long over due...

I'm sitting in an internet cafe right now, Drew's here with me, and I was thinking about how soon I will be home. July 16th is the official date and it's approaching faster than seems possible. The last two months have been jam-packed with events (some good, some not-so-great) and so I haven't had that much time for the realization to hit home that I won't be living in Bologna any longer. What have these past two months been so filled with that I didn't have time to update my blog? Mostly studying...weeks and weeks of little excitement. I never thought I'd say it, but I'm going to be happy to get back into the US university system. I had exams that lasted 3 and 1/2 weeks here. Some of the more dramatic weeks here...I experienced the full spectrum as far as oral exams and professors go. I looked forward to being done with exams only to realize that the friends I'd made here were taking off, one-by-one, and heading back to the states. That didn't stop us from celebrating though:) And then Drew and Scott arrived. We spent an awesome weekend reuniting and catching up with the help of good wine and food. Now, it's Drew and I (and Rory) left in Bologna trying to survive 100degree heat/humidity and no airconditioning. Life is so hard:) We're forced to go to the beach as often as possible. We even resigned ourselves to taking a trip up to Switzerland. It was beautiful, as always, and Agneta was more than wonderful to us. There were great hiking adventures involved, raclette, and, surprisingly enough, a couple of American bands to watch. And the weather was SO much...nicer, more comfortable, and pleasant than Bologna's:) The last couple of days were rather hard in that they were the last couple of days that Rory and I got to spend together. I saw him off on July 4th and it was a bit harder than I expected. A lot harder. But we're already making plans for his first trip to the midwest so hopefully, in this sense, time will go by quickly. Drew's been awesome: putting up with my sad moods, buying chocolate, and giving hugs...she's actually pretty fun some of the time, who would've thought?!?! We grabbed a train the day after Rory left so that we could spend a few more days not worrying about heatstroke:) We found a gorgeous beach in Finale Ligure (on the Italian Riviera) and a really cute hostel that's in a castle. Fun! It's a smaller place and not quite as tourist-y so Drew and I have some nice quiet days of reading on the beach ahead of us. Then it's back to Bologna to pack (I've accumulated SO much!!) and say some last goodbyes.

Have I done what I came to do and learned what I wanted to learn? I think so. Have I done things learned more than I ever expected? Definitely. I wouldn't trade this year for anything; it's been the hardest year of my life (so far, of course) but the most rewarding as well. It's going to be hard to leave this city and country. It's become my home this year and, to tell the truth, I never thought it would feel like that. The italians drive me crazy some of the time but other times their way of doing things, their attitude towards life seems a little more wise. I'm looking forward to coming home, but hoping at the same time that I can find some sort of medium between life in the US and this new life that I've adjusted to. It's an exciting and scary thought.

Thanks to everyone who read this (again, I'm SO sorry I wasn't better at updating it!) and thanks for all the thoughts and love.

I'M COMING HOME!!!! See you all soon!

Love,
Jess

P.S. It's been crazy and cool to be in Italy during the World Cup...they are SO passionate and SO intense. Roads are blocked off to celebrate in and the cheering goes on all night. Drew and I are going to try and catch the final match here in Finale L. We heard last game there were fireworks so it should be fun!

settle down and grab a coffee...

I’ve decided to count procrastination and forgetfulness as two virtues in my character because everyone gets a chance to practice patience and tolerance when it comes to this blog☺ So here goes, good luck making it to the bottom! My advice is to read it in small increments…seriously.
February first, it’s a long trek back, but bear with me. I spent the first half of the month getting to know Rory and trying to figure out which classes I would have a decent chance of surviving in. Towards the end of the month I realized of course that I was running out of time to get to Turin. I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to see the city in all its Olympic glory so I caught a train with Isaac and Nicole and we met up with a friend of hers who lives in Turin. He put us up for the night and showed us all around the city. We were really lucky because it just so happened that he was volunteering for the event and had a pass to go just about anywhere. So we got a chance to see the Olympic village, the ceremony stage, and, of course, the flame. It was cool to see all the Olympic excitement…athletes and people from all over the globe walking around. Every country has there own “house” for tourists and socializing scattered around the city and we tried to go to the Russian one cause we heard it was the coolest and full of “beautiful people living the high life” (so said the papers!) but they didn’t let us in…go figure (maybe it was the rain-dampened clothes and backpacks)☺ So we walked over and hung out with the Germans instead☺ Brats, beer and a band. It was a fun trip.
Straight on to March…
Classes started, or at least two of them did, so I was forced to get back into that structured school-run lifestyle…or something close to it. I bought my books for History of the Italian Language (it puts me to sleep most of the time but the Prof. has set up a special exam for foreign students so I’m doing my best to survive) and Contemporary Italian Lit. That class is ok, the Prof. is a bit dry and long-winded, but the books are better than I expected. It takes me a long time to read them but it’s been pretty rewarding to get to the end of a book…that sounds funny but it gets frustrating when 5pages can take an hour to read.
I put classes on hold though for the third week of March and went to Ireland! Amazing… it was an awesome trip. Rory, Isaac, Nicole and I flew into Dublin and, from moment one, it was an eventful week. Our greatest idea was to rent a car; brilliant idea! We realized only just before we left (those of us not from Ireland, anyway) that not only would the car be a manual but, the wheel would be on the opposite side and we’d be driving on the “wrong” side of the road. Small detail that had gotten lost amid the excitement. And since I’d reserved the car online (and since Rory doesn’t officially have his license) I had the “opportunity” to drive first☺ Luckily, no one actually in the car knew about my driving history or my lack of sense of direction but those would have been the least of our problems as we encountered a monsoon (or at least it seemed like one!) trying to leave Dublin, I made an average of 4 circles in each roundabout, we blew a tire on a random country road, and we had to fight our instincts to just drive the car over to the other side of the road. ☺Good fun. Eventually we made it to the west coast where Rory’s uncle was waiting for us. He was a great tour guide for the next couple of days: driving us to see huge cliffs along the Atlantic, old churches and abbeys in the countryside, giving us wood to build a huge fire on the beach, and treating us to Guinness’ along the way. And he took us to the peat museum…he was doing so well up that point, huh? ☺ He took the boys fishing one day but, instead of braving (or suffering) the cold, Nicole and I decided to drive a town further to find test the famous seaweed baths. I can, with no hesitation, say that they were amazing! They put you in a room with a big wooden box on one side and a huge porcelain tub on the other full of hot seawater and seaweed. The box was a mini one-person steam room so we were told to steam for 10-20 minutes and then soak in the seaweed and back and forth and so on. Sigh…it was wonderful. And the better choice since the fishing wasn’t very rewarding. Then next day we tried to drive back into Dublin and, after a detour or two (meaning a turn from scenic country roads to extremely scenic and almost-dirt roads) and after a stop for fish and chips, we found our hotel i.e. our castle. And the next day was St. Paddy’s! We went into town, watched the parade, and found someone to paint shamrocks on our faces☺ Then it was off to the Guinness brewery with Rory’s brothers. There was a big promotion that day so they were giving away oysters and with a bit of beer and this seemed to be the best part for all the boys…I’m not sure there were any oysters left after we left…yuck. ☺ And that night we went downtown to hang out in some of the pubs. It was a gorgeous country and Dublin was a beautiful city; we didn’t have enough time to explore the whole thing though…a trip back is in mind. The next morning, after finally getting used to the car, we returned it and hopped on a plane home.
Bologna: Spring has finally arrived and this country is truly two different places depending on the season. When the sun comes out so do all the people that were hiding during the winter; the population seems as though it’s doubled on sunny days and everyone strolls around in their best about an hour or two before dinner. It’s funny to see, but also kinda fun to do…they’re all out solely for the purpose of strolling. But, with the sun out, everyone’s waiting now for the temperature to heat up a little more so we can all flock to the beaches. I can’t wait!
Lately: Mom flew in to see me on her way out of Europe and it was absolutely awesome to see her, bittersweet because it made me miss home more, but great all the same. We went east to the beach one day (not to swim) and there was a huge kite festival so Rory and I joined the ranks of 5-12yr olds and made kites. We mostly spent the day wandering on the beach and recovering from our meal. We accidentally ordered a massive amount of seafood at local restaurant but we were lucky in that all 6 courses were amazing! Back in Bologna, Mom braved the walk to San Luca for a picnic (a chapel on top of a hill outside the city walls that is reached by walking through a seemingly endless stretch of porticoes)…it’s a bit strenuous but worth it for the poor victims I convince to come with me☺ All the in-between time was spent talking, shopping, and talking. And eating well. And she met Rory of course...that was fun☺
Easter: I didn’t want to stay around Bologna because a) the city is deserted during holidays like these and b) I wanted some fresh non-city air. So last minute Rory and I checked some train times and hotels and the next day took off for Lago di Garda. It’s the biggest lake in Italy, I think, and absolutely gorgeous. We took a ferry from the southern most point to the very northern tip of the lake where the walls of the alps run straight into the water. It’s a breathtaking ride. Riva was the name of the little town we stayed in and it was the perfect place to get away. The first day there we decided to do some hiking so we biked into town, grabbed some supplies (sandwiches and water) and asked the locals where to start to climb to the top. Key point to remember here: we really wanted to get to the top. It turns out though that Rory and I aren’t the most professional hikers or even the most observant hikers. We set out and 4.5 hrs later barely made it to the peak. We didn’t have any maps (just a picture we’d taken of a map from down below on my camera) and had accidentally taken what we later found out was a route used seldom used by the average hiker…the mountain side was almost straight up forcing the path to cut back and forth, there were cables along the way and even a ladder to help you scale the steepest parts. We started realizing that maybe we’d taken an unusual route when, towards the top, we started running into lots of Germans with ropes, huge backpacks, climbing shoes, and winter gear and when they started looking at us strangely…Rory being in shorts, me with no backpack, and two big sticks to help us climb. We made it to the top with little feeling left in our legs (to the astonishment of all the Germans), paused for a moment of pride and then headed back down the mountain on a more average-hiker-friendly path in the rain. So we beat the mountain and we’re one with nature for the day. The next few days we biked around, wandered through town, recuperated (or I did at least) from the hike, rented a rowboat, and relaxed on the pier.
Summer: I’m planning on flying home mid-July so that I have time to take all my exams (yes they go that late! Crazy!) and so that I can fit in some extra traveling time. Time is passing pretty quickly over here and I’m not sure whether that’s for the better or for the worse. Bologna has become my home this year, it was a strange moment when I realized that, and there are so many reasons that will make having to leave a sad occasion (little things like getting fresh pasta and food in the market, saying salute instead of bless you and, of course, the people I’ve met here). However, on the other hand, every time I see someone from home or talk to them or even take the football out, I’m reminded of things from home that I’m going to be happy to get back to. So I can’t decide if I’ve had enough time. It wasn’t until January maybe that I actually felt like I was living in Bologna, that I wasn’t just a tourist or on a long vacation. My daily habits and my attitudes have been “Italianized” a bit and I feel like I’ve made a home here. I miss the states though and am looking forward to getting back.
That’s all for now…congrats if you’ve made it to the bottom☺

moving into spring...

The past few weeks have been pretty FOXtastic (that one’s for you Drew), comprising mostly of: little to no schoolwork and time with friends. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t get much better than that☺ There has been a moment or two of seriousness, picking out spring classes, arranging (or trying to arrange) “my future,” and “practicing” my Italian but, I try not to let those moments become too many. On the more exciting (at least for me) side, I’ve had time to experiment in the field of Italian cuisine. Nothing too extravagant, just a couple things that maybe I’ll be able to show off when I get back. It’s pretty fun though☺ A couple weeks ago we met up with some Italians to see the Olympic flame being run through Bologna. It was pretty cool but, a bit intense. There were huge crowds lined up along the streets and police, in full riot gear, surrounded the runner. The police were necessary because there were tons of protestors trying to keep up with the runner. They were demonstrating against Coke and the whole event was pretty serious however, I couldn’t help chuckling because the protestors, obviously, weren’t all in the best physical condition so their effort outmatched their ability just a bit☺ Also, I caught my second opera in Bologna. Ten times better than the first one we saw! It was called “Andrea Chenier” (I think) and it was absolutely beautiful…ridiculous dresses, gorgeous voices, and a dramatic love story…of course I liked it! And…we helped celebrate Mozart’s birthday by going to see his ‘Requiem’ performed at a church here. That was beautiful as well but, I don’t think I’m much of a critic. I tend to be easily pleased so, if I say it was amazing, believe me with the understanding that I just really like music and am more or less pleased when any effort is given☺
I also had the opportunity to catch a troupe from New York put on "West Side Story" in Bologna...it was pretty cool to see, the music was good and the translations were consistently funny!
What else...the weather is finally getting nice! Spring comes in almost two months early here (compared to WI!). And, just in time for classes to start...how convienent:) Most of my classes start this week (ugh) and, depending on how many credits I want to take, the courses themselves and the Italian system, I could be done anywhere between May and July. I'm going to do my best to make it May!
Oh! We were able to see the Superbowl!! That was SOOO exciting! One of the managers of an Irish pub nearby said that he would keep his place open for us as long as we managed to bring in 20 Americans. It was really nice of him seeing as how the game didn’t start until 1am over here. It was pretty awesome….pros: a few Europeans, who didn’t know that much about football, watched with us and were pretty amusing (comparing it to rugby!) and it was so exciting to see a football game after so much soccer! Cons: the commentary was in Italian and U.S. commercials weren’t shown…bummer.
And, for those interested, my social life has changed a bit. I’ve met a pretty amazing Irish guy and we’ve been spending a lot of time together…it was the last thing I expected but, the most exciting thing that has happened. I’m not going to say too much, mostly because it’s a little strange writing it…but I’ll throw in an update here and there. Oh! And I’m going to ask for a little pity because I just got through my SECOND sickness here! Ugh…it was awful! It seems slightly unfair to deal with sickness when you’re abroad! My tonsils were huge and I had a fever…not exactly comfortable but, it gave me plenty of reason to be lazy, complain a bit and be catered to. And, I guess I survived…whew! So besides classes starting up this week and the work load appearing, a bunch of us have been working out plans to make a couple trips in the next few months. The first will most likely be a stop in Turin to see the Olympics. Wish us luck for getting tickets…the Italians really haven’t shown that much enthusiasm for the games so we’re hoping to just take a train up and find some tickets available.
...I’m running out of battery on my computer so I’ll have to end here but, again, I’ll really try and update before another month goes by. HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY, ALL!!!!!!

Buon Anno Tutti!!!!

Oops...a little too much time has gone by, huh? I'm just going to jump right into things though!
Exams: Two of them went pretty well, all things considered. My art and architechture class was my favorite mostly because I could go to all the places I'd studied right after and touch what I'd learned about. However, my international relations exam didn't go quite as I expected. I had an hour and a half to write 1 long essay, 2 short essays, and do 10 multiple choices...the clincher, all in italian. I just felt bad for my professor afterwards that he even had to read it. It takes me so long to express ideas in Italian so I got a little nervous that I would run out of time to answer all the questions (and I did)...I ended up resorting to my basic phrases because my mind wouldn't cooperate, it wouldn't think of answers and conjugate verbs at the same time...so I'm pretty sure my answers went something like 'there was a war. it was bad. there were many changes.' ...maybe not quite that bad, but you get the idea:) And there was a question I couldn't answer about a treaty that my german friend said he didn't think was mentioned in any of the books, he only knew the answer because it had taken place in his town...lucky kid:) I'm hoping for the 'A for effort.' ;)
On the bright side, exams ended just in time for Dad and Mom's arrival...YEAH! We had a blast wandering, shopping, and developing our culinary appreciation:) We took a great trip up into the Dolomites to Bolzano where we stumbled upon A)a HUGE Christmas market (great news for mom and I) and B)Vin Brule...hot, spiced wine. So good! It was so awesome to see them! The whole trip went by too fast with the only "minor" fluke being when I put us on a train to Rome instead of Bologna...oopss! So much for my chance to show off my "train riding expertise"...ah well, it was bonding time:)
Christmas: I headed back up to the Dolomites with a friend to be in the snow. We rented an apartment, applied our cooking "skills" and put in some solid time on the ski slopes...in jeans and sweatpants! It was beautiful, really beautiful and I'm so glad I got the chance to do it, but I missed everyone back home. Christmas just wasn't the same without family, Grandma's cooking and carols...Italians just don't have the passion for Christmas music that I do! But spending Christmas in a small mountain village, skiing in Italy was a fun memory to make.
The day after Christmas I waited in the airport for Drew and Bree to arrive. They were a pretty awesome Christmas present...that's kinda cheesy but true:) Their two weeks here went SO fast...we spent our days talking, lauging, and traveling and our nights talking more. We saw Venice with practically no tourists and rode the bumper cars with all the middle school italians. We walked arm and arm, climbed every tower we could find (well two of us did), and signed the wall next to Juliet's balcony in Verona. We were pretty cute:)...but I won't bore you with all did because most of it's probably only funny in the "had to be there" kind of way. Suffice it to say we had an amazing time but we didn't have enough time...and we laughed at Drew a lot:)
New Year's was a little dramatic; it was the best and worst I've ever celebrated. We all went to the main Piazza to bring in the New Year and it was amazing. It was FULL of people, FULL! The city had constructed a huge witch (some strange italian tradition), maybe 30ft high, and set it on fire at midnight. So there was a huge bonfire, fireworks over our heads and champagne bottles being opened like crazy at the end of the countdown...lots of yelling "auguri" and "buon anno!" Unfortunately, about five mintues after midnight we checked our pockets and discovered several items weren't there anymore. Bummer. Bree's camera, Joe's wallet, and my phone and wallet were among the things taken. What a way to start the New Year, huh? So, instead of celebrating, we spent New Year's day canceling credit cards. I was lucky in that I wasn't carrying any important documents in my wallet. And Drew was lucky because she got to pay for anything I needed that week:) No serious damage done...I'm doing my best to remember pre-countdown rather than post-countdown.
And now, I'm enjoying a couple down days and working on organizing the next few months of my life. I have to start looking at classes for spring and figuring out when I can travel some more:) I got lucky with the classes I took in the fall because they all ended in December...a lot of kids are still in the middle of classes so they aren't really on break. I, instead, have a long vacation because spring semester classes don't even start until the middle of February. Kinda crazy.
If you've made it to the end of this, congrats! That's pretty much the full update. I'm making it my New Year's resolution to update this thing more regularly because I didn't do so well last semester and so that I don't set myself up to write novels all the time.

more rambling:-)

Whew…hopefully I can catch up a bit. Bologna’s beautiful right now. The first big snowfall was this last weekend; huge flakes fell all day…it was gorgeous. And all the Christmas lights and decorations are up. Banners and holly and garlands and lights hang in every street, shops are all decorated and the two big towers are all lit up, too. It’s almost too picture perfect…especially walking around the Christmas market, it feels like a movie set! And the Italians and I are kindred souls in that we both seem to feel that it’s never too early for Christmas to start…for them it’s probably because they don’t have Thanksgiving, for me it’s because I just can’t get enough Christmas music☺ Unfortunately I haven’t been able to get out and wander around as much as I’d like because of classes…I think I should’ve started concentrating on the school part earlier…I guess I say that in Madison too though. This past week was pretty crazy with work and this coming week or two are going to be tough as well. One of my classes ends this week but the test isn’t until Dec. 19…weird, huh? And my other two classes end the 5th and 6th and exams are on those days…throw in a book report and a story to write due in the same time, I’m thinking I might need to hire an Italian to write it all for me☺_
I saw my first opera!! It was SO amazing! The singers were unbelievable and the opera house was gorgeous. The process of getting the tickets was ridiculous though…the regular tickets were all sold out so we decided to try and get the inexpensive ones in the balconies. This meant that first you had to wake up before 6am and get to the opera house (which is luckily only a block away from me) to put your name on a list that they post at 6. Then you had to come back at 9am when they read all the names off the list…any name without a representative there was crossed off. Then they nicely, in the name of democracy, asked us to vote on whether we’d like to return at 3pm and 6pm or just 6pm to repeat the same process. Needless to say the vote was just for 6, so we returned again early that evening and they read the names AGAIN and then put us in line to get our tickets. By the time this was done us girls had about an hour to get ready. But it was all worth it; we got all dressed up and saw an amazing show☺
The night after we had the chance to get dressed up again because the program arranged to have a restaurant reserved for us and a “traditional” meal served for Thanksgiving. It was pretty cute and so much fun. Almost everyone from the program was there and a bunch of our professors and they did a pretty decent job with the meal. The stuffing was a little off and so was the squash and pumpkin pie but the turkey/potatoes/corn were really good…I missed the lefse though!
We made our first BIG meal that same week…we couldn’t think of anything really American and low-budget that could be made in mass quantities so we resorted to stir-fry. Which turned out to be a really good idea because the Italians that ate with us had never had it. It was unbelievably unorganized (go figure with my cooking experience) and hard to do so lots of reasons. One, the metric system. Trying to convert teaspoons and cups into grams was impossible…we didn’t tell anyone that we ended up just guessing with amounts, luckily the food tasted ok. Two, the kitchen is SO small! And the pots and pans are proportional so we had to make small quantities at a time and this threw the timing (which was pretty much gone anyway) out the window. The entire dinner lasted from about 8:30 to 11pm…just the eating part☺ Three, we couldn’t seem to convince the Italians that we knew how to make an American dish (that they’d never tried) better than they did☺ There was a continuous argument about who’s grandma cooked better…they didn’t seem to see the logic in an Italian grm cooking Italian food well and an American grm cooking American food well…so they just kept getting in the way☺ Third, we don’t actually have an oven. This isn’t really that big of a deal most of the time but we wanted to make a real apple pie so it was kind of necessary. We thought that problem was easily solved when the silicians offered theirs, but Krissy went down to use it and discovered that instead of having temperature settings, it just said “1, 2, 3-7.” Right. Either we got really lucky or we’re just really talented, but the food all turned out the only thing missing was the presentation aspect. Everyone seemed willing to overlook that though.
I running out of time so, I hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving and I’ll try and update again soon☺

Wow…this one could get long☺
First: Halloween.
This is kind of a new holiday for the Italians and I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that that is the reason they don’t go all-out for it…yet. They are slowly but surely discovering the joy of searching for that perfect and completely unique costume, consuming copious amounts of “dolci,” and hanging up scary decorations. The weekend started out kind of slow, we weren’t sure how to go about celebrating over here, it was impossible to celebrate “Madison-style” (we described how big of a festival it is in Madison and the Italians were astonished at the number of people involved), so we ended up checking out the Halloween party thrown for foreign students. I don’t know what we were thinking because everyone had costumes but us so; we jumped back on a bus, went to the nearest person’s house (Luke) and dug through all the closets for costumes. Luckily Luke’s a big soccer fan so I stole his soccer stuff and went as “Francesco Totti”…big name over here I found out. All night people were yelling “Forza Roma!” and “Tooootttttttttiii!”…or the contrary☺
The next day we bought our pumpkins (because what is Halloween without carving faces?!?!) but we didn’t even get them as far as our door! The Sicilians were pretty fascinated by the fact that we were going to carve these pumpkins so we decided to do the honors at their apartment. We made our designs and started carving…it was SO much fun!! Definitely a nice tradition from home that we could do over here! The whole time the Sicilians walked around us, watching, sometimes teasing. We asked them if they wanted to try carving but none of them wanted to. However, when we were done and when the pumpkins were all lit up, the Sicilians loved them! They were asking us to take their pictures with them, it was pretty cute☺
Second: Classes.
I didn’t have as many actual lectures this week because there were these huge demonstrations on campus (new reforms taking place that the students are happy with) and students were occupying the buildings so that classes couldn’t be held. They were crazy! They made Madison protests look pretty mild…you literally couldn’t go to class, banners were hung up everywhere (inside and outside), and they’d graffitied everything-inside and outside! Nothing violent though…just pretty interesting. I also still don’t understand half of what my prof. says…still working on that☺
Third: this last weekend.
I met up with Joe in Florence and, after going on a wild goose chase to find this church that I had to take pics of for class, we jumped on train going to the Dolomite Mountains. 4hrs by train and 45min by bus later we arrived in a semi-secluded town of Merano. Wow. I guess I keep saying that the place I’ve seen most currently is the most beautiful but, in the case of Merano, it’s true. It’s a pretty amazing city. Granted the weekend we chose was like the low point of the season (being in between the summer hiking and winter skiing) so there weren’t a lot of people there and not all the stores were open, but at the same time we got to experience the city more like locals so it was cool. I think it’s the only place so far where I could see myself living in Italy…no worries, I am coming home, the city is just THAT beautiful☺ We got up early sat. morning, set out hiking and found ourselves on like a 2mile hike to see all the castles in the area. The only problem we had with that was that the map we had wasn’t exactly to scale so we had no idea where we were most of the time. So we hiked and hiked and hiked…”borrowed” some fresh apples we found along the way (we needed the nourishment and they were SO good!)…hiked some more and finally made it to the top, to the castle. You all have to step in my shoes for a minute: my ego’s huge for having found this castle, I’m tired and hot, we turn the last corner, walk to the entrance (I can see the towers!), and read “chiuso fino ad aprile”…closed until april. ☹ dang. And then a big dog came out and barked at me (if you don’t know yet, I don’t have a huge liking for dogs) so I jumped and turned and pretty much ran back down the mountain☺ I wasn’t very brave☺ The hike was still worth it though for the fresh apples and the cute German restaurant we found on the way back down. This area is almost more German than Italian…we were greeted with “guten morgen (sp?) and buon giorno”…I almost had Joe convinced that I spoke German as well…all part of the heritage right!?!? So we got to break away from the Italian food for a bit (I can’t believe I almost complained about too much Italian food!) and try some good ol’ meat and potatoes☺ Overall the trip was great!
Fourth: language update.
I’m sure I’ll say all year that it’s coming slowly because that’s the way it always feels. Understanding gets easier a lot faster than speaking. And I still make stupid mistakes…the other day in the market I wanted and pointed to a banana and I asked for a pineapple instead…the guy just looked at me like I was a little bit crazy. And I had huge problem saying the word “aereo” for the Sicilians the other day…we chuckle at their english, I guess it's only fair that they laugh at my italian:-)
Lastly….nope that’s it for now and that’s more than enough, right?!?! Miss you all☺!
wait! all the picture links are posted on the left under links now! THAT'S ALL!

YES!

I did it! I finally got the picture thing figured out! of course now that I know how, my computer is low on battery and I didn't bring the cord with me so I only have time to upload the Lago di Como one...more are coming! and you shouldn't need to sign in if you don't want to to see the pictures...just click on the first picture...if you do sign in though, it will save the album to your account. Ok...more soon:-)