Hodge-podge kind of day

Because I have been most neglectful in posting, this one is a bit of a hodge-podge. (Blame Rutgers football and its craziness this past week for my negligence. And now that NSD is over and all the LOIs have been faxed, I can relax, breathe, and wait for the next shoe to drop on this program... Oh, wait... PJ Fleck just got a job at NIU... nevermind. I can... uh, wait with anticipation for the rest of the assistants to be named?)

[To everyone who doesn't know what NSD or LOI is: National Signing Day and Letter of Intent. It's for college football recruiting... if you didn't know you most likely don't care. So carry on!]

So basically, I was glued to my laptop for the past 6 days often feeling like this.

 [Kind of like Randy in It's a Wonderful Life...]

Anyway, last weekend I went to Parma with a bunch of my new friends. Yes, Parma as in the place where Parmesan cheese comes from. It's actually called Parmigiano-Reggiano here, because it's from Parma and Reggio Emilia. In Parma you can buy Parmesan cheese like this... if you're willing to sell that nice arm of yours.

Of course in the States, it would cost you that nice leg you use to get around as well...

Parma was pretty cool. We started out at the market. Two highlights. Highlight #1: I got wool socks, so now my ankles aren't cold and my toes don't freeze in the 5 inches of snow we got today (more on this later).

Highlight #2:

Yes, those are bras. Strung up like a banner... in a street market.

We also got to see this really amusing statue.

This week we started content classes. I am taking: Contemporary Italian History, Italian Cinema and Dare voce al silenzio (Women Writers in Italian Literature... trust me, not my first choice...). They are all taught in Italian. So far, so good.

Of course, I still had time to go to my new favorite restaurant in Ferrara and grab pizzas with the girls.

This one is bufalina. It's a more concentrated form of mozzarella. And pretty tasty I must say. I love Slurp!

Today, I decided to do some baking because it was so snowy that I couldn't even get you a picture from the apartment window...

... and you have to dress like this

...to survive out there. My roommate thinks it isn't that bad outside... but she's from Minneapolis, so her opinion on winter weather almost doesn't count. I would be here to experience the coldest Ferrarese winter in 27 years. -__-

What an adventure baking in Europe is! No spatula or baking sheets in the apartment and no baking soda or chocolate chips to be found in the supermarket. All about improvising. Although something just doesn't seem right if I have to work with stuff like this...

In place of (from left to right) baking powder, packed brown sugar, chocolate chips, sugar, and flour, but I can find things like this in the supermarket instead.

You can buy Scotch tape!! Something seems wrong with this picture... "Toto, I don't think we're in the Kansas [or the US for that matter] anymore.") Oh, I almost forgot the vanilla extract--actually, it's vanilla "aroma." Teehee!

This plus my little kitchen ingredients scale make me feel like a mad scientist making crazy chocolate chip cookies with only half a recipe, no Kitchenaide and these huge casserole dishes in place of baking sheets.

They didn't come out half bad, though. Not my usual quality, but they taste like chocolate and cookie, so maybe all my wishing paid off!

The super-secret Sandberg chocolate chip cookie recipe had a few more outstanding ingredients that were impossible to find in the baking aisle, so don't feel too jealous that you're missing out on this batch. My roommate has taken to calling me mom since the cookies were warm and gooey when she got home. She thought they were good. And threatened to eat all but two by morning when I said she could have some more if she wanted. So I guess they weren't all bad.

I will leave you with this gem from the train to Parma.

I understand the message... I just don't get the image. Diagrams are not the Italians' strongpoint apparently. Although they do provide entertainment for us foreigners!