Warning: What you read may disturb you deeply and shake your very being to the core.

The North American Mullet, thought to have been eradicated in the early part of the 21st century, may soon be reappearing at a shopping mall near you. If indications and research are correct, the European strain of Mullet has withstood eradication and is, in fact, repopulating at immeasurable speeds. The European Mullet, more specifically the Italian Mullet has found itself a stronghold amongst both Italian youth and even adults seem to be unable to resist. There are signs that it may also be mutating. Vicious strains of mutations such as the ‘Rat Tail’ are also growing at alarming rates. We will begin documenting this phenomenon in hopes to curtail this epidemic from reentering the United States. Much like the Asian Bird Flu, if it reaches American shores, there’s no telling what kind of damage it could inflict. It’s too late for us but there is still hope for all of you. If it does come to pass, please, heed our advice, stock your bomb shelters with plenty of hair clippers, scissors, water and canned fruit and vegetables and remain underground until the bells of victory ring throughout the land.

If you have any questions, contact the Center for Disease Control (www.cdc.com) or consult your nearest barber or hair stylist.

Job Hunting

Today we set out with high hopes to drop off a couple of CV's (Italian version of a resume) at a few language schools around Rome. We figured there was a good chance that the schools would not be open or would no longer be in business. But our hopes wouldn't be dashed easily! The good news is that we found three schools. The bad news, however, is that one was no longer in business and the other two are closed until September. We'll probably hunt for a few more before our vacation but we know that it will be more of a recon mission than an actual chance to drop off our CV's.

In other news...

We're going stir crazy waiting to move into our new place and for our trip to Spain but we'll make it. Only 5 more days til we're off to the biggest food fight in the world!

We Have Found the Perfect Home

The front gate of Villa Verde

So, for those of you who have been keeping track, you may know that we have been having some trouble finding an apartment because of a combination of our lack of language skills and everyone in Rome being on vacation. Thankfully, the bad luck has ended and we have found the greatest place to live EVER. It is a little outside of Rome (a short train ride takes us to the central Rome train station), and it feels like decades away from the city life.

Charles at the plum tree

First of all, our landlord is named Dante, he is a man in his late 50s, and he speaks Italian, Spanish, and English. On his beautiful villa we are renting a private cottage with all the amenities of home (tv, internet, etc). On his sprawling estate we have a tennis court, a gorgeous swimming pool, and a peaceful garden.

The gorgeous swimming pool

Now for the clencher. Dante has a small vineyard and has been harvesting and making his own wine for about three years now. Not only that, but he has olive trees and plans to press his own olive oil for the first time this year. Does this sound like a fantasy to anyone else but us??

The property

So, of course, we had to rent this place, despite the commute we will face, because we are going to follow him around like lost puppies and learn the arts of wine making and olive oil pressing. It's like our Italian fantasy world, it's unbelievable. In addition to this, he rents rooms out of his beautiful home, so when you (that's all of you) come to visit us you can easily stay in a private room right near our cottage. Va bene!

Some of Dante's grapes

A Day at the Lago

In celebration of earning our TEFL certificates Allie and I decided to get out of Rome and have a picnic at Lago di Bracciano. All of our classmates having been going on and on about how beautiful this lake is so we figured it was a good time to check it out. We packed up our lunches and our sunscreen and headed for the train station. After about an hour on the train it started to rain! We decided that no matter what, we were going to go to this lake and have a picnic.

The rain subsided as we pulled into the station but there was still major cloud cover but, hey, at least it wasn't raining. Then as we walked through the little town and towards the lake it started to pour on us. Of course, we had no umbrella, so we trooped through all the while cursing our foul luck. As luck would have it, the rain stopped right as we reached the lake and the sun actually started to peek out from the clouds.

We ended up having a really nice, relaxing, entertaining and well deserved day at the lake. In fact, I have a nice sunburn to prove it. We also had some great entertainment around us as well. Some crazy Italian (we've ran into quite a few) was talking to himself in between doing laps in the lake and the worst 10 sit-ups and 10 push-ups we'd ever seen. We think that he also faked a few phone calls as well so he could talk to himself even louder. There was also some naked kid running around getting slapped by his mother and yelling "Ciao!" at us.

Check out the pictures of the lake under the Scenery in the photo gallery.

All in all it was a great day and we've got a new place to go for cheap entertainment. Today, we're off to IKEA for some cheap crappola for the lake.

love,
charles and Allie

We Passed!

After a month of stress, we finally received our reward. As of today, we're TEFL certified to teach English to non-English speakers. We're both elated to be through with the course but now things are really going to get tough. We'll be losing our safety net of the school and its resources but we're pretty sure the people at the school would be willing to help us out in a pinch.

Our access to the internet will be really limited until we can find another apartment and get settled in. We've got a few leads but everyone in Italy is on holiday. The best we can say is that we'll be posting sporadically for now but we'll try our best to keep you all informed.


into the wilderness...
Love,
charles and Allie

I Think We Passed

Hey everybody, we just finished up with our grammar test so we're officially done with the course. I'm pretty sure Allie aced it pretty easily. It was a little tougher for me but the teacher told me she graded mine and I passed too! I can't even explain how difficult this course has been for us (especially me) and how rewarding it feels to have made it through.

However, there is no rest for the weary. We have to find an apartment, jobs, get work or student visas and learn Italian. I think that's actually the short list too.

I'm not sure what we're going to be up to this weekend but we'll take some photos and have some fun basking in the victory before the reality of the situation really sets in. Geez, I'm such a downer. haha.

charles and Allie

Travel Plans Update

So, previously we indicated that our plans for a vacation were a food journey to Bologna, Modena, and Parma. Well, we've changed our minds. We are still going to take that trip sometime in the near future, but our big vacation plan is now a 5 day trip to Spain. We decided we had to get there in time for La Tomatina (google it) which falls on the last Wednesday in August (sorry Diego, but it only comes once a year!). So, on August 27th we fly out of Rome and into Valencia. We founda pretty cheap hotel with a pool, so we're just gonna relax and enjoy the sun before getting drenched in squashed tomatoes! Hopefully we'll have lots of hilarious pictures to put on the website, but I don't want to ruin our camera, so we'll see.

Today we just had our teaching methodology test, so we are one down and only one looming grammar test to go. Lots of studying will be done tonight, and tomorrow we have a party with the school after the test is finished. Other than that we are still apartment searching (it's so difficult when you can't communicate, but one of the teachers here has offered to help us). Most of Rome is shut down at this point as everyone is headed off to the sea for their summer vacation. It's an unbelievable sight to literally see a block with no open restaurants or shops, but I guess when they say vacation they mean it.

Chuck and Alsie

The True Spirit of Italy

So instead of studying on all day on Saturday as we had planned, we decided to make a trip to the famous Trevi Fountain. It's a very remarkable sight to see and a great place to people watch too. The legend surrounding the Fountain is that if you toss a coin into the fountain, backwards and over your shoulder you will return to Rome. If you toss another coin, you'll fall in love with an Italian. Finally, if you toss a third coin, you'll fall in love and marry an Italian. So as you can imagine, there is a lot of money being tossed into the Trevi Fountain by the massive crowd.

As we marvelled at the beauty of the fountain we noticed a twenty-something reaching into the fountain (practically swimming) and picking up the coins and putting them in his pockets. Out of nowhere, an older Italian guy starts yelling at him and we started rooting for the old Italian guy to teach him a lesson. The old guy walked away and they came back and yelled at him some more. We were really enjoying the show and thought for sure the younger guy would stop reaching into the fountain. He didn't, in fact he went deeper and deeper and pulled out even more coins. Then he decided to make his escape before he got into trouble.

The infamous Trevi Fountain

We were troubled by this because all of the coins pulled out of the Fountain go to various charities around Rome. As we discussed how awful it was to steal from charities we noticed the old man was back along the edge of the fountain. He scanned the crowd and from his sleeve, he pulled out a telescopic pole and dipped it into the fountain. About three seconds later, he reeled in his catch, looked to be four or five coins probably at least 5 euros or more. He did this a few more times then moved on.

We were shocked and were wondering where the police were or if they even cared about this stuff. All of a sudden, another guy showed up and dipped his pole into the water and did the same thing as the old guy. Some people were taking pictures, videotaping or just standing around with the same shocked looked on their faces as we had.

Moral of the story: if you ever go to the Trevi Fountain (which you should) thow your coins as far as you can!

Here is a link to a really interesting story about a homeless man that pulled up hundreds of thousands of euros over thirty years at the fountain.

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/07/31/italy.fountain/index.html?related

Congratulations to Our Friends Bola and Kelly and One Step Closer to Teaching!

Today's posts are in celebration of a few great recent achievements.

Warning: I have used quite a few exclamation points in the following paragraphs.

A quick shout out and congrats to our wonderful and brilliant friends Bola and Kelly for finding new jobs outside of Ellensburg! We all really loved Eburg but on to bigger and better! So a heartfelt congratulations to Bola and Kelly! We wish we could have been at your going away party but we'll have a few in your honor this evening.

Today, Allie and I finished our classroom teaching requirements! It feels like such a relief to be that much closer to receiving our certificates. We still have a lot to learn before we begin our tests on Tuesday but we're both confident that we will be teaching (for money!) in no time. The last three weeks have been a real test of strength/endurance for us but we've persevered and luckily I have Allie to tutor me through many of my problems.

As always we miss you all and thank you so much for your posts, we love to read them everyday as soon as we get to school. If it wasn't for those quick little smile-makers we would be much more stressed out.

Charles and Alsie

One of the Things I Love About Italy

So if you've read any of my previous posts, you'd probably think life in Italy is too hard and very little fun. You'd be right, based on our experience so far.

Yesterday, Allie and I were going to get a couple pieces of pizza (Roman Style - square, not round, pick out how much you want) during our lunch break. Allie was asking me what I wanted to drink with the pizza, choices were: Coke, think 2.00 euros (11.2oz/2.25 dollars), bottled water 4 euros (1liter/4.50 dollars) or a delicious 25oz beer for 2.50 euros. I'm sure you can already figure out which one we chose.

The greatest part about the experience wasn't being able to get a beer (which is cheaper than soda) with the pizza but it was being able to drink it OUTSIDE on a bench, while we enjoyed our pizza. You can actually walk around with beer, ride the bus, the metro, and probably even drive while drinking a beer, which may, in retrospect, explain the driving habits of most Italians.

Things are looking up! Charles and Allie

It's the Simple Things

So for the last couple weeks we've been facing quite a conundrum at night. We have two choices, open the windows and let in all of the nasty mosquitos and stay a little cooler or we can close the windows and let the room become a sweatbox. We've been opting for the former but the bug spray and all that hasn't deterred the little buggers a bit. Luckily for me, they always target Allie and I usually get away with only a few bites and they aren't too big at all.

Finally, after alot of research and questioning, we found a solution! A FAN! Hooray! Simple right? Just go to Home Depot or Target! Unfortunately, finding a fan in Italy is like finding the Holy Grail or discovering a unicorn. After much agony (and mosquito bites) we finally found a place that sold fans, they had three models. The smallest was 45 euros (think desktop fan and around 60 dollars), we asked about the other models and they said numbers we have yet to figure out the meaning of.

Pressing on, unrelentlessly, we walked up the street and found a store that had a standing fan for sale. We figured this had to be in upwards of a 100 euros based on the last store. In Italy, nothing has a price on it, so we had to ask in our best broken Italian how much it was. Of course, we couldn't understand what he said, so we asked, er, mimed to him to write it down. To our amazement the fan was only 18.80 euro! We thanked our lucky stars that we had found one of the last fans for sale in all of Italy and toted it home proudly, much like a mother and father leaving the hospital with a newborn.

In Italy, nothing is easy but it is oh so sweet when you finally figure out what your doing. Charles and Allie.