Day 62: Final Thoughts

This is my last day here. Early tomorrow morning, I'm heading to the airport. It's been a lot of fun here. It hasn't been perfect -- what is? -- but the good outweighs the bad. It really does.

Day 59: Parlo Italiano

Over the last two months I have realized how much knowing some Italian has helped me during my time here. I have seen the other IU students pick up some Italian also, just because it seems to make things run a little bit smoother. So, here you go, future OVS person. Some basic Italian to use while you're here.

EVERYDAY USE

Buongiorno/buona sera/buona notte - Good day/good evening/good night 
Grazie - Thank you
Prego - You're welcome
Per favore - Please
Si - Yes (and no is no)
Come stai? - How are you? (informal)
Come ti chiama? - What is your name? (informal)
Parli inglese? - Do you speak English? (informal)
Dove (il bagno)?- Where is (the bathroom)?
Vorrei... - I would like... (usually used to order in restaurants)
Ciao - Goodbye

SCHOOL USE (very important)

Cosa fai? - What are you doing?
Perche? - Why?
Ragazzi - You guys
Basta - Enough
Capisci? - Do you understand?
Ascoltami - Listen to me
Zitti - Silence
Ripeta - Repeat
Spiega - Explain
Tutto bene? - Everything okay?

...I think that's most of it? Boh. If it's not, Google Translate is your friend.

Day 57: IMPORTANT - Transportation Notes

You're going to use a lot of public transportation here. Don't worry about it. It's easy. It's even easier if you know what you're doing. Let's talk about trains. Trains are nice. Trains are easy. Trains can easily get you anywhere. But here are some things I've learned about trains.

IMPORTANT THINGS

- Tickets are easy to buy. Most tickets you can buy right in the station at the machine. It's easier to use the machines that take money. I've noticed that some people can't use their credit cards at these machines. The machine just goes, "NO," and refuses. If you're not using the Fast Ticket machine, you can buy from a person; the windows are only open to about eight in the evening though.

- There are regional trains (designated by an 'R') and intercity ('IC') trains. Regional trains stop at every stop on the line. Intercity trains are faster and stop only the major stops.

- Sometimes you will have to switch trains. If you buy your ticket from a person, they will not tell you this. The Fast Ticket machine will though.

- Some trains will give you a seat to sit in. Sit in it. People check these things. (Same goes for first class and second class cabins.) If there's "standing room only," that's okay too. There are little seats that come out from the wall in the hall if none of the cabins are open.

- Green buttons are always good. White buttons are good. Sometimes, you will have to open the door to the station or to a different cabin. Sometimes it is a handle you have to pull/lift, other times it is a button. Green and white buttons are good.

- Never let someone load your luggage. People can be nice and may help, but sometimes people will try to scam you out of money for loading your luggage. They are not affiliated with train. If you do not give them money, they may try to hold your luggage as hostage. A few euros will usually free your bags.

- You will buy a ticket to your stop. However, only the end destination will show up on the train sign at its track. (When I go to Pavia, the sign at the train I go to says Milan because it is the last stop.) It's best to have some knowledge as to where that train is going (which I say more about in the next point).

- To find your rail/track/'binario': it will not be on your ticket. There will be a poster somewhere, usually behind glass, that says PARTENZE (leaving). On this, look for the time you will be leaving (it's always military time though). It will say the final stop (see above), the rail, and in smaller letters, all the stops the train will make. (Be positive your stop is on that list!)

- AND HOLY CHEESES THE MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER URGENT URGENT URGENT: Validate your ticket! There will be machines around the station (usually school-bus yellow, sometimes weird green/gray ones) and you need to stamp one end of your ticket there. If you don't and someone checks your ticket on the train, you can be fined fifty euros! If a machine is broken or you absolutely cannot find one before you need to board, then get on the train. Go to the front of the train, find the conductor, and tell him/her that you need your ticket validated (sometimes just handing the ticket to them will work too). That's okay too.

Okay! See? Trains are easy. You'll get used to them really quickly.

Day 56: Gnocchi (A Recipe)

Gnocchi are delicious pillows of deliciousness covered in tasty sauce. Okay, actually they're a type of flour/potato dumpling, usually with a tomato and cheese sauce. If made correctly, gnocchi, despite the potato quality, is a light dish.

However, gnocchi can be a finicky dish to make.

Let me tell you about the first time I tried to make gnocchi. It was with a friend in Milan and we followed the directions to the letter. Instead of coming out with delicious gnocchi, we came out with mash. Potato mash. Yeah, it was good, but it was definitely not what we had been aiming to make.

So, while here, I mentioned to my host mum that I wanted learn how to make them. And she took me under her wing and taught me.

Ingredients (for six servings):
7 medium-sized unpeeled baking potatoes (like russet or Idaho)
flour (about 400 g; you convert it)
nutmeg
salt
2 small eggs or 1 large egg
(if you want your gnocchi to be extra-fancy, you can add spinach or squash to the dough)
(also, sauce: tomato and cheese, pesto, four cheese, butter and sage...your decision)

Directions:

1. Set some water to boiling. When it's roiling, throw those (unpeeled) potatoes in. Yeah. Let them sit there for a while. Let them get comfortable. Once they're soft, take those suckers out. Give them some time to cool their heads and then peel them. (Use a hand towel of some sort if they're burning your fingers.)

2. Throw that flour on the counter. Make a well in it. Using a potato ricer, rice those potatoes into that flour. (IMPORTANT: Make sure your potatoes are still carrying some heat. Warm potatoes make better gnocchi.) Throw some salt and a pinch of nutmeg on top of this mess. Then add the eggs (along with whatever fancy spinach squash inside you want).

3. Smush and smash this mess together until you get a dough. Don't try to handle it too much, or the dough will get rubbery. (Gross.) Once it's a nice piece of dough, cut into smaller pieces. You're going to roll these smaller pieces out into long serpent-like tubes. Cut the end off the long tube. Keep doing that until the long tube. There. Now you got yourself some gnocchi. Do this to the rest of your dough. Sprinkle your gnocchi with a little flour. (These pieces can sit out for up to three hours or can be frozen; be a planner and make ahead of time!)

4. Once you want to make this delicious slice of paradise, get some more water boiling. Deposit your gnocchi carefully into the boiling water. The gnocchi will sink to the bottom, but they'll start to float. When they do that, they're ready for eating so get them out of there.

5. Put on plate. Cover with sauce of choosing. Eat and enjoy.

Day 55: Translation Problem

Today I was sitting for a merenda with my host sister and the TV was on. During this time, there's usually some Dutch (Italian-dubbed) soap opera going on, complete with dramatic camera shots and weirdly dramatic faces. (Everything is dramatic in a soap opera, no matter what country.) But today, there were four women running around in wedding dresses.

And the words "luna di miele" were everywhere.

I stared at the TV for quite a while, trying to figure out what the moon ("luna") had to do with a wedding. In my brain there was no connection. I had to ask my host sister.

"The vacation," she said. "After the wedding."

OH.

"You mean a honeymoon?!" I exclaimed. Blank faces. And it hit me.

"Luna di miele" translated to "moon of honey"...switch that around and one gets "honeymoon."

D'oh moment of the day.

Day 54: Focaccia (A Recipe)

See, the real reason I'm in Italy is to steal recipes. I'm secretly here for a giant corporation which I can't name and I need to steal recipes to give them so the corporation can take over the world with good food.

Yep.

So, today I stole a focaccia recipe. Yum! Here it is.

Ingredients:
1/2 oz. active yeast
1 cup tepid water
1/4 cup olive oil (with some more for the pan and the top of the focaccia)
1 tbsp. salt
4.17 cups flour (or 500 grams; or a little over 4 cups)
Anything else you want to add (cheese, tomatoes, or basil to put on top; maybe rosemary to put inside?)

Directions:

1. Add yeast to water. Let the yeast do its thing and get all foamy.

2. Throw all that flour on a counter. Make a very large well in the flour. (When I say "very large," I mean, make it so you can see the counter. Make the flour a circular barrier. That's its real purpose here.)

3. Put the yeasty water in the well. Add the oil and the salt.

4. Start mixing the inside flour into the liquid. Keep the barrier intact though. You do not want that yeasty, salty, oily water all over your counter.

5. KNEAD THAT DOUGH. Stretch the dough out, roll it back up, turn it over, and do the same thing to the other side. You want the dough to be soft and smooth. Put the dough into a lightly oiled or floured bowl, cover it with a clean dishrag, and let it sit somewhere for 2 hours. The dough should be roughly doubled in size when you return.

6. Coat a circular pan with 1/8 - 1/4 inch of olive oil. Place the dough in the pan and press it to fit in the pan. Turn it over to coat other side in oil. Continue to stretch the dough until it fits the pan. Make sure you spread your fingers and make finger holes through the dough; dimpling the dough like this gives focaccia its look. Let sit for another hour.

7. Preheat over to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Sprinkle with salt and some more olive oil. Add any toppings. Bake the focaccia for about 20-25 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Let cool before serving!

Now there. Easy focaccia.

Day 47-48: Why I Can't Have Nice Things

See title. A more accurate title would be, Reason Why Kat Should Not Travel.

Let me explain.

So, yesterday I went to Genoa with another IU student. It was going to be a short day trip. We went and walked around and ate gelato and focaccia. It was good.

And then we decided to take a small trip to one of the coastal cities, Camogli.

It was absolutely beautiful. We sat on the coast and ate more gelato and generally had a lot of fun.

Of course, something has to go wrong. Things tend to happen when I travel. After a trip I usually have many weird, crazy stories.

We tried to get a train back to Voghera/Pavia. The train arrived early, but I asked a guy if the train was going to Milan (the end destination of Voghera/Pavia) and he said yeah, so we weren't worried.

We only got worried when we were still on the coast two hours later. Pavia/Voghera is no where near the coast; it's about a two hour drive there. So, we should have been home.

I called my host family. They said that I was probably on a local train, which stopped at every stop (true) and took two to three hours to get anywhere. We had been there two, going on three hours, so we decided that it would take all night to get home. So getting off the train and finding a regional/intercity train (one hour train ride, two hour car drive) was necessary.

But first: we had to figure out where we were and because it was late, make sure that there were regional trains leaving. So, I asked a lady where she was going. She said San Remo. I had to ask where that was. And she goes, "Near France."

We were on a train going in the complete opposite direction of where we needed to be.

We hopped off train at the next stop, one Diano Marina. There were no regional/intercity trains that night. There was one more train that night and it was going even further west. Great.

At this point we called Bee and asked her what to do. Getting a hotel room for the night and taking a train home the next morning was our only option. Thankfully, the area was very nice and there were quite a few hotels right outside the train station, so it worked out.

We also got to see the area a tiny bit before our train left the next morning. It was beautiful.

But there you go. The one time I try to travel and I get an adventure story instead. Yay.