Finals and the German Christmas Market

This morning I woke up apathetic to the world. I’d worked on my final projects all day yesterday, only going out to have lunch and work some more. The plan was to work on them again all day today. And again all day tomorrow. Until Thursday, when the last of them was due. Not my idea of a fun week, especially for my last week here in Florence. But unfortunately there’s not really much to be done about it. I padded in pajamas into the kitchen for a quick breakfast – my usual, cereal with yogurt. My host family doesn’t eat yogurt but always makes sure to have some for me for my breakfast. Then, grab my computer and climb back into bed with it and get to work.

I didn’t make much progress. I really didn’t feel like working. It might help to call a friend, or my parents, or someone, and talk myself out of my funk. Thanks to the fact that my friends and family are on a different continent from me and thus were probably fast asleep, that was impossible. Instead, I squirreled under the covers, using them as a barrier between me and the outside world that I didn’t care for at the moment. Ostrich-style tactics: if you can’t see your problems, then they can’t see you. Didn’t work, but it was worth a try. I indulged my inner toddler in its temper tantrum of “I won’t I won’t I WON’T!” for a few minutes, mentally banging my head against a wall. Then I sighed, moved over to my desk, and got down to work.

After several hours of solid work, I finally finished my Italian power point presentation on the history of Italian food. To celebrate I decided that for lunch I would go to the German Christmas Market in Piazza Santa Croce. Usually, when I’m doing work at home, I just go across the street for a kabob. They serve them on panini bread which was a little weird at first, but I’ve found I like the alteration. Anyway, for lunch today I deserved a break and some fresh air. As it was probably going to be my only trip outside all day, I figured I’d better make it a good one.

I’ve already walked through the market a few times since they put it up a week ago. It’s pretty and festive and full of interesting things. I stopped there yesterday on my way back from my work-date with Kelly to buy some fingerless gloves – my host family turns the heat on in the evenings, but my hands are cold in the mornings too, and I can’t type with my regular gloves on. So, I sort of knew what was there, but I hadn’t paid too much attention to the food options before. On arriving today I was immediately confronted with a booth with a vat of some soupy, yummy, warm looking thing, and signs for bratwurst either in the form of a “German hotdog” it proclaimed in English, or on a plate with potatoes. I walked all around the square, figuring out what my options were. Pretty much more of the same. Some booths had delicious looking roast meat, pork I think. I decided I was in the mood for a simple, satisfying bratwurst. I didn’t want to be bothered with utensils. Unfortunately all the booths had annoying lines since it was lunch time, so I got in back of the nearest one.

The bratwurst was good. Sizzling hot meat is always good on a cold day. And I’d planned ahead and brought water from home, so I didn’t have to shell out an extra 2 euros for a small water. I sat on one of the benches surrounding the Piazza and watched the people go by. Always interesting. Indulged in more of my favorite game, “Italian, or American?” It’s surprisingly easy to pick out the Americans some times. I don’t know whether its style of clothes, or hair, or facial features or what, but a good number of Americans stick out easily. Not all of them, certainly – on occasion I’m startled by a nearby “Italian” breaking out into native English. It’s a fun game.

After I’d finished my bratwurst I decided to get dessert too. I deserved a little indulgence for working so hard. Plus I’ve had a huge craving for sweets all December. I don’t know what it is about Christmas time, but I keep wanting to bake Christmas cookies and eat gelato despite the cold. So I made another circuit of the piazza, this time trying to decide on a dessert. It was a hard choice. There were several strudel stands which looked delicious, and a crepe stand which sounded good but a bit strange coming from a German market in Italy. There was also a hot sweet bread booth, and a stand with chocolate covered fruit and candied apples. I eventually decided on the sweet bread. I’d seen booths for it before in previous markets, but never tried it. It’s not something I’ve ever seen in the States. It looked something like what Raf made at the campfire this summer in camp – a strip of bread wrapped around a stick and heated in a fire. This sweet bread was a little more elaborate than Raf’s campfire version – they had a machine to cook it just right, and rolled it in various toppings for you when it came out sweet and steaming hot. I had no clue which topping I wanted, and instead of choosing between nuts, coconut, vanilla, cinnamon, chocolate, and plain, I took the easy way out and asked the guy for his opinion on which one was best. He looked confused for a second, and then pointed to the nut one saying it was the original version. So, I went for that one, and waited for the next steaming cylinder of bread to be done. I also got a small cup of warm molten nutella to dip it in – I was craving chocolate.

When they handed me the piping hot bag I took my prize to go sit down on another bench. I really like those benches – I’ve spent a lot of time using them as a picnic table this quarter. Anyway, the bread was fantastic. Warm, sweet, nutty, chocolaty. I was full and happy and warm by the time I finished. Except for my butt, which was freezing from sitting so long on the cold cement bench. But it was definitely worth it.

In a much better frame of mind than I had woken up with, I walked back home, contentedly resigned to spend the afternoon and evening glued once again to my computer screen.