Questa è la vita!

I don’t know where the time is going but another week flew by! 29 days of school down, and only 139 left to go! (Only kindergarten and first grade teachers could tell you that!)

Got in a 38 mile ride around the lake before the rain on Saturday. Then I went shopping in Italy to a market and a grocery store - thanks Tracie! Things were  much cheaper there. The market reminded me of the street vendors in Seoul, except here the food vendors had olives, bread and fresh fruit contrasted to fish in Korea. (The aromas are much better here!) I bought a much needed bungie cord (imagine me trying to mime that – it’s an “elasteco” if you ever need one in Itally) to hold my bikes from tipping and rolling in my storage “crate”. I have to stand them on end to put them in my storage closet. Can't figure it out, some days they just roll right in and stay put, and other days they have been really naughty and tip and roll and stick their handlebars in each others spokes, and hook their pedals on the wooden slats. Go figure! FYI - The bungie cord works great!

Bungie cord sellers!

Grocery shopping was an adventure, albeit much easier than in Korea, at least I could sort of read the labels. Milk comes in boxes, (unrefrigerated with expiration dates of 12.31.12), flour is Farina, and toilet paper comes with flowers printed on it.  On Wednesday I’m hosting a potluck for about 18 people. Wednesday evenings the students eat with their advisory, so all of us without advisories decided to eat dinner together. It’s been fun gathering at everyone’s homes. I found it difficult to give directions to my home when I don’t know my address, none of the streets are straight, and there aren’t really corners, but you just veer to the right or left….I sent a photo of my entrance with my invitation to the potluck. Hope they all show up or I'll be eating veggie pasta for weeks!

This morning I went to St. Edwards for church. It is the only English speaking church in Lugano. They will be celebrating their 110^th anniversary next month!

After lunch I decided to go exploring and find out where the streets behind my apartment would lead me. I walked for two and a half hours and was exceedingly lost much of the time amidst tangled streets and paths, however I made my way down sort of near IKEA, and then I walked to Lake Lugano. From there I needed to ask directions to the train station to buy a half price train card. I’m excited to say that the people I talked to understood my meager Italian, and I understood their responses!!!! Yay me! (lontano a piedi – far on foot) When I was learning those words I didn’t think they would ever be important and was miffed that I should be learning them. (I asked more people for directions than I actually needed to because I really wanted to practice speaking Italian. It was disappointing when occasionally they would reply in English.

Street behind my apartment.

Guess cars aren't supposed to go here!

My mom's favorite flowers, geraniums, as a tree!

Lake Lugano

I walked up, but you can take a funicular up the hill.

No real street signs, just arrows pointing to different towns (neighborhoods).

I’ve been really working on my Italian – Rosetta Stone, Mango, Italian Mind Snacks, flashcards, eating lunch with Claudia (an Italian teacher), just really trying to speak Italian whenever I can. I must sound like a one year old trying to talk because usually I can only say one or two words with some miming. This week I said a whole sentence though! Yay me again!

Tidbits:

I learned that the street I live on, Collina D’oro, means “golden hill”. It was an “ah hah” moment when I realized that collina means hill. I live on a “golden hill”, not a mountain! My professional development goal is to learn Italian. It’s pretty neat that my PD goal is very meaningful to me, as it is the personal goal I had set for myself, along with being able to ride up mountains. (Now that the hill I live on doesn’t count as a mountain I’m going to have to get working on that goal!)

Can’t say enough about how happy I am here. I’m very blessed! That doesn’t mean I don’t miss my mom, my kids, my puppies, and all of my friends from home though! I really appreciate all of the emails, messages and phone calls (even if they wake me up).

Questa è la vita! – “This is the life!”