An Italian vocabulary lesson...

While we wait anxiously for the promised Italian lessons of our contract, we've been learning a few vocabulary words of our own around here, and, now, you at home can learn a new language right in your living room. So, here goes...

vino bianco frizzante...sparkling white wine! I'm pretty sure that I'll be a wine snob when I come home. The cheap stuff around here is so good. No need for wine lists or types of wines, you just order a liter of the house wine and you're good to go!

un biglietto (bil-lee-yet-toe)...ticket! Do you like my use of phonetic pronunciations? Bus tickets seem to be a little tricky around here. I am constantly worried that the bus/train inspectors will declare that I have the wrong ticket for where ever I am. It is a fine on the spot of €25-35 or they remove you immediately from the bus to who knows where. I try and keep plenty of cash on hand. Yesterday on the train from Bergamo to Milano a nice, middle aged lady did something wrong and had to hand over a wad of Euros to escape the certain punishment from intimidating train inspectors. I don't think the dumb American card will work too often.

il bagno...bathroom. You guessed it! The restrooms in Europe are worth discussing. No, not really. What's worth discussing is that if you imagine the worst gas station restroom you've ever seen in your entire life living in the US, it is nothing to compare to the handful of restrooms I've seen in just a few short weeks of living in Italy. I must wonder, with all the wine they drink here, how do they use these restrooms? Seriously, women's restrooms with windows where everyone can see in (the Questura...where you go to get permission to stay in Italy...perhaps they don't want you to stay) and restrooms that are only holes in the floor (now, I hear this is relatively common on this continent and it would be okay if perhaps these restrooms were even occasionally cleaned...this, too, you can find at the Questura and at the Bergamo train station. Here I decided I'd rather wait another 45 minutes to get to Milano to pay €1 to use the restroom at Centrale. It was so worth it.) I wonder, where are all the public bathrooms in Italy? I am pretty sure that any disgusting truck stop restroom will far exceed my expectations from now on.

A dance studio showing off their routines at Notte Bianca.

Notte Bianca...White Night...A celebration dreamed up by the city of Opera to celebrate the end of summer. Originally slated for last Saturday, a weather debacle caused a second go at the festival to happen this weekend. It was a dollar store bonanza- booths of junk everywhere! Plenty of games and what not for the kiddos and DJ music and karaoke for the adults-- club music, fist pumping music, American music- YMCA, macarena, and every other bad wedding reception song you could dream of-- right outside my window. Bless them...it went on past midnight...I think my brain was thumping all night long with the beat.

miei amici...my friends...I've always been blessed with amazing people around me and continue to feel the same about so many new people in my life. It's funny because as I meet and get to know each new person I find that they remind me in little ways of someone else. I've always been a big believer in knowing that everything happens for a reason, and so far, this journey has proven no different.

I've been uploading my pictures to Facebook, but for those still refusing to jump on the bandwagon (and lately I've thought about mutiny) I added my photos to a Flickr account. Here's the link:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/carriezimmer/  Hopefully, you can access them there. And, since FB is kind of sh*%$ty these days, maybe you should join Google + (you'd be ahead of the game then!)

Buona notte...Good night! How does such a short weekend seem so exhausting! Back to the grind tomorrow!

Living on the opposite side of the world...

I've been here almost a month now. There are days when it seems like that is almost impossible and there are days when it feels like it has been much longer. It actually humors me in a way. But, I look ahead to this time next year and think about how much I will have learned by then...and, it makes me happy!

It is odd having lived my entire life in the US to suddenly be cut off from almost everything cultural I've come to know. Entertainment websites from the US are blocked here and you must use odd and sometimes crazy looking sites to watch the shows you are familiar with. The USOpen streamed live in the US, but I had to use sites that were streaming it in undeterminable languages to see any of it here. When the anniversary of 9/11 rolled around this past weekend, it would've gone unnoticed if I hadn't been on Facebook. (Granted I don't watch any Italian news or see any of the papers to know if it received coverage here.) Trying to find a happy medium between having it all at your fingertips and being totally in the dark...

My shipment finally came this past Saturday. I delighted in the idea that I could wash my sheets, hang my clothes, and have some of my long lost belongings. Everything seemed to arrive safely, even if not in the best of condition. Note to self...even if the shippers insist they must pack things, make them pack a little better. It was really chaos trying to check to make sure everything had arrived in the end. I was so happy to have my things! But, what I didn't expect to arrive with my shipment was my first feelings of homesickness since I got here. Having my things added a sense of reality to this little adventure I am on and made me sad for some of the things I had to leave behind. Oh, the Ruby dog...

But, it's not in my nature to wallow in anything for too long, so Sunday Kate and I took off for the "city" to explore the castle and surrounding park. We had a great day people watching and finding parts of the city that we could indeed find beautiful. Much of Milan is covered in graffiti and it is distracting from all of the amazing architecture, but lo and behold, just turn a corner here or there and suddenly there is a spectacular sight in front of you.

So, on to some of my observations about Italians and the culture here that I have noted...

1. The fashion here is not what I expected. In the city, I expected to see the women "done" all the time. This has not been my experience. Some are dressed up, some are dressed down; it seems about the same as what you may find in the US, even if the trends are slightly different or more fashion forward. The men here love their bags, satchels, or, even, a fanny pack. Everyone seems to own one and carry it proudly.

2. Italians are not concerned with moving politely out of anyone's way. It's kind of like always playing chicken, whether you're in the car, on a bike, or just walking down the sidewalk. Don't expect anyone to move over for you. Or offer any sort of apology or sign of acknowledgement that you even happened to be there.

3. The wine here is amazing. I've never been a red wine fan, but told myself that while I am here I will learn to like it. Since they have this nice "frizzante" red wine, how can you resist! On the wine note, my roommates and I have discovered this nice little wine shop around the corner. Bring your own bottle and they fill it for €2.20 out of this little keg set up thing they have. Kate was even given a frequent shopper card...buy so much and get some wine for free. Now, somehow I did not qualify for this deal. I will have to rectify that situation soon.

Buona sera!

Waiting...

So, I've been in Italy for almost three weeks now. Some days it is hard to believe it has been that long and other days it feels like it has been much longer. And, even though I packed and shipped 700 lbs of my belongings on June 18th, I am still waiting for my stash of prized belongings. The Italian government is basically holding all our things hostage until paperwork upon paperwork is put in order. So, as it happens, the most commonly said phrase these days is, "I have it, BUT it's in my shipment!" If only I had a €1 every time I heard that statement.

In other waiting games, this past weekend eight of us took off to discover Colico, Italy, a small town on the north shore of Lake Como. Similar in style to Bellagio, where we visited the first weekend here, but quieter and less busy with tourists. To get to Lake Como, we took a bus from the town we live in, Opera, to the tram station. The tram took us into Milan, where we took the subway to the train station. At the train station we navigated buying train tickets and successfully boarded to make our way north.

The town was quaint, but lively. Surrounded by Alps, and nestled in the curves of the lake, it is quite picturesque. There was a small beach, and it was evident that this is a local spot used for many kite boarders and wind surfers on a regular basis. Of course, you can always count on the overexposing men's hot short bathing suits to leave little to the imagination! And, yes, they sell these suits in white too, though I haven't figured out why! The waiting came when we discovered we had misread the train station departure board and waited an extra hour for the next train back to Milano Centrale. Oh well, staring at the Alps and watching the cute little Italian lady bring her dry laundry in the window make up the difference.