Day 20something

Ok, here goes a quick game of ketchup:

Classes are essentially extended periods of time in very cold places. For example, when we draw in churches, I wear long underwear under my jeans and three shirts. Drawing is not for the faint of heart (or for the poor of circulation). At Santa Croce, I found an Antonio Baldi gravestone with a portrait near the cloisters. Some people thought that there was a familial resemblance between us....

Sales in Italy end today so I am cutting myself off from spending money on fashionable Italian goods, as addictive as they are. There is actually a shoe store named BALDI near the house where I'm staying. The bus drives by there, and it has become sort of a checkpoint for me. It seemed reasonable to browse and today I ended up with a snazzy pair of olive green leather stivali (boots) that were on sale. How could I go to Italy without buying leather boots??

Photography is probably my most stimulating class at the moment. I went to Settignano again today to amble and take photos. It was very relaxing after a hectic morning of expensive (and tiny) laundry machines.

My new favorite meal surprisingly doesn't involve pasta. In fact, all you need is to buy is 30% discounted chicken and potato pellets and then eat them with an equally stingy friend without utensils. Voila! It's actually much more filling than what I eat for lunch most days in addition to being surprisingly cheap. Buying food at the supermarket is fun. I tried European ovaltine (called Ovomaltine) on a lark. My new achilles heel is dried figs from Smyrna. Who knew?

I went to another discoteca last night. One of my housemates, Anna, turned 20 so we had a night out. Our goal is to frequent all of the discotecas that don't charge a cover. Hopefully we'll see some jazz at a bar on Tuesday. There is live music that sounded cool ("ganzo").