Yogurt!

Today Holly is...

• Operating on about 4 and half hours of sleep and chocolate-induced adrenaline, by no fault of her own;
  
• Working on the first of 3 essays due in a week (subjects: Perseus, the meaning of life, and current events);
  
• Eating yogurt with a foot long spoon, because the little spoons just weren't cool enough.

~ ~ ~

But really, I'm kind of bummed that I didn't sleep in this morning. It's not like I didn't want to! I went to bed at about 2.00, and woke up at precisely 6.27, three minutes before my alarm goes off on school days. Blearily, I turned over and tried to ignore the fact that it was Sunday, which means homework day, and gradually became more and more aware of my surroundings, despite all I did to try and sink back into sleep.

Why did I go to bed so late, you ask? And well you may! For I'm a respectable person, by most accounts, and don't go parading about at 1.00 in the morning (except on sleepovers, but those don't count *cough*pool*cough*). However this was a special morning. Marco, my brother, finally took me out with his friends! It was a couples party at a nice restaurant, so at times it was rather awkward as there were three cozy couples and then me; however the other two couples were hilarious. Inspired my city of origin (or at least that general area), they got into a huge argument about what was the name of the blonde girl in the movie Beverly Hills. Alessandro was convinced her name was Shirley, but it turned out to be Katherine, or something like that. Can we talk about how Alessandro looked exactly like Johnny Depp? It was amazing, I tell you. And Milan fashion to boot...

We didn't even eat dinner till about 11.30, which was actually fine by me. To appease us, the waiters kept bringing more pizza to pass the time that we were waiting for our food, so I was pretty much full by the time my Gnocchi arrived. And thank everything that is good in the world - it was all I could do to put each bite in my mouth. I didn't realize bad Gnocchi could exist! It wasn't the Gnocchi itself, though, so I guess it retains some shreds of dignity in my mind. The sauce was like pure dried mushroom, with just enough water added to mush it into a paste. You'd be proud of me, though. I ate almost all of it!

After we finally left the restaurant at about 12.30, I finally got a chance to really start talking with the Italians. I had sat next to Marco during dinner, and Marco wants to strengthen his English by practicing with me, so I can't practice my Italian as much when I'm with him. I did talk with the other couples during dinner, just not as much as I could have. However afterwards I found myself on Alessandro's arm as he bombarded me with Italian - and I was able to speak a moderate amount with him!

I'm so glad that Marco finally offered to take me out! This is really the only way to meet Italians here and practice my Italian as much as possible.

One stroke of brilliance I had that was particularly striking was that I had worn pretty stupid shoes. See, the heater in my room is malfunctioning and won't turn off, so my room is boiling. Therefore I have a slightly different perception of how cold it is. It may look bitter cold through my window, but I will think it's nice and cozy outside. So I wore open-toed heels in the bitter cold. Surprisingly, though, my feet weren't that cold. That or they were numb...