Frozen Foods

Well it looks like the Cousines have made it through their first month in Rome. We've also quite proudly made it through August, the month when everything (read: our entire neighborhood) shuts down and people go on vacation. We might be the only people in the entire world that are thrilled for September. Every day we awake to more sounds of our neighborhood coming alive. It's like bears coming out of hibernation.

It hasn't been all bad though, and we've found ourselves enjoying some of the quiet. We also seemed to have figured out where and how to get the inside scoop on Rome and its must-see (off-the-beaten-path) places. Our series of night tours has continued with last Saturday's tour of the Colosseum at night. It was amazing to be standing in a place with all that history. Rachel's pictures of the Colosseum at night are beautiful.

On Tuesday we had an art and garden day, visiting the new National Museum of Modern Arts in the 21st Century (MAXXI), the National Gallery of Modern Art, and the Villa Borghese gardens. Both museums were incredible. The architecture of the MAXXI is a piece of art in itself. After a wonderful day indoors looking at art, we decided a stroll through the gardens at Villa Borghese was a must. The gardens, actually more like a park at 148 acres, is almost too beautiful for words. As Rachel said, the pictures we took don't do it justice. (Pictures from all the day's activities are now posted on our photobucket page). The park is the perfect Sunday activity when the hum of the city quiets down.

We will be visiting the park this Sunday since we have become old ladies. Court sketching and Rach reading and taking beautiful pics. We'll be feeding pigeons in no time.

Now onto the highlights...

Taco Night at Casa Cousine:

Prior to leaving for Rome, Rachel had expressed a very strong interest in bringing taco seasoning. Her rationale was that at some point she would want tacos for dinner, and since we'd be in Italy it might be difficult to find taco seasoning. She was reluctantly teased into not bringing it. So imagine her surprise when we find soft tacos, tostitos chips and salsa at the supermarket. We get the ingredients, excited by the discovery, and begin planning our upcoming taco night.

Several nights later we decided to break out the tostitos chips and salsa. That's when we discovered the "salsa problem." For whatever reason every sauce like product (i.e. salad dressing, salsa, etc) is oozing with tomato and sugar, whether it should be or not. So what does just a heavily sugared tomato based salsa taste like? Exactly like sloppy joe sauce.

You would think this discovery would have lead us to use the taco ingredients in another way, but no, we said we're having tacos, so by golly we're having tacos. Since you're not going to find anything but Italian cheeses here, we decide to go with provolone, which we shred ourselves. Already we've accepted that these will be Italian "inspired" tacos. But as you know, we don't get discouraged easily, so on we go. Next, Courtney, who because she bought three spices and a hot pepper plant thinks she can fix anything, decides to alter the sauce in an attempt to remove the sweetness. Sadly, despite Courtney's best efforts, the sweetness prevailed; all she did was give the sweet additional ingredients to taint.

Through out the meal, Rachel was sure to point out the lack of sour cream. She doesn't seem to be able to accept that fact. Courtney is always in various states of alarm regarding the lettuce, so Rachel cuts it and Courtney continues to pick the pieces apart and throw most of them out.

So to recap... Taco Night consisted of tacos that tasted like Italian inspired sloppy joes, with no lettuce and no sour cream. On the bright side the soft tortillas were very good.

Things We've Learned:

• When searching for a major historic attraction you should follow the crowd. Finding oneself the only person opting to take the left when everyone else is going right isn't a good plan. Although if you're trying to:

1. Get hopelessly lost
2. Find yet another part of the city that is completely shut down or..
3. Make even the simplest directions the longest, most painful journey ever, including serious risk of heat stroke and dehydration then ignore this lesson.

• Italy is not the place to get pickles. Like all other "recognizable" food products, the pickles here are way too sweet. We're not even talking gherkins pickles. This is hard core sweetness with a touch too much dill. Sometimes the "pickles" are simply soaked in wine; sometimes they are stuck in a jar with random and barely identifiable herbs and vegetables; and sometimes you don't even want to think about what's in there. After three separate pickle purchasing attempts Rachel has finally accepted defeat and abandoned her quest for pickles.
• Understanding Italian dining etiquette at a restaurant is equivalent to planning your next chess move against Bobby Fischer.  Upon entering a restaurant- any restaurant- you are faced with the immediate dilemma of whether to seat yourself or wait to be seated.  Typically the answer is seat yourself. If by chance you have selected the wrong table, someone from the wait staff will immediately run over and explain in great length why dining at that table would be a traumatic experience. (i.e. "You can't sit here, it's way too hot... bad for digestion").  It often leaves us second guessing whether we should be seating ourselves, a feeling that takes several dining experiences to get over. Then of course you have the times when you seat yourself and everyone around you turns and stares at you. General paranoia sets in.. "Did we do something wrong? Is it my hair (Courtney)? Do we seem obviously American?" The wait staff is never really helpful in gauging whether you've followed protocol or not. The tendency is to believe you have made some sort of social misstep and are being ignored as punishment. In reality waiting about 25 minutes is just part of the dining experience. Just make sure that when a server does arrive you are ready to give your entire order, otherwise you'll be waiting a long time for anyone to come around again. Finally, you've finished your meal and are ready for the check. It doesn't matter how politely you ask, how many times you ask, or how long you've waited to ask, the server will give you the check when they want to. On several occasions we have been told we haven't sat long enough and therefore weren't ready for the bill. So now we just sit and wait.... 10, 20, 30 minutes....

Communication is Key:

"I can't tell if you're just hot right now, or pink."- Rach

"They like to big large." - Rach (translation: They [the Romans] like to build big.)

"Let me take a sign of it." - Rach (translation: Let me take a picture.)

"Don't ignore that.." - Court (We have no clue, but we know it wasn't right)

"I fell off the curb." - Court (She actually did fall off the curb)

"I just need to..I might need to.. I mean I might need you to...oh forget it." -Court (Trying to ask Rach to take her bracelet off)

Some things seem like they should be common sense: "Oh look! An Ita....oh nevermind." - Court trying to say "Look, an Italian flag!" Then she realized we were in Italy.

As you remember from previous posts, everything here is either all or nothing for the Cousines. In the beginning we couldn't seem to get anything cold enough in the refrigerator and now...

Things We've Accidentally Frozen in the Refrigerator:

• Cantaloupe
• Personal Watermelon
• Orange Juice
• Lettuce
• Eggs

Injuries, Disabilities, and Other Ailments:

• Rachel's feet, ankles, and legs (lets just say the lower half of her body)
• Courtney's left ear (days..)
• Rachel's left ear (today, Thursday)
• Courtney's right ear (today, Thursday)
• Rachel's right ear (yesterday, Wednesday)
• Courtney's left wrist
• Rachel's head (migraine on left side)
• Courtney's right thumb
• Rachel's sour stomach
• Courtney's left shoulder
• Rachel's bug bites (which are reminiscent of chicken pox)
• Courtney's lower back
• Rachel's right shoulder
• Courtney's left ring finger
• Rachel's left knee (she specifically asked that this be noted separate from the above)

Observation of the Week: A sidewalk closed due to falling figs.

Word of the Week: Kerfuffle- n. commotion; disorder; agitation (British/Scottish slang)

        Ex. Before the kerfuffle that erupted we thought things were going quite well.

Question of the Week: This week's question was provide to us by a fellow Colosseum at Night tour attendee.... "Why is the Colosseum oval?"

(It should be mentioned that the man asking the question was toting a rather large bag on wheels).