(and to give you perspective on size, since this looks normal, that espresso coffee cup is actually about the size of a shotglass, so these lovely things allow you to make a single shotglass sized coffee, but with all of the coffee grounds that go into an 8oz cup of coffee in the US.)
So actually it should have been fairly simple once I looked it up, you just put in water and coffee grounds and wait for the heat of the stove to push the water through the coffee grounds and supposedly whistle when it's done. Only I found out the hard way that mine doesn't actually whistle. I left it on and went to go do homework in our living room (assuming it took as long to make as American coffee) and came back when I started wondering why it hadn't whistled and the stove top had tall red flames instead of the healthy nice little blue ones, aka on fire. The coffeepot/maker (?) was so hot that I had to put it into the freezer and wait almost an hour to try again...oops. The second time I didn't leave the kitchen and I realized that it only takes about 3-4 minutes, and definitely doesn't whistle! Though you will see steam leaving the little spout, fun fact.
How to hard boil eggs (and remember which ones are still uncooked)
Mishaps: I apparently dropped them in too high because some of them cracked...oh well they still taste like egg. Second nubie mistake: not separating the cooked eggs from the non-cooked. Luckily I remembered enough of high school physics to figure it out. Meaning that I literally had my roommate spin eggs on a table. If you put a finger down on it while it's spinning and it stays stopped (more or less) then it's hardboiled. If it keeps spinning after you tap it, then it has liquid inside. I know, I'm such a nerd.
How to get American college textbooks in Rome:
Walk really far!
Adventures: the only place with our exact books is a casual mile or two from school (and definitely at least 2 from our house). We went the day of the transportation strike (though let's be real I'm a cheap college student and would have walked anyway) so we had no choice but to walk.
Highlights: to get there you walk past the pantheon and the Trevi fountain (and by "walk by," I mean can walk by if you meander a bit through all of the tourists). This trip also led to my discovery of possibly the cheapest coffee place in town (they don't charge extra for sitting down with your coffee!) I was able to order a ciocolata cappuccino and sit for one Euro! (And then I discovered that you can buy a cappuccino from a machine at our school for 40 cents, even more of a win!)
How to survive 3 hour Italian class:
Bring a snack!
The final how to is still in the works: How to Eurotrip
Yes, this week was/is schedule-all-of-my-europtripping week. So I have decided that as of now I am going to Munich, Barcelona, Portugal and then either UK or a Greece/Turkey cruise and hopefully Vienna. And then of course all of the highlights of Italy: amalfi coast, venice, milan, florence, sienna, and cinque terre. Unfortunately that is really the only thing I have figured out so far...where I want to go (which to be fair was not an easy task either since all of Europe is amazing). So little time, so many cities! Anyway the only I know for sure now about planning trips is that it is really expensive to make a booking mistake on a foreign airline....and of course that I miss my mother planning out all of our trips, because it's hard work!
A domani!
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