Sant'Agnello - cooking school!!

So yesterday was FUN FILLED. yah... right. The final dinner for the Intrepid tour was Saturday night, and this girl Melinda and I went to the restaurant/lounge Photo again to pick up a cd from the DJ. It had turned into a lounge and as soon as we got there, it started to pour outside. So naturally we decided to drink out the storm... haha.. the place is still fabulous but I found that there were a lot of pretentious people there, but Mel and I had an awesome time. We were the only ones dancing so of course we got a lot of attention, and got invited to a couple afterparties by different groups of guys. We ended up heading to a party in the hills of Sorrento with Elio, Salvatore, Pasquale and Mario and it was beautiful! It had stopped raining at that point, and the house had a lit patio where everyone was dancing, and a gorgeous view of the Bay of Naples and Sorrento. It was the best time I've had so far, except for maybe when we first arrived and our group took over an Irish pub and kept requesting Kylie Minogue songs (the hazzards of drinking too much limoncello...)

So the next morning I was definitely a bit hungover and tried to go to Positano by bus with Gail and Kerry. We got to the station at 10am, and waited... and waited... until 11:30am!! Then it was a windy trip, so despite being beautiful, I was feeling kind of sick when we got off the bus. I spent the rest of the time there drinking water and eating crackers and trying to psyche myself up for the bus ride back, since the ferries weren't running since the water was too rough. We waited for the bus back for an hour... in the hot sun, and then when it finally came, we had to stand for 45 minutes in the bus along the windy roads. Got back at 4pm and decided to just go to mamicamilla at that point... took the train one stop to Sant'Agnello, and got lost... three times! I was fine in Roma but now that I'm in a small town, I can't find my way around?? I don't get it. My favorite line from yesterday is "Mi scusi, dove via cocumella???" Finally got here and it's been interesting. I was feeling soooo homesick since it's a brand new place and this really is a farm... but the people are so wonderful, the house is amazing... the only problem is that it's down an alley. And I have to keep telling myself that Sorrento is very safe, but I've still enlisted two of the guys here to escort me home each night!

So was feeling kind of overwhelmed and called my parents, my sister and Sanf... It took awhile to get a grip over myself. I went to their pizza party at 8pm and had an AMAZING time. Everyone goes there around 7pm or so to sit around the bar, and talk... I started talking to this lady Caroline from England, and then we sat down with Leah and Sylvester from New York.. then a family from Venezuela joined us, and finally Jason and Brian from the States. The last two are cooking here and went to culinary school in the States, and now are doing their three month apprenticeship here in Italy. It was so fun talking to them - we just totally clicked and it's been awhile since I've been able to really open up, in a foreign country. Everyone speaks English peppered with Italian.. Brian's going to give me swing dancing lessons today after my cooking class! He's a swing instructor... haha.. love it.

So we retired to the bar again after with some limoncello and just sat around talking and then they made sure I got home okay. I love it here. The family is just fantastic. I'll be happier tonight when there will be another lady sharing the guesthouse with me, but this will be a great retreat. I really needed this. One of the sons (they are all beautiful out here...) said that I will make a lot of good friends here and I can already see that happening. Sanf - I'm cured. Yesterday was a bad day but this is heaven.

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