7/4 Watermelon, Ricotta, and Police Cars (Get it? Red, white and blue!!!)

I always write these starting at the morning.  Most of the time I write these during the day, before I go out.  How many times have I ended with, “Time for dinner!”?  Well let’s break that cycle.  So last night Irene, Rachelle, Naker, Claire, Lexy and I went out to dinner.  Emmanuelle joined us, then Alfredo showed up.  Huge party of us!  We went to a pizzeria right by Lexy and my apartment.  There is another pizzeria around there that sells pizza by the slice that I frequent for dinner (like I did tonight).  That one is run by the son, and the one we went to for dinner is run by the dad.  Really neat how small town this place is.  We had enough Italian influence in this crowd, so we went for three courses.  The appetizers were awesome.  There was one with meats on it (I was one of two non vegetarians, so yeah for me!) with some fried veggies, another with bread with different toppings, and my personal favorite, ricotta and honey.  I was so hesitant to try this, I’m not a big cheese lover.  But Emmanuelle asked in his sweet broken English voice, and I couldn’t turn those blue eyes down.  That man is awesome.  That’s my new favorite food.  Pizza for dinner, I got a proscuitto and mushroom pizza.  Super good.  I really like proscuitto, I better be able to find some good stuff in the states.  Then a few deserts got passed around.  One thing I’m really noticing about sweets here, they aren’t that sweet.  Extremely good, but not all that sweet.  I can see why they don’t have such an addiction like we do to sweets, the less sweet stuff I have the less I want.  Everything just tastes so much better.

After dinner we went for a small walk.  I eventually found a little three piece band to watch while the others got some drinks.  I love the differences in these bands.  This set had a guitar, a tambourine, and a box.  Yes, a box.  This is the second time I’ve seen someone playing a box.  He did get out a kazoo once.  Alfredo tried to explain to me that it’s an old “instrument,” a more basic drum.  He also explained that this is native music, which made sense with his earlier explanation of the Rome area.  Not as over the top as the southern Italy music, but certainly not acoustic as I tried to explain to him.  I stayed till about 12 (crazy, I know!) then went home.  It was a good night.

Today was another lab day.  However after the typical morning of cleaning cores and putting the organic material in vials, I got to do something different.  So far the majority of what we’ve been doing is looking for organic material in order to find a date.  Scott also wants to look at the samples and find out how much carbon is contained in them.  To do this we pulled out the “archive” side of the core.  You may remember the core is divided into two, one with a U channel cut out that was sent to the Magnetic guys and the rest is sifted out, and the archive side which is kept just in case.  We measured this out, then at every 10 centimeters we took out a 1.25 mL sample.  This was funny, Scott said he has to bring the measuring spoons from home cause you can’t buy them in Italy.  They don’t measure when cooking.  So this sample was put into a crucible.  Crucibles are little dishes that are heat resistant, so just think of it as a mini casserole dish.  The crucibles are weighted before the sample is put in it, then after.  This gives just the sample weight before  the next part.  

Next the sample then goes into an oven where they sit for a few hours.  I’m not sure the temperature on this oven, I’m getting so lost in Celsius vs Farenheight .  The job of this oven is to dry them out, and since the Italian sun isn’t as hot and dry as the Nevada sun, they use an oven.  After the drying process they are then put into a much hotter oven for approximately and hour (depending on when they can open the oven, it’s got a silly safety feature!)  This burns off all the organic matter, so all the carbon.  The samples can then be weighed again, and the resulting difference is the weight of the organic matter.  So far Scott and I have only created 22 samples, they were in the first oven when the go bell rang.  I won’t be around tomorrow to see them be finished. 


After the samples I got to Skype with Drew.  He was so perfect this morning!!!  He asked me why I was here, which of course was hard to hear.  I told him I was here getting stuff for him, and I asked him what he wanted.  That little boy always surprises me when he comes back with perfectly formulated sentences.  He asked, “What do they have there?”  I gave him a few ideas, and he wanted the last suggestion.  I said I’d get him a hug.  So we ‘hugged’.  Hard being away from him.  Told him I’d be back in 7 days, so he showed me on his fingers how many that was.  Then he got excited when I told him we’d have two solid weeks together when I get back.  Not sure if that’s enough time with him, but it’s all I have!!!  He blew me some kisses, then had to get ready to see Despicable Me 2 with his cousin.  Love that he’s having so much fun.


Claire and Lexy were waiting for me when I finished.  We had a shopping trip home.  Lexy ran to a soccer shop while Claire and I went to Polozzi’s.  Polozzi’s is one of the best bakeries in Viterbo.  There is another one I like too, but different types of pastries.  Claire and I picked up these AWESOME cookies, they are gluten free made of almond flour, pine nuts, orange zest...  Remember when I said their stuff here isn’t all that sweet?  They are still absolutely delicious.  Starting to feel that all that sweet stuff really hides the flavor.  We hit a couple other shops, one being a small “toy” store.  It’s not really a toy store, but there’s lots of toy cars.  I picked up a police car for Drew (that’s a surprise!  No telling him!!).  As I was walking out that exact model police car drove by.  Too funny!


Lexy decided to go home at this point, and Claire and I were going to hit up a produce store and try to find some cheese.  I love the produce here.  It’s all fresh, local, and not modified.  Sure, you aren’t going to get strawberries you can live in, but these are sooo much better.  She got a bag full of produce for three euros, I picked up some cherry tomatoes and a watermelon.  I ate the tomatoes as we wandered around the city.  That watermelon is sitting by my feet.  Love watermelon...  The cheese shop was closed, so we just kept walking around.  I love how it doesn’t matter how many times I walk down a street it still takes my breath away.  I’m really going to miss the view and the walks when I get home.  I’ll have to find a substitute.  But anyways, cheese!!!  I have to get some Ricotta and honey!  Thinking I may go tomorrow morning.  It was amazing at that restaurant.

So, now that brings me to now.  I’m not going to say I’m going to get dinner, cause I’ve already eaten.  I got a piece of pizza at the son’s pizza by the slice place.  Watched a little Jazz band for a bit in Piazza del Giseu, and then came home.  I’m looking forward to some sleep tonight.  Tomorrow Lexy and I are meeting Roberta, an English teacher here at the local high school.  We are getting a tour of the school.  I’m so excited!!!  I should have lots to report then.  (Not like this is really short!)