il quattro di septiembre

To all of you naysayers out there who are saying "There's no way Lauren can gain THAT much weight in a year", I would like to share this picture of what I just ate for breakfast. At 1:30 in the afternoon. When I woke up.
I mean, she feeds us cake for breakfast every morning! And I'm not talking coffee cake, or something like a muffin that's not actually a breakfast food but people pretend it is. I'm talking cake. And today was apparently a special occasion because while I was eating she brought out a bowl of frosting that she was making and plopped it right on top. So I will be morbidly obese when I return. Not to worry.
But talking about meals made me realize that I haven't ever posted a picture of where we eat. We eat breakfast and dinner outside on her little balcony that looks at this
It's a pretty significant place in my life. Since it's where I'm happiest--eating Maria Pia's food.
Did I already mention that I bought a bike?! It's a piece of junk, but it's so nice to not have to wait for the damn autobus all the time! We named it "Liberta'" which for all of you non-Italian speakers means "liberty". haha. It only cost me 30 euro because everyone always talks about how bikes get stolen right and left in Firenze, and it's not worth it to buy a new one. I really wish it wasn't so painful, though. The cobblestones and the rock hard bike seat aren't an AWESOME combo at 8:30 in the morning...
In other news, school is still boring, but I'm so glad to have our new friends here. It's really fun. My Italian is still phenomenal when I've had some vino and sub-par when I'm sober. Va bene. Last night we went to our hilarious tourist bar, but Guiseppe's on holiday so he wasn't there to hang out. Instead his girlfriend's parents are running it, and they are the most outrageous people in the world. The mom is like obsessed with me for some strange reason. They don't speak a word of English. Last night she decided that her son and I should meet. She was so bent on the idea that she went inside and pulled out a digital camera to show me pictures of him. I REALLY WISH I COULD SHOW YOU ALL THOSE! Briefly: he's 30. Overweight. The pictures are of him in a tiny Italian bathing suit laying on a chaise lounge with a Maltese. I mean, it was taking everything inside of me not to laugh at her... My only response was "Eh, penso che lui sia un po piu vecchio per me.." That I think he's a little too old for me--not that he's disgusting and probably still lives at home.. Thanks, though.
The night obviously just kept getting more ridiculous. We ended up at a private birthday party for some bazillionaire Brazilian kid that Raffaella introduced us to before she left. Spent a long time dancing there and pretending like we can speak Italian. Out of control.
Well, college football officially starts today. So I'm in mourning. I'm going to scour this town for a pub to watch ESPN... embarrassing. I didn't take enough pictures this week. Mi dispiace.
Mi mancate molto, e vi voglio benissimo. Va bene.