Snow!

One thing you may not know about Tom:  he always manages to be on a surf trip when it snows.  This has happened more times than I can count over the years.  He goes to FL or San Diego or Costa Rica to surf, I get to shovel snow.

When he left a week ago to go back to NJ, then to FL for work (and surfing), it never even crossed my mind that we would get snow in Italy!  People tell me they get a little now and then, not often, and not here because we are on the sea.  I didn't really take anyone seriously earlier this week when they said it might snow this weekend.  Then, at about 5 pm yesterday, it started coming down.  By about 2 am there was enough to make a snowman (I know this because I woke to the sound of students making one outside my door) and this morning we have a healthy 5 or 6 inches on everything.

No one even has a snow shovel here, though, because this is pretty unusual, so I won't be doing any of that today!  I'll just be walking around, enjoying the castles in the snow. . . 

Holidays in Italy

There is no Halloween.  Without Halloween, it is hard to know when to start thinking about Thanksgiving.  But there is no Thanksgiving.  So there is no landmark to start the insanity of Christmas, my favorite insane time of the year.  On Dec. 6, local Italians will celebrate San Nicolo (sometimes called the original Santa), and I'm happy to join in because I hear it involves gluhwein and presents for little ones.  In the meantime, though, we couldn't just skip Thanksgiving, so we had our own.

My cookies--I substituted shredded white
chocolate for both chocolate chips and frosting.
They were still pretty tasty!

Yesterday we celebrated (late) Thanksgiving.  Tom was already back in the States, so there were eleven of us (eight Americans, one Spaniard who grew up in MA, and two boy/girlfriends of American students).  The kids made mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, dressing, rolls, green beans, spinach salad, stuffed mushrooms, carrots, chicken, ribs, and seven desserts.  There was no turkey, but we didn’t miss it.  The food was good but not great—ingredients are different here, so without tons of practice it’s difficult to make things taste like you “expect.”  I managed to make a close approximation of my favorite cookies (the white choc and cranberry kind) that were pretty close to the US version, and certainly good enough to eat!  The evening ended with “Elf.”

I tried to explain to our Italian/Dutch neighbors what Thanksgiving was really about yesterday, and that it really comes down to food and family.  I enjoyed the company of the students yesterday, and I know that they appreciated having an afternoon together where we could all laugh about how our English changed since we arrived (speaking primarily in the present tense, asking questions by adding the word “yes?” at the end of a sentence) and not having to use in the metric system (you would be surprised how often measurements come up during a normal day).  I wonder if the day made them miss home as much as I did—not a specific place, but the company of old friends and old jokes; playing games together and eating plenty of comfort foods.

The extent of our holiday
decorations in Italy.

Now that the day is over, I can officially think about Christmas.  We’ll spend the holidays in New Jersey.  I hope these two weeks pass quickly and I can’t wait to see old friends and holiday lights and watch bad movies on tv!  I’m even almost looking forward to finishing the holiday shopping.  Almost.

Quiet night's sleep, long hot shower, coffee at Turnstile...

Just a few of the things I missed while being in Italy that I've already done since getting back to NJ last night!

I also already saw some friends: Michelle, AJ and Mike.  Seeing friends and family was the first thing on the list of things I'm looking forward to while being home for the holidays.  There's a whole bunch of other things that are must do's while we're back....like:

SURF!
Go see the tree in NYC
Go to a diner
Eat some BBQ
Eat some Cuban food
Eat some Thai food
Eat anything besides Italian food
SURF again!
Take the boat out and go to Sedge
Hear some blues
Play some blues (with the Tribe of Uncles)
Work around the house
Hang out around the house...lay around on the couch and do nothing
OK...another food thing...have kettle corn while watching a movie
Go to a movie (in English) in the theater
Walk the High Line
Wander around the Village
Have brunch in Philly
Shop at REI
Did I mention SURF!!!!

Cinciarella!

I really like some of the Italian names for birds...

"Cinciarella" is the Italian name for the Blue Tit (a common bird here in Duino).  In Italian you pronounce "ci" as "chee".  Try it, the name really roles off your tongue nicely.

Ci vediamo doppo,
Tom

i Dolomiti

Last weekend we decided to rent a car and escape Duino for a little adventure...we ended up in the famous Dolomites in the Italian Alps!  Our destination was a small, out of the way bed-and-breakfast that Kristen found in the area near Belluno where the Dolomites start to rise up from the Adriatic coastal plain.  Our plan...to go hiking in some real mountains and get a much needed peaceful night away from our small town.

On our way we stopped in the mountain town of Belluno, an authentic alpine city in the foothills of the Dolomites with jagged peaks forming a beautiful backdrop around every corner.  A quick stop for some cappuccino and a walk around the Saturday market in the piazza and we were back on our way up into the mountains.  Our destination: Alla Cassetta, our B&B tucked into the hills above the small town of Cesiomaggiore.

We reached Alla Cassetta in the early afternoon on Saturday and were really pleased with what we found.  The B&B, we came to find out, was a restored farm house originally built by the current owner's great-grandfather.  The owner, Christian, was an incredibly nice and knowledgeable guy from the area who gave us great information on everything from hiking to birds to trees to wild mushrooms...anything you wanted to know about the region. The house was warm and cozy with a wood-burning stove in the big eat-in kitchen where we sat and ate and talked with our gracious host.  And that wood stove came in handy because it was a lot colder up in the mountains than it was down at the sea!

Saturday afternoon we had just enough light to do a short but strenuous hike up into the mountains to get a closer look at those pink and green rock faces of the Dolomites.  We hiked up into the mountains via the Val Canzoi on a trail that starts near a milky white-green river flowing down from the Parco Nazionale delle Dolomiti Bellunesi high above.

The late-afternoon sun provided some nice lighting for the colorful peaks. We didn't get up very high or go very far, just enough to wet our appetites for future trips back to the Dolomites to hike further in (and farther up).  Can't you just tell that Kristen is dreaming about those future trips when we can hike to the top of those glowing peaks in the distance?  I know that I can't wait to go back!

Teachable Moments

Today I spent about half of my math class with my first year students explaining the results of the election.  There are no Americans in that class, but they all knew about our presidential election and most knew the winner.  We talked about the Electoral College vs. the popular vote, and why the system is the way it is (I think “Why Tuesday?” even came up).  I explained why we knew the winner even though the Florida results weren’t in yet, and how

Then I asked them about their systems of government.  The girl from Japan said they don’t elect their leader, they just vote for a party.  The Italian student said the same thing, but explained that there are so many parties in Italy that they end up with coalitions between groups who then have to try to work together.  The Chinese student just laughed at the idea of being able to vote at all.  The Turkish student explained the King just chooses the next King.  But that’s ok, she said, because she likes the King.

I feel lucky today to be a citizen of a country where I can vote, and, despite the Electoral College, I feel like my vote matters.  I am also lucky to be in a place where I can explain our system to students from other countries, not as a “right” way, but as a different way.  A system that allows us to disagree respectfully and learn to be tolerant of other people’s views to move our country forward.  I am glad I was here during an election and could take advantage of this teachable moment.  I don’t think I expected the non-American students here to care much about our election, and I learned as much from them as they learned from me.  

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