France, Italy...guesses for next year?

Birthdays are fantastic. I mean nothing can beat that amazing feeling of aging overnight. Here's how June 5, 2008 went down:

I'm not normally much of a cereal fan, but this specific type, "Vitalis," especially the frutti di bosco flavor, is brilliant. I'm considering eating the cost of shipping multiple boxes home. It was the perfect way to start the greatest day of the calendar year.

I went to school to continue my commitment to education, occasionally perceived as avoidance of the real world, and the Scuola had gotten me a beautiful rose. Wanyi, a fellow pianist from Michigan, was my sidekick for the day and, more realistically, my entire time in Italy.

During our 30 minute class "pausa," we hit the Thursday morning market. Picked up some fresh fruit, porchetta panini, and calamari, but mostly just enjoyed the fact that it was a beautiful day. (It's tended to be a bit rainy thus far in my Italian experience.)

Urbania is small but beautiful and everywhere you look there's a hill that looks picture perfect. This is the view down the street from my apartment.

A little gelato appetizer---they don't eat dinner here until 8:30 or 9, so I swear it's necessary!

Went to dinner at a small hotel and it was fantastic! It was the 4 pianists, the director of the program, and one of the faculty coaches.

This was the antipasti. Delicious!

The dinner party.

It also happened to be Jennifer's birthday---another one of the pianists, so we went in on a cake that was pretty freakin' brilliant. Unfortunately we didn't get home from dinner until just after 11:30, so the actually eating of it was postponed until Friday. It was worth the wait and topped off with some amazing gelato.

I had planned several wishes over the past year, so even though I was candle-less I found a way to make do.

Overall, it was a lovely day. The most interesting bit to me, however, was in pondering last year's birthday in France with a mixture of nationalities in comparison to this one in Italy AND my 22nd in Utah. It's really just interesting to sit back and watch where life takes you. And wonder where I'll be next year on June 5th!