Fall into Fall!

Fall has officially arrived in Bologna (seemed like overnight the temperature dropped 30 degrees), and it is fantastic. The sun is shining everyday and it is nice and cool outside. It's strange not seeing lots of scarecrows and carved pumpkins though! The Italians just need to get into Fall and Halloween more I guess...

Niraj is still keeping busy with his classes and is starting to have papers and presentations pile up. He's taking two econ classes, an American Foreign Policy class, a class on Science and Technology and policy-making, and Spanish. The students here are really starting to get more into the program, and it seems like every get-together sparks some discussion or debate! I told him the other day how weird it is to have these types of discussions now and how it's even stranger that I have not run into another engineer since coming here! My Italian class started last week, and I love it. The class is very intense, and my teacher walked in on the first day saying how that was the only English we would hear all semester. The class is really small though, and I'm hoping to learn a lot.

We had a fantastic weekend hanging out with the friends that we are making through SAIS. On Saturday we explored the Bologna Flea Market which was unlike anything I have ever seen! The market takes over an entire piazza every Friday and Saturday, and the tents seem to go on forever in all directions. They have the standard flea market junk (kitchenwares, knick-knacks, etc) but they also have nice clothes, shoes and anything you could ever need. So, that was definitely a great find. Saturday night some friends had a BBQ which was a great opportunity to eat some good food, get to know people better, and just relax. Then last night, to cap off the weekend, I decided to try some real home cooked Italian food and not just the "instant" meals we've been eating (which are also quite yummy by the way). I made Spaghetti Carbonera with pancetta, fresh Spaghetti noodles, and fresh Parmesan cheese. It was fantastic!!

So, overall things are falling into place more and more each day. We are always looking into more weekend trips and have some exciting things coming up. On Friday we are going to Verona to hear Andrea Bocelli, and November is slowly filling up with chocolate festivals and a potential trip to Vienna (keep your fingers crossed that one works out).

We miss everyone and love hearing what is going on back in the States so keep us posted!

Ciao!
Danielle