Le Fatine "The Fairies"

Ciao Tutti!

Wow, time flies! It's already midterms week. I cannot believe I am half way done with the semester. Today, I took my reading, speaking, and listening exam for my Italian class and it went very well! I was even able to have a nice conversation with my professor only in Italian! Tomorrow is the actual final exam, and then Monday, I already start a new class for the next level Italian. So there has been some changes with the weather lately. When the semester started, we were warned that it really starts to get cold after October 15th, well guess what?? Literally, the day of the 15th it was such a difference in temperature. I am now waking up and going to bed chilly, I need to wear socks all the time in the apartment, and I think I will probably need to invest in some heavier clothing (especially for December and January when it starts to snow). I like this cold weather though; it's definitely a change from Arizona- plus dressing in warm clothing is the cutest! ;) 

Something I have really noticed: when Italians want to honk their horn at someone, they are seriously so dramatic and obnoxious with it! Is that even necessary? I think not. Anyways, I had my Italian cuisine class this Monday. It was wonderful once again! One of the dishes we prepared was bruschetta, with an assortment of different toppings. First the usual: fresh garlic, tomato, basil, and olive oil. Then, I got to try something quite unique, I would say. Are you ready for this? Chicken liver and hearts! Yuck, right? It definitely sounds better in Italian "Fegatini di Pollo". Well, it actually wasn't as bad as you'd expect, surprisingly good (when you don't think into what you are actually eating). Trust me, I was so nervous to try it. Imagine raw liver and chicken hearts being brought out on the table for you to prepare to cook. Hmm?? It was all sautéed in a pan of fresh onions, garlic, olive oil, butter, and sage leaves. Then, with a splash of brandy, we lit it on fire and cooked it until the flame burnt out!

Yes, this is what you think... the heart. 

Something else we got to enjoy was the dessert! "Semifreddo al Torrone". This was something similar to ice-cream, only of a tougher consistency. Torrone translates to "Nougat", which is a candy made from sugar or honey, roasted almonds or hazelnuts, and egg whites. We crumbled this nougat into the mix layer by layer and it was set into the freezer to become more like ice-cream. The name of this dessert "semifreddo" means partially cold, so to make this complete, we drizzled our homemade hot chocolate sauce over the top. The final outcome was amazing and seconds were something we all couldn't resist. Here is a picture of it so you all understand what I am talking about! :) Looks wonderful, right?!

Caprese was another important dish we prepared for the evening. It turned out beautiful and so delicious! I never liked tomatoes back home, but really, they are different here. So fresh and just much more tasty in Italy! ;) As you can see this is mixed with an assortment of tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, fresh basil leaves, and oil, salt and pepper to top it off. Molto delizioso! 

So I am sure all of you are probably curious about the title of this blog post, "The Fairies". Well, as of last week, I have had the opportunity to volunteer at an elementary school to help the children learn English! There are a few of us girls from the program who volunteered to do this and it's been such an awesome opportunity! The Italian teachers have loved having us there as well, especially because they barely speak any English. Well our first day, we meet the director of the school and hear that she told the kids we were all special, magical fairies from a fairytale coming to help them learn English! Because of this all the children were so excited to meet us! Cutest thing ever! The little girls would just stand there and stare up at you with such wide eyes. Kids are so smart though; they noticed that our wings were missing. They were told that we hide them under our clothes when we come into the school, and then use them to fly away once we are back outside. ;) They love us, it's so cute! So, the first day we spent time singing and teaching them simple songs like "Itsy Bitsy Spider" or "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes". Then today, I went to help out in the morning rather than the afternoon, and we worked on a craft making suns, they are learning about colors- like a blue sky, yellow sun, etc. It's so much fun and this is a great opportunity for me since I am going to school to become an elementary school teacher! 

Something else I have been doing over these past couple of weeks is exploring more of Torino. I visited Palazza Madama (a royal palace now filled with it's history and art) and went inside the main castle of Piazza Castello! The garden of this place had to be my favorite! It was beautiful and peaceful and green everywhere. Here are some photos so you can see for yourself! 

I LOVE strawberries, so I was really excited to find these fragolini growing in the garden! 

Finally, I can't forget about the gelato! This week my roommate and I were really craving homemade cookies and cookie dough! We were going to bake some, but it was a little more difficult than we expected to find every ingredient in the recipe at our local supermarket. Instead, we discovered a gelato flavor from one of the most popular gelaterias in Torino, "Grom". It was the Italian version of cookie dough ice-cream! :) This time, I got a mix of that along with stracciatella! It wasn't exactly the cookie dough we had in mind (more like a cookie crumble), but it sure did satisfy our tastebuds!