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!

Non Capisco

Last weekend I went out with the Italian nobleman.  I had only know him for about an hour when he asked me if I wanted to go out. He then proceeded to send me NUMEROUS text messages and facebook messages asking me to go out, which needless to say was overwhelming. I should have realized he was a bit over the top but I thought I should go out and explore Milan.  Also I could tell it would have offended Rita if I didn’t go with him.  I had asked him if we would be meeting up with some of his other friends and I told him I would like to meet people. He told me a bunch of friends would be at the bar we would be going to. Well, this turned out not to be true…at all. You know when you have the feeling someone already really like you? Well I had this feeling…and it was so very awkward because the feeling was not mutual. Once we got to the bar, I realized he thought the night was more of a date than anything else. Especially since none of his friends were there, even though he told me we would be meeting up with them. I kept trying to go with flow of things, but it was so weird. Honestly I have never been on such an awkward “date”, especially when I didn’t want a date in the first place! When we first got to the bar he offered to by me a drink. I was thinking, “yes PLEASE… because I am about ready to run out of this bar…” So what does he get? NON alcoholic drinks! Also the drinks were ten dollars each... so I do not understand why he spent 20 dollars on juice that didn’t even taste good. I asked him if he drank and he said yes. I was so confused by why he ordered non alcoholic drinks for both of us, but I couldn’t find the right Italian words to ask . So I just drank my non-alcoholic-strawberry-medicine flavored drink and smiled. The night only preceded to get more awkward and uncomfortable as I realized more and more how much he thought this was a date and how much I wanted then the night to be over. I didn’t want to be rude and I felt so bad that I decided to stick it out. But after a few hours I asked if he could take me home. As we were walking the car, we passed another bar and asked if I wanted another drink. I am thinking no, I just want to go home but I said yes. At this point it 2 in the morning, and he asks if I want a bottle of wine. NO I don’t want a bottle of wine, its 2 in the morning and I want to go home! I agreed to one glass. Finally our drinks were done and we left. At this point I really had to pee, but it I thought to myself I can wait the 20 minutes until I am home. Big mistake. He had a GPS but it took him OVER an hour to get me home. How do you get lost with a GPS? !! Especially In a city you have lived in your ENTIRE life? By the time I finally got home I had to pee more than I have ever had to pee in my whole life, no exaggeration. Long story short, I certainly will not be the next Italian Princess.

First Week: Take Two

This was week filled with new experiences. I am finally getting adjusted to Milan. The small town of Sestriere and the mountain villages are so different the bustling city of Milan and for this reason I feel like I am starting all over again in a brand new city. This brings both excitement and new obstacles. I think the hardest part of moving to a new city is not knowing my way around and not knowing anyone other than my Italian family; whom I love yet it is not the same.  However the difficulties of feeling alone and lonely, as difficult as they are, are in a sense good for me. I think the most personal growth comes from being in uncomfortable situations, which force us to overcome our insecurities, doubts, and fears. It does not always feel that these experiences are promoting my well being, but I am choosing to look at this way.

On Tuesday, I spent the day in the center of Milan shopping, visiting the Duomo, and lazily sipping coffees. It was truly a fantastic day, yet I wish I would have had someone to share it with.  Regardless of that small fact, it was a truly a perfect day. This was the first day I rode the metro and it really is not bad at all! I think visiting New York last year really helped- as the metro here is about a 10^th of the New York Metro. The bus transportation on the other hand is a nightmare! There are something like a hundred buses, and I don’t think I will ever master this…

Wednesday I spent the day with Rita. She had a dog training in the morning and then we went to lunch, grocery shopping, picked up Bruno, and then the rest of my day was spent doing homework and watching Bruno. When I picked up Bruno I overheard a girl speaking and she was speaking in English- the first person   have heard yet to speak in English! So naturally she caught my attention, especially since she had an American accent. Our accent sticks out here so very much… I went up to her and we started talking- she is also an Au Pair who just graduated and also live in Milan.

My new friend and I spent meet up on Thursday after we dropped “our children” off at school. Nicole has been here since August so she was personal tour guide as she took me around the city. First we bought amazing breakfast “brioches,” which by the way is what Italians call ANY type of pastry, no matter how different they may be from one another. Then we went to my new favorite bar/coffeeshop-Chocolat. Too bad I will never be able to find it again with my poor sense of direction :) We spent the rest of the day visiting the Castle of Milan and shopping. My favorite store, which I have decided to call One Size Fits All, literally only sold clothes of ONE size. \ I don’t understand how they stay in business…. I really don’t. I loved all the clothes and nothing fit right. There was the dress I loved and remember thinking, “Oh I just need a smaller size, oh wait that does not exist…”  After shopping had lunch a great panini place and for desert I had a candied rose. I have had never heard of this before but is an actual rose covered in sugar! So weird, but delicious.

Friday was  a fairly uneventful day. I went to a dog lesson with Rita in the morning and then I created a video of her training the dog. We then proceeded to spend the next 3 hours trying to get the video to work on her computer and send it as a file so that it can be published to a website. That damn video still has not been sent. I am not sure what the problem is. The first problem was that the file size was too big, so then I zipped the file. However, her program that zips the files does not tell you where the file is going to be saved…I also spent about two hours on my own laptop trying to convert files, compress files, zip files, etc, etc. And mind you today was the first time I even zipped a file.  If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know! It was an on-going process of frustration that still has yet to be solved. On a more exciting note Rita and I met a friend of Bruno’s swim teacher who also offered to be my personal tour guide around the city. Apparently, he is a noble from a royal family, that existed before World War II. Italy become democratic after the war…Angello and Rita was trying to give me a history lesson but we got distracted and it was never finished. Anyways, he is very nice and Rita has already decided I should marry him because he is a royal and rich and I could become “the would have been Italian princess” or something like that. I just find this amusing. However, I just want to be friends. I wish I could be attracted to this person but I am really, really not.

More updates coming soon! I am getting behind on my blog and I will try to be better! 

Baci e abbracci

Snow, Skiing, and Italian Dogs

We left again for Sestriere late Thursday night. It was so snowing so much! I have never driven in so much snow before! The sky was pitch black besides for the car lights, which illuminated the pieces of snow. The speed of the car combined with the speed of the snow falling created a truly, amazing effect. When you looked out the front window it looked like a scene from a movie.. some sort of vortex -whirlwind made of streams of light.  All day on Friday it snowed and snowed and snowed. Everything was completely covered! I thought that the previous weekend had been cold, but this day was definitely the coldest.  However, with two tanktops, a long sleeve shirt, sweater, down vest, tights, 3 pairs of socks, jeans, and my coat I kept pretty warm. I think I have Finally figured out how to stay warm in cold weather.

With my new winter wear I certainly was warm outside in the freezing snow. Inside though was a whole new problem… We meet the family’s friends for dinner at a restaurant called Al Mulino. Inside the restaurant it was nice and toasty and for most people who were not wearing 11 layers of clothes quite nice. I took off as many layers as I could and I was still sweating. I even contemplated going to the bathroom to take of my tights, but I didn’t have a purse and I didn’t think it would look too good if I came back to the table holding only my tights….ah mamma mia. I was about ready to pass out I was so hot. Other than feeling like I was standing in the Tucson sun wearing a parka, dinner was great. A lot of the waiters have become my friends as we eat at the restaurant at least once a day while we are in Sestriere. Too bad this place is two hours from Milan. Anyways the family friends were really nice. However, they brought both their dogs to the restaurant- one is a giant dobberman who caused a huge scene the entire night- barking, scaring children, etc! There aren’t any rules about dogs in restaurants in Italy so people bring them everywhere and feed them whatever the rest of the table is having. The dogs might as well have had their own seats at the table with everyone else….

The best part of the weekend was that I learned to SKI!!!!! I love skiing and apparently I am really good at it. At least that is what everyone told me. Once I am skiing I am fine, it getting on and off the ski lift where I have problems. I only fell down twice though- the first time I got off the ski left and another time trying to walk up this hill to get to the ski left. I still have no idea how one walks up a hill in skis! It seems impossible to me! I think there must be a magic way to do it because every time I tried I started skiing backwards and I could not stop. . . needless to say this is terrifying.  I also had a few problems with the ski lift itself… My lesson went well except for the fact that it was in Italian..I didn’t really think about this as a problem but it was much more difficult to learn to ski in Italian than it would have been if I learned in English… overall fantastic, fantastic experience! I can’t wait to go skiing again!

Troppo Cibo

I Watched Bruno this morning and I showed him to watch movies on the internet. I am pretty sure he thinks this is the most incredible thing to ever exist. He absolutely loves Pokemon, I mean LOVES IT. He loves to watch it on TV, play it on the Wii and of course he has the cards and little figurines. We also worked on reading comprehension in English. He really is an extremely bright boy and teaching him is so easy and enjoyable. Later in the day Rita returned home and we drove him to basketball. Watching little Italian kids play basketball is certainly entertaining.

The best part of my day was dinner out with Rita. We meet Andrea, who is one of Armani’s assistants. Andrea speaks faster than any person I have met in my life. Of course, our entire conversation at dinner was in Italian so I got lots of practice! Mamma Mia! Andrea told me his life story after knowimg me for 5 minutes. Basically, he is gay, but he was formally married until he realized he was gay, and has a son of 8 years old. This man has so much passion for life, merely having a conversation with him was inspiring.  Andrea is a hilarious person but also a bit critical. He had something to say about the outfits of everyone in the restaurant, but this only made for an incredibly fun time. I assume most of this has to do with the fact that a) he is gay, b) he is Italian and c) he works for Armani. Everything that come out of his mouth made both Rita and I burst into laughter.

We ate at a restaurant called Il Vento di Sardegnia- The Wind of Sardegnia. After eating about two pounds of bread, we had had a huge plate calamari and an even larger plate of french fries. Italians eat French fries all the time at nice restaurants! I find this both odd and assuming. To me, french fries and Italian food do not go together at all, but here they certainly do. I actually have not seen the family order salad at a restaurant once, instead we get a giant plate of French fries. After our “antipasti” of French fries and calamari I had risotto and shrimp covered a wonderful cream sauce. I was so full…but then Andrea decides we need to have cheese. So I think to myself that I am so full but I could probably eat some cheese, I mean how much could we be ordering? Then the waiter brings out A GIANT wheel of cheese. It was a the size of a pizza, I am NOT exaggerating a bit… I have never been served so much cheese in my entire life. Apparently this giant cheese wheel is very common in the south of Italy. I estimate it was at least 5 pounds of cheese… and only Andrea and I were eating it.  You spoon out pieces of the cheese and eat and eat and eat. Thank god we didn’t have to eat the whole thing…I think I would have thrown up if the waiter had not taken what was left over when he did…. Many times I wanted to stop eating, but I have noticed Italians will get offended and think something is wrong with you if you don’t eat an excessive amount and completely finish your plate. So many times Rita and Agnello have said to me “are you sure you are alright , you hardly ate anything!” Mind you they will tell me this when I have ONLY one bite of food remaining on my plate and after I have eaten so much bread, French fries, pizza and pasta. I honestly have no idea how all Italians are not 500 pounds, I am not kidding. I am pretty sure I am going to gain ten pounds…by tomorrow. I really don't understand it...I have not seen one overweight person since I have been here- instead everyone just looks like a model. Even the kids here look like models for Baby Gap. I suppose the Italian genes are just fantastic and I should be thankful that I am part Italian :)

My first week

I have always wanted to start a blog and I figured my adventure to Italy would be the perfect time to start!

I arrived in Italy 6 days ago. I cant believe it has already been that long! I flew from Tucson to Dallas, Dallas to London and London to Milan. I almost missed my flight from London to Milan because security took so long! Everyone involved in the security department in London moved so slowly! They were all standing around talking, and every once in a while one of them would remember to do their job. Finally I got to Milan. By this point I realized my  "great" international phone did not work internationally...thanks verizon. I was so worried that I would not be able to find Rita and would have no way to find her without a phone.... luckily we happened to run into each other and I did not even need to call her. I spent the rest of they day unpacking and getting settled. The next day we left for Sesteriere which is very close to Turin. It is where the 2006 Olympics were! This for sure is the coldest place I have ever been in my life, but it was beautiful. We spent the weekend there in the family's cabin. I was doing to learn to ski on Monday, but I got sick...so I spent the day reading in the cabin while it snowed and snowed and snowed. I have never seen so much snow in my life. We will return to the cabin on Thursday and hopefully I will learn to ski this weekend! This week Bruno does not have school and we are going to the mountains because it is a holiday in Italy called La Settimana Bianca- literally The White Week. This is a week break from school when many going skiing- thus the name.

So far I absolutely love the family. Rita, the mom, is a professional dog trainer and she is famous in Milan. Tomorrow she going to have dinner with Armani's assistant because she works Armani's dogs...yes THE Armani! She invited me to go to dinner with her if would like...yes please :). Angello is a laywer and is one of the funniest people. I am greatly enjoying the company of the family. Bruno is seven and one of the cutest kids I have ever met. He speaks English very well and is often my translator..I am teaching him English and he is teaching me Italian. I think we are great team. The house I am living in is about 20 minutes by car from the center of Milan. It is a very small two story house, but it is beautiful.There is a living room, a kitchen, three rooms up stairs, and a backyard.

Ok I am going to go to bed now as I am still a bit sick.

Baci e abbracci