Blue Skies a' Shinin'

Since it sounds as if the Northwest is having one of its worst winters in years, we thought it would be completely appropriate to rub it in that Roma is having one of its best winters ever! The weather here has been unbelievable; 50 to 60 degrees and beautiful blue skies almost daily. Of course, all of our students tell us that this is quite uncommon. This type of bizarre winter weather has to make you think about what we're doing to the planet, but in the meantime we'll enjoy the weather and read about polar bears on thin ice! A student also informed us that meteorologists are predicting an unusually hot summer in Rome as well, so in a few months we may be complaining about our blue skies (at least we'll have the pool to seek refuge in).

In other good news, we just had our first Italian lesson with Mariella. Two hours later, our heads were ready to explode. It's interesting and enlightening to feel how our students probably do after an hour or two of English with us a few times a week! Well, it wasn't too painful but it was really difficult. We're seeing so much improvement within ourselves over the last few months it's unreal. Our vocabulary has improved quite a bit and hopefully these lessons will lead to us being able to do more than point and grunt at what we want! We're excited about being able to advance beyond our present caveman stage of the languge.

As for the rest of the day, we don't have too much going on except a lot of cooking to do. Charles is making homemade pasta for the lasagna because we forgot to buy the boxed kind at the supermarket. Hopefully, it turns out well. We'll let you know!