Class dinner

Can I just say that I love the ease with which planning falls into place here?  Sunday at about 2:00 I checked my class's Facebook page to find that one of my friends had posted, "Filippo and I thought that a class dinner tonight my be fun.  Who's coming?"  It didn't take long for the responses-- "I won't eat anything since I'm going to something beforehand, but I'm coming", "Sorry. in Perugia", "YES!"
It took me a little while to figure out whether I could make it work-- what with sweet-talking my mother and all-- but at seven it was decided that I could go.  Remember, dinner doesn't usually start until 8:00 or 8:30, so I sent a quick message saying that I would be there. "Great! We'll see you at 8:15!"
Since the restaurant is just down the street (and one of my favorites), I left our house at 8:13.  I arrived to find a group of my classmate milling around outside the door and was warmly greeted.  After another ten minutes or so we went in-- Filippo had made reservations, but the waitresses all knew who were were anyway.  A few more classmates came in. I have to take a minute to point out that although most of us don't drive (you have to be 18 for a car), we all we able to get there independently.  As in, "Mom, may I go out to dinner tonight? Thanks-- see you in a bit!"

(NOTE from Alexandra -- Eleanor never finished this, but I thought you'd enjoy...)

Merry Christmas!

In the States, we complain about the fact that Christmas items start appearing right after Halloween.  Here in Todi, they've taken it one step further:

This is what it looked like in the Piazza del Popolo yesterday.

It's a really small tree...

...in a tiny pot (compare it to the car)

Today, the trees have been decorated with lights and red ribbons, along with streamers and other prettiness.  There are white globes strung at the ends of the lights that come down from the center of the Piazza.  They're also starting to run the icicle lights up the main drag.

No, they're not any crazier than usual.  It actually makes sense: apparently, a film set during Christmastime is being made over the next week.  Of course, the decorations will then stay up until Christmas -- no sense in pulling them all down.

I asked Orietta -- who is in charge of the Christmas decorations in the shop windows down her part of the street -- whether the shops also would be decorated already, and she said that THAT at least will be done a little closer to the time.

Buon Natale!





Alexandra

Italian Problem Solving...in New York

My flight back from Los Angeles took me through JFK, where I had a 4 hour layover to enjoy the sights. As those of you who have seen the Delta terminals at JFK know, there are no sights, just worn-out buildings ill-designed for modern passenger security flow.

But I needed to stretch my legs, so I made a couple of laps around the three interconnected concourses in search of a place where the air conditioning was working properly (there wasn't one). Eventually I settled on an eating place that tried to be an Italian bar (that is, a cafè). They pulled it off well in at least one regard: I had to ask for ice for my Coke.

There was one thing in that stuffy terminal that did make me laugh: their solution to persistent roof leaks:







Yes, those are plastic tarps suspended from the ceiling to catch the drops, with plastic tubes to drain the water to some out-of-the-way location.

Michael

Just Another Update

I went to school this morning and it turned out fine. We had the usual flying notes and thrown eraser shavings when the teacher wasn't looking and just the boring, long explanations. I've really started enjoying going to school and I'm really happy with my kind classmates. I took the bus home and talked with Alessia and waved to Klara, Miriam, Lucia, and Giulia who were also on the daily bus.
I got home starving and we had got pizza from Massimo's when it started raining. We quickly pulled in the laundry and finished our meal.
I finished my homework and by the end I noticed that I was having a hard time staying awake so I took a short nap and got ready to leave for the doctor's office. We didn't think the car could go down the hill safely with all of us in it so Florence and I walked while the others were dropped off. We found an area with two benches and one that looks like it hasn't been sat on in a while because it was covered with weeds. There were four boys on the wall above us and we watched them while we waited for Mummy to come and pick us up.
I must say that the doctor's looked like the most professional place that I've seen so far and that's not saying much. We walked into waiting area with a few colored chairs and heard the other patients talking in the room right across from us. I'm pretty sure they only had two rooms in the whole place.
Anyway, when the other people came out Eleanor went in and it only took her about ten minutes. I waited my turn and it looked like more of a school principal's office than a doctor's office except for the obvious scales and medical bed.
They made me stand on the scale to check my weight and then up against the wall for my height. Next I was told to sit on the medical bed and the doctor pulled up my shirt to check my breathing and blood pressure. I then was showed a block and I stood on it. It had a glass top and a mirror on the bottom and sides so you could see the bottom of my feet when I was on it. Then he made me step up and down on it sixty times to get my heart rate up. When I was done, I sat back down on the bed and he listened to my heart again.
When everyone was done we went out to our tiny car and somehow crammed in. One guy came by and snickered and said we needed a bigger car, but Mummy told him that she's not getting one and he watched us finish packing in. That was the first time all of us have been in the car at once, well not including Daddy.
Mummy dropped Eleanor and me off where we had the Boy Scouts festival to make more room and we walked back up while the others made a trip to the school supplies store.
We got home, cooled off, and helped bring the groceries in when the others got back.  We made dinner, which was absolutely delicious. Almost too delicious--I felt sick from eating too much.
We just finished the chores and now I'm about to get ready to sleep.
I can't wait until tomorrow because I have gym, literature, grammar, geometry, and science and I get to see my friends again!

Love you all,
Ashley

Road Trip!

Since the kids were all in school yesterday morning and I had no other engagements (and couldn't deal with any bureaucracy since the government's closed on Saturdays!), it was clearly time for a road trip! So I folded back the sunroof, rolled down the windows, and set off for Orvieto to see Benedetta.

There are two roads to Orvieto; I had originally planned to take the teeny-tiny severely winding road through who-knows-what.  However, Benedetta assured me that the larger road would be fine with my baby.  Although it's only 32 kilometers away, the drive took me about an hour.  This was partly because of my unfamiliarity with the road and partly because the relatively straight road (as compared with the other) is still plenty curvy.

The red road is the one I took. The yellow road is the alternative I was planning to take.

The nice thing about the road I took is that it travels by a lake for about half of the way, and the views really are beautiful.  It was a rather misty day, which added to the effect, since the lake had this lovely peacefulness about it. And the road was not heavily traveled, which pleased me.

Benedetta met me in Centro and (after oohing and aahing over my little car and taking pics of it) we had a coffee near the cathedral (which is really spectacular from the outside; at some point I will of course go in to take a look...but yesterday was not the day).  She then took me to her place 15 minutes away from town...and it's truly out in the country.  Gravel roads, beautiful large garden with a pool and river, and a lovely home.

And guess what?  I wasn't in any rush, because the kids could get home by themselves (I had lined up Florence to take James, since he's required by the school to have someone pick him up) and go to Massimo's for lunch! Ashley even had outings planned with three separate groups of friends during the afternoon.

When it was time for Benedetta to pick up Meggy from school, she dropped me back off at the parking lot for me to go home.  Giving a passing thought to the fuel, I decided to head home.  And, you guessed it, 10 km into the trip, the "benzina" light started flickering.  At first, it was every so often.  Then it was more frequent.  Were there any gas stations along the road?  Nope! Deserted!  The good news was that I had my phone & could always call someone to rescue me (anyone hearing cries of "Leonardo!" in their head?  Because I was, that's for certain!).  Once Todi was "only" 10 km away (6 miles), I relaxed, because I knew I could easily walk that far if I had to.  Beyond that, every additional kilometer was a boon.

I putt-putt-puttered into the gas station at Ponte Rio (the suburb at the bottom of the hill from Todi) heaving a great sigh of relief, and was glad to be almost home.

Love,

Alexandra

p.s. Ashley didn't make an appearance until 7:00; she'd been having a great time out & about.  The rest of us went to the "ascensore park" which is actually known as the "Giardini Oberdan" to see a craft fair.  There was a man there who was making the most amazing glass flowers -- stems about 18" long; buddleia, thistles, etc.  So delicate & lovely!

While the cat's away...

This is the underneath;
there is a photocopied pattern
that I'm working from.

You have to keep the work covered
or the pins will fray the work
and the lace could also get dirty.

Okay, so I haven't been eating cheese or holding balls.  Instead, I've been investigating an alternative career path: making bobbin lace.  Last time we were here, I was dying to take a course from a local lady here, but I just couldn't make the time given the fact that I was also homeschooling.  This is obviously the time! We meet weekly for two hours at a time for eight sessions.  

This is what I completed with two hours of work.

I have to complete the entire thing as my homework before next week! Gah!

Coming to America

I have had to come to Los Angeles on business. I enjoy traveling and will be glad to be able to see many of my coworkers again, but at the same time I want to be in Italy trying to improve my Italian.

Los Angeles is a long way from Todi.

My alarm went off at 4:45 AM in Todi. A quick shower and half a bite of breakfast later I was on the road with Leonardo. I was pleased to be able to manage some small conversation with him, sometimes with the assistance of the dictionary on my iPad. He had also had a short night, as a customer had him coming from Ancona on the Adriatic finishing at midnight. We stopped for coffee, eventually. It is easy to find coffee in Italy at midnight. Less so at 6 AM when you actually need the stuff.

By 7:15 Leonardo had me at Fiumicino in ample time for my 9:30 flight. I bought breakfast and a book to read: Lo Hobbit.

The first leg of my flight, to Atlanta, was as uneventful as you want a flight to be. We had little turbulence, so I was mostly able to stretch my legs whenever I wanted. The woman next to me did not get out of her seat the entire flight. I cannot even imagine.

She also turned up her nose at most of the food served, which is a lot easier to imagine. You don't need to know all the details, but I do have to tell you about a snack/lunch that was served: a sandwich and a chocolate. The sandwich was panino MAYBE two inches long, with a proportional amount of meat and cheese. It was the sandwich equivalent of Alexandra's car: so tiny it was cute. The funniest part, though, was that it came with a packet of mustard. A 15 g packet of mustard. There was more mustard than meat and cheese combined, plus most of the bun. Oh, the chocolate was an 18 g Mars bar, which made it about twice the size of the smallest individually wrapped Mars snack bits.

The only part of my trip I was a little concerned about was my connection in Atlanta. I had only 90 minutes including immigration, customs, and going back through security.

Compared to Italy, America takes immigration very seriously. In Italy the officer waved us through without looking at our passports. In Atlanta I was asked to explain my business while the officer checked my documents carefully. How do you quickly explain that you are a resident of the US temporarily living in Italy and that you have returned for business?

I made it through security again and then looked up my departure gate. A21. Yes, you can technically be further from Concourse F, but not by a whole lot. Happily, the Atlanta airport has a train system that whisked me the mile in a few minutes. I arrived at my departure gate with just enough time to freshen up in the restroom before boarding.

The flight to Los Angeles ended up being delayed. Apparently the previous pilot had done something to overheat the brakes on the left wheel carriage, and as a result those brakes had fused to the disks (we learned from the pilot that the plane had 8 disks per wheel, whereas your car has one and Alexandra's car has none). They couldn't free some spacer, so they ended up putting on a whole new wheel.

Even long-haul domestic flights have turned into pay-for-service. I availed myself of everything I could get for free. For the 5 hour flight this turned out to be 4 packets of peanuts and 2 cups of Coke. Movies? Si paga. A meal? Si paga. A headset for watching the free TV? Si paga. Mostly I slept through this leg.

In LA I just had to ride the SuperShuttle to the hotel. After looping thorough the airport twice to find more paying customers, it finally headed out and I made it to the hotel at 8:15 PM, exactly 24 hours after leaving Todi.

Oh, Lo Hobbit? I almost made it through the first chapter today. I was trying to stretch my iPad battery, so I had to be careful with my use of the dictionary. But also I really need to learn the preterite, past perfect, preterite perfect, future perfect, past conditional, and the subjunctive mood in order to make quicker work of a historical fiction. Getting vocabulary from context or a dictionary is one thing, but parsing the verbs to understand what is going on is another.

Michael

So then there's science...

Today, my first period was science. The teacher talked for a few minutes and we all stood up and traipsed out of the classroom to find the janitor (really the handyman). Having found the janitor,  he and the teacher consulted with each other and he went off to find some keys. He re-appeared and we ambled to the first lab room. There were beakers in a cabinet and an arched ceiling. The walls were plain, and it had the smell of a room that hadn't been aired for several years. Then we went up two levels and came to the second lab. Nothing worth noting other than a few (maybe 15) computers. Then through a hallway, and a magnificent hall/office. There was another plain room with desks and a projector. Then through the gorgeous office again, and into a room that had been painted peach, pale blue and grayish-green with pictures of Todi's churches (in blue). Then we went downstairs and worked for two minutes (the bell rang soon after).
I used to think science was HARD. (joke)
Love
Fiorella

My sweet thing next next to a SmartCar...

I'm trying not to bore you, but...my car is so incredibly cute, I can't get over it!

Here it is next to a SmartCar:

It is such a little toy!  And did I tell you that you have to put oil into the gas tank as well?  Michael & I were speculating as to whether it was an additive related to the fact that the car was originally designed to run on leaded, since there is a separate oil gauge.  I asked the fellow at the gas station to check the oil for me after he had filled it, pointing out the fact that there is said gauge.  He asked if the light had gone on.  When I replied in the negative, he shrugged and said, "Well, it's fine then."

Love,

Alexandra

Getting used to cooking

With different "parts", that is.  I asked the kids to get a chicken at the butcher's so we could roast it.  This is what they came back with:

Yes, it was as if the chicken had been whacked in half laterally and then across the waist.  We had one portion of two drumsticks plus back, and then another piece that was two wings and a back.

Love,

Alexandra

School excitement!

James is thrilled because now that we have decided for sure that he will be in the elementary school, we  can finally purchase his grembiule for class.  For those who aren't in the know, a grembiule is a smock that all the kids in elementary school wear.  There are different varieties, including those with white lace collars for the girls.  The appliques appear to be limitless in their variety, from sports figures to Cinderella.  You should see the flock of kids arriving and leaving the school!

Love,

Alexandra

Santissimo Crocifisso

Today was a feast day (isn't that a surprise?) and so there was -- you guessed it -- a party! This time it was at a park near the Chiesa del Santissimo Crocifisso.  It was sponsored by the (coed) Boy Scouts, and featured an impromptu ropes course, archery (including medieval costumes; the archers already own them for Carnevale, and I have yet to meet an Italian who can resist wearing a costume), crepes (with Nutella), a "go fish" opportunity which included such pleasing prizes as used stuffed animal ducks, and a "lift the cork" gambling opportunity to win some lovely flowering plants.

I paid 5 euros to lift three corks, and managed to get two plants from it -- worth about 8 euros.  So much for a donation to support the cause (the cause being unclear; maybe the scouts, maybe the old folks' home that was on the property).  Oh, and did I mention the live band?  Featured a singer and an accordionist.

A lucky shot the other day. The church at bottom left is the Chiesa del Crocifisso

View from the park

Another view from the park

You can see part of the ropes course here

Out of the corner of my eye I realized that my son was dangling from untested ropes.  As in, he was the tester.

Yessir, that's my baby...

Jeremy's the one behind the "capo"

Jeremy testing another portion of the course

Sweetness at the crepes table

Setting up the plants table

Impromptu group huddle

The huddle remnant

We saw tons of people we already knew or the kids already knew, and so it was really very enjoyable.  And the park was quite lovely.  It's at the bottom of the hill, about 3 km from our apt, and the walk winds around the edge of the hill -- providing a lovely view for most of the trip.

Love,

Alexandra

Observations of a school

Saturday has come, and with it the last day of school this week.  Since I don't have much homework, I think I'll take the opportunity to share some of my observations.

To begin with, I will describe my school.  One of the main tourist attractions of the town is a church that was begun in the 13th century-- but was never finished.  It's directly across the street from my window.  As part of the church building there is an old monastery, which is now the school for the upper grades of high school.  So, in the morning I look out of my window and see a huge crowd of kids heading up the steps towards the church and figure that I should probably get moving.  I follow them up the steps, then just to the right of the church facade I go through a heavy wooden door into a walled courtyard.  It has roofed pathways around all four sides, but the center is open and green.

Continuing onward is the main entrance to the school.  If we were to enter there, we would find a rabbit's warren of classrooms with the names of classes-- I'm 4AS-- printed onto a sheet of paper taped to the wall.  Each class has only one classroom and set of classmates; the teachers change classrooms, rather than the students.  However, we'll continue our tour by walking around two sides of the courtyard and coming to an open doorway.  Here is the gym, where I had my P.E. today.  It will take enough time to describe that I'd rather not divert the topic with a useless-- though amusing-- tangent at the moment.  I'd much rather leave you in suspense.  Anyhow, just beyond is another open doorway, which leads to a sort of walled grassy area.

All right, now that you have some idea of the physical aspects of my school, I can describe some things that I've noticed, namely that a lot of behavior would be totally illegal in the US.  Smoking is a lot more common here, and you don't have to be eighteen.  While in the US a student can be expelled for possessing cigarettes, here teens leave their packs on the table and openly roll their own.  No smoking is allowed inside the building, however, so during break there is a flock outside to the courtyard.

Another thing that would cause issues in the US is the lack of security.  By that, I mean that no one makes sure that kids don't leave the campus.  That's because, as long as you show up for your classes, it's perfectly fine to go out and, say, buy a pack of cigarettes.  I'm not taking French, and my class has had French first period the past three days, so that just means that I get to sleep in!  Or, I can show up to school and hang out with my friends.  My choice.  My mother has reported seeing high-schoolers all over town through the school day.  Gotta love those free periods!

Speaking of which, I have to describe the school schedule.  Theoretically, we have school from 8:10 to 12:30 six days a week.  However, as I have already mentioned, I've been having a lot of French-- so I haven't been showing up until about nine.  For the first week the school administration hadn't put together timetables yet, so we would literally take classes day by day.  Homework assignments, if any, ran something like this: "Complete these exercises before you have your next class with me, whenever that is."  It's just today that we got our real schedules.

As part of this confusion, a couple of days ago we only had four periods-- and one of them was French.  That means that I was in school from 9:00 to 11:30.  Today was my busiest day yet-- I actually had to arrive at 8:00 and didn't leave until 12:30!  But before you pity me too much, I have to explain.

First period was supposed to be mathematics, but we had a substitute.  He, for lack of anything better to do, declared that we would be doing a "computer information lab".  We all rushed to a different room and sat down, two or three to a computer, and proceeded to browse Facebook, the news, and which soccer teams will be playing next.  Every so often the teacher would break up the fun by syncing all of the computers to his-- and showing us clips of video games that he wants.  So passed first period.

Two more periods and a break, then two periods of P.E.  The teacher showed up about fifteen minutes after it was supposed to start, but you mustn't blame her because the schedule had just been released.  She then talked about herself, us, and the year for half an hour, eventually asking if we wanted to go down to the gym.

And now, the much-awaited, in-depth description.  The gym itself is fairly nondescript, a small one with a volleyball net across the middle, a basketball hoop with tatters hanging down, and a set of monkey bars that I think is actually a ladder mounted sideways on the wall.  What merits a description is the changing room.

Walking through the gym, one comes to an open doorway.  Walks down a few steps, through another open doorway into a smallish room with benches, maybe a few lockers, and nothing else.  Actually, there is something else: a frosted glass door.  Behind said door is the plumbed part of the facilities-- a couple of open shower stalls, a sink, and a bidet.  That's it.  These are the changing rooms.

Since this is coed, the boys and girls go down together, finish their conversations, and segregate themselves, the boys in the open room and the girls in the plumbed one.  When it appears that pretty much everyone has come down, the girls close the door and everyone starts changing.  Of course, if another girl appears, she walks through the boys to get to the girls' area.  Oh, also when the boys get bored, they push the door open.  They do, however, have the decency to step back afterwards.

I hope that no one finds this post to be disparaging-- I'm merely describing the things about my school that I find amusing.  Although I don't have a particularly heavy workload yet, it appears to have a good curriculum.  I'm taking physics, science (anatomy), math, literature (I'm studying the Divine Comedy in the original Italian), P.E., philosophy, religion, design and history of art, history, Italian, Latin, and (my personal favorite) English.  For some of the teachers all I can do is try to listen, and copy my friends' notes later, but I've been very proud of myself-- I took a lot of notes in math and physics today.  My Italian is progressing very rapidly;  everyone has been incredibly friendly.  My problem is not finding someone to sit next to, but trying not to ignore anyone.  Students and teachers alike are very happy to explain during class.  I've made friends with everyone in my class-- today I went out to see a movie with some of them. 

However, this post has gotten incredibly long, so I must tell you more some other time.

Ciao!
Eleanor

Sorry, a few more culture notes: one of my teachers referred to the Bible as "the Sacred Scripture"-- this is a public school! She also sent one of the students out in the middle of class to buy her a coffee.

Volleyball Practice

After school and a nap I walked down to the volleyball practice. The first practice was really hard because I didn't know any of the techniques and I didn't even know how to hold the ball correctly. Today was much better. We started with a warm up and ran around the court a couple of times and stretched. Then we got into pairs and I learned a new standing position for the sport and practiced the bump with my partner who is one of the girls in my class at school.

Later we started clapping all together when the ball was at its highest point in the air and just started talking about more techniques. Our coach then set us up in the volleyball positions and we started to play the game. It didn't take me long before I really got into the game and I was pleased to hear that my coach was happy about my improvement. After that, we practiced the dunk and my hand started hurting after a short while.

Now I have bruises all over my arms and on my forehead, but I had a blast and I can't wait until Monday because I have another practice then. I will go to the sporting goods store sometime this weekend and get the stuff I need before next practice. : )

Hugs and kisses,

Ashley

My School Experience

On the first day of school I was extremely nervous. I told my friend Alessia and she told me that she would call me and I would meet her at her house so she could take me to the school. When we got there, there was a huge crowd outside the entrance. After pushing past a bunch of people I asked the principal if she would tell me what to do because I had no idea what was going on. She told me to follow another woman who was in the office. When I got to the classroom everyone was already seated and staring at me. The teacher started talking a million mph and when I told her I didn't understand, she asked where I was from. I explained that I was from the US and Georgia. Everyone started talking immediately. She told me to sit down and asked the class to introduce themselves to me. I found out today that she is my art teacher.

There was a knock on the door and my French teacher came in. She knows some English and was very interested in me. She asked me to name all the months in English in front of the class and repeat the Italian words after her. Then she asked my classmates some questions and she closed the blinds and showed the projector on the wall. We then answered French questions on some website.

The next teacher who came in talked even faster and started telling a story. I didn't understand much of it at all. He was hard to talk to because he has a lazy eye and you can't tell if he is looking at you or not.

The English teacher came in last for that day and she is super tan and wears a lot of makeup, but she is nice and spoke slowly for me. I like her the best, no big surprise.

Today Alessia did not accompany me, but I did just fine. I got the card for signing into the school that I didn't have my first day and pushed through the crowd to the machine that scans the card. Several of my classmates said hi outside to me and one girl waited for me when I was signing in. She walked with me to the classroom. She is one of the girls who is on the volleyball team (we went to practice on Wednesday and might be attending again on Friday).

My first teacher today was the same teacher with the lazy eye that I had the first day. He is my geography teacher. I still had a hard time understanding him, but we were talking about the planets and stuff I already knew so it wasn't too bad for homework today. I only had geography homework today.

I met another teacher today. He is a technology/science teacher. We only talked about energy today, but I found it pretty interesting. He gave me a long list of materials I need by Monday.

I also had my art teacher again and she got a little impatient because some of the boys were laughing loudly over some joke. The girl who I sit next to is 17 and she is from Albania. She and I got a compliment today because the teacher noticed we were both quiet and concentrating on what she was saying. She also gave me a list of materials that I need by Monday.

Even though school is really tiring and hard for me I really like having other kids my age in my class. It's also nice how interested the other students are in me, in a good way, because I'm American. The other classmates are very kind to me and they help me understand a little bit better when I ask for help. I'm sure school will be great once I learn Italian. Although I am nervous about tomorrow because I have math class and I haven't met that teacher yet and math is a difficult subject for me.

Love,
Ashley

My First Day (Florence)

Today was the first day of school. It seemed like everybody knew where to go except for me. When we found my class room, I went in and got a desk in the front. The desks each seated two, but nobody wanted to sit in the front, so I got a desk to myself... but nobody to ask to help me. The teacher came in and took roll call. She asked us to tell everyone where we lived (people come from surrounding towns). Everyone was tense because I was a STRANGER (and what's more I wore odd clothes), but when I said that I'm an American, I could feel the pressure lessen.

The Latin teacher didn't teach us any Latin. Instead she went over the basics of: what is yours, you can draw on, but the desks aren't yours. She proceeded to tell us that we could draw on the desks, as long as we covered the desk with paper first.

Then came the German teacher. The German teacher was really hard to understand. I learned two phrases. Then came a ten minute break. After ten minutes, I had Physical Ed. This consisted of the teacher taking roll call, asking what sports we did sitting down, and talking for the rest of the time.

Last of all came the French teacher. She actually taught us something... or at least two of us... the rest of the class had already had two years of French. After eons, the bell rang and I was out.  I had no clue on the homework, but when we were picking up James, I saw some of my classmates. Mummy went and asked them about the homework. I had an essay, a German sheet, a photo and creating a name tag.
Love,
Fiorella
P.S. They call me Flo-rrenze 'ook or HHook

First day of school

Hmm.  I'm finally actually talking at a normal speed, but to give you an idea of what my family was up against after school today, here you go:
Oh my gosh I was so scared and I didn't know anyone but then the secretary took me to my class and introduced me and said that I was from the United States and the second the teacher left the classroom about two-thirds of the students came over and shook my hand and introduced themselves and I was so overwhelmed but they were all really nice and there's one boy who just came back from a year in America and speaks fluent English and he's really nice and it was the first day at school so all of the kids were really excited and we actually didn't learn anything *gasp for breath* but mostly the teachers talked and the students talked and I have a lot of friends and for English class I stood up in front of the class with the other boy and we talked about America in English and I don't think that the other students understood much but at least they know I can talk and there's a girl from Honduras who's here for a year and she speaks no Italian but does speak English and she seems really nice but seriously everyone seems really nice and I don't have to speak English except when I really don't understand and after school I got home and was barraged by Facebook friend requests and one of my classmates posted a nice welcome on our class page directed especially to me and oh my gosh I know so many more people now and *another gasp* guess what they're really nice and I can't wait for school tomorrow. Oh, does anyone else have anything to say?
Eleanor

A narrow scrape, or "Look before you leap"

I haven't had the heart to write about it until now, but...I got the first dings on my car the other day.  Sigh.

I was parked in a little alley behind our building that our dear neighbors had recommended.  My darling car fitted perfectly in the corner, and everything was great.  However, the way I had gone in was a wee bit tight (a couple of inches of clearance on either side), and I decided to go the other way out of the alley.  I knew that there was a 90 degree turn because I had come in that way on a previous occasion.

Somehow, this particular time the turn looked particularly daunting because of the stairs right in the way of where I would need to reverse to complete the turn.  So I decided to follow the alleyway straight, thinking that I knew where it turned out: on a beautiful road that overlooks the valley.  Boy, was I ever wrong!  I continued down about 10 meters, and then came through a tiny passage with stairs on one side and a pipe on the other.  Less than an inch of clearance on either side, but I made it through!

Congratulating myself inwardly, I went another 30 meters down the steep incline (which was wider), and then found myself at another intersection.  My two choices: forward, down steps with a railing and (probably) no clearance, or another (even tighter) 90 degree turn into an alley that was completely blocked by a car. Stunned in disbelief, I sat a few moments to contemplate, while Jeremy peppered me with questions: what should we do now? Which way would we go? What did I think about it?

With a vulcan death grip on the steering wheel with one hand, I revved the engine to prepare to go into reverse (remember the steep incline?  This time I had the opportunity to go up it!), engaged the clutch, and dropped the hand brake.  I just couldn't get the right line on going in reverse, and kept getting too close to the wall on the passenger side.

Three meters back and two meters forward.  I crept up and up and up.  After 20 minutes of hard labor (remember, low speeds, in reverse, no power steering) and a break, I made it to an area that was a little wider -- just downhill from the bottleneck (remember the pipe & the stairs?).  I had a halfhearted plan to attempt to turn around, but wasn't convinced.

At that point, a sweet looking woman around my age popped her head out of an upstairs window and asked if I needed help.  When I said that it would be great, she responded with the Italian equivalent of "bummer, because I can't do any better than you." So -- not only was she of no help, but now I had an audience.  At this point, I just wanted to put my head down & cry. So I sat for a minute to regroup.

Just what I needed: two men in their early 60s walked by -- even more members of my personal peanut gallery.  My purgatory intensified...

Ding!  The light bulb turned on.  I leant over and asked whether they were good drivers.  One of them responded in the affirmative.  As I hopped out gratefully and he started to jump in, I had second thoughts; I asked cautiously if he was familiar with the 500s.  "Drove one for 20 years!" he responded. I nearly fainted with relief.

No kidding: after about 45 seconds, he had squeezed my baby through the narrow gap, completed the 90 degree turn I'd wanted to avoid, and pulled it out to the main road.  My hero!

The sad ending was that I got some scratches and a dent on my baby.  My guilt was enormous until I talked to my friend Ada Maria at the nursery: I told her that it had gone 45 years without a scratch.  She responded with a shrug, "Well, then it's about time it had one."

The moral of the story is that I will never ever ever ever ever drive down an alley unless I have recently walked it.

Love,

Alexandra

p.s. The girls' friend Bushi took out the dent with a highly specialized tool: a handy rock.  There's not much I can do about the paint, but I'm going to take it to a shop before deep winter so it doesn't rust.

Jeremy's First Day!

I understood about 2%. Today, most of the time was spent with dictated forms and some lists.  There were two nice boys behind me who let me use their books to copy when they were done with them.  However, with the Italian handwriting, half of the letters look legible to us and half of them seem to be just vertical lines that are slightly different from each other, so you have to know the language to know which of the possible letters it is.  On one of the forms, when the teacher was done reading it out, she let me see the original (printed) page to copy, which made it a whole lot easier.  But the boys behind me started out liking me because I was American.  And then when they saw my inlaid pencil case, they were amazed and they started worshiping me.  And so I think you can imagine what happened when they saw my fountain pen!  When I took out my pocket watch, there was a cluster of four or five boys around me. 

We have no homework as far as I know, but we do have to get the supplies on the list and copy the forms to take to the parents (yes, handwritten forms). One printed sheet they gave us to take home to our parents was information about a strike that is Friday, and they don't know what time it is, but parents shouldn't be surprised if their kids come home early.

Love,

Jeremy

The First Day Of School

I am so happy that school has started today. I have lot of friends at school. My friends at school are Anna, Andrea, Gabriele, and another Andrea (those whose names I remember). I am happy that I have a red backpack for school. Today is our father's birthday.
                                                           
Love,
Giacomo

I'm an aunt! Again!

My nephew, Henry Theodore Probst, was born this morning!  Mother and baby are fine, and unfortunately I have no other details at this point, but we can't wait to hear more & post some pics!

Love,

Alexandra

Already saying goodbye?

Our downstairs neighbors are leaving us for the winter.  I have yet to understand it, but they have property in Vicenze and spend the winter there.  We hope that they'll come back by Easter.

They have been so lovely and welcoming, we will certainly miss them!  They, in their turn, have loved having the kids around and lots of life (read: noise!).  Fortunately, she's rather hard of hearing, so it doesn't disturb her to have the children thumping about above her head; I think he rather likes it -- if it's any indication, he took a picture of all our laundry hanging on the balcony because he found the volume of it so amusing!

And a few bonus pictures of my favorite gelato eaters!
Love, Alexandra

Small Loads Only

The title doesn't refer to Alexandra's car.

Today we discovered the hard way that our electrical service is limited to 3 kW. More than that and a breaker trips at the meter. Apparently this is a limitation of our electrical plan, and if we wanted to we could upgrade the plan.

A standard branch circuit in my house in Atlanta is 15 amps at 110 volts. At full load that is 1.5 kW. My house service is 200 amps at 220 volts. Theoretically I could pull 40 kW. Our service here, which was perfectly adequate through the hot August, is not even a 10th of that.

Let's break this down: we can run the oven, the washing machine, or the hair dryer, but not any three of those at the same time. The microwave? We don't have one of those.

The funny thing is that we use so little electricity that we didn't notice right away when the power went out. I had heated up some lunch in the oven (while Florence loaded the washing machine). There was plenty of light in the house so we didn't have the lights on. It wasn't until I went to wash the dishes that we discovered there was no power. The electronically controlled instant water heater wouldn't come on.

Michael

James's post

Did you notice the head on the carrot!

This is the Archbishop's hat.

These are my stuffed animals. The moose is Giacomo and the  hamster  is Michele

This is a gas station in France. Look at the big truck.

This is a dog that reminds me of our friend's dog. 

This dog's name will be twizel.

This is a dog in a shop in todi. 

Look at the orange building and gate.

Look at the old light blue scooter.

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Do you like the really big caterpillar on the Ipod.