Thanksgiving and the Rest

And now it's time for a new blog. I've been really bad at updating this as much as I'd like, so if you're up to it, send me an angry email or yell at me through facebook next time I don't put something out here when you want it. :)

So probably the biggest thing that's happened since the last time was our huge Thanksgiving Day celebration. All told, here in the greater Cagliari area we are about 20 foreign exchangers plus Italian friends involved in some way with Rotary or the other organizations. And since we're only 6 or 7 Americans, I thought that it would be really cool to celebrate what I consider to be the most American of festivals in a gigantic inter-cultural holiday. So I put one together. Which was really hard, mainly 'cause I'm lazy, but oh so worth it. All in all, I think we had 19 people at any given time for dinner. We had it in a conference room of a local church that my host-dad was able to hook us up with. That was great, we had the whole place to ourselves, were able to eat, and then play with the foosball, ping-pong, etc. in the next room. I was such a happy camper, I think I really freaked out a few of my more timid friends. Oops. :D Well it all turned out great so it's all good. I, being the organizer/host/head-guy-in-charge made the Turkey.

That was just about the most beautiful thing I think I've ever made. Well, okay, best food I've ever made. We also had stuffing, mashed potatoes, real gravy, broccoli salad, deserts, the whole enchilada, ...but no enchiladas. Just turkey.  :D And the turkey was great. The friends were great, and overall just a very happy experience. I will tell you though that finding the stupid turkey in the first place proved to be just downright impossible. But I finally was able to track one down in the fifth butcher's store I visited, the morning of Thanksgiving. That was hectic day. Thankfully it wasn't frozen.

I've continued my drawing, and here's one of my favourites, if you haven't seen it already, of my good friend Keren, from Colorado:

I like it.

In other news... now that Thanksgiving is over, things naturally turn to Christmas, and all that entails. So I've done a little bit of shopping, but I won't be sending anything through the mail back home, I'll just bring everything back with me on the trip home and give presents and things then. But feel free to send me all you want!! Although I must warn you, the Italian postal system has a bit of a reputation for losing items, *coughmycameracoughcough* so pay attention and use caution. Things ordered online (e.g. Amazon) are generally just fine though. But things are definitely swinging into gear Holiday Season-wise so that'll be a bunch of new experiences and a ton of fun! I am anticipating a little bit of homesickness coming up though, but I'll pull through, I'm sure.  

I've also just finished a 3-month long writing project, a philosophy essay weighing in at a whopping 23 pages. I originally just started that out of boredom and a desire to get a few things down on paper (or a binary code represented on a pixelated screen if we're getting technical) and it just kinda grew from there. I'm pretty proud of it and if you've got some time to kill, you can check it out here: Philosophy Essay. 

And that should just about sum up the big things, except for the absurdly annoying Rotary Trips, which I don't feel like getting into now. Maybe next time. Let me know if you've got questions, comments, concerns, or just feel like saying "hey."

Don't Forget to be Awesome

-Caleb