11 mullets in 30 minutes...

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11 mullets in 30 minutes...

I'll explain more about this later. First, a recap.

I know many of you have been sending me messages wondering what I've been up to and why I haven't posted a new blog lately. Well, here it is. I'll try my best to remember everything, but I have to admit that it's been more and more difficult for me to remember things recently. I think it's old age setting in. I am less than 5 months away from 29 😞 How is this even possible? When I was in college I used to think that 26 would be a good age to settle down. I figured I'd have a good career, I would have spent time having fun and travelling the world, and I would have saved money and bought a house by then. My 26th birthday was my most depressing since I was (and still am) soooooo far from being "settled down". After that birthday I decided I wasn't going to make any more of these "plans". Plus, by that time I had matured enough to realize that setting goals like these were childish. How can you know, at the age of 18, when the right time to settle down would be? You can't possibly know at that age. I was still a baby. I still had a lot to learn.

So, here I am. I'm almost 29 years old and I have uprooted my life and moved to a foreign country. The career, the house, the settling down...it all seems so foreign to me now. But, I've come to realize that for the past 11 months of my life I've been living a different dream. I've been living in this incredibly amazing country and meeting wonderful people and eating great food and really gaining an appreciation for life. Life...I have (hopefully) many years ahead of me to live out all those other goals. I've learned in the past 11 months that you really can do anything you dream of. It just takes a little guts and patience and determination.

It's been a busy month or so since I've last written. So much has happened. First, let's start with some big news. I know I mentioned this before, but here's a bigger update. Debbie left Rome 😞 She moved to London to start a new job and to be with her new boyfriend, and closer to her sister and parents. Debbie seems very happy, and we're all happy for her. This all happened at a very fortunate time for Alison. Alison also works with me and Jenny at Anglo American teaching English. Alison was looking for a place to live and was lucky enough that Debbie needed someone to take over her room in the apartment. So now Alison is living with us.

At the same time, Denise (Darpino - for some of you that know her from the TP/EDS days) completed her TEFL course and was in search of a place to live. As I've spoken about before, it's not an easy under-taking in this country. So, she's been living on our couch since the beginning of February until she can find a place to live. At this point, maybe she's better just staying here permanently 😊 Anyway, she's been a nice addition to the family. Now "we are in 6" as the Italians like to say. I know that living with 4 other girls while in college seemed insane, but now I live with 5 others. Amazing how when everyone is more mature and less childish it doesn't seem as big of a deal. We all get along well (or get on well - as the Brits say) and we have a lot of fun nights with chats and wine and food.

Also, it was Jenny's birthday (or bear-th-day as the Italians pronounce it) in February. We put the celebration on hold a bit so it wouldn't conflict with Debbie's departure. Oh, speaking of...we went to dinner with the girls and Davide and Dario to say goodbye to Debbie. Then, of course, we went to go old Coyote. Where else would we have gone to give Debbie a proper send-off? So, the next weekend, us girls and Dario went to dinner in a "typical tacky Roman restaurant." Davide missed this dinner because he was off travelling in Egypt with Daniel. So Dario had the pleasure of spending his evening with 6 lovely ladies. The restaurant didn't have a menu. The waiter just told us what they had. I ate some lovely pasta with porcini mushrooms. And we all shared some panna cotta for dessert. After dinner, we went to Shanti - a hookah lounge near Piazza Navona. It was really a fun experience, complete with belly dancers.

What came next? Ahh yes, sickness set in. I was incredibly sick for an entire week. It started as a cold and turned into a sinus infection. Not fun. So, I missed out on the weekend of Carnevale and Mardi Gras. It seems to be a trend for 2009 for me to be sick for important dates. It's been a really busy month and I couldn't afford to be sick really, since I'm still working two jobs. One of the reasons I left America was because I couldn't continue working 70-95 hour work weeks and not living my life. So, what did I do? I moved to Rome and now work 58 hour weeks since I'm doing 22 hours a week for EDS/HP or whatever we are called this week.

And now, the most fun part of the update. We went to Madrid this past weekend! This is where the mullet comment comes in. For all of you that think Italy has amazing fashion and everyone here always looks great, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but it's simply not true. Ok, to be fair, some people (especially our friends) dress perfectly fine/normal. But then you have the Italians with the crazy hair and tight button down shirts that are halfway unbuttoned and tight white pants. Oh, and we can't forget about the man purses and the metallic sneakers. BUT...Spain is seriously out of control with the mullets. I'll take bad fashion over bad hair, especially since not everyone in Rome dresses bad...only the young boys/men that are just bad news anyway. But in Spain, oh wow. We saw 11 mullets in the first 30 minutes upon arriving. I lost count over the weekend, but I'm pretty sure the number surpassed 100. We're talking about every kind of mullet possible. There were Billy Ray Cyrus (circa Achy Breaky Heart days) mullets, there were Ronaldo mullets, there were Alabama mullets, there were West Virginia mullets, there were even dread-lock mullets. But, my favorite (or most vomit-inducing) mullet wasn't really a mullet, but a total "business in the front" look with short sides and a SIDE rat-tail. Remember when rat-tails were cool for like a year in 1987? Yeah, well, Spain still hasn't gotten the memo that it's sooooo not cool...especially when it's paired with bangs.

It wasn't all bad. Madrid is actually a really nice city. It's clean, the people were nice, there was no graffiti, the food was good, and the subway was really amazing. We had a really good time, and I'm glad it was one of the places I was lucky enough to travel to. I'm just glad that Jenny did all my ordering for me. I can't speak Spanish at all. I tried. I kept using the Italian pronunciation and then it would just switch to me actually speaking Italian to people. So, yeah, I couldn't live there 😊 I'll post some pictures here so you can see a little of Madrid.

I will try to post updates more frequently. But, to be honest, this is my daily life and nothing too exciting happens on a daily basis. If I updated the blog more frequently it would go something like this: "Today I saw another Italian wearing sunglasses inside on a cloudy day. Also, I was groped again on the metro by an old man who doesn't understand the concept of personal space. There is another transportation strike today. It rained again today. I ate suppli today. The Italians still can't figure out how to walk on the right-hand side. The Italians still don't understand the concept of queuing up and waiting in line. I still love living here."

I hope all is well in America. Try not to have too much fun playing in the snow in Philadelphia. I'll talk to you all soon!

I forgot to mention...
It seems that Sunday has become family day. We all skype with our parents. And it's become tradition to talk to Mr. Barnes every Sunday. We always get a lot of laughs. I promised him I won't let anyone steal Jenny or abduct her in a foreign country. Mr. Barnes, I'm sorry to report that I "lost" Jenny on Saturday for a minute. She was standing right next to me and taking a picture. I turned around, and she was gone. She got lost in the group of tourists taking pictures of the palace. Oops! I promise not to lose her again.


Some fun things people have said in the past month or so:
- "Ho bisogno di fare un pipi" - Ludovica, the 7 year old student telling me she needed to go to the bathroom
- "The sun goes to sleep early" - Davide, in reference to the sun setting at night
- "It was a pleasure to meet you." and "It was a pleasure to see you today." - Our sweet student, Francesco, aka Burns
- "I sometimes don't mind the mullets if they're not too long" - Heather, in reference to the Spanish men
- "What does a dingleberry even look like?" - Anonymous
- "Sei cattiva" - DiGiorgio, the bus driver student that tells me I'm bad because I make him learn vocabulary and attempt to speak even just one word of English
- "I don't like kitchen" - almost every student - they always confuse chicken and kitchen

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Photos

Madrid
Yummy, Sangria

Comments

[carlascardino]

I forgot to mention...
It seems that Sunday has become family day. We all skype with our parents. And it's become tradition to talk to Mr. Barnes every Sunday. We always get a lot of laughs. I promised him I won't let anyone steal Jenny or abduct her in a foreign country. Mr. Barnes, I'm sorry to report that I "lost" Jenny on Saturday for a minute. She was standing right next to me and taking a picture. I turned around, and she was gone. She got lost in the group of tourists taking pictures of the palace. Oops! I promise not to lose her again.