So I feel like life had slowed down for a while. No more frisbee, Bologna mostly empty, hanging out with a few Italians, and sunbathing in the park. For a week in early August there were only about 6 students, and I was in a class of 2 and alone in my apartment. Hint: don't travel to large, inland cities in Italy for the first 2.5 weeks of August unless you like seeing a ghost town.
I have learned a few words of interest:
punkabestia - this is used to describe the young-ish people on the street, you know, often with dreads, dirty clothes, tattoos, piercings, etc. and, most importantly, a dog. That's where the second half of the word comes in. But there are lots of these people around Bologna, just hanging out with each other and their dogs.
maccaronico - related to the word macaronic, but mainly used to describe when an italian speaks or sings in english, and it's apparent they don't really know what they're saying. I learned this at a Buskers festival I went to, and when we heard the acts singing in English (and there were many) at least one person would say to me "maccaronico."
There are probably more interesting words, but none come to mind.
I've also gone to Parma a few weeks ago! That's when things started to get interesting again. It was a very pretty town, though I went with another student after classes and we found out that the one building of museums there closes at 2:30 (we arrived around 3). It was very picturesque, and had a lovely park with the strangest tricycles.
The kids loved them, even though it looked like someone tried to improve a bicycle, and went horribly wrong.
The next interesting thing that occurred was Tara's visit! I saw Venice for the third time, I can't seem to stay away, but I did finally get to see the Guggenheim there, which was amazing. In particular, there was this Italian painter, Giacomo Balla, whose work was particularly interesting. We climbed to San Luca again, very hot, but I believe it was worth it. In general it was a good vacation, I got to stay in the hotel in the center of the city with Tara, and show her Bologna, both for the good and the bad. The good being San Luca, and aperitivo, and the like, while the bad being, as one example, the waiter who brought us our check and asked me for my phone number, using the phrase "voglio conoscerti," literally, "I want to know you." Creepy, as he had a noticibly receding hairline and I'd place him at the youngest, at 30.
And, finally, last Saturday I went to Ferrara. For some reason the teacher decided to have us take the train at 9:00, getting to the station at 8:30, meaning I had to wake up around 7:00. It was a broiling hot day, and we saw the cattedrale (cathedral) and castello as a large, cumbersome group before breaking off into more manageable pieces. My group of 4 ended up walking for a bit, getting a light lunch, then 3 of us went to rest in the park before the Buskers festival began at 6:00 (now you see why I was against going there at 9 am).
Unfortunately, the two I was with weren't that into the festival, and why we were slowly heading to the train, I saw some Italians that I had been hanging out with in Bologna. All in all, the festival was great, both the good and the bad acts were entertaining, and I found this shirt:
So you can't really read it (if you click on it, it becomes much larger), but it says "Basta un poco di zucchero," translating to "a little bit of sugar is enough." Sound familiar? It's the Italian lyrics to Mary Poppins' "A Spoonful of Sugar," of whatever that song is called.
Anyway, that festival was a lot of fun, just wandering around a really pretty Italian town listening to music or seeing an act every block or so. I even got to hand out with an adorable dog named Toulouse (as in Lautrec), named such because the owner is an art student - specifically a painter - and the dog is small.
Also, I learned how to make pasta on Sunday! With ragù. Which is meat sauce. Which I ate. I guess I'm not a vegetarian anymore? Anyway, it was delicious. Here's a picture of right after we cut some:
Doesn't that look amazing? Anyway, I have no regrets. That meal was just so good.
