Bike Race in the Most Unlikely Setting...

Yesterday my team and I raced....yes, it's very late in the season and no I haven't raced in something like 3 months... It was a team time trial, which I like a lot, but it was too short...23 minutes in total and it's critical to practice for something like that, which we didn't exactly do. But, I had fun and we came home with salami winnings. The concept was interesting: the time of the woman was what counted for the team. I suppose the liberated women of the western world could read a lot into that. Honestly, being the woman on the team, I liked that rule a lot.

But the setting was an interesting one, there was a motorcycle and car show and the bike race was one facet of the goings-on. Seriously, there were Italians singing country western music and they were Harley Davidson leather-wearing big dudes. I couldn't tell that they were Italian...it felt *exactly* like I was in the States...the Cadillacs and Mustangs were there as well.

That's all for now, it's raining, nearly snowing and cold. Think it's time for something warm to drink.

Oh Romeo, Romeo...

Ah, first, let's begin with a drink...

Verona is a lovely city that is quite beautiful, offers a fantastic variety of architecture and old stone (massive stone) roads from the Romans. It's famous, of course, as we all know it from Romeo and Juliet (Giulietta as it should be in Italian).

This is the famous balcony..."Romeo, romeo, where art thou oh Romeo?" or at least I think that's how Juliet began her famous speech.

It was around 45 degrees, chillier than it has been in Italy this fall. I was happy with the cooler day, I'm not quite sure why I'm not missing the warmer weather yet.

As with the trip to Florence recently, there weren't too many tourists and it was fun to rap in Italian with the locals. I find it more fun to try to speak in these places where they're used to most Americans only speaking English and I'm rarely having anyone flip the conversation over into English.

 Old Roman stone road.

Not sure on the history of this stadium, but it's gotta be Roman.

In the center of town with a nice open-air market.

Interesting story I have to share just because it really made me angry. Hard to get me mad, but this did it. I was hoping to buy a touch of eye make-up. Just sounded like a nice idea today, so I popped into a shop that sells all varieties. I asked for the most inexpensive that would look good. She shows me what she has and I ask for the price. She evades the question, offers me mascara to go along with the box of eye shadow and takes them straight to the cashier. The cashier has everything wrapped up and on the register before they stop to tell me how much I owe. (As might be expected), I'm still curious. 67 euro. That's like $80. 45 euro for eye shadow alone. ARE YOU SERIOUS?  Nice work people, not stealing my money today. Who pays those prices? Clearly someone must be, but who? It's a scam. Out of principle I wouldn't and will not pay that. I wonder how much make-up cost back in the day when a dude played the role of Juliet (once upon a time they didn't have female actors).

After the Verona trip, we went to a store that sells American food, yes, you heard me right. I stocked up on peanut butter, refried beans, salsa, pancake mix, grapenuts and all the essential ingredients for a pumpkin pie. I love Italian food, but get giddy when I have the option (which is nearly never) to pick up some old favorites.

Let me be the first to wish you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow!!! Gobble, gobble and enjoy the company of those with whom you eat!

From Ceramics to Pantani's Mother...An Italian Fall

This fall here in Italy has been incredible. For the most part, the weather has been ideal and considering it's post-sagra season for all of the small towns, there are still lots of things to do. Ooh, I need to modify that statement a bit: when I say lots of things to do, I'm speaking as an Italian, not from the over-committed American point-of-view.

My world view has, naturally, changed. Now that I'm studying Italian on my own and not on anyone's schedule but my own, I am truly living in that place that I thought I wouldn't be able to handle. It's so much easier when one's schedule is defined by work or some external source. This space between the life of an 8-5 desk jockey and life of a student has been healthy. It'll all start up again soon enough, this is a good time to take in one deep breath of crisp, Italian air. Actually, many, as there have been lots of good bike rides, all with the most amazing panorama's...

How many months of bike riding there have been...how many new roads. Truthfully speaking, I have probably repeated the same ride maybe 3-4 times, they are almost always new. These roads are so amazingly numerous and all beautiful. The quality of the roads, themselves speaks to serious issues with tax-payer money going to other places.

During the days when I get a chance to ride, I have been exploring the towns a bit more closely. I'd hardly call rides training rides because I get to a town, gawk, look for the local bar (place to pick up a cappuccino or something similar), hunt down the agriturismos to get a sense for good ones to recommend to people when they come visit, that sort of thing. An agriturismo is a converted farm house, similar to the Bed and Breakfast concept except they tend to grow their own food (fruit, veggies and raise animals for eggs, milk and meat). Many of these places offer that storybook look of Italy that can't possibly be found at the Holiday Inn. I feel fortunate to live far enough away from the big cities that it's hard to find 5 star hotels and establishments that are typical of western culture. Travel is so much more interesting when the huge differences in culture, architecture, etc. can be seen so crisply between places.

One place famous throughout the world for its ceramics is Deruta, a cute town not all that far from here. It was a fun discovery on bike. I started by checking out the huge places that make ceramics. Pretty impressive as these are all built by hand, even the large factory-like places. They simply have more room to warehouse their goods. You'll find people in the back sculpting and painting these masterpieces.

 Inside, and it is much, much larger than this picture shows.

 The fun discovery of the day, as it always turns out being, was in meeting one of the locals. I was wandering down this road taking pictures and a nice older gentleman offered to take my picture. I started asking him questions and it turns out he owns the shop in this picture. He offers courses to people who want to learn ceramics and shorter sessions for tourists who want to take home a real treasure, one they have built, from Italy.

There are so many amazing people and places like this here that go unexperienced. It's turning over these "rocks" and discovering the real Italy that is truly exciting to me.

Philosophy of the Day
If one eats a meal alone, it will be forgotten. If one sees a panorama but doesn't have anyone to admire it with, it's simply a pretty picture. If one buys a souvenir built by the hundreds in a factory, it'll just collect dust...but when that thing was built with love by human hands, this treasure will forever be a reminder of that place, the person, the moment. Time flies and no moment sticks around to be savored, but the memories are infinite. Do everything possible to create and savor every precious moment in life!

Leaving the central part of Deruta with the glory of fall shining through the wall.

The blog has been lacking in pictures, so here are more from recent rides to enjoy. The three below are from areas close to Bevagna. Gorgeous, and trust me, my camera doesn't do these places justice in the least!

I understand this overpass will eventually have a road going to/from it. But for now, it would appear to be a really fabulous government-sponsored job-creation program.

Ah yes, not to forget the trip to Firenze (Florence). Below is a pic of Florenze from Fiesole, a town up a hill and, apparently, a little ways from Firenze. I have a bad habit of wanting to adventure into neighborhoods and I just kept on going. There was a huge downpour once I got to Fiesole, it started about 5 minutes after I found a nice place to hang out (European University, I believe it's called).

This is part of Fiesole, quite beautiful.

In the fall, there are lots of raduno's going on here. Raduno's are non-competitve bike rides, an opportunity for racers and non-racers alike to ride together and the proceeds go to a good cause. This is a picture from yesterday's raduno, we had a rest stop next to St. Francis' basilica in Assisi. Proceeds go to diabetes research, diabetes is a growing problem here. 

And last night, to top it all off, was the awards ceremony for those who competed in a race series this past summer. It's very similar to how BAR/BAT work in Colorado, but yet again, the winners got a huge amount of prosciutto, very generous gift baskets going 5-deep in each category. Yeah for our guys/gals who placed this past season...and it is particularly cool how supportive everyone is, regardless of the results.

Here's a shot of all of the race promoters. Didn't include pics of individuals who won since I don't know that they want them posted. The blonde woman is Marco Pantani's mother. She spoke of her son who loved racing. He's still very much adored here in Italy (and I'm sure throughout the world).

That's the latest. Off to Italian land, enough English for the week! Ciaooooo to all!!!!

Back in Italy, Back to the Blog

I just spent the morning reading through old blog posts from my last 6 months in Italy and how nice it is to have so much of the cool moments captured and the memory refresher was fun. The blog is again open for the world to read, I can't help myself from wanting to share the experiences. Also, this saves hours of personal emails. Now I have internet access via a key but only 100 hours a month. Not a lot of time if you're me.

I am now in Italy, Phase II. I'm in no-man's land at the moment meaning that before, when I was here taking classes, cool, I could consider that my "work." No-man's land means that I am fairly well occupied, just on my own schedule learning-wise and employment-wise (aka I have a whole lot of zero income at the moment). It's definitely a slight feeling of unease, but I know I have to invest this time now in order to be more effective in everything I do in the future.

So when I say "invest" time, what does this involve? Yesterday is an excellent example (I just got all moved in and settled, not far from Perugia, the "everyday" is beginning)...I took a long walk up a really big, pretty hill (nicely forested, but enough traffic to not be lonely). As I walked, I read a dual-language book: on one side is Italian and the other is in English. Handy when walking!

I ended up at a bus stop so I took the bus to town where I found cappuchino, the daily paper and read. Two articles in an hour...I can pretty well understand what is being said so could read a lot faster than this, but the guilty part of me made me write down and look up every word I knew I didn't know well enough to use on my own in conversation. Word lists grow fast using this method. Long ago I gave up memorizing words, I found it didn't work. Old dog, new tricks. But see a word 7 times and it literally affixes itself inside the brain. It's pretty cool learning new words every single day and being able to access more all of the time, but not deliberately memorizing. Good feeling. Impossible (at least for me) if I weren't fully immersed.

I was fortunate to co-guide a Ciclismo Classico Bike Across Italy trip early in October. It got me back to Italy and bought me a little more time here. We had an excellent tour (7 guests) and I saw Italy in a way I hadn't before (Bike Across Italy #3 for me). Fall here is a very cool time when everyone is back to routine after a summer (particularly August) of being away. The temperatures are lower, but not too low so even if it rains, it's not too cold to get out and play. Some of the trees turn colors for fall, but the vast majority remain green. I'm glad as I think that will help the colder months remain more pleasant visually. Fall is my favorite season and I can't remember a fall I haven't liked in all of the places I've ever been for this season.

That's the short update, if this can be considered short. Back to reading the newspaper and then going for a nice ride.

What's Different...

I've done a good job of easing back into being home. A big part of this has been spending gobs of time at my parents' home and I have only really gotten out a few times. So far as having reverse culture shock, it hasn't happened like I expected it to. Maybe it's coming...maybe not!

Driving yesterday was strange: the roads are so wide, the intersections are so big and busy (there are so few traffic lights where I've lived in Italy, one typically drives for quite awhile without stopping much), and it feels weird to drive an automatic.

There have been quite a few "firsts" for me since I left:
First time to use a microwave to warm up food
First burrito
First almond butter or healthy peanut butter
First guacamole
First movie in English (on the plane)
First clothes dryer
First mom's home-cookin' in general (oh it's wonderful!)
Item to add to the list soon: good dark beer!

It's been the truly perfect time of year to be here (like it is every single year). Denver's skyline yesterday morning with the sunrise was so completely gorgeous, it was a great way to be welcomed back. There have been a couple of completely amazing sunsets, too. I missed yesterday's as I took a 5-hour nap right into the evening.

Jet Lag and Reverse Culture Shock

I've been awake since 4 am this morning and couldn't keep my eyes open past 9 pm last night. So the jet lag is perfectly okay with me right now. Last year after coming home from Italy, I had an insane desire to fall asleep mid-day but that hasn't happened yet. Hoping it continues this way!

So far, I'm simply happy being home and having time to get over the cold (pretty much gone now fortunately). Since I've just been home and chillin' with my folks, there haven't been many opportunities for reverse culture shock. Yesterday I visited the cellphone store with my mom and it felt strange to do a transaction in English. I'm still cellphone-less...after living for 6 months with a contract-less cellphone, I'd love to keep it that way. Last night we went to Barnes and Noble...I love bookstores but was disappointed to see all of the books in English. Ha ha! I'd like to know all of the translations of all of the books in Italian bookstores...would there be soooooo many "how to be happy" books? The secret to this, that and the other thing.... I bet not, but who knows. Not knowing all of Italian, it's easy to assume all of the Italian books are on history, art, love, food and sports.

The weirdest thing was perusing the technology books...there are whole new concepts, acronyms, etc. just published in the last 6 months in that section. (For reference, it's that section and the business section that I have most frequented in the past.) Makes one feel like one has been sleeping for 6 months or put in a time machine into the future. It's slightly unnerving. Thus far, though, there hasn't been a real reverse culture shock. Not working might play a huge role in this...will keep ya posted (assuming this awesome jet lag continues and I have lots of time before people wake up each day).

End of the Summer Recap

I awoke at 4 am this morning--the second morning back in the US. This is the effect of jet lag and I like it. Maybe I'll finally get on a good schedule with this new and improved biological clock.

It was fun reading the last blog entry, hadn't realized all I was able to capture in that last post. Now it is very much time to write more, though the story of August and the beginning can't all be put in words in the few hours I have before my parents wake up and it's time to visit (which is the only thing I will do while I'm here in CO this very, very short week).

The remainder of August was a whirlwind in the truest sense of the word. It would have been futile to try to take classes. There were countless dinners, I saw a bit more of my relatives, got in some super fun (and gorgeous) training rides, I drove for the first time on Italian roads, got a very cool job and my dear friend, Barb and her friend (now a friend of mine!), Holly, came to visit towards the end of the month. That's the short summary of a month that could have been two but flew by like a week.

The juggling act, particularly at the end of August was ridiculous as I learned that I received a bike tour guiding job with Ciclismo Classico. The job is everything I'm passionate about all rolled into one sweet gig for a great company. If you're not aware of my history with Ciclismo Classico--it was their trip (and guides) last summer at this time that inspired me to come to Italy for these past 6 months. It was an amazing experience working as a guide for the same trip and even better was that the group were all people from Colorado. Sure, it was a lot of work with handling bikes, luggage, talking to the various establishments along the way (only in Italian), but it hardly felt like work considering how much fun it was for everyone at the same time. It's the first time I have had a non-desk job since before I graduated from college and I loved it. I should add that the weather was perfect and there was only one flat tire amongst the 16 people the whole trip, therefore, it really made for a perfect first experience.

The few days Barb, Holly and I got to spend together were fabulous. Their trip ended up corresponding with the exact same days I needed to do a pre-tour for Ciclismo. It was very fortunate that they were fabulous travelers, seeing Rome, Florence and Venice while I was away...I was delighted they had so much fun and didn't want to strangle me for not being around (I might have strangled me if I had been them). We had a great time driving all around Chianti, visiting Siena, had a nice wine tasting in a tiny town near Greve (in Chianti), tasted olive oil in Spello, walked around Perugia and checked out Bevagna. We had a fine dinner with Daniele in Assisi--he knows all of the good places to go for local, typical cuisine (it was a new place to me) and again it was another fun time with the English/Italian mix of languages at the table.

They left the same day I had to move out of my apartment (taking all of my Italian worldly belongings), I had to return the rental car (a truly non-trivial task) and be at Ciclismo for the start of the tour...it made for the most stressful, insane morning and that was after getting home really late the night before. Thank goodness it all was possible.

After the Ciclismo tour was over, I had the next day to repack everything, I left a lot of stuff in Italy (lots of books, some clothes and my beloved bike). Finally, I made my way to Perugia and then to Civitavecchia to take the ferry over to Barcelona. I swore never to take that ferry again...and I ended up missing it the first night, but it was just as well. I felt a bad cold coming on so I didn't mind having a day to kill in Civitavecchia (nice town, I was surprised to like it and I really enjoyed the friendly people).

I treated myself to a movie in the little old theater there called "The American" which, interestingly enough, takes place in Italy (and the movie was in Italian...George Clooney speaking Italian...riiiiggghhht).

The ferry boat ride over was uneventful though the guy sitting next to me had a bag stolen. The difference in that is that he was a really sweet person (and he didn't accuse me like the crazy napolitano did on that last ferry boat ride!)

Two plane flights later and a total of 14 1/2 hrs in the air, I made it to Denver night before last. Very strange to watch movies in-flight in English. First ones in 6 months.
"Letters to Juliet" is a cute movie and recommended to see Siena and some really nice Italian landscapes. The story line was pretty good since there was some Italian and quite a few things I could relate to (or roll my eyes at the protagonist because I wouldn't happen that way in real life in Italy...but very fun to have an opinion now).

How great it was to see my parents and be home!

33

A year ago today I was making plans for my 32nd year of life and this definitely wasn't part of the plan. Thinking back, I can't say I remember what the plan was. I do remember the celebration with family and friends in Denver. There's a definite sense of missing everyone from home, but at the same time, there's a peace to being in a place with people who treat me as family. I am feeling, finally, a bit more at home in this very different world...to the point that I'm forgetting the differences and assuming many of the cultural nuances as being the norm. 

A couple of days ago, my dear friend, Lana, and a group of her friends visited me here in Perugia. She was the first face from my American life that I've seen since I boarded the plane March 8. As always when I see her, it's as if time stands still; she never changes and we pick up from where we last left off. It was so cool to introduce her and everyone to my life here. There's some level of validation or maybe it's just knowledge that this can't be a dream if someone else experiences it with me.

The evening they got to town, we all went to a Napolitano pizza place that D loves and I have become a huge fan of their pizza and other food as well. The group was longing for real Italian food. After a few days in Rome and being sent to all of the tourist places for food, they knew they hadn't yet had the culinary experience of the locals. It gives me great joy when we can all sit around the same table, D speaking Italian, the group speaking English and we all had a great time. I like playing translator, it's a cool role to be in. And I think D could appreciate the situation I've been in since I got to town: always being the only person in the group who doesn't speak the language of the others. I think this was the first time for him to be in a group setting where he doesn't speak the same language as everyone else.

The next day we walked all over Perugia and for lunch I cooked up some gnocchi because I wanted to make sure they'd had the gnocchi experience before leaving Italy. One of the guys has been traveling all over Europe (backpacking) for 2 1/2 months, another girl is working in Paris. Hearing the stories of the different places they've visited and their experiences was great. I really haven't heard too many of these stories before. I know I need to do more traveling in Europe, it would be nice to be able to talk about the other cultures as well. But I'm not itching to go...I am anxious to see more of Italy, but I don't mind just living here. Especially now that I am just getting to the point of being comfortable. The one thing I heard from all is that Italy and Spain were two places that lived up to (or far exceeded expectations). About Italy, they were in love with the people, food, beauty of the place. They called it a complete place, as opposed to other places that might have most of the elements but were missing things like friendly people or something significant.

I'm sure in the blog I've expressed some of my anxiety at not speaking Italian. Or maybe not. I've probably told you more about the days when I felt like I'd made significant progress with the language. Have I told you about the days where I've been freaked out because I couldn't speak? Have I mentioned all of the times I wanted to express what was on my mind but couldn't? Did I tell you how many, many times I've been lost on the road trying to meet up with friends but couldn't call to ask for directions because I knew that I wouldn't be able to understand anything on the phone? Do you know how it feels to tell someone hundreds of times, "I'm sorry, I don't understand the meaning of what you just said?" or "Can you repeat that, please?" Do you know the anxiety of knowing you will be in a social setting where you will be with people you enjoy very much, but you will not be able to talk to them about what's going on with them, express your appreciation, tell a joke or understand when they say something clever?

I've met many foreigners here, mostly through the university and almost all of them don't speak Italian after class. They hang out with others who speak their native language. They party and have the time of their lives here. So many people come here for the party aspect or simply to have a nice break. I can honestly say that even though classes were part-time and it's a pretty casual life living for school, Italian food, bike rides and not a whole lot more than that, much of the time here has been stressful. You're not going to hear this from most people who come to Italy. Also, when people travel to Italy for vacation, they either go to the tourist places where business owners speak English, or at the very least, they travel with others who speak their language.
The stress comes from trying to live the real Italian life without being able to communicate like I would like to (closer to fluency...fluency itself is very difficult to attain, actually it's impossible to define). I've learned how much time there isn't in each day...and I just can't sit down and memorize vocabularly. One of my teachers said that it's necessary to hear a word 7 times before remembering it. I believe that.

A word on the comfort zone concept. I have always wandered a bit out of my comfort zone for new jobs, and interesting experiences. Fortunately, I eased into this life here somewhat with starting my life in an apartment with a Dutch girl (people from Holland are very good in English) and making friends with English-speakers (though no Americans) at the university. But I will say that even now, I haven't exactly established a new "comfort zone." I'm fortunate to have friends and family here who would do anything for me if I asked them, but still. There are days that I feel like I'm in a free-fall from the comfort zone where I absolutely feel like there isn't solid ground beneath my feet. Fortunately, like anything, the feeling comes and goes. I celebrate the days that I can comunicate and feel good with stuff. The others, I try to remember how much better everything is now than it was before. I used to be totally freaked out about having to talk to my landlord who only spoke Italian. The other day when I moved, I had a very easy conversation with my new landlord and only realized after I'd had a good 45-minute exchange with him that it was possible he didn't know a word of English. It's easy to order food, do business with anyone at the local shops. It's the next level of being able to chill out with friends and just banter. That's the next step. Fortunately, I can understand almost everything everyone says. And when I manufacture Italian words, I'm often correct or close enough that an Italian can guess what I said and give me the correct word in exchange.

The other night, a group of friends (who are all about 15 years older) got together and invited D and I. They had a huge table outside in the backyard of their home not too far from here. They also have a wood-fired oven. They made pizza, had all sorts of wonderful food (lots of antipasta foods like bruschetta, veggies, large platters of different meats and cheese), and there were 5 different types of dessert. It was interesting because all of the men sat together and the women sat together. I think everyone who was there was with a spouse or significant other. The most talkative side of the table was the men's side. They were speaking a lot of dialect so I was able to understand a bit less than I usually can at this point. But still, to be there, under the stars on a perfect night and feel this family atmosphere absolutely embodied at that table, I'm cool with simply enjoying and knowing that the next time we get together, I will be able to understand more and speak more. And, for the record, in dialect in this region, "mangia" is pronounced "manya." Ha.

Perugia is beginning to wake up, I've been in town since 6:30ish. I started the day with a cappuchino freddo (espresso with cold milk) and a chocolate-filled croissant. I bought the news, in English. I've been craving some news and I have started reading Italian news, but considering how long it takes to get through a single article, it feels good to get to digest what's up in the world a bit quicker. 2.50 euro for 19 pages of a very, very slim version of the NY Times. I think it's enough English news for awhile. I will pick up Italian news soon and spend the day reading it and studying. There's so much further to go and so little time...

Back to the birthday thing. Here I am, 33 years old. 33 isn't a particularly signifcant year number-wise. My mom had my bro at 33. Fortunately or not, I have yet to feel the ol' biological clock go off. I'm sure it's a function of situation. I feel about 25 so that might help matters a bit. At least for this month I get to live as an adult (like an adult Etruscan in my Etruscan cave-like home, outfitted with furniture and kitchen cabinets from IKEA) with my own kitchen and no second-hand smoke at home. It feels terrific. Much of the specialness of Italy is home cooking and I am thrilled to have a chance to try my hand in the kitchen again. I'd like to start with apple pie. Hopefully today.
What's the plan for 33? Good question. As things have fallen into place in the past, I suspect they will as the future unfolds. I am going to let nature take its course and go with the flow.
Thanks to everyone for the very special birthday wishes. I look forward to seeing everyone in September and catching up in person. There will probably be very few blog entries between now and then with such limited time and so much to do between now and then. All my best!!!!!!!!!

Blog is Back...

With the entire world being able to read the blog, as much as I like to share everything with everyone, it takes too much time and effort to tailor everything such that it can be read by the whole world. Therefore, I've thrown on permissions and only people with logins can read this. This is open to very close family and friends at this point so I will feel a little more free to blog to my heart's content. And post pics to my heart's conent, as well. :)

I apologize for the very long delay in posting, lots has been going on as usual, lots in Italian.  As hard as it is for me to speak it, I still want to live in that place and be frustrated when I can't find the right words, the cool part is that the frustration levels and stress levels have significantly declined over the past couple of weeks, in particular.

Last night was a birthday party for the daughter of one of my teammates. For the first time in a social setting, not only was I able to understand, I was able to carry conversation somewhat. I am, in general, talking a lot more and able to connect with people I couldn't understand or begin to talk to not very long ago.

Night before last I went to see Sonny Rollins (dude is 80 years old) in concert in Perugia. There's a Jazz Fest here during July every year, it's cool. I have had live jazz streaming in my bedroom window every night for 2 weeks. I hear it now as I'm typing and it's 1 am.

I meant to get to bed a little sooner than this, I am a bit tired but also a bit wiped out after today. Today was a Gran Fondo near Siena (a place full of Americans in Tuscany...all because of the book "Under the Tuscan Sun." Honestly, it's pretty and the couse was awesome, but I believe Umbria to be greener and prettier. The road surface is better in Tuscany, however. Again, the world champ showed up but I raced super hard and took 2nd. After racing my heart out, the result felt awesome. So did the all-you-can-drink red wine and bowl full of fresh tomatoes at the pasta party. Yum. I even met an American who works for Ciclismo, the company who I traveled with last summer who inspired me to come back here. It's a small world...this is small world story #4 since I've been here.

Gotta fly due to time and lots of homework to do before class resumes tomorrow morning.

Yesterday

Today was a very significant day for me in a few ways and I have to capture it or risk losing the memory. Class is a whole new animal with the teachers talking much faster and course materials being more difficult. 5 hours in a row starting early takes me straight back to my undergrad days in college...yet I'm absolutely eating this up. I'm driven hard to learn for a few different reasons, but primarily it's my longing to communicate better with friends and family here that provides all the incentive I need. My thrist for the language grows with every day as so much more of this world is becoming accesible to me now. Books, news, Le Tour de France coverage here (no Phil Liggett or Paul Sherwin, the men and women are Italian)...you name it.


The significant part of today was that I felt somehow a significant change in my ability to think and speak first thing this morning. I made two calls to people who only speak Italian and the conversations went off without a problem. And I had the confidence to do this. (YEeeeeeaaaaaahhhhh!!! I'm leaping inside with excitement.)

Tonight was a sagra (festival of sorts nearby) that ended up being really cool (in a perfect summer night kinda way). There were plastic plates, but I kid you not, it was still the full, typical Italian meal with first plate, second, third, forth, fifth... all tasting quite wonderful. I was asked what a typical good American meal is. Hmmmm....sorry, all, I don't have a good answer. Finally I came up with Thanksgiving dinner. That's the only thing that is uniquely American and fairly standard across the country. When I think of "American" food, all I can think about are Indian dishes, sushi, burritos from Illegal Pete's, salads that I make at home and mom's homemade lasagna. In case you were wondering, I haven't eaten lasagna here that I like more than mom's. Hers is the best in the world. And she claims to not have any Italian blood.

The equivalent of the sagra we went to tonight in America would have been very different food-wise. Hamburgers, hot dogs, funnel cakes instead of two types of pasta, prosciutto, formaggio, bread, wine, pork, pigeon, sausage, salad and dessert. Don't misinterpret...I'm not totally criticizing American get-togethers in this statement. It's simply different. I do appreciate all of the good food everywhere here and I never ask or even think "is this organic?" Or "are there trans-fats?"

Yes, I'm too full to sleep and I have class too early tomorrow! I was laughing, someone asked me about the cuisine and said something about dogs. So I was thinking about the domesticated type, until I put two and two together and realized they were talking about hot dogs. Ha ha, gotta love the nuances that get lost in translation!

I might have mentioned before that group get-togethers are impossible for me language-wise. As much as I love the togetherness (totally, totally fabulous), they've always been a little stressful since I can't contribute anything much...and if you know me, you know I like to participate in group activities! Understanding conversations flying back and forth between so many people has been impossible before and speaking was close to out of the question. One-on-one conversations were much better. Tonight was great. I can honestly say I understood quasi-everything that was said and was able to talk a decent amount as well...it was almost flowing at times. My vocabulary needs to be so much more, but for basic conversation, it's almost there. We had a great time.

Vacation Update, Happy Independence Day!

I've been doing nothing but speaking and listening to Italian for a week, I'm going to blog in English.

Last week I didn't have class which was really great...I put in some good time studying and found time for a few other extracurriculars. One involved going to an outdoor pool in an amazingly beautiful place not too far from here a couple of times. When it's too hot to do anything else, it feels amazing to bask in the sun and take a dip. Time after the Dolomiti was spent recovering some, it was exhausting on the body (possibly because of the higher altitude). Spent more time relaxing than riding and that was just fine with me.

I met up with Ciclismo Classico when they rolled through town, that was a fun enounter as always. Watched the paper-making process in Bevagna, as well, something I couldn't see when I was on the tour since I was off trying to see the place. Love to hang out for the day with the Americans and (of course) my guide friends. Interesting to see what questions they have and hear their reactions. There's a lot to American culture that I took for granted before and have now forgotten about. I have really gotten into the Italian life here. I've changed the way I eat food (fork in the left hand, knife in the right...apparently it's English, but the Italians eat this way as well), dress, etc. My nails are all pretty now. That's a first in 10 years. When offered food, I have learned that it is important to eat. Never say no.

Today was a great ride, covering some of the roads I saw on the Ciclismo trip (backwards) from Gubbio to Assisi, but not to Assisi. These were roads that weren't riddled with potholes, gotta love that (hard to find around here). On one water stop, some older guy in Gubbio who makes his own wine offered glasses of it to us from his home. Seriously, he opened his front door and let us come in for wine. Another cool part of today's ride (besides the fact that it was a big, fun group) was that I saw a few guys that I haven't seen in a couple of months...back then, I could hardly understand or say anything. Today we could banter on the bike.

Sometimes the frustration of not being able to say what I want to gets to me. In fact, a couple of weeks ago I almost shouted in English and it felt so amazingly good. Now with the language starting to be a little easier, I'm feeling a bit more at ease and (trust me) there's still frustration, but it's not quite as totally exhausting with having to strain to hear and speak. I expect it to take another 3 months before I'm speaking with ease. At this point, I can understand pretty much all basic conversation and dialog of soap operas (yes, soap operas. There's a German one here that I watch with my friend's mom if it's on when I'm at her house).

Something I have noticed is that I have information in my head that I don't know where it's from. Some of the stuff I know is just floating around without a language. Other stuff is in English...some conversations I've had with my Italian friends I remember as having been in English. It's weird. How is it that I can have (in particular one) very close friend who speaks no English? It is just odd. I never imagined I'd be in this sort of situation. I've heard stories from others about people who didn't speak the same language, but now I'm living it daily. In the past I tended to shy away from people who spoke English with a strong accent because I was self-conscious. I give my friends here so much credit for being cool with me not speaking.

Another activity this past week was shopping in a place that looked and felt like an American mall. I don't like malls much in the U.S. I have about an hour worth of tolerance for all of the people, lack of sunlight and not cool clothes. But I totally surprised myself when I walked into the mall...I was overcome with joy at being at a place that reminded me of the U.S. There was a store just like Best Buy, so I spent time drooling over the electronics, computers, etc. It all felt great. But weird to hear Italian being spoken everywhere. It was fun to go out with a girlfriend. If there's one thing a girl needs, it's girl-time. I miss my friends from the US a lot, but have resigned myself to simply not having that sort of dynamic here. But this, as well as everything is beginning to fall into place a bit more. I've been so fortuntate to meet great people.

Classes have begun again and I'd love to tell you how they are, but I can't say just yet...I attended one set of classes yesterday and today (really like the class and professors), but tomorrow through the rest of the month will be another set of classes and profs whom I don't know yet.

OH I totally forgot to report on the small world stories...I have 2 more! The latest is when I went apartment shopping today, the woman who is currently living in an apartment that I might live in during August is from Pueblo. It was funny because I was speaking Italian with the woman from the office and when we went to check out the apartment and this woman opened the door, the lady from the office told me that I had to speak English. Turns out the lady is a bit older and here for a month of Italian classes. Sounds like there's a very strong Italian program in Pueblo. Who would have thought it?

Just finished watching the very end of the Tour and the women's giro. Pretty cool to see Americans racing it who I've raced with in the past (okay, not like we should have been in the same race...I'm a tiny fraction of strength next to these women)...but still, it's cool to see women's racing on regular tv here and see the Americans at the front.

Internet has been broken, I wrote most of this awhile ago but am just now posting it. Hope you all had an awesome Independence Day!!!

Le Dolomiti

It is much too late to write up the story of the Dolomiti from this weekend in English or Italian. Pictures are posted on Facebook and all I have to say is that I had a fantastic time with everyone who went on the trip (turned out to be a great group, some teammates, many guys from another team in the area and some family members of the guys as well), I ate some pretty fantastic food and saw the most beautiful mountains...absolutely indescribable. Hard to put in words in English...harder in Italian with limited vocabulary! They close the roads for a day the week before the famous Gran Fondo there, so the riding was great and free. Gilberto Simoni (recently retired Italian pro) showed up for the ride. Cooler yet was to run into a couple who I had met riding to Gubbio a couple of months ago (from a city far from here) who I had wanted to ride with again, but didn't realize we were all going to the same place on the same two days. There were thousands out there, amazing weather and definitely how one could describe paradise. Hope to update more, but no promises...spending the week off from classes doing a lot to improve my Italian and putting some reasonable miles on the road, as well. Buona notte!

Ti Amo e Grazie Mille!

Pensando alla mia famiglia! Buono "giorno di padre", DAD e buono compleanno, Nonno!!! Translation: Thinking about my family! Happy Father's Dad, DAD and happy birthday, Grandpa!!!

Going to switch to English now really quickly. It's late and I have to sleep, but I'm a little wound up after a 7-ish course (molto buono) 4-hour dinner that I just returned home from.

Can't believe how long it's been since I last blogged or Facebooked. There is too much going on to spend the time and I feel everything must be written in Italian. Yes, I'm keeping some sort of journal, much of it is comprised of the pictures I've taken in various places...and I'm pretty well documenting every single gelato I've eaten since I've been here. So far, I've missed 2 gelato photo opportunities.

The highlight of last week was meeting up with Ciclismo Classico in Gubbio and riding with them to Spello. I have pics, will post later (hopefully!) Great time to visit with Frank & Marcello, the same two guides from my trip last summer. It's weird to look back on last summer...Frank reminded me of how little Italian I knew back then (I remember not knowing the definition of va bene, sort of the cornerstone of the Italian language) and now I can understand the full conversation when people speak good Italian (not slang).

Here's a shot with the Ciclismo group as we were leaving Gubbio (Frank took the pic).

We also got together in Bevagna for the opening ceremony of their medieval week. I ended up seeing 3 cousins while I was there that evening. It's cool to have historical ties to a place, but even cooler to have living, breathing relatives in a place who are close enough on the family tree to see the resemblance to the rest of the family!

Here's a pic with me and Prof Piatti. He is a friend of Ciclismo's (lives in Bevagna) and he (via Marcello) helped me to get in touch with my relatives here last summer. We ran into him, as well, Thursday evening after the show. He looks much younger than this in person.

This coming week is my one and only exam for the past 2 1/2 months of Italian classes. I have been great at sitting down for hours at a time studying when there isn't an exam coming up...just when I want to know Italian better. Today it was really hard to force myself to study (and it was raining so it's not like I had an option to do much else). While I was taking breaks from studying, I found myself on Monster.com checking out the work scene in the world. It's becoming time to start figuring out what comes next, though I have a sneaking suspicion it might take more than a month or two to get to where I'm going (which is not yet known).

Reading job descriptions just makes me shutter. Really, you want someone who has a passion for something that is absolutely impossible to be passionate about? And you want him/her to do this meaningless work for all of the good hours every single day? Good luck to the "lucky" candidate. I've received more than one email from friends encouraging me to not re-enter the working world as they are currently in the process of being overly stressed out with their jobs.

I'll leave it at that for tonight. I'm still too full to fall asleep, but I have an Italian newspaper that should make for good reading material prior to shutting off the lights. (Actually, reading in English puts me to sleep, in Italian it wakes me up since I have to look up words and be very actively thinking about each word as I'm reading.)

Buona notte a tutti and THANK YOU to the wonderful DADs in my family AND to the wonderful MOMs who bridge the communication gaps to the DADs!!!

Ho Capito.

Mi dispiace, amerai a scrivere più qui, ma c'è non abbastanza tempo. Tutto i giorni sono come una settimana, ci sono troppo cose sempre a dirvi!!! La cultura di Italia, la cultura di le gare, come persone allenare per le gare, le modifiche di me stesso...


La settimana scorsa c'era no gare, quindi c'era tempo per le altra attività! Ho visto una bella fattoria con dei animale grande , questa fattoria è il tipo di romanzi della vita Italia. I carni di questa fattoria è più buona per la salute...i animali mangiano erba e hanno molto terrazza per pascolo.


Sono andata in bicicletta tutto i giorni con amici. Dopo, siamo andati in una piscina in Toscana. Il tramonto ha stato bellissimo!!! E naturalmente, abbiamo mangiato una pizza. Sono passato il intero fine settimana con i miei amici Italiani e era molto divertimento. Sì, ho studiato, anche durante il tempo.


Questa settimana, divento una ragazza Italiana. Mio amico mi serve. Oggi mi sono tagliata i capelli a un posto che lui conosce. Domani compererò le robe più femmina. Vestiti di REI (i vestiti che persone indossano di solito in Colorado) non sono va bene in Italia!!!


Oggi ho mangiato con i miei amici di Cina...il cibo Cinese è molto buono e va bene per la salute! Anche divento Cinese...posso mangiare dei arachidi con bacchette.


La ultima cosa per questa blog è: mio amico ed io possiamo avere conversazione lunghe e lui ha detta alla sua madre sta sera che io posso capire tutto conversazione senza slang. Questa è un sentimento strano: quando ho ascoltato bene, HO CAPITO!!! E le parole sono cominciano a fluire per conversazione casuale. Realizzo più ogni giorno come simile la lingua Inglese e la lingua Italiana sono. Spesso provo a indovinare per le parole giusto...è abbastanza del tempo, i Italiani hanno capito che cosa ho detto.

Maratona Appennini

Oggi era ancora una altra gara non troppo lontano di Perugia. Questa gara era il più difficile gara di mia vita perché due ragioni...1) 93 miles è più lungo, 7742 feet di dislivello è più salite di quanto io ho fatto in una gara e non sono andata questo tipo di giro in bicicletta in il passato 2 anni. Numero 2) Il tempo (weather) era pazzo! Ho fatto solo 2 o 3 gare in mia vita con pioggia. Oggi, il tempo cambiavo molto, cominciava a pioggia a meno 9 volti durante il gara...A uno punto (chilometri 90), ha stato un acquazzone. Era molte discese technicale ma ho paura durante queste parti. Il tempo era caldo uno minuto, e dopo era freddo.

Lungo storia corto, la gara andava trascorso bei paesaggi, ma era difficile a piacere perchè i condizioni. Sono contenta con la partenza...prima la partenza, Mario Cipollini (un bravo corridore Italiano) ha venuto alla gara e lui diceva. Ho avuto una grande vista davante le altre corridore. Comincivava piove essactamente alla partenza. 

Il mio posto era 2° (second) in mia gara...ho ricevuto una maglieta (mi piace) e duo bottigile di vino. Anche, questa:

Dopo la gara (e pasta festa, naturalmente...ho mangiato troppo prosciutto, ma non bevevo vino perché era bianca e nella scatola), noi abbiamo mangiato gelato insieme (con persone di la squadra)...i miei gambe era (e ancora) sono assolutamente stanche!!! I miei compagni di squadra erano contenti, anche, ma nessuno hanno piaciuto i condizioni.
 
Vorrei studiare adesso, già ho comprato 4 libri nuovi per la lingua Italiana e non vedo l'ora a cominciare leggere. Se non leggi bene perchè il traduttore non è va bene, perfavorè mi chiedi domande. 

English note: 1. a corridore is the term for bike racer as well as runner. 2. Cipollini looks larger than life, dude is solid muscle. The world champ woman (M. Gorini) won my race and prior to the race, she had pictures taken with Cipollini. On the podium after the race, I asked her about how she liked meeting him. 3. I wrote this yesterday, but the internet broke and I fell asleep really early!

Sono qui...

Ciao a tutti! Ho ricevuto molto email di voi relativa questo blog. Dopo molto pensa, ho deciso che è importante avere un blog, ma quando scrivo, devo scrivere in Italiano. Quindi, è possibile che le storie sarà più corti e difficile per voi a capire. Mi dispiace! Ma ho bisogno imparare la lingua Italiano cosi. Anche, se tu sai Italiano e vedi errori, perfavorè dimme sapere.

Oggi ho comprato i libri per Italiano per studenti con conoscenza di Inglese. Sarà bello sapere dove le differenze sono tra Inglese e Italiano. Non vedo l'ora quando comincio gli leggere.

Dopo scriverò più...ci sono qualcosa a scrivere di la fine settimana scorsa e domani, una altra Gran Fondo (gara) ...piove domani...domani è uguale in Italia alla 4th di Luglio in America.

Un grande GRAZIE per noi persone in il militare per voi servizio a noi Paese (mi dispiace, questo messaggio è un po' tardi per Memorial Day). 

Ciao ciao e baci! 

Full Immersion

If yesterday was the best day I've had in Italy so far, today was the worst (granted it really wasn't that bad, I just one too many difficult Italian conversations). I'm shutting down the blog for awhile, possibly the rest of the summer. I wanted to share this experience with everyone, but the blog and computer severely cut into my Italian time. It's too high of a cost. I really, really, really want to be good at this language and the realization that June is here just hit. One more month...a lot of people are expecting me to be fluent in that time (including myself) and I'm just not there yet.

I'm going into full-immersion mode. I'll talk to family members in English, but September isn't far away. I will get back in touch with everyone else when I get back home. Know I'm thinking about you always, but the thoughts have to be in Italian now. As long as I'm here, I really need to be here: body, mind and soul.

Hugs and kisses to all!!! Ciao e ci vediamo presto!

The Magic of Bevagna

Today (yesterday now that I'm posting this, internet was broken, still is) was most likely the single best day of my Italian life thus far. This one is for the story books.

The day began as an average day, I took my time with breakfast, studied a bit and passed time before going for a ride. Today was said to be a bellisima day in the Giro d'Italia...one not to miss. I'd had a ride planned with a friend, but he was tired and interested in watching today's stage of the giro...and it was supposed to rain as well, so we scrapped the ride.

Hmmm, said I to myself, "Self, what shall I do today?" A full day with nothing scheduled and warm enough that if it does rain, I really don't care too much. It's been a burning priority to get to Bevagna to see my cousin (he's in his upper 80s, I had met him last summer when I came to Italy). It was great last summer, I had Marcello (Ciclismo guide) as a translator so my cousin talked to him and Marcello translated. I couldn't understand anything he said and I knew that when I would return, I'd need to have a certain proficiency in Italian.

Earlier this week, I had a nice conversation with the father of one of my Italian friends. Considering the ease of that exchange, I decided that the time had come, it would be okay for me to pay a visit to my cousin.

It's not a long ride to Bevagna, but I felt like I couldn't go fast today. The big discovery of the day was an Italian school bus. It looks fairly different from a school bus in the states (though yes, it's yellow), but the children waving in the back window gave away the vechicle's purpose. For a few moments, I decided it would be totally cool to chase after the bus and wave to the kids. That was the first magic moment of the day. I laughed outloud from the joy of watching those kids as they kept waving. I waved back and gave it everything I had to stay in the draft of the bus. For all I know, one of those little girls will be inspired and ride a bike when she grows up.

A few minutes later I was in Bevagna. I got there during siesta and this is a town that takes its siesta time very seriously so the place was quiet. Seemed to make sense to ride into town, look for a gift of some sort for my cousin and check the place out. For all I knew, I'd find him sitting on an outside bench as many of the elderly can be seen doing every day. Take note: the elderly here grow old together, in their community, supported by each other and their families. And they live an incredibly long time.

I rode over to the main piazza and saw some people eating lunch at some outside tables. I overheard the conversation and it sounded like American English to me, so I strolled over and asked them where they're from. Tennessee. Really cool couple, they come to Italy a lot, even for the weekend sometimes. I tell them I'm from Colorado and we chat for a moment. They turn and tell me that the couple sitting a few tables down is from Colorado. Ha ha! Two days in a row of Coloradoans and Americans, and in Bevagna.

Then, something happened that was surreal: I looked up and took a closer look. I stammered, "YOU WERE MY PROFESSOR AT CU!!!!!!" The couple from Tenessee enjoyed watching my jaw drop and this reunion of sorts. This was Professor Zable, he was one of my two favorite mechanical engineering professors at CU; I hadn't seen him in 10 years. He and his wife had just sat down for lunch so I joined them for a good conversation. It was a very odd full-circle sort of thing: I told the story of why I came to Italy, how I wished there had been more liberal arts classes and study abroad expereinces as an engineering major, etc. I told him about the Sharp Shooters (senior design group members) and caught him up on what everyone is doing with their professional lives. He told me about what's up with the mechanical engineering program at CU--really sounds like a vastly different (improved) program than when I went there.

He and his wife had gone on the Arnaldo-Caprai winery tour and the owner of the winery happened to be in that restaurant for lunch as well at the time. They introduced us and I explained the random situation to him. He was super sweet. I was glad to be able to thank him for the wonderful wine that we got at the Montefalco Gran Fondo a few weeks ago.

I'll post the picture as soon as I can, the internet is broken yet again so it comes on for 2 seconds and is gone again for 10 minutes...

It was time to part, but not yet the end of siesta so I found one of the only open bars and found bread with salt and rosemary on top. Outside of the bar was a bench with two sweet looking older gentlemen. So I plopped down next to them and started talking. Turns out one is 96...didn't look a day over 80 to me, though. Of course, they're both from Bevagna. I have a hard time finding locals who aren't still living in the same place where they were born.

I wished them a good afternoon, went shopping and then headed to where I was hoping was my cousin's house. He had pointed it out last summer, but you never know if it's really on one side or the other or something...

There were a couple of men working in the front yard putting in a new front porch. I spoke to one who looked to be in his mid-sixties and told him that I was looking for my cousin and did he know where I could find him? He looks up at me, tips his hat back (the same kind of hat my grandpa in the US wears) and it's only then that I realize this IS my cousin! And he realizes that it's me, the girl from last summer! He looked so young to me, I didn't recognize him. It's the hat hiding his gray hair. The hair is the only thing on this man that signifies old age. If I remember correctly, he's almost 90. No possible way.

I was able to talk to him and I could even understand a lot of what he said. He started to go into a story about a thief, but the story got too complicated for me to follow. He asked me about my grandma, I was so happy to be able to tell him that she is in great health and she smiles a lot. He spoke about Dora, he really remembers her well, he also asked about their brother and his children (part of this conversation got lost in translation). I met his son-in-law and we spoke for a few minutes. He invited me to lunch in a few days. He said someone will be there who knows some English. I am willing to bet that the English-speaker will only know the words in English that I have no problems with in Italian (frequent occurrence...actually I prefer when the conversation stays in Italian and people re-word things for me to understand better). I will be there, I can't wait.

I handed my sweet cousin the picture of the two of us together last summer, he took my heart. "Sono molto contento che sei qua." This translates to, "I am very happy that you are here."
I couldn't wait to blog this story, so I tried to make better time getting home. But there was one last stop to make on the way...

Today was the birthday of my friend's mother. She has been so wonderful to me, I wanted to do something for her. It also gives me a bit of heartburn that I'm not around my family for their birthdays and Mother's Day so couldn't do anything for the mothers in my family...I figured a nice bunch of flowers for her would be the equivalent of a gift to all mothers, in general. It was a fun experience of going to the flower shop, telling her what I wanted (very simple) and watching her create this amazing bouquet of yellow and orange roses. And the price was incredibly low compared to American prices.

On my way to the shop, I heard a honk from a car. I looked up and it was my friend's father, smiling and waving. Again, I know I'm repeating myself, but being part of a community is awesome and I feel like I have a place in this one. It's the whole "Cheers" concept.

After delivering the flowers and a short conversation, I made my way back home. On the way I ran into my friend...he had already heard about the flowers. I told him about the visit with my cousin and the small world story of my former professor. He appreciated hearing it. He told me about the Giro (bellisima and Ivan Basso is in the leader's jersey so the stage couldn't have been any better for an Italian). I realized that I'd completely missed it after getting sidetracked in la-la land with all of everything that had happened in Bevagna. We parted and I got home the moment a storm rolled through.

There's actually even more that happened tonight (open-air rock band/huge party in Perugia). I went with my roommate and her friends. That was cool to hang with her crowd for awhile. We met up with our other roommates (her bro, his fiancè and our other roommate). They had a bunch of friends over for a couple of days from Rome--5 extra people here, but it seemed to work okay for them. No problem for me, the more the merrier. Back to the concert: I can't understand English being spoken when there's loud music around. Forget it when it comes to Italian. At one point I asked her if the band was singing in English or Italian. English. Ha!

All in a single Italian day...

The Magic of Bevagna

Today (yesterday now that I'm posting this, internet was broken, still is) was most likely the single best day of my Italian life thus far. This one is for the story books.

The day began as an average day, I took my time with breakfast, studied a bit and passed time before going for a ride. Today was said to be a bellisima day in the Giro d'Italia...one not to miss. I'd had a ride planned with a friend, but he was tired and interested in watching today's stage of the giro...and it was supposed to rain as well, so we scrapped the ride.

Hmmm, said I to myself, "Self, what shall I do today?" A full day with nothing scheduled and warm enough that if it does rain, I really don't care too much. It's been a burning priority to get to Bevagna to see my cousin (he's in his upper 80s, I had met him last summer when I came to Italy). It was great last summer, I had Marcello (Ciclismo guide) as a translator so my cousin talked to him and Marcello translated. I couldn't understand anything he said and I knew that when I would return, I'd need to have a certain proficiency in Italian.

Earlier this week, I had a nice conversation with the father of one of my Italian friends. Considering the ease of that exchange, I decided that the time had come, it would be okay for me to pay a visit to my cousin.

It's not a long ride to Bevagna, but I felt like I couldn't go fast today. The big discovery of the day was an Italian school bus. It looks fairly different from a school bus in the states (though yes, it's yellow), but the children waving in the back window gave away the vechicle's purpose. For a few moments, I decided it would be totally cool to chase after the bus and wave to the kids. That was the first magic moment of the day. I laughed outloud from the joy of watching those kids as they kept waving. I waved back and gave it everything I had to stay in the draft of the bus. For all I know, one of those little girls will be inspired and ride a bike when she grows up.

A few minutes later I was in Bevagna. I got there during siesta and this is a town that takes its siesta time very seriously so the place was quiet. Seemed to make sense to ride into town, look for a gift of some sort for my cousin and check the place out. For all I knew, I'd find him sitting on an outside bench as many of the elderly can be seen doing every day. Take note: the elderly here grow old together, in their community, supported by each other and their families. And they live an incredibly long time.

I rode over to the main piazza and saw some people eating lunch at some outside tables. I overheard the conversation and it sounded like American English to me, so I strolled over and asked them where they're from. Tennessee. Really cool couple, they come to Italy a lot, even for the weekend sometimes. I tell them I'm from Colorado and we chat for a moment. They turn and tell me that the couple sitting a few tables down is from Colorado. Ha ha! Two days in a row of Coloradoans and Americans, and in Bevagna.

Then, something happened that was surreal: I looked up and took a closer look. I stammered, "YOU WERE MY PROFESSOR AT CU!!!!!!" The couple from Tenessee enjoyed watching my jaw drop and this reunion of sorts. This was Professor Zable, he was one of my two favorite mechanical engineering professors at CU; I hadn't seen him in 10 years. He and his wife had just sat down for lunch so I joined them for a good conversation. It was a very odd full-circle sort of thing: I told the story of why I came to Italy, how I wished there had been more liberal arts classes and study abroad expereinces as an engineering major, etc. I told him about the Sharp Shooters (senior design group members) and caught him up on what everyone is doing with their professional lives. He told me about what's up with the mechanical engineering program at CU--really sounds like a vastly different (improved) program than when I went there.

He and his wife had gone on the Arnaldo-Caprai winery tour and the owner of the winery happened to be in that restaurant for lunch as well at the time. They introduced us and I explained the random situation to him. He was super sweet. I was glad to be able to thank him for the wonderful wine that we got at the Montefalco Gran Fondo a few weeks ago.

I'll post the picture as soon as I can, the internet is broken yet again so it comes on for 2 seconds and is gone again for 10 minutes...
It was time to part, but not yet the end of siesta so I found one of the only open bars and found bread with salt and rosemary on top. Outside of the bar was a bench with two sweet looking older gentlemen. So I plopped down next to them and started talking. Turns out one is 96...didn't look a day over 80 to me, though. Of course, they're both from Bevagna. I have a hard time finding locals who aren't still living in the same place where they were born.

I bid them a good afternoon, went shopping and then headed to where I was hoping was my cousin's house. He had pointed it out last summer, but you never know if it's really on one side or the other or something...

There were a couple of men working in the front yard putting in a new front porch. I spoke to one who looked to be in his mid-sixties and told him that I was looking for my cousin and did he know where I could find him? He looks up at me, tips his hat back (the same kind of hat my grandpa in the US wears) and it's only then that I realize this IS my cousin! And he realizes that it's me, the girl from last summer! He looked so young to me, I didn't recognize him. It's the hat hiding his gray hair. The hair is the only thing on this man that signifies old age. If I remember correctly, he's almost 90. No possible way.

I was able to talk to him and I could even understand a lot of what he said. He started to go into a story about a thief, but the story got too complicated for me to follow. He asked me about my grandma, I was so happy to be able to tell him that she is in great health and she smiles a lot. He spoke about Dora, he really remembers her well, he also asked about their brother and his children (part of this conversation got lost in translation). I met his son-in-law and we spoke for a few minutes. He invited me to lunch in a few days. He said someone will be there who knows some English. I am willing to bet that the English-speaker will only know the words in English that I have no problems with in Italian (frequent occurrence...actually I prefer when the conversation stays in Italian and people re-word things for me to understand better). I will be there, I can't wait.

I handed my sweet cousin the picture of the two of us together last summer, he took my heart. "Sono molto contento che sei qua." This translates to, "I am very happy that you are here."

I couldn't wait to blog this story, so I tried to make better time getting home. But there was one last stop to make on the way...

Today was the birthday of my friend's mother. She has been so wonderful to me, I wanted to do something for her. It also gives me a bit of heartburn that I'm not around my family for their birthdays and Mother's Day so couldn't do anything for the mothers in my family...I figured a nice bunch of flowers for her would be the equivalent of a gift to all mothers, in general. It was a fun experience of going to the flower shop, telling her what I wanted (very simple) and watching her create this amazing bouquet of yellow and orange roses. And the price was incredibly low compared to American prices.

On my way to the shop, I heard a honk from a car. I looked up and it was my friend's father, smiling and waving. Again, I know I'm repeating myself, but being part of a community is awesome and I feel like I have a place in this one. It's the whole "Cheers" concept.

After delivering the flowers and a short conversation, I made my way back home. On the way I ran into my friend...he had already heard about the flowers. I told him about the visit with my cousin and the small world story of my former professor. He appreciated hearing it. He told me about the Giro (bellisima and Ivan Basso is in the leader's jersey so the stage couldn't have been any better for an Italian). I realized that I'd completely missed it after getting sidetracked in la-la land with all of everything that had happened in Bevagna. We parted and I got home the moment a storm rolled through.

There's actually even more that happened tonight (rock band/huge party in Perugia), but it was insignificant compared with the rest of the day. THIS is what it's all about.

Baci

"Love doesn't make the world go around, but it's what makes the trip worthwhile."

Baci means "kisses" in Italian. The Perugina chocolate factory (located in Perugia) makes Baci which are big (much tastier) versions of the Hersey's kiss. In fact, they have a whole hazelnut in the top of them and a cute little sayings in multiple languages. I had a baci today at lunch and the above quote came from its wrapper. I lost the wrapper, otherwise I'd include the original Italian way of saying it.

Every single day, I exchange kisses with friends and spend time with some absolutely phenomenal people. It's nothing short of the coolest thing ever to have this community here. Make no mistake, this community is comprised as much by people of other countries as the Italians. There are quite a few days I haven't blogged, so here's an attempt to capture some of the highlights of those days.

Last Monday, one of the girls in my class had a birthday. One of the students baked a torta (it was a many-layer crepe-like strawberry sort-of cake) and we all surprised her during a break in grammar class. Here's a picture of everyone just before she came in (sorry, this means a few people are missing since she and a couple of others weren't here). Bottom left is one of our professors. As I've mentioned in the past, we are a global crowd. Every continent but one is represented in a single photograph. So many different cultures, with two things in common: the Italian language and we're all buds in this thing together.

Last Thursday, the Chinese students threw a party. They made a remarkable spread of amazing food and almost everyone in class showed up to it. Sorry I don't have any pictures. The next day, I spent a bunch of time with my Chinese friends. They made a truly awesome lunch. I couldn't get over how tasty and healthy it was. No wonder Chinese people are so healthy!

Really never considered learning about cultures and cuisine other than Italian in Italy. After lunch, I watched a good hour (or more) of that day's stage in the Giro d'Italia with two of my Chinese friends and tried explaining the nuances of the race to them. Not sure if they were quite as jazzed as I to see that stage (they were great at letting me go on and on about tactics, team dynamics, etc.), but it was pretty fun having the company.


At one point or another, I need to find burrito ingredients and introduce everyone to them. If there are two things I miss here, it's Illegal Pete's burritos and almond butter. Okay, a smoothie once in a while would be good, too. Otherwise, I'm completely content. And if you wonder why I'm up so late, it's that I can't sleep after a big dinner. There have been a lot of big, good dinners lately...loving it and am okay with the new sleeping schedule (considering sleeping in is a fine option).

Gnocchi has been on the menu fairly regularly lately in my kitchen and in the kitchens of my Italian friends. Nice. Gnocchi with truffle sauce...even nicer. Tonight the meal revolved around super fresh asparagus. Mmmm. Oops, my stomach has once again taken over my brain. Back to la cultura.

Yesterday after class, a lot of us went for gelato (guess who's idea that was...yeah...) Afterwards we sat on the steps and talked for a good long time (like a couple of hours). Again, awesome to be having full conversations with my classmates who don't speak English, who come from way different cultures half-way across the globe...places I only know from a few news stories I've heard in the past. They give the place color: I have learned more in one afternoon with my classmates than I ever knew in the past or could have ever learned in school and remembered. The conversation I had yesterday won't be forgotten--thanks for the enlightenment and the non-media perspective!

Le Americane

Here's my Facebook post for today: Speed Play pedalati sono cose del passato per me. Sono un corridore della strada adesso. Ho visto 3 donne Americani (loro sono de Vail, CO) nella strada in biciclette. Gli aiuto a trovare Perugia. Quindi, oggi era il mio primo giorno come una guida!

So let me explain (if you ever need to translate anything I write, and you might more in the near future as these blogs slowly turn into Italian), go to Google Translator. It's good enough to get the gist of what I'm saying, just don't type in English, translate it and expect it to be right. With the verb conjugations, Google can't know what you are trying to say in Italian from the English most of the time.


Tonight I visited my favorite bike shop. They gave me a whole new setup of Shimano cleats and pedals for 45 euro (my Speed Play cleats were worn out again and Speed Plays are typically great in crits, not road races). On the trip home, I saw three women riding road bikes. Considering how many local women I've seen ride a road bike here (outside of races) since I've been in the country (2--YES TWO), I figured they had to be tourists. So I rode up to them and in my most casual, extra effort to have an Italian accent style, said hi and asked them where they're from in Italian. It was obvious they didn't know Italian based on their slight hesitation to answer back immediately. That was me last summer, so fun to be coming from the "local" perspective now. Anyway, these women are from Vail! It was fun to drop the accent when they said they're from Colorado and say, "ME TOO!" in my most blunt American "accent" in English. Crazy small world, eh?

One of them lived in Italy for 7 months years ago and returns to Italy once a year. They all commented on the crazy Italian drivers (drivers here have tons of respect for cyclists) and how they feel safer as cyclists here on the roads than than on those in Colorado. My thoughts exactly. We chatted and rode for about a 1/2 hour and they were a little unsure as to which way to go. I took them to their albergo, showing them the best gelato in town on the way. Before we parted in the town square, some other tourist wanted our picture for his photo collection of his trip--I so wish I had my camera on me! Town is fairly well full with tourists, tour buses, etc. I'm really glad I got to town before this season started. 

I almost never see an American here, but I don't ever feel odd about that. It's got to help that I grew up being with a very mixed group of ethnicities and have always felt more comfortable when everyone was different. Thinking about it more, all my life I have always put myself in places where I don't exactly fit.


The Big Decision of the Day


I'm starting to feel that slight itch to work again. Safe to say that when I do start working, I'll be incredibly ready. It's not for financial reasons, either. Life here is very inexpensive (think college student cheap and the dollar is stronger now) so I haven't worried at all about what's happening in the bank. In fact, bills are paid automatically, I am turning a blind eye at the moment. The other day, I bought a huge bag of fruits and vegetables (monster red pepper, oranges, lettuce, zucchini, tomatoes, a couple of bunches of bananas) all for 9 euro. If I didn't ride a bike (and eat sooo much), it would cost even less.

The reason I say all of this is that it's odd when the "major" stress of the day came when my roommate was in the shower when I needed to get in the shower. Fortunately, she got out in time. The big decision of the day was what flavors of gelato to get to take to an Italian dinner party. Really? Yeah, seriously. Winners: cherry, vanilla and pistacchio. Dinner was great and the company was, as well. It's totally freaky that I can understand almost every word people are saying. I'm still missing the point some of the time, but this is weird. Ever want to be a fly on the wall in a conversation? That's me...in some ways I think I liked it better when I couldn't understand anything, the "good ol' days" when Italians never uttered a curse word or had a dirty thought. That was a little over two weeks ago now. 


I've had so many conversations where people (usually Italian men) warn me about Italian men. Hilarious. So I'm not here to fall in love; fortunately, this was the expectation going in. It'll be great some day, when it's right. (Nice advice I've received from family and friends on the topic.) While I am surrounded by people demonstrating love to each other and me every day and there are kisses as a bonus...how could I ask or wish for anything more?

The Mother of All Races

The Nove Colli is the name of the Gran Fondo of this weekend. It started and ended in Cesanatico, on the Adriatic Sea.

We (my teammates and I) arrived the afternoon before the race. We started with a nice, incredibly easy bike ride. I took pictures at random. Here are a couple. The town was gorgeous and it was great to see all of the cyclists doing their pre-race routine.

Considering the very odd weather Italy has had lately (rain in almost every stage of the Giro d'Italia, for example), I found it really strange to find this amazing town in a mid-summer-like state. Its beach-side businesses were teaming with people, the beach was full of volleyball players and sun worshipers, there was a full display of cycling companies' tents (think cross-race tent setups, but many times bigger) and temperatures where people weren't walking around in their mid-winter clothes (women are still wearing boots in Perugia, for reference). I enjoyed my first skirt-wearing days of the season.

The Nove Colli race celebrated its 40th year this year, the most historical of all Gran Fondos in the world (so I hear). It draws racers from all over Italy and Europe (and a few come from all over the world).

I fell asleep last night in the middle of putting this together. Today I feel good, but I haven't tried walking stairs yet (and I have to walk a lot of stairs to get anywhere around here!)

Here's the race summary. The race start was unreal, imagine the New York City marathon (actually it draws 35,000 people, there were 12,000 there yesterday), but almost everyone has a tricked-out Euro-cool bicycle to race. I couldn't see the starting line where I started (assuming mid-pack, but impossible to know). Fortunatlely, we had timing chips so the time starts when the cyclist rolls through the starting line.

This is a picture of what it looked like at the start...and imagine many, many other roads packed just the same as this one.

Here's another picture I found...they had one or two helicopters hovering above prior to the start. Must be how this was obtained:

Le Marche region (where the race course was) is absolutely fabulous. I loved this region from my Bike Across Italy trip with Ciclismo Classico last summer, these were very similar breath-taking areas with tons and tons of climbing (one town might be the same as one from last summer). Oh yeah, I had originally thought I'd be racing the 208 km version of the race.

The team asked me to do the short course (if you call 132 km short) because they didn't want me to trash my legs. I was disappointed not to do the long course because I wanted to see how I could survive the challenge...however, when it came time in the race to either continue on the 132 km course or take the right-hand turn for the 208 km course (this is at km 110, by the way), I was very happy to take the short route.

[Here's one picture of the great landscapes to be seen. I just looked all over the web for a good, representative of the lushness of Le Marche in this race...it's incredible, but I can't find the pictures to show it. Guess you'll have to come see it in person. This is what the descents looked like, the crowd thinned such that I wasn't scared to go fairly fast. I was happy that the corners were wide and a bit easier than those in the last Gran Fondo. All day I only saw one crash (I think someone took a corner too quickly).]

I had prepared mentally for the long course. So when it came time to race yesterday, I took all of that energy and raced as hard as I could in the short course (82 miles, 6,138 feet of climbing, took me a little less than 4 1/2 hours). Aside from the first 30 km of flat riding, it felt like we were climbing all day long. It's really weird: I only used to like criteriums, not climbing and not road races. Basically, I think I'm the opposite racer than I used to be. Long road races with climbing are AWESOME!!!



Everything in the race went great with the small frustration of congestion with too many riders on the climbs. I could have gone faster up the climbs had I not had to keep slowing down when it was impossible to pass people. All day (with 12,000 people out there) there was no one group to get with. I jumped from wheel to wheel moving up most of the time. I worked a little, too, especially at the beginning of the race where I wanted to open up my legs and this was a good place to move up positions (amazing, I thought it would be so congested at the start that moving around wouldn't be possible, but I was wrong on that).

There were hundreds of women out there (granted there are a few different classifications--it goes by age here for the most part), and I was happy to have more competition. It gave me a chance to see where I stand next to all of the other women racers in Italy (there were some pros out there, but the demographic is exactly as you'd find in a local race in the states: strong amateurs (wearing jerseys of their race teams), some there for enjoyment and some pros mixing it up).

It was almost too warm (high of probably 80 degrees), luckily the race started at 6:30 am, when it was a little chilly. I couldn't sleep the night before (we stayed at a motel near the race start, awoke at 4:30am) so I only got 2 hours in...fortunately as racers know, the sleep the night before the race isn't important, it's the sleep 2 nights before the race that counts.

I have a very specific diet pre-race and it's one that's impossible to find in Italy. The food I had the morning of the race was basically wrong. Good carbs, but bad for my system. The first 80km my stomach was really knotted up and yelping in pain. Fortunately, I don't think it slowed me down and I felt I had the energy I needed for the race. I also ate a lot during the race (gels). With so many racers, if one one wanted more water, one needed to pull over, fill up the water bottle and get back on the road. The food stops were said to be very generous...there were clearly people enjoying themselves at the stops. I stopped once for a bottle refill, but that was it.

This is a picture of one of four of the food/water/prosciutto/who-knows-what-else stops.

Besides the constantly amazing vistas, the waaaay coolest part of the race was the 18% climb that was part of the Giro d'Italia 2 days prior to this Gran Fondo. On that climb was PANTANI painted all over the road, there were tons of spectators, an announcer, music...it was the next-best thing to actually racing in the Giro. It hurt, but I was passing guys. Seriously, it is such a rush to pass men who are young, fit and there to race. Here's a picture that a race photographer took of one part of that climb, but it looked way cooler from my perspective. And yes, I saw a few people walking, too. It was steep enough that if you got stuck in traffic, it could be a little tricky to get going.

Again, as in the other races, I found the guys to be great to race with; every now and then I heard "brava!" from one of them or the spectators. The Italian language is great with the masculine/feminine: when I hear brava and I'm the only woman in sight, they might as well be calling me by name. Bravo! is for telling a guy "good job" and bravi is for a group of guys.

By the last 20km, a group had formed that was fast with very strong guys, we were cranking at 27-29 mph (with lots of short pauses to get through the roundabouts...there are very few lights in Italy, many roundabouts). We were flying towards the Adriatic during the last ~10km and the smell and feel of the sea became more obvious as the finish drew near, what an awesome arrival!!! I'm having small problems with photos at the moment...imagine the hugest finishing area you can with multiple banners and tons of spectators, etc. with the sea on one side and the town on the other and you have the finish. <>

We crossed the line sprinting it out, I came in with legs to spare, it is such a terrific feeling to finish a race sprinting, especially one as epic as yesterday. I got a rose (all women did) and everyone got a medal for finishing...cool, eh? The swag bag had a jersey and cycling gloves, recovery drink, energy bars and other useful samples for cyclists. After the race, my teammates and I enjoyed a pasta feast...we were glowing from great racing for each of us. Entry fee for the race was 50 euro. Compare this to a 45-minute criterium that costs $35. I'm really going to have a hard time paying that when I get home and leaving a race without a pasta party will be a major downer.

This pic (below) of the Selle Italia monster bus is simply here because it's cool. It is unreal to be at the heart of cycling in this country. Cycling has its roots here, people are super supportive of it, tons and tons of people do it. The culture surrounding cycling here is vastly different from that in the US. That being said, I'm still understanding it so I can't put it in words yet exactly how, but it clearly is.

To finish the story, I came in 10th place amongst the women in my category (ages 19-39, I believe it is) and 994 overall. So 993 men and women of all categories were faster than me...but I was faster than 5,424.

Here's the view from the ride home. This is in the vicinity of the race, but a little further south. The next Gran Fondo (in a week and a half) will be in this area. It's going to have even more climbing.

It was a great day and weekend. I feel so fortunate to have such a cool team and friends such that we could do this thing together. Definitely one to remember always! So wish I could share this with my teammates and friends from the US, thinking about you guys!!!