Yom Kippur and more

I came to Italy to have a lot of first time experiences. Well today, I bled out of my nipple for the first time that I’ve noticed. I’ve played three soccer games and had 3 hours of basketball practice in the last four days. My nips chaffed through and I was bleeding out of my nipple. Never thought I’d be able to say that.
Also, today being Yom Kippur (Jewish holiday where we don’t eat or drink anything for 24 hours), I discovered that Italy is probably the worst place to be when you are unable to eat anything. Conversely, it’s the best place to be when you’re breaking the fast and eating again for the first time. I was walking downtown in the afternoon to check out the public library. I almost started crying when I walked by a pastry shop with the tastiest-looking pastries you’ve ever seen. The window was festively lit and people were laughing and having a great time over their pastries. It was awful. They also had delicious-looking pizza. Just thinking about that makes me hungry again, even though it’s past midnight and the fast is over. For dinner this evening, my roommate was a few minutes late, so I had to sit at the table and stare at the bowl of fresh pasta sitting in front of me. Then we had spaghetti, goat cheese spread on bread, and what I identified as spanikopita, but Giovanna says it’s Italian and it’s called something else in Italian, but it was identical to spanikopita. So tasty-good. We had a pineapple cake she made from scratch: dolce di ananas. There’s still some left too for tomorrow! I said it once and I’ll say it again, this woman knows how to make deserts. My Italian is coming along nicely. I’m the best at Italian out of the five students from our program who are on my basketball team. I talk to the guys who don’t speak English and one of the guys said today that I spoke very well! Ha! I’ve also started trying to read the newspapers and am slowly understanding more: Obama looked more impressive than McCain in the second presidential debate. They said Obama won (as if it were a game), but I’m assuming that just meant he spoke well. Don’t know.
Other news: we won the first game of the soccer playoffs. We barely beat this really good team from a school here in town. They had a player named Fabriccio, who was filthy good. Somehow I got roped into staying for the second team’s game and we have five players and lost 3-7, but I scored a goal! We played the final 5 minutes of the game with four players. It was wicked exhausting. They had a student on their team who was a semi-pro, whatever that means. Well, actually what that means is that he is unstoppable. He scored all seven of their goals. I felt less bad about the loss after I learned that.
As far as women are concerned, there is nothing and there is nothing on the horizon. I get on the bus and find women that I am in love with. It happens two or three times a day that I see the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. Absurd. I don’t think I can ever leave this country. When they drive the scooters… that’s it for me. I’m sore. And tired. But not very hungry. Life is good.

-AJC