So the time has come for me to bid farewell to this land that I have called home for almost 8 months now...

There are no words to describe feelings like this. I will miss it here for sure. Alba has become my home and these people are my family. I have spent the past few weeks trying to do as much as possible and say all of my goodbyes to my friends here. I was able to try out snowboarding a couple more times with friends which was very fun! I want to go back. :) I am also eating my full share of Italian cuisine (and everyone else's) before I head off. It has made me laugh that everyone here thinks that Americans only eat hamburgers, fries, and coca-cola for every meal. We all know that's not true...but the food is certainly different and my taste buds will miss certain small pleasures. I think 'the basics' are my favorite things here...good olive oil, tomatoes, parmigiano, gelato, fresh cheeses and hams, focaccia, etc.

My family here had a very nice 'going away meal' for me last night and gave me their wishes. I am trying to finish up last minute packing now and the kids will get home from school in about 1 hour. Then I will say my last goodbyes and head out for Milano. Will I cry? Yes, I think so. It will be so hard to leave these little munchkins. They don't even fully understand right now that I'm going away. Isabella, the oldest, understands, however I'm not sure about the younger ones. Ginevra is constantly asking me to stay and live with them forever and be her momma. :) It breaks my heart. And little Claudio just says "perche vai via?" and "sei bellissima!" This is a big improvement from what he used to call me. They are like my children and I will miss them very much!


In any case...this is it. My future in the states is still quite undetermined so it's very weird going off into the 'unknown'. At least my good friends back home have been giving me many exciting things to look forward to upon my return. I love you guys and can't wait to see you. Just try to bear with me if I start getting too nostalgic about Italy.

Real world...here I come!

Well...I'm back. After trips like this and so much time away from my blog, it's hard to really find the words to sum things up. I should start by saying that I am so blessed and grateful to have such amazing friends that would fly across oceans to come visit me and spend their holidays here. Thanksgiving at home is typically my favorite holiday because of the delicious food and great company, so I knew it would be hard to miss out on. However, thanks to my little vacation, I hardly even realized I was missing anything. We did try to find a traditional American feast in Firenze (Florence), but were somewhat unsuccessful. So Italian food it was! Oh well. I've really been learning to fully embrace the Italian culture, people, and food lately while I'm here instead of complaining about the things that I think are different or that I don't agree with. This includes learning to love eating only Italian food...every day.

Our vacation was fairly standard for the most part: complete with museums, shopping, sightseeing, climbing lots of stairs to see views of each city, pictures, gelato, wine, and some great Italian discoteca dancing. Of course, we personalized our trip as well by adding in some flooding waters, some football games, missed trains and flights, driving a rental car all over Italy, and of course protesting and rioting in Rome. We also met some fabulous friends along the way. Bruno and Suzie from our B&B in Firenze really made our stay there very special. They were some of the nicest and most helpful people along our journey. After Firenze and Roma, we drove up to visit the smaller towns of Siena and Orvieto. Both were definitely worth the visit and I wish we could have stayed longer. By chance, we arrived in Siena on their patron saint's day, December 1st. So when we walked into the main town square there was a parade in honor of Saint Ansanus, the protector of the city, leading to a townwide mass in the duomo. In the hilltop town of Orvieto, we experienced some incredible views of the Italian countryside and toured the underground caves and taverns built centuries ago below the city, but still in use today.

Friday's journey back home for both Eric and I was a bit of a disaster, but we eventually made it to our respective homes and can now (maybe) laugh about the situation. I had to work Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday, but was completely exhausted and slept until about noon on Monday. I think I may finally be caught up now. We'll see.

On a separate note, the holidays are fast approaching and I'm already getting tastes of how things are celebrated here in Italy! Last night we had a Christmas feast with some of Sara's side of the family. Really, you think I would have learned after 6 months here how to pace myself with the food. But of course, after about the 4th DELICIOUS course, I thought we were about done and helped myself to seconds of pasta. Ooops...there was still about 3 more courses. I didn't eat anything today until 4pm. Aside from this, there was the traditional fawning over the children. Grandparents scrambling to squeeze the little ones who only wanted to be held by their mom (mammoni is a very important word here). Then the children were promptly fed first and sent off to watch cartoons in the separate house while the adults cheerfully ate, drank, discussed very slang terms and sayings in a dialect I don't understand, and got into heated (they call it 'passionate') discussions regarding proper wines and methods of production. I love it!

As it stands, my plans are to stay here through the holidays. I'm sorry to everyone that was hoping to see me over the Christmas break, but Italy calls! I can't pass up the chance to see babbo natale visit the children and take a few ski trips in the Alps. :) But don't get me wrong...I do really miss you guys!

Ok, I must apologize for the lack of blogging lately. It's a long story, but I've been very focused and caught up in the mess of trying to plan my entire future. It has taken up the majority of the little bit of free time that I leave myself here. However, that is all another story for another day.

Our prized white truffle

For now, I wanted to update everyone on how the truffle tasting went! I know the suspense has been killing you. We had quite the feast, as typical here in Italy. 'If you're not going to do something the BEST, don't do it at all'. There were many courses to our meal as well as very expensive drinks. Although, the main event was the truffle. First it was brushed off and examined, then passed around the table for each person to individually examine and smell (as if the odor wasn't strong enough for our neighbors down the hill to pick up). Finally it was carefully sliced over everyone's egg pasta noodles, and next thing you know...it's gone. Just like that. Devoured. Verdict: I thought it was actually quite good. Better than I expected based on the smell. I was told that it is a bit of an acquired taste, but the taste is not very strong. From what I understand, you are mainly paying for the 'aroma'. Anyway, I would eat it again anytime that it was served to me, but I don't know that it's worth it to me to spend that kind of money on something. You guys know me...practical and cheap.

Fishing for wine

So says the slogan of Skydive XDream in Interlaken, Switzerland:

When the urge is bigger than the fear...just jump!

I finally got to check off that box on the bucket list this past weekend. It was an unbelievable experience that went by way too quickly. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I have had no other feeling like that of standing on the runner outside a helicopter soaring over the Alps at 12,000 ft. in the air! I wasn't even able to hold onto the sides of the heli while I was out there, just my harness, and I had to trust that Howie, my tandem master, really was attached to me and would stay that way once he pushed me out and we plummeted back to earth. We rushed past snow and ice covered moutaintops and soared directly over a glacier waterfall so close that I could almost touch it. More pics and video to come! But of course, these could never do the true beauty of Switzerland justice.

But really, I love that quote. There are so many things in life that you can apply it to. Why live with regrets!? Do you feel that desire, urge, tugging to do something that may seem a little crazy or scary? Are you worried, doubtful, scared that it might take you out of your comfort zone? Just jump!

As I mentioned before, I was able to spend a long weekend traveling with my parents and friends to Switzerland. Aside from skydiving, we also were able to explore the really cool towns of Interlaken and Lucerne. I love those places. The architecture is like none other...pure Swiss. There are garderns everywhere you look. It's pristine. The Swiss people are nothing if not clean, organized, and systematic. But you have to pay for it. I can think of very few places I've visited that were more expensive. There's great shopping, but I couldn't afford to buy anything. I was thrilled in Lucerne to find a Starbucks, however promptly depressed to discover my Vanilla Latte cost about $7. Aside from this, it was a great experience. We toured the towns, took a boat cruise up and down the lake of Lucerne to various other towns, and we ate a lot! Swiss cheese fondue, chocolate, bavarian food, etc. It is really a great place to be...even the train rides to and from were full of breathtaking surroundings.

The best part: the weather. For the past few weeks here in Italy (and apparently also in Switzerland) it has been randomly rainy, overcast, and windy. It was even raining while I traveled on the trains on Friday. But Saturday morning I woke up to find it was the most beautiful day they have seen yet. All of the skydiving team kept telling me how lucky I was and that they couldn't believe it. All day Saturday and Sunday were perfect. Then, when I arrived back in Italy, it started raining again. Haha, I love God's little gifts to me! I knew He wanted me to be able to go skydiving. :)

My parents are coming to visit me tomorrow... Who's excited?! They arrived this morning in Nice, France and have been exploring that area along with the town of Eze. By tomorrow evening they will be here in Spotorno to visit for a few days. They are traveling with some other friends of theirs, so they're making it a nice little vacation and tour of southern Europe. We don't have many set plans yet for the weekend here; who knows what we will end up doing. Then next weekend I will be traveling with them to Switzerland. Time for some thrills! I'll keep you guys posted with how it goes.  :)