Hallo from Berlin!

Just checking in! We are in Berlin, and having a great time so far. The freezing temperatures are not so pleasant coming from warm Rome where it's almost spring already, but we are enjoying ourselves just the same. We will be putting up pics and full stories when we get back to Rome next week.

In other news, we've recently learned that we will be shipped off to Loreto to teach a one month intensive English course at another Air Force base. We have to leave for this adventure just one short week after we get back to Rome from Berlin! Loreto is basically across the Italian peninsula from Rome, on the Adriatic Sea. This will be a fun adventure for us because during the weekends we'll be able to explore a lot of cities we have yet to see on that side of Italy. Not to mention the money will be great!

Tschuss!

Back to Normal

Now that the house is empty again, we have been getting back down to business. I don't think we've mentioned it on the website, but we are heading to Berlin on the 29th for five days of we-don't-know-what!

One of our favorite bands (Jimmy Eat World) is touring Europe right now, and you know we love to go places when we can see a concert! So, since Allie's favorite high school exchange student friend Christoph lives in Berlin we decided we'd better go and see him. After talking with him we discovered that another high school friend had just made the move over there. You may remember him as the boy who did the mushrooms in Amsterdam.

Apparently, he loved Europe so much (and met a Swedish girl on the train) that he went home, sold all of his material things, and came back to Berlin! How awesome is that? So now we are blessed with a free place to stay in Berlin, and two friends to show us all around this historically rich city. Apparently there isn't much to be said in the way of "traditional Berlin cuisine", which means we'll eat some sausages, kraut, and drink lots of cheap beer! Can't wait!

Until then we are working hard and saving all of our pennies so we can afford the big trip home this summer. Thus far ticket prices are astronomical ($1300 each), so we haven't purchased anything yet! They should start to fall in a month or two, so keep your fingers crossed that we find some good prices!

Mark your Calendars!

We'd like to just make a quick congratulatory shout out to our dear friends Jeremy (Beefcake) Zender and Rachel Hanson who got engaged over this last Christmas holiday. We don't want to brag or anything, but we feel that we are responsible for bringing this couple together, for without us they may have never met! You're welcome!!

The joyous occasion of their lifelong union will take place this summer, and we have decided to make the journey home for the festivities! Expect to see us back in the great USA in August. We will probably take about three weeks holiday in order to try and get around to see everyone. We're looking forward to eating lots of Taco Bell, visiting Costco, playing with TIVO, drinking Welch's Grape Juice, and most of all, fully understanding conversations!

Vacanza in Roma

This Christmas we recieved a special gift from Santa. The entire Brezina family was almost completely together again. My parents, including a surprise visit from Michael arrived on December 27th. We arrived to meet them at the airport right about the time that their airplane was landing so we expected to see them coming out of the arrival gate shortly. After an hour and a half of waiting and wondering, they finally appeared. Of course, they flew Alitalia so none of their luggage arrived with them. So for an hour and a half they waited for luggage that was who knows where. Alitalia has a reputation for being a nightmare and they confirmed it with this as well as a complete lack of costumer service after the bags had been discovered missing. To make a long story short, all four bags showed up 5 days later and the day before Michael was heading back to America. Miraculously, nothing was missing from any of the bags. This situation caused a lot of stress for the first five days but after the luggage arrived things smoothed out considerably.

Touring Roma

Basically, to sum up the first week with Michael around, we did a lot of sightseeing, a lot of pizza eating and a lot of drinking...BOOM! The second week with my parents we took a few days and drove a few hours north to Tuscany, more specifically Volterra and Siena. Two old classical Tuscan hilltowns. We shared a massive 3 pound T-Bone steak, drank some nice wine, got some sweet gifts (thanks Mom and Dad) and soaked in two very beautiful places. In the end, it was time for us to go back to work so we left them to do their own thing with a little advice from us.

Taken after exploring Siena

It was fun playing tour guide around Roma for my family for a couple weeks but we're glad to be getting back to our 'normal' life.

Thanksgiving Recap

I know that we are a few months behind schedule, but here is our Thanksgiving post! Finally! Let me just start by saying that it was such great fun putting together this dinner for our friends. We decided this year to leave all Italians out of the celebration because they really just don't understand the joy of stuffing your face all day until you can eat no more, and then having dessert! So, instead, we gathered up some friends from all over the states (and one crazy Irishman), and had them over for wine, delicious food, and just a good time.

Some of our friends enjoying dessert!

On top of this, Allie's friend from high school was in Rome visiting for a week, so he got to see just how much trouble we go to in order to make this crazy place feel like home. It was actually really crazy that he came, because we send the invite to everyone we talk to, but we don't really expect anyone to come. Well, when Allie let Bryan know that our room was free he booked a ticket two weeks later! We love adventurous and spontaneous people like that!

Bryan going back for seconds!

So, back to the meal. We went to our local butcher a week before to order the prime rib, and they asked why we weren't cooking a turkey. We told them we prefer beef, to which they responded, "bravo!". There were no mishaps with forgotten meat orders this year, but the price of inner city meat is about double what we paid in Zagarolo!! Oh well, it was worth it!

Chuckie enjoying Allie's stuffing!

Allie made two pumpkin pies again this year, and guess what...no cats ate them! It was like we live in a world where things go as you intend them to! Crazy.

Grace delivering pumpkin pie!

In short, we had a really great time with our friends and we ate until we felt like we'd explode! It was a wonderful holiday!