I was informed today that my followers were getting bored (thanks KK), but my sincere apologies, there really hasn’t been anything too exciting happening that I felt anyone would be interested in reading 🙂  The semester is winding down for the students and Nick has been busy with planning next semester’s coursework and updating his personal webpage.

On Tuesday of this week we visited Parma, unfortunately Nick was unable to go as he had an early morning appointment at the hospital. But the good news is that the appointment was a pre-op appointment to have his external fixator removed.  Woo Hoo!  I have a feeling that some people read “external fixator” but aren’t entirely sure what I am referencing as I get many questions as to when his “cast” will be removed.  Below is a description of the external fixator, just as it looks, he has two steel rods that go through his skin into his lower leg and then two that go through his ankle.  He is able to move his ankle a little, but not much.  He will have this device removed on Monday morning and then start to bear about 30% weight and immediately start physical therapy.  There is light at the end of our tunnel – yea!

External Fixator

Parma was a nice, smaller town, but I didn’t feel that we got to see as much of it as I would have liked. The bus ride there was a little longer then our normal travels and we left around 4 pm, as the sun was starting to set. We were able to visit the cathedral and baptistery, as well as the national gallery.  I was a little bummed though because we did not break for lunch until later and most of the cheese shops had already closed for the afternoon break.  I was able to stumble upon one shop that had some amazing looking dishes that you could purchase and eat there or take with you.  I ended up buying a huge chunk of parmesan cheese to bring back to the States with us at Christmas to share with our families!  One of the students and I decided to have lunch at a local osteria, I had gnocchi formaggi, which was delicious but rich.  After lunch before heading back to Genova we visited their auditorium, designed by Renzo Piano.

Unfortunately, the pictures from our trip to Parma are still on the camera awaiting Nick’s edits, but hopefully I will be able to have them up in the next week or two.  The weather was quite chilly while we were there, but thankfully the sun was shining bright which added some warmth to the day 🙂

Now onto Thanksgiving.  I have received several questions about the traditions of Thanksgiving in Italy.  With Thanksgiving being an American holiday not many Italians, except maybe those who have immigrated from the US celebrate it, so therefore the students were responsible for cooking/baking for the Italians.  We had approximately 30 people attend our feast which included turkey, gravy (compliments of chef Nick), stuffing, mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, mac n cheese, corn, cornbread, green bean casserole, sweet potato soufflé, pumpkin & pecan pie, banana pudding, peanut butter balls and rice krispie treats.  There was enough food left over to feed an army, so everyone had left overs for lunch today – lol!  The food turned out nicely although I heard several times from the students that this was the hardest thing they had ever done in their lives, hopefully they will go home and thank their parents and grandparents 🙂

Fresh turkeys have arrived

And now our bird is ready to eat…

Have the Italians had too much wine?

The upcoming week should be pretty low key (except for Monday’s excitement), as both the students and I will be finishing up school.  I am in my last week of my ethics course and then Monday December 9th Nick and I jet set to Paris, I couldn’t be more excited and I am really looking forward to our time away.

I hope that everyone enjoyed their time with their families yesterday!  Happy Thanksgiving from Italy!