I am staring at my secret santa gift right now but its still wrapped. Also I got a call in Italian yesterday telling me something, conversations in another language are really hard on the phone. So Francesca called for me this morning and they needed a copy of my passport before they could send my presents to the US. They said it was held up in Ghana. I'm not sure why there but as usual I just smile and nod. So now I am sure my secret santa gift will be late. Sorry but I will say your gift is pretty awesome so you cannot be too upset. There is like one person at the post office who speaks English so that was fun. I find explaining stuff about mail is not easy in any language, specially one you do not speak very well. And they asked for a fiscal code which I do not have since I am still living here illegally and the Austrailian who happened to standing next to me helped explain that and that I do not have one. So after about half an hour I think things got figured out and hopefully my package will get there soon. My Italian is better but not quite mail good. Able to talk to the porter and Alice and other children is what I can do.
Apparently a kid in Alice's school poked her in the eye with the scissors so she is home now and amazingly Francesca is not freaked out about it. But she is taking her to the doctor today. Socialized medicine weirds me out the way that they do it here. There really are not prescription drugs and when Alice or Jacopo are sick they just go to the drugstore and the pharmacist sells them some medicine based i guess on what they tell him. It's very strange.
Oh also I do not think that people here get quite how exhausting it is to work with kids. There were 5 children here last night for like 4 hours and I was telling Francesca how tired I was and she just looked at me like I was crazy. It was Alice (who is beyond stubborn), Jacopo (who is just a 1 year old trouble maker), Sarah (who tries to help but tens to just cause more trouble), Asia (who is 4 and somehow best friend and enemy of Alice) and Frederico (who is sweet but just too quiet and easily upset when the others start telling him what to do). It was a lot; oh yeah and Jacopo has decided that he only wants to be in my arms at all times. So even a day later i'm pretty tired.
I'm sure there is more but I don't know what right now so I will leave with a picture of our fake Christmas tree. It is about the size of the whole first floor. Ciao. I love you all and miss you.
2 comments:
Maybe she doesn't understand how tired you got with 4 kids because she hired an au pair to help with her 2?
Italy to Ghana to the U.S (though maybe a stop or 2 in between)? Sounds direct to me!!! :-)
Christmas tree looks great, though not the 1200 lights that Mike put on ours.
Love you!
Glad you like your gifts. How much did you end up paying in import duty? Sounds like 2 and a half times what the trinkets cost. (Not counting the secret Santa gift - that is really nice.) Shipping was ridiculous too, but I had so much fun tracking the package. I was living vicariously through UPS shipping updates.
Christmas is too much for all kids. That is why Jeff never slept through the night from Thanksgiving to February until he was about 10 years old. But we all need some excitement.
I was talking with Liping and she said her family/friends in China think her life in the USA must be so exciting. But in fact it is mostly work, cooking and usual stuff - pretty boring. I guess it is like that after 3 months no matter where you move. And kids in Italy are pretty much like kids in Atlanta - a lot of work. Maybe that is why I have no memory of 1988 to 1994.
Love you. Mom
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