The Rat Pack - Fat Tuesday

Tuesdays are my longest days. I have school from 9:30-4:45. Right after English, me, Stef, and Joe went over to San Lorenzo to search the market for masks and a tie for Joe. On our walk over, it started raining and of course we didn't have our umbrellas so we were getting poured on the entire time, but we didn't care we were on a mission. After searching tent after tent, we finally find masks. Stef got one that's red, black and gold with music notes on it and I found one that's pink and silver and has silver petals all formed together on one side of the mask. It was really pretty, but after how the night played out I really wish I didn't waste 12 euro on it.

We practically RAN home, it was already 6:15 at this point and we had to be at the school Carnivale party/dinner at 8. We still had to take our 20 minute walk home and fully get ready, showers and everything. No one was ready on time. We didn't leave our house until after 8 and we still had our 20 minute walk back towards the school. The attire was "cocktail/costumes" Well, we didn't really have either. Me and Charlotte have the same black dress and I also have it in grey. So I let Bolling borrow my black one, Charlotte wore her black dress, I wore the grey one and Stef wore a black dress she brought with her. Then Bolling creatively made us mouse ears out of lined paper, permanent marker, pink marker and headbands. As we were walking out the door, they came up with the brilliant idea to call us the "nutria" - they're the big rats that live along the Arno River. Our entire apartment walked over together, for once, and when we got to the ballroom everyone was all dressed up in their masks and costumes. Sue (our program director) was dressed up with her husband as the Blues Brothers. They looked so cute!

The ballroom that we ate in was absolutely beautiful. There were giant mirrors that lined each wall, elaboratly carved doors, a HUGE gold and crystal chandelier in the very center of the room. Then at the far wall from where you walked in the door was a long table covered in appetizers. Across from that, on the other wall, were bottles and bottles of open wine (rosso e bianco) just waiting for us to pour them! ;) There bar height tables scattered all over the room and on the sides of the walls were padded benches to sit. There were three different "meals" - served like a buffet. First were veggies. Raw veggies with oil, mushroooms on bread, bruschetta, artichokes oil and parmesean. Next - pastas and rice. Penne pasta, some sort of dumpling with ricotta cheese in the center (Kelly called this the "little sack of heaven"), and pumpkin risotto (went back for seconds!). Then dessert - I forget the name of it, but its really famous here to eat during Carnivale. Its a flat cake with tons and tons of powdered sugar on top and they served it with a dollop of homemade whipped cream on the side. SOOO good.

After we ate there was a costume contest. Most creative, most artistic, and crowd appeal. The four of us were up first - The Rat Pack (nutria). We introduced ourselves, what we were dressed up as, and made our "rat" faces for pictures. There were about 6 groups of people that participated. The four of us weren't even planning on entering, but Sue kind of forced us out onto the floor! Haha!

The night started winding down, but we weren't ready to go home yet. Me, Stef, Bolling, Charlotte, Brandon, and Ryan went over to Lion's Fountain. Then Sara, Joe, and Julian met us a little later. We luckily grabbed the ONLY table in there before the place started getting jammed packed with people. They had turned off the music and there was a guy in the corner just singing on a mic to music on his computer. Not a fan, but whatever we were still having fun. I met an Italian boy named Enrico. Super nice! His friends butt was in Bolling's face when she was sitting down and they didn't really notice until they started taking off their jackets. I leaned over and said "molto caldo!" Omg, get a couple beers in me and I'll just start speaking straight up italiano. It was so much fun. He spoke english, which was good. He said "you help me with english, and I help you with italiano." He thought my italian was so good. I was literally throwing every word, phrase, sentence I've learned in these six weeks so far. He was telling me how a lot of the Americans that come here don't speak Italian, they don't even try. So he was very impressed!

We were all getting tired, so I told him "ho stanca" and said "ciao!" We walked over to Eby's for the traditional Nutella crepe (I didn't get one - I was waiting for birthday cake that was at home) and walked back to the flat.

My entire room slept in today! Me and Bolling had class this morning at 9:30 and Stef had it at 11:00. We all didn't wake up until 11. Not okay. Today's the first day of Lent and almost everyone is giving up something. I have given this a lot of thought and I've decided I'm going to give up BREAD. Yes, I know, I'm in Italy and all they eat is pasta pasta pasta! But, I just can't do it anymore. This is going to give me a reason to really watch what I eat. Today was day 1 and I've done okay so far...its going to be extremely difficult, but this will also be a chance for me to work on my self control, because I have had NONE since I've been here. Wish me luck!