Food Lust

I told Vale that I want to learn how to cook, and she said good!  I should join her in the kitchen.  And then she said, in a conspiratorial manner, that it's a "strategy" of Italian women to know how to cook well, because if a man is "goloso" (has lust for, is crazy for a food) and you can cook it well, then, well--you've got him.  So watch out, men:  Julia's about to learn some stuff.  Also, the reason I want to know Italian is that it has words like "goloso."

I am golosa for pasta, chocolate, espresso, and salt.  In case you were wondering.  Clearly I am in the right place.

English lessons are going swimmingly and our period of shyness is coming to an end.  Some of Ginni's particular favorite language activities are hangman (gioca dell'impiccato) and tongue-twisters (scioglilingua--melt, unravel, release the tongue! I am my own translator...).  "Trentatré Trentini entrarono a Trento, tutti e trentatré, trotterellando."  Good luck.  Or as we say here, in the mouth of the wolf!

Last night over arancello and cookies Vale confessed that before I got here, Ginni desperately wanted to know whether I'd be "bella o brutta."  I was relieved to learn that, upon seeing me at the airport, Ginni decreed that I passed the test with flying colors: "bella!"  Phew.  These things are important to 10 year old Italian girls.

Snow, snow, snow in Bologna.


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