When the Moon Hits Your Eye Like a Big Pizza Pie

Merry Christmas to me, Merry Christmas to me...If you are wondering why I am singing Christmas music before Thanksgiving it is because as of yesterday, when I turned in my over 100-page journal for school, my magical Christmas break began.  We saw our final production, The Glass Menagerie, as a class.  My official theatre total is 37 plays since August!  I can hardly even grasp how many amazing theatre experiences I have had.  Here are a few of my favorites: Romeo and Juliet, Tribes, Broken Glass, Plough and the Stars, Les Mis, and Jersey Boys. 

After a crazy amount of packing, we vacated hotel living and all dispersed for our own independent adventures.  Mine begins in Venice, and will soon transfer on to a cruise ship for the next week.  The cruise crew (as we fondly call ourselves) is made up of Katelyn, Cortney, Kirby-Annah and myself.  If the next twelve days are anything like the dream today was, I don’t know if I can even handle all the goodness to come.  So after a bus, flight, and water taxi, we arrived in our Venetian hotel.  On the way here, we drifted along the canal looking at the colored houses, Italian sculptures, and gondolas.  Since the evening comes so early here, the moon was actually out in the bright blue sky.  When we walked into our flat decorated with pictures of Venice, we almost cried at the wonderfulness of where we are living.  Venice is such a beautiful city, and every road is literally water.  The city is a maze of small streets lined with restaurants, gelato shops, glittering masks, leather purses, and pashminas, and each of these is connected by bridges over the lapping water.  Every single person we have met so far has been so kind and welcoming.

Here is literally the taste we got of the city tonight.  After looking throughout the streets for some very Italian pasta or pizza, we finally stopped at a restaurant and took an outside table.  The tables each were lit with glowing candles, and the entire outdoor complex was shadowed by umbrellas.  I felt a bit like the romantic dinner in Lady and the Tramp...  “This is the night, the most beautiful night...”  We all feasted on pizzas; mine was mozzarella, eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes.  Each pizza came steaming to the table, and we consumed them entirely!  And that wasn’t enough deliciousness for one evening, for what is Italy without gelato?  Rum Raisin and Yogurt for me; Tiramisu for Katelyn, Hazelnut/Chocolate for Cortney and Hazelnut/ Chocolate Chip for Kirby...Your mouth should be watering by now J