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Monday, February 14, 2011

Another Exciting Week

            I have been very busy this past week and weekend, so here is an update! Last Monday, our school hosted are really cool wine tasting session, which was like an abbreviated version of my Wine and Culture class, so we were taught simple tips for tasting wine. The woman that held this session was our teacher for the W&C class, so it was really good to see what exactly we will be doing in the future, and she is very knowledgeable about the wines of Italy.  We learned that people that know wine will only hold the wine glasses by the stem, as to not warm up the wine with the heat of your hand (which I had no idea). We also learned that you should first be able to look at the color and tell if it is good. If the color is too brown, for either whites or reds, then it has been in the bottle too long. After assessing the appearance of the wine, you are to smell it and get the preliminary thoughts of the wine, as to its flavor and what you may taste once you do taste the wine. Finally comes the tasting, and that is self-explanatory.  Taste, and see what you taste, and determine through all of that analysis whether you like it for legitimate reasons, based on what we learned.   The first was a really light and fruity white wine,  which had a bit of a sour apple taste. However, we were able to try a delicious type of prosciutto with it, and the saltiness of the meat with the wine complimented each other and was so tasty! We then tried a red wine, which had a very strong taste, and very earthy. We were able to try a type of cheese with this wine, and the two paired together were absolutely delicious! It was overall a fantastic intro to what the class will teach us, in addition to more about the different regions and how the wines from each region of Italy differ. The teacher also gave us recommendations of inexpensive wine bars that we should try, each having a different atmosphere to them. Overall a very informative experience!
            Tuesday was interesting, because my Travel Writing class all went to a performance of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. This was not something I would have liked to spend my money on in Rome, because it was definitely something I could see in Chicago. This play was in English, and despite the great talent in the play, it was 3 hours of my time that could have been put to better use. I love theater, but I didn't think it was necessary to have us attend this production. I think what she wanted us to do is get out and experience something, because one of our assignments every week is to have a certain number of pages of a travel writing journal of all that we do. It was a good idea, just not exactly something we were all interested in doing in Italy. 
            Wednesday was an extremely fun night. There hasn't been a time that me and all of my 5 other roommates had been in the same city on a weekend (yes, Wednesday is a weekend night for me!), so we all bonded and got dinner, then proceeded to talk for hours at the restaurant. One of my roommates, Melissa, is from Mexico, and she had mentioned a few days before this to us that she wanted to find a Salsa bar to go dancing. So, we found one not too far away from our apartment, and all went together. I was really nervous about going, because the only dancing I know is Irish dancing, much much different from any other types of dancing. However, my roommate Melissa knew a little, and taught me some simple steps. The place we went was such an interesting place, there were two big rooms with stages where, during the "real" weekends, live bands perform, and very good couples or even single dancers come to dance and practice their steps. There is not only salsa that was being danced, but may other types of dances. There were a few couples there that had very clearly danced for a long time, and watching them was extremely interesting, with the way they moved and the intricate steps they performed. We danced for a few hours before exhaustion hit us, and went home with some great new bonds formed. We are all extremely different, but we all get along very very well. What a great end to our school "week"! More on the weekend to come...
            
xoxo, Erica

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