The rest of the students departed for their independent travel on Saturday morning, so it has been very quiet around the villa. I had the bright idea this weekend that I would bake some banana bread, there are always tons of fruits and veggies around the villa and with everyone already gone I hated to see all the bananas go to waste. On Saturday evening I walked down to San Nicola, ordered some pizza, stopped by Carrefour to pick up some essentials for my baking project and food for the next few days.
Carrefour is so intimidating to me…. It would seem easy to locate what you need, but the labels aren’t very obvious, let alone I have no idea what some of them say. After I gathered what I needed, ground beef, tortilla shells, milk, coke and eggs, I made my way to the check out lane. They usually only have two lanes open and most of the time they are so busy that the lines make their way all the way down the one aisle. Italians do not respect each others space, which can be uncomfortable at times and there is never a rhyme or reason to the lines, this includes at mass when it comes to communion. I think as Americans we were always taught to stand in line when we were younger and that it is rude to cut someone off, these are not the rules in Italy 🙂
On Sunday morning I decided I would bake my banana bread, Nick and I both were so excited. Well I hate to report that the banana bread did not turn out, and we have no idea why. I confirmed that I had all my ingredients and while I was using ml instead of cups, I felt that my measurements were at least close. The only thing that we can figure is that maybe the oven was too hot, as I checked on my bread after about 30 minutes and it was bubbling over in the stove, making a mess of course, and was what I can only describe as burnt, cooked sugar 🙁 So into the garbage it went, we were both so disappointed! I reminded Nick that this is why I don’t cook / bake, it never seems to work out for me – ha ha!
The rest of the weekend we spent catching up on work – me on school work, Nick on grading and he is also writing a proposal for a conference. I am trying my best to get my school work for my last week of Health Law finished up because on Thursday we are flying to LONDON! I am so excited I can barely stand it. We figured if any city was going to be the best to get around on crutches, London would be it. I am so looking forward to getting away, even if for a couple days. I am looking forward to being able to speak English, drinking a GOOD beer (okay maybe a few) and just being away. There is an installation at the Serpentine Gallery that Nick was wanting to see, so we figured why not.
I am beyond excited and just hope that our trip won’t be too much on Nick. We thought about traveling out to Bath for a day trip, but unfortunately the only trips I could find this time of year also go to Stonehenge, which we really don’t have a desire to see. So we will hopefully plan to make another trip back in the Spring for a weekend and can do this then, if not no big deal. I have been researching the best bus tours, but might just choose an inexpensive one so that if we aren’t able to do too much we aren’t out too much money! If anyone has any suggestions as to what we should do, or places to eat, please leave a comment (if it will allow you) or shoot me an email! I can’t wait to update everyone about our trip.