More time with the Branch, church bells, and Muster

Sunday, 4/20/03
Our example and conduct may be the only standard works a person ever reads. ~Anziano Cascone

Fratello Zuppardo invited me to their house for lunch, so here I am. On the way here he told me, "I speak English like a Switzerland cow!" Then, they say p-ssichology. It was really funny.

I now know all the Zuppardo children's names. Gabriele and Michele are teenagers. I don't know if I spelled their names correctly, probably not. Then Ginevra and Arianna just turned 12, then there is Evans who is 8, Selene who is almost 5, and Alexia who is 2. This afternoon was so much fun. We had a huge lunch, the Zuppardos, Anziani Bond and Lee, Anna and her parents, and me. We had pasta, of course, but Fratello Zuppardo wouldn't eat it because he burned the sauce a little bit. Then we had rabbit and lamb meat. The rabbit was pretty good, though tough, but I didn't really like the lamb. Then we had salad, then finally the family brought out 10 enormous Easter eggs. They were each about 10 inches tall! They had toys inside, but they weren't Kinder Eggs. I guess toy eggs are the real Easter thing in Italy. The chocolate was good. Then Sorella Zuppardo brought out some big dessert breads. One was really good; it had dried arancio [orange--had to look that one up!] inside, and almonds on the top. Sorella Zuppardo made me take a bag of chocolate home with me.

After dinner I went with Anna, Ginevra, Arianna, as well as the Anziani, Michele and Evans to the pond. The three girls did a funny pose for me, we threw rocks in the water, we fenced with sticks, and I told them how to make recycled paper. Oh, Selene and Alexia went too, on the Anziani's shoulders. We had to constantly keep Alexia from falling in the water, until finally she fell face down in the mud.

When we got back, the three girls sang with the karaoke box the twins got for their birthday last week. Then I was about to fall asleep on the sofa, when Anziano Bond said it was time to go. I started writing on the train home, but a man was trying to talk to me. He was originally from Romania. He wrote near the back of this book, "I love you my family."

Monday, 4/21/03
Though the church bells wake me from my deep slumber, I still love them. At the beginning they reminded me of The Sound of Music. Now they don't so much anymore; rather, The Sound of Music bells may in the future remind me of Castiglion Fiorentino. I don't even know how often they ring. Sometimes, on special occasions, it's every fifteen minutes.

I'm glad I didn't go to Cortona today; it's rainy and chilly outside, though beautiful. Last night I accidentally swallowed some toothpaste. That reacted very badly with my overeating, so my limbs felt feverish and I felt nauseous. I dropped into bed as soon as possible, at 10:40 and slept until 9:30. Then I read the four accounts of Easter in the Bible for an hour, then tried to read about Mannerism in my textbook, but went back to sleep. The bells woke me up thirty minutes later. My dreams mingled with my thoughts on how to retell the story of "The Black Bull of Norroway".

Wednesday, 4/23/02
What has been up with me and journaling the past two day? I'm not really depressed, but I'm in the bottom half of the emotional scale and I have no idea why. Maybe I'm realizing that, though I'm itching like nothing else to get home, I'm going to miss Italy so much. When I got here nothing took me by surprise, the mountainous setting, etc. That was because I had no expectations. But I know that once I'm home and I realize little things that Italy has and the U.S. doesn't, I'm going to want to come back.

To continue with Monday, right after dinner we had a Muster in the dining hall The best part was the yell practice at the end. All the graduating seniors led the yells, and Marty and Kelly got up on the table. After that, Valerie and I watched Dead Poets Society and cried.