Message From The Universe- April

We left for Morocco today at the early hour of 6:00 am. We had to take the metro to the Central Station in Milan, then a shuttle to the airport. We were planning to convert our Euros to durhams in the airport, but of course we forgot and and went through security first. By security I mean we walked through a gate where I could have had bombs strapped to my body and no one would have noticed. We flew EasyJet and our tickets were only 40 euros each way!!! On the plane we met an American couple who teachs English at a military base in Naples. They were both so friendly and shared their suggestions with us on what they thought we should see in Marrakesh.

Once we arrived we had to go through customs which took forever!! All they had to do was stamp our passports but I suppose I understand why this was a 30 minute ordeal…per person! Putting that stamp in ink and then proceding to stamp a passport can really be a hard and difficult process... Once we were cleared from our potential terrorist status we exchanged our money. One euro is worth 11 durhmans. At first we thought we were going to have so much money until we realized everything costs a lot of durhamns… a soda is around 20, a typical meal ran 30-200, and our hotel was 1500. In reality the cost of everything is was  similar to the cost of things in Italy but a bit cheaper.

We took a bus from the airport directly to the hotel and avoided the 50 men harassing us in arabic to take their taxis. The hotel was one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen! Everything was ornately decorated by hand!! There was color used everywhere –each aspect was truly breathtaking. Our room had two twin canopy stype beds- I felt like a princess! They room also had stained glass windows, morrocon tiled floor, and beautiful lanterns all over the room.

Once we were settled in the room we walked around the city and had lunch and then came back to sit at the pool-which was truly exquisite. At one point a little Moroccan boy came and sat by Sarah and I. I was thinking he was adorable and just wanted to sit near use in a cute type of way. Well…about fifteen minutes later he started touching himself and making weird noises!! It was at this point that Saran and I got up and left. The weirdest part wast hat our tween-masterbating- morcoon followed us inside and kept staring at us while STILL touching himself….lets just say that was one of the last things that I expected to happen.

We later went back out to explore the city around us. As westerners we stick out a lot. We tried to wear scarves to cover our collar bones, as this is something that is supposed to help, but everyone stared at us anyways. Many of the men tried to talk to us and just assumed we spoke English, so we quickly figured out if we pretended to not know English they would leave us alone quicker. At first all of this was quite overwhelming and uncomfortable, but eventually we just started ignoring EVERYONE and got used to it. We walked around the area of town where our hotel was, which is one of the nicer areas of Marrakesh and quite metropolitan. However, just a five minute walk from this area and the atmosphere changes into a bustling environment of typical Moroccan cars and motorcycles threatening to run you over at every moment...even if you are walking ON the sidewalk. Mules and horse drawn carriages are quite common as well. For dinner we at an authentic Moroccan restaurant filled with locals and tourists alike.  We had vegetarian couscous and some other dish that was boiled vegetables with delicious spices. For dessert we went to another restaurant, to just quickly stop and have a milkshake, which surprisingly is very common there. While taking our order our waiter, who was born in Marrakesh, was making small talk and asked where we were from. I was tired and just said," New York," because that is where Sarah is from and so often no one knows where Arizona is anyways. He then proceeded to tell us that he was once in New York during a layover to go to TUCSON, ARIZONA! At this point, I looked in him straight in the eye and apologized for not telling him where I was actually from, because I MISTAKINGLY assumed he would not know where Arizona was, let alone Tucson. Next he started telling me he not only visited Tucson but went to Pima Community College and lived on Broadway! He later told me I should get in contact with his wife, who is American and still is living in Tucson now...Of course her number started with 520!! All I could do was laugh at the ironies of life. I absolutely love that I travel to AFRICA and meet a person that has lived and studied in TUCSON. A few moments later, I looked across the street and there was a travel agency called, Arizona Tours… I am pretty sure the universe is sending me some esoteric message but I am not yet sure what it is….

Lobby of Hotel Marrakesh

Our Room!

  

Downstown at Sunset

Nuovi Amici- End of March

A few weeks ago I was in the supermarket and I was standing in line to check out when I over heard two girls speaking in English, so of course I starting talking to them. We both we realized we were Americans living in Italy and made tentative plans to hang out soon. On our on first date we had lunch near the Castle and then took a walk through the park. At one point while we were just sitting and talking to each other, a boy around our age who looked completely normal, came up to us and asked in Italian if we were hungry. I responded, “No thanks we fine.” Then he basically offered to have sex with us while grabbing his crotch. I very politely denied this very generous offer. Then he just walked away as if he had asked us a question as simple as, “what is the time?” This story still makes me laugh.

The next day  Sarah and I hung with out my friend Federico, who came to visit from Torino. We also met some of this other friends who live in Milan, and they gave us a tour of the city. His cousin, who also lives in Milan, joined us later for dinner. We went to a sushi restaurant in the center of Milan, where we were the ONLY customers for pretty much the entire night. Sarah and I each ordered 1 california roll each, however the boys ordered a GIANT BOAT of sushi that had at least 60 pieces of different types of sushi! It was crazy. After dinner we went to a bar called Iguana and Sarah and I shared a drink that is called “The Hemmingway.” We both were a bit drunk from this ONE drink that was extremely strong….good thing we shared!!

That weekend Sarah and I decided to visit Federico and his brother Edo in Sestriere and go skiing!! We had to take too trains to get there! We stayed in the cute little hostel that was right next to the their house, so that was nice and convent. When we arrived we went out for a typical Italian happy hour and drank a “spritz,” which is a drink that Italians love…it is bright orange and kind of tastes like cough syrup. I am not sure why people drink it. Later we went to a pizza restaurant and then to another bar. Such a fun night with new friends!

The next day Sarah and I were going to go skiing, but it was snowing so we weren’t allowed as it would have been to dangerous. Instead we stayed indoors and made lunch with Edorado and his father, which was a bit strange at first, but now we are basically part of their family :) His dad cooked us the most incredible Italian meal with about ten courses! It was absolutely amazing! Federico is a ski teacher, so he joined us after he finished his lessons. Why parents still sent their children to ski in the snowstorm I will never know, Italians are crazy.What is even more crazy is sending your two year old to learn to ski when clearly they don't want to. Most of the children that I saw learning to ski at that age cried constantly and just had snot running down there faces the entire time. Then the next thing you know they have fallen off the ski lift because they are too damn small to be riding it in the first place, and then the whole ski lift stops and the teachers have to go rescue the fallen children and it is really just a huge mess. Moral of the story- don't make your children learn to ski when they can hardly even WALK.

On the Train to Sestriere

Snowstorm!

Blog Fail

As I am sure you have all noticed I have not been good with keeping up with my blog. However I have been writing some of my fantastic adventures down....Any entries that are from the past will have the month in the title to help avoid confusion... Wish me luck with keeping up more reguarly.

I love and miss you all!

Sending everyone the biggest hug!

Baci,
Ash

17.3.2011

The 17th of March was a first-time, national holiday for Italy. It was the 150^th anniversary of the unification of Italy. Almost anywhere you looked Italy flags were flying- from balconies, from fences, and my personal favorite: from banners that hung above the streets between buildings. For the celebration all schools were closed and everyone had the day off. So we left for Sestriere again!

I love this place…and I think it is healing my soul. Perhaps it is the solitude that I feel here, combined with the incredible beauty of the alps. I feel that the crisp, clean air is washing away the pain from the past. The brilliant, white snow covering everything is reminiscent of the beauty which will soon bloom come spring. I feel pure freedom when I am flying down the mountains, on the verge of loosing control of my body, enlightened by the idea that pure peace and happiness reside inside me at every moment. Waiting to be realized if only I breathe and let go of everything that can so easily keep my trapped in a state of self judgment, negativity, and fear. I took a walk today and I listened to music and I just sat. Immersed in the beauty and the perfection of the moment. It was one of the most peaceful experiences I have ever encountered. I just was. With no where to go, and nothing to do. Just to be, for most people is easy. However, I am almost always somewhere else; either worrying about the past and trying to fix past mistakes, or being anxious about the future- as if I am trying to plan my entire future in an hour. As I am becoming more aware my general thought patterns, and truly realizing the ways in which I live day to day, I becoming more present and alive.

 

Over the weekend I took a ski lesson with a boy named Alex who looked like Italy’s Next Top Model (which by the way, I don’t even know if it exists, but if it does he would win). I recently have taught Rita the word "hot." She loves it! Everywhere we go, she will point out cute boys and say," hot or not." She has recently taken a liking to using boiling if the person is really, really hot. Bruno learned this too, he likes to say he is a hot child! When Rita saw Alex she said that neither hot nor boiling would suffice- I would agree. After knowing me for 5 minutes he asked me if I wanted to go dancing at a discotech with him and his friends.  I had so much fun learning to ski with him, and the lesson was much more productive because he spoke some English. I didn’t end up going dancing because I ended up hanging out with two of my other friends I met there. The next day I went skiing all by myself. I decided that I was ready to try this. It went really, really well! I didn’t fall once! I did almost fall though and I am pretty sure I had a mild attack while it was happening. I started going so fast and I was completely losing control of my body as I was going around a hill. I remember feeling completely terrified because I truly thought I was going to going to fall and break my leg. Somehow, and I don’t really remember exactly what happened as I think I stop breathing, I stopped and survived.  After that brief encounter with death, everything went fantastically...well mostly. Later on in the day I ended up taking a wrong turn down the the track and ended up the middle of nowhere. There were absolutely no one else around when I stopped. How I managed to get LOST while skiing is really beyond me. I mean, I was on a track for goodness sake, but leave it me, I can get lost anywhere, anytime! Luckily, I knew about where I was, I just had no idea how to get back to the ski lift. Eventually, I lost all my speed and stopped. The snow I was on at this point was flat, so I had to WALK in MY SKIS for about 20 minutes until I got back to the ski lift.  Eventually I made it back… and when I did I felt as if I had climbed Mount Everest!

Introspective

I feel so lucky to have the opportunity for this adventure I have very recently embarked upon. It is often said that, “wherever you go, there you are.” Perhaps I could have found what I was looking for in Tucson. Yet there was some force in heart urging me, willing me to pursue Italy. It is not a desire that I can entirely explain. Emerging from my soul is a deep-rooted desire to travel, to grow, to know myself at a deeper level and to expand with infinite possibilities. I remember on the plane ride here I was reading yoga journal and a line struck me. “ There are days when you stare setbacks in the eye…and I remind myself that sometimes what feels like a setback is really a preparation for a big leap forward…Progress isn’t on a linear path.” As I look back over the past year I am bombarded with the realization of how much time I truly have spent worrying, agonizing, feeling anxious, and being upset. From this standpoint I was hindering the amazing life I had in front of me. The overwhelming stress and anxiety I often let consume my life, hindered my relationships with everyone. Unfortunately, it affected most the people whom I am closest with.  Worrying is absolutely pointless and though so many of my beloved friends and family have told me this over and over again, I have just recently begun to feel the truth of this simple statement to my core. Although this point of clarity may seem obvious, for me it was not.  Life is a journey. Hardships, difficulties and pain will arise without a doubt; the important thing is to notice the lesson that is present. We can either look a problem straight in the face and learn from the lesson it has to offer or we can become a victim to our circumstances.At each moment of our life, this choice is present. With each moment comes the ability to learn, grow, and most importantly live.

Persi Nella Pioggia

It has been raining so much for the past couple of days. Actually it has been flooding everywhere it is raining so much. Apparently, this is really strange for this time of year. Everyone seems to hate the weather, but I coming from the desert, love it! At least I love it most of the time...

I had plans to meet up with Nicole for lunch. I decided I would go into the city early to drink coffee and read at my new favorite place, Chocolat. It was raining SO much, but I decieded I would go out anyway. I had to take a bus and a metro to get to Chocolate.  The first problem I had was that I got on the bus going the wrong direction. I didn’t even think of this! So I ended up in the middle of now where, but I got back to where I needed to be…eventually. Once on the metro I got to my stop fine. I had to pee (I really need to stop drinking so much coffee) but the bathroom in the metro was charging a euro. I, being the extremely stubborn person that I am, decided paying a euro to pee in a dirty metro bathroom was ridiculous!  I knew I was close to Chocolat so I decided to wait. I really should realize how truly, truly horrible I am with directions.  I am pretty sure that that part of my brain never formed and never will. Of course I got lost. I was wandering around the city in the pouring rain having no idea where to go. It was raining so much that my umbrella was almost blown out of hands 5 times, and I couldn’t look up to see the street signs because rain was falling in my eyes everytime I tried to glance up. Plus, the streets change ever time there is the smallest curve in the road. You can walk 20 feet and be on four different streets without evening realizing it! I was getting SO frustrated because I didn’t understand how I could have gotten so lost, I really had to pee AND I was mad at myself for not paying the damn euro to use the dirty metro bathroom. When I finally found it, I felt like I had conquered the world!  

Later I met up with Nicole for lunch and went shoping. Makeup and pretty underwear! Things I could probably never have to buy again for the rest of my life I have so much…but oh well! I found the best makeup store ever! It is basically the Milan version of Mac but so much better AND  it is really, really cheap!  I love being a girl!

Americans in Italy

Nicole invited me to an All American Breakfast Party her neighbors were having. She lives above an American family who has lived in Milan for 5 years. The parents are journalists who have lived all over the world for their jobs. One of their sons goes to school in Manchester and the other goes to school in Milan, but he is still in high school. I met of bunch of his/ Nicole’s friends who also go the International School of Milan. These kids have lived all over the world, literally. I enjoyed learning about their heritages and their lives so much; they were all so unique. For example, one girl’s father is Italian and her mother is Chinese, they have lived in Africa, America, and Italy. Another girl’s dad is American and her mother is Australian and he has lived in Italy, America, and Australia. Every person I met that night had a different and diverse story, and they were all fluent in about ten languages. It is strange that these people were still in high school because they seemed so much older. It is true that age is truly just a number. I am pretty sure these individuals have had more life experiences than the typical 60 year old American. For dinner/breakfast we made pancakes, chocolate chip banana muffins, bacon, eggs, and mimosas. I didn’t realize how much I missed greasy, fattening, and delicious American breakfast foods! After dinner we went out to get gelato followed by bar hopping in downtown Milan. Truly a great night!