Ciao Bella

In September Andrew introduced me to a visiting student in his lab -- Nancy is at Cal for the final year of her PhD program, after which she'll return to Milan, Italy.

Nancy and her boyfriend, Luca, were clever enough to find him a short-term research project at Cal so he could visit for 2+ months during her 12 month stay.

As it always does, time managed to slip by and all of a sudden Luca was about to leave. Not ones to pass up a yummy dinner and interesting conversation, the four of us grabbed some Mexican food and margaritas last week.

Nancy is such a sweet gal, so it wasn't surprising when Luca was fun and easy to chat with as well. Over the course of a few hours we discussed school, family, traveling and (of course) the many differences between the US and Italy :)

Despite a less than ideal goodbye (I still haven't gotten that double kiss on the cheek thing down - I fear I'm a bit awkward about it all haha), we had a great time getting to know Nancy and Luca. And who knows, maybe the next time we have dinner it will be at a street cafe in Italy!