So today started out kind of boring. We woke up and it was snowing REALLY hard!!! It was so pretty but really unusual weather for Genoa. We went to school, learned lots of verbs, came back to the hotel and trudged through 10 pages of Italian homework!!! It took forever and was really difficult.
Once we finally finished our homework, we had a group dinner, with the professors, Stefania and Susan. Susan's boyfriend and son were there also. They told us that it was going to be a traditional Genovian meal so we were really excited. Plus, we got to have Italian wine and not pay for it! YAY!!! So we went to this really nice restaurant near Due Torre (The Two Towers). The dinner was set up so we got a taste of Genoa classics. The first course was pansotti (ravioli type things stuffed with herbs and vegetables) with DELICIOUS salsa di noci (walnut sauce). It was SOOO good!!! I need to eat that again and again before I leave here!!! And Professoressa Branciforte (the official way to address Susan) said the sauce is really easy to make! Just blend walnuts, Parmesan cheese, heavy cream, and 1 garlic clove. We are definitely going to eat Italian meals ALL the time this semester! :-D The second course was pesto lasagna. The pesto in the Liguria region is amazing!!! It wasn't lasagna as we know it, with the layers. It was just pesto on top of long, thin, wide, flat noodles. It was perfect. It's a good thing I am only here 3 weeks... between the pasta, pizza, foccacia, and gelato, I would be HUGE if I stayed here any longer :-P After the pasta meals, they brought out the meat course. There was very rare, thinly sliced steak with Parmesan cheese and some type of lettuce. They also brought out squid. I tried a tiny piece and it was ok but not really my type. We also had vegetable pies, with spinach, zucchini, and mashed potatoes and string beans together. It was very similar to quiche. The whole meal was amazing, the best yet! I had the red wine which was much better than the few cheap wines that I have tried so far here. (Although even the cheap wines here are much better than what I drink at home :-P) After the main meal, we got to choose our dessert. I had panna cotta with chocolate sauce. Panna cotta is cooked cream that condenses and is then cold. It kind of has the consistency of flan but it was just a milky flavor. It was really good! I was sitting next to Susan's son Max and he suggested it to me.
It was interesting to talk to Max because he lives here. He is 15 and was telling us how their high schools work. They have sections within each grade and there are some specialty schools and they study for half days Monday-SATURDAY! But then when they get out in the early afternoon, they have a lot of homework that takes the rest of the day. He is studying ancient Greek so that he can read the ancient philosophers in their native language! How cool is that?! Sounds difficult though.
After dinner, we came back to the hotel and studied and drank some wine with two of the other girls, Allison and Ashley. We have a test on Friday :( Wish me luck!
Ciao!
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