Wine with Maria's parents...

Last night I finally had the pleasure of meeting my friend Maria's parents. Maria, I know from New Zealand. She's studying english at Aspect, the school that I taught at. We met one weekend when a large group of us drove down to Taupo for a latin dance festival and I have adored her ever since...so, I have happy to meet her parents.

I was invited for wine around 7:30 in the evening- the invitation was in english, written by Polina, an American student staying at their house.

As it happens, they live about 7 blocks from Sergio (where I'm staying) so it was easy to find. When the door opened, I saw Maria -only older. I would have known Maria's mother on the street, they are so alike in looks and manner- just a difference of years (which means that Maria will be as lovely in a few years as she is now).

They live in a large and lovely apartment in a nice neighborhood in the city. All of the comforts that one hopes to have in a home are to be found there and Marta was a gracious hostess. She had prepared a number of fingerfoods to accompany the promised wine. It was a relaxing and lovely evening with good company. Truly, Maria's parents are charming people.

Her father Roberto makes his own lemoncella, a liquor popular in the north of Italy. It's VERY strong, and normally drunk in a very small glass after dinner (1 ounce serving) to help with the digestion. I had tried this in Italy- they were giving out samples on the street in hopes of getting you to buy a bottle. I choked and made such a horrible face that the man giving out samples laughed for a good five minutes, and didn't try to sell me any. I'm not used to drinking strong alcohol these days. I'm a wine drinker. Plain and simple. I sometimes branch out and drink beer or cider- but that's as far as I go. While living in Peru, I didn't drink at all- so I now I have very little resistence to alcohol....anyway, back to the lemoncella.

Roberto explained to me all about the process of making it, which takes just over a month. Fifteen days for the first bit, a liter of pure alcohol, a kilo of sugar, and a liter of boiled water, another fifteen days and something else for the final three days. It was all very interesting. He then brought it out, with 4 ounce glasses. I looked at the glasses and knew I was in trouble. He and I were the only ones to take any- everyone else disappeared when he was serving. For lemoncella, it was very nice. Sweet, but not too sweet with a very nice flavor but also very strong alcohol. I finished the first glass and was fine, but knew I didn't need or want more- it IS a very strong alcohol and I don't have much resistence right now.

After a time, he asked if I would like another glass and I politely refused, thanking him for the offer. Maria's brother was there at this time. Roberto asked his son if he would like some. The son refused, and then Roberto suggested that the son pour just a little more for me. The son got a wicked gleam in his eye and poured me another FULL glass. So mischievous that boy...so wicked for doing that. Once it's in the glass, you're rather obligated to drink it. In this glass, I started mixing up my words in spanish. I had to concentrate very hard to keep the language straight. I blamed Maria's brother. He did that on purpose.

At around 11pm, I said goodnight and made my way home. I remember passing a policeman with a very large gun (the kind you use in wars) and stopping and going back to ask him why his gun was so big. Was the neighborhood that dangerous? and, why was he hiding behind that sign? I don't remember his answer very well. Fortunately, he seemed rather amused by the question - which was very fortunate because all of the other military types that I've asked stupid questions of have demanded my documents as a response, and I didn't even have a photocopy of my passport on me last night.

Sergio was very fatherly when I came in, laughing at me and lecturing me on how I was out being wild at all hours of the night....to which I responded, "Yeah, that's me- crazy parties where old people get me drunk." after which I curled up on his bed to watch tv and wait for the room to stop spinning.