Now for more of a real update.

The snow got me a little overwhelmed there briefly. Anyhoo.

I got to see Joan this weekend! Not as much as I'd have liked, but we had a good time Friday night. We had dinner with Emma & Eric and Joan's friends from her program who were visiting with her. We ate not-atrocious Italian food and Emma accidentally ordered the world's largest bucket of beer. We also ate ice cream in the ice cream parlor not far from Church of Spilled Blood that Eric and I are convinced is a mafia front, but the ice cream is so good. Especially when you opt for it in a "waffle horn" over a cup. We hung out at The Other Side for a bit too -- the expat bar run by Doug, who I record with at Cool! English -- and ate things like hummus (!) with fresh vegetables (!!) and potato wedges (!!!) with bleu cheese dressing (!!!!). Doug was even there that night and we chatted and he offered me a beer on the house..... but not just any beer..... a Newcastle beer. Holy shit. It was like being at the Pub at Wellesley again. Insanity. In. San. Ity.

Printmaking this weekend was also really good. We didn't make any new prints but instead just worked on preparing our metal plates to make etching prints next week. I drew the kitchen in my apartment because Yuri told us the style is good for lots of crazy and chaotic little details with writing and nonsense even because you can make very fine marks. So he suggested we draw something detailed. Like a kitchen. For example. Just a suggestion. But anyway, we'll see how that turns out next week.... I'm already feeling like this might be my favorite technique we've done so far....

And then, you know, a shitload of SNOW. Yeah, check that shit out. Uh huh.

So this week promises to be good. I hope. While everyone at home gets a nice little vacation right about now, I'm plowing through with class all week, but we're still celebrating Thanksgiving. Bryan was nice enough to invite everyone from the program over to his house for dinner on Thursday night, as long as no one shows up empty-handed. As I can't really cook things that aren't Annie's instant mac & cheese in a mug (though I'm going to have to learn next semester.... did I mention there was a change and now I'm living in an apartment again? right. anyhoo.), I offered to bring the plasticware/napkins/boring shit, but I'm also following in my grandmother's footsteps and organizing centerpieces and, in Nunni's style, making little place cards with everyone's names. Don't worry, Nunni, I'll take lots of pictures for you to see how well you've taught me.

So that's it. Apparently I come home in seven weeks. That's according to Mom, so I assume it is fairly accurate. You know, to-the-minute kind of accurate.