Last night was unexpectedly a very entertaining night. When we ran into Tyler and Ryan in Assisi it had come up in conversation they had Taco Tuesdays, so we said we wanted in on it. We planned to do it Tuesday night, and somehow I ended up at a grocery store buying the ingredients.
Kate, Bethany, Lydia, Jess and I went to Billa to get the list of food the Ryan had messaged Kate. As I'm walking up and down isles I was thinking, how did we end up doing all the work?
The main ingredient for tacos — meat — could not be found in Billa, which was odd because there was an abundance of meats, but no ground beef. So Kate and Bethany went to Meta and the rest of us finished up the grocery list at Billa.
We got home a few minutes before the other two, but when Bethany came through the door, she frantically went through her bag looking for her wallet. She said she had a feeling on the walk home she had dropped it, and now that she couldn't find it, she began getting nervous by the minute. Lydia went back outside with her to retrace her steps home.
While they did that, Kate and I finished up cleaning the apartment. I remember when I was younger and my mom would have people over. She would always have Ali, Jon and I clean up our rooms, vacuum the house and make sure it looked clean. I would always say, "Mom, no one is going to notice if I clean my room or if we vacuum the carpet when there's nothing there anyway.
Now that I'm living on my own, I find myself tidying things up and cleaning the apartment if people come over. I was telling Kate this and she laughed and said she thought the same thing. Is this us growing up? Or just becoming more like our mothers?
Bethany unfortunately came home empty handed and was really upset, and I couldn't blame her. I didn't know what to say because there's nothing to say to that. She called her bank and had her card canceled and luckily no one took money from her account before she did that.
Around 8:00 Ryan and Tyler came over. We began shredding lettuce, chopping tomatoes, and cooking the beef. The apartment soon filled up with a mexican restaurant smell.
Ryan had brought ingredients to make mojitos to make it more of a mexican night, which were delicious. The food was good — although Tyler had put too much taco spice in with the meat, and since I can barely handle mild salsa, I was chugging glasses of milk like it was my job.
For a good two hours we just hung out and were having a good time. The guys had mentioned that we should go out because it was Mardi Gras, which I had completely forgotten about.
I wasn't sure if I wanted to or not because I had classes the next day. Then, before I knew it, my roommates, Bethany and I were getting dressed and applying make up.
We went out to a bar in Santa Croche, the piazza right near my apartment, and we met up with other people from our journalism group.
Afterwards, we walked to Fuel up, a discoteca down the street. I had heard about it, but I had no idea where it was. Fortunately it's only a street away from my apartment — how convenient!
Time flew by and when Bethany asked if I was ready to go home, I said it would probably be a good idea. I had thought it was maybe 12:30 or 1:00, but when I looked at the time when I got home, it was 2:00! I was in shock!
I haven't celebrated Mardi Gras before, so I found it funny I celebrated it in Europe before I did in the states.
Fun fact: Mardi Gras in Italy is their halloween. Everyone was dressed up in silly outfits. It wasn't like the elegant costumes in Venice, but more like what you would see on October 31.
This morning (Wednesday) I had Italian at 10:45 and when my alarm went off, I was wide awake and ready to go. In class, Bethany got a call from an American girl who had found her wallet from last night. She was so happy and she left early to go meet her. The girl who found it called the school because the number was in her wallet. Talk about lucky.
So far two girls in my group have been pick pocketed. Jess's phone was stolen and Lauren's wallet was stolen and she lost everything. Two other girls lost their wallets, but Bethany luckily had someone kind find it.
I've been paranoid with my belongings, so I'm always keeping watch on them and keeping my side purse in front of me, but it only takes one innocent mistake to lose it or have someone take it.
In Genius of Florence we went to San Lorenzo Church, the church of the Medici. The church was beautiful, but I'm finding a lot of the churches are all starting to look the same with their high arches and ceilings. They're still gorgeous to step in to and the history behind them is fascinating, but they all seem very similar.
Since today was Ash Wednesday I decided I needed to find a church, preferably and English speaking one. I asked Petra — the student advisor — on Monday if she knew of any churches and she said St. Marks. She gave me general directions, but I had to look up directions on Google Maps just to make sure, since it was across the river from where I live.
Lydia and I left at 6:25 just because I wanted to make sure we could find a seat or incase we got lost. Well, we ended up having difficulties finding it. After walking up and down streets and asking police officers "Dove St. Marks?" we finally found it. The police gave us directions back across the Arno River, but I had a gut feeling they were wrong.
Lydia and I were about to turn down another street when I turned around and finally found the church, which looked nothing like a church and it was no wonder we passed it twice already. It was just a part of a building with no high arches or church bells. The doors looked similar to the ones leading to my apartment.
We walked in at 7:50 and there were maybe, MAYBE 15 people there. I giggled and told Lydia, "And I was worried about not getting a seat."
She replied, " Well, Caitlin I did want to say it, but all the other people are probably at the Italian speaking church because they're Italian."
I just laughed. The mass was only 45 minutes long, but it was a lot different than what I was used to. The prayer in the beginning was one that I had never heard of and same with the one at the end. We didn't shake hands to say "Peace be with you," and for communion we walked up to the alter, which was gated off, knelt down on these cushions against the gate, and the priest gave us it that way.
Some people dipped their host in the wine instead of drinking it and some people let the alter server who had the wine pour it into their mouths for them. It was...different, but my mom said that's similar to how it was when she grew up, which I found interesting.
Before she had said that, I was wondering if I was in an English church as in the church of England because the priest was British and a few people around me were too.
When it was my turn to have the wine, I tried taking the cup from the alter server, like I would at home, but he didn't let go and he and I struggled for a minute with how I was going to drink it. It finally worked out but I was thinking "I'm so confused."
After church Lydia and I went out to this restaurant called Gusto Pizza. A number of people had been recommending this place to us saying their pizza was to die for, so since we were already on this side of the river, we decided to find it.
When we walked in it was crowded with every table full, well all eight or so tables. I just felt like I was in Italy in this place with the smell of pizza cooking and bottles of wine on the tables.
I ordered a glass of red wine and the Gusta Pizza, which was tomato sauce, parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese, cherry tomatoes and some type of lettuce. Oh.my.gosh. It was to die for! Best pizza I had yet. The best part was that it was a little bit of a thicker crust, something I truly miss about the pizza at home.
While we were at the restaurant eating people kept staring at me and I just kept thinking, "Do they like my headband I'm wearing or what?" Well I had completely forgotten I still had ashes on my forehead.
The owner was so cute and said Lydia and I had something on our forehead and we tried communicating to him what it was. Someone else who worked there said the same thing and we tried explaining it. We think they both understood.
It actually took me by surprise though because Italy is such a Christian place and there are a plethora of churches around Florence. I would have thought everyone knew what was on my head because of the day, but I learned it's just like at home when everyone is not the same religion.
American is a Christian dominated country, but not everyone is a Christian. It's the same everywhere else and I learned that tonight. It makes sense, but you just learn to generalize people and places and that's not something I should do anymore.
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