I came, I saw, I didn't sing

I woke up this morning and just knew I couldn't do the audition. As I mentioned yesterday, the cold started going into my nose, and when I woke up it was just out of control. I couldn't even hardly talk, so I definitely couldn't sing. It really isn't my favorite way to end this journey, and I'm definitely disappointed I didn't get to do the auditions because one thing is sure; I love it here and I want to come back as soon as possible. But too many good things came out of this experience for me to wallow in self-pity over this failure of a week. Instead, I choose to keep in the front of my brain all the things I'm taking away from this trip, and how I really feel like it changed me in so many ways for the better. I'm planning on writing my last entry tomorrow night while I wait at the airport (if there's a wireless connections, which now I'm realizing, in the Torino airport won't be likely) or maybe when I get home if I'm not too exhausted. I still haven't decided whether I should keep blogging on a regular basis or save the blogging for then I go to exotic locales. We'll see.

I will leave you today with one funny story from a few days ago that I forgot to report, but which bears repeating. The other day Vincenzo made lunch for me and this other friend of his, a violinist with the Teatro Regio orchestra. I was explaining to them both why I had decided to start eating vegetarian at the beginning of this year, and I was trying to explain that one of the reasons is all the additives and preservatives that go into the processing of American food. As usual, I was sort of out of my element in terms of vocabulary, so I was just making words I knew in english into Italian ones, which works about 50% of the time. I finally came to the end of my explanation with "e ci sono tanti preservativi nel cibo americano" which I thought was a pretty good guess at how to say that there are tons of preservatives in american food - except Vincenzo and Monica burst out laughing. Well, preservativi does not mean preservatives - it means condoms. That's right folks, all those condoms in amercan food turned me right into a vegetarian. It was a classic linguistic mishap, and one that I will not mistake again. By the way - preservatives is translated as conservante, just in case you are ever plan to have a discussion about food production with an italian.