il Vento

It's been a week since Hurricane Sandy devastated our home state.  Even though this is a blog about our life in Italy, I felt like saying something about the storm.  Since Sandy hit, Kristen and I have been thinking a lot about home and all of our friends who were affected by the storm.  So often Americans (maybe humans) tend to forget about big events like this very quickly moving on to the newest, most exciting topic of the day.  For many of our family and friends living in other parts of the country I'll bet you're seeing this already on your local news?  Further, I suspect that most news is about NYC, which was severely impacted by Sandy don't get me wrong, but ground zero here was definitely NJ.  If you haven't done so already, look at images of the NJ coast especially...here are a couple of links worth seeing:

Images of Manasquan, the town where Kristen and I used to live:  http://www.manasquan-nj.com/Sandy-1012/index.html

Images of the NJ coast:  https://www.facebook.com/JerseyShoreHurricaneNews/photos_stream

That image I placed on this blog post shows you the size of Sandy as it slammed into NJ last week.  Notice that almost the entire northern Atlantic Ocean is rotating (from several large storms).  Clouds were fanning out all the way to Italy!  The energy in the atmosphere at this time was absolutely amazing.  Unfortunately for NJ a lot of this energy was released on our coast.

To tie this back into our life here in Italy...at the exact same time that Sandy was slamming into the NJ coast, we had an unrelated weather event that affected us: called a "bora"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bora_(wind).

It was our first bora since moving to Duino.  While many of our friends were experiencing hurricane conditions in NJ, we had similar conditions right here in Italy.  At first, it made me feel really connected with our old home.  Wind was howling at gale force, the sky was dark with storm clouds, and flooding rains made our streets flow like rivers.  I actually felt a little homesick wishing I was there for the hurricane.  (You know, the surfer in me likes a good hurricane).  But then I saw the images of our old home after the storm hit.  Our bora was a weak comparison.

Now, Kristen and I both feel a little homesick wishing we were there to help our friends and the community where we spent our first 5 years of marriage together.  Our house was fine, and our friends safe.  But many of our friends and neighbors had severe damage to their homes.  Some were told yesterday that their towns will be unlivable for at least the next 6-8 months!  Many of the barrier islands were cut unto pieces, power is gone, gas lines broken (the main cause for evacuations).  It is a very strange feeling being so far away and not being able to help, even though we know there really isn't much we could do even if we were home.

But on a positive note...

We hear that lots of our friends are taking stock in the positive things that came from this disaster.  Neighbors are having long talks around fires, many who probably only wave hello from time to time, and people are helping strangers.  Friends are re-connecting "in person" (not by email or on Facebook).  Those who have not lost everything are opening their doors for those who have.  It's comforting to know people are helping each other instead of turning their backs and thinking about themselves.

I hope you didn't mind a blog post about NJ.  But this is a part of living abroad that I felt like sharing...thinking about home.  For our friends and family affected directly by the storm our thoughts are with you.  For those in other parts of the country, keep thinking about the east coast and do what you can to help.

Il vento ci collega tutti.

Ciao,
Tom