A Very Texas Christmas

Dicembre 15-27

So, I got a new camera for making video-blogs (vlogs) and the newest post covers most of these days... I ended up missing some things so I'll cover them here... but this should make the blogs MUCH easier to do and to follow... hopefully.

Dicembre 17, 2010

So on the Friday before I left, there was SNOW!!!!!! WHOOP!!! About a half inch maybe... it was beautiful. Nic and Lavi had their Winterfair which was just booths and fun things that they were selling and food and games... all the money was to go to charity... very cool and a lot of fun. I thought Nic's winter play was today, turns out, it was the following Tuesday, when I was not there. Dang.

Dicembre 27, 2010

Today we watched "The Expendables". It was pretty good, nothing spectacular but worth the watch. Then we went to the ranch to get ready to work cattle tomorrow. (Yes, I'm from Texas and have cattle... does everyone from Texas have cattle, no. I just happen to.) So Mom, Dad, Sis, and I all moved fence and chutes old school Egytian slave style, moving the heavy objects on rolling pipes... I felt like an engineering student trying to figure out the most effective way to move the chute, it sucked. I will take my anatomy classes or bio classes any day. ;) Tomorrow we spend a lot of time at the ranch, working cattle, then going hunting. There may be some rain... we'll see.

Well...Here's the link, let's hope it works.

Bombs and Baby Jesus

Dicembre 14/15, 2010

Dicembre 14, 2010

Today I "cleaned" my room a bit. I didn't do a full on 'Lela Haus' clean, because I'll have to do that later before I leave, but a good clean. Then I went to Piazza di Spagna to meet everyone for coffee. I was on time, barely after having to get off the bus because they said they were told they couldn't drive into the center. I waited 10 minutes, then found Jelco, then slowly, after an hour, everyone else showed up. Apparently, everyone else had the same trouble with their buses.

We went to au pair central for coffee, aka McD's, and I tried a "special" cafe'... it turned out to be like a caffe flavoured hot pudding with cream on top. Not a fan. I met a friend of Femke's that is also from Finland and she actually works about 3 blocks away from me! We then walked to "Little Big Town", a toy store near Piazza Venezia to find out the whole Piazza was surrounded by police in riot suits. Someone mentioned it was voting day, when Parliament decides if the current Prime Minister would remain in office, Berlusconi. As we were walking to the store we heard some strange bangs from a distance... it turns out there were riots earlier in the day and explosions in Piazza del Popolo. Raffa later told me this. The explosions were 'paper bombs'. I don't know what they are but there apparently were 90 through out the day, so that's what I think we were hearing... I haven't heard of anyone being hurt but it is a frightening concept. Berlusconi narrowly won the vote and will remain the prime minister.

A happier note... in the toy store, we found some fun things... I wanted to buy two teddy bears... both bigger than a VW Beetle, 2900 euro each. I took pictures with them. :)

Dicembre 15, 2010

Today I woke up and was planning on meeting Jelco at Piazza Navonna... I wanted to buy pieces for a presepe of my own. They were all so interesting, there were probably about 10 vendors selling the pieces and I found a set that I liked and bought some... I did my best to limit myself and not buy too much. I knew I wanted baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the 3 Magi, and an angel. This way when I come back I can have something to buy... an on going collection. ;) But I also want to make some of the pieces... all hand made, but not all Italian hand made. Then I went and had a great lunch where the pasta, secondo, tiramisu', and water all cost less than 25 euro, AND it was really good. I met the owners of the restaurant and they were really nice, I decided to buy a bottle of their wine. (I should stop buying things... I still have to get it all in a bag)

When I got home, I watch Nonna Jo help Lavi and Nic with their Italian homework, I learned about superlativo definitivi aggettivi... it is when an adjective describes something to it's maximum. If some thing is the slimiest, crunchiest, tallest, nicest, most elegant...etc. I used this knowledge when Nonna Jo made sausage cannelloni and fritatta tripa (super yummy omlet more or less)... I love eating here... freakin' awesome!!!!!

I then started getting some of my stuff together for my trip on Sunday. I was right, I have a lot of stuff... Dang. I am squishing everything down without trying to break anything... there are some fragile things... but I'm doing my best to protect everything. :)

Ok... caught up. Whoop!

OH!!!!!!! AND ONE OF MY BESTEST FRIENDS BECAME A UNITED STATES CITIZEN TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS Jesús Alejandro Pérez Rementería!!!

I'm Too Sexy... (future tense)

Dicembre 13, 2010

I found a gym about 5 buildings away. For 6 months (Jan-July) it will cost 51.20 euro per month. I will begin in January. I am excited. I will be turning heads like never before. (or at least not running in the rain anymore :)

I spent all of today catching up on blogs and watching TV online... and for lunch I had the salad with tuna at the little bar down the street. Very good. :)

On occasion I suffer from orthostatic hypotenion... and I'm not alone. It plagues everyone from time to time. :)

Hard Rock

Dicembre 10-12

Dicembre 10, 2010

The big thing today was that I went to go see Rock the Ballet. Was I all alone surrounded by couples and families? Yes. Did that the experience in general any less enjoyable? NO!!! IT WAS AMAZING! 6 guys and a girl and a lot of good music. The first half was a kind of love story, but the second half was just all Queen and Michael Jackson music. Very entertaining. Afterwards I went to get pizza Napolitana in Trastevere. A filet of bacala' and sausage and cheese pizza. Very, VERY good!

Dicembre 11, 2010

I went to the center and shopped around a bit. I bought a new jacket for the weather... it's colder than I thought it would be, but no snow, dang. I bought Mom's Christmas present finally. Then went to dinner at Di Fronte a... with Jelco, Femka, and Gemma. Pizza Diavola= delicious/spicey! We drove to the center in Femka's car and had fun trying to find a parking spot (think the opposite of fun). Finally, we found a spot but we were not sure if we could park there or not, so we (Jelco and I) asked an officer writing tickets if we could park were we left the car. He said that we could, one cross bar sign (where we parked) is ok, but two (where he was writing tickets) was not. He also said it didn't matter because this was going to be his last street to check. ;) SCORE! Eventually we met everyone for drinks at the Drunken Ship, we had a fun night. I kept getting paid cash to buy drinks with my discounts! :) We watched some fashioned challenged Russian guys dance out of control (OOC) and we were pretty sure two were brothers. They were crazy and fun. Then we wandered around a bit (one of us, not me had too much to drink) and she kept us from going to the club afterwards. So we drove her home, 12 km outside Roma. The car ride was not much fun... Motion sickness in Roman traffic/streets is inevitable in a hot car with stop/go motions. Got back and went to bed, glad to be on firm ground ;)

Good news is there was not vomit of ANY kind on my new jacket.

Dicembre 12, 2010

Stayed at the house most of the morning and some in the afternoon watching online tv... then went and watched "Tangled/Rapunzel" in Italian. I figured I could handle it since it was probably written for 7 year olds. I understood all of it, not every single word, but all the ideas. Then I went and ate at a fancy restaurant called "I Carnivori" The antipasta, prosciutto e mozzerella buffala was AMAZING! Appartently, the owners make their own wine... maybe I'll have some another time.

La Festa Dell'Immacolata Concezione

Dicembre 7-9, 2010

Dicembre 7, 2010

I went to class this morning, it was just Barbara and I... we did verbs and words in the kitchen to help prepare us for the party at school where we had to bring a dish from out home country. After class Erica, Gemma, Axelle, and I went grocery shopping for our foods. They were making Rice Krispies(US), scones(ENG), and crepes(FRA) respectively. I then returned home to start cake #2 it turned out a little over done, and not enough sugar, but next time I GOT it. Good news is the applesauce works. My pasta carbonara tonight was wicked awesome ;)

Dicembre 8, 2010

La festa dell'immacolata concezione is to celebrate the (phonetic clues) immaculate conception of the Holy Mother.

I took the bus to get some applesauce (I didn't buy them all at the same time yesterday, dumb) I finally finished the cake (and watched the Christmas GLEE while it baked) then attempted the arduous journey to school with a cake that was not quite finished cooling. I got on the bus and had never seen it this croweded! One guy accidently dropped the people's elbow on it and one lady refused to give me ANY room for the cake and kept bumping it, so I held it above her tiny head and taunted her with the possibility of me dropping a 7lb/3.5kg cake on her head. Finally I made it to the party... 45 minutes late.

There was SO much food there! I tasted food from: ENGLAND, THAILAND, AUSTRIA, FRANCE, GERMANY, ITALY, BRAZIL, AUSTRAILIA, BELGIUM, and USA. There were probably more, I just don't remember all of them. The final cake turned out great! It was one of the MANY things I ate. After consuming WAY too much food, I went back to the flat and slept for about 2 hours. Afterwards, I did some Christmas decorating, hung out with some friends, and had a good holiday in general. I've decided the presepe is my favorite Italian Christmas decoration. It's like a nativity, but on a completely different scale. They're HUGE! Most people set aside a small table for the whole city of Bethlehem. Mountains. Streams. Everything.

Dicembre 9, 2010

At school today we got to eat some of Camilla's cake she had left from the party, and we talked about how we could stay caught up with our Italian over the break. We then covered some more cooking terms and did about 10 minutes of reflexive verbs...

Barbara, Gemma, Erica, and I went for coffee after class then a couple of us did some Christmas shopping afterwards.

[i've decided that the primary difference between men and women shopping is that women like to look at things and buy them. Men, on the other hand, generally already have something in mind that they want to buy and just do more 'purchasing' not so much shopping. However, I enjoy 'shopping' more because it's just time to hang out with friends walking around and talking; it does however, get tedious when the conversation never changes from the clothes or the same thing that is being perused... I just like the socialization tied with the 'shopping' while it is my belief that more women actually like to find new places to spend their money. ;) I did my best to express my thoughts without sounding stereotypical/sexist ;]

Then when I got home we did MORE about Ben Franklin...

MMmmmm... Delicious...

Dicembre 4-6, 2010

Dicembre 4, 2010

This morning I ran in Villa Borghese for an hour, then met some friends who are leaving for good at the end of the year and NOW they've decided that want to see Roma... We did some shopping at the San Giovanni market...(I found a leather jacket that looks like Wolverine's from X-Men, but way sexier, since it was on me, I talked the woman down 50 euro, but I didn't buy it, if it's there in January, maybe. We'll see.)

Then we went and had a coffee at a cafe' above COIN. Two of the girls got some white hot chocolate that was apparently "sour" and I talked to the barista and got them refunds and another drink... by the way, "sour" doesn't translate into Italian in regards to something that has gone bad, it's just 'bad'. ;)

Then we went to the countryside to see some catacombs (218 infront of San Giovanni). We went into a REALLY beautiful church and saw some fantastic villas, then after we'd finished our adventures at the catacombs (really just like the one's here in town, but the walk to them was more spectacular) we went into the large, San Giovanni cathedral.

Afterwards, on my way home, I ran into Giorgio and we went out to get the shopping stuff done for the week. Afterwards, I went out and met with Jelco, Nora, and Erica and we went out for some drinks, I met two of their friends... but didn't ever talk to them since they ran off talking to some random guys... but we ended up leaving having a good night. I got a free drink at the Drunken Ship and got discounts for the girls with my student ID. :) Awesome!

Dicembre 5, 2010

I ate really well today and if I ever kept a food journal of all the great food I ate here... this food would be included:

-Mezzi rigatoni with homemade ragu' (sugo/carne)
-Pasta rustica, with zucchini and prosciutto
-(a new favorite candy) layered milk/white chocolate bites
-Insalata russa
-HOMEMADE 4 cheese gnocchi!!!

(still haven't had any food I didn't like)

Dicembre 6, 2010

Nic had his friend Ricard over. We played them against me, where I cornered them in a room and scared them... then we broke a loose door handle and I fixed it (I know; I cook, I clean, I fix things, I'm great with kids, I'm smart, and I'm not hard on the eyes... lucky, I know. ;) They ended up making a HUGE mess in Nic's room that I had to help clean up... oh boys... Then I went out and danced some... tada!

Beautiful Candlelit Dinner

Dicembre 1-3, 2010

Dicembre 1, 2010

I seriously opened the computer and caught up on blogs today... (then as you can tell by this posting date, I got a little lax again) I started my Christmas calendar opening it and finding a small square of chocolate with a poinsetta or stella di natale.

Dicembre 2, 2010

This morning I woke up to no power... There apparently had been a wire short under the street and it resulted in no electricity in our building.

It turns out I didn't do as spectacularly on my test as I'd hoped, most of it was stupid mistakes I didn't go back and re-read. meh. It's not for a grade or anything, just to see where you stand. I'm still confident I knew the material, I was just rushing...

When I got home, Nic and I had fun trying to re-research Ben Franklin without electricity, ironic, right?(his teacher kept his last report with all the info, and now we were supposed to make a timeline) After we finished, we had a nice, beautiful romantic dinner by candle light... 10 candles in 2 candelabras make a lot of light.

It was also the greatest woman in the world's birthday today! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!! :) I was fortunate and got to call her and talk to her and dad for a bit after hanging out with Erica, Nora, Jelco, and Axelle in the center. We went and saw some Christmas decorations at Piazza Navonna. Really neat.

Dicembre 3, 2010

FRIDAY!!!! Went to class for a series of games and "get to know you" activities this morning... I thought it was a performance that the advanced class had been working on. Turns out, they were just games... Barbara, Camilla, and I were the only ones there NOT in the advanced class, but I think we did pretty well... there were games to meet people and remember names, and things like that... but the hardest was the last game. We were in a circle and we had to go one after another making up parts of one big story... REALLY forcing you to listen, comprehend, then speak. I liked Camilla's take on the game... she just killed the princess to make things easier. ;) We did some fun "acting" scenes... make a series of yes's and no's make sense with body language... do stupid movements until you get close to a previously assigned (unknown) group movement...Turns out the performance will begin in January and we're supposed to say if we would be interested in participating... I think I may, I'll look at the text over the holidays and see...

Mattis came over and we played soldiers while Nic was at tennis... I taught him the beauty of a suicide kill... (kill yourself and your opponent just for the sake of prohibiting your opponent the joy of the kill. that was for all my smash bro. friends... ;) Then we watched HP 4, I did my best to not quote it too much...

Cakes and Lights

Novembre 29/30, 2010

Novembre 29, 2010

I went to the supermercato today and bought the necessary ingredients for my "Apple Cake". I did all the prep work and conversions, then baked it right before the kids got home from school. It turned out "OK". I wouldn't call it a success because it was a bit too 'oily' and a bit too 'sweet'... I can't call it a success until it has arrived at least close to the delectable perfection that I know it can be. The kids seemed to like it, but they'll like the next one even more. I then finished some homework then some 'skype-time'... just a chilled day. (note to self: give the cake at least 30 minutes to cool before trying to remove it from the bunt pan to avoid crumbling.)

Novembre 30, 2010

This morning I headed to school and we had a test over what we'd coved so far. There was 75% attendance, 3. All in all, the test was pretty easy. I'm hoping that after we all score fantastically on it, our teacher will get a little "harder" with the material. (not harder exactly, more like, let us go further, as of right now, I think we'll stop after we get to future tense, but there's so much more...)

After class, two of the girls and I walked to McDonalds to meet some peoples... we had an Au Pair party at McD's. (I swear I NEVER eat at McD's this much state side, I guess it is just more popular here or something, I don't know, it's cheap, I think that's why au pairs are drawn to it.)

Then, since there was strike on the Metro, Erica and I went to wait for the busses on via Tritone. After I got home we did homework and had dinner. Raffa bought me a calendario di festivale, a calendar to count down the days until Christmas, each day I open a little tab and eat a small chocolate. :) She said it's for kids, but I love it...

I went to go take some pictures of some Christmas decorations. There were some, but I can tell there's more to come. There was A big tree in piazza venezia, but it's not quite finished yet. Soon, I'll have more pictures. It was raining while I was taking pictures, but I stayed dry/warm enough. I went to Fontana di Trevi and at one point while I was there, there were literally 5 people in the Piazza...beautiful. :)

sometimes not being in a crowd is nice. ;)

Jason Statham

Novembre 27/28, 2010

Novembre 27, 2010

This weekend since I was planning on going to Napoli then that got cancelled, I didn't really have any big plans set up...

Saturday Morning I took a passaggiata around the city, saw some nice clothes, almost bought a "fashionable" jacket (puffy, tan, fur-lined hood) just so I'd look more Roman, and warm... but ended up letting it go. ;)

I ate some GREAT tiramisu' in the southeast side of town, near Furio Camillo. Apparently a VERY popular place. Very crowded, but big, so there was room for everyone. Ate some sausage and potatoes for dinner. Mmmmm. I met some friends after dinner and one of them said I looked like someone famous only with a beard, but they couldn't remember the person's name. They said the head bad guy in the movie "Cellular". I'd actually just seen part of it on TV the night before and it happened to be a scene with the head bad guy. Jason Statham. ;) I asked if they'd seen "The Italian Job", they said no, but they had wanted to. I took the compliment anyway. ;)

Novembre 28, 2010

This morning I met Aneta at Pza. del Popolo and we went to Porta Portese, a HUGE street market near Trastevere. It was awesome. Everything was there from cheap junk to really nice clothing and shoes. I bought a couple of things, one being an umbrello for 2 euro because it was raining, yet again... this week looks like it will be week 3 of straight rain. At least once everyday for 3 weeks. So much stinking water. Troppa pioggia.

Afterwards, I went to a friend of a friend's birthday party... I thought it was going to be a small get together with a small group at the pizzeria... we were supposed to be there at 20.00. We got there at 20.15 and it was a small group of people... then more people came... Eventually there were from 35-40 people there and we ACTUALLY started eating about 21.30. There were four courses (riso, pasta, carne con verdura, torta di frutta)... very good! It was just after 00.00 when we finally finished wishing happy birthdays and opening gifts and everything... I had loads of fun even though the entire group spoke Italian, I got bits and pieces here and there. I got a ride home on a motorino since the metro had stopped running. They're pretty fun.

All in all a fun weekend!

Celestina

Novembre 26, 2010

The Big Bang Theory. Such a great way to start your day. :)
(GLEE, Modern Family, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory) Some of the main ways to pass down time... while Nic's at tennis or catechism. :)

So this morning the plan was to go and have the hard copy of my letter of intent for medical school printed saying I would like my seat back when I return, then have it sent to the Texas A&M Health Science Center. I couldn't print it here because the room where the printer normally is is being repainted and so all of the stuff has been removed from it... so I went to the library and they told me they don't do prints there, but there was a print shop around the corner. So I printed one page for 20cents... dang. Then I learned a few words, busta, francobollo, spendire... (envelope, stamp, send) So as I was feeling a little crunched for time since I promised I'd send it today... and the shops were about to close (because all shops besides eating establishments close from approximately 13.00-15.00) I was in a bit of a rush... I got the francobollo, busta, and indirizzo all together just in-time before the tabacchi closed. Mission accomplished!

Then I went to a popular restaurant that had been closed but was reopened by Raffa's cousin... Celestina. It is on via Parioli, near the bottom of the hill. It's a very cute restaurant, not too expensive, delicious! I ordered the Zuppa di cecci and small tiramisu'... So good. Also a bit of bread to go with the soup. Mmmm. I highly recommend anyone go if you're in the neighborhood. ;) Later that night we watched Nanny McPhee... not bad...

HD 883

Blessed

Novembre 25, 2010

Today is Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I miss you all and count you ALL in my blessings! I would just like to say thanks God for SOOOOOO many blessings and opportunities.

-Eternal life, everlasting love...
-the BEST family a guy could ever ask for
-friends that don't give up on you
-LOVE; in all it's shapes/sizes/colours/degrees
-Recognizing differences to appreciate commonalities
-All flavours of beauty
-Fortunate opportunities and blessings...all of them, even the ones I don't recognize...
-LIFE
-Understanding
-Health
-Food/Water/Shelter...

This list could go on forever... but I'd just like to say thanks. Thanks for all of it. Said and unsaid.

A Rocky Start

Novembre 22/23/24, 2010

Novembre 22, 2010

This morning Jelco, Nora, and I went for a run in Villa Ada after Jelco dropped off his kids and picked up Nora... it was raining... a lot. I ran in a red pancho provided by Vodafone. I was still soaked... but not so much as the other two. :) We did a quick trip around my "2-mile" loop. There were giant puddles everywhere and ALL shoes were soaked by the end. It was kind of miserable, but enjoyable at the same time. When we finished, not five minutes later, God revealed skies of the most beautiful blue waiting patiently behind the clouds. It was like God was testing our determination to run, then after we finished He said, "Good job, ok, have a great day!" :) Thanks God! ;) [again: warm showers are amazing after cold rain soaks you to the bone!]

After my marvelous shower, I took a blanket and wrapped myself up on my bed to do my italian homework. I'd decided that if I want to learn this language I should put just as much effort into it as any other subject I want to learn. Now I will spend at LEAST 3 hours every day practicing my Italian, either watching Italian TV, reading Italian books or magazines, doing Italian homework, or just speaking Italian to people. 3 hours a day really isn't hard, but it forces me make a more decisive effort. After I finished my homework, I began a children's book of Nic's "Buona Nanna Piccolo Orsetto"... A lazy but enjoy morning. Warm and cozy.


Novembre 23, 2010

This morning I went to class and it was raining REALLY hard when I woke up, but it wasn't bad by the time I left. At my Italian lesson, it was just Prescilla and I, one of the French girls. (the cream of the crop ;) It was like a private lesson for an hour and a half. We talked about lots of stuff... politics, travelling, vacations, etc... Unfortunately, the trip to Napoli this weekend got cancelled because the Camorra (mafia in Napoli) has been making trouble with the trash collection and now there's huge messes of trash everywhere all over the streets... I'll have to take a trip there myself sometime if I can't go with the class. They said that we'd try and take another trip somewhere soon. Nonna Jo said I should go to Firenze. I told her I'd been, but I liked it so much, I think I will go back, and it won't cost but maybe 50 euro for the entire day trip (train to/from, food, souveniers, etc).

After class I went back to the casa and slept until work time. ;) I love sleeping... it's one of my favorite past times...
you know, with the amount of time I spend breathing, if practice makes perfect, I should be able to breathe perfectly after approximately 202,800 hours of breathing (not taking into account time spent holding my breath for various reasons)... but I still can't breathe perfectly... There always seems to be SOME sort of obstruction...
Anywho... after catechism class... (eventually we're going to research Benjamin Franklin, when he doesn't have other homework) we ate and then watched TV...


Novembre 24, 2010

Today I woke up and had a vocabulary lesson after breakfast with Giorgio... coperchio (lid), tapetto (cap), panca (bench seat), cassa panca (storage bench), tovagliolo (napkin), tovaglia (tablecloth)... then after breakfast, I went to my room and looked at other vocab words from class... clothes, things in a house, parts of the body, etc... all good review...

Then I went to Coin, and had lunch, then shopped for some Christmas presents... I think I found 1 or 2... bellisimi! Then returned... helped the kids with some homework (Lavi stayed home from tennis because she hurt her spalla (shoulder) at school, we did spelling [my favorite]) For dinner I had too much liver, while being a healthy meat choice it is WAY too high in sodium (92% in ~100 grams) I'm guessing I had 200g... fail my stomach didn't feel so great after that. It's probably not a good idea for someone who doesn't eat much sodium to all of a sudden eat TONS of it... duly noted.

Nic and I talked a lot about the Texas A&M Singing Cadets today because I let him check my Italian homework for me... ;) I figured it was only fair since I check his.

until next time "Dream on, dream on, dream on, dream until your dreams come true!"

A Magical Weekend...

Novembre 20/21, 2010

Novembre 20, 2010

This morning I went to run with Jelco... He had agreed to go with me, we just had some difficulties finding a good place to meet... we ended up deciding on Piazza del Popolo, then running to Villa Borghese. It was sprinkling when I got there (in my shorts, trainers, tshirt) and we decided to lock up his bike, then head for the run. We ran one of the routes I'd taken before, around a little corner of the park, then over to the Spanish Steps, down them, then back up... dodging people as we ran... then a quick sprint up the top of the hill, to finish the first half before taking a nice turn around the lake for the second... after we finished, sufficiently run down... we sat under a tree as it began to pour. Apparently, we looked like we knew where things were, we had at least 4 groups of people ask where something in the park was. (One group was from Texas University... I almost wanted to give them bad directions, but that would be mean. I'm not mean.) So I ran back to the bus stop that was closest and was completely soaked, cold as ice, and waiting for a bus. Luckily there was a small awning I could stand under, and the bus was fairly quick in coming (not a trend that would last the night). A warm shower hasn't felt so good in SO long.

After the run, I stayed at the house for a while instead of going to a museum to listen to music... too much rain. I met Jelco and the girls at Pza del Popolo and we all headed to the futbol match. Udinese v. AS Roma... our seats were on the "corner" of the oval stadium and we had a great view of everything. I don't think I'm ready for the 'cheap' seats, there's a lot of screaming and waving and clapping, which I'd be fine with if I knew what they were screaming...maybe a few more games and I'll figure it out(not likely). AS Roma won 2-0, a good match, AS Roma just seemed to have it all together, and a GREAT keeper.

After the game the plan was to go back home, change, then go out and dance/socialize. I waited for my bus for 1 hour. (While I was waiting I accidently told a group of guys from Norway the wrong way to go to get to the city centre... what, no one's perfect.) Then I took the bus home and it took 2 hours to get there. UGH. I was so fed up with transit... I texted Jelco and told him I wasn't going to make it out with them tonight...

****

Novembre 21, 2010

This morning I slept late and had a brunch... then about 1 hour later, had lunch with the family, including Nonna Jo. :) Then I watched some "Big Bang Theory" to pass the time until it was Harry Potter time! (also, I dare anyone to watch that show and not laugh. oh my gosh... ESPECIALLY if you're even a little bit nerdy.) Then I put on my new 'hufflepuff' tie and my khakis and sweater and headed to the theatre. After I was 1/2 way there, about to get on the subway, I realized I'd left my wallet in my pants at home. DANGIT!!!!!! I contemplated going back home, but I would be late to meet everyone and blahblahblah, I decided to hope my friends would have enough to cover me until I could pay them back... If it must come to it, I will busk for HP tickets (perform for money) I'm sure via del Corso could always spare a few euro for a talented... musician? commedian? dancer? clutz? Turns out they were able to cover me, but the show sold out right before we got there so we bought some of the first tickets to the next showing in 2 hours... in the mean time we went where you don't have to buy anything, but if you want to it's cheap (good for the au pair budget), and they don't kick you out, McDonalds (not my idea). We passed the time doing nothing, chatting, eating, playing games etc... we met the Dutch girls from my class (McDonalds just attracts au pairs) and they joined us for a while, then we headed back to watch the movie.

Oh it was such a good movie. I'm ready for the next one to come out now please. ;) Everyone liked it... even Jelco who only came to be social. He doesn't even like HP...

There was so much fun had this weekend... Hopefully many more to come. ;)

OXOOXOOXOOXO

TIckets to the World

Novembre 18/19, 2010

Novembre 18, 2010

When I'd left this morning I looked at the weather and it said rain. I looked outside and it was sunny. A crux. I opted to wear the sweater, jeans, and sunglasses... and bring an umbrella... you never know. I went to class and we worked on more Passato Prossimo tenses... again, it's much easier than remembering actual present tense, you just have to keep in mind which verbs are moving verbs and which are not, then adjust accordingly... and then you have to remember the past participles which are usually easy... unless they are an exception... to be an exception I thought there were supposed to be very few... there seem to be more than just a few 'exceptions'.

After class while I was walking, I saw Camilla, one of the French girls walking in the same direction so we walked together. She was going along via del Corso to get some socks. I was going to meet Jelco and some others to buy our AS Roma v. Udinese tickets. We decided we'd walk/shop together. Camilla didn't find any socks and we arrived at the meeting point a little early so we decided to grab some food nearby. While we were eating some food we were chatting and what not, she's pretty nice and all, and we finished and got ready to leave when we looked outside. It was raining... Mr. Prepared was all over it... we ended up getting to the meeting point late after getting turned around... but it all worked out eventually. Camilla was going to a dance and so she couldn't make it to the game, so we said goodbye. Jelco was there with Minna, Nora, Dakota, Natalina, and Johanna. Jelco was in charge of getting the tickets since he'd done it all before... Long story short... with and XY chromosome you have to pay 12 euro more which sucks and you can't pay with credit card so I bummed off of everyone and then just bought them all lunch worth the 28 euro (the 17 euro seats were full)... I headed home and then We finished the research on Mr. Bloom then blahblahblah dinner, tv. etc... there was an intense tickle fight when Nic told me I sing to much, then I called him a little man, and he called me a fatso, then I tickled him a lot... It made me think of the time(s) I'd made Ivan Uriel Valdez laugh so hard he vomited... oh good times, good times...


Novembre 19th, 2010

Today is Friday, thank you God. In all of the awesome days you made... somehow this one seems to have risen to the top as a favorite amongst mankind. Did some abs stuff this morning... really just a random assortment of things to make me feel better about eating all the sweets/pies I'd been eating... kryptonite I tell you...

After a few episodes of Modern Family (I swear it's impossible to watch that show and NOT laugh) I headed out to grab a bite to eat and do some shopping for Christmas... I tell you, this whole being away from home gets your shopping done early. ;) I ended up eating some kebabs at a place near the colosseo after walking from the intersection of via del Corso and via Tritone. It was pretty good, but the Dulce de leche gelato combo-ed with the tiramisu was noteworthy afterwords... I think it maybe the greatest combination I've had so far. YUM-TASTIC. Then I returned home and we did a little reading before he had to go to tennis. Then I got some more Modern Family shows in...(seriously, you should all watch this show, at least once) then afterwards we had dinner downstairs (I don't think I really helped make a dinner once this week... I feel like a slacker, oh well) and then we watched HOCUS POCUS!!! WHOOP-WHOOP! (There are too many awesome friends out there who love this movie to give you all shout outs. You know who you are. ;)

Tomorrow, Jelco and I are meeting to go run some, then I'm helping Zio Marco with some english computer stuff (I'm like a hot commodity, I hope I don't fizzle out ;) then the game, then some dancing maybe... glorious! :) OK Catch you all later! AS ROMA!!!!!!!!!

Lunch with Jesus

Novembre 16th/17th, 2010

Novembre 16th, 2010

I looked at the weather on my iPod... it said rain all week. Lame. I went to class this morning and was the only one there... eventually 3 others showed up about 10, 15, and 30 minutes later. We started covering past tense today... whoop! (so much easier than present tense, only 1 thing to remember, moving verb or not, the rest is easy) During class we talked about the holiday season and how they all differed in everyone's home countries... Holland has a BIG breakfast on Christmas and then big dinners on the 25th and 26th (Babo Natale also comes in a big boat)... France celebrates from the 24th-26th with big dinners each night and open their gifts as soon as it is past midnight on the 25th, Italy has their traditional 5 course meal (antipasti, primo piatto, secondo piatto, contorno, dolce) on the 25th (usually a tag team effort between two women), and then on the 6th of January there is Befana... a witch who flys around and leaves candy in the stockings of good little kids and coal (black candy) to the bad little kids. It was a lot of fun learning about the other customs. I wish I'd written down everything so I remembered it all... oh well.

I got in contact with my advisor at the medschool to find out the process I need to do to request my position back formally... I'm working on finding the template I had...

After class I stopped at a vending machine and bought a chocolate bar in the metro... it got stuck. so I bought the one behind it and the first one fell... then the second got stuck. I shook the machine. (I think they're heavier or something) nothing... I reached in for the first one and the second fell just from me opening the little flap. Too much chocolate in one day...

When Nic got home we did a little bit of math with Lavi, then headed to Catechism with Carmita... after we dropped them off Carmi and I walked back... talking about shopping in different countries and prices of things and such... apparently Spain has AWESOME prices... like 50 euro for Nikes! 12 euro for name brand jeans...

Jelco also invited me to the AS Roma game this weekend and told me I had to learn the commencement song... 17 euro... I'm so freakin' excited... then Erica and I are seeing HP on Sunday (hopefully)!!!!!

**Just an update... I keep eating all this great food and I can't remember any of the names... I'm sorry... but I do know that Rosetta bread should be consumed the day it is bought... much better then! :)**


Novembre 17th, 2010

This morning I watched GLEE... not a fan of Principle Sue... I liked Figgins. ;) But he did have a pretty good exit... the look on his face after he got sneezed on was hilarious!

THEN!!!!! I started/revamped my letter of intent to start medical school next fall. It took almost all day... I finally finished around 1, then I headed out for some lunch. Lunch today was all about one of my besties, Jesus Alejandro Perez Rementeria... I went and bought his Christmas present, and at lunch had 2! pieces of baklava. One for me, and one for him. :) Then I took the bus home listening to my Disney playlist he made me. :) (oh, and I bought a Hufflepuff tie for Sunday :) ALSO I saw a chess set today that was Texas vs. Mexico... if it wasn't 50 euro, I would have bought it...

When I got home I did some editing of my letter with some outside resourcing... and then we did some homework, had some amazing dinner (gnocchi but not the potato gnocchi, more like a bread) and tiny chicken things... and Nonna Jo (Giancarla) made a super good looking cheesecake... I'm excited to eat it tomorrow at breakfast. I know. Cheesecake for breakfast... it's like a double edged sword...

ok... that's it... all i've got... tomorrow class and another day in paradise...

In commemoration of someone calling me Texas Ranger today...
"Chuck Norris burns ants with a magnifying glass... at NIGHT!"

Mark This Day. He Admitted he was Wrong.

Novembre 15, 2010

This morning I ran with some sprints tossed in there hoping to open my chest congestion up some... It did... then after the parasympathetic nervous system kicked back in, congestion returned.

After my run in Villa Ada (I had just watched about 20 minutes of a movie on tv about Villa Ada, called, "Villa Ada"... :) I cleaned. I cleaned my room like no one's business! It look freakin' good. Let's see how long that lasts. I even did my sheets and pillowcases... the only dirty clothes I have right now, I'm wearing. :) It's a good feeling.

I made amazing tuna salad, with diced pickles (I'm awesome and found them in the store) and it almost tasted like home. I ate 80% of it... then thought I'd see if Nic wanted to try if for snack after school. He didn't, he said it was more a lunch food. Meh. We worked on his advanced class project of Benjamin Bloom, then finished most of his math homework for this week, and then he read his entire English book (due tomorrow) in 45 minutes. LOTS of homework, but he Rocked it! I told Nic and Raffa about my tuna salad's contents, they thought it sounded disgusting... they don't know what they're missing. ;) When Giorgio got home, he said he'd try it. He did, he said it was good. (He get's the first slice of the Apple Cake when I make it. :)

I did some homework with Giorgio and Raffa, an interview, and they helped me some with some practicing Italian... I like practicing with them at home, it seems easier than on the spot at a store or in the street.

I'm tired. I need to head to bed. :) Another day gone. Thank God for what He gives you. *Thanks God!* :)

Don't be afraid to try new things! (tuna salad ;)

Beauty is Where You Look for It

Novembre 14, 2010

We FINALLY finished the advertisement homework that is due Monday. YAY! Fought tooth and nail to get all we got on the page, but we got it. ;)

I decided since it was a beautiful, sunny day... I'd put on a nice pair of shorts, tshirt, and light jacket and head to Ostia, a beach just a 2 metro rides away. :) SO! I hopped on the bus at about 3? I think... then the metro (had to ask which train/metro it was and where I should trade ecc...) then when I got to the exchange stop, I had to ask one more time which train took me there. FINALLY, I was on the train to Ostia... then I got off at the stop called, 'Ostia'... (wrong stop, this is some ruins that close at about 16.30-17.00...) so I go back and wait for the train and then get off at the RIGHT stop, two stops away. Then, I found my way to the beach and to a pier just as the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen begins in all it's glory.

Ostia is kind of like Galveston, TX for anyone who knows it, fun shops, booths on the beach, carnival... the whole deal. There was even had a puppet show going on when I walked by one booth. Cotton candy, candy sold by the gram... a kids dream... Since I had been held up by the mix up at the train stop, and I was planning on seeing a movie later, I was a bit in a rush after I arrived in Ostia. After sunset, I grabbed a pizza (funghi, margherita) and a gelato (cafe'/?) then headed back to meet Jelco and Aneta for the movie.

We met up at Piazza del Popolo, I introduced them, and we watched the film, 'Social Network'. A film about the beginnings and drama behind the making and running of Facebook. I think the most interesting thing I found about the movie was the complexity of the human mind, body, and actions. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, but I do recommend the movie. I think it is a decent story, nothing ground breaking or unheard of, but told in a way that makes you think about yourself, at least it did me.

After the movie, Jelco and I decided to head to Scholars, in Piazza Venezia to watch Inter v. Milan... we sat for a little while. Again, failed to 'enjoy' my drink (both because I drank it too fast and since they didn't have coke zero, I had to settle for diet coke) Then some friends called and said they wanted to meet me at Piazza Navonna to have a cafe'. It was nearby so I headed that way with the intention of just saying hi and returning... then the tiramisu happened(I can't turn down sweets, it's like my kryptonite)... *le sigh* I apologized to Aneta and Jelco for leaving them, but promised we'd get to hang out in the coming week.

It was a long day, but very enjoyable, filled with beauty in so many shapes, sizes, colours, facets, and questions...

"When love is in the house, the house is packed."

Au Pair. Party of 20?

Novembre 12/13, 2010

Novembre 12, 2010

Today I did a whole lot of nothing. I finished washing my clothes, then hung them up... They are not likely going to be dry any time soon because it's cold and rainy all week... I'll keep you updated on their status.

Novembre 13, 2010

Today I woke up and bummed around the house until Nicolo, Adriano, and Lavignia returned from futbol. (this was Lavi's first time to play with them and she was really excited, the boys weren't as excited ;) When they got back we started working on their homework of describing an advertisement and what the purpose was, how it was selling the product, blahblahblah... Lavi's advert was hard... it was a girl in some clothes... Adri was really good at finding things to write about (it had to be about 1 page!) ...and eventually Nic got the hang of it and was writing a lot too... we were at it for almost 2 hours when they had to go to the theatre. God love the theatre... so then I was going to go meet Gemma and Erica and see what they were doing, but they'd already headed home and said they were going to be meeting at Piazza di Spagna at 20.00. Sweet. I have plans now. So I left at about 18.30 (after a good conversation with Giorgio about my Italian, and us coming to the conclusion that I could/should practice it more at the house). I left early because I knew I'd be likely to get distracted by something, or get caught in traffic and be the last one there, I hate that. So I window shopped as I walked the last 300 meters then I waited and people watched until they found me. Then they led me to another group of people that they'd also planned on meeting... wait... what? More people? So there were about 7 more people that we met up with... then we were about 10 including us... and just before we left we 3 more came... all au pairs (except one who knew one of the girls from class) and all girls (except the one that wasn't an au pair, and Jelco, the super tall, super blonde, Dutch Au Pair). I "met" everyone, but it was a crazy mix up of confusion and so I knew I'd have to get it again later... [Erica, the girl Gemma came with, was super excited to meet me, and I her, because we both LOVE Harry Potter, and we are going to go see the new film next Sunday if we can find it in English!]

So we started our night off, deciding we would head to a buffet type place to eat... that didn't last long... it's hard to find a place to seat 15 people (we'd somehow picked up even more people) in restaurants that MAYBE have a table for 8 and that's it. So eventually, we just ended up fending for ourselves on the go, grabbing a cafe' here, a pizza there... whatever and we'd TRY to get the group to slow to a crawl and not leave you... well, our first stop was at the Bulldog Inn. Jelco and I wanted to watch the AS Roma v. Juventus game. They had discounts for American Students (1euro) so I got a drink and a pizza. 13 euro total I think. The game ended up a tie, pari, but was enjoyable. Then we headed to Campo Fiori, an 'Irish' pub called the Drunken Ship. Gemma and I had a June Bug... super sweet and delicious... mine was gone almost before we sat down. (I came to the conclusion on this night, I'm not very good at enjoying drinks) After some lively chats and getting to know each other some more, (girls from Germany, Austria, Polland, Finland, everywhere) we decided (some random guys that were flirting with some of the girls) that we should go to this other place, a dance club. Turns out it was SUPER crowded and they wouldn't let in large groups so... we went to a 4th and final place. L'Anima (the soul)... there was a lot of dancing and a lot of people in an itty-bitty-dancin'-space, but we worked it out.

All in all, it was a great night, met lots of people and we had lots of fun... however, when lots of people get together and have lots of fun, such a combination generally leads to some drunken debachery and incessant flirting... (none of which on my part thank you} which really just made the night more fun for some, and (I'm guessing) the morning less fun for others. ;)

"If I had bones in my cheeks, I think she'd have broken them from pinching my cheeks so hard."

Cooking up Diaster

Novembre 10/11, 2010

Novembre 10, 2010

I got a new pen today. It is awesome, it writes so beautifully and I'm so happy to have it. YAY! I also ran my 2.2 mile circuit this morning with the intent of improving my second 'lap' by 2 minutes... there was a lot of mud, it was hard... I ended up only improving it by 30 seconds.

I watched the new episode of GLEE today. I also bought the GLEE version of 'Teenage Dream' today. ;) I probably listened/sang it 15 times today.

Nonna Giancarla also taught me how to cook some things today! We hung out in the kitchen and talked while she explained some recipes to me and the Italian way of cooking. Words of wisdom... "You can't be stressed when you cook, pasta(breads) knows how you feel. You can't be in a rush, or stressed." While cooking, we talked about travelling, experiencing new cultures, how foreigners shouldn't enter a culture and want to change it, but embrace the culture they're entering. We talked about immigration, music, and obviously, cooking. For dinner we had beef wrapped around ham and veggies (possibly the best meat I've had yet) We also had warm chestnuts, zucchini/carrots, egg pasta, and some vegetable I don't know the name of but we dipped it in Olive oil and salt. All of this with fresh pizza bianchi and wheat bread (pane integrale)...mmm... then I had some candy corn for dessert. ;)

For lunch I went to a supermarket deli (intimidating) and bought fresh turkey and pizza bianchi and made a sweet sandwich. (I also bought a apple cinnamon flavored candle and now my room smells like Christmas, an improvement from the previous smell of sweaty shoe. ;)

Novembre 11, 2010

ummm... I was late to class today because I waited with a classmate, for another classmate who may leave Italy and go back home because her family is mean, I'm pretty lucky. At class I was told we're supposed to make a food from our home country and bring it on the 8th of Dec [Mom, can you send me Grandma's Apple Cake recipe? I don't have it memorized anymore].

Then I came home and had a sandwhich and talked with Anita for about 15 minutes, I understood ALMOST everything! (Marco, 7 years old, went on a 3 day field trip to Toscana with his class. I NEVER HAD AN AWESOME FIELD TRIP LIKE THAT!!! TO TOSCANA ;) Later, Nic/Claudio and I went to the Gameshop and painted for an hour (2 figures finished) and then I came home and did not help Nonna with the cooking (I asked, she said no) so I went upstairs and played with the kids... then we ate some ravioli in broth (YUM), some polpetti(std. yum), then upstairs for some more playing (Nic hit his face against the hardwood floor after jumping over the couch, he will likely have a nice bruise on his cheek) then bed... with an ice pack.

All in all... just another day in the life of a really, really Blessed guy. :)

New Favorite(s)

Novembre 8-9, 2010

I've decided to get more concise in my blogging. As Nic said, referring to my blogs when I described them to him like a daily diary/journal, "They must be boring on a normal day." That being said... I'll post things that are outside the ordinary... new things,(except my exercises because it helps keep me accountable... more or less) things I think you'd enjoy reading... not every detail of my day (that takes a lot of time to write and too much effort to remember).

Novembre 8

It rained this morning... a light sprinkle... so I did dips and push-ups in the rain. That's right, I'm a stud. ;) Then I ran back and did 350 bicycles, my abs hurt... a lot! After

Novembre 9

Today after class (We played a game for review material. My team,Prescilla and I, kicked butt.) I went to grab lunch at a place I'd eaten before when I was looking at shipping for UPS, it is a small "convenient store" with food items, and some miscellaneous things you may need around the house. They serve a limited lunch menu and last time I had tuna and tomatoes on my sandwhich. This time I had prosciutto, formaggio, and pomodori on rosetta bread. (my computer has decided that all the words I type in English are misspelled) I also bought a coke zero and a small candy (name brand Kinder). The total for everything was 4 euro. A sizable meal for a remarkably small price. Next time I think I'll have the salad with tuna. The store is run by a nice couple who are always there and have a knowledge of their customers.

That's also one thing that is different from the US, people don't change jobs often, they stick with one job and do it. You can almost always find the same workers in any restaurant you frequent, any bar you grab a coffee in, any gelateria you listen to music in, even some of the bus routes you ride. Italians are not afraid of work. I've seen some fashionista look all cute in her done-up hair, big D&G sunglasses, and fancy phone emptying trash on via del Corso. The work has to be done, she needs money, why not do it. There's not shame in work, wherever you find it.

After dropping Nic and Lavi off at Catechism, I was walking back in a light sprinkle when I saw a guy walk by with a very tempting gelato... so I retraced his footsteps into a gelateria that had maybe 10-12 flavors, but they had my favorites (tiramisu/bacio), and I had correct change so I bought a small cone and ate it on my way home... in the rain. :) It was 1.50 euro and possibly the most delicious I've had yet. Raffa said that Nic won't try it because it is too new. He's 9 and he's already set in his ways... ;)

Biagio Antonacci

Novembre 7, 2010

This morning I woke up to go to church... I went to St. Paul's Catholic Church again, English service at 10.00. This time I was not late. In fact, I was 15 minutes early. The message was a good one, the pathway to Heaven, if I remember correctly. There was a group of people, about 30-35, from Ireland attending mass this Sunday morning. Good to get some group 'God time'. Singing the hymns is always my favorite part (I think I like the Catholic hymns more than protestant so far just because they're not outside my range... maybe it's just this congregation's song leader?)

After church I debated going back to the flat or taking a trip into the center. I decided to go into the center and look around some. I ended up going to Zara's because Kristina and Leslie said it wasn't a super expensive store and it was nice clothes, so I went in. Some things were too much, but some were not bad prices. I found a 'stylish' pair of jeans that were only 24 euro, so I bought them. I thought, why not? However, it did take me about 1 hour to look around the store because there were a lot of people in the store and using the fitting rooms and things... and I didn't want to buy them without making sure a "40" was the right size... because A) I've lost weight B) I don't understand European sizes yet. Turns out, I wear a size 40, which measures out to a 31 in US sizes.

After getting my awesome new jeans, I headed back to the house to get refueled and refreshed... and check facebook for info on what our plans were for the movies. It seemed that Gemma and Aneta were the only ones that were expecting to make the movie... so we all decided to meet at Piazza del Popolo, but at differnt times.. so I got there first and waited for Gemma who was walking (the long way around) from Trastevere. There was large group of people at the Piazza and more people kept coming as time went by. Men in uniforms kept walking by... I recognized the Cameriere, but there were other uniforms that were more unfamiliar. Men walked by in uniforms with musical instruments, I began to think that something was going on in Piazza del Popolo today... just a hunch. Then I heard something in the distance, but then it grew into a gastrophony. 7 fighter jets flew over the piazza with jets streaming from them in green, white, and red, just like the Italian Flag. It was amazing, just like from a magazine! Just after they flew over, Gemma found me, she got to see the planes as well. We had to wait a bit for Aneta to arrive, she was dropping a friend off nearby and would be there in about 30 minutes. Gemma and I went to have a cafe'. While were were inside we heard the planes fly over 2 more times, but we figured it was just them returning from where they came. When I walked outside, I saw the tail of the green, white, and red streams... we'd missed taking another picture... twice. Dang. Finally, Aneta arrived, they met each other, and talked a lot about lots of things, I had picked up a brochure from a man, explaining what was going on. It was the celebration of the 150th year Italy was a unified country. YAY! There was going to be a concert later and everything. After a while, we decided to go see "Wall Street", Aneta said that she wasn't going to be able to see it because she still needed to study for her Arabic test, she's trying to find another language to study, she says Arabic is too hard, at least for now. We were at least glad to get to see her for the little while we did.

Gemma and I then went to see "Wall Street". It was in English with Italian subtitles, which doesn't really help me learn Italian, but it does help me pick up small phrases and individual words. The movie was good, I enjoyed the drama and complexity of greed and consumerism... but I enjoyed the fact that it was just an illusion projected to me and that I didn't have to deal with it at such a level. My favorite line from the movie was when Michael Douglas was describing a man who was tricky and always getting away with things... "Like he dances between rain drops...*Like a monkey dancing on a razor blade.*"... A monkey dancing on a razor blade?! How many people read that script, reviewed that film, and edited the final production? I don't understand how they all didn't realize it seemed completely out of place. Gemma and I both looked at each other and just laughed.

After the film we came outside and the concert was just about to start. We decided to climb up on one of the walls surrounding the piazza and watch the concert. The concert was also paying tribute to all of the Italian Armed Forces (hence all the men in uniform). The singer was Biagio Antonacci... We enjoyed the concert a lot and watch with excitement as some kids in the piazza were dancing below us, a great show. After the concert (ancora, ancora, ancora) we headed home. I told Raffa about the concerta and asked her if she knew of Biagio Antonacci, she said yes, he's very famous... his music is kind of like an Italian Phil Collins, easy listening and a little rock thrown in... bellisimo! Then Raffa showed me the cover of the Italian Vanity Fair... Biagio Antonacci... naked (only a record covering himself) He is quite a popular man... especially with the women apparently. I went to his website and keep listening to his songs... they're very enjoyable. I think I may buy some on iTunes. Bella Musica. Here's his website if anyone wants to give it a look/listen.

All in all, a GREAT day... loads of fun!


#1

Ellipsis...

Novembre 6, 2010

I wish I'd taken pictures today... It was a beautiful day and I saw some beautiful things... but that just leaves all the more reason for all of you to visit Roma. :)

Since the kids were going to play futbol this morning I decided I'd go get my workout on too. I wanted to change things up a bit though... so I decided to run to Villa Borghese... and then just run around there until I got tired then run back. So I got dressed in my running best... (I'd washed my pumas since they'd gotten pretty sick/nasty in all the mud/sweat/rain) and hit via Nemorense-> via Tagliamento->via Sebino->via Po->some street I don't know the name of because it's so small...->Villa Borghese! ARRIVO! Since it was a beautiful Saturday morning/afternoon there were lots of people in the park which makes running more enjoyable since it enhances the landscape and adds to the "dodge-factor". So I started in some areas that I knew, the Villa Museum, the Cavalli del Mare fountain, the 'Globe Theatre', the Lake... then I made some new turns and ended up near a beautiful oval pond surrounded by greenery, then near a huge series of descending stairs that led to ascending stairs into another museum... I did a little Rocky fist pump at the top... :) Then I went around a consulate or embassy from somewhere... it had a nice view... then I somehow ended up in another part of the park that I'd not been to before that was REALLY pretty! As I approached an intersection of paths I read a sign and one of them said "viale l'orologio", clock street. A no brainer. ;) As I was running I saw a neat fountain and when I ran by it it was a small pond of water with a central displaying clock and plants growing on and around it... it was like it was made for me. :) I LOVE IT! But just around the corner from the "Dub-Fountain", I saw the most amazing view of Roma. I ran the length of the panorama then realized I was at the top of the Spanish steps... /:) Rocky ain't seen nothin' yet... I ran down the steps... dodging... around the fountain... then back up the steps... dodging like a Blitzball player dodging lightning bolts... when I'm at the VERY top, I do a brief fist pump... almost hitting a lady in the face... then descend and make my way back through Villa Borghese. As I'm running back through I'm trying to remember how to get to all these amazing new places.

When I'm getting closer to the flat and I check the 'pedometer', it says I've been running for just under and hour, but my watch says 1.5 hours. It also says I only ran 3.1 miles, I ran past the library which is 2.2 miles...one way! I think it was just counting slow today. Maybe it just needs to get in sync with the computer or something.

So after I got back, I showered and then sat around for a little while... I wanted to go back to the film festival to see the premiere of Social Network, but it seemed like no one could do it tonight, we decided we'd try again tomorrow.

So I hopped on the metro A and headed to the 'mall' on the north side of town, Cinacitta'due, it's 'due' because Cinecitta' is a movie production company that is at the exit of the metro stop... there's a nice man in a uniform who asks "Cose fa?" (what are you doing?), when you accidently walk in, but then politely points you in the direction you're trying to go. Cinecitta'due had lots of stores... most were reasonable... some were a little pricey, and a couple were just ridiculous... but I found my Grandpa's present in one, it was a nice store, kind of like a Macy*s I guess. Being at the 'mall' made me want to eat at the food court... so I looked for one. The closest thing I could find was a 'fastfood-pizza place', I had some excessively greasy pizza, 2 lemon teas, and some fried rice/mozarella balls, AND a kinder chocolate egg. Yeah, really healthy, I know. At least none of the food was in excess, right? I enjoyed the mall, but I've still yet to find an H&M that sells men's clothing. Gemma says there is one, but I haven't found it yet. She said it was at a mall she went to, but I'm not 100% sure where that is. So then after a long walk around the mall, I took the 20min train ride back to my bus stop, then headed home.

I've been thinking of going to an Opera this week, but I think I'll save for an Opera next year when I may recognize ir, or it's not in French. However, I think my Christmas present to myself is going to be tickets to see, 'La Bella e la Bestia', in December. Hopefully before then, I'll be able to convince someone to join me.

Ellipsis (plural ellipses; from the Greek: ἔλλειψις, élleipsis, "omission") is a mark or series of marks that usually indicate an intentional omission of a word in the original text. An ellipsis can also be used to indicate a pause in speech, an unfinished thought, or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off into silence (aposiopesis) (apostrophe and ellipsis mixed). When placed at the end of a sentence, the ellipsis can also inspire a feeling of melancholy longing. The ellipsis calls for a slight pause in speech.

[My use of this punctuation mark proves my whacked out mind jumps tracks like a hobo trying to get from Georgia to California]

Fluffer-nutter sandwhiches.

L'Estate di Martino

Novembre 5, 2010

So this morning I woke up and we had a full table at breakfast... Raffa, Giorgio, Nic, Grandma, Claudio, and myself. It was nice. ;) I left the kids with Grandma and went to the International Cinema Festival for a couple of hours.

I knew there was a small bus that takes people to the festival, but wasn't sure how long it would take to get there, it took 1 hour. I was 15 minutes late to the movie, but it was pretty easy to follow anyway. Followed a young boy through a summer in 1980 when it was still fighting Communism a little and there is a story/Italian legend that progresses the plotline, lining up with the boy's story... showing you things in the legend also in the film. Some good underlying messages in the film and a good 'coming of age' story.

When I got back, Nic, Claudio, and Adriano were playing FIFA on the Wii... I read some while they played... Adri doesn't like playing as Italy, so he was doing his best to make them lose... it was funny. After Adri and Claudio left, it was close to dinner and we did some playing, some homework... then after dinner, the "adults" went out to the theatre and Nic and I watched the 2nd Lord of the Rings... Basically, incase you were unaware... it is a 2hour 45minute movie... and for a 9 year old kind of long... but he said all the good movies are long... so he still likes it... even though, "That Gollom guy is creepy."... yes, yes he is.

Hokay... next post to come soon, promise!

MAI MAI!

Warhammer pt. 2

Novermbre 3, 2010

This morning we all had breakfast together, then after a little while, Claudio came over to play with Nic for the day. We went to the Game Shop to play Warhammer because Grandma had bought the set for him and the paints as well.

When we arrived at the shop we sat down in the back and Daniele came and showed the boys what they needed to do. One little boy that was there last time was here again... Nic said he is taking painting lessons from Daniele, Daniele did look at some of his figures and critique them some, but they looked really good for a kid about 8 years old. He was painting the cave troll from the Lord of the Rings Mines of Moria, hammer, chain, and all. First Daniele said that we had to assemble all the little characters to the bases and attach the ones that are loose with super glue. Then we go through and add arms/weapons to them if they don't already come with them. Most of the elves already had arms/weapons, but the Skavin (rat men) needed one arm attached with super glue. After attaching the arms, Daniele showed us how to paint a glue/paste on the base of the figurine and then add sand or moss making it look more realistic. All of this took up our hour we had researved, so Daniele told us we could finish assembling the rest of the box of figurines (we'd done 2 of 5-6 sheets of figurines) then, if we wanted, we could come back to the shop to paint them.

On the way home, the boys told me they'd enjoyed the creating their soldiers and we had them all with us and when we arrived home, they finished assembling them all and adding some more sand. Then we started to play a game Claudio's dad had invented, Terre Invisibile, it's kind of like a mix between Dungeons & Dragons and Monopoly. It takes a really long time though and we didn't get to finish. We watched The Garfield movie while we played and when the parents got home, it was late and they had to get to bed.


"Burning through the sky, yeah, 200 degrees that's why they call me Mr. Farenheit. I'm travelling at the speed of light I'm gonna make a supersonic woman out of you!"

Misleading Tickets

Novembre 2, 2010

So I woke this morning with uncertainties how today was going to work... Nic being home and what not. I decided to play it by ear more or less and see where I needed to be when and so forth, but Sasha had responded to my facebook message about the extra transport ticket I had and so I told him I'd meet him at the Colosseo and he could buy it for 15 euro, at least I won't be out as much...

So Raffa asked me what my plans were for the day, I told her I was meeting a friend at 12 but other than that, nothing. She asked me if I could be back at the house at 2 to watch Nic when Anita left. I said OF COURSE! :) So I got on the train after a bit of hanging out with Nic in the morning, then I took the A line metro to the termini where I realized I should have just taken the B line straight from the flat, I always forget the Colosseo is on B line... now I'm late. I hate being late too... So I finally make it to our meeting spot and find him, exchange greetings, then give him the ticket, and he said since he was 29 he was too old to use a student pass. I didn't know this... I apologized and said I would give him back his money, he said he would try using it and hopefully just not get caught. If one of my 7 friends in Roma gets fined because of me, it will be harder to find someone to hang out with on Saturday nights...

After Sasha headed to class, I went to a trattoria he'd recommended before nearby to have lunch. The pizza Margherita was delicious, the peroni was terrible (I don't know why I try it again and again) and the tiramisu' was the 2nd best I've had... but it was NOT worth the 20 euro. There was some shady glances coming my way from a table of 3 guys and the owner? of the establishment soon joined them... I felt like there was some sort of mob deal going on without me knowing... but half the time I think that here anyway when a group of people incessantly glance at me. Dang you Hollywood influences. After some lunch I headed back to the flat and we played with Nic for a while then we had Lavi and Marti came up for dinner. After dinner we watched the Spongebob Squarepants movie. It was pretty funny... I laughed at least a couple times and the songs were catchy. After the movie, Lavi and Marti headed back downstairs, Nic brushed his teeth, then went to bed.

I'm trying to keep the next couple of blogs clear and concise after the Deutschland debacle... ;)

Ok, that's about it. "I'm a Goofy Goober! ROCK!!!"

Deutschland Detour

Ottobre 29- Novembre 2
For this amazing weekend, I'm going to lump it all together so you can all enjoy it in the same way I did, from one moment to the next, without having to stop and click on something else. ;)

Ottobre 29th
Today was a big blur of one thing after another so I will tell you what I remember and how it went down.

-I left the house. (Am I missing anything? Tickets, passport, clothes, that's all I should need.)

-Why am I cold? (Turn back around and go get my jacket which means asking Anita for her key since I was going to leave mine there)

-Get a ticket to Ciampino airport. (a fast fingered friendly guy seemed to know his way around the ticket machine and after a blur of his hand all over the screen, it said my amount was 8 euro to take the train to Ciampino. He said all I had to do was pay, and it would print. After it printed, he then asked me for some money, I was ok with giving him 10-20 cents for finding the ticket I needed. :)

-Getting ON the right train. (I've never been to a train station to get on a train and had to find my way around the platforms and which platform had the train I wanted... after asking 5-6 people I found my platform, the most difficult part was that since I was a little early, the platform hadn't been announced yet. After I found the platform I got on the train. I asked some people on the train if this one went to Ciampino, they said no. I looked and way at the front of the platform there was a smaller train. I hopped on and asked if IT was heading for Ciampino. Yes. YAY!)

-Going through Check-in (as I'm waiting in line about 1 hour before my flight I start to get my stuff ready to check-in, I look in my passport holder for my passport and don't see it. OH SNAP. If I left it in the flat there's NO WAY I would make it back in time for my flight! God has a sense of humour, it was behind the stamps. Whew.)

-Fly/sleep. (When I land in Germany I realize I didn't do the non-EU resident check-in which means they would not have let me fly... I don't know how I missed that, or how they let me miss it... maybe I did it and it was just really easy? Whatever, I'm in Germany now.)

-Arrive at Dusseldorf-Weeze. (I am floored at how confusing it is to have NO idea what signs say or what people say. I start showing people my train ticket and they start pointing in directions and telling me where to go because almost everyone I interacted with spoke English. I got on my shuttle to the train station.)

-Realize how far away I am. (At the train station, when the train arrives, I ask a guy if this is the train for my ticket, he glances at it and says yes, so we get on the train. Then once we're on the train, he looks at my ticket again and explains to me that this is NOT the train that is taking me to Bonn, but that I have to get another train in Dusseldorf that will take me to Bonn. Dusseldorf is 1 hour away and Bonn is another hour from there...)

-Chat with Egon. (The guy that helped me sat with me and we talked about lots for the next hour, schools, languages, life, family, friends, trips, journeys, everything. About 3 or 4 stops after we got on, a guy who was asleeps woke up and asked me which stop was next but then heard the train say the stop and he realized he'd slept past his stop. As he got off and we sped past him at the wrong stop, I couldn't help but feel sorry for his completely bewildered face. Egon was very nice and very helpful and was living in Dusseldorf studying Economics and Engineering, he said he had a lot of career options with them. ;)

-Say farewell, then board my next train. (As I'm getting on my next train in Dusseldorf to Bonn, I ask a guy if this train is the right one for my ticket, he looks at it and says it does go to Bonn, but I am on the wrong train, this train is more expensive and faster. I attempt to leave the train to wait for mine and the door closes right before I can get to it. The ticket checker who was standing right next to the door asked me for my ticket, looked at it, then asked me to get off at the next stop. Cologne/ Köhn.)

-I arrive in Köhn. (I arrive and find my train to Bonn, then wait 30 minutes for it to arrive. While I wait, I have a pretzel. Yum. :)

-I arrive in Bonn. (I call Kristina to tell her I've made it but the number says it is not working, it is an invalid number. I try texting the same number, nothing. I go to the Metro Police station to see what they can do, they find Kristina AND Leslie on their data base, but cannot reach them because their phones are busy... I start planning how to stay in Bonn without them in my mind...I am 2 hours later than I previously expected to be, maybe she left. The police officer lets me use the police computer to try and find information, but the computers are REALLY slow and I think that Kristina gave me her number on skype and I must have just written it down wrong.)

- My phone rings. (The number is not saved in my phone but when I answer I hear Kristina and I swear I heard angels singing {HALLELUJIAH!!!!!}, apparently I'd forgotten to add the second to last digit in her phone number.)

- Hugs of relief. (She comes to get me from the station and she tells me all about how she had tried to call earlier but that I had accidently given her the wrong country code, 039 instead of 0039, and that finally she went to a payphone and saw the country code for Italy had two zeros and tried it and it worked and she had been setting up alternate plans for finding me incase it didn't work, just like I was setting up alternate plans for staying the night, but it all worked out and we found each other and it was dramatic and an experience... Thanks God!!!)

- Go to my German home. (We took a train back to the house and I got to meet the family, Philip, John, Christiana, and Götz. Götz had his daughter, her husband, and their baby, Elias there as well. A full house. We had dinner, cheese crepes, salad, and some yummy apple wine. We also had some great conversations about medicine, music, politics, and the future...)

- Time to relax. (We spent the rest of the night resting, watching youtube, watching news online, and just chatting and catching up, I was tuckered out.)

**side note- I like Germany a LOT more than I thought I would, so much greenery and history together, and friends too... :D

Ottobre 30, 2010

This morning I woke after a phenomenal night's sleep and went to wake the 'Sleeping Beauties'. After a quick hullabaloo canek canek knock, we lounged for a little while watching TV online. The girls introduced me to 'surfthechannel.com' and now I can watch Glee across the pond. YAY!
At about 11am we left for the station to head to Köhn to see the Dom, the amazing cathedral that was the only building to survive through World War II because the bombers used the Dom as a reference point on where to drop their bombs, so they needed to keep it around for future drops. I've decided to dedicate an entire facebook photo album to my Germany Trip, I'll post some of my favorites here... but not all 65 of them. ;) We looked around the Dom and saw many beautiful things, modern artist's renditions of stained glass, beautiful gothic 'colour' that had faded, arches and spires that went for miles... We didn't get to see the relics of the 3 magi because they were having confession at the time and that part of the church was closed. Maybe one day I'll be able to come on Epiphany and see the actual relics displayed.

Then we climbed the 400ft south tower that had a narrow, winding stairway that lead to a belfry, then to the top of the cathedral. After some cool pictures and sights, we (slowly) descended the highly trafficked stairway.


After the Dom, we went to H&M to do some buying(shopping but with the intent to purchase, not to browse). I bought a sweet/awesome scarf that also doubles as a piece of art. It is a pixelated white with silouhettes of trees in black... it's not too heavy and it's got black, white, and grey... I love it, always to remind me of the time I spent in a country with beautiful trees. Kristina bought a couple of cool fedoras and a pin to make them look super stylish. Leslie bought some turquoise shoes, and a hat, as well as a cool wool jacket.


Then we hurried down the Rhein, to the amazing Lindt chocolate factory/museum (It was only a little like Willy Wonka's) before it closed. We saw how chocolate is made, old adverts for Lindt chocolate, and different types of chocolates from around the world. Lindt is a Swiss chocolate that prides itself on its quality. Their theory is that even in tough times, if people can't afford chocolate as a luxury, they should at least be buying the best chocolate. Let me tell you, it was DANG good chocolate. Everyone gets a free chocolate piece when they buy their ticket into the museum. There was even a rainforest habitat in the museum showing people how cacao trees grow. After our tour, we all split a 'Double Chocolat Duo Gateau' (cake), and we all got a drink. My hot chocolate with hazelnut and whipped cream was likely the most absolutely, delicious, savory beverage that has ever passed my lips. It was like heaven in my mouth! We were so taken with our surrounding environments, the river, the food, the drinks, the friends... we weren't able to make it to the chocolate shop before it closed, but we decided we could make a return trip.

(I had 5 pieces of free chocolate, not counting the 2 pieces of dipped chocolate they gave me on the tour :)
Then we walked along the bridge over the Rhein and saw all the locks where lovers bind a lock to the bridge and then throw the key over into the river to signify of their everlasting love... (group 'awww'...)
We then took the train back to Bonn for dinner with the Ger-family. I'd never had pumpkin soup, but DANG that was DELICIOUS! I got the recipe from Christiana, my Ger-mom. Maybe I'll try it in Rome if they have the ingredients... Then I did my best to get the girls to work on their project that is due on in 3 days... yeah, that went over SUPER well... ;)


Ottobre 31, 2010

This morning we woke late again, nice refreshing sleep in. We lazed around for several hours finishing catching me up on Glee and watching some youtube news and videos. I introduced the girls to Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog... we watched the first episode, I love it. Eventually we headed downstairs for some solid foods. Good coffee in Germany too... well at least at the Ger-home I was in. :) I had some oats and milk, there's a word for the oats specifically and it's a popular breakfast item. I also had a bit of bread and nutella/a spanish version of nutella that was very creamy and delicious.
We finished eating then we headed back to Köhn to try and see some fun sites we didn't make it to the day before. First we went back to the chocolate museum to make it to the gift shop where I bought a cheap crunchy/caramelly/deliciously chocolately bar and a Christmas ornament filled with 'bon bons' for my Ger-family thanking them for their hospitality. After more chocolate we headed to the Dom to see if we could see the relics a little more closer in their display... Sunday was a bad day to try that.

We could see even less than on Saturday, should have seen that coming... So then we went to the Roman history museum... it had just closed... so we tried the modern art museum... closed... so we went to the one place that we KNEW wouldn't be closed. A pub to have one of the 27 Köhn home-brewed biers and a bratwurst with pommes (fries). They just bring more and more bier until you put your coaster on you glass... Kristina and Leslie used the mayo and ketchup on their fries, I used some of the delicious mustard provided. Then we headed back to the house in Bonn to get ready for the festivities for "all hallows eve", the day before the celebration of All Saints day, also known as Halloween. We hadn't decided what we were doing or what we were going to go as... on our way to the house, some kids asked us if we had some candy... all decked out in zombie, vampire, and mummy outfits. (Halloween is slowly becoming more popular in both Germany and Italy). We decided to go as American Pop Stars, Jason Mraz, Ke$ha, and Snookie... Ke$ha had a feather hat, Jason had a fedora, Snookie had a poof.
We went to Carpe Noctum there in Bonn but Leslie and I didn't get in free because we weren't in costume... [clearly our Halloween dressing was more advanced than what we were surrounded by]. We danced and had some to drink but danced mostly... there was some intense fire hazard-ness happening on the dance floor. Some girl started being rude to Kristina and pushing her/ dancing into her... so there was some pushing, pinching, and bumping.... we claimed our spot on the floor and kept it until we left. Fun music lots of techno, some old POP songs, but when Kristina asked the DJ to play Gaga (we'd been singing it earlier) he gave her a pitying look and shook his head slowly. BUT! We had lots of fun anyway! We eventually headed back to the house all hot and sweaty, but glad for the fun night.


NOVEMBRE 1, 2010

So today, the first day of November, the girls don't have to go to class because they told their teacher that they had a friend coming from Italy to visit and so he cancelled class so everyone could have a chance to hang out with me! YAY! (it was All Saint's Day) We had breakfast again and it was great and delicious. Then, Kristina helped me find a train ticket online while I began to pack my things because the plan was to go to the girl's school to work on their project... so we ended up going to school anyway... but it was a great place that was central for everyone else... I got to see Greg, Brent, and Jesse (again, we'd seen him briefly last night)! Everyone was a little stressed over their project that was due the next day... I went to the shopping area in Bonn to window shop and see some things before I decided to go to "Forever Currywurst" and get some bratwurst, currywurst, and pommes for the girls and I while they worked but so we didn't miss dinner. It was tons of fun, but was unfortunately cut short because my plane ticket for the next morning was the only plane leaving to Rome for 2 days and then it was at 7.20am. The trains wouldn't run early enough to get me their so I bought a ticket that night and headed to the airport at about 21.00. It was so cute, we were literally "running" late because my train was apparently supposed to leave at 20.51 and when we ran into the station it was there, at 20.51 and so we did a quick hug before I jumped on shouted thank you and sped off.

By girls... I looked at my ticket and found out we were actually early, the next train was the one I wanted. I'd just switch in Köhn, no problem though. So we ran for nothing, well we got a bit of an exercise in I guess. ;) So I took the train to Köhn, switched, headed to Dusseldorf, found my train to the Weeze bus stop, got on the bus after waiting at the stop for 45 min talking with a friendly Spanish girl from France and a friendly German guy going to France who happened to play Magic. We also were all leaving early in the morning and had the intention of staying in the same hostel (the airport), it was a really cheap hostel, but the beds weren't very accomodating... We arrived at the airport at just about 00.00 in the morning. Then we talked for a while, I read some. I slept under some stairs and woke up about every hour to roll over and the last time I woke up, there was a random man sleeping on top of me..............he'd slung a hammock on the stairs and was sleeping over me more or less.

(I guess here is where I'd start the next day)
Novembre 2, 2010

So 3 hours of sleep, not bad not good, but meh... We went through check'in and security together and waited for their flight to be called at about 06.00 then we said our farewells and then I went to stand in the wrong line for 30 minutes to board my plane. I slept most of the flight... landed at about 09.30 and grabbed the bus to the termini. Class starts at 10.30 but I should be able to make that...right? Well the bus didn't leave for the termini until 10... we got to termini at about 10.40 and by the time I got from the train to class (I had to buy a pass since my OCT pass had just expired, but I figured I'd buy it and then Raffa could just pay me back since she usually buys it, I'd just tell her when she got back from London) I was a good 30 minutes late. HOWEVER, my trip did make for good conversation practice... after class when I got home I opened to door to Diletta! She and Iacopo had come down instead of the family going to London and she was just about to leave. I walked in my room, put my stuff down, found my pay on the desk and then saw my new Novembre metro/bus pass... so I figured I'd sell the other one to a friend who hadn't bought one yet for a little less, that way I'm not out 18 euros. I went to go pick up Nic and his friend Adriano from Adriano's apartment in Piazza Verbano. We went to the park and played futbol, I got scored on a couple times but also made some nice shots and passes... we played on the see-saw, my weight was more than sufficient to hold them both up... then we headed back because Adri had futbol practice. We did some homework then had dinner (Both Grandmothers were visiting and cooking and it was fun and delicious! I miss MY Grandma. <3 ) We then watched the first Lord of the Rings movie while the parents went to a show, lots of fun, Nic likes it a lot... (I've got him hooked. ;) After that super awesome, but long movie, I was drained and ready for bed... oh my sweet bed, with it's new down comfortor, new pillowcases, pillows, sheets, and refreshed mattress... it calls to me like a siren to a sailor...

My head hits the pillow and I'm out faster than you can say Liederhosen wearing Wienerschnizel.

The Procrastinator

Ottobre 28, 2010

So today in class... I was one of two. Camilla and I were the only people who were not either out of the country or hanging out with family... We did get some good conversation and review time in for ourselves, but we also found that comprehension and conversation materials are better with more individuals contributing... I enjoyed the lesson though... most of it was just making sure we understood what we'd learned so far and how to use it.

After class I went down the street to a place my new friend Gemma said was good and had a pizza rossa and a pepperoncino pastry, both very good, and cheap. Then I went to OVS to look for a scarf for Germany since Kristina said it had been 'scarf-cold' in Bonn. She said she'd found a good one at H&M for 3 euro and my goal was to find one close to that price or one I liked better than the one she described and get it, or I'd just buy one when I got there. I looked around the classy, Italian "Target/Old Navy" type store for a while finding fashionable clothing at reasonable prices... wanting to buy more than I could afford... I did find one scarf, without a tag on it, that I really liked, but before I checked the price on it, I wanted to go to H&M to see if they had some that I liked more, then I'd compare prices & styles... so I hid the treasure in a completely unrelated area in a different department and went to find an H&M. I could not find the H&M so I just decided to go back and check the price of this scarf. When I looked in my hidey-hole... IT WAS GONE! Some jerk had swipped my sweet scarf! I asked the woman working in the men's department (after a lot of complicated questioning) if there were any more, she knew the scarf type and said that was probably the last one and she didn't know when they'd get any more in. Sad day.

When I got back to the flat, Nic arrived and started to get ready for his school's "Halloween Carnival". He was going as a demon/dracula/devil, he had a cape, and a cool black and red carnivale type mask with some horns. Lavi went as a demon with her pitch fork, red horns, and red wings and all black outfit. I wore an eye patch...They seemed to have fun, but they said it wasn't as much fun as last year's carnival/party. There were lots of games, halloween bingo, bobbing for apples, dancing, assemble the skeleton, face painting, eating candy off strings, count the eyeballs in the spaghetti... the works...

After the party, we got home and had dinner (later than we should have) then he had to do his homework that he SHOULD have done 3 weeks prior. Oh well. He didn't get to watch any TV, but he did his work admirably and finished just after bedtime. The homework even turned out very well in my opinion, it was a writing assignment... Hopefully next month, for his monthly writing assignment, he'll do it sooner... hopefully.

"That trash bin looks angry." A sentence that is hard to explain your meaning for.

The Seinfeld of Blogs...

Ottobre 27, 2010

Seriously I did nothing today, writing a blog about nothing would suck. Look at Seinfeld. It had it's moments, but my blogs really don't... face it, you're all just reading this because you wanted to take a break from your daily routine, or I guilt tripped you into reading them and making me feel wanted... ;)

I did finish my laundry for my trip to Germania today... I also went to the park and read, "Illusions: Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah". Such and amazing book, it really makes you step back and introspectively look at your life and how you live. After I finished it, I just sat in the park and thought about things for a bit... not really paying attention to anything, (though it would have been next to impossible to NOT notice the little boy who had found a facinating piece of plastic in front of me to play with) just dazing...

I did make some 'tuna salad' today, but since Italy doesn't have pickles, let alone pickle relish, I had to improvise a main ingredient and adjust the others a bit... so I did mayo, tuna, apples, mostly, with some mustard and a little bread crumbs for a different "texture". It wasn't terrible, but not as good as Mom's or Grandma's.

Seriously, that was about it today...some food, then bed...

"Dynamite comes in small packages."