Pecorino and Ricotta

Today we are taking a train to Florence. We are seeing a couple of the big sites (Uffizi Museum and Academy, where David lives) together and then we are on our own for the rest of the day. It was very windy last night and I was up for an hour or so wondering if tornadoes ever occur in Tuscany.

Yesterday we had a great day of lectures. An Italian adolescent counselor and professor came to speak to us about using metaphor when counseling adolescents. The exercise we did to better understand his lecture was to paint a picture, with finger paints, about what our life is like now or what we desire. It was a very powerful exercise for many of us. We each described what we painted and why. Davide then went on to ask us questions about our painting and our feelings. It was almost like art therapy. It was amazing. Some were even in tears as they looked into their paintings and were able to think about their problems a different way. That’s the good stuff and why I am here. Davide explained to us the brain structure and function of an adolescent and how they are able to better communicate their thoughts and feelings using metaphor. I was very enlightened by his presentation.

A sheep herder came to the house last night to show us how he makes pecorino cheese. I guess if you are a sheep herder in Italy, you make pecorino and ricotta cheese. I didn’t know this until yesterday, but ricotta comes from the whey run-off during the draining process of making pecorino. The pecorino is very watery so it is drained, and those “drippings” are re-heated (hence the “ri” in ricotta) to make ricotta. It was so delicious!! I didn’t have my camera with me so a classmate will email me a couple of pictures so I can post them to the blog. Salvatore, the sheep herder, did not speak English, so our host translated for us. Salvatore brought three different types of pecorino for us to have at dinner. There was a soft, less pungent one and two aged samples. It was by far the best pecorino I have ever had. For dessert, we had his ricotta with local honey and blackberries. I am in heaven.

I got to talk to Mark over the phone yesterday. I have to squeeze time in here and there as we don’t have a ton of free time. I heard Corinne in the background talking her father’s ear off. It sounded like she was the same cheery little Rinne that I know. Mark said they were having a great time and I was so happy to hear that.

I will have some pictures of Florence (Firenze, here in Italy) tomorrow. I won’t be surprised if I shed a tear or two when we get off the train. I can’t even begin to explain how excited I am for this trip today.