help a cuppycake in need

i don't know if i mentioned this or not, but the other day renato and nathalie had a very interesting couple over for dinner. they both used to work as chefs and now the husband is a painter (he took my picture so he can paint sometime!) and the wife does catering and also teaches cooking courses. the purpose of the dinner was for them to come over and check out the house to see if we can have a sort of competition here. the competition will be for all of the pupils of the course which nathalie attends (around fifty or so) and it's kind of like a final exam for all of them. so that i don't feel left out renato has invited me to prepare something for the competition as well. i'm quite nervous. there will be about 100 people here (about 50 students and their friends/family). that's a lot.
renato suggested that i make something that is traditionally american... but since america is pretty much a mixture of every other place in the world, that is kind of difficult. when i think american food i think burgers and fries... but making a sampling of burgers isn't as simple as it may sound. tiny buns aren't easy come by. especially in a country where people don't even eat hamburgers. finding the perfect thing isn't going to be easy. and unfortunately i don't really know much about cooking... but what i do know is cute. i will probably be spending the next few days scouring the bakerella website. i saw these mini burger and fries trays the other day, but as adorbale as they look, they don't look particularly tasty... a brownie between two sugar cookies is a bit much for me. anyway, if you have any suggestions about something cute, simple, and delicious i could make PLEASE feel free to send them my way.
ciao!

cuppycake polish.

just a quick update: you may notice that i have removed my twitter feed from the sidebar. if you follow my tweets or are my facebook friend you may have seen me posting about my low twibido...
back home i generally only used twitter from my phone. here in italy i have disabled data roaming on my phone because it is something like $19.95 per megabyte received (CRAZY!)... which means i cannot access twitter on my dear, sweet iphone. so i will probably not be tweeting at all over the summer... rending that particular widget totally useless for my page.
and, if you are perceptive enough to have notice the disappearance of my twitter widget, you have probably noticed its replacement, mr. formspring widget. formspring widget, meet cuppycake followers. followers, meet formspring widget. feel free to use mr. formspring widget to ask me anything, blog-related or not (though i would prefer them to be related to the blog/my experience here in messina). but, in the end, the choice is yours. i will check my formspring.me inbox daily and i hope to get some great questions from you all.
ciao!

scacchi e damas

the other day eva taught me how to play scacchi [ska-kee] which is the italian name for chess. it was quite fun. afterwards ophelia arrived (she had a full day of school and eva only a half-day) and she was on my team for a game of damas (checkers, which i recognized because it is also called damas in spanish). playing games is proving to be a good way for the girls to practice english with me in a nice, relaxed environment. it's helping me to learn some italian as well!

the cuppycake and italian boiled peanuts.

i know this post will definitely draw a lot of attention from "y'all" back home. today i ate lupini.

festivus for the rest of us.

last night the italian futbol team was in some sort of huge game... i don't really know the specifics. during the day there were a vendors on the streets selling team paraphernalia. futbol is a big deal here. on the way to pick up the girls last night we stopped at a supermarket to get a few things because pretty much everything is closed on sunday here. there were quite a few people buzzing around trying to pick up odds and ends, and renato told me that this was because soon EVERYONE would be home in front of the television to watch the game.
luckily for me renato and nathalie don't really care about futbol, because sports certainly aren't anywhere near the top of my list of saturday fun-time things. i was much more excited that we went to a gallery event for some of their friends at an antiques shop while the girls were at their party.
as it turns out our team won. i know this because of the massive celebrations of which i was an unwilling participant. as nathalie, renato, and i sat at the small table in the kitchen having a little dinner and some conversation about my life back home we could hear the shouts of joy from people all around the city. victorious horn honking. LOUD music pouring from cars driving by.
it was late and when we were done eating i thought i would fall straight asleep. HAH! i thought wrong. FIREWORKS! BANG! POP! not exactly a lullaby. more honking. a little more yelling. going through my mind were a combination of hyperbole and a half scenes and "oh, brother!"'s (like that lady on SNL's weekend update).
it was so different. the only thing i can really compare it to is the superbowl... but times about ten thousand. at least with the superbowl there is no loud celebration... if you don't care about the superbowl, then superbowl sunday can be just another sunday for you. with futbol? not a chance.

feeling like a very tiny cuppycake.

DSCN0691, originally uploaded by cuppycake843.

the apartment where i'm staying is very modern, so, just looking around me, it seems like i could be almost anywhere in the modern world. the actual history around me is more evident from ground level. this picture is of an ancient theatre in catania. the picture was taken from a window inside antonio presti's home, which is in the center of the city. the juxtaposition of it all is very interesting. an ancient theatre preserved, but ignored. it is closed off by this little fence, only waist-high. all around it there is busy traffic, streetlights, stop signs, people quickly walking by- a piece of an an ancient era totally surrounded by modern life.

the cuppycake and "la porta della belleza"

hello cuppycakes! "'the time has come' the walrus said, 'to talk of other things...'" (sorry, i watched the old alice in wonderland the other night). it has been three days and i am finally getting around to posting about my adventures here in italy. my first experience leaving the apartment involved a one hour drive into catania, where the airport i arrived at is located. it was a great drive with beautiful views of mt. etna (the largest volcano in europe!) and taormina. on the way renato tried to explain to me exactly what it was we were going to see. so, i will try and relay to you what was happening as best as i can through my interpretation of what he was trying to tell me and what i percieved while we were there.