Blogs from Rovigo, Veneto, Italy, Europe

It's really weird to me, looking back at some of the first entries I ever did... how I was counting down the days until I took off on this epic journey. And now I'm sitting here, doing the same thing, counting down, but for departure FROM this epic journey. I've been through a month here in Italy so fast, and I can't believe that it's wrapping up! But I won't get too ahead of myself... I still have one full day left to enjoy! It's a Monday, meaning it's a weekday, meaning the morning and early afternoon is the same: I do pretty much nothing useful and exciting. The most exciting thing about this morning was me forcing myself not to read The Jungle... it was like the devil/angel on the shoulder type deal. Finally, the ... read more

Well now that I am basically healed of the mysterious virus that knocked out half of the family the last couple of days, we are all back to our normal routine. And if you can remember back to what that was in the morning and early afternoon, it is pretty much nothing to talk much about. Wake up, shower, play Wii, read The Jungle (phenomenal so far, by the way! READ IT), eat food, watch House, etc.... I'm glad I can get done with half of the day in just a paragraph now. (Except that this first new normal day was Paolo's birthday!) The day really began when Paolo told me to "prepare myself" (this is how they've been taught to say "get ready"... it makes me laugh quietly to myself every time) because we had ... read more

Today, for the first time in Italy, I got home-sick. Ha! ok I got you! I'm not really actually homesick... but I am "home sick" if you know what I mean. That's right, today, at the beginning of my last week here in Italy, I got some sort of bug that left me feeling like crap the whole day. Now in a way, it's kind of a good thing... because I get to experience the way that ill kids are treated by their parents in Europe. Some of the things that Elena was doing (or trying to get me to do) were pretty unusual... like she was soaking my forehead, wrists, and neck with some solution that was a mix of water and what looked like Bio-shield (the stuff we preserved our dissection cats with in ... read more

Well, you know how I was saying earlier that my morning routine has grown to be the same ever since school ended and that there really wasn't much to talk about? Well, today, I stand corrected. Because this morning was no ordinary Sunday morning for the Sasso family. Why? you may ask. Well, the reason why gives the title for today's blog entry. It is Claudia's confirmation! I de believe I mentioned something about a church deal going on today, but I didn't ever know exactly what it was. That's because whenever they referred to it, they used a name that I wasn't familiar with. "Cresima". Well, when I was getting ready and riding there and sitting through the ceremony, I still didn't know what the purpose of it was... until I decided to actually look ... read more

Today was a LOOOONG day. No really. Long. I thought that we were going to Ferrara today, but we didn't end up going for some reason. But because of this, I kind of woke up earlier that I have been the past week so I could get ready. Well, everyone was up, but nobody was ready (well, Elena and Nico were at work, and Lucia was only here doing her cleaning, so Paolo and Claudia weren't ready for anything). So I thought maybe we were going this afternoon, but it didn't happen. So whatever. The fact of the matter is that I got up earlier than usual this morning. Helping it become a very long and exhausting day. My morning rundown: --Wake up, shower, eat breakfast --Talk to Lucia in Italian some (I showed her some ... read more