta would’ve looked too fondly on my staying on at Casa Artom. So, I’m trying to think of things I won’t miss from Italy or things that I’m looking forward to at home. I definitely won’t miss how revoltingly disgusting our kitchen got every single day somehow. I won’t miss the laundry machines that do a number on your favorite clothes. I won’t miss my teetiny little student assistant room because it’s like an inferno in there (or the not so comfy bed/pillow). I’m looking forward to seeing my girlfriends again, to being able to pick up my American cell phone and call them when something crazy happens, to seeing my family again. I’m also excited to start working out again, to give my liver a break, to have a closet again, to have my entire wardrobe at my disposal, to figure out where my life is going, to see little Gracie, to not live out of a suitcase every other weekend, to not converting every price from Euro to USD in my head. Oh, and, good LORD, I am definitely looking forward to a respite from the drama factory that the house naturally became (I mean you put 20 college kids together and what do you expect…MTV knew what they were doing when they copyrighted that as a TV show). And right now, sitting in the Delta lounge in JFK, I am dreading the heck out of my next flight, but, I am so looking forward to seeing Mom and Dad in baggage claim in Charlotte and having them drive me home to my own bed, where I will sleep until approximately 9:35 AM tomorrow (giving myself just enough time to get to my eye doctor appt…what was I thinking??). I’ve been up since 8 AM Venice time Monday morning (most kids left at 4am Venice time today (Tuesday), so we all pulled an all nighter), eaten next to nothing (nervous traveler), and taken some drowsy Dramamine, so, staying awake for the next 2 hours until that plane takes off is going to take Herculean effort.

So I think that means this is the last time I’ll ever bore y’all via my blog. My life is about to be so so so much less exciting that I wouldn’t dare post anything outside of my European adventures! Hope it’s been at least a little entertaining…if only I could’ve posted half the drama that went down…


OH! PS-If you’re kind enough to still be reading, I forgot to mention David’s gifts were a huge hit (we framed a big group pic of all of us and signed the glass and also gave him a journal full of our pictures and our own personal messages to him) and at the final dinner (where we gave him that gift) the students gave me THE most beautiful leather journal EVER. I was so surprised!

the things we do for coffee

This is officially the strangest holiday season of my life! It all started when I was charged with making Thanksgiving happen for 65 people in a foreign country. It got even weirder when I did things like cart half my body weight in bird around the canals of Venice, actually COOK for the big meal, and dress up big time for a holiday my family usually does in jeans. Oh, and going out to bars after the meal went off without a hitch? Yeah, that was just plain bizarre. When I then had a midnight meal at a kabob stand with half the house, followed by coming home to the remains of a pumpkin pie fight started by one of Ana's brothers, I decided I was definitely in a parallel universe. Sadly I didn't get a black Friday or Saturday in Florence, but, I saved a ton of money by not buying a train ticket and got to have a great few days with everyone in the house and visiting families.

Friday night, Kayla, Rhianna, and I joined Elizabeth's and Ana's families at San Trovaso, which was hilarious. There was a "kids" end of the table and I was basically hazed by Juan (Ana's older brother) and Rhianna with the house wine, which is probably why I was convinced to go on to Santa Margherita with all of them despite getting about 3 hours of sleep Thanksgiving night. It's probably also how I ended up buying 2 rounds of drinks at Duchamps for everyone, but it was fine because in doing so, I introduced Affligem (my FAVORITE beer on the face of the earth) to Ana's brothers and got a major discount on Spritzs (sparking wine plus Aperol, the traditional Venetian drink) because we bought so many. We went from Duchamps to Cafe Noir, where the boys got more beer and Kayla, Rhianna, and I decided it was time for Jack on the rocks. What can I say? Some life decisions just make more sense at the time! After that, I was ready to go home and our entire group (David, Rhianna, Kayla, Ana, her brothers, and I) walked back, but we ran in to the entire house on their way out and they convinced everyone but Juan and I to go back out (I was definitely ready for bed).

Saturday I woke up way too early but ended up being able to say goodbye to Ana's family (whom I adore after spending a few days with them), do some laundry, and then watch a movie with the girls. After lunch, Kayla and I went to the Christmas Market with McKinley and her sister before parting ways (they went on to San Marco). Kayla and I went towards Rialto to do some shopping. I planned to buy just gifts for friends and family back home, but also ended up with more black shoes (very cute and comfortable) and another little black dress on top of presents for a few people.

Sunday I went to San Marco for mass with Kayla and Zach, his family, Jen and Charlotte also showed up and sat with us. By the time mass was over, San Marco itself and the entire square were calf-high in water and it was pouring down rain-lovely. Kayla and I ended up taking a serious detour to avoid any acqua alta (neither of us had rain boots) and spent most of the rest of the day in the house because it POURED all day and even stormed pretty badly at times. Which half explains...

Monday. Oh my gosh Monday. So Kayla and I agree to go for coffee around 9am and walk out the door only to see water as close to Casa Artom as the Peggy (right next door). So we dash back inside to grab rain boots and cameras to take on what we assume will just be your typical acqua alta. By the time we round the corner past the Peggy, it's already ankle high (which we've never seen before). By the time we cross the bridge that leads to Bar da Gino, the water is almost to the top of my rain boots. We probably should've stopped there, but, as the post says...the things we do for coffee. As we were standing at the bar, the water started to seep in to the coffee shop, which was really creepy and Titanic-esque. I decided I really wanted to walk to San Marco, because it's the lowest lying area in Venice and I figured acqua alta would be even more intense there. So Kayla and I set out at about 9:30 and encounter increasingly deeper water as we approach San Marco...it sloshes in to my boots, drenching my jeans and feet, we walk on temporary sidewalks that are already starting to float away, Kayla has to give me a piggy back ride at one point, we get almost stranded in San Marco before decided to just risk it and trudge back, and get soaked practically to our chests on the walk back, because high tide, my friends, is around 11am, so the water just kept rising as we were walking! On the walk back, most floating sidewalks had floated away and we were on our own, but we had to get back, so we just dealt with it. It was SO incredibly creepy to see garbage and other random stuff floating beside us, to see water knee high in stores, to no longer be able to see the barriers of the canals, to feel yourself being pulled along by the wind and currents, to see water creep up in to your home inch by inch. We had no idea at the time that we were part of history, because the water reached heights of 5 ft 2 inches (taller than me, if you're keeping track), for the first time in 22 years. It was only about 30 or so centimeters lower than the historic floods in the 1960s. Apparently acqua alta was predicted, but not at unusual levels, so people were definitely caught off guard. It was amazing to see and literally be in the middle of history, but, I know it adversely impacted a lot of people and was much more dangerous than we realized, so, I'm glad Kayla and I arrived home safely and were able to wash our jeans and take long, hot showers (canal water is pretty polluted).

The rest of the day we again just kind of hid out in the house waiting for the water to recede before running some errands, etc. It's going to be a slow week for me, because everyone has exams and papers, so I'm doing awful, sad things like packing up, cleaning, and generally preparing to go home. I'm not ready to leave AT ALL! I just have to keep NOT thinking about my upcoming flights and reminding myself of all the things I'm looking forward to back home (shopping with Nina, getting my hair cut FINALLY, the Christmas season, movies in English, seeing friends, etc).

PS-There are a few pictures in this post, obviously, but, if you want to see more, there are a ton on my picture site (and CNN/NY Times, if you want professional ones!)

Turkey-Gate '08, Resolved

It's the day after Thanksgiving here in Venice and I should be enjoying my first ever black Friday in Florence, but my girlfriends crapped out on me and the weather is awful, so, I'm watching movies all day instead! I deserve a break, though, because Thanksgiving went SO WELL! I mean of course I was running around like a crazy person all day helping people cook and clean, picking up last minute stuff, setting the tables, etc. I didn't really sit down to eat with everyone because there was always wine to refill or coffee to be made or something like that, but, I was too happy to care. Everything went off without a hitch--people followed my lovely oven schedule, nothing exploded or caught on fire, all the food tasted great, the flowers Mom and Dad sent looked amazing on the tables, people were very complimentary, etc. After dinner, we had the concert, which was just amazing. I sometimes forget that I live with such talented people! As if this already wasn't a strange enough Thanksgiving in the sense that I had to organize it for 60+ guests, we decided to go out afterwards. I guess that's the one upside of Thanksgiving in a country that doesn't celebrate it--EVERYTHING is open! We all had a great time mostly because everyone was exhausted, but relieved that the dinner and concert were over. Plus it's fun having new faces to join the group (various people have family in town). Still, it felt more like a big dinner party and less like a major family holiday, mostly because it's my first Thanksgiving in my entire 22 years not spent with family!

Wednesday was also crazy (as I like to say, until dinner yesterday, I hadn't sat down in 48 hours). It started when I accidentally woke up at 7am (which is a feat of nature based on the extent of the house party the night before). I wasn't supposed to leave until 9:45 with Tom and Brian to get the turkeys from Rialto, but, they were not so enthusiastic about helping and I was anxious, so, I decided that I could handle 40 pounds of bird on my own as long as I had a rolling cart. I walked to Rialto dragging the cart and began to realize they were setting up the acqua alta elevated sidewalks and thought to myself "hmm, what could make THIS day more fantastic? definitely high water." Normally I legitimately love acqua alta and will go out looking for it, but, it was going to throw off my plan . Luckily the vaporetto was running as usual and I dragged the turkeys from the butcher to the boat and took a quick ride back to Casa Artom. Later a few of the girls helped me take the butcher turkeys AND the turkeys from the army base to the restaurant that agreed to cook them for us. (I guess I never updated that the girls made it to the base on Tuesday and got 3 10lb turkeys?). We took them to Taverna San Trovaso, where they immediately greeted us with a slew of Italian, the only phrase I understood being "TACCHINO!!" After some debate, they sent us to Ristorante San Trovaso around the corner, so we headed that way. At Ristorante, we met one of the most devastatingly attractive Italian men ever (a guy who works there) who was also very excited about the turkeys and called the chef out. The chef decided we needed to go BACK to Taverna, so we dragged our body weight in turkey BACK to the first location--highly comedic. But, the turkeys were off my hands for at least 24 hrs and I was happy! The rest of the day was a blur of cooking and cleaning and preparing and by the end I was exhausted but dragged myself out with the group anyways.

I can't believe how little time I have left in Venice : ( I have a ton to do before I go, so I'm off to watch a few movies and then do some shopping if it stops raining!

Mom, Dad, and Nina sent me flowers (on behalf of themselves AND everyone at OBKB lodge because I'll be missing Thanksgiving for the very first time in my entire 22 years AND I'm stressing like mad, which you know if you read my last post). Basically, it made my day when a man rang the bell and had a delivery for me and then I realized it was flowers : ) And so now they're sitting on the side table on the mezzanine right outside my room (because my room is consistently above 80 degrees and thus flowers die right away) and everyone keeps asking me who sent them and telling me how pretty they are and I just love them! The arrangement is massive and very fall-colored, so I think I might separate it out in to a few flowers for each of our many tables on Thanksgiving day. Anyways, a big thank you to the extended family for my beautiful flowers...I miss you guys a LOT and I hope you have fun at the lake and I'll be calling you after dinner (presupposing I survive). Love you!

Turkey-Gate '08

So, I think last time I posted, I was very optimistic about Thanksgiving in Italy. Let's just say my optimism has been deflated a bit by what I'm now (fondly?) referring to as "turkey-gate '08." I think the simplest way to explain this little adventure is just to say that the Italian women who run the house DO NOT understand this very American holiday. The tension first emerged last Wednesday when I went with Laura (one of the Italian ladies) to a paper wholesaler and to Rialto market. The paper wholesale shop was where Laura intended for us to buy table cloths, paper products, plastic utensils, etc. So I meet Laura near the shop in the FREEZING weather, which did wonders for my lovely cough, but whatever, the show must go on. We go in to this shop and a burly man probably 3 inches SHORTER than me starts bustling around to "help" us. And by "help," I mean "show Laura 500 things we never knew we needed that are ridiculously overpriced." So Laura's just throwing stuff on to the counter like it's Christmas, and our burly little friend adds it up and announces that it's 197 Euro, but he'll knock it down to 190. Hey thanks, bud. Laura takes this all in stride and writes the man a check, meanwhile I'm slowly dying inside, because our ENTIRE Thanksgiving budget is 600 Euro...you do the math there. Adding insult to injury is the fact that I had looked in to buying all of this from the Italian Wal Mart (Panorama) and it would've been at least half as expensive and not all that much of an inconvenience to transport.

Before the ink was dry on that check, Laura dragged me to her personal butcher so we could order turkeys. Now I did some intense guest-list calculations and predictions and realized we're going to expect around 60 people. And the rule of thumb, or so I've been told, is to get 1 to 1 1/2 lbs of turkey per person, so I was aiming for 75lbs of bird....also known as 35 kg. Laura refuses to listen to this logic, and initially orders 4 separate 6 kg turkeys, but I use my excellent powers of persuasion and convince her to order a 5th (which STILL isn't nearly enough). As I'm already fretting about this, I learn a)this will set us back 50 Euro PER FREAKING TURKEY and b)the restaurant that agreed to cook the turkeys might cook them Tuesday or Wednesday. So now I'm thinking "great, I'm going to be serving cold, insufficient turkey to a bunch of grumpy, homesick kids." When I express my concern to Laura regarding pre-cooking the turkeys, she says to me "but Jenny, it is winter. We will cook the turkeys and just set them outside until Thursday." Lord help us all...luckily at this point we had to go our separate ways, or I might've hurt her. Also, if you're keeping tabs, this means Laura and I spent about 450 Euro in a matter of 1 hour, leaving 150 Euro to prepare every last remaining item for 60 people...

Later that day, as I'm still trying to figure out how to deal with this, especially since the students are now freaking out (I made the mistake of venting with them), Laura, Roberta, and Massimo (our handyman) call me in to the office. Like a little firing squad, they rapidly inform me that every prior year, 25 kg of turkey is PLENTY and we will only be getting that much. Have a nice day. At this point, I'm really just ticked...I'm sorry, but this is an AMERICAN holiday and I'm pretty sure that automatically makes me more qualified than any of them to assess our turkey needs. On the other hand, I've never done this before (not for 4 people, not for 60), especially not in ITALY, so, I'm pretty inexperienced, and if they don't think I'm qualified, they shouldn't have gotten me involved in the first place. So, I go downstairs, and end up realizing that we can get turkey from the army base in Vicenza since Caroline and Charlotte mentioned it. Done. Trip planned for the upcoming weekend. Whew.

If only it ended there. So, Charlotte and Caroline get stuck with a HUGE list of requests from people for American ingredients from the base to make typical dishes. Which wasn't supposed to be a problem because Jen and Karen were supposed to go help. Well, they overslept and decided not to go, so the girls couldn't get all the items on the list, not to mention 30+ lbs of bird. No big deal, they planned to go Saturday for a second trip. Caroline was too hungover. Not a problem, how about Sunday? Oh, well, Charlotte had a friend in town. Eh, they'll skip class Monday and go then. Oh wait, it snowed, so the grocery store on the base was closed (which they discovered only upon arrival). So, now, we have a mere 3 6kg turkeys on order from the butcher (the most he will give us, not to mention the most we can afford), and the girls are attempting to return to Vicenza tomorrow, however a)it is 2 days from Thanksgiving and Lord knows if any turkeys will be left, b)it's supposed to snow again, c)they can't even leave here until after lunch and it's a 2 hr trip each way. OH MY LORD. Honestly, if I had my way, I'd have just not worried about offending Laura and Roberta from the beginning (not using their butcher is a faux pas apparently) and sent enough people with the girls to the base to get all our turkeys there, especially because it's significantly cheaper (1 USD per pound), but now it's too late, and we'll be lucky to even get enough turkey to supplement the turkeys coming from the butcher.

On top of that, we still don't have very much of the budget left to buy ingredients for the remaining dishes. Eeek. I knew this would be complicated, but, I figured the oven logistics and that sort of thing would be more problematic than literally having enough food. In the grand scheme of things, I realize this is one day, one holiday, but everyone is so homesick, plus, we have a)Italian guests who I want to show a real Thanksgiving and b)families of students here who willingly flew across the ocean and gave up a holiday with their whole, extended families, so I want this to NOT be a pathetic train wreck! Cross your fingers for me...

The rest of the time since my last update has flown...I've mostly been making a serious effort to get over my horrible cough/cold (a success, I think), doing as much pre-Thanksgiving organizing as possible, and hanging out as much as possible with the kids here because I'm going to miss them terribly when we leave! I did some shopping in Padova on Saturday and got really tall black pumps (a necessity, I say), another little black dress (emphasis on little, but whatever, I'm short), and a great sweater (highly useful this time of year, no?). We've also been doing a bit of a restaurant tour to hit both unique places (like the Indian restaurant near the Frari) and Italian places we've never tried ("Sport-rant," "the good bread restaurant," etc), which has been GREAT (then again my enthusiasm about eating should surprise no one)! I'm also running around like crazy to get David's gift together on top of weird Thanksgiving errands like buying enough flour/eggs/sugar/milk/butter/foil baking pans/etc, but, I LOVE being busy, so, I promise I'm not complaining! OH and I sent in my last official law school application today...so, unless I add a school in the DC area or an off the wall place (California??), I'm DONE with that and I'll hear from places starting as early as December (but as late as April for some, unfortunately). Also cross your fingers there...

Ok, the novel-length crisis update is over, but, just fyi, the pictures are my attempt to capture what the driving snow looked like this morning when I woke up : )

p.s.

I forgot to mention that I've gotten a lot of mail in the past few days...a Halloween card from Nanny Carolyn and Grandpa Bob, a Thanksgiving card from Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Mike, and a letter from Scrolfes and it has MADE MY DAY! I'm serious...I'm such a huge dork, I know, but we all know this by now and I've never claimed to be anything to the contrary! I just love getting mail...every letter I've gotten this semester is tacked to this cute bulletin board they put up in my room and it makes me so happy to be able to look up there and see all the love in the form of cute stationary : ) It's always nice to know there's a package on the way (thanks Mom and Dad) or a letter that should be arriving soon (thanks Nina!), but surprise mail is great, too, and so I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has sent me something--I hope you've all gotten my postcards!

Also, the Christmas decorations were a big hit : ) It makes me happy to see everyone get a little Christmas spirit, even if all it took was a few twinkle lights and some sparkly ribbon. I'm definitely a lot more excited about Thanksgiving now, because I was worried that people would be a little down since we aren't at home and that no matter how hard I worked, it just wouldn't be special... BUT, based on the reaction to just a few small decorations, I think that I don't need to worry about that. Don't get me wrong, I have an obscene amount of logistics to work out (oven schedule anyone? no...maybe you want to help me divy up the paltry collection of pots, pans, and serving dishes? or, you could help me compose the "common ingredient" list to figure out how much flour, eggs, butter, and sugar we need...), but, I'm definitely the girl for the job (after all, "organized" might as well be my middle name) and I'm dorkily excited to figure it all out (there may or may not be a color coded, multi-tabed spreadsheet called "Thanksgiving" already in the works...). Oh and I get to do some fun, slightly secretive house-gift buying today, which is always exciting (when it comes to Christmas, am I my mother's child or what? ps-Mom, you'd have died at the ribbon/gift wrap selection at Panorama yesterday...). Anyways, I included a few pictures of our little decorations-the lights, the little ornaments on everyone's door, and our little Christmas countdown snowman : )

I love mornings, I hate winter

I forgot how much I like waking up early and not having to rush off somewhere. I don't mean summer internship 5:45am early. I mean waking up at 7am because I've slept enough and having time to, oh, I don't know, decorate Casa Artom with a little Christmas cheer before heading off to the gym. Yesterday Kelly and I took a stealthy trip to Panorama after our house meeting and I bought as many Christmas decorations as my wallet could handle (not as much as I would have liked, unfortunately). So I got up early today before the kids woke up and added a few wreaths, ornaments, etc around the house and wrapped Christmas lights and ribbon around the banisters. I definitely didn't have enough ribbon or lights, but it'll just have to work because Panorama is not exactly a quick trip AND Christmas lights just aren't as cheap here as back home! Still, I'm really excited to have a little holiday decoration in the house and I hope the kids like it...people are kind of homesick right now, especially as Thanksgiving gets closer and while I know a few twinkle lights aren't going to completely fix that, maybe it'll improve morale just a little?

On the other hand, I HATE WINTER! I started this rant in Vienna, where I began to freeze my butt off, and it's cold in Venice, too, so, it continues! I hate having to wear tons of layers and look like a marshmellow and having a Rudolph red nose all the time. Plus, I hate getting sick (always happens in the winter) and never being warm (especially problematic in constantly chilly Casa Artom). Even though the Christmas season (my absolute favorite) happens to fall in Winter, I'm still pretty anti-winter.

Other than that...things are pretty normal around here...we played a very interesting game of house jeopardy last night (basically a roast of everyone's escapades all semester), but other than that, it's been laundry, cleaning, homework (for the kids), essays (for my last remaining applications), etc. Oh and most everyone doing a "I can't wait to come home" countdown and me being sad every time they mention that!