I Do

Skipping ahead a few weeks in my list of things to blog about, I want to write about the wedding I went to this weekend! Guido, one of my beloved ex-coworkers, got married on Saturday. Our entire office went, bosses included, and we had a good time - this was not a drunken celebration wedding, but a calm nice pretty wedding. Strangely, the live musicians also played Hava Nagilah - why on earth an Italian band would ever know this song, I have no idea. But one of the guests actually got onstage and sang along, and I felt a moment of Jewishness! (It helps that my choir is learning the song, so I actually know all the words.)



Anyway, the beautiful couple is pictured above, trying to avoid the rice that they were being pelted with. For my readers who actually want to know what her dress looked like - and it was an amazing dress - it's pictured below.



This wedding was an anomaly because the food was really good, the flowers remained perfect, the musicians had endless energy, and the newlyweds stayed pretty and fresh all night long. However, this is all very much in the style of Guido, so I believe it.



Pictured above is a collection of my male ex-coworkers. Is it any surprise that I have one of the vastest repertories of vulgar Italian language of anyone I know - including Italians? (And yes, I'm proud of it!)



This is me with Giovanna, who was my wholehearted supporter during all of the drama that took place at work over the past month. She fed me, reacted sympathetically yet wryly to my tears, lost sleep over my own problems and defended me with all her might. Pretty great, right?

Giovanna told me the bouquet-throwing story of her wedding. As a hard-core feminist with pink hair, Giovanna invited like-minded friends to her wedding. When it was time to toss the bouquet, she turned her back and blindly hurled the flowers, as tradition requires - only to turn around and find that all of her friends had fled the scene. The only woman remaining was her sister, who despite standing alone and having 100% bouquet winning potential, had let the flowers fall to the ground. No one received a guaranteed marriage that year.



That's me with Francesca, who was my partner in Marketing and Communications shenanigans. She titled this photo, "The Model and the Dwarf" - and yes, I do look way too tall. But really I just wanted to show you my awesome dress.



A general shot of the chaos that follows us around. But also, doesn't Guido look remarkably fresh and awake for a just-married man? There's an Italian tradition that I don't really understand, in which the groom has friends over for drinks while he gets ready to go to the church or town hall to get married. Anyway, Guido had 80 (!!) friends at his apartment, drinking, while he was getting dressed. Ten minutes before the ceremony was supposed to start, he still wasn't ready. But he managed to show up in fine form, regardless.

Here we are on take two - Sara, another ex coworker, looks quite inebriated. Already.



And of course, the dancing . . . which was interesting.

Thinking Time

It's funny how the past two summers have brought huge changes to my life even though I've been out of school (and therefore the summer should be a part of the year like any other).

Last summer I went home, went to Korea, and settled into my job. It was a whirlwind, but despite the confusion I felt as if I'd made the decision to make a go of my life in Italy.

This summer things are different. A year has passed in Bologna - I feel more confident with my Italian, I feel more rooted socially, I've become more attached to the city. And it looks like I'll also be leaving my job. So things have changed a lot.



I know that I want to stay here, at least for now. Strangely, my non-school life ha s only taken place in Bologna (I almost called it "my grown-up life", but that it is not!!). I'm probably more attached to things here than I would be if I'd stayed in the States, because being on my own has led me to invest more energy into everything I've done. And giving a lot, you receive a whole lot in return. I think that the most wrenching part of this change will be saying goodbye to my office and my coworkers. I was incredibly lucky to find a job among a group of young people who have been incredibly understanding and supportive. Our office has become my point of reference, and in its own way, my home away from home. I know how everyone drinks their coffee, what they eat for lunch, how they express their thoughts, how they dress. I know everyone's bathroom schedules! So it's not going to be easy to leave, and the next few weeks will probably be pretty sad for me because of it. But adjustments always happen, even if they happen slowly.



In the meantime, instead of having deep or heavy thoughts, I need to figure out what I'm going to do with my free time (other than look for work). I've had some thoughts of my own. Like, buy a bathing cap and actually try swimming for athletic purpose. Or visit some of the cities nearby that I've still never seen - Parma, Pesaro, Mantova. Or try cooking more often. In the end, there are lots of possibilities . . . Do you have any suggestions?

Dreaming of Beaches

It's so hot in Bologna. Doesn't this water look nice? It's really that color, too. I took the photo in Tropea, a town on the coast of Calabria. That's the part of Italy that's the toe of the boot. I have to say that it won my love for one thing in particular: Calabrese cooking is full of hot pepper.



And it's extra special because the surrounding regions DON'T have the same prevalence of spiciness: this tradition evolved because of specific geographic and cultural requirements in this little pocket of the world. The motivation is the same as it is in Korean cooking (and maybe every cuisine that uses lots of hot pepper?): spice helps preserve food. So there's super spicy sausage, and preserved vegetables, and regular old hot peppers everywhere. At the restaurant where we ate dinner, you are given a platter of 4 different kinds of hot pepper condiments. The best ones were the round little hot peppers stuffed with tuna and capers.

I miss Korean food.

Anyway, I also wanted to write a little bit about the birthday dinner I had before leaving for the trip. It was badly planned, at the last minute (my fault!) but it was still a really touching, happy dinner, with some of the people who are most important to me in Italy.



Perhaps the most notable present was from Massimo, who gave me a series of books to facilitate my life goal (as he sees it): becoming Italian. I have now, at my disposal, four books to study: one each on Bolognese cooking, soccer, dealing with idiot bosses, and sex. Apparently these are the four main points of Italian life; here I reserve the right not to comment.



My lovely friends made me feel very special. And it was pretty unexpected, really, considering that I haven't been in Italy for very long and I was feeling a bit down about the fact that I was spending my birthday away from home. Grow up, Emma! It was wonderful.



We ate at my favorite restaurant, San Carlino, to be found about 50 feet from my house. Very convenient. They also had my favorite main course, which is baby pig cooked in milk. Sounds strange, but it's amazing.


So, in the end my birthday went just fine. Thanks to everyone who helped me celebrate.

And my lovely roommate has left me for Barcelona. I'll have to go find her one of these weekends! Maybe I'll find a beach when I go there.