A Mid-Evil Festival

I am finally starting to feel a little bit at home and yet there is so much here that I don't understand or know about. Our Italian classes will start in mid September which I am excited about.

Last weekend we had some friends come up from Rome ( they are missionaries there and were a breathe of fresh air for me) and we all went to a mid-evil festival in a small town outside of Parma!! I have never been drawn to this kind of festival in the States but in Italy it was perfect . . . and the kids LOVED it!! What could be better then a "real castle" with knights ( and according to Maya a princess sleeping in the tower) - it was really enchanting! As magical as it was it is still a little lost on my kids though - Maya asked yet again if we could go to Disneyland tomorrow . . . . and she is talking about the one in California!! We took the kids last June and she has asked to go back at least 3 times a week since we went!!

Montpellier, France

Maury here...

We played our second pre-season match in Montpellier, France this week. A 10 hour bus ride there was actually not so bad...team bus is pretty nice and I got some reading done which I haven't had much time for until then.

Come to find out that Justin Marshall (ex-All Black scrumhalf) just signed with Montpellier and I met him in our hotel (he's living there until he and his family find a home). I've admired him as a player for years so was special for me to have a nice conversation with him and then play his new team later that night.

We had a motorcade ride to the stadium and played before about 10,000 people (in the 25,000 person stadium) for this 'pre-season' match! I guess it was my first realization that we are playing professional rugby in a 'rugby playing' continent. All in all, a great match though the score was not in our favor (49-14). I think, even for this top Italian team (Viadana), the magnitude of the atmosphere at the stadium took them a while to 'settle in their game'.

Looking forward to more matches abroad...

(the picture is from our first pre-season game here in Italy)

Cinque Terre

Our first excursion was to Cinque Terre! We were not sure what to expect but we wanted to get out of the heat and go someplace fun for the kids - so we headed for the beach! We took the train from Parma to Monterosso (one of the towns of Cinque Terre). The kids loved the train, everything was new to them and it was fun to see things through their eyes.

Once we arrived we headed straight for the beach - the beaches are all small rocks and the water is quite salty but the kids did not really notice, they simply loved being in the water. After the beach we took the kids to a fabulous dinner in old town Monterosso ( I was shocked at how well they did). Caden declared that "Italy has the best food ever." We walked a bit after dinner and then got gelato and watched some "flame throwers" in the city center. All in all it was the perfect day until we were heading home through the tunnel. Maya took off running and fell - cutting her mouth and lips and creating a waterfall of blood - which made me declare, "I hate this place," scoop her up and run for the nearest store. We were able to get help and she will be fine but it is hard to see your kids get hurt in a foreign land where you cant speak the language or put a call into your doctor. The next day Maya seemed well and we decided that there was no serious damage - we had another great day at the beach . . . that was last weekend, this weekend we went to Lake Garda (beautiful!!!) and Maya sliced her eye lid open . . .

Nostro Casa

. . . our house was quite dirty when we arrived and only had the basics in-regards to furniture and kitchen items. We were all a little disappointed at first, but as we cleaned the floors and swept the spider webs away it started to feel a little bit better. Maya does not like spider webs so she was good at pointing all of them out to me and helped make sure that I did a good job cleaning them up! :)

The weather here is quite hot (think Bakersfield . . . yes, Bakersfield it even smells like Bakersfield sometimes) and there is no central air - the homes are made of brick and cinder blocks to help keep them cool. Our house has beautiful wood doors and shutters but we have to keep the shutters closed most of the time to help keep the house at a bearable temperature. Our kitchen is not much to look at but it has a nice door into the backyard. All in all I think this will be a comfortable home for us.

It has been nice to see and start to learn a different way of living. For instance in the morning everyone opens up there homes and sweeps the patios. In the month of August everyone is on vacation so stores and restaurants are closed for weeks at a time. We are having to wait to get a lot of things that were promised for our house because people are on vacation. But the waiting is not really frustrating it is kind of refreshing - it seems to be a more balanced way of life.

I Recommend Continental

We made it - our "flying experience" really could not have gone better. After the tragedy of Saturday night and our suitcases we pulled up to LAX at around 6 am to a Continental employee who checked in all of our bags for us, after passing through security we found a cart that helped us move with ease despite 4 carry-ons, 2 car seats, 2 computers, a printer, a stroller and 2 kids! Each seat on the plane had it's own tv with several options for entertainment including educational games for the kids and movies. Once arriving in New York an electric cart was waiting for us and took us in luxury to our next gate. (giving me enough time to run to the nearest news-stand to buy as many "English" trash magazines as I could carry and mourn the fact that I would not be back in the US for almost a year) Both kids slept on the next leg of the trip - once arriving in Milan we breezed through customs - all of our luggage arrived and a huge van came to greet us!

Then we arrived at our very, very ,very dirty house . . . .

Just have to laugh...

Maury here...So we made it out of Santa Barbara, renters in our house now and we've checked into the Hilton at LAX to spend the night before departure to Italy early tomorrow morning...Just realized we've packed and brought one extra suitcase (9 instead of the 8 maximum we're allowed) and left one of our carry-on's (with all the kids "entertainment" items) at home by mistake! After a few minutes of "who done it" discussions, we opened a nice bottle of Cabernet and decided that all we can do now is laugh about it...and run down-stairs to the lobby gift shop in search of something to "entertain" the kids for 14 hours tomorrow!