God Bless America

   I just returned from a trip to Naples where we had a basketball game on the military base. I had a fun time with my girls and shared many laughs. One of the highlights for this expat was visiting the commissary. I walked over with a few of my players and they told me I wouldn't be able to get in without a proper ID. I told them I would try. So I flashed my passport and my smile and was granted instant access. Holla!!!
   It was a beautiful sight. I felt like I had just walked into Safeway back at home. American brands, prices in dollars...it was wonderful. At home, never had I been excited to see a pack of Fritos but yesterday, it was as if those corn chips were a long, lost friend.
   I started in the baking aisle. Brown sugar! Chocolate chips! Peanut Butter! They even had Goober Grape! Goober Grape is an important part of my childhood and serves as punchlines to many inside jokes between my brother and me. I then continued on and found...Tapatio! Kraft Macaroni and Cheese! Cheddar Cheese! Hot and Spicy Cheez-Its! Peanut Butter M&M's!
   Needless to say, I stocked up and spent about $75.00. I even lucked out at the check-out line and didn't have the proper ID but gave my SSN and I was good to go. It was meant to be.
   Funny thing is, in the states, I rarely bought this stuff...but you don't know what you've got til' it's gone right? And this homesick girl is momentarily feasting on hydrogenated oils and yellow 5 and loving it.
  

Super Bowl Sunday

   This is the first time in years I won't be watching the Super Bowl. I think the only other time I've missed it is when I was in Australia back in 2001. So, how does one American expat spend Super Bowl Sunday here in Rome? By going to a museum. I'm trading my wing dip and guacamole for images of Monet and Van Gogh.
   I met up with a couple friends at the Galeria Nazionale Roma. We spent a good two hours walking around. We saw paintings, sculptures and even a death star. We had fun interpreting some of the more "interesting" pieces...I swear one piece was made of bubble gum.
  While it was a good afternoon, a part of me wishes I was hanging out in my friends' kitchen cheering on the Broncos with my people. I'm there in spirit.....GO BRONCOS! (For you Lizzy!) 

Italian Inch

    There aren't too many things I'm incredibly particular about. However, like most women, one thing I'm pretty picky about is my hair. Leaving Brittany, my hairdresser in California, was a sad day for me. She has been cutting my hair for quite a few years. Not only does she know my life story but she knows exactly what I like and dislike about my hair.
     I inherited naturally wavy/curly hair from my mother and maintaining it has always been a struggle-particularly in rainy/humid places. For example, ROME.
   Going to a new salon is always intimidating but even more so when you don't speak the same language. My first time getting my haircut here, my friend came with me and translated what I wanted done. He did a really good job. Phew...my anxieties about my hair were relieved. Little did I know...

   So last week, I decided to go back as my hair was in desperate need of a trim. A TRIM. This time, my friend couldn't come with me so I went to our secretary and had her type out exactly what I wanted done. I was very specific about what I wanted.

• No more than an inch (3 centimeters) taken off
• Internal layering in the back so you can't see the layers but some of the weight is gone (I have pretty thick hair)
• Bang trim
• Some layers around the face

   I didn't get the same guy as last time, but gave him my list of what I wanted and with the limited Italian I knew, communicated what I wanted. I'm pretty sure he read my list of things but in his mind, didn't like what I had written so decided to do what he wanted instead. About 2 inches got chopped off, he LAYERED the back (I can't stand layers in the back), he didn't do anything in the front. The only thing he did on my list was trim my bangs. Plus, he finished cutting within 5 minutes and someone else came over to blow dry.

   I couldn't help but think of that scene from Troop Beverly Hills when Shelley Long's character is sharing her "scary story," with her troop. Always thinking it was slightly ridiculous that all the girls screamed after she gives her punchline, "He PERMED me," I, for the first time, empathized with her character.

   The next day, I was sharing this story with some coworkers and they all said that most Italian hairdressers tend to ignore what you want and do what they want. Ummm.....what the heck??? Where is Yelp when you need it????

  So, *sniffle, sniffle* I'm now stuck with this choppy haircut which I hate, nearly cry every morning when I'm getting ready for work and miss Brittany more than ever. Sorry, no pictures for this entry...

Bring It On....

Basketball has always been one of my favorite sports to play. As many of you know, I took on the job as assistant coach for our high school girls' basketball team. I share the position with my friend Andy. Now, I'm having a great time finding my groove with this whole coaching thing...getting to know the girls, running plays and drills etc. However, it REALLY makes me want to play. It's hard standing there, watching a scrimmage or a game and NOT being able to jump in and play. In order to remedy that, we organized a faculty vs. girls game which took place last night. There were 7 of us all together. Not once did we practice but.....we WON! It was so much fun and we're hoping we get to play again soon. Oh and it was good practice for our girls too. ;)

Here's a link to watch our game...we didn't know they were going to livestream this game...lots of laughs ensued watching it later on that evening. My friend Jess and I are in agreement that we run like dorks.

http://new.livestream.com/aosronline/events/2698519

Team Faculty: Caitlin, Andy, Robin, Ethan, Me, Jess and Katie

Holidays

  I kicked off the holidays by enjoying Thanksgiving here in Rome with some friends. We had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner complete with turkey, stuffing, potatoes, veggies and we even had cranberry sauce! The next day, my friend Lauren and I headed to Lucca which is in Tuscany. Lucca is a beautiful little walled city and we enjoyed the food and weather! It was cold, but clear with the fall colors prominent. We rented bikes and rode around the city. It was a great weekend and nice to get away.  Christmas in Rome was beautiful. The lights and decorations were fantastic. My friend and I went to Christmas eve mass at St. Peter's. It was so beautiful! It was surreal being there. The next morning we went to Rome Baptist Church for their Christmas Day service. After that we ran over to St. Peter's to hear the Pope's Blessing. It was a great Christmas! :)
  For New Years, I took the train up to Milan for the night and then continued on to Paris where I met up with some friends from California. It was so good to see them! We walked all over Paris, enjoyed crepes and rung in the new year in front of Notre Dame.
  It was difficult being away from my family during the holidays but am grateful I was surrounded by good friends. I am truly blessed and am looking forward to an awesome 2014!

Lucca, Italy

Alps!

Lauren, Fritz and Me

Bryan, Erin and Me in front of Eiffel

Happy New Year!

 

First Winter Solstice of the Year

My friend just posted on Facebook, that we enjoyed our second winter solstice of the year yesterday. Took me a minute but I realized that he was right. We were in Peru six months ago, and at Machu Picchu, for the winter solstice in June. I realize I didn't post anything about my trip to Peru on here...so I'm seizing this opportunity of nostalgia to summarize about our incredible adventure. 
A group of us decided about a year ago to plan a trip to Peru. As Machu Picchu had been at the top of my list for as long as I could remember, I jumped at the chance to go. We decided to do the 5 day Salkantay trek which we read was more challenging and less traveled than the Inca trail. 
I flew out the day after the school year ended which was a whirlwind of emotions as not only was I saying goodbye to my class, but I was saying goodbye to my school and colleagues as I had just accepted this job in Italy.
My friend Gabby and I flew into Lima and met up with everyone else. We spent a couple days in Lima, enjoyed the sights and of course, the amazing ceviche and pisco sours. We then flew to Cusco a couple days before our trek left in order to acclimate. Epic fail: I forgot to pick up my altitude sickness medication at the pharmacy before I left. Despite the copious amounts of mate de coca, I still experienced the worst headache and got really sick. Thankfully, Gabby had a couple extra pills which definitely helped. 
We booked our trek through Llama Path and the night before we left, met our group. We left around 5 am and drove to our location for the drop off which was about 2+ hours from Cusco. And thus it began! We started our ascent into the Andes. The first day we enjoyed breathtaking views and gorgeous weather. The second day, my altitude sickness got worse as we made our ascent to 15,000 feet. However, I managed to somehow keep going and make it to the top, getting slightly dehydrated, but still in good spirits. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't as cooperative and we experienced quite a bit of rain and snow...but still pretty amazing. 
The rest of the trek was much easier and a lot of fun. We descended into the Andean rainforest and even managed to hit up some hot springs. We had a good group of people which made the trip a lot of fun. 
The final day of the trek, we hiked into Aguas Calientes where we had a bed and shower! The next morning we got up early and hopped on the bus. Now as it was the winter solstice, those Incas intended amazing things to happen at sunrise...however, we were thwarted again by bad weather and the clouds blocked our sunrise. However, nothing could stop the giddiness I felt: I was at Machu Picchu! After years of reading about this place and learning about the Incas, I was finally here! We spent some time in the city and then a few of us had tickets to hike up to Huayna Picchu. It was amazing. Right when we got to the top, the sun came out. The view of the city and surrounding mountains were so beautiful. I sat up there and enjoyed the peace and quiet for a good hour before making my way back down. 
We left Aguas Calientes that evening and made our way back to Cusco. We spent another day in Cusco and then flew back to Lima where I learned how to make chocolate and had my Josh Radnor (Ted Mosby) sighting. I almost ran into him after coffee on a street in Barranco. He was wearing a blue poncho and had headphones in and I watched him nearly get hit by a car. I told Gabby and she was so mad that I didn't alert her in time for a picture. But he didn't look like he wanted to be hounded by HIMYM fans...
Peru was amazing and I would love to go back....¡Ojalá!

Field Trip to the Farm!

       One of my favorite things about teaching kindergarten is our field trips to the farm. Even in California we did this. Our whole kindergarten, all 26 of us (24 kids and 2 teachers), had been preparing for this trip for quite a while as we had to cancel it the first time due to rain.
      One difference between field trips here and in California is that our chaperones are members of our staff-not parents. We had three other staff members join us so there were five adults all together. This was nice because our chaperones knew all the kids as they work with them regularly. Another difference is that as soon as we arrived at the farm, our host brought out coffees for the adults!
      The first thing we did is we went inside and learned about wheat. Our guide showed us where wheat comes from and how to use the mill to grind it. All the kids got a turn to grind the wheat and sift it. Then we used the wheat to make cookies. Now, ordinarily, the cookies that are made at this farm by the kids contain four ingredients: flour, sugar, olive oil and wine. Wine in cookies??? This was exactly what went through my mind when I heard this. However, because we have two kids who need to abstain from alcohol due to religious beliefs, we had to request that they change it. So, they substituted the wine with apple juice. I do hope to try the wine cookies soon though.
     After the cookies were made, we took a tour of the farm. We first looked at all the crops. This is an organic farm so we found lots of critters. The kids saw many of the foods that end up on their plates in the cafeteria at lunch. We then walked over to see the chickens and donkeys. Now the donkeys are solely there to produce fertilizer. Many of the kids were not used to this smell and did not like it! But for me, it was like being at home. All the kids had a chance to feed the chickens with green vegetables and those chickens ate it up! Would love to get my hands on some of those eggs with diets like those!
    We then ate our lunch and our host brought out after-lunch coffees and cookies for the adults. Now this farm hosts a brunch on Sundays using all of their produce. We decided to book a reservation for that Sunday. A few of us went and ate a delicious meal! I definitely hope to go back for brunch and am looking forward to our field trip next year!