Last picture for the day

This is my fake Prada bag. I really could not care less about the name, but it's soooo cute.

Ask and you shall receive

It's still raining here so sorry but I'm kind of stuck inside. I don't want to get too sick. But instead I have attached some more pictures of Rome. I think these are all new or different. I have so many pictures that I really cannot remember. Anyways enjoy.

Good news

Got my package today. Yeah, thanks for the books and all. "Chicka chicka boom boom" is going to be interesting since they don't use j, k, w, v, or y in their writing. But she already really likes the rhythm of the book. Anyways, dad I really cannot believe you sent me my junk mail accross the ocean. And it feels like i'm still in the states with my note...

Oh and final "good" news, school got cancelled for tomorrow. I'm studying lots now instead and making lists of important vocab to learn.

I see sun

I'm not sure how much yesterdays blog made sense. Sorry guys I am sick and I have not been able to sleep well. But there is finally sun again so it is all looking up. Oh yeah and I am feeling a little better today. The cough still sucks and I still wish they had chicken noodle soup here. But they don't. :( Oh well, I'm living in Italy.

Oh and the family trip is being planned for the first weekend in December and Francesca told Andrea Dublin is too cold for the kids. She wants to go to Barcelona. So we will see also there's a long weekend the weekend after that which they are spending in Pescara with Andrea's family and then Christmas in Sardinia with Francesca's family. It is kind of like splitting Thanksgiving and Christmas I guess.

Not much else to report right now except Alice did not cry when we left for school this morning. Yeah for the small victories and we can communicate just a little more everyday in Italian. She will say "good morning/night" but thats about it and she ignores me when i speak English. 6 weeks right mom. Alright ciao.

Rainy

So this week is apparently going to be a rainy one. It started yesterday. Also my phone died so I went to pick up Alice as usual (it was just drizzling) and by the time we walked to Jacopo's school Francesca was there. I take them in a stroller and so before I went to school I put the stroller inside and someone moved it out. So a soaking wet stroller, two sick kids, one exhausted mom and me. What a bunch we were. Anyways francesca took all of us home where she planned to work and I would play with the kids. By the way the kids are still sick and at this point in very bad moods. They cried until Francesca sat with them which meant she did not get any work done and we were all just frustrated. We all survived and everyone else slept through the night last night.

Oh well we drove together to drop them off and Alice told her mom because she had dropped her off I could pick her up. So maybe today will be better. And maybe I will get my package from mom and dad. Ciao.

Adding more families to my life

Not much to report its Monday, except I feel terrible. My head is so stuffed up that when I tried to lay down and take a nap today it didn't work because I couldn't breathe. It's that dizzy when you stand up and every noise gives you a headache kind of cold. I'm pretty sure I will live but I wanted to complain briefly. If I said any of this to Francesca or Andrea they would send me to bed and become my parents (love you mom). It's funny this has made me a bit homesick I kind of want vitamin C drops and chicken noodle soup. By the way Jacopo has the same cold and the poor boy is distraught. I feel bad for him.

So I just took some of my cold medicine and I am hoping to go to bed soon. I'm watching Looney Tunes in Italian with Alice while her mom tries to find the keys Andrea failed to throw into the window. So hopefully it won't be long. Oh so I'm writing this on my apple in the living room and Alice keeps trying to eat the apple on the back. Oh well it's all still new, interesting and weird. My Italian is getting better much faster now that I know what it should sound like. Thats really exciting to me. Oh and 2 people asked me for directions this week, so I must look like I belong. Yeah American in Milan.

And Andrea mentioned today that he is thinking about doing a family trip to Paris or Dublin when the renovations. I kindly offered to go and help take care of the kids and looked at me like I was crazy. Then he said I expected you would go with us. Moral of the story: I am now part of an Italian family. E tutto. Ciao.

FYI

Hey mom sorry I missed you but the new internet they got has a 100-hour limit per month, so I tend to get on and then quickly back off. Anyways I will be on today for you from about 12-1 your time if this doesn't work feel free to counter offer. I love you all and miss you.

Spoiled

Um, so I am going to have to learn to cook before I come home. I am losing weight and we had mussels, fish (with the head and all still attached) and pasta yesterday for dinner. Everything I have eaten has been delicious and of course all fresh. Then today we stopped at a street vendor and picked up fresh fried calamari and shrimp for very very cheap.

Sickly

The cold I have been fighting for a month finally caught up with me. I feel blah, but don't worry mom they are taking good care of me. Of course I still went to school. Then I came home and slept instead of going out. Andrea picked up Alice from school today so I just had Jacopo and he offered to pick him up too. They are so sweet and trying hard to help out anyway they can. I kind of feel bad, because it is just an annoying cold and if don't help out why am I here.

Anyways... So I'm going to start saying 'Alora'. It seems to be their word for the start of every sentence. Its great and oh yeah Janet they end most explanations with 'capito?' which is the equivalent of 'you know?' haha. I also found the place where they believe chocolate must consumed daily.

Alright well thats about it. Ciao.

P.S.This is for Aunt Linda and whoever else doesn't know,
"pea said...So, my good news is that my internship got extended! Boss lady's words were, "We honestly don't know where we'd be without you." Pretty sweet deal."

Gosh mom that's awesome news how did you not already tell Aunt Linda. Anyway anybody talked to my mom recently she hasn't commented in a couple days and I'm not sure she's still alive. I assume she is but who knows.

Thursday

I think this experience is just what I needed. I work only like 6 hours a day and get the rest of the time to relax. It is fabulous. Anyways there is not much to report here. Alice went to a friend's house to play yesterday so it was a nice break and then we watched Charlie's Angels in Italian. Since there's not much to report I figured i'd tell you guys about some of the differences I have noticed, a top tenish list of sorts.

1) This is a very social culture. You always stop and talk to people you know no matter where you are supposed to be and when.
2) They do not eat many vegetables, but they eat pizza and pasta everyday.
3) They walk slowly everywhere.
4) Children stay in strollers no matter what. They do not hold children unless they are feeding them. That way they do not get upset when they are in a stroller at school.
5) Children go to school from a very young age even if their mothers are housewives, because it is good for them to socialize with other children.
6) They eat out for lunch everyday.
7) High school students go to school 6 days a week but only until 1pm.
8) The street in theory has the same rules, but if you must you can drive briefly on the wrong side of the road. Or back up 2 blocks to the parking space you want.
9) There's a heirarchy on the road. In America it is car trumps walker (you stop until there's a break in cars to walk). In Milan walker trumps car but stroller trumps all. It's amazing cars stop for strollers to cross the road.
10) It is believed that you will get sick if you walk outside with your neck exposed. Therefore they wear scarves everywhere.
11) Very few people speak English, but they still all try to communicate and they help anyway they can. It is so sweet and refreshing.

I'm sure there are many more and I will tell you about them as I remember them. Also I wanted to say congrats to Janet. I'm so excited they realize how awesome you are. And i'm glad everybody else is doing well. Lastly, mom I keep trying to stay up to catch you but I have to get up early so I usually fall asleep before then.

Another Day

Alice hates me less and less. She is now arranging all of my shoes on the floor and running around them. I had school today it was fine. The teacher finally admitted she speaks English and explained what we were learning briefly. Then it was back to all Italian. Sarah and Lucas came over again today. They are so sweet and Sarah wants so much to be able to understand me. So she and I seem to be working out some weird English/ Italian language. Now Alice is doing exactly what everyone of my nieces does, she is playing with my hair. This just proves my thoughts before I left the Stati Uniti, all children are the same.

Rome

I am not captioning pictures but I will definitely tell about my grand adventure. My family left for Pescara on Thursday so I got to sleep in before class (8am). I cleaned up around the house before I left and took my bags with me. I went to class it was another really long 2 hour game of what the hell is going on but whatever. Then I grabbed a quick bite with my classmates and caught the metro to the train and rode the train to Rome. Its going to sound weird but even the landscape just looks completely different.

So a long train ride later I was at the central station in Rome. From there I caught the subway to a stop where I met Heather. I had never met or seen her before so it was another mini-adventure. The theme of this experience seems to be that I go somewhere and meet someone I have never met before.


We met up and of course started out my trip to Rome with a gelato. We talked about what are lives are like and it was great. because I could say things like "no dice" and she understood. Also she has been here for 4 months doing the au pair thing so that was great for tips too. Heather is the one on the far right and a friend she met on the train named Amanda is in the middle of the picture. Friday night she had to babysit so we hung out in another one of those nice apartments in Rome this time. She taught me how to play a new card game called Barooco. It's a lot of detailed stuff but fun enough. Oh yeah and by the way she's one of 5 kids and an Education major graduate.

Anyways so we did not really see anything that night we went out on Saturday and i'm positive it was completely different from any other tourist experience ever. Friends of Heather's, Emilio, he is Italian and Amanda met up with us. We just kind of wandered and saw so much. I threw my 1 euro cent in the Trevi fountain and saw the Pantheon, Colloseum, Spanish steps, and the capital building. I'm sure there is more but it is hard to list it all off the top of my head. But it was great because I just got to wander and see things at my own pace. There was no pressure to rush we just saw what we saw. At one point there was a drum circle in the middle of a side road, so of course we stopped and hung out. The people I was with were big hippies. It was so much fun.

We picked up a couple bottles of wine on our way to dinner and shared the whole way there. For diner we ate pizza at a place started by a man from Naples (the birthplace of pizza) with ingredients all from Naples. Of course we had pizza, wine, fried rice balls and lemoncello. It was another four hour dinner; it was perfect. After dinner we went to a bar for a few quick drinks en route to other things and ended up staying until like 3 am. Then Heather and I made our way home. All and all it was a great day. I listened to a lot of Italian and even picked up some new words. Yeah! Then Sunday Heather and I saw a few more sights and I headed home.

But on to today briefly... It's not as exciting but Alice and I had a good day. She only cried for a very brief moment until Francesca came home and then she of course cried a lot. We went to the park and played and played and played. Oh yeah and all weekend Alice apparently kept asking where I was, so with the new words I have learned and all. I seem to be moving in the right direction.


P.S. this huge ass gelato is what happens when you joke with cute Italian boys. It was about twice the size of everybody else's and I could not even finish it.

Home safe

This one is going to brief because I did not so much sleep while I was in Rome and it is really mostly for mom. I made it back to Milan safely and I will post some of the 100 pictures and the more family appropriate anecdotes about Rome tomorrow.

Free for the weekend

My Italian family has left for Pescara and I am free for the next few days. I am headed to Rome tomorrow, yay. There will be lots of pictures. Oh yeah and Francesca's parting words to me were watch out for the Italian boys... This is the best idea I may have ever had.

I have the best Italian family ever

Well I have the best American family too, but as you all know my Italian family is going to Pescara this weekend so I get it off. I am going to Rome for the weekend. I am leaving on Friday after class and riding the train. Then they put me in contact with one of their friend's au pairs (Heather). And she is so sweet she is happy to show me some of Rome, there will be a little watching of the kids but I do not mind. And to top it all off Andrea just called their friend (Fatima) and she is excited for me to come and be part of her family. So what we all get out of this is that the housing and some food will be free. God this is awesome. I'm so excited.

Tuesday

Today I took Jacopo to school and Francesca took Alice to school. Alice has to be there at 9ish which means 9 or a little later, so seeing as I had class at 9 that would be hard to accomplish. So I left at 8:10 and dropped Jacobo off no problem and then I set about walking to my school. I walked and walked and then I was looking for the next direction or somethig familiar and I did not see anything. Crap, I was lost (first time so far, yeah me). I walked a little further and then just gave up and admitted that I needed help so I called Francesca, on my Italian cell phone, and seeing as I did not even know where I was lost, she said the brilliant thing and told me to ask for directions. The first person did not know and the second did not either, mind you all of this was done with a lot of gesturing and very few words. But the second person was a nice little old Italian lady who helped me find two very cute police officers who gave me directions and I was on my way. So you all know I was like 2 blocks from where I needed to be all along. I could probably get lost in a paper bag. Oh well only a half hour late I finally found my way to class.

So as Janet requested (even though I have spoken to her about it) I will give you more details about my class and classmates. There is a whole "hodge-podge" of people; a couple Japanese, several Germans, a Polish guy, one American, one Australian and a British girl. That's not all of the people but you can kind of get the picture. It's just a lot of random people. Some are au pairs others just seem to have moved here. I think now that the teacher secretly speaks English because she pulled out several sentences today?! Anyways its all in Italian still, which works except I (and everyone else) never understand the directions. So, I survived another 1.5 really long hours of class. It's the hardest thing I think I've learned in a while its really annoying to understand nothing I feel like I am learning more with my family. To be fair though they discuss more than my name and what country I am from. Here I will insert the Italian word of the day basta (stop). Somehow I feel like I say this a lot. Go figure with a stubborn 3 year old in my charge.

Anyways so after class I went out with 2 of the girls from it, one is from London (I went out with her on Friday) and the other from Germany. So what did we but what we always do. We went window shopping. And I found out that both of them are or intend to be in fashion school. So basically I learned all about Prada, Gucci, Armani, what's in and what's not... Fair warning fussy clothes are coming back in lots of lace and cut up strips on shoes. I somehow felt compelled to buy nothing. But it was really good exercise and really interesting.

Let's see as for the children today picked them up from school. Alice cried the whole way from her school to Jacopo's which amazingly did not really bother me at all. She just wanted her mom. Then we got back back home and played with Matteo (2 year old neighbor). His mother speaks a little English but mostly we just played with the kids. After a while we came back to our home and shortly after were joined by the next door neighbor kids, Lucas (10) and Sara (8). They came and played until Francesca got home and fed Jacopo. Then the rest of us had pizza. Andrea is supposedly coming back from Pescara tonight. We will see. I think I am out for the night. I love you all.

Alone with the kids

Had Sunday off so nothing to report there. And this morning I took the kids to school all by myself. There was no fuss; which seemed weird since every other time i've taken Alice there has been a big fit. But anyways took them to school with no problems. Now I just have 7 hours to my self for whatever. I have a lot of free time I realize so now I need to figure out what to do with it. Suggestions are welcome.

Saturday

Not much to report hung out with the whole bunch today. Alice seems to go forward a step and back two. Oh and Jacopo decided today that he can walk. So he's now taking a few steps here and a few steps there. It is making Francesca a wreck because he could fall and that is dangerous. Oh well I take nervous mothers in stride and accept it. But all in all having a great time just living in Milan. You know I realize I live a very rough life. Ciao I have tomorrow off so I will maybe go get you pictures Aunt Kay of the mall next to duomo.

Au pair wanted

Last post for the day but I keep forgetting Francesca has a co-worker who is looking for an au pair. So if anyone would like to move over here with me there is a job waiting. This is for real if you guys know anyone. Night.

Thank you guys

I am so glad to hear that you guys are enjoying my posts, but I want you guys to feel free to leave comments including whats going on at home. The blogs are about my day to day and even though I am on the other side of the world (ish), I want to keep up with whats going on there. How the wedding plannings going? Payne's hair growing back in and Linde getting her cast off, Amanda's goings on, Thea, Caeli, Claire, Catherine and Emily doing whatever etc. I love you guys and I am glad this is working out great for everyone. Its a lot like a journal for me, which is great for remembering this grand adventure in the future. And I love having references to whatever else was going on in our collective worlds.

On another note my phone tends to work here if anyone needs to talk unfortunately it's been dead for a few days and will be dead until the charger gets here (mom's sending it; Thanks mom, you are always my hero). Also mom I would expect you will find the cat has stolen the car keys. She does that; goodness she's trouble. Oh and if anyone wants to get in touch with me my e-mail is probably the best and cheapest way at e_mistretta@yahoo.com.

Important to my life now, I finally got a glass for my shower so now it no longer has plastic taped up to the edges. And my legs are so tired from all of the walking. Jacob's name is Jacopo and Alicia =Alice; somehow in a strange place with all new pronunciations of everything, I got them spelled wrong. It's all new and we did not spell it out for a couple days. So from here on I will spell their names right, silly me.

Also Jacopo had a bloody nose today. He's had a cold and we have been cleaning his nose constantly. It did not make me nervous but today was the last day their old babysitter was helping me pick them up and she freaked. There was lots of talking in Italian all nervous like and quickly. She even called Francesca who came home early but was not upset when she got here and saw the whole situation. I'm pretty sure his nose was just dried out and he will be fine. And Alice is finally accepting that I am here to stay and is answering my English in Italian. Its very interesting to observe and I guess live.

Tomorrow is Saturday; I will have to work but mostly as an assistant to the parents so no big deal. I expect there will be some random dinner and socializing with people. Then I have all day Sunday to myself but seeing as I really do not know anyone I will probably hang out with Francesca and Andrea this weekend. Then next weekend is supposed to be my first trip to Rome. There are not any set plans so we will see. Ciao.

P.S. gelato gets better every time I try it. And they pretty much eat it every day which is no problem since it has like a quarter of the fat of ice cream. Sweet moving to a foreign country weight loss program. And oh yeah walking a million miles a day is a great plan, but they do not seem to eat many vegetables. Lots of pasta though, oh and we had fish and potatoes for dinner it was delicious. The fish was even served with the head, tail and skeleton intact. Oh and Kay I have been through Via Montenapoleone twice already that's where the four similar pictures are from I will stop and take pictures of the shops for you next time I'm there. Keep sending me suggestions and questions and I will happily keep answering. Hope everyone is doing well. Sorry I'm rambling. Ciao for now.

My schedule

OK, Jeff this is for you. I am bad at explaining things with writing but here goes. I have to help with the children from 7-9ish. I drop them off on my way to school, where I am learning Italian. Then I pick the children up at 4 and take care of them until their parents get home at 6ish and help out until 8ish or after dinner which tends to be later. But in Italy people seem to work from whenever they get to work until they feel like leaving. It is all very lax and people do kind of whatever they want. Does this help?

1st day of school

So to start off the teacher does not speak any English. She just speaks Italian and expects us to follow its very weird. But I also got to meet some other people who spoke English which will be the better part for me. Oh yeah I guess I will learn to speak Italian too. But I went out to lunch with one of the English speakers from London which was great because I got to speak English quickly without having to slow myself down.

We stopped at a random place where I had broccoli quiche and Coca-cola. Then we went on a search for our textbook. We went into 3 bookstores and finally found someone who recognized the name of the book but when we went where it was supposed to be they were all out. So anyways we were by the duomo so I took pictures for you guys.


It was so much fun, because as usual for me it was just a big observational psychology experiment. There are so many differences. Including it is a much more social culture. If you know someone you always stop and talk no matter what else is going on.





















These four paintings are inside the mall next to the duomo. Just around the ceiling. It is amazing how much detail is in even the simplest places.


This is the good luck bull. You spin on one heel on his "private area" for good luck. Even the locals when they walked passed would stop and spin.

Now here are the pictures of Na Villa my landmark if I ever get lost, along with the church of Saint Christopher.




















That's all for now. Enjoy.

Routinage

I do not know what day it is. But I am supposed to be going to school tomorrow and then it is the weekend and who knows. I will definitely post more later. Tomorrow after class at noonish my time 6am your time I guess.

Things are starting to form a routine

The routine is that I go with Francesca to take the kids to school and then hang out for a while around "Na Villa" and eventually I make it back home (an hour or so later) and I spend time doing nothing until I have to pick the kids up again. The renovations on the house are almost done, but I am pretty sure by now Francesca and I could have gotten it done faster. Never hire an Italian born handyman. It has taken 4 days to put together stuff from IKEA and Francesca has had to explain what needed to be done every step of the way. Things are starting to be more normal.

It is all setup for me to go to language school starting next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 9-11 am until February and that should help me get my work visa and understand what is going on around me. I have not actually worried about it since I got here because they did not even bother to ask me why i was here when they stamped my passport. But I know it should be done.

But anyways I'm so excited because the parents I am working for are so sweet; Francesca and I went out to lunch today and I gave in and had a burger (ours in the US are definitely better). Also they seem as excited as I am about me traveling in Italy and figuring out how to manage to see as much as possible as cheaply and safely as possible. In 2 weeks they are going to ?Pescara? to have their son baptized. They are leaving on that Thursday so they offered to help me get a train ticket and take that weekend to go to Rome where they have a friend who also has an au pair from America. That way I can see Rome and speak English as quickly as I like. Yeah. That seems to be the most difficult part for people I speak too fast. Go figure. But anyways alls good here and interesting and different.

Food this week has pretty simple; Spaghetti (which actually had a very light sauce), Sushi, and tonight we had noodles with cheese and prepackaged but very good Chicken Cordon Bleu. The only thing I have tried that I really did not like was the espresso. It was too bitter and coffee tasting for me, go figure.

Some notes to random people... Janet I feel like I'm living in art school all of the time, people are so fashionable its almost painful. And mom if you want to be allowed to be a fat, happy grandma you should move here. The grandmas all pick their grandchildren up from school and take them to the park where they gossip while the kids play.

I think thats all for now i'll write you all later.

Day 4

Not much to report. So I will give you pictures. This is Alicia and Fredricko her friend, his parents are the ones I had mentioned (Michael and Marie, friends of Francesca and Andrea). Oh yeah and Andrea gets back tomorrow so that will be nice with another parent to help out.

Day 3

Not much to report. Francesca and I took the kids to school this morning. Then I slept I think I have a bit more jet lag than I want to admit. Francesca went to work after directing the workers what to do in the kitchen; meanwhile they worked on the kitchen. Andrea has gone out of town for the week, so its just us and the kids in the chaos. The kitchen is just missing cabinet doors right now. Tomorrow they are supposed to come put them up. Then Wednesday I am supposed to get a glass door for my bathroom. And maybe eventually a wall for my bedroom. Jacob and I got to hang out a fair amount this afternoon. We went to the garden to play. Today Alicia had a play date and is still gone. Francesca thinks tomorrow I will be able to get into the language school near here. I'm really confused today about what all i'm doing for them. Right now I guess I seem to be more of a mother's assistant than anything. I expect in the next couple of weeks I will become more independent with the kids and in Milan. Maybe then it will make more sense. Everything is just kind of in turmoil here right now. It was a pretty uneventful day, well except that I had my first gelato. It was 1/2 pistachio and 1/2 chocolate. It was good but just kind of tasted like regular ice cream. I'm sure it is not the same but either way it was good.

Day 2

My wall .................................... My bed

Desk in my room ......................... My closet which I have since put clothes in

I had another fun day. The house is still in turmoil but one worker came today so Andrea and Francesca had to help out. So Alicia, Jacob, and I had our first outing to the "garden" (it is basically a playground in the middle of the apartments). It was great because I had the oportunity to be alone with them and see how they would interact with me. The three of us did fine. Jacob is a very sweet little 1 year old and Alicia is a stubborn 3 year old. When her parents are around she just wants me to go away. But when it was just the 3 of us I was the adult she had to deal with to get what she wanted. Lots of motioning but much success. I am of course picking up Italian quickly since I have to or else be lost and confused forever. Andrea and Michael speak pretty good English and Francesca is getting better everyday, but it is still really hard to be in a foreign country where I do not speak the language.

Then some of their friends, Marie and Michael, came over and after a while we went to get Pizza. It was delicious, kind of like thin crust. You get a whole pizza (probably about 12"); you have to use a steak knife and fork to cut it into slices, then you fold the slice in half and eat it sandwich style.

After lunch we walked and walked and walked we went all the way to the center of the city of Milan. It was me, Francesca and Marie, who does not speak much English. We shopped (at H&M) but only when we got to the center of town because everywhere else the stores were all closed. Alicia fell asleep and napped for almost 2 hours while Jacob was kind of wimpy off and on and finally he was just done. So Francesca and Jacob went home; Marie, Alicia (still asleep) and I continued on to the city center. There I spun on the customary good luck balls of the bull. By the way Dan and Hannah that was not a dent from use; it is a hole in the ground.

There seems to be a fair amount of reconstruction work being done on the buildings but covering all of the scaffolding is pictures of the building behind it. Very weird. It was again crowded chaos. I forgot my camera today so I will have to take pictures another day. And mom I do not even know where to begin with differences. The architecture is so different, old and covered in graffiti. At this point I was so tired but Marie, Alicia and I rode the bus back to "Navilla" across the road from the Church of Saint Christoper. So we came home and played with Alicia and Jacob. Francesca fed the kids and then after Jacob was in bed we ate it was breaded chicken and sliced tomatos with olive oil and basil. Its 9:22 here and Alicia is still up and she stayed up until 11pm last night. Ciao for now I must go to sleep we have to take the kids to school tomorrow morning. I hope everyone is having a great time at home and loving on my animals for me.

Oh and here are the pictures of my room. (By the way the voice in my head now has an Italian accent; its very strange.)

First Day

So I have now been in Italy for an entire day and even been to my first Italian dinner party. I am so tired because of course yesterday and today have kind of run together at this point. I did fit in 2 short naps but by tomorrow I'm pretty sure I will be fine. I am so tired I cannot imagine anything else.

My family is great the mom is Fracesca and the dad Andrea, Jakob is 1 and Alicia is 3. Its going to be very interesting Alicia is a little devil (really a guess just difficult). Francesca and I went to grocery store today, its twice the size of a Kroger and way more crowded. The employees are just running around trying to put stuff out and it seemed like there was no way to know if they had what you wanted or where it was. It seemed more like a guessing game and you just had to search for what you needed. I seem to be taller than most anyone which is ackward and weird. I am having a blast just observing everyone and everything. Most of the people do not seem to speak English so I am just smiling a lot and look confused. One short little Asian lady at the grocery store asked me (i'm sure very politely) to get her 2 milks down and after much pointing and repetition I figured out what she wanted and helped.

Then we had the last minute dinner party come up. Which they told me we could go to it or skip and since its the first I figured why not. There were 4 couples, 4 children and me. I was told I was a guest and that the children would play fine on their own and I did not need to be in the room with them but I should just sit and eat. It was a different kind of experience because only 3 of them spoke English. So Andrea translated what was going on and I mostly just enjoyed my dinner and tried to catch a word or two. It is now midnight here and we just got home. I am so tired I will update you on our going ons more tomorrow.

Im here

I had a lot to write on the plane so there are probably about three posts in this one.

To start with what I wrote on the plane.

So short layover in Philly. Including an announcement that the flight had so few people that people who were seated between rows 4-14 would have to be moved to the back of the plane for takeoff. Then we could of course all spread out to other seats. Its like empty there are easily two seats per person which is much better than my last few overnight flights where I’ve been crammed in the corners. It all works out well in the end. And I’m off on the greatest adventure of my life (thus far). Who knows maybe I will become crazy grandma.

I’m on the plane writing down my thoughts because I never look forward to a flight. I get nervous about the take off and landing, but I am forget about the part in between where its like you get to float above the clouds. I just keep thinking about how I’m flying to a whole new adventure over the ocean. How exciting: and nerve wracking… Especially when I think about the fact that I am getting a new family of sorts to be a part of at the other end.

But now i'm here with a very cute Italian family; two tiny (skinny and short) family and two very sweet kids. I am in fact in a loft in Milan. It's a converted warehouse for more apartment style living. They are in the middle of a lot of renovations including adding a wall to make up my room. There are blankets for me right now. I'm so excited and they are just as sweet as they can be. They love to travel and want to show me Italy while I am here. I will post more later. I love you guys and will miss you.

Got it finally!

Everybody needs to keep in mind that my plane leaves at 12:40pm today. So yesterday mom and I tracked down the "Callie" in the Miami-ish post office yesterday and I probably talked to him about 42 times. He was so great he even called me at work right after he had put the package on the truck to Atlanta. Then this morning about 9:30 we went to the Chamblee post office and after talking to the woman behind the counter for a long time she finally told us that packages go from South of the city (the big distribution center) to the North Atlanta blah de-blah and where it was. So my and I drove there. We arrived about 10:15am where we explained the whole situation. The woman behind the counter checked for us when we got there and then I hung out in a chair in the lobby while mom went to the bank. I sat there and eventually heard a announcement for the incoming Express mail delivery. So after the woman behind the counter got done with her customer I told her I thought I had heard the announcement. She went to the back and found my package which she handed over to me and had me sign but she never checked my ID. Now I am just sitting in the Atlanta airport at D23 waiting to get on my first plane, so I can get on my second plane to go to Milan. I am so excited and so nervous I will post when I get there and send you guys pictures of my new home and new family.

LOST AND FOUND

Well my passport has been found but now we are not sure how to make sure it gets to me by 10 o'clock tomorrow so that I can fly to Philly and then Milan.

Passport MIA

So I knew better but I sent my passport to Miami last Friday to give this whole legally moving to Italy thing one last try. And now it is unaccounted for. When you call the Italian consulate all you get is a voice mail and even better is that it flat out says that they will not return your phone calls. So I finally gave up and called DC to complain and see how they could help. I listen to the phone ring about 50 times before someone picked up but then they kindly gave me the Miami consulate's secretaries number. So I called them and refused to leave a voicemail; I wanted to talk to a person to get it resolved. So finally after about 4 people telling me they had not seen, a lady got on the phone and said maybe they sent it to the wrong office. I think she was American because when she spoke English there was no accent. So now I am sitting here stewing and waiting to find out where it got to. Maybe it went to the office where Italian citizens get passports? Or god knows where, boy its good to be a Mistretta? I'll report back in a little while. Fingers crossed I will get to leave the country tomorrow.

Starting to become real

So you guys will have to be patient, I am not as computer savvy as Tony. But i'm going to give this blog thing a try so you guys can know what I doing. I am about 2 days away from departure and I have finally quit procrastinating and packed. I fit it all pretty comfortably in 2 suitcases. So here I am at work for my last 2 days (both of which are 11 hours) trying to make sure I have everything done.