finally some pictures of the baptism feast! I only had time to upload some of them. You can click on a photo and it will open in a new window. Then, you can click through the slideshow on the top of the window. Enjoy! [View Full Entry]

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Sorry for the lack of updates. Our internet is down at the moment, I am at an internet cafe today. Hopefully I will be writing you from Florence very soon...... Michelle [View Full Entry]

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Not much to report today....Not as hot as it has been today which is nice. I went with Velia to run some errands and we stopped and got "ice cream" in a little village. It was just as good as I expected. We had to stop and get Arex, the dog, some different dog food because he wasnt eating what they normally feed him. Its so weird what they feed dogs here in italy. You get big bags of pasta - i think its the scraps of the pasta factories because it is misc pieces of regular pasta mixed with spinach [View Full Entry]

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Another beautiful day in the Marche (pron mar-KAY) region of Italy. I got fried by the sun. Oops! Didnt do much today. Velia makes a lot of homemade marmalades and jams so I had them on croissants today for breakfast with tea. Lunch was pasta of course. I think thats kind of like a starter for every meal. Then we had tomatoes with olive oil, really good canned tuna, shaved mortadella (kind of like bologna), and bread of course. they have salad but only with olive oil. so i never eat it. i want to say where are the croutons and [View Full Entry]

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I guess I jumped from Rome to a baptism (leave it to Diane)....so here's the in between.... I took a bus to my village which took about 4 hours. The scenery was breathtaking as we went through a mountain and saw all of the italian countryside. I was suprised I made it off at the correct stop as the busdriver only spoke italian. I must have acted paranoid because the bus driver pointed at my stop when it was time to get off. haha. My host mother and sister picked me up and we drove about 30 minutes to their house. [View Full Entry]

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I forgot to mention that Vilia got the girl being baptised a diamond. just a plain .25k diamond so she can get it made into a ring/necklace/etc when she is older. crazy. and umberto, my host father, got the baby a blvgari chain thing. im sure it was a couple hundred dollars and he also got her a burberry sundress!!!! unbelievable!!!! pretty sure i didnt get that when i was baptised..... [View Full Entry]

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Funny thing.....My host mother is a democrat and she is actually the democratic canidadate for mayor for her village of about 2000 people. Everytime she introduces someone to me she says that I am her Michelle Obama. So weird but funny. Hot again today, around 85 in the sun. but its breezy so in the shade it is very nice. Just laying out in the sun today. Velia said "we must get you some sun cream. You are very pale and it could be dangerous." HAAAA!!!!! Yes, I know I am white as a ghost. Ciao! [View Full Entry]

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well....until tomorrow. haha It was my host cousins baptism today. which is kind of ironic because my real life nephew is being baptized today also. we left at 9am and went to the familys house about 30 min away. hung around for a few minutes and then went to the church. it was a super old church and there was first communion going on today also. the bells were ringing and everyone was rushing to get in. TONS of people coming and going. i was so confused about what was going on. eventually we got down in the church. it looked [View Full Entry]

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I MADE IT TO ROMA!!!! My flights were all fine, I landed in rome but my luggage did not. yikes!! it was stuck in london and they said they would deliver it later in the evening. grrrrrreat. whatever. then i had to take a train to the city center. There, I had to take a bus to a different stop and call my host aunt Wanda. Well I got on the bus and told the driver where I needed to get off and he looked at me like "whatever lady, you're on your own." okkkkaaaaaay great. anyway i got off, a [View Full Entry]

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Well tomorrow I'm on my way to Rome! I can't believe it's finally here. I have most of my stuff packed and I have no idea how much my bag weighs. I hope it's under 50lbs. I think it is. I also have a carry-on backpack. I fly to Boston, then to London, then to Rome. I am going to be staying with my host mother's sister my first night in Italy. She lives and works in Rome. On Saturday, I will take the 3-hour bus ride to my host family's home. I am excited to see where I will be [View Full Entry]

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