Yesterday, I went to the new secretary's house for lunch. She lives in a nearby town called Maddaloni. She picked me up around 10:30 in the morning and we had to make a few stops before we went to her home. We went to her boyfriends' aunt's house. I met aunts, uncles, and cousins. Then we went to her sister's new house, where I met her parents and her sister. Then, the 6 of us and her dog, Chaney, drove to Maddaloni. We got real close on that car ride. :) We arrived at her house. She lives on the top floor, on the terrace. It had great views! The apartment was cute too! Linda hasn't had much experience in cooking so she said that we would cook together. And, we did! We made a bolognese sauce to go with the pasta. I threw in a few things, then she would put a few things in and then finally we had a decent tasting sauce. We ate the pasta. Then I started cooking the second course. I was in charge of the grill. It was in English but I don't think it matters what language because the pictures describe the process quite well. But, nonetheless I was on grill duty. I cooked sausage and pork chops. Linda was inside cooking french fries. :) It was a tasty meal and I was quite full by the end. Afterwards, we cleaned up and waited for her boyfriend's parents and grandparents to arrive. The grandparents and mother had spent some time in America living and working so they were happy to speak English with me. We had a nice visit. Afterwards, we took an evening stroll and headed towards her parents house. Along the way, we walked passed some older women on the street and I said "Buona sera." And they replied back. Linda was impressed that I had spoke to them. We visited her parents for awhile and then headed out again. We took a stroll through the town. It is a cute and quaint town. We stopped at a bar near the main church "corpus domus" (something like that) and had hot chocolate. It wasn't a normal hot chocolate. It was about half filled of a regular sized coffee cup and it was pure chocolate, but hot. It was thick like syrup. But, it was delicious! Pure chocolate! Loved it! :) Afterwards, they took me home. I ended up coming home with not just myself but a bottle of wine and a scarf. Good day! We had fun, laughed a lot, and enjoyed trying to understand through the language barrier. Linda kept saying how happy she was that I was finally able to see her house and meet her family.
It was a great day and I thank Linda and Filippo for being great hosts!
