Goodbyes and Hellos

Wow, it's been a long time since I've written in this-here blog! I guess I've been really busy!

Well, I survived my first semester finals... It's really hard to know what the expectations are here as far as grading goes, so I really won't know how I did until we get our grades back. But I did my best, and they're over-- that's all that matters.

So Colin was gone for 10 days while I had finals-- he was traveling around Europe. He came back for two days before he left for good. The night before he left we went into Dublin and went out to dinner. Before we went to dinner he took me to a teddy bear shop in Dublin and bought me a teddy bear so I have someone to snuggle with now that he's gone. I was so happy, and my new friend Psycho keeps me company when I get lonely here. The next morning I woke up early to say goodbye to Colin... I couldn't believe how hard I cried! Saying goodbye to him was the most difficult goodbye I've ever had to say... it's just really hard to say goodbye to someone never knowing if you'll see them again-- EVER! We'd gotten really close in the few months we had together, and I miss him so much. But every day gets a tiny bit easier. And he still sends me messages that make me smile. I don't know if or when I'll see him again, but I guess it's pretty amazing to meet someone that's so hard to say goodbye to...

So, after he left, I was having a really hard time, but I didn't have a lot of time to be sad. I left for italy a few days later, and that was the best thing I could have done to take my mind off of things.

Our Mercedes cab picked Elizabeth and me up at 4.30 am on Saturday the 26th. Our cab driver's name was Frank Fox and he was hilARious! He was very vulgar, and we decided that if we had a cab driver in the U.S. that talked like that, we might be offended... but in Ireland, it's just funny. Anywho, Frank was very entertaining... he told us stories about his trips to America (excuse my language, but I'm quoting... he told us about how he came into a bar and sat down next to a black guy: "He was seriously fuckin' seven times bigger than me, but I gave it to him straight; I told him football's a sport for pussies.") And he told us that he loves the U.S. because it is the only country in the world with a constitution that gives you the right to be HAPPY. He told us to watch a hurling match before we leave-- the best and fastest game in the world, and also that we need to go to Kilkenny because it has the most pubs per capita in the country. He called us "love" and told us he was an inner city boy at heart. Meanwhile, Elizabeth and I are in the back seat trying not to throw up because of how fast he's driving around the curving Irish country roads. But we survived the trip to the airport, and he dropped us off and said "if nobody's done it already, I'd like to thank you for coming here. I mean it; we're learnin' as much from you as you are from us. The Irish could learn a thing or two from Americans about being forthcoming and focused." He was pretty much adorable, and we'll remember him forever!

At the airport we studied my Italian notes, trying to brush up on our Italian so we could understand and communicate as best as we could when we got to Italy. (Although it wasn't much help... we were pretty disappointed with how much we actually remembered). We finally got on the plane, and it was delayed an hour because of air traffic controller strikes in France. Once we got off the ground, it was about a two hour plane ride over the Alps (Elizabeth: "I just wonder how people got over them before). We had a beautiful view from our window. And when we finally reached the airport and got through passport control and to our luggage, we met my friend Caitlin (who I was a counselor with at leadership camp last summer) and her host dad Paolo at the arrivals gate. We rode from Turin to Asti in his Range Rover and caught up with Caitlin. She told us that Paolo didn't speak much English, but he'd try. Caitlin didn't know any Italian when she came to Asti in September, and he family didn't know any English. She was supposed to have a host sister that spoke English, but she moved out of the house during Caitlin's second week in Italy. We were so impressed by how well she could communicate with her family and her friends. I guess full immersion into a language is really the best way to learn!

So we rode (on the right side of the road!) to Asti, dropped off our stuff in our new bedroom, and presented our gifts to the family. We got them these cute little bowls with shamrocks on them that we'd filled with candy, soda bread mix and shamrock seeds. It was pretty cute. Giusi, Caitlin's host mom, LOVED them! After we gave our gifts, we had lunch with the fam. (Paolo, Giusi, and their son Daniele). First we had antipasti (appetizers) of some kind of onion, corn and garbanzo bean salad, corn and tuna, salami, ham, homemade red pepper marmalade, blood orange juice and ACE (like V8 Splash) to drink, and some chex mix, pretzles, and Wisconsin mustard that Caitlin had sent from home. For the piatto primo (the first plate) we had whole grain pasta with pesto which was delicious! I think there might have been a piatto secondo of some kind of meat, but I didn't have any. Then we had some broccoli (which was really good), and homemade tiramisu for dessert!

We had a quick afternoon nap and then Paolo and Giusi gave us a ride to downtown Asti. We walked around a bit and looked at the pretty Italian streets and buildings and then met up with Caitlin's boyfriend, Omar, and her friends: Matteo Piano (who was seriously like 8 feet tall), another Matteo, Mac, Bomber, Alby, and Silvia. We had pizza at a restaurant and then went to the new arcade in town to hang out. The Italians bowled on the sweet bowling lanes with music videos playing on big screens at the ends of them. We chatted with Bomber and the Matteos. They didn't speak perfect English, but we were at least able to have a conversation. After we met up with Federico and Erica at the arcade, we went to a piazza downtown for a bit and then to the train station to meet Caitlin's new German exchange brother, Eugen (pronounced "OY-gin with a soft "g"). We rode back with the whole family in the Range Rover and, at 1.30 in the morning when we got back, had some snacks with the fam. before bed.

It was a lovely lovely day!!!