You can take the kids out of America...

Happy 4th annual world nutella day! (although every day is nutella day in our apartment...we've been going through a jar every 1.5 days or so...)

It's the middle of the afternoon on Friday, and I think this might be the first time I've actually seen my apartment in the middle of the day.  I've got nothing on the agenda for today, and even though half of me is saying that I should get up and do something with my free time, the significantly louder half wants to just spend a day relaxing and recharging, something I have yet to do in the almost month I've been abroad.  So, the latter half won, and I've been hanging out here and even watching an episode of the Big Bang Theory (Mom, it was the one with Sheldon in the ball pit).  Not so different from a Friday afternoon at Notre Dame after all.

In celebration of groundhog day (and the fact that we were willing to embrace any justification for some good old American protein and grease) all the ND kids cooked up an American dinner, complete with hamburgers, hotdogs, and ketchup (all of which were Italian modifications and a little strange), plus homemade macaroni and cheese, french fries, gelato sandwiches, and beer.  The evening was complete with country music and red, white, and blue attire, and it was really nice to have almost everyone together to just hang out and embrace a little taste of home.  

Speaking of food, I have to mention how wonderful it's been to try new dishes I never would have been adventurous enough to taste at home.  Even my well-documented hatred of tomatoes has completely reversed here, and now I can't get enough of them!  I am also loving the vino, and we've even attending a wine tasting at school to learn what to look/smell/taste for in a great wine (or the 2 euro variations from the grocery store down the street).  My roommates have made such wonderful dinners - pesto chicken, rigatoni with vodka sauce, many types of delicious desserts, and many others.  I am just happy to say that I think/hope I'm becoming less of a completely useless annoyance in the kitchen (I figured out how to turn on the stove!  I can make pasta and even reheat lasagna!), and I can't wait to learn more and be adventurous in order to cook for the room - my ultimate goal is gnocchi, which will certainly be a challenge.

I'm definitely enjoying my free weekend in Rome - Cara and I finally got a chance to go out together last night, and it was a great time.  I hope it happens more often - it's so exciting that we're abroad in the same city and going to school together, but we live so far apart (a tram and two buses to be exact) that it's a challenge meeting up in our free time.  Hopefully I'll get a chance to watch the Superbowl on Sunday, even though it won't start until at least midnight here, and I may or may not have a test the next day.  I'll have to get my studying in beforehand, because this football-obsessed girl has been feeling very deprived in a futbol-obsessed country.  Not to mention New Orleans has a very special place in my heart, and I can only imagine how amazing the atmosphere there must be right now!  I'm hoping for the best for my summer-adopted-hometown, and thinking of all the wonderful people in my New Orleans "family".  GEAUX SAINTS! 

Since it's taken me almost all day to write this post, it's now after dinner, and I'm eagerly anticipating some of Chrissy's homemade crepes with - of course - Nutella! 

Vi voglio bene :)