But I'm stuck in colder weather

Well, the snow was a bit of a letdown. It was beautiful when it was falling last night but we woke up only to a mere dusting on the rooftops. However, our study abroad adviser at UNC joked that (since it's so rare) if it snowed in Florence she would buy us all drinks...so we'll see if that pans out... Either way, I'm two for two for rare natural events. With the earthquake last week and the snow this week clearly Florence is putting on a show for me. I just hope this cold weather ends soon, I'm tired of loosing feeling in my face when walking to class!
  
Tonight was my first night in my "Food of Italy" course! I'm very excited about this class and I have a good feeling that my super Italian teacher, Michele, is not going to disappoint. Today he cooked for us but kind of gave us an overview of how the class will run for the rest of the semester. He showed us the best way to chop different vegetables (I've been doing it all wrong) and how to make a delicious simple tomato sauce. I had no idea how easy it was and when we got to eat the spaghetti with this simple sauce I was amazed at all the flavor we got out of just olive oil, garlic, tomatoes, tomato juice, salt, pepper, and a few dried peppers (for a little spice). So simple yet so delicious. 

The most interesting part of watching him cook was when he was boiling the water for the spaghetti. He told us to always have a lot of water in the pot, make sure it's at a rolling boil, then add salt. I always thought "add salt" meant add a pinch or two. He scoffed at that and for the 3 boxes of pasta he cooked he added over a heaping handfull of salt! I thought he was joking but Italians don't joke about their pasta! He then proceeded to add about half a handful of salt to the sauce as well. Yeah, sodium! Now I've got lots of good tricks after only one class, I can't wait to master them!
  
Finally, the last highlight of today was my celebrity meeting. Ok, well you may not consider him a celebrity, but I was secretly super excited. Andy Steves owns a travel agency which leads trips for students studying abroad in different cities. He started his own company and leads tours around Europe on weekends. Oh and no big deal he is the son of Rick Steves, as in THE Rick whose book I read 600 pages of before traveling to Italy (I know, excessive.) Tonight he had a travel info session and I decided to stop in despite the chilly night. He gave good advice and I'm not sure if I'll actually go on of his trips (although I'm sure they're fantastic), but I got a free dinner and drink out of it so no complaints here!