29-Aprile-2006
Holy out of shape am I. This morning I woke up unable to move my right arm. Apparently playing Frisbee at large distances isn’t favorable to my arm…. and back… but, ya know, it’s probably good for me or some jazz like that.
Other than that, it’s been a pretty uneventful day. Jefferino and I booked a hostel for tomorrow night in Cinque Terre, so I will make it there J and we played rummy. I lost really bad.
We went to the market this morning. Saturday is by far the busiest day of the week. I always love the market, but I hate some of the sleazy people there. Today we went with Jeff but just so happened to lose him about 7 minutes into the busiest section. Casey and I tried to finish up without incident, but one guy was “trying to sell jewellery” or perhaps looking for a pocket to pick, and another guy just kept trying to speak to us in English and kept saying that we were beautiful. He put his hand on my shoulder and I turned to look at him and told him to back off… with a bit more colorful language. I often find myself wondering how Italian women deal with this sort of thing… I can’t say I’ve ever noticed it, but I sure would like to witness the whole ordeal and maybe take notes.
The weather was beautiful today. This made us want to play more Frisbee, but after 30 excruciating minutes, I let Casey take my place for awhile. After that Casey and I walked around for a while and watched people stare at our sandaled feet and lack of heavy clothing. Italians are weird.
This evening I took some pictures of myself in a bathing suit. Wow, how depressing. I think I’m going to start fasting…
Tomorrow morning our train leaves at 9:05am. I still don’t have a thing packed and it’s almost 1am, so I’m going to catch some zzz’s so I can get up early to pack.
Ciao!
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Friday, April 28, 2006
reliving the crazy boy band days...
28-Aprile-2006
I had a pretty excellent day today. For the first good half of the day, Casey, Jeff, Jefferino and I sat on the Internet and tried to figure out where we should or would study next. It ended up being pretty interesting.
Casey, Jeff and I then decided to play some Frisbee in the park. It was a pretty dreary afternoon and it started to sprinkle almost right after I got there. The poor weather didn’t hinder our game, but Casey was kept on the sidelines because her allergies kicked in…but Jeff and I entertained ourselves for quite awhile with the Frisbee. You can really whip that thing if you get into it.
After that, being a sweaty, smelly mess, we were headed down to pay rent. As luck would have it, we ran right into a square that TRL (total request live, a very popular TV show on MTV) was set up for Torino. This isn’t the same TRL that we have in the states, they have an Italian version based out of Milano but it was cool nonetheless. We had our first opportunity to view the Italian co-hosts who we have come to know since watching Italian TV – the guy co-host is super hot. I tried my best to bring out the inner 14-year-old, but I just couldn't do it... There was a famous Italian rapper on today who wasn’t all that entertaining, in fact he is Jeff’s least favorite Italian artist, and he was sure to let us know it too :)
Eventually we made it to our landlord’s and had to talk with her about a new crimp in our “after school” plans. For the past two months we’ve been coordinating with her so that we would have a place to stay/leave our stuff after the program ended and she was nice enough to offer us the apt below ours (where two students currently are) for free since we rock. Well apparently one of the girls below us asked about staying and we would have had four people in the apt. So, we went to see if we could figure something else out and it just so happens that since our apartment has the bug infestation that they are hiring an exterminator to come in after the program and the apt won’t be needed until July. Now we can stay until we leave in our own apartment without a problem. I guess it should upset me slightly that they aren’t doing much now, but will when we leave, but I don’t really care..
We also learned that our landlord's dog, Paco, has gone missing. He snuck out the door of the travel agency when a bunch of people came in. Deborah, our landlord, explained to us that it seems to happen on a semi-regular basis, but we were still pretty torn up. Poor Paco!
This weekend is another Italian holiday and the holiday/train situation is looking the same as before. I’m having trouble finding travel buddies to cinque terre since casey is going there when her family comes and jeff doesn’t really want to go. So, I think I might head down there on Sunday and stay until Tuesday. Maybe that will help me to avoid some of the people.
I had a pretty excellent day today. For the first good half of the day, Casey, Jeff, Jefferino and I sat on the Internet and tried to figure out where we should or would study next. It ended up being pretty interesting.
Casey, Jeff and I then decided to play some Frisbee in the park. It was a pretty dreary afternoon and it started to sprinkle almost right after I got there. The poor weather didn’t hinder our game, but Casey was kept on the sidelines because her allergies kicked in…but Jeff and I entertained ourselves for quite awhile with the Frisbee. You can really whip that thing if you get into it.
After that, being a sweaty, smelly mess, we were headed down to pay rent. As luck would have it, we ran right into a square that TRL (total request live, a very popular TV show on MTV) was set up for Torino. This isn’t the same TRL that we have in the states, they have an Italian version based out of Milano but it was cool nonetheless. We had our first opportunity to view the Italian co-hosts who we have come to know since watching Italian TV – the guy co-host is super hot. I tried my best to bring out the inner 14-year-old, but I just couldn't do it... There was a famous Italian rapper on today who wasn’t all that entertaining, in fact he is Jeff’s least favorite Italian artist, and he was sure to let us know it too :)
Eventually we made it to our landlord’s and had to talk with her about a new crimp in our “after school” plans. For the past two months we’ve been coordinating with her so that we would have a place to stay/leave our stuff after the program ended and she was nice enough to offer us the apt below ours (where two students currently are) for free since we rock. Well apparently one of the girls below us asked about staying and we would have had four people in the apt. So, we went to see if we could figure something else out and it just so happens that since our apartment has the bug infestation that they are hiring an exterminator to come in after the program and the apt won’t be needed until July. Now we can stay until we leave in our own apartment without a problem. I guess it should upset me slightly that they aren’t doing much now, but will when we leave, but I don’t really care..
We also learned that our landlord's dog, Paco, has gone missing. He snuck out the door of the travel agency when a bunch of people came in. Deborah, our landlord, explained to us that it seems to happen on a semi-regular basis, but we were still pretty torn up. Poor Paco!This weekend is another Italian holiday and the holiday/train situation is looking the same as before. I’m having trouble finding travel buddies to cinque terre since casey is going there when her family comes and jeff doesn’t really want to go. So, I think I might head down there on Sunday and stay until Tuesday. Maybe that will help me to avoid some of the people.
life goals and holding myself accountable..
leave it to adam to find a website to address anything you could possibly have an interest in...
Today I set up an account on 43things.com which is a way to track your goals.. kind of hokey, maybe not the best way to spend my time, but if it works, can't really complain. So this is my way of holding myself accountable... if you want to look at my goals:
http://www.43things.com/person/lynndro
and be sure to sign up and add me so we can "cheers" each other along the way.. :)
Today I set up an account on 43things.com which is a way to track your goals.. kind of hokey, maybe not the best way to spend my time, but if it works, can't really complain. So this is my way of holding myself accountable... if you want to look at my goals:
http://www.43things.com/person/lynndro
and be sure to sign up and add me so we can "cheers" each other along the way.. :)
Thursday, April 27, 2006
27-Aprile-2006
This evening I had the honor of talking to Laura for about two hours. It was fantastic. We caught up on everything going on in both of our lives and had a little time to play online. Next time we’re on together we will be partaking in some sort of online poker tournament. Hehe We compared our itching stories since she has syrasis – spelling is not right on that one – so we both go through the horror and trauma everyday. Yeah for us.
Today I woke up in a bad mood since I discovered I had been bit again and tore my bed away from the wall, much to seth’s surprise. Then we decided to clean and rearrange and discovered what looked like a termite infestation.. or at least like some bugs that really liked the wood of the floor right under my bed. We noticed a few more instances around the house and in our own room, but mine was by far the worst. There is no telling whether these little buggers are the culprits of the many biting crimes committed against me, but needless to say, my bed is on the other side of the room now. I guess we’ll see.
And today I spoke with my security guard friend again. Up until now, I had been addressing him formally with “Signore” but he told me yesterday that I was to call him by his name, Mimo, from now on. Yay! I have a 50 year old Italian friend, score!
On the bus this afternoon I was just riding along when I head the sure sounds of the Engish language. I turned and saw a group of about 8 lads that were approximately my age speaking with an older gentleman, probably the teacher, about something I could not hear. Well, they were speaking English and weren’t scowling like the rest of the bus so I struck up a conversation and learned that they were auto design students from the UK. Yay for English!
Today I woke up in a bad mood since I discovered I had been bit again and tore my bed away from the wall, much to seth’s surprise. Then we decided to clean and rearrange and discovered what looked like a termite infestation.. or at least like some bugs that really liked the wood of the floor right under my bed. We noticed a few more instances around the house and in our own room, but mine was by far the worst. There is no telling whether these little buggers are the culprits of the many biting crimes committed against me, but needless to say, my bed is on the other side of the room now. I guess we’ll see.
And today I spoke with my security guard friend again. Up until now, I had been addressing him formally with “Signore” but he told me yesterday that I was to call him by his name, Mimo, from now on. Yay! I have a 50 year old Italian friend, score!
On the bus this afternoon I was just riding along when I head the sure sounds of the Engish language. I turned and saw a group of about 8 lads that were approximately my age speaking with an older gentleman, probably the teacher, about something I could not hear. Well, they were speaking English and weren’t scowling like the rest of the bus so I struck up a conversation and learned that they were auto design students from the UK. Yay for English!
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
26-Aprile-2006
Back to my two days of school per week.. I realized that next week I don’t have class again until Wednesday. This is seriously annoying.. why can’t it be all in one shot? Geez louise. I like going to school, but it’s hard when there are such big gaps between classes, I have a hard enough time recalling what we learned the day before let alone the week before… Yes, I do realize that this is a very strange complaint.
Ever since I was investigating opening a bank account, I have walked past a branch of San Paolo everyday on my way to catch the bus to school. When I first went there I required the help of the security guard to figure out to whom I could talk to about my banking. Since the weather has warmed up, the security guard has been outside the bank and we have turned out to be good friends. Friends meaning that I say “Ciao Signore” every time that I go by. Since my lack of school and plethora of vacation, I haven’t been to the bus stop and haven’t run into him. Today he was outside and was noticeably happy to see me. He took my hand and asked if everything was going well. I was happy to see that I finally made a friend who doesn’t work at some sort of food place.. Casey and I have a similar relationship with the crepe man, the owner of the café across the street and the guys that work at the kebab. After a while, being friends with people who sell food is a bad idea… Plus it’s nice to know that my block is being protected.. even if it’s a little far away from my house.
Today I did the unthinkable – I made lasagne! I have never had to make lasagne since I’ve been very fortunate to have my mother and adam who are excellent at it. However, I figured since I was in Italy it was fitting that I try it on my own – plus I bought that cookbook in Scotland with a good recipe with zucchini and mushrooms. There was a lot of preparation and thankfully no tears, until I had to eat it. Nah, it wasn’t that much of a lost cause. I do think that it needed more cheese, it ended up being a bit on the dry side. I suppose it wouldn’t be true lasagne unless I screwed it up at least once. I’ve even seen Adam screw up lasagne.
To offset my addiction to gelato, chocolate, and nutella crepes, I have been trying to exercise at least a little bit each day. I’ve brought myself up to 500 crunches per day and some other muscle workers such as lunges, wall sits and trunk rotations. Mostly my exercise regimen is what I can remember from ski team callisthenics… I would give up chocolate, gelato and nutella crepes if I had a bike to ride instead of my snowboard, which makes a nice decoration for the corner of my room.
Well, I’m off to start a new book. And wish for megan to call me :)
Ever since I was investigating opening a bank account, I have walked past a branch of San Paolo everyday on my way to catch the bus to school. When I first went there I required the help of the security guard to figure out to whom I could talk to about my banking. Since the weather has warmed up, the security guard has been outside the bank and we have turned out to be good friends. Friends meaning that I say “Ciao Signore” every time that I go by. Since my lack of school and plethora of vacation, I haven’t been to the bus stop and haven’t run into him. Today he was outside and was noticeably happy to see me. He took my hand and asked if everything was going well. I was happy to see that I finally made a friend who doesn’t work at some sort of food place.. Casey and I have a similar relationship with the crepe man, the owner of the café across the street and the guys that work at the kebab. After a while, being friends with people who sell food is a bad idea… Plus it’s nice to know that my block is being protected.. even if it’s a little far away from my house.
Today I did the unthinkable – I made lasagne! I have never had to make lasagne since I’ve been very fortunate to have my mother and adam who are excellent at it. However, I figured since I was in Italy it was fitting that I try it on my own – plus I bought that cookbook in Scotland with a good recipe with zucchini and mushrooms. There was a lot of preparation and thankfully no tears, until I had to eat it. Nah, it wasn’t that much of a lost cause. I do think that it needed more cheese, it ended up being a bit on the dry side. I suppose it wouldn’t be true lasagne unless I screwed it up at least once. I’ve even seen Adam screw up lasagne.
To offset my addiction to gelato, chocolate, and nutella crepes, I have been trying to exercise at least a little bit each day. I’ve brought myself up to 500 crunches per day and some other muscle workers such as lunges, wall sits and trunk rotations. Mostly my exercise regimen is what I can remember from ski team callisthenics… I would give up chocolate, gelato and nutella crepes if I had a bike to ride instead of my snowboard, which makes a nice decoration for the corner of my room.
Well, I’m off to start a new book. And wish for megan to call me :)
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