Verona/Bocelli

A bronze statue of Juliet. The legend says that if you place your hand on her ..you will receive everlasting love.

The wall outside of Juliet's home is lined with grafiti. Look what I wrote on the wall for my nephew, Derrick and soon to be niece Lindsey....

Words cannot explain the beauty of the theater and Bocelli.

Heather and Ann Marie dressed in 5 minutes:)

I was so happy at this moment.

Agriturismo

Food and then more food and then even more food. That pretty much sums up my day....throw in some splashes of wine...more wine...some laughter..new people..new culture..and that about sums it all up. Days like today are why I am here. I really enjoyed today. Jenn, the blonde haired girl in the photos, invited me to spend the day with her Italian boyfriend and all of his friends. They were all couples, very cute couples and also Sarah and Stephen are a couple that work at the school.
We all met in Noverasco and then carpooled from there. It was about an hour drive through the country. An Agriturismo is somewhat like a winery. Except that the people here grow and make all of their own food as well. So not only did they make all of their own wine and have a label, but they make pasta and risotto from scratch. Butcher their own meats and even create their own cheeses. The flavors that I had today were quite unexplainable. The food that I have been eating in Milan and around is something that I will always cherish when I move back to the states. I look at pictures of myself and am beginning to look like a balloon...but I cannot say no the flavors that I am experiencing.
The old lady in the photo owns the place. Her son helps her out. People from all over the world make reservations for places like this. It was funny because for some reason the lady chose to continuously talk to me and I am the one in the group that knows the least of Italian. Here's how it began. First wine...red or white rosso or bianco. The wine flows throughout the entire meal before, during and after. Then whenever you go to Italian you have two types of water Frizzante or Naturale. We began with several spreads and bread. The spreads varied from olive, lard, to onions...it was a little bit gross. The bread was homeade. Then all of the meats came out. Here in Italy, you have dozens of choices of sausages,priscioutto, etc. After that we had homeade divine pasta. Then risotto, then another type of pasta, then another type of risotto. No joke. At this point I was stuffed. Then we had a salad. Then some weird duck. Then some more meat (cow meat with I can't remember what's it called.) After that, we had a gold sweet dessert wine. Then a berry cobbler. Then she brought out more homeade bread with various marmalade dessert spreads. The after that Tiramisou. After that a shot called Grapa and then coffee..................unbelievable!
All of the food is served family style. Jenn teaches second grade and has become a good friend. There are so many people here....I really like Jenn. She's from Florida and this is her last year here on her contract. However she lives with her Italian boyfriend Fabio, who is also very nice. He brought his friends. One couple was very cute. They are actually from Paris, living in Italy and speak Italian,French and English. We all had a good time communicating. It is soooooooooo funny. Italians associate Seattle with "music". Nirvanna, Pearl Jam...all of it. Fortunately......I was able to see all of those bands but think it is so funny that they associate me with that. Serriously.
Sarah and Stephen also came. Sarah was my very first contact online when I was looking into the job. She is VERY nice. She is a kindergarten teacher and has done International Schools all over. She is engaged to Stephen whom she met while teaching in the Bahamas. Stephen honestly holds the school in his hands. He is the network computer guy and more or less runs it all. The school would be lost without him.
I had such a good time and really enjoyed myself. Started to feel the "single" thing abit. Ihave been very happy being single and not dating at all. It frees up so many feelings and drama. Sometimes I think I can think clearer when I do not have a man in my life. I did start to want one this afternoon though. It was funny because I got up to go the bathroom and this guy kinda followed me.............HOT handsome Italian man. He held the bathroom door for me and then turned around and kissed me. Not like some big kiss.. He introduced himself to me Fabio and then I tried to talk to him and we couldn't communicate. So we both laughed ..I explained I was from America.then I went to the bathroom. I went back to my table and told Jenn about it and was like.............now is it normal for strangers to kiss you............Italians can be very, very, very cold and then veryyyyy friendly and the men are almost feminine. Jen was like..........no Laura.....why would he kiss you before going to the bathroom...........we cracked up for a bit. And that was it.
One thing that I am learning is that I want a man that will complement me. Someone who will travel and enjoy meeting new people..but that it won't be completely about him. Balance. I have this weird feeling that I will be single for awhile and I am o.k. with it. Usually I jump from relationship to relationship and it has been quite sometime since I have been involved in one. Maybe because Iam so afraid of being hurt and let down or maybe it's because I really just want to figure my self out without the drama of men. I don't know ......actually I don't know how much longer I can go being single. We shall see.
I would like to go more of these Agriturismos.....maybe with some friends or family that will fly out and visit me..........

My First Agriturismo

Ibiza, Spain

Ibiza was very similar to Hawaii. The palm trees, beaches, strips to walk on along the beach and more. The biggest difference would be the Spanish flavor that it had, the old architectural buildings and the clubs. I stayed in a room with Ann Marie and Heather. They are both teachers at the school. Sonja and her husband stayed in Old Ibiza and Paul stayed in a town about 10 minutes away. Paul is a Science teacher and Sonja teaches first grade with me. I LOVE Sonja. She has been so nice to me. We start to talk and it's always...."me too". We are realizing that we have travelled on a very similar path. She up and left her house that she owned in Miami to travel out to Italy. She actually is a fashion stylist and came for that reason. She stumbled upon the school and had always been a teacher so she more or less has had two careers out here. She was a little older than me at the time.....Anyway we have had the "same" boyfriends and dealth with the"same stuff". She is now very happily married to the man in the pics John Franco. He is 43 she is 40 and they are both married for the first time. Very giddy and happily in love. Excited about a future together. Jonh Franco owns a wine bar in the center. Anyway most of the clubs were closed but we did get invited to this big end of the year party. It was an experience to say the least. We rested on the beach and had good meals. We also shopped around.

Oct. 10, 2009

An oh shit moment............that's what I have been having. I am realizing that I sold my beautiful house and I no longer have a car. What the bloody hell have I done? My thoughts go from positive to negative about it every couple of minutes when I think about it. On one hand I think.....I am so happy about it...freedom, adventure, who knows what the future brings............and then I start to think.....waaaa when I return for the holidays I will be homeless and without a car.............weird that's really what I have to say. I think when I come home in December and drive by my house in somebody elses car ...then maybe I will get that sadness out and then get over it.......because really I do know I made the right choice by doing this.

I just reread what I wrote and it's true about the food.....I haven't stopped eating it. Right now it's making me mad though because I have put on some weight and I do not like that one bit. I need to run more. Maybe cut back on the cheese.

Staring..........this is starting to trip me out. I am sitting on the bus and I can tell someone is looking at me..........I look over and sure enough he is staring at me. I look away...I look back a minute later he is still staring at me. This is typical and acceptable in Northern Italy. Staring. Almost everyday I get stared at on the bus..........seriously. One day maybe I'll just flash someone or doing something silly because I have never been stared at so much....

Flash flood laundry..............I never even thought about..oh Laura you will no longer have a dryer. But that's the way it is and the norm here is to not have a dryer. You hang your clothes outside the window on a line....like I saw all over Philadephia. So this morning I hung my clothes to dry..........oh and the funny thing is that the washer takes like three hours to wash. SO it's like as far as energy goes..you still use a ton with a longer wash. Anyway this morning I hung my clothes outside.............today at school there were thunderstorms. I totally forgot I had clothes hanging out on the line. Tonight I forgot as well...then I was packing for Ibiza and I was thinking oh I really want to bring my white capris hanging on the line. I go outside and they are obviously...drenched. And it's not like I can pop them in the dryer...no white capris in Ibiza.

I am going to attach a few pics. Check out the car. Not to scare you mom....but one night I went out and the car was not there. The next morning I get up early for work and there are three cars completely burned up. Right outside my apt in a busy city. I see no sign of anything...cones, tape, nothing. I never saw a police officer or any sort of being towed sign. Slowly two of the cars disappeared...but this one in the pic is still right outside my apt. Italy is so ying and yang....because they have theses crazy laws. Like you have to have a full florescent outfit in your car. You know the suits construction workers wear at night. If a police office pulls you over they can ask to see the florescent outfit and if you don't have it you get in trouble. And pedestrians abide faithfully by the no walking across the street signs. However cars are out of control here....I will have to attach a video or something at some point. I have seen men fighting, road rage, crazy stuff....

Cinque Terre

October 5, 2009



Somehow if you click on the slideshow ... and see the full size pics they are quite stunning. I am still figuring out how to drop all of my pics into the blog. I have so many pictures from the Cinque Terre ............ it's beautiful. Only a few of them were posted.I have had quite a few people mention it and it really was spectacular!

It's pretty late right now, but I actually have internet in my apartment tonight. There's just something about being able to email, check the news, etc.. .. from home rather than in a rush at work.

Camilla one of the girls in the pics invited some teachers out to her family's hometown. I stayed in her uncle's apartment literally right down by the water. We were actually in one town over called Bonasalla. Camilla knew everyone...I think her family owns quite a few of apartments,etc.Every year each town throughout Italy will have a festival for the town. There were the most incredible fireworks I had ever seen....seriously I feel pretty lucky as I am seeing Italy really inside and out. The Cinque Terre is made up of five towns all aligned on the Cliffs. My favorite part was the hiking ................ to hike with Hills ... ahhhhh to hike with hills along the water I got my water/hiking fix that I have been desperately needing.!
I am not used to living in a city ... and I definitely live in one. Milan is wonderful do not get me wrong, it is just filled with people, lots of pollution, trash, cars.....you know a typical city which I am not used to. I have also always lived by the water and I need it. I am definitely learning about my senses of self ...you'd think after 34 years I would have it all figured out....but far from it. One thing that is for sure is that I need to be around water. And I need to be outside quite a bit exercising...whether it be running, hiking, biking, skiing,boating.....I will need it in my life regularly forever....preferably fresh air. So it was good to get out for few days and be around water. I rode out with a couple that I work with. They are retired teachers from San Francisco and they have this cool Westy type van but it is a mercedes van. We hit it off well. We were talking about how we were kind of drawn together and then we reallized it was that whole outdoorsy thing. Not many of the teachers here are from the West Coast. They just ran a marathon out here and we have started running together. We talked about going back to the Cinque with our bikes. Oh we also want to get out on a boat ....I didn't mention this either but you can get from town to town through the train system. I can actually take a train straight from Milan and get to the Cinque in just a couple of hours.
Another one of the girls is Daniella..she is Italian. She didn't realize it but she was sharing so much information that I had been wondering about. Like for example........in Italy you DO NOT get your coffee to go. You sit with people and talk forever.....I have seen this all over. But then there are also tons of people that come in and just take a quick shot of espresso and leave. Daniella wanted coffee and she was doing it the "shot" style. She explained to me that when you drink your coffee....you are only to drink it in two gulps. First you add a little sugar , stir it up and then take a small sip to test it out. Then you gulp down the rest of the coffee in one shot.......her father taught her this.......I made the BIGGEST mistake one of my first days by ordering my coffee to go.............the entire coffee shop started singing...Americana, Americana......I definitely am learning through mistakes...
She also ordered me a Lemon Cello. This is an Italian drink made from lemons, sugar, alcohol..strong..it takes quite a while to make. You chill it in the freezer and then pour it into these mini cocktail glasses (I've seen them at Pier I). You usually drink it after dinner, then after coffee...as a dessert drink...............it was lovely.
So much has happened...my brain honestly hurts. I am so stimulated by the newness of everything around me.Constantly learning. I am constantly hearing a different language and constanly thinking. I am starting to realize that I am really here. Like I live here.................. This has always been one of my dreams and I am so proud of myself for following thru and doing it. I had a top ten list about 10-15 years ago and living here was one of them. I think the last few years have been so frustrating for me as Ihaven't been doing any of the goals that I had set for myself. I mean ofcourse some of them which I should be happy about like buying a house, getting my masters degree. but I finished those goals awhile ago.........but there have been some big ones that just haven't been happening. Now I am like...wow I really get to ski the Swiss Alps....easily. That was one of them.. And now I have unlocked this door and I was thinking about how I am going to see so much of the world.........I wasn't even planning on that but I know that I will. I know I will see a ton of Europe and I know I will go to Africa and Egypt. I'd like to go to Thailand.....................and the weird part is that I can. It's all pretty surreal for me. I am very happy right now. It's a roller coaster but right now I am up high.