Italy

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...