Friday, August 18, 2006

Slow Scuola

Again, another post that begins with an apology...I'm SO far behind in blogging. Very sorry! The last few weeks (okay, um, months) have flown by, and they're culminating with some exciting news. By a bit of magic, I've been accepted to a masters program at the Universita di Scienze Gastronomiche, the Italian University of Gastronomy started by Slow Food. The "no parsley" version of the news: in about two months, I'll be eating my way across Europe. The official story is that I'll be earning a masters in gastronomy with an emphasis in food culture and communication.

In many ways, it's like a dream come true. I've been eyeing this university for two years and the prospect of bringing food to the front burner (ha, ha) is so exciting. Not that the process of getting to this point has been dreamy, mind you.

Applying to the university meant traveling across the state several times in search of signatures, public notary seals, state apostilles...Imagine any sort of bizarre certification and I've got it attached to my diploma, guaranteed. The final step in the application recipe was a trip to the Italian consulate in Detroit. I arrived early, found the building downtown, and double checked my notarized, sealed, signatured, and certified documents one last time. With 30 minutes still to spare, I noticed the cafe across the street advertised Illy coffee. A little Italian espresso to bless the occasion couldn't hurt. So I sipped from the tiny, thick Illy mug and said silent prayers.

Despite some last minute challenges at the consulate, everything with my application ended up working out (after ONE more trip for ONE more signature, ONE more seal, ONE more apostille). Waiting for the university to post the list of accepted students was even worse than all the running around. The only thing I could do was wait. But they say anything worth having is worth waiting for.

Now that my last day of work is approaching and all the American kids are headed back to school again, the idea of me in bell'Italia at Slllooooowwwww school is becoming more and more real. Signed, sealed, and delivered...vado in Italia!

~Corrie