Trick or Treat!

Well it is now November, and I have officially been here over a month which does not seem possible! Niraj has been here over 2 months and it's amazing how fast time is going. Fall is in full swing with cooler temperatures, changing leaves, and a sense that winter is just around the corner.

We had a fantastic Halloween weekend, especially considering Italians don't really do Halloween. The city's only festivities consisted of a few ghosts hanging from lampposts on random streets and stores putting up a few spiderwebs and plastic pumpkins in their windows (which by the way is very misleading when you're looking for Halloween goodies because that does not mean they actually sell Halloween stuff). We did manage to carve a pumpkin out here though!

Saturday we actually had a Deep Dish Pizza Party (which I know all you Seattle-ites will appreciate!!). We made our famous deep dish pizzas from scratch for some friends of ours. We had 3 pizzas for 4 Americans, 1 Colombian, 2 Canadians, and an Englishman... and we couldn't help but wonder what an Italian would think of the gigantic pizzas! It was a great night, the pizza was fantastic, and below is a picture of Niraj anxious to sink his teeth into them.


Sunday night the entire school got costumed-up for the big annual Halloween party. It was a great time, and there were some fanstastic costumes. It was impressive how creative people were and how much everyone enjoyed getting all dressed up! I was a gypsy-pirate and was quite proud of how my thrown-together costume turned out. Niraj was a street vendor selling roses. For those of you who have not been to Italy, there are always Indian men out in the streets at night with roses for 1 euro each. They walk up to your table in restaurants and also just approach you on the street. So Niraj threw on tennis shoes, a beanie, and a wool scarf, bought some plastic roses, and proceeded to approach everybody at the party (without saying a word) to try to get them to buy his roses. He was a HUGE HIT!!! Everybody loved it and thought it was hysterical, and he even won 2nd place in the costume contest! It was hilarious, especially when a "real" rose vendor walked into the party (you can see him in the pictures). So, needless to say we had a fantastic time!

Halloween Pictures ... Boo!

Other than that, things are still moving along. We went out to a nice dinner the other night at a little Trattoria and had amazing Tortellini Bolognese and Lasagna Verdi. We are getting anxious for Thanksgiving and many of the Americans are trying to figure out how to make a traditional Thanksgiving feast. I'm sure it'll be interesting, and I'll let everyone know how it turns out. We have some more day trips planned for the near future, and we are also hoping to put together a short trip for New Years... any suggestions on where to go??

So until next time, enjoy fall, stay warm, and keep in touch... ciao!