Fall and San Patronio

I love fall because it means cardigans, football, and Halloween. But here in Bologna. it means none of those. Cardigans, yeah, under the sweatshirt , scarf, and coat! It's is October 5th and I've already pulled out the warmest clothes I own. I foresee wardrobe issues in the next few months. Football, highlights on ESPN, just not the same. Halloween, we'll see. But given the weather, I doubt there is much door to door anything. And yet, fall here isn't going to kill me. Last night for dinner we had tortellini in a kind of chicken broth that just warmed you up from the inside out! It does rain here (and rain and rain), but rainy days aren't so bad as long as you get to be inside reading Dante-- or you should be reading Dante but your roommate had an english version of the book Persuasion.. what are you going to do?? It's just hard when you have to go outside in the rain. It adds a whole new level of discomfort to waiting for the bus. Well, at least it hasn't started snowing... yet. :/ This Californian girl might not make it.

Last night I went to the mass of St. Patronius, the patron saint of Bologna, in San Patronio, the church that was going to be bigger than St. Peter's in Rome (see previous post), because yesterday was the feast day of St. Patronius. And the Bolognesi take their feast days seriously as everyone had the day off yesterday! The church is huge and it was packed with people- I think there are many Bolognesi that go to church for Christmas, Easter, and St. Patronuis' Day. There were over 40 priests and a beautiful choir. But the craziest part of all- only in Bologna do you see your professor at church!

How is my italian? Mucho mejor (shout out to Will!). Yeah, it's not there yet. I now have lots of italian words floating around in my head, but I don't always use them in the right way. For example, today I wanted to ask my roommates where the frying pan was. The word that came to my head was pancetta (sounds like pan, right?), so I asked them where the pancetta was. Wrong. The word is padella (close...ish), and pancetta means bacon. darn. I want to be able to communicate again!! But shout out to my awesome roommates who are so patient with my italian, or lack there of.

And one last shout out to my Grandmamama who sent me Bisquick!! Definitely one of the highlights of my time here in Bologna!! And my roommates love you! ;)