Wednesday, 5 November - OBAMA WINS!!!

What a spectacular day – gorgeous, sunny, and warm! Today I woke up at around 5:15am. I had gone to sleep with the TV on, and set the alarm for 5am, kind of laid there a bit, thinking nothing would have been happening yet, then I heard McCain’s voice on the TV… I jumped out of bed to see what was happening, and I saw that he was about to deliver his concession speech! Obama had won already?! I stayed up and watched the rest of the broadcast, including Obama’s speech and some post speech highlights. It was amazing! I can’t believe that we will have a black president in my lifetime! This is so exciting, I am so proud of America right now! Thank God the USA is not full of racists! I was holding Isabella after she woke up around 6am, looked into her eyes, and said, “I hope you will grow up in a just world now”. I fell back asleep after around 6:45am, then woke up around 7:45am to get Felicia ready for school. Everyone was tired today. I struggled to wake everyone up – finally around 8:10am Lucio stumbled out and quickly got ready. He took Felicia and Isabella off to drop Felicia off at school, and I cleaned up the house, got a shower, and then wanted to go over to check the results online to see what had happened both nationally and locally. (since we are still without internet!) I met Lucio on the street, and headed over to the SACI Design Center to check the results. I was happy to learn that all the Toledo School and COSI levies had passed as well as the TPS Bond. I hope that means they will rehab Scott High School, which is such an architectural gem. And COSI will reopen!

After checking the info, we hopped on the bus and headed over to the Bottega Buon Fresco, (http://www.bottegadelbonfresco.it) the studio where SACI students study fresco painting. It is on the altroarno just over the Ponte Nicolo, near the foot of Viale Michelangelo. Incredibly, the two old men who run the place are named Luigi and Mario! (like the Nintendo game) We laughed together about that. They were incredibly nice, and it is one of the best aspects of SACI because the students create fresco murals for hospitals in Florence. It is a wonderful way that students can give back to the city while studying abroad. Plus it is an incredible opportunity to learn the old art of fresco painting. We set up some dates when I can send some students over.

Then Lucio and I decided to go out to lunch and celebrate Obama’s victory! We found a great little restaurant where I had a fantastic risotto with zucchini and parmigiano. The prices were good too – we ate two appetizers, two pastas, two desserts, two cappuccinos, and a liter of wine for 43 euros – not bad! I was so glad to FINALLY have a good meal out! We were a bit tipsy after the wine, so decided to walk home. We stopped off and finally printed Felicia’s picture for her school in some photo store for 25cents. Then we walked over and got the bus to pick up Felicia, since it was already nearly 3:10pm. We arrived a bit early at Felicia’s school, and we watched secretly as she sat at her table and “read” some books. She seems to be playing a lot more with her “Italian friends” now, so we are quite happy! When she finally saw us, we went in, and I spoke with all her little friends, while they awed over Isabella, as always! They are so cute! In particular, her little friend, Sebastien, is so sweet! He’s a little blondie too!

We got back on the bus and went home. I had promised Felicia if there was good weather we would go to the park, but she wanted a snack, so we went home and by the time she was done dilly-dallying, it was nearly dark. So I convinced her we’d paint her nails instead. So that was fun – she’s got blues on her toes and lavender on her fingers!

Lucio made cauliflower pasta – pretty good, but not as good as Mariagrazia’s – for dinner. We watched Chi Vuol essere Milionario (Who wants to be a Millionaire?), and I fell asleep pretty fast. Oh, and my landlord, Nicole, called me about the noisy neighbors upstairs. She wants to write a letter to their landlord – something official from SACI, because it seems to be an off-and-on problem. She explained that the owner has a son who lives in Rome but visits often, so she keeps one of the rooms open for her son at all times, which means the tenants agree that this guy could arrive at any time. So, this is the kind of people you might get. Anyway, that explains a lot. I told her AGAIN that we LOVE the apartment, we really don’t want to make a fuss, but she said it would help her in the future too. Isabella still has a bit of a cough, but only after she wakes up from a nap, so it must be the goop flowing down when she is asleep that needs to come out. I hope it goes away!