All We Can Say is SORRY!!

Yes, we are still alive.
Yes, we celebrated a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends.
Yes, we took a lot of pictures and have wonderful stories to tell you all.
Yes, we will put them up soon!

Please be patient, our internet is gone (again) and we are working about 40 hours a week right now finishing our last lessons for the Italian Air Force contract which ends at Christmas.

Oh So Modern!

This weekend we decided to do something a bit different. Instead of the usual Italian traditional fare that we feast on until our bellies explode, we decided that we'd like to try a modern twist on Italian cuisine.

Recently Charles had heard about a restaurant in Trastevere doing just this. A young American who works as a cook in this hostaria came into Abbey Pub and recommended it to Charles. We checked out the place online (www.glass-hostaria.com)and decided that it would be fun to try something different. Also, for me, it's a good chance to get a little dressed up and feel pretty for the night!

This same weekend I had my haircut, and I was so excited when the stylist asked if I'd like my hair straightened (and I understood her!). I haven't had my hair straight in over a year and a half, and if you remember me back home, you know it's how I prefer my hair. Since living here I haven't even owned a blow-dryer, let alone a straightening iron!!

Straight hair Allie...remember me??

But having my hair all did, and getting all the compliments and seeing the astonished faces really inspired me to go out and get some of the necessary equipment so I can occasionally feel a bit glamorous.

So anyway...back to the dinner. It was really delicious!

No, but seriously, the experience was a little unique for us. All of the food is like that stuff you see on TV, little piles of strange things with greens on top, and sauces splashed just so on the funny shaped plate. The wine was excellent, and the dishes were familiar things done in a more interesting way. The highlight for us both was the ravioli. It was stuffed with an Amatriciana sauce, and topped with bacon! Sooooooo good!

Our Big Night Out!

Halloween 2007

It's catching on! Flashback ten years, and you wouldn't have found much to do with Halloween in Italy, but over the last few years it has proven to be a force to reckon with!

This year we saw more shops selling masks and simple costumes, or hanging decorations in their windows. I even saw a few kids headed to school in their costumes (I don't think you can even do that in America anymore)!

Since Chuckie was working, Isaac and I decided to get "decked" out with our limited resources and head to the Abbey to see what was going on. Since the moment Isaac arrived we've received nonstop comments about how alike we look. Not having much to work with in the way of costumes, we thought it would be best to take advantage of this fact, and just dress as each other for Halloween. Pretty, isn't he?

We met up with some friends at Abbey (A gangsta' and a Scottish fisher(wo)man). The pub was pretty busy, and there was a good amount of people actually wearing decent costumes! As Isaac would say, "We were stoked."

One of the best things about Halloween in Italy is that Nov. 1st is a national holiday (All Saint's Day), which means we don't have to work! So, regardless of the fact that Halloween landed on a Wednesday this year, we were able to stay out until all hours of the night without worry. America should adopt this holiday just for the sake of a worry-free Halloween night!

Florence

Since it turns out that 18-year-old boys are basically pretty lazy and not all that interested in seeing the beautiful and interesting historical sights of Rome, we decided to force some culture onto my baby bro.

We took an early bird train to Florence for a day of wandering the streets and eating some delicious steak.

The city is really beautiful, but oh so crowded! People flock to this mecca of art by the millions every year, and since we had chosen Saturday as our day of arrival, we were right in the thick of it.

People wandering around and taking photographs, groups of tourists being led through the streets with little earphones to listen to their guide's commentary, people selling awful reproductions of priceless works of art...you name it, and it was there.

Fortunately for us, we weren't interested in any of that. What we really came for was a delicious, fat, juicy, charbroiled Fiorentine steak, and man did we find it!
There is no other way to describe this beauty except to say that it was outstanding. Not only that, but it was preceeded by three delicious different pastas, and accompanied (of course) by a wonderful red wine. We were in fat belly heaven!
After our meal we hit the streets to check out some of the sites. It'd been a while since we had gone inside any churches, so we did that, and we wandered around a few piazzas, and before we knew it it was time to go! We had to leave a bit early in the afternoon in order for Charles to make it back to Rome in time to go to work at the pub. So, although we didn't do any museums this time around, we will definitely head back there soon!

Three Years!

Let me first just start by stating the obvious: We haven't put up the Amsterdam pics yet, and I know you are all cursing us as you go through withdrawals! They are coming, I swear!

In case you don't keep all of our important life dates committed to memory I'll give you some help. Today is our three-year wedding anniversary! We basically considered Amsterdam our celebration, and so tonight we are just relaxing together with a nice dinner.

My brother made it here finally, after getting stuck overnight in Bratislava and not bothering to call anyone and tell us he wouldn't be showing up until the following day (we had our first glimpse into what it's like being the parent of a teenager). But he's here now and having a great time so far. Sleeping until two in the afternoon, hanging out in the pub with Chuck, not caring to visit important historical sites of Rome, you know, everything you should do on vacation!

Besides all of this excitement there isn't much else to report. I'm afraid we say this all the time, but we will try to be better about regularly updating, and definitely we will get those Amsterdam pics up, hopefully this week!

Drugs are Bad, mmmk?

Getting a fake carriage ride at the Heiny Museum
(and yes, David and Chuck did coordinate their outfits)

We met up with a few guys that Allie knew from high school who just happened to be in Amsterdam at the same time we were. We spent the early part of the day wandering the infamous Red Light District then we made our way to the Heineken Museum for some fun. We thought is was going to be a really boring tour where you might get to look at some guys making beer. Wrong! It was probably the coolest "museum" we've ever been to! What other museum do you get three free beers and a sweet souvenir! None that I can remember. Plus you get to make silly videos to send to your friends and family, hopefully you guys got a laugh out of those. Charles is a really great dancer and singer and not stiff in front of the camera at all! So after the museum we got a quick bite for lunch and decided to go to the Van Gogh museum since we were in the vicinity.

David, Allie, and Bryan goofing off at the Heineken Museum

What a let down the Van Gogh museum was after the Heineken museum. I know what your thinking, Van Gogh is among the greats...blah blah. Stylistically he is good though he borrowed heavily from a number of his "influences" but his subject matter is what I find to be quite awful. He painted peasants and farm scenes because that is what everyone was doing at the time, not because he was inspired by it. Instead of his paintings being uplifting, they are a testimate to failure. But enough of that boring stuff...on to the drugs!

So after the Van Gogh museum we decided to part ways with the guys to get a little rest and before we met up with them for dinner at night. We rested, they didn't. One of the guys ate some "magic mushrooms" before we met up with them and one of the first things he said to Charles was that "These mushrooms are starting to kick in." Well, two hours later, the shrooms had fully kicked in.

The mushrooms were just starting to take effect

The four of us were having dinner in a Thai restaurant near the Red Light District and our friend was tripping out really hard. Not in a bad or scary way but in a hilarious, out of this world kind of way. We thought for sure we would get kicked out of the restaurant or other people would get pissed off at us because our friend was out of his mind doing all kinds of hilarious stuff. I don't know if I can do justice and provide a clear picture of what he was doing but I'll try. Think of a grown man, sitting in a chair, with his head completely thrown back, his eyes just slits but barely open and his hands in something of a prayer position near his throat. At random moments he would shout "yeah!" or smile so wide you wished you knew what he was seeing. Then would he suddenly come back to earth and do some Kung Fu type moves with his hands. Then just as quickly, change to position of exaltation by throwing his hands up to the sky and then back to cover his cheeks. Then back to the prayer position with his head fully thrown backwards. But in the true spirit of Amsterdam, no one cared. People across from us would look at us and mouth "Magic mushrooms?" and we would nod accordingly and then they would just smile knowingly and return to their conversation.

We were so embarrassed the whole time but we couldn't stop laughing after dinner was over. Being close to the Red Light District, I'm sure that all of those people especially the restaurant employees and locals had seen much worse going on in front of them. After a dinner like that we decided to call it a night.

Just a little fun in a wooden shoe!

Ah, Amsterdam!

Enjoying Some Freedom Fries!

What a great city. After having been in Rome for over year straight we were beginning to the think that the world was just like Rome and that every place was just as backwards. Turns out, that's not the case! Amsterdam is a very international city not only in terms of its population but it's cuisine and nearly everything else. Damn near every Amsterdammer speaks English without much difficulty. The streets are clean and clearly labeled, the buses and trams run regularly and are well-maintained, the people are friendly, the espresso isn't so great but the restaurants are fantastic. We decided that we would have no Italian food during this trip because, well, you can guess.

Allie and baby brother Isaac

We went crazy because the food available in Amsterdam is so close to what you might find in an American city. We had waffles in the morning, Allie had a waffle with banana, whipped cream and chocolate sauce! You would never find that in Rome. We ate a lot of Thai food, french fries, apple pie, cookies, you name it, we probably ate it. They also have a Ben and Jerry's near one of the restaurants we ate at! It was amazing, we split a Brownie Sundae with vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, and whipped cream! You are all probably thinking that we're crazy for getting so excited about a brownie sundae and some Thai food but in Rome, you really can't find such treats and so we haven't had anything like that in over a year! The Dutch apple pie is something that one must experience for themselves.

Charles Enjoying the Canal Scenery

The Airport Drama, Part 2

After nearly ruining our trip from the start, we arrived in Amsterdam an hour late due to some problems or whatever. At this point we didn't really care because we were so happy that we hadn't lost all of our money, nothing was going to get us down now. We headed for the baggage carousel to retrieve our bags. Charles was really impressed by the carousel because it had a display that said when the bags would start coming out! And they actually started coming out when the monitor said! Nothing like the airport in Rome where you don't know if your bags will ever come out or will ever even arrive at their destination.

One our our bags came out towards the end, then we waited and waited and waited. It was Allie's bag and the one that didn't have all of our coins. Finally the monitor said that all of the bags had been unloaded but there were about 5 people standing around with the same look as we had on our faces so we figured that they were missing bags too. A woman came to the carousel and explained that our bags didn't make the trip from our layover point to Amsterdam. We went to an office and gave them our contact information and where we were staying so they could deliver the bag to us when it arrived.

They thought it would arrive that evening about 730, but of course, it didn't. In fact it was a full day later before it showed up so Charles had to wear the same stank clothes for 2 days, not very nice. Finally the bag showed up to our place and I tore into it, not for new socks but to check to see if the coins were missing or not. They were gone! Well, not exactly. The nice person had taken the time to take our all of the one and two Euro coins leaving us with the 50 cent and smaller coins and in total about 4 Euros.

So, without a doubt, we would have lost over 500 Euros had we left our money in the bag. Now we've decided after having stuff stolen two times in our last two flights that will take advantage of the security wrap thing that you have to pay for. At least, then you have the piece of mind that your luggage isn't being rifled through by some scumbag.

The Airport Drama

So as experienced travelers we know not to check baggage when you don't need to. We decided to each take one carry-on bag to Amsterdam. We've taken these bags as carry-ons on other trips so we figured it would be no problem. Well, at the check-in counter the guy tells us that our bags are not only too big but also too heavy so we must check them. Okay, no problem, our bags will probably get to Amsterdam when we do. Since we thought we were carrying the bags on we had everything in them and I do mean everything. We decided to pull a few things out of the bags before we sent them on their way. Now we were feeling pretty excited about our trip and that it was really starting.

As we stood in line in the first security check we did a quick inventory of the things we would need on the plane. Tickets, check! Books, check! Amsterdam information, check! All of our money for the trip...dead silence. So as we stood looking at each other, we both realized that we had left over 500 Euros in one of the bags we had just checked! Now is the time to panic.

So now we were panicked that not only would we miss our flight but we would lose all of our money for the trip. If we chanced it and left the cash in the bag and our bag showed up without the money our vacation would be ruined from the start plus our flight would have been miserable. If we went back for the money we might miss our flight and have to pay a lot of money for another flight (the only other flight that day was canceled because of a strike). We decided that we would rather take another flight than possibly have our money stolen. We ran back to the desk to ask if we could get the bags back. The people at the desk we hesitant at first because they thought we might miss our flight but as soon as we told them that there was over 500 Euros in cash in one the bags the called down immediately to have the bags sent back.

We sprinted down to the baggage claim and thought about how stupid we are for leaving all of our money in a bag! By some sort of strange chance, our bags were returned to us after only 10 or 15 minutes, though, those minutes felt like forever. So we saw our bags come out and we ripped them open to see if we had been robbed already. Holy Shit! The money was still there! We took the cash and left the coins (about 30 Euros in coins) and sprinted back upstairs because we had to check-in all over again. We made it aboard our flight with plenty of time to spare and our vacation money gripped tightly in our hands. After a near disaster, things were looking up!

Hallo From Amsterdam!

Greetings, friends and family! We made it (of course not easily), and we have great stories to tell. We have been having a wonderful time here so far, even if the weather is a bit drab and rainy. Food is awesome, people all speak perfect English and are very friendly and helpful, and we have been doing all of the fun touristy stuff that Amsterdam has to offer.

Isaac (Allie's lil bro) arrives this afternoon to join the fun, and then he will meet us in Rome a few days after we leave here. Stay tuned for our pics and full stories in a few days! Miss you all!

Total Bummer!

As Grant, Katie, Diego and Lainie can attest to, we have a really great little apartment in an awesome neighborhood of Rome. It's clean, modern, has tall ceilings, and its own little ancient Roman doorman. Our neighborhood also boasts two supermarkets, numerous bread and cheese shops, and the nicest butcher in the world, and all of this within walking distance. In short, we really, really love our place.

So, you can imagine our disappointment when last week our landlady told us that at the end of our contract in March she will be selling the apartment! This isn't only unfortunate for the fact that our particular place is fabulous, but moving is such a pain in the butt! To her credit, she has offered the help of a friend, some sort of housing agent, (we aren't clear on the details of his expertise) to help us find a new place. Our impending doom is still a few months off, but we are bitterly awaiting the arrival of this horrible day.

We attribute this disaster to a taco night we hosted two weekends back. All of our friends ranted and raved about how they loved our place. They totally jinxed us!

Oh well. We are off tomorrow to forget our worries for six blissful days in the world's most forgiving city. See you soon!

Sorry, Sorry, Sorry!

Thank you guys so much for the posts, we know we have been really lazy about posting, but it takes more effort when you don't have internet at home!!

Not much new going on, still just working and getting totally stoked for our holiday this Thursday! We are meeting my baby brother Isaac in Amsterdam (he's coming from Norway), and then we are dragging him back to Rome with us! Finally, after more than one year we get to see our first family member in the flesh!

Let me feed you one funny anecdote from this past week to keep your hunger satisfied:

One of my students invited me to an office lunch party for pizza. One of the boys comes to Rome every week from Naples, and he brought with him some Buffalo Mozzarella from a very famous cheese maker. It was delicious, and while we were all munching away one of the men asked me, "Come si dice in Inglese, buffalo?" (How do you say Buffalo in English?) The spelling is the same, but the Italian pronunciation is booofalo.

So, as soon as I said the correct pronunciation for them, there was a chorus of male voices all at once that said, "Buffalo Bill!" Very cute coming from grown Air Force men.

In some unrelated, but interesting news, Spike Lee was at the Abbey Pub last night while Chuck was bartending!

Don't worry, lots of pics to come from Amsterdam!

The Latest and The Greatest

Three words: We are working!

You can tell it's September, because we have new students coming in like crazy and our hours at the school are rising steadily! It's (finally) starting to cool down a bit here, and we are getting into a nice rhythm of work again, which is definitely a good thing.

Besides that there isn't much to report. This weekend marks the annual "Notte Bianca" or "White Night" in Rome. It's a bit of an odd celebration, where the center of the city is lit up by artificial lights and the shops and museums and pubs and everything else stays open until the natural light of day comes upon us. Last year we didn't experience White Night because we were in Zagarolo being lame, but we've heard it's a really good time, so you can expect some reports on it after the weekend!

We are also planning a trip to The Netherlands for the end of the month in order to see a concert. We were actually able to work out an exchange with another young couple who lives there, so we will go and stay with them for 5 days for free, and then in mid October they'll come stay with us for 6 days to repay the favor! How cool is that? Free accommodation in the center of the city, plus they have already been helping us with info on Amsterdam and what things we should see, etc.

That's all for now! Keep posting on the message board, we miss you guys!

Luggage Drama Update

Well, after a few calls and queries to find out what was going on with my missing luggage, I finally got my bag on Friday. The relief of finally having all of my things back was a welcome feeling, until I discovered that in fact I was still missing something.

It seems as if somewhere during my bag's European adventure, someone decided to help themselves to my little bag of jewelry that was in there. There wasn't anything particularly valuable in there, but some of the pieces were souvenirs from places that we've traveled to.

For example, I had a pair of Murano glass earrings from Venice in there, and I also had a pair of beautiful brand new earrings I bought at a small shop in Vienna. These were one-of-a-kinds as everything in the shop was handmade and unique. Everything else was just inexpensive random pieces I've picked up along the way, but all things I wore often and liked very much.

So, although the monetary value of the individual pieces is not extraordinary, when you add them together (and when you factor in plane tickets, hotel costs, and sentiment), it adds up.

The Alitalia website sucks. They have a spot where I can file a complaint for damaged luggage, but nothing for missing items! I've decided to bypass Italy all together and just call the American number in order to get some real service, so I'll be doing that tonight in order to see what sort of compensation they can offer me.

In all honesty, I'm not that upset over the jewelry. I mean, it sucks, but it could have been worse (explain why they didn't take the Burberry sunglasses, for example), but what really gets under my skin is that someone was rifling through my belongings and helping themselves to whatever they fancied. I wonder if I'm missing any bras or panties?

New Foods

Charles has a saying when it comes to eating out at restaurants:

"I only expect it to be the best meal of my life."

And it's true, we do expect a lot from restaurants, because if we (read Charles) can make it better at home, why are we wasting our money? More often than not we are let down by restaurants, because it seems that most people don't have the same expectations that we do, and restaurants often receive praise undeservedly.

In Italy it's the same, and in fact it may be worse, because people tend to overpraise mediocre restaurants because things always look brighter when you are half drunk on the wine and enjoying your holiday. Because of past disappointments with highly praised restaurants, we have become even more critical when we eat out, and we are extremely distrustful of our guidebook's restaurant recommendations.

Wednesday night we decided to suck it up and try Cul de Sac, a popular restaurant in Piazza Navona that is always crowded with patrons. We'd heard nothing but rave reviews, and this restaurant is featured in several Italy/Rome guidebooks. We wanted a nice dinner, so we decided we'd give it a try.

I am happy to report that we not only completely enjoyed everything that was served to us, but we also tried two new dishes that were nothing less than outstanding. The first was pate. If you're unfamiliar with it, it's the liver of an animal cooked (I'm not sure of the specifics) until it's a paste that you spread on bread as an appetizer. It was unbelievable! We tried three different kinds, and only one of which we actually knew the translation for. We just sort of picked at random, so I'm not even sure what animals' livers we were eating!

Second, we tried escargots! That's right, snails. I've always been a little weirded out by the idea of eating snails, because I always feared the texture would be odd. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The texture is comparable to shrimp, and this particular dish was prepared with a basil pesto that was so fresh and tasty it left us wishing for more little snailies to devour.

In total, it was a delicious meal, with great wine and good conversation (we met the owner and his family and were able to exchange a few pleasantries in our new and improved Italian). Our faith in restaurants has been renewed, and now we have two new delicacies to add to our repertoire.

Side Note

My luggage is still AWOL. Julianna's bag came Wednesday evening, but they are still looking for mine! I called this morning to check the status and was told I had to call back later when they had someone there who spoke English! Grrr! I'm going to ask one of my students to call for me today so I can find out what the heck I am supposed to do!

It's been five days now with out any makeup, I haven't been able to pluck my eyebrows, my hair is a crazy puffball, and my new clothes I bought in Vienna are drifting through some baggage claim somewhere when I could be looking super cute and stylish, but instead I'm left with the same pair of jeans and only one pair of shoes!!

Did I mention not only are my awesome Burberry sunglasses in that bag, but so are my prescription glasses! I have to wear my contacts until I want to actually close my eyes and go to sleep or else I can't see the television or read the computer screen!

Depending on what they say today when I call, I may have to take a trip to Sephora to get some provisions (I have literally been using a butterfly clip as a comb for my hair!!). If it wasn't so frustrating I'm sure it would be pretty funny.

Vienna (It Is What Rome Isn't)

If you read Charles' recent rant about the "eccentricities" of Rome, just imagine the exact opposite of that and you have Vienna.

First of all, it's a stunningly beautiful city. Every building is architecturally elegant, and as you walk through the streets you almost feel like you have taken a step back in time. That being said, it is also a very modern city. I saw about 5 Starbucks shops, and as Charles mentioned before, I indulged in some Kentucky Fried Deliciousness on Sunday afternoon.

Julianna and I took the overnight train to Vienna from Rome, which was a long and uncomfortable ride, but it allowed us the opportunity to arrive in Vienna on Friday morning and have the whole day to explore. That night we took in a show that couldn't have been more perfect. It was a celebration of some of Austria's great composers, such as Mozart and Strauss, but done in a combination of ways. For example, one song might be done with just the orchestra, while the next might be an excerpt from an opera, or a piece from a ballet. All of this was done in an unpretentious and fun atmosphere that made it really entertaining.

But, you know how we travel, and it wouldn't be a Brezina holiday without some problems. Fortunately for me the problems didn't come until the trip home, and so the only thing that it affected was how early I arrived back in Rome (ipso facto it only affected Charles' boredom level).

We decided to fly back to Rome because we found a cheap deal and we couldn't stomach the idea of another 13 hour train ride. We arrived at the Vienna airport on time and checked in with no problems. Soon enough, we discovered that our flight had been delayed due to ill weather in our transfer city of Milan. Apparently a lightning storm was in progress and all the planes headed there were delayed.

At first the delay was only 30 minutes, then an hour. Some people began to get restless, and the attendant told them to go and have a coffee and come back at 1:15. We stayed put, and about 5 minutes later we were told that the storm had passed and we would start boarding right away. Well, needless to say, some people were not around to hear this information, and we ended up waiting for them while sitting on the plane. It was annoying, but they really can't be to blame since they were told to return at 1:15.

Finally, we set off, and made it to Milan with no problems. We asked the flight attendant what we could do about our connecting flight as we were landing in Milan at 3, the same time our flight was to depart! She told us not to worry because all flights had been delayed and we should make it no problem.

Well, as we headed to the board to find our gate, we discovered that this was not true and our flight had indeed left without us. We went to the desk to figure out what we could do. In typical Italian style we stood in two lines, only to be told at each time we reached the front that they were closing their desk and we had to go to the back of yet another line! A+ for customer service!

Finally we got set up with another flight and we were told that our baggage would be on this flight with us, which was yet another lie. On arriving back in Rome we waited at the baggage claim for a very long time, and finally went to the desk to inquire about our luggage that had not appeared. There was a note in the computer that our bags were still in Milan and would be on the next flight to Rome arriving at 10:45pm. At this point it was 8pm, we should have arrived in Rome 4 hours ago, we were hungry, cranky, and suddenly without all of our belongings!

We filed a claim and they told us our bags should be delivered to our house tomorrow evening. I can tell you that I got a call this afternoon and was told that they have one of our bags, and they should be able to find the other very soon!

Despite all of this, I am glad to be back in Rome, back to work, and back to the familiar, even if it is inconvenient.

Allie is Back!

Once again my life is complete! Is that reassuring or have I lost all independence? Who cares! She had a pretty good time though the trip home was a bit of a headache. She'll fill in the details soon.

Weekend Update

Well, I've spent the entire weekend bored out of my mind. I've been going to sleep very late (after work and a few beers) and staying in bed most of the day with about a half hour flurry of some kind of house work thrown in to make myself feel somewhat useful. I'm really looking forward to Allie's return Monday afternoon even though she sent me a text message that made me very jealous. It reads, "I'm eating KFC right now and I have to tell you it's delicious!" I suppose I can forgive her for that, perhaps she'll transport a bucket of extra crispy on the train with her to make up for the offense.

The Long Weekend-Day 1

Allie and our friend Jules have left for a long weekend trip to Vienna for some fun and excitement while I slave away at the pub for four straight nights! Actually, I told Allie to go because I knew she would be so totally bored because I would be working every night. It's strange to be apart from her for anytime at all. Considering we haven't been apart from each other for more than half a day at a time over the last year. As soon as I told her to go with Jules I regretted it immediately! Now who is going to entertain me since she's gone! I forgot that I had no friends as well, ha! Anyway, enough wallowing in my own sorrow for today.

It Is What It Is

Many of the reasons we decided to move to Italy are exactly the same reasons that drive us insane about this country, I should say more specifically, Rome. I don’t know how many times we’ve cursed this country and its people for their refusal to change, improve or try new things. When you think about how bad it is going to a bank or the post office in the u.S., multiply that experience by ten in Italy. Customer service is truly an American concept. We spent nearly two hours in the local bank a few weeks back. There was one cashier open with literally twenty people waiting, we kept waiting for someone to call for “back up” like in America, only that never happened. At the supermarket, Allie and I stood around with some other dumbfounded people wanting to pay for our goods while EVERY cashier counted the money in their tills. It would make more sense to leave one cashier open so that people could still pay and get the hell out, right? The busses are packed with people who don’t pay for tickets and enjoy free rides daily. The transit cops do sort of a sting operation every month or so but it’s completely half-hearted and usually some poor tourist who couldn’t find a ticket machine gets the fine.

When we discuss these problems with our students they all give us a similar type of response. They say that it makes them angry as well but that’s the way it’s always been. The refusal to change is a hallmark of this country, perhaps refusal is a bit strong, maybe an unwillingness to change is a better way to put it. So for the post office, the bus, and the banks an unwillingness to change is a bad thing but on the other hand this same attitude has produced an amazing food tradition. For instance, recipes that have been unchanged for many generations will most likely remain unchanged. The response to “Why?” is always “That‘s the way it‘s always been done in my family.” It’s unlikely that America will ever have such a food tradition because of our willingness to try to which is new, that which is different and to see how we can change things to make them better. That willingness to change is great for places like the bank, post office and grocery store but bad for the dining room table. Well, I don’t mean say trying new recipes and foods is wrong but one will never create a coherent tradition such as is found in Italy.

As Americans, it’s our right to have what we want, when we want it. No questions asked and no sideways looks given. Such is not the case in Italy. For example, one should not order a cappuccino after breakfast here in Italy. It’s not a rule but a tradition (one of thousands, I swear!). For an American, this is perplexing to say the least. I find myself sometimes wanting to lecture my fellow Americans (sometimes I do) but then I also realize it goes against all that it means to be an American to deprive oneself of what one wants. The Italians are also equally perplexed by our behavior, they cringe in horror when someone orders a cappuccino after a pizza or a plate of pasta with clams (makes me cringe too!). Sometimes they refuse saying that the machine is cleaned or that they don’t have milk! Ha! But most of the time they acquiesce to our strange behavior and just laugh about it to their friends or on call-in radio shows.

So my dreams of combining the best of both worlds, i.e., all the efficiency of America with the traditions of Italy is something that will probably never come together. So unfortunately for me, it seems that I can’t have my cake and eat it too.

Italian Course-Week 2

Ernest Hemingway once wrote that you could learn the Italian language in two weeks. He was either extremely gifted, or a big fat liar.

We have been studying hard and attending all of our classes over these last two weeks, and let us just say that Italian is hard! The grammar is where we have the most trouble. The rules aren't what get us, because it's not too difficult to understand when to use which tense, but the problem is memorizing all of those pesky irregular verb forms! Let me give you a very basic example of what we're dealing with:

In English grammar we have two basic verb forms, 1st person and 3rd person. In a regular verb we change something like "I/we/they want" to "he/she/it wants". Pretty easy. And even for irregular verbs this doesn't get too complicated. Let's take the irregular verb "to be". We have to change it from "I am" to "he/she/it/they are". So our verb actually changes form completely, but it's not too difficult to memorize the 60 or so irregular verbs in English.

Now, let's look at an Italian verb. For regular verbs we have to change the form for every person we're talking about (I, you, we, he/she/it, you plural, and they). Regular verbs follow a pattern, so once you get the pattern down you can basically figure out what you're doing, until you come across an irregular verb, that is! Let's take the irregular Italian verb for "to go" which is "andare". We have to conjugate it like this: Io vado, tu vai, lui/lei/e va, noi andiamo, voi avete, and loro vanno.

So that's six new words for one verb that we have to memorize! And this is only present tense! We also have the past tenses (there are more than one) and future tense, and formal language....the list goes on and on! And did I mention there are over 300 irregular verbs in Italian? Now we understand why Italian school children take six years of grammar!!

So anyway, we like to complain, and we have had a few conversations when we were feeling hopelessly overwhelmed about how we could easily go through the next two years here without learning anymore Italian than we already know, but we still aren't giving up! This course has given us a lot of missing puzzle pieces in our language development which will make studying a bit easier when we finish next week. We just have to get over the monotony of memorizing six thousand different verb forms!

Italian Course-Week 1

So, we're doing it. We are actually, officially, studying Italian in a language school. We are doing a three week intensive course, and tomorrow marks the finish of our first week.

So far it has been quite an eye-opener. First of all, we are not in the same class. As it turns out, even though I always make Charles do all the talking when we're in public, I somehow have a higher level of Italian than he does! Go figure! My class is really hard, and I have to come home and study grammar in the evenings just to catch up with my classmates, but so far I am hanging in there when it comes to conversation and listening. The school has a focus on practical Italian, meaning they want you to have confidence to go out and speak the language when you leave, so grammar is not a huge focus (lucky thing for me!).

Charles, on the other hand, is in a lower-level class, but he is clearly one of the better speakers and listeners in his class. He tells me everyday how he cringes at the pronunciation of the other students, and they look to him for help when they don't know the meaning of a word, but he sometimes envies their grammar knowledge.

It's only been one week, but so far I am really happy with my results. Everything is done in Italian, and since my classmates come from all over the world we generally keep speaking Italian with each other even when we're just having a coffee during the break. It's such good practice, and the school is really great. I wish that we had done this when we arrived last summer!! Our motivation has really been increased to keep studying Italian after the course finishes. We may even take another intensive course in six months or so just to keep challenging ourselves (that will just depend on the availability of funds).

Shopping with the Big Girls

As you may well be aware, Italian women are known for their keen fashion sense. They brave the cobblestone streets of the centre in the highest of heels, and they flock to Via del Corso and the area of the Spanish Steps for all of the designer shops.

In Rome there are two times a year when shopping hits full throttle. Saldi time. Every January and July the stores go into overdrive with sales, and the women drag their husbands out to buy as much as their credit cards can take. The streets are packed with people browsing in shop windows, and the shops are packed with people looking for the best deals. It’s like the Olympics for any person who loves to shop, and truth be told, you’re always a winner.

My dear friend Juliana hails from New Jersey, just a 45 minute drive from Manhattan. The girl was either born with a shopping gene, or she has been raised to appreciate the finer things in life. Her closet is a veritable who’s who of the fashion world. Fendi shoes with matching bags, Burberry totes and scarves, Dior flats and Bvlgary sunglasses. The girl knows what she likes, and she isn’t afraid to charge it!

This weekend I got to see her action, and let me tell you, it was inspiring. I met her first at Burberry, where she had just dropped 365 euros on a bag to match the 280 euro shoes she bought a few days back. She was feeling good, and we headed to another shop called Furla. She bought another bag for about 50 euros, a big knockdown from it’s original price, so even if she never uses it the price was right. After a little spree of makeup shopping at Sephora she left 180 euros poorer.

All the while we were shopping, she was kept telling me about a great pair of sunglasses at Burberry on sale. She knew that I had been desiring a pair of designer sunglasses to call my own, and fighting the urge to buy the bootleg version on the side of the street. The reality is that I always feel a bit like a fraud in a designer store because I know I can’t afford anything. What’s the point of torturing yourself if you know you won’t buy? But with her by my side I felt a new confidence. Everything she was wearing was designer (while nothing I was wearing was), so she convinced me to at least go and try the glasses on.

Once inside the store I felt suddenly at ease. The crowds of people were left outside in the heat, while we browsed in the comfortable air-conditioning of the rich. She showed me the glasses and I tried them on without looking at the tag first (I decided if they were perfect I would get them no matter the price). They were quite nice, and when I looked at the tag I was shocked to see they were only 90 euros! What a steal! I thought for sure I’d be paying at least 150. I took them up the register with a great confidence. “That’s right people! Move out of my way, I’m buying Burberry sunglasses!”

The check-out experience was a comfortable one, with friendly smiling clerks helping me along. I was even more pleased to discover that at the register there was another discount and my designer glasses were only 60 euros! This was awesome! Not only have I evolved from the mobs of mongoloids that crowd the “little people” shops, but I was making it out of there for a lot less than I had thought. The clerks put my glasses into a beautiful case, then into a beautiful box, then into a beautiful bag tied with a ribbon. It was like I had just bought a diamond necklace or something!

Finally, I was finished and getting ready to walk down the streets of Rome with a new air of arrogance about me, when Jules stepped up behind me at the register. Turns out, while she was waiting for me she had found herself yet another bag! This one ended up being 230 euro, and she would have got the matching shoes as well but they didn’t have her size (I imagine she’ll be going back for them soon). When we finally did leave I didn’t feel as self-important as I thought I would. My little sunglasses bag, although beautiful and very special to me, just didn’t hold up against the five giant bags Juliana was carrying!

Baby steps, Allie, baby steps.

We're Sooooo Cultured (A.K.A. Chuckie's Birthday)

Charles had seen a poster for an opera being shown in the center of Roma so he decided that for his birthday we would go to this opera for an “adult” evening that would surely be culturally uplifting as well. A friend with a school id card got us the cheap student tickets and so we didn’t have to pay full price which saved us about 20 euro. The opera was Don Giovanni with the music of Mozart, we dressed up and set off for the show which began at 9pm. The plan was to enjoy the show and then after go to a pizza place nearby that Charles had been wanting to try.

As usual, we arrived a little early and had a chance to enjoy the beautiful venue the opera was in. It was held at Cortile di Sant’Ivo Alla Sapienza, meaning in the courtyard of the church. We really had high hopes for our first opera. After about thirty minutes we were both bored but still with hopes something interesting might happen and our minds wandered onto other subjects. After an hour all hope of something exciting happening had left us. After an hour and half, Act 1 finished and we bolted for the door never to return.

So after escaping the excruciating boredom that was Don Giovanni we sought the refuge of the Abbey. We had a few beers and then went off to get a couple pizzas. The pizzas were very good so the night wasn’t a total loss!

So the opera experience led to a single question in my head. Do people that go to opera actually enjoy it or do they go to impress other people by telling them that they have in fact ‘been to the opera’? We both spoke with our students about the opera and they asked which we had seen and once we said Don Giovanni they all said that the music of Mozart was boring and that Don Giovanni wasn’t a great one.

Apparently there is another big opera coming to Rome to a place near our house so we may check that one out. We were told that this particular opera has lots of action and is much more exciting. Depending on the night and the price we may check that one out so we haven’t completely written off the opera based on this one experience.

A "New Year" Resolution

You've all heard it time after time, and we're sure you're as sick of it as we are. I'm talking about how much we complain about not speaking Italian as well as we would like. We whine about how time and again we get screwed over, and if only we spoke a little better we could have prevented it. Well, no longer!

While we were in Sardinia we were very humbled by our friend Phil. He studied Italian a bit in college, but he has only been in the country for a few months and he has no fear when it comes to speaking the language. Even if his pronunciation isn't great or he doesn't know exactly how to say something, he still tries, and usually with success. We were inspired by this and have made a resolution for the upcoming year.

Instead of promising to study our Italian grammar books at home (I think we make this resolution every month), we have decided to enroll in an intensive course at a local language school. Starting Monday the 30th of this month we will be doing 20 hours a week of Italian study for 3 weeks. That's 4 hours of study a day, every morning, 5 days a week, for 3 weeks. Do I sound scared? It's because I am.

It will be a long 3 weeks, our brains will be exhausted and our pocketbooks will be empty, but we know it's important to do it, and we hope to leave the course with a new confidence and some highly improved language skills. Our friend recommended this particular school because she had great success their last year with her own course. So, we are pumped about it now, but you will probably be hearing some complaints after we actually start the course!

Sardinia

Wow! What an incredibly beautiful place! We had a fabulous weekend in Cala Gonone, but as usual the trip had a few hiccups that could only happen to us.

The plan was to get the train to a city north of Rome called Civitavecchia. They have a port where you can catch the ferries to Sardinia. We had already booked our tickets for the 8:30am ferry, and Charles checked the train schedule at Termini station and saw that our train left at 5:45am (ouch).

We arrived at Termini at about 5:15 and were a little confused to discover that our train was not on the board. We wandered around a bit and then on closer inspection we discovered that this particular train did not run on Saturdays. A quick panic came over us, because the next train would not get us to the port in time to make the boat.

We called Phil and told him the news. He said there should be a train leaving from the San Pietro station near his house that will get us there in time, if we could get to that station before it departed. We hustled to the subway and literally ran to the train station, making it just in time! Phew, one disaster averted.

The boat ride was pleasant enough, although there were a lot of noisy children and the seats weren't very comfortable for sleeping in. We arrived 30 minutes behind schedule, which in turn made us late to pick up our rental car.

At the port we asked how to get to the street where the rental car company was located, and we were told it was too far to walk and we would need to get a taxi. We waited or a cab (there is a real shortage of them in Olbia), and then we were driven literally 5 minutes to the location. We easily could have walked and not only would it have been faster than waiting for the cab, but it would have saved us 15 euros!

As we got to the car rental place (about 45 minutes past our appointment time), we discovered that it was not open. At first we were really angry, but we figured that it was siesta time and we should go grab some lunch and wait for them to reopen again around 4. While we were eating our paninis we tried calling the rental company several times to make sure that our car was there for us, but they didn't answer! We were beginning to get worried.

Back at the rental company a man finally showed up, only to tell us that their office closes at 1 on Saturdays. We explained that was impossible because we scheduled through the internet to pick our car up here at 2:30. He was very helpful and tried to find our reservation in his system, but it wasn't there. He suggested we try the airport, where the majority of the rental companies are located.

We took another (overpriced) taxi to the airport to get a car. It turns out that the company we rented from forwarded our rental to another agency because they don't have an office in Olbia any longer. That agency, in turn, did not forward our reservation to the first office we went to like they were supposed to. So, our car was in fact waiting for us at the airport this entire time. We were now about 3 hours behind schedule.

After all of this trouble we finally got the car and got on our way to Cala Gonone. We are happy to report that we didn't have any trouble at all finding the tiny resort town, and the drive was absolutely beautiful. That night we treated ourselves to a delicious seafood dinner (it was the best seafood we've had thus far), and then we went to a bar that was playing live music for a few drinks and to mingle with the locals.


The next day we woke up and went to the beach in front of our hotel. It was a nice beach, but there were rocks instead of sand, and the usual steady stream of Africans trying to sell you sunglasses or braid your hair. We decided to get into the car again and head to another beach that was a short drive away. This proved to be our best decision yet.

This other beach had gorgeous sand, clear blue waters, and no people trying to sell things! It wasn't too crowded, and the number of children was at a minimum. In summary we spent a fabulous afternoon lying in the sun and swimming in the crystal waters.

The next morning came too quickly! We had to get back to the port by 12 for our boat home. We left at around 9, and made the drive easily enough, but then we got lost trying to return the car to the rental company. We finally figured it out and had to hustle to the boat! We were literally the last people to board the ferry, and we almost didn't make it! And then, to top it all off, the ferry home was an hour and a half behind schedule! This meant we got home very late, and we were very hungry when we finally made it back.

But we made it, and although we had some troubles it was a fabulous weekend, and we definitely want to go back to Sardinia in the near future (and now we know how to do it without getting so mucked up)!

A Year has Passed...

Today marks a huge milestone in our adventure: The One Year Mark!! Congratulations to us! We did it! Hooray!

We have had an incredible year. There have been amazing adventures that we will never forget, and some struggles and embarrassments that we would prefer to erase from our memories, but hey we've got some good stories out of them. We have greatly improved our situation in the last few months, our social lives are thriving and we are having a great summer so far. Our confidence has officially been renewed for another year to come, and we hope to see some familiar faces on our doorstep in this next year!

To celebrate our achievement we have a long weekend planned in Sardinia, a beautiful island with amazing white/pink beaches and clear blue water. We plan to relax and get a start on our summer tans (we are way behind compared to everyone else in this city!). So, expect some beautiful photos when we return next week.

We did some reflection on this last year and we've compiled for you a little summary of our year-in-review. Enjoy:

Things We Haven’t Done in the Last Year (in no particular order):

1. Driven a car
2. Seen our families
3. Gone to Costco
4. Had a proper barbecue
5. Been to a movie theater
6. Had an American beer
7. Had ice at home
8. Been to Tuscany
9. Dried our laundry in a machine
10. Been to Taco Bell

Things We Have Done in the Last Year (in no particular order):

1. Learned to make wine
2. Ridden lots of trains
3. Met people from all over the world
4. Traveled all over the country (and beyond)
5. Learned British English
6. Learned (a little) Italian
7. Read a lot of books
8. Drank a lot of espresso
9. Eaten a lot of cheese
10. Watched a lot of the same DVDs over and over….and over….

Fun With Words

So I walked into my local fish shop to pick up some mussels for our dinner. The word for mussels in Italian is cozze. Since working in the pub I've really started to pick up all of the swear words that I love so much in English. The more vocabulary I have the better, right? The "F" word in Italian is cazzo. In my head I had everything worked out in terms of how many grams of mussels I needed and even how to say it correctly. So I step up to make my order and say "Vorrei (I would like) cazzo." very calmy and very well (so I thought). Now, look at the word for mussels and the "F" word. Pretty close, right? Switch some vowel sounds around and there you go. Some how I had switched the two words in my head and uttered a sentence fit only for sailors. So the guy behind the counter says to me in English, "I don't think you do." Face goes bright red. As I realized what I had just asked for I turned and broke the hell out of the place never to be seen again.

A First for Allie

After weeks and weeks and a lifetime of hoping for work, applying for and being rejected from job after job, I (Allie) finally landed that job we told you all about a few weeks back. This week I quit.

Turns out the director of this particular school is a crazy person. He was born in New York, but has basically lived in Italy his entire life. Not only is he very demanding, but he is also extremely confusing! It's nearly impossible to explain, but once Charles started working for him too, he completely understood what I had been trying to tell him.

The last straw was last weekend. I called him on Thursday wanting to come by his office and drop off my hours for the month. He said he would be there all day, but when I went at one o'clock he wasn't there. I waited for twenty minutes or so and then decided to leave. He called me on Sunday at about 7:30 asking if he could swing by our place in 30 minutes to pick up the sheets. He didn't show up until 9:30! Then he stayed for an hour telling me I had to switch my Washington School students around or cancel their lessons so I could fill in for another teacher that was leaving next week. It was all too much.

Sunday night, after he left I literally got two hours of sleep because I had a headache was stressing out over looking like an unprofessional teacher to my WA School students (who were my students first and are very busy and shouldn't have to be shuffled around like that). I knew that our new contracts with the Air Force at WA School were about to begin, so I went in this week and asked the boss how fast we could fill my days if I quit this other school. He said he could fill them right away, and so the decision was easy!

Unfortunately now Charles still works for this other school, and he is after him to change his hours to cover what I've left behind! Luckily Charles is a little more assertive than I am and can stand up to his nonsense.

This marks a great milestone for me, as I have never quit a job before. I felt bad for a short while, but I think actually he is quite used to this happening (although he doesn't seem to do much to fix the problem). I will miss my students that I was just getting to know at this new job, but my lessons with Washington School are closer to home and the pay is better, so in the end I had to do what was best for me and my sanity.

Orvieto Day Trippin'

View from the top of the hill

Friday was the Roman holiday celebrating Saint Peter and Saint Paul, so basically the whole city was shut down so we decided to get out of town for a day and cross off another place on our long, long list of places to see in Italy. Orvieto is a small town that is literally perched on top of a mountain (hill for us Americans). Upon arriving in the train station, you have to ride the funiculare (like a giant ski lift up the side of the mountain). There is a stunning church and just a nice little town in general.


We took a very interesting tour of the Orvieto Underground, which is a series of tunnels and caves dug into the cliff to store wine and olive oil because of the perfect temperature. They also housed large pigeon coops where they raised the birds for meat and used the waste as fertilizer. Today many of the homes still have these underground caves (we would call it a very rudimentary basement) which they still use as wine cellars.

Underground pigeon coops

Besides buffing up on our history, we also spent the afternoon wandering around eating ice cream and lazing about in cafes. We planned to participate in a wine tasting but our guide book failed us miserably, so that was the only misfire of the day. But it's ok, because the prices of Orvieto wine are higher in Orvieto than in Roma!

Orvieto Cathedral

Like Riding a Bike

After a mere thirteen years away from the field, Charles made his triumphant return to the pitch. He played in a calcetto match (five on five) with some English guys from work and some of their friends. Even after warning them that he hadn't kicked a soccer ball in about thirteen years they were still happy to have him on the field rather than cancel their game, so I guess in the end, any warm body would have done.

Well, as it turns out, he's still a pretty decent player after all of these years. He still remembers how to play the game well, it's just shaking off the rust that's the problem. With his team up 2-0, he made a terrible pass across the middle of the field and was immediately scored on! He knows better than that but sometimes you have to learn/remember the hard way. Other than a few bad passes and the inability to run for more than 5 minutes straight without sucking air, he had a rather good showing. In fact, he scored a goal and played some solid defense for the most part. Though in the end his time lost in a fairly competitive match.

His teammates were quite relieved to find out that he is actually a decent player and they have invited him back this week. Just in time for my aching bones to finally feel normal again. That next day was a rough one, actually, the next 4 days were pretty rough but hopefully after a few more matches we'll get a win and my body will get used to a little physical activity again.

p.s. Allie took video of this debacle and hopefully we can figure out a way to get it onto the website for you all to join in on the laughs.

Easy Rider

Last week marked a few firsts for Charles. After nearly a year in Roma, he rode on his first motorscooter and lived to tell about it.

Typically, after a night of work at the pub, Charles has a few options for getting home. The first option is to take a night bus to the main station in Roma and then take another night bus to the general vicinity of his neighborhood, these two buses plus a ten minute walk will get him home. In total, this option generally takes about an hour to an hour and a half. Sometimes less, it just depends on when the night buses show up but it's usually best to expect the worst when dealing with the night bus system. The second option is to walk home from the pub, it's about a 40 minute walk if you're hustling which isn't too bad but it's just no fun after standing on your feet at work all night. Also, in the muggy heat of Roma, by the time you get home after that 40 minute walk you're soaked in sweat. Lucky for Charles, a third option presented itself after work last week.

One of his coworkers has a motorscooter and offered him a ride home. The motorscooter is the preferred way to travel in the city center or Roma. They are crazy drivers and to most tourists it seems that there are no laws concerning them. In fact, in Naples, helmets are "optional". We've seen them drive down sidewalks, on the wrong side of the road, narrowly escape hitting other cars or motorscooters so we're a little bit frightened of riding on one to say the least. The ride home on the motorscooter took only 10 minutes and it was actually a lot of fun after the initial fright wore off. At 3 a.m. there isn't much traffic in Roma so that made Charles feel a lot better about it. Unfortunately, this option isn't available most of the time and he'll just have to continue to hoof it or to use the extremely unreliable night bus system to find his way home.

More Work, Less Fun

Charles now seems to be set at the Abbey Pub with at least 3-4 days a week and now he's going to begin teaching for the same school as Allie beginning this Tuesday. It will probably only be about 10 more hours a week for the rest of this month and maybe more in July. Then, of course, there will be absolutely no work except at the Pub, and supposedly it is really slow too. Hopefully, all of the work we are doing now will afford us the opportunity to get out and do a little travelling again because we are starting to get that itch. We'll probably do a couple day trips into Tuscany but we haven't sorted anything out quite yet.

We've actually began to develop a social life and have been going out with our small group of friends for nights on the town and Allie even took a trip to the Italian seaside! The bad news is that all of our new found friends seem to be moving back to their respective countries soon. So we'll have to try our best to be social again, which really isn't our forte.

Just a little reminder, Allie will be turning 24 years old on the 24th of June so if you can't make it out to the party, please send her a message!

More Good News

As Charles mentioned in the last update, I was waiting to hear from yet another school I had interviewed with. The director said he would call by Monday to let me know his decision. Well, Monday came and went. Then Tuesday followed, as well as Wednesday! By this point I had basically given up all hope and had filed this one away with all of the other rejections piled up over these last few months.

It wasn't until Thursday that he actually called, and it was with some good news. He asked if I would be able to start on Monday! I mentally checked my empty schedule and said, "yes, of course!".

Later that same afternoon I met with the director to discuss some of the details, and unfortunately it turns out that in order to keep this job I will have to give up the summer beach job! While I was really looking forward to it, I have to take into account that this job pays better for working fewer hours, and it means I have a job for next year and on and on.

It was disappointing that I was forced to make a choice, but at the same time the decision wasn't a difficult one. I have to think about the long run, period. So, now I am faced with telling the family that I won't be able to work for them after all, and I'll need to try and find someone to replace me (anyone interested??).

And wouldn't you know it, I got this job yesterday afternoon, and this morning our boss from Washington school calls to offer me 10 hours a week that will now surely clash with my new schedule!! When it rains it pours!

What's Been Going Down

First of all, sorry for the sporadic updates. But in all honestly, we haven't been doing a whole lot lately. Charles seems to have something of a set schedule at The Abbey which means he's working four nights a week. The Abbey is a fun place to work and it's a pretty easy job for the most part, though the money isn't great or even good for that matter! Complaints aside, it's more money than he was making sitting around the house and doing nothing! Another good thing about working at the Pub is that it will be work during August, in which there will be probably zero teaching hours since all Romans seem to take the month off and leave the city in search of crowded beaches and cancerous tumors.

Allie is waiting to hear from a school she interviewed with last Friday. The interview went well, ie, no mention of the dreaded work visa. The only problem was whether or not the hours would conflict with the job she just picked up for the summer. Why do things seem to be so complicated?

So, what have we been doing for fun lately? Well, we had a really nice out last Friday as a little celebration for selling our car (thanks ma and dad). First we got ourselves some fried fish (to go, it's cheaper!) from a famous little joint near Campo di Fiori. With fish in hand, we walked through Campo to Piazza Navona and stopped into The Abbey for a pint of beer (I get a small discount!) After that we headed to a tiramisu place near our apartment that was highly recommended to us by one of Allie's students. At about 11:45 p.m. we arrived to a packed house. There were literally 50-75 people outside sitting at tables and the same amount inside. Everyone was munching on tiramisu or gelato. We were shocked because this place isn't mentioned in any guidebooks (yet) and we were probably the only English speakers in the place. The tiramisu was fantastic (second best in Italy so far) and it was really cool to find such a great spot so close to home. In fact, it was so good we went back the following day for their strawberry tiramisu!

Pompi Bar - Il Regno del Tiramisu
http://www.barpompi.com/home.html (copy and paste, then drool)

A Light at the End of the Tunnel

Allie got a job, Allie got a job!!

There's one small catch...it doesn't start until July. But, the upside is that once it starts it will be 30 hours a week, and it's the easiest thing in the world! The job is simply to be the companion to some rich children at their summer beach home outside of Rome.

This family is quite wealthy, and during the month of July the kids (3 total) go to stay with Nonna at the house near the sea. My job is to go there every weekday from 10 am to 5pm and hang out while speaking English. All of the kids attend English schools and the parents want them to practice their speaking during the summer holiday.

I don't have to cook or clean (there's someone else to do that), and I have my own bedroom if I want to stay over (and Charles is welcome at anytime), and they feed me and pay for my train tickets. All I have to do is work on my tan and entertain the lil' ones!

Not only that, but once school begins again in September they will want me to come to the house in Rome three times a week for private tutoring and homework help for the kids. They seem like a genuinely nice family, and having a guaranteed 30 hours a week for a whole month seems like heaven to me right now!

Oh yeah, did I mention it's on the beach??

General Well-Being Update

Things are going pretty well at the moment. We are expecting the return of Grant, Diego and Katie from their Italian road trip on Tuesday morning'ish. We can't wait to hear about all of their mishaps, er, adventures they had driving all over the country! We hope to have one last night out with them before they head back to the good, old, u.S. of A.

Allie is still awaiting news from a few different English schools but in the meanwhile she's been making some extra money by filling in on some private lessons given to her by friends of ours. Charles has somehow managed to get onto the schedule at the Abbey Pub, in fact, he'll be working at least three nights a week. Some how he's fooled them into believing that he's a good bartender! The late nights at the bar combined with the early morning teaching might be a little tough in the beginning but it should turn out well.

Other than that, there hasn't much excitement going on. Though, after ten months we finally went to the Colosseo (Colosseum) last Friday afternoon because we heard that it was free all week! So we got our culture on and saved what little money we have at the same time, it was great!

La Folle Vita (The Crazy Life)

Diego, Katie, Grant, Charles and Allie

Our friends have all arrived safely, and have they arrived! Basically, we've been non-stop since Diego and Grant came into town on Friday morning. And then with Katie's arrival on Friday evening, not Thursday evening as was thought (This caused a slightly panic stricken Charles and Allie to frantically search Termini Station until 3 a.m.). But once everyone had been accounted for we've been on a tear of eating, sightseeing and drinking...though not necessarily in that order. The highlights so far include pizza, gelato, coffee from Sant'Eustacchio and the georgeous weather.

Diego, Katie, Grant

Charles has worked at the pub the last two nights instead of partaking in the merriment and the shots of Absinthe (illegal in the good, old u.S.of A) but the plan tonight is to stay low-key (if Diego can be kept low-key is anyone's guess, really) and to show them a particularly cool view of Rome from a very strange but cool spot. Sorry, I can't divulge the details or show pictures because it must be seen first hand, which means you'll all have to come visit, of course.

At the moment, Katie and Grant are visiting the Colosseo and Diego is enjoying the very beloved Italian tradition of siesta or mid-afternoon nap.

Grant, Katie, Diego, Allie

Tomorrow they will set out early to brave the line (or they should just cut like we did) at the Vatican Museum in order to take a glimpse at the Sistine Chapel and to be amazed by the grandeur that is Saint Peter's Church while Allie and I will doing a little teaching (and I really mean a little).