Extra Photos, Small Update

So I know I'm "studying abroad" and I'm trying to get hip to all of this "language immersion" and actually "speaking italian" but honestly, it's really hard enough to know how to use a blog in my own birth language as well as having to work my way through Italian computer language, which in truth makes no sense. But I keep trying, and with two weeks down and one week remaining of intensive Italian, I am praying that I'll be able to communicate my way through this gosh darn website.

Last night there was a grand discussion at the dinner table about whether or not leather was made from cows. First, I tried to convey to them that "domani io compro (un sac, oh Hello French!) per me. Now, that really makes no sense. Tomorrow I buy a backpack for me. Okay whatever I tried, they got it. Then I tried to describe leather, because they didn't know that word. And the only way I could think of it was this way: cow. Tizie, from upstairs (she had run to get her dictionary/iPhone) and Rita sitting at the dinner table, at the same time screamed: MUCCA?! Well in Italian, cow is mucca, and my two sisters had no idea that leather (pelle) comes from cows.
I felt like such a jerk to be the first one to tell them. Well, the discussion went on, Rita gave me a short lecture on how they don't own much leather, and that if the clerk at a store ever said "This is cow leather", she would throw up her hands and refuse it. Suddenly Tizie perks up from her iPhone: "A COW HAS FOUR STOMACH!" And the laughter ensues.
Finally, we get to the answer. Leather as they knew it, yes, came from animals, but not specifically "cows"--and more specifically, they come from bovine!

I did not have the heart to tell them, though, exactly what bovines are.

Nevertheless, it all ended in laughter, and I promised to show them the bag the next day, so they could fully examine the "cow-leather-bag" I was treating myself to.

(read backwards) Italian: Espresso! (blue beginners version)

So hopefully with my new cow leather bag, I can give up any attempts at being true to animal activism, and I maybe even brush up on some more Italian.

So along with all these exciting adventures that make normal life in Italy extraordinary to the American abroad, I have some extra photos from the cooking class I took last Thursday, in which we made all kinds of pasta, pasta, pasta! (As seen in my last post)

Hands of the owner, who spoke no English--but luckily, folding tortelli is pretty straight forward.

And so it all comes together, gnocchi, tortelli, biscotti, and pici! It was really a delicious meal. 

Tomorrow I head with my school to the wonderful town of San Gimignano, so hopefully you'll seeing another post from me soon!

Greetings and Salutations,
(Re)Becca