I have been counting down days until I come back to the States for a few months now. I absolutely LOVE Italy, but there are things I miss about home.
Things I love about the States:
My family, duh! Can't wait to come home to see them and spend time with them.
My friends I haven't seen in a year...that's WAY too long!
The RADIO!!! I'm a huge radio person and I can't wait to catch up on all the current songs and my beloved Country Music! I've started hearing songs on award shows that I've never heard before...that's sad.
Jersey Mike's ham and cheese sandwich with ONLY mayo.
Walking into a store or restaurant and speaking perfect English without feeling bad that A) I am totally butchering their language or B) I don't know how to ask for what I need.
Seeing American Griswald Family Christmas houses...Italians just don't do the decorations quite the same!!
Going to the Christmas Eve service at my church and ending the evening in candlelight singing Silent Night.
Having the cashier bag my purchases instead of handing me the bag.
CHEAP shopping!!! I'll be paying in dollars instead of Euro!!
And more than 10 channels replaying the same shows on Armed Forces Network!!
But for all the things I love the States for I have lists of reasons why I love Italy as well:
I leave my house every day and see the snow covered Alp mountains (assuming it's not too foggy)!!
A speed limit is a suggestion and I'm never concerned about tickets...
The wine is often cheaper than water!
Once you are seated at a table in a restaurant it is yours for the night. The server is not looking to turn the table to make more money...you take your time!
Cheese from the weekly market...never had anything like it...it's SO good!!
I can drive two to four hours and be in 5 different countries depending on your direction.
Skiing in the Alps...for 30 Euro (less than $50) a day!
Clearly I am blessed to be surrounded by so many great things.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Sunday, December 5, 2010
It's December Already!!!
Auguri!!
So I've been busy, trucking right along in day to day life. Nothing major and exciting, but busy none the less. I finally broke down and bought a planner. I had one when I first arrived here left over from back home (when it was necessary) but after a few months of nothing to write in it...I quickly gave it up. After being here a year I now need a planner again because my schedule is filling up! I guess that's a good thing. So pretty much my planner has filled up with things like car appointments, dinner dates, movies, lunches, work meetings, and To Do lists. Wow, thrilling, huh?
As some of you may know, we recently celebrated Thanksgiving over here...not sure if everyone is aware of the holiday as it seems the retail stores like to skip it and go straight into Christmas. And while I don't usually care much for Thanksgiving, it was actually a great day. It was a new experience this year celebrating the feast with five Americans and six Italians. It was a "grande Americana fiesta". I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed it and it was an excellent time to practice my Italian since very little English was spoken/understood by our guests. It's amazing the gratitude you can express and friendship you can develop despite a language barrier. On a side note...I looked at our Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in a whole new way. As we were watching it with our Italian friends at dinner (thank you time difference) it seemed quite odd to watch and LOVE big massive balloons of Ronald McDonald and the KoolAid man floating down 5th Avenue. Oh well, they seemed entertained as well :)
And I'm not sure why this uploaded sideways...but here is my first attempt at making a pie crust from a box...without a rolling pin. I mention that like a rolling pin would have actually helped...HA. I quickly shifted to a frozen crust that Kika bought for me (since there were only 4 left on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving) My pies turned out beautifully with the frozen crust...that's CLEARLY the way to go.
So amid my plain day to day life every now and then fun things pop up like going to Christmas Markets in Austria and going on the first ski trip of the season to the Alps! Yay! I have been taking a break from the travels since clearly I hit them pretty hard this fall...but Austria and Cortina were just day trips. The perks of living on a small continent!
Last Saturday Kika and I drove up to Villach, Austria to go to the Christmas Market...we then headed over to Klagenfurt to hit up that one as well. We weren't a huge fan of Villach, but LOVED Klagenfurt. This was a beautiful nativity set on display. I'm still looking to find a nice wood or ceramic nativity scene (a small table sized one) over here, but so far they have all been around 200-300 Euros...that's a little steep. So I'm still looking.
Just walkin' in a winter wonderland...no big deal :)
And this weekend we packed up the car and our gear and headed North to the Italian Alps to the ski town of Cortina d'Ampezzo. Taylor and I drove through the town last Christmas on our way to Innsbruck, Austria and we both thought it looked neat and wanted to go back. It was much better than I expected after reading online. It just opened for the season Thanksgiving weekend so it was looking like all the runs weren't open yet due to snow levels...but when we arrived it was awesome and almost 100% open. We were all very pleasantly surprised! And even better it's only an hour and a half away (without traffic!)
Please enjoy a bit of the scenery...
So as I mentioned above the countdown is for sure on until Taylor comes back home. We both are SO, SO ready!!! And my other countdown I have going is to my trip home for Christmas...less than 2 weeks...11 days to be exact!!
Hope you're having a Happy December full of shopping, crowds, candy, decorations, lights, music, and joyful celebrations of our Lord's birth among all the other good things that come during this wonderful month!!!
Saturday, December 4, 2010
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