Christmas Time in Pavia

At the beginning of December I turned 23, which was less stressful than in years past because no one knew and I could conveniently ignore the fact that I am officially not college age anymore. Jon Goler stopped by on his way to Israel, so we had a nice dinner in Pavia.

Right after Jon left, my mother came to visit me and some friends in Switzerland for a few days. We found a restaurant hidden off to the side of the church in Pavia, run by a husband and wife. The wife cooked and the husband was the server. The food was so good my mother insisted on taking a photo with them.

By the way, in December and through the new year many cities in Europe go nuts with the Christmas lights.

Right before my mother and I left to spend the weekend in Geneva, Enrico and Silvia invited us over for dinner. They heard through the grapevine that I liked lardo--i.e. I wouldn't shut up about it for weeks--so here they are presenting the first course of lardo.

Next week the University term ended. That evening, the main historic dorm threw its annual giant Christmas party. Since Jill was visiting, I took her.

A day or two later, Simon arrived. Before embarking on our grand tour of Europe, we went to Milan to do some clothes shopping. Here Jill is making herself properly useful.