JESSICA:
OKAY, so heres a bunch of old stuff that ive been meaning to post. but anways, much has happened since then, now we are in switzerland. we went through the cinque terre, visited all the splendor and history in crazy rome and had a really really long train day to get to landquart switzerland! now we are here, having a blast, it is sooooo beautiful here i love it, its a lot like home too, with the weather and the mountains...oh and heres my bragging for the day... we sat in a hot spring in the swiss alps today...
ahhh the life!
Oh my word, what to say what to say!!! so much has happened and we are having such a good time! we are in Reggio Emilia, which is about 2 hours by train from everywhere you want to be! but its great! we have met so many people, shared many laughs trying to understand italian and get everyone else to be comfortable with the amount of english that they know. we have been having such wonderful conversations with Concetta and Alessandro (Joe's parents... we are staying with the Cecchia family, it is Concetta, Alessandro, Gianfranco, and Joe) only Joe speaks english and the rest...well has been an adventure! i love it because the 8 years of french that i took are finally coming in handy! there are many similarites and the more i listen to italian, the more i understand. i cant really speak it very well for the life of me, but i can get a lot of what they are saying. gestures help a lot too. so while gianfranco and joe are at work, we hang out with their parents! it is SOOOOO much fun and so wonderful to be able to break the language barrier and also know the love that is automatic without ever having met them before. oh, and concetta is the most amazing cook i have ever encountered, she makes these SPLENDID lunches for us everyday, mmmm i will miss her!!! and we have had some awesome dinners too, all kinds of breads and meats and cheeses, all strange kinds of pizzas, but all is very different from the US. i love Italy so much, i would totally move here. also, everything that the Italians say is so incredibly passionate it always sounds like they are arguing when they talk to each other. and they are very very very LOUD, its a lot of fun, and i think since we have been here, me and hannah have started talking louder too. hahahaha. this has definitly been enjoyable, and one of my favortie places because of the people. we toured all over Verona, Lake Garda, and some other places near here, everything is very beautiful. its also been nice to just have some down time, being at their house just enjoying not doing much of anything, except hanging out with the lively people here. also, they stay up so late here, like everyone doesnt eat dinner until at least 10:00 and then they dont go to bed until about 1 am every day... breakfasts are later..everything is late, and everyone seems to just enjoy life more here. there is definitly economic hardship since Italy switched from the Lire to the Euro, they got jipped in the whole deal, so it is difficult for them to support themselves, and yet they dont let it stop them from enjoying the good things in life. this place is wonderful!!!! Oh, and i think we have heard the Gnarls Barkly song "crazy" more over here than in the States, its pretty dang "crazy" hahaha sorry not funny at all. but they play so much stinkin 90's pop music over here, i hate it. like even in a lot of the nicer restaurants and all that...they play this crap music, its horrible. i think that they think it may either attract tourists, or they really like it, but man i miss my music (besides what i have on my ipod) but wowsa. and in italy, they are obsessed with The O.C. its funny because a lot of the younger ones here have asked me if Marissa dies...hahaha but they are in the same season as we are so... hahaha. they also like watching the Bold and Beautiful, the
soap opera. oh wow, europeans and their American ways...but not really. sorry im really tired this must all sound stupid...more later and sorry its taking so long to update the page, we havent been able to hook up the laptop. anyways, talk to you soon....Jessica