2 Days Down

Today was my second day of culinary school. We haven't actually touched any food yet, we've been having full day intensive Italian language classes which honestly bore me to death. I'm one of the only people in the class that can actually speak the language already, which gives me a boost for sure but also means that I spend most of the day reviewing the basics. They already broke our class down into two groups, the people with absolutely no language skills and those of us with at least some knowledge. Out of us "advanced" language students our teacher, this gorgeous wild-haired Italian woman named Stefania has separated us even further. Four of us have been given an even more advanced curriculum due to the fact that we are already conversational if not fluent. Out of this tiny selection I am the only female, and the only one who has no Italian heritage.

Yesterday after our first long day of Italian language class a majority of us were giddy with excitement and decided to wander together to a nearby bar to celebrate. It was a good way to break any ice and get the ball rolling on being new-found best friends. After all, we will be spending seven months together five days a week in a hot kitchen in New York and then living together in the dorms in Colorno. It's safe to say that if we didn't like each other it was going to make this experience much less comfortable. Thank god we all clicked right away. We are definitely a group of extroverts, after one or two beers we were all laughing and chatting like old buddies. Almost everyone went home about an hour or so in, save for five of us. The obvious misfits. There was Chelsea, definitely already my pick for roommate when we move over to Italy. She's a cute 22-year-old University of North Carolina grad who seems to share with me a good sense of humor and an active drinking schedule. We're going to get along just fine I can tell, it will be nice to have a girlfriend to buddy up to during all this. Also included in our group of stragglers was Uda, a chill ass hell Puerto Rican kid who can shoot the shit and crack jokes just like I'm like used to at the restaurant. There were two other guys, Nick and one that I really can't remember the name of at the moment. Both fun, eager to get right into the food talk, and outgoing. Nick is in my Italian class and we already have been exchanging glances of abject boredom during class when we review once again the definite articles.

Tomorrow we get our knives and our first crack at the kitchen. I can't describe how excited I am. It's going to be a half day of kitchen time and half of language class in the afternoon. We start at 11am which will be nice, but I'm exhausted from my 6am start this morning so it's time to hit the sack.

Buona notte.