New Friends

It is so easy to meet people here!

I met my neighbor as I was leaving my apartment yesterday morning on my way to work. Arthur is a retired university professor from Cleveland and he is here with his wife for a month. He's teaching an economics summer class at an American university in Rome. They invited me over for drinks on Friday after work! Heh.

Then, last night I left the office planning to go home, eat a quiet meal, work a bit, and then hit the hay early.

As I was waiting to catch the bus, a co-worker struck up a conversation. It turns out that he and two other engineers are over from our Australia office, working in Rome until the middle of next week. We talked most of the way into town, and he invited me to go to dinner with his co-workers and an American friend of theirs. So, I thought what the heck, went home, dropped off my stuff and met them at the restaurant at 8:30.

It was a tiny mom and pop joint with a set menu. You pay a fixed amount and get:

Antipasto coming out your yang (Bruschetta, grilled eggplant, deep fried zucchini flowers stuffed with cheese, Fresh Mozzarella and more)
2 different pasta courses, one after the other!
Veal with roasted potatoes in gravy.
Dessert and coffee.
All the red wine and sparkling water a girl could want.
And a glass of grappa.

And every bite was scrum-diddly-umptious.

Lynette, the American girl, is here for two years and wants to see Europe on week-ends. We've already started making plans. She's also from Houston, so we spent a good part of the evening trying to explain the wonders of Texas barbecue to the Aussies.

My new friends were a lot of fun and seem to be pretty hard core. I vaguely recall talk of a pub crawl tonight with a bunch of other expats. We'll have to see about that one. I'm not sure I could handle being out late two school nights in a row. I think drinks with Arthur and his wife might be more my pace...