Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm currently visiting Molly, my good friend from Villanova, in Perugia, Italy. It's my first time having Thanksgiving out of the country and my first time having Thanksgiving without my family. I'm sitting in Molly's kitchen, and it smells like the delicious turkey that I just pulled out of the oven. It's weird how scents are so closely tied to memories. I've only ever connected the scent of roasting turkey overflowing with spiced stuffing with my family, so pulling that turkey out of the oven and not having my Dad lecturing me on how to do it correctly isweird. I'm sure it's weird for them not having me here, as I usually take control of quite a lot of the cooking. We spend the entire night before and most of the day of Thanksgiving in the kitchen, as most families do. But the best part of Thanksgiving is cooking with my entire family. Three generations in whichever kitchen we happen to be in, adding their contribution, football or the parade on the tv in the background. One of my favorite traditions is that my family make 3 different kinds of cranberry sauces each year, each kid   makes their own kind. Unfortunately, cranberries don't exist in Italy, so we're just skipping that part. But we're going over to Molly's friends apartment, and the 3 girls happen to go to Villanova as well. I met them for the first time yesterday (weird meeting people from your own school in a totally different country) and everyone's cooking their own dish. I'm super excited. I already went for my usual Thanksgiving run, this time around Perugia, a seriously hilly town that is so quintessentially Italian, so that I'll be hungry enough for this feast!
I'm bummed that this is my last day in Italy! On Monday, I spent most of the day getting from Rome to Italy, but when I arrived I changed immediately and we went right to see the ballet Sleeping Beauty at the most beautiful opera house in Italy. The theater consisted only of boxes with about 6 seats in each. We had our own box, and we're perched exactly above the theater, which gave us a weird perspective on the stage. Afterwards we went to the best pizza place in town. Melt in your mouth Italian pizza! Perfect welcome to Italy.
On Tuesday, Molly had class all day until 5, so after getting a cappuccino in a little cafe, Molly went to class and I got on the train to Assisi, which is about 45 minutes away from Perugia. Assisi was incredible. I'd always heard of St. Francis, but never knew how revolutionary he was. His aim was to bring God to the people, make religion more accessible to the masses. He was the son of a wealth textile trader, but when he was around 20 (my age!) he renounced his father and all his worldly possessions and pledged to lead a life of poverty.