Nonna

This is Nonna, my Italian grandmother. She is precious.

I first met her on my second day in Italy when we went to her house for lunch. As soon as I walked through the door, she said, "You are beautiful!" Then she started speaking really quickly in Italian and lost me.

When her husband was still alive, they would travel all the time. She has been literally all around the world. I'm pretty sure she has visited every continent, minus Antarctica. Because of this, she spoke a little bit of English. She also studied English about 30 years ago. She can understand more than she can speak. She really wanted me to learn Italian. When the kids told her to speak English for me, she told them that the only way I would learn Italian was for me to hear it all the time. She thought that I would just pick it up if she kept speaking it to me. If only that were so...

I went back to her house twice more for lunch during my trip. She would make some sort of pasta (homemade, of course), as well as meat and vegetables. And she always had dessert. It was just like eating at my grandmother's house in America.

The last time I went to her house, I asked her to show me her travel pictures. She pulled out stacks of photos and explained them all to me. By this point, I was able to understand a good amount of Italian. She would explain where each picture was taken and I would just gawk at how gorgeous everything looked. Moscow, Australia, Peru, Mexico, Austria, Norway, and Egypt were just a few places she talked about.

Because it was the last time I would see her before I left for America, I asked the boys to take a picture of me with her. She got so excited and then freaked out about her appearance. She ran so fast into the bathroom and fixed her hair. It was so cute. She wanted to take the picture outside because she is so proud of her garden. That picture only shows a small part. Her yard is so green and beautiful with flowers everywhere you look.

I'm so glad I was able to meet her on this trip. She is such a precious woman and I loved being in her home. I am looking forward to my next trip to Italy and some more of her delicious food!

Better Late Than Never

I realize I'm two days late, but I couldn't resist sharing this picture.

(sorry it's blurry) 

This was part of my dad's gift this year.

I am such a daddy's girl. When I was little, I would imitate anything my dad did. This face was one of those things.

Happy late Father's Day to the best dad a girl could ask for. I'm so blessed that God chose me to be your daughter. Thank you for being such a godly influence for our family and for always providing for us. You work so hard and I can never thank you enough.

Just like this, high five, number one.

Love you, Dad!

Allora

Well it's official. I'm home from Italy. I finally unpacked my bags last night. I haven't posted about my trip yet because I don't want it to be completely over!

Allora. I am just going to post about adventures that I took. I'm going to draw this out as long as possible!

First things first: my favorite Italian words. The whole language is beautiful to me. But there are a few small phrases that just make me smile.

Allora is my absolute favorite Italian word. It basically means so, then, alright, well, etc. Go to Google Translate, type in allora, and listen to the pronunciation (but imagine a real Italian person saying it). It's so cute! My teacher would say it at least 50 times a day whenever she wanted to start something new.

Example: "Allora. Let's get out our math books."

My entire group was obsessed with the word. Every time someone would say it, we would all repeat it and smile.

My other favorite words:

-Aspetta (wait, hold on)

-Basta (stop, enough)

-Eccola qua (look there it is)

I have been emailing one of my Italian brothers since I left and the subject of his first email was "eccola qua." Made me so happy.

Before I left Italy, my youngest brother and sister made me t-shirts, one of which has my favorite words. My sister wrote out the Italian word with the English translation next to it. It's so adorable.

{I'll put up a picture soon.}

I was getting pretty good at understanding the language. Obviously I couldn't understand everything, but I could follow conversations. Could I speak in Italian? No. But I really want to work on it before I go back. I'll surprise everyone!

Fun fact: The Italian language (that we know of) is actually very young. In Southern Italy, there are many different dialects that are extremely old. But in Northern Italy, most people speak the Italian we know. Who knew?!

Fino alla prossima volta...Until Next Time

This is going to be one of the hardest posts I will ever write. It will be a miracle if I get through this without crying...and I am not one to cry. Today is officially my last day in Italy. I cannot begin to describe how sad I am. We found out on Wednesday afternoon that they decided to cut our trip short. As soon as I heard the news, my stomach just dropped. There had been rumors among the girls but I did not expect it to be so sudden. There have been a few earthquakes since May 20 and multiple aftershocks, one of them as strong as the original quake. Families in this area are sleeping in their cars or in tents at the park because they are fearful of another quake. Many old buildings have crumbled and you can see cracks everywhere. The middle school right next to my house has three large cracks.

To say I am devastated is putting it lightly. I have come to love Italy as my second home. My family here has welcomed me with open arms and they are not ready for me to leave. The only thing keeping me from sobbing is that I know I will be back. These people have become my family; I feel so at home here. My brother, Giacomo, and I have been coming up with reasons why I just have to return. There's Verona, Rome, Pisa, more gelato, etc. My dad, Marco, told me last night that I had no choice; I had to come back. I'm perfectly okay with that! Last night, the family joined me for pizza and gelato with the group. I was sitting with them eating gelato when one of my professors came up to me. He told me, "If you smile any more, your face will break." I told him I was just so happy! It's so true. I absolutely love being with my family.

The other thing that breaks my heart is that I will not be able to see my students or teachers again. Like I said on a previous post, school was cancelled after the earthquake on Tuesday. I didn't realize that was the last time I would see my students and teachers. They cancelled school for the rest of the week, and they are debating canceling it for the rest of the school year. The school is open from 11 to 1 today so that anyone can retrieve their things if they left them in the building. I think I am going to walk to the school and see if any of my students come. At the very least I will be able to take a picture of the school.

There are so many exciting things that were happening in the last week of this trip:

• Family weekend: Marco booked us a room at the sea for the entire weekend, starting this afternoon.
• My class party: There is a dinner for the teachers, parents, and students.
• Carlotta's recital: My sister had a violin recital the last day of our trip. (For those of you who don't know, I also play the violin so it was something special we shared.)
• The farewell party for our trip: All of our families, schools, and the people we came in contact with were going to be there. We had little speeches written for our families and there was going to be a lot of delicious food.

I am going to spend today with my family, just trying to enjoy their company as much as I can. My oldest brother is currently in surgery right now for his thumb. He is building an airplane and the propeller sliced his thumb last weekend. (Please pray for quick recovery for that.) My mom gets home from work around 2. We are going to go on a bike ride through the city and will have our last dinner here at home. Ugh that makes me want to cry just typing that. I am still in shock that this is my last day. Everything was just so sudden!

The positive side of leaving early is that I will be able to see my real family. I have missed them, despite how much I absolutely love it here. When they pick me up from the airport, we are headed straight to Chick-fil-A. I'm already planning my meal. Some of the other things I am excited for:

• Buildings/cars with air-conditioning
• Driving my automatic car (inside the lanes at a normal speed)
• Cheese dip...all Mexican food really
• American music
• Speaking normal English
• Normal toilets (as opposed to holes in the ground or toilets without seats)
• Trash cans in every room (my house only has one tiny trash can in the kitchen)

We are leaving Modena at 1 AM tonight. We have a three hour bus ride to Milan, where we will sit in the airport until 12:15. We will land in JFK at 3:30 and will wait for our next flight at 6:30. We will finally land in Atlanta at 9:30. This is going to be a long day of travel. About 27 hours to be exact.

Crazy to think I will be back in America tomorrow night. This has been the experience of a lifetime and something I will never forget. Our group was saying last night that there will be many sentences about the trip ending with "...but then the earthquakes happened." None of us could have predicted this. As much as I hate to leave, I know God has it all under control. I will be back. Of this I am sure.

Here is an article if you want to read a little about what is happening here after the earthquakes:
http://news.yahoo.com/earthquake-hits-northern-italy-074509550.html

Ciao! See you in America!

Non capisco

The language barrier here has never been super difficult to overcome. I can generally get by with hand gestures and emotions. I'm also understanding more Italian and am able to follow conversations pretty well. Yesterday, that was not the case.

My plan for the day was to come home around 4:30 to get the key for the bike. I was riding my bike to the school that night at 6 for the play. My brother and sister were both supposed to be home to let me in the house.

I walked to the door and could hear someone vacuuming. I rang the door bell but they didn't hear me. I figured I would just wait a minute until they were finished, then ring the bell again. After two minutes, they were still vacuuming. I rang the doorbell. No answer. Knocked on the door. Still vacuuming. Rang the bell again. Finally they stopped.

Then I heard a woman's voice that I'd never heard before. She was definitely not part of my family. At this point I had been waiting outside for five minutes. After I heard some phrases in Italian, the door opened to a woman with a gold tooth. I immediately looked at the house number to make sure I hadn't knocked on the wrong door. I was at the right house but I had never seen this woman before. I said, "Ciao" and started to walk in the house. She blocked me and started speaking in Italian. I couldn't understand a word she was saying.

I tried to tell her I was American, I lived in the house, anything I could in Italian. She kept saying, "Non capisco. Non capisco." She said something in Italian and I said, "Okay" because what else could I do. All of a sudden she shut the door in my face and I was left outside.

I just stood there for a minute trying to figure out what just happened. There is a park behind the house so I just walked back there and sat on a bench. I was embarrassed, in shock, and just didn't know what to do. Fifteen minutes later, my sister comes walking around the corner. She had been asleep upstairs and had not heard me ring the doorbell. Goldie had apparently woken her up. She probably told her there was some crazy American trying to come in the house.

I finally made it back inside. That was the most frustrating experience I've had on this trip. I have never not been able to communicate with someone. Now I can laugh about it but man. It was definitely an adventure. 

Terremoto

So I mentioned last time that there was an earthquake while we were in Venice. Turns out the earth wasn't done quaking.

I went to school this morning and my kids were taking a test. All of a sudden, we heard this rumbling noise. The teacher and I looked at each other for a second. When the room started shaking, we both jumped out of our seats. The children stood up and started screaming, "Terremoto!!!"

The entire school evacuated. Literally within five seconds of being outside, we saw parents rushing to the school. Some were running, some were riding bikes, others were speeding up in cars. I have never seen such a state of panic. I don't want to make light of the situation but it was almost comical.

The earthquake only lasted about 10 seconds. Most of the children were fine but when they saw their parents, they began to cry. School was cancelled for the day so an inspector could check the school.

I rode home with my brother and Nonna (the grandmother). We were in the house for maybe 15 minutes before there was another earthquake.

The earthquake was a 5.8 and the epicenter was pretty close to Modena. Since the last quake from last week, there have apparently been over 400 movements. You cannot always feel them on the ground floor but you can if you are on an upper level. There are many people who cannot sleep at night because they are terrified the aftershocks will turn into strong quakes. After the big quake today, I felt three aftershocks. I was sitting on my bed upstairs and it felt like someone was lightly shaking the bed.

I really wish these earthquakes would stop. They're ruining my plans! Last Tuesday we were supposed to go to Verona but couldn't because the trains were on a different schedule. We decided to go today but now we can't because of the trains. I reallllllly want to go to Verona and I'm running out of free afternoons!!!

I'm so glad we don't have these in Georgia. The people here are shocked that these are my first two earthquakes. Like I said before, this isn't something I want to experience often. We're currently sitting outside in the garden just in case there is another quake.

I have lots of fun stories to share. I'll update as soon as I find the time!

Venice, Murano, and Burano

Venice was absolutely beautiful. It was so crowded though. We went during the America's Cup and apparently there were 100,000 extra people there just for the race. On top of all the other tourists and the 60,000 residents, there were quite a few people.

I was not expecting all the streets to be little alleys. It amazed me that you could walk through these tiny passageways and be totally safe. Especially at night. I'm definitely not used to that in America. I cannot imagine walking through a tiny alley at 11 PM with just two other girls back in the States. It's amazing how different it is here.

We also went to Murano and Burano. We travelled by boat from Venice. The weather was perfect: not too hot and not too cold. All I needed was a light jacket. (Name the movie.) Murano is famous for their glass. We were able to watch a demonstration in a factory. It was incredible. They work so quickly and can make the coolest things! The town was not very large but there were a few cool glass figurines.

Burano is famous for their lace. It was gorgeous. All of the houses are different colors. There are shops full with different things made of lace. We walked around the town and went in little stores. We stopped at a cafe and I got a chocolate croissant. So delicious. I could easily eat one every day.

Just sleeping on his boat. 

In other news, the earthquake did not do much damage to Modena. My family is all okay, as are the other families associated with this trip. We felt the quake in Venice. It only lasted for about 30 seconds and was not too severe. I woke up because my bed was shaking. I thought it was the other girl in my room making all the noise but quickly realized that it was actually the building shaking. A few bell towers and clock towers close to Modena fell down. A castle was damaged as well. I'm just praying that it will not happen again while we're here. One earthquake was kind of cool. But that is something I only want to experience once in my life.

Aside from the earthquake, it was a great trip. Lots of walking and tons of pretty buildings. The food was delicious but I feel like that's to be expected in Italy. I'm really craving a peanut butter and jelly sandwich though. That and some cheese dip. Anybody want to send me some????