life the last few weeks has been a normal rhythm of school and weekends in rho, punctuated by evenings of spritz and wine, a trip to cremona, and english lessons. the last couple of weeks at the rho/milan convention center there was the 'fiera dell'artigianato', a massive, incredible fair complete with food and craft booths and restaurants from all the different regions of italy and the rest of the world, as well as businesses and companies advertising their wares. simo and the guys in the house were hosting two sardinian guys who were at the fair with their sardinian booth, so we went to the fair a couple of times and each time stopped off at the sards' booth for some huge chunks of pecorino and wine, and always went away happy and glowing thanks to the latter. i am obsessed with pecorino cheese and this fair was my paradiso, as you can taste about a million kinds of pecorino as well as other foods. the sard's gave me some major discounts on a couple of amazing chunks of pecorino, and i bought about a kilo of provola from another vendor, along with some other traditional food items from different regions. the fair was so big that we spent about a cumulative 12 hours there over two weekends and would have needed another 3 weekends like that to see it all.
this week is the last push before the holidays. four more teachings days and then i'm off from the 19th to the 8th. i'll be in rho for the holidays, and then we might be going to tino's place in the terme for new years. vacation will be spent sleeping, reading, relaxing, cooking, baking christmas goodies, a bit of traveling if my budget permits, and hopefully starting an online TEFL course. i'm also moving out of my apartment on friday, so my room is in a state of mild disarray as i pack up yet again. simo's going to come get me and all my stuff on friday, but hopefully i'll be able to leave all but what i'm going to use over the holidays at the new place so my two giant 100-pound-each suitcases don't have to spend the holidays with me.
i'm also scheming as to what i want to take from the apartment. basically the landlord, amidst the continual dramatic apartment saga from day one, has told us she won't reimburse us for a 150 euro pipe we had to replace in the heater. without going into the complex mathematical aspects of the situation, we're refusing to pay for the pipe as well as the rent which we're giving directly to bog, one of my roommates, so if the landlord dips into bog's very hefty apartment deposit, he'll still have his money. we've worked our way around it by deciding that if the landlord wants to take money away from us, we'll just take bog's money back in stuff, ie pay bog. so far i'm buying a couple of mattresses, some kitchen items, and maybe some chairs for the new apartment. this is sort of how things work around here; tu inculi me, io inculo te, especially when you don't have a signed contract. i'll just be glad to be in the new place with nate, where we know the landlord, will pay ridiculously low rent, be in the center of the city, and where there will be many-a frequent dinner over good food, wine, and company.
and while around here you learn that it can all change in the blink of an eye, for now that is life in this little corner of crema.
