Italy

Ciao! Last night we spent the night at Aviano airbase in Aviano, Italy. On the way there we were welcomed, several times, by the city of Porcia. For those of you who have never had the privilege of visiting Porcia, let me outline the town for you. When you get off the autostrada (highway) there are a lot of crops growing in fields. The Gossip Bar is lit up in neon lights and seemed to be a popular place. If you pass some houses you will come to a little town of about one streetlight. There is what looks like a tractor dealership and a restaurant. End of Porcia. We were honored to drive through the town on several occasions, entering from many different angles, as we followed the Italian directions to the airbase procured from an array of people whom we stopped to ask directions. Well, we finally made it to the airbase and the view was beautiful! It is nice and flat and then randomly there were just these mountains that appeared against one side of the base. I love how the mountains jus...

Hey guys, I'm back logging pictures for you. Enjoy! This is Porto Ferraio This is the "Crazy Car." It was from World War II and it was a sweet car. We would all pile in it to go to the beach. The lighthouse at Porto Ferraio. The pink building on the side in where Napoleon lived. Capoliveri Hanging out at the house Girls night with the other nannys Part of the fort in Porto Ferraio

Hey guys, As I was reflecting on this summer and all that I've experienced I realized that there were some very important life lessons that I've learned. I have decided to share them with you in an effort to help you learn from my mistakes or experience. Here we go: 1. A bottle of organic shampoo (no I'm not a tree-hugger; it just smelled good) will last an entire two months even if you frequently shower more than once a day. 2. Nothing makes eggs taste good. 3. Just try it. Even if it's purple and scary looking. It will most likely be good. 4. Gelatto is more fattening than ice cream 5. I eat when I'm stressed. You might too. If you move to Italy there is less food in the store so you can't stress eat as much (unfortunately, you just eat a lot of bread instead). 6. Drinking water, not coke, makes you feel better. 7. Outside showers are infinitely better than inside showers. 8. Watermelon can make the hottest day bearable. 9. I love Walmart. 10. No matter how ho...

Hey everyone, Well, the summer is coming to a close. School starts on the 7th of September and I have decided that this has been the best summer of my life but I am ready to start being a teacher. So, I will do a quick tour of some of Europe and head home on the 18th of September. Don't worry, you will get pictures from Venice, Rome, Brussels, and Paris. Thanks for being devout followers of the blog. You all have made this trip so much more fun for me! TTYL P.S.- more pics to come Nicole

Hey everyone, Let’s see....I went waterskiing this week. Thanks to grandpa for teaching me how to slalom. It is more difficult in the ocean than the nice flat lake and I had to drop a ski because the boat wasn’t powerful enough to haul my big butt out of the water on one ski. Nevertheless, I had a fun time and made it before I did a spectacular flip/ nose-dive. I forgot how sore it makes you the next day and I couldn’t make a fist because I used all of those wrist muscles to pull myself out of the water. It was so much fun. Yesterday some friends of the family from NY came. We spent the day on the boat I got to spend some time talking with people who spoke English. The family was so nice I we had a lot of fun swimming and bouncing on the waves. They pointed out something that I never noticed about Elba. There are no clouds here. It never rains because it is the summer time (that isn’t weird) but I realized that it is kind of a strange thing that I could never quite pu...

Hey guys, First things first: sorry that it has taken me so long to get on here. I was having some connection problems. I don't have everything resolved so I might be putting some stuff like pictures on after this message. Bear with me. Last night was so much fun. We are in Capoliveri on the Island of Elba and they have a festival/ party one night every week during the month of August. It is kind of a mix between Halloween and Marti-Gras but without the naked/ costumes. The whole town is decked out in periwinkle (thanks to Camille I know what that color is), purple, and black. All night there was music in the streets and it seemed like the whole island was milling about the small hilltop. They have this tradition to let small homemade balloons into the sky at 1:00 in the morning. It was really beautiful. The balloons are like hot air balloons but they are the size of big beach bags. There is a little square of some kind of flammable material inside on metal hangars that you light ...

Hey guys, So, after a brief, 2 day 3 night, stay in Milano we are back in Elba. I am reminded of how beautiful the ocean can be. The whole family is almost here so there are lots of kids and people and it seems like it is going to be fun. My favorite part of the day was when we pulled up to the house and a little boy (cousin) ran up and said, "Ciao, where's the American?" He is great! I really don't have anything else to say except if you have a yahoo mail account you will have noticed that India just got it's first Wal-mart. It's only a matter of time, people (insert evil genius laugh here). TTYL

Hey guys, We are back in Milan for a long weekend before heading back to Elba and the ocean. Milan in August is deserted. You would not believe. There is next to nobody in this whole city. They all flock to the ocean. I had heard that before but it is something that should be seen with ones own eyes to get the full effect (alongside that migration that Planet Earth shows). They probably leave because it is 10 degrees cooler than H E double hockey sticks here. That makes it about even with Fernandina so I am kind of used to it. I am not, however, used to no air-conditioning. It is scarce here. The new house has it so we are OK but it is still really hot. Thank goodness for summer beach homes! Nothing else is really new. We are just moving into the new house and waiting for the weekend to be over. I hope everything is great at home! Happy Anniversary to my parents! TTYL

1 word of caution: sunscreen If I leave you, at any point, with only one tidbit of wisdom it is this: either wear sunscreen when you go outside at the mountains or make sure you rotate the direction of your face in relation to the sun. So, today we just hung out at the restaurant/hotel that we ate at. We walked down for lunch and then stayed for 3 hours. There was a park there and the kids had a blast. I was sitting in the sun watching them and I didn't think about being in the sun because we are not at the beach. A little aside from that statement, sometimes I go to the beach and don't wear sunscreen and am fine. My face is partially fried. Partially meaning only half is fried. From my nose to my ear on the left side of my face is sunburned. The rest is white. I can now be cast for the role of two-face in a Batman movie. The kids keep pointing it out. I am willing to admit that it is pretty bad but really, let me live in the oblivion of "out-of-sight/out-of-mind" wi...

Hey guys, I had the day off today so I have pictures for you. I went shopping in Bormio and it was good stuff. I didn’t buy anything but sometimes it is nice to just look. I did fall in love with a comforter set. Every time we go into the town I always stop and drool over the window display of this comforter/ sham set. Y'all will be intrigued to know that everything closes at 1:00 here. From 1-4 every single shop in the whole city (and sometimes some restaurants) close for lunch. There were probably about five people on the street during this time. That was weird for me because I can understand being closed at night but stores are never closed during the day in the US. Anyway, back to the stuff you care about. Yesterday we went up the slope to have lunch at Mrs. Mosconi’s favorite restaurant. We rode on the gondola up and then walked up the rest of the way. Every once in a while the kids would tell me about how you have to ski to get past the flat areas (you have to do the “eg...

Two posts in one day. Oh, yea! So, today's edition of the blog should have read "pasta/rice" instead of rice. The reason I couldn't get my rice to turn out right was because it wasn't rice. It was pasta that was shaped like rice. Go ahead and laugh at me. I'm laughing along with you. When the message finally made it through the great barrier wall, aka my lack of Italian, I laughed so hard it was crazy. Anyway, thanks to all of you who sent me instructions on how to boil rice. I appreciate it. Now, if I move Asia one day, I won't starve. Also, you know your an addict when you are willing to walk 4 miles (2 of them uphill) to get chocolate ice cream and a coke. The lady at the ice cream shop here (also known as the only establishment still open past 7. There isn't a large vampire community here I am guessing) knows me now. When I walk up I get a "ciao" and she automatically grabs a waffle cone. I'm a regular. Please, don't let her know ...

This is a notice to let you all know that I am giving up. I can't even boil rice here. I dont have any idea what the problem could be. After a giant no go on the biscuits, again, I thought about chicken and rice. Anything normal (not that everything isnt good but sometimes you just want some comfort food) but no. I found out that I don't know how to boil rice. We have a steamer and I have never had to boil it. Maybe back in middle or high school I used boil in bag rice once but I don't even remember that time. How did I go from being a pretty good cook (ok, not the best but there were cell group people who would make requests) to bad rice. I made eclairs from scratch at home. SCRATCH!!! No more cooking. I give up. On a nicer note, I'm not sick anymore and I watched Shrek in Italian which was still funny. Nicole

Hey guys, New Experiences: Being sick in Italy is not any better than being sick in America. It is not serious. I am convinced it is a little bit of whatever the kids had (fevers/throwing up) mixed with altitude stuff (headache) mixed with no caffeine and different food. The Dr. (oh, yes they took me to the Dr. against my will btw) was throwing around Influenza and cold interchangeably so I am not sure if I have the flu or just a cold (I say cold but I didn’t need to go to the dr. anyway). She assured me that it was not “the pig,” as she put it. So, anyway, hospitals in Italy look like our hospitals. The experience, however, is different than at home. Here, you sit down and she sits down and you discuss what feels wrong. Then, the Dr. tells you what she thinks it is. They don’t check your ears and throat and all that good stuff like in America. You just talk about what is different. They were all very concerned about a migraine. I am appreciative that they are concerned about me, j...

Hey guys, So, you should know that I am fascinated by grocery stores here. That sounds so like me doesn't it? It is just that they are so small and everything in them is so different from what I am used to. For example: eggs and some milk are not refrigerated. I walked by the eggs today and they were just sitting on the shelf next to the pasta. I also am in love with the fact that you can have your groceries delivered to your house if you don't want to carry them. OK, how about I just describe the whole thing to you. First of all, the store is about the size of a jiffy store. When you walk in there are carts on the right and on the wall facing you there is soap and shampoos. So you know, there are a lot of different shampoos, fewer conditioners, fewer lotions than conditioners and about three different kinds of soap. Your choices are 1-2 brand of each: dish soap, body soap, hand soap and 2-3 brands of laundry detergent. Behind this false wall is fruit and veggies. The size of t...

Hey guys, I am in Bormio right now. It is the place to go to ski but since it is summer there is not that much snow. Instead, it is amazingly beautiful and we spent all day hiking in the mountains. Here are some pictures (and a little storytelling) from the trip. Enjoy: This is where we went hiking. You can see a glacier in the background. In the far away left side of the picture is a little white rectangle before the mountain/back trees start, this is the restaurant we were hiking to today. We were already halfway to it by the time I took the pictures. 4 Kilometers later we arrived. This is my favorite picture This picture was taken right before I fell in. FYI: the mountain water is cold. This was the view on our way back once we hit the road again. Beautiful Some rapids This is probably where I would have ended up if I hadn't been fished out of the water. A butterfly landed on my hand Then it was joined by a buddy on my arm Still hiking along This is where the trail ended Wat...

Hey everyone, Good news! I found grits! It is official, if I find a Wal-mart I am sold. The only thing that I was really and truly homesick for was cheese grits (ok, and walmart but I am being positive). I tried to explain what they are to the family but explaining white stuff that is little and grainy like rice but not made of rice is hard. They didn't understand. Try it sometime with someone who does not know what grits or cream of wheat or any of that stuff is. It is like trying to explain a color to a blind person. So, these grits are not grits but they are as close as I can get. They are kind of like a wheat version of our white grits. You know the difference between wheat and white bread. The texture and the taste. It is almost the same with these. I say add some cheese (yellow although you cannot find that here because they think it is gross) and butter and you are set. I kept smiling all through lunch because of them. I know the grandparents must have thought I was crazy. ...

I was born to live in Italy. Reason 1: Time means nothing Reason 2: You work if you want to Reason 3: They drive 100 kilometers an hour everywhere Reason 4: The food is amazing This goes on to reason, like, 50000 but I'll stop here. On the way up here we never went under 80 kilom an hour. There were tunnels with the sides almost brushing the car and we went 100 kilometers an hour. In these tunnels we would pass cars or bikes in front of us with oncoming traffic close enough to see the drive. They simply moved as close to their side of the wall as they could and we taxied the line. I love it. The lines on the road are more like guidelines for where you should merge next. These little cars can haul. We swam in the most amazing pool complex today. It had 2 kiddie pools with slides and toys, a whirlpool/lazy river thing, an indoor/outdoor pool, a 4 seasons pool, recliners in the pool with jets, etc. There was even a slide that went through the complex and 2 lap pools. It was so much fu...

Ok, a little more on Pisa. Pisa was very pretty It was very terracotta in color. It is the home of Pinocchio and there were little Pinocchio figurines for sale everywhere. There is a river that runs through the heart of the city. Around the old city and the tower/church there is a great wall. I could go back and spend days just walking around looking at everything. There also looked like there could be great shopping. There were little cafés and a lot of baby stores. I loved that there was ice cream about every three feet. I taught the kids a song: John Jacob Jingleheimerschmidt, his name is my name too. Whenever I go out, the people always shout, there goes John Jacob Jingleheimerschmidt. Na na na na na na na It is a popular kids song and if you have kids you probably know it. So, randomly the littlest kids burst into songs and I have been teaching them English songs. We were in the car and I hear Paolo, the youngest, humming that song. Then, he starts singing: ...