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!!!