Jeanne, the "mom/wife" of the family I will be living with for the next year picked me up from Malpensa, the airport right outside of Milan. She was very friendly and made me comfortable right away. When we arrived at my new home I was pleasantly surprised with how spacious the apartment is, how interesting and compact some of the details are and how wonderful the views are. The boys were very excited to show me the signs they made leading to my room:
My room is a nice size with high ceilings:
Not only did they make "way finding sinage" but a huge welcome sign showing me what we were to do on day 1: build a fort. After all, I mentioned that I am a master fort builder in my interview. Max pointed out where he wrote "I (blank) it". I was suppose to fill in whether I liked it or not. By the end of the day, it was an easy decision of what word to fill in, "I LOVE it"!
They proceeded to break me in with a gelato run. I had Cinnamon...delish!
That afternoon, I went with Jeanne to the supermarket. I find it odd that it's against the law to touch produce without provided plastic gloves, however, they do not provide sanitary wipes for the carts as US stores do. There are sever other differences such as you have to pay 1E to use a shopping basket. There was such a vast variety of cheeses, fresh hanging meats, and just baked breads and desserts. Naturally, I headed for the cheeses. It'd give Whole Foods a good run! I can't wait to go to the open market that fills a street on Fridays!
That night, I went with the family to the downstairs neighbor's house for a dinner party. The building consists of four apartments, each apartment is an entire floor, and each apartment is occupied by American families with two children each. The neighbors, Rick and Bridget, were very welcoming to me. Bridget is very "Mother Earth" as Jeanne described her…health conscience and extremely kind. To start off she lightly fried stuffed zucchini blossoms. Then we had a fantastic meal of rare flank steaks with a phenomenal marinade (recipe to follow), fresh tabbouleh, blanched green beans sauteed with feta and fennel, and bread. And of course, the vino was flowing.
The marinade for the steak is as follows:
1 1/2 lbs. flank steak (pierce all over with fork)
1/2 c olive oil
1/4 c vinegar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. Tabasco
2 tsp. oregano
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic
*marinade overnight
For dessert, Bridget offered ice cream she made with fresh mint she grew and chocolate chip cookies. So good and refreshing!
Since I hadn't really slept for 48 hours, travel took a total of about 15 hours, along with a nice full belly, sleep came easily.
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