Life has been busy and I don't really know where to start. I guess with the fact that Marisa and I finally united in Europe, something we have been talking about since AP Modern Euro senior year of high school, if not before. It was great to be together again, and our time together was almost surreal as we wandered the streets of Venice on Valentine's Day, ate gelato, and had our normal conversations while over looking the duomo of Florence from San Miniato, a spot that has come to be one of my favorites this year. It was really refreshing to be with someone who I know well, and who knows me, because it was almost like going home for a weekend.
However we weren't in Northampton anymore, and I'm still not, I'm living in Italy and it's amazing. Today I woke up, hopped on a bus, then a train and arrived in Pistoia for my second day of work at Marino Marini, a Montessori style pre-school 30 minutes outside of Florence, in the community of Pistoia, that focuses on teaching its students about the environment and science. I am working with three year olds that have already collected olives from the school's oliveti (olive orchards) to make olive oil, gathered herbs from nature walks to make pizza, and started a greenhouse. When I arrived it was tea and biscotti time, followed by story telling and an adventure to find the bunnies that we read about and their burrows. In the search we found a donkey, sheep, seed pods, rocks, stones and even a burrow, but no bunnies.
After work I meandered home through the city center to go for a run and then stretch on my rooftop terrace, before grocery shopping and errands. It was pretty great. Tomorrow I return to the neuroscience lab where I have been working for the last few weeks as a special studies to continue our research on the effects of binge drinking on the brain. We have also been looking into possible preventative treatments against the neuro-inflammation we have seen as a result of the binge drinking that closely resembles the neuro-inflammatinon that occurs in many neuro-degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Not only do I love the research of this lab but they are also sending me to London in a month to work with their collaborators and see all aspects of the project that we are currently working on.
Needless to say my semester looks as though it is going to be great. I'm really just living in Italy, working with kids, doing my science thing, and enjoying the city, my host family, and my friends. The experience is constantly changing and getting better. I think that to be here for anything less then a year would have been difficult, despite the fact that I often miss Northampton, because I still haven't fully adjusted to the language or the culture here in Italy, but I am as time goes on, and everyday it feels more like just another home.
