The Weekend

Friday was spent typing up my print story so that I could turn it in before Monday's deadline. My story on the economic impact of the Cagli Project allowed me to play the part of both business and political reporter. I definitely got out of my comfort zone because my favorite beat is definitely the education beat, and more specifically urban schools. On Thursday I interviewed one of the Vice Mayors here in Cagli. The Vice Mayor was a very interesting person to interview with the help of my translater Natalia (Nat-ta-lee-yuh). He basically said that the presence of us students did not make as big an impact as we would like to believe it does, even though groups come year after year. It was important to have his voice in the story, and I have no problem with his perspective. It was interesting to note his demeanor and how he was rather brash. My interpreter Natalia who is from Rome and not Cagli, wholeheartedly agreed when I said, "A politician is a politician no matter where you go."

She is so funny.

We were pounding the pavement again on Friday when I interviewed individual merchants including a cafe owner, a gelateria owner, and the owner of a sunglass shop. It was interesting to get their opinions and also to pick Natalia's brain. As we exited the sunglass shop, I didn't realize that the door was heavy, but swung rather freely. When I opened the door I almost hit her.
As we walked down the street towards the piazza, I asked her about her relationship with the other interpreters. I then asked if they "Talked about us crazy Americans."

"No, no," she said.

"We only talk about crazy Americans who try to kill you," she said referring to me and the incident with the door.

I filed my story Friday night.

After that I went for a celebratory glass of something, but I don't remember what I had.

On Saturday I slept in, I was glad I had that option. A majority of the students made the trip to Florence, I was among five students who didn't make the trip. We chilled out, and two of the students finished their stories. I then later during the day met up with one of the professors. She had offered to cook me dinner, because we had been amongst two of the people taking cooking classes here in Cagli.

I was happy to have a home cooked meal in my temporary home. She made gnocchi with red meat sauce(ragu). It was delish.
Since she didn't exactly follow directions, she gave her dish a new name, "soul gnocchi" (pronounced know-key, not nookey).

After that we drunk tea and chit chatted. Red Label tea is the bomb diggity. I will be buying some of that when I get back stateside.

After our tea and chit chatting about all things journalism, all things higher ed, all things HBCU's, all things related to our trip, we went out.

We joined another professor and two of his friends for a visit to Cagli's theatre. The theatre was home to a annual spring choral exhibition. I was encouraged to go because it would allow me to see the inside of the beautiful theatre. It was a wise decision on my part. The view from one of the private boxes was exquisite, the music was good (a few George Gershwin songs done in nearly understandable English LoL), and some tasty treats afterwards.

After that we headed to a cafe and then to a wine bar, where I encountered a stalker situation, which I don't feel like recounting, but maybe later.

Today aka Sunday was fun. I woke up at 8:15am in order to meet the group at 9:45 to take a bus to Fano. It was an improvement over last weekend when I slept, slept, slept.

Fano is a beautiful city on the coast of the Adriatic. I mean beautiful view of beautiful blue water, beautiful blue skies. I mean in the words of JJ from "Good Times" dynomite. I am not a beach person, but I laid and got me some sun. It has been so cold here in Cagli, I needed the heat. We arrived at near 11, and after walking through the open market, we headed for the beach. It was most certainly relaxing.

Tonight I saw a bit of the "Miss Mondo" paegant and had dinner with one of my fellow students Greg.

I'll definitely be turning in early tonight. Mind you early is before 2am. I am so proud of myself.

Ciao.