"America for Me"

During our non-translated Relief Society Meeting today, my American friend, Amy, was reading one of Gordon B. Hinckley's books. In it he quoted the poem, "America for Me", by Henry Van Dyke. The first two stanzas sum up how I feel as I near the end of my year in Italy.

"Tis fine to see the Old World and travel up and down

Among the famous palaces and cities of renown,

To admire the crumbly castles and the statues and kings

But now I think I've had enough of antiquated things.

So it's home again, and home again, America for me!

My heart is turning home again and there I long to be,

In the land of youth and freedom, beyond the ocean bars,

Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars.

Thank you, Henry Van Dyke, for expressing my sentiments so eloquently!

Home again, and home again, America for me!

Braggin' on Scott

Today was Scott's last day of school at the American School of Milan! Yes, I know he got out really late, but he didn't start school until September 1st. And he had more random days off then I would have thought possible. So it all worked out. In recognition of his completing a year of school in a foreign country, I'm doing a bragging post about him. Do not feel obligated to read it!

The first picture is church not school related. Scott and I successfully completed a year of seminary together! Woo hoo! Two Sundays ago he received his completion certificate. I imagine he'll be the only one in our ward with a seminary certificate in Italian!

I have to say how much I appreciate Scott's willingness to get up and have seminary with me every morning. I'm sure it wasn't always exciting to have a one on one class with his Mom, but he never complained. And we both survived the experience!

Last Tuesday, we went to the 9th, 10th, and 11th grade Awards Ceremony at the school. Here's Scott with the three awards he received. (He didn't wear the fedora to the ceremony, but he did insist on putting it on at home for the picture.)
The first award was for Academic Excellence. This was given to all students with a GPA of over 3.6 (on a 4.0 scale).
Before I talk about his next two awards, bear in mind that the junior class is small. There are only 43 kids in his whole class! But it's still pretty cool that he won these awards.

He received the award for Outstanding 11th Grade Student in Chemistry. We weren't really surprised he got this award. His teacher had told me that Scott seemed to understand the class much better than the other kids and he was always helping kids out.
The third award he received did surprise us all - Outstanding 11th Grade Student in English. He's always done well in English, but we were surprised he was picked for the award. Before his teacher announced who won, she said that the student always liked to debate and challenge ideas. Robert and I knew she was talking about Scott! And we were right!
To top off his pretty successful year in Milan, Scott found out yesterday that he got a 2280 (out of 2400) on the SAT! He got a perfect 800 in Math and a perfect 800 in Reading! We were all pretty excited about that.

Scott has done great this past year. He was probably our best kid to bring to Italy. He easily adapted to life and school here and made some good friends along the way.

Oh, and his true personality has come out over here too. In the yearbook, Scott was picked as "Most Argumentative"! Some things never change!

Marking that Calendar!

I'm marking the dates on my calendar!

June 24 - Scott gets out of school.

June 28 - Scott flies back to Houston.

July 14 - Robert and I fly to London

July 16 - Robert and I board the Crown Princess to begin our 12 day cruise around the British Isles. I'm so excited for that trip and all of the amazing shore excursions we have picked!

July 28 - Robert and I complete our cruise and fly back to Milan.

August 3 - The movers come and pack and load up the stuff be shipped back to Houston.

August 5 - We fly to Houston! Woo hoo!!

I wish it was July 14th so all of the good stuff could start happening.

A Little Nervous

I just made an appointment for my first Italian haircut and color. That makes me a little nervous. But, I've now got about an inch of gray showing at the roots, so I can't wait any longer. I only waited this long because I knew if I did I wouldn't have to get it done until I went back to Texas in August. Some of my friends here use this place, and their hair looks good, so I'm hopeful. It's always hard to go somewhere new, though. I've been going to Kathy, my hair person back home, for 10 years! She knows my hair! Plus there's the fact that the colorist doesn't speak English and we'll have to rely on translation from the woman who will be cutting my hair. Which is another thing - I've never had one person color my hair and another one cut it. Back home, Kathy does it all. This seems weird to me.

I guess this is all part of my Italian adventure! I just hope it doesn't make me cry every time I look in the mirror!

Men's Fashion

I've seen some interesting men's fashion since we've been here in Milan. Mustard yellow pants. Salmon pink pants. Red pants. Colors that American men don't wear (for good reason).

With the onset of warm weather, I've seen a new men's fashion trend - capri pants. I have to say, men shouldn't wear capris. They just shouldn't.

I hope all of these men's fashions stay right here in Milan and never make it to Texas! At least rest assured that Robert and Scott won't be coming home with strange colored pants or capris!

Canasta

As I've mentioned before, there is a group of American women here whose husbands are all on the same project. We get together at a coffee shop once a week to visit and sometimes commiserate about life in Italy. (As an aside, I usually get water or Coke Light there, but I once had the thickest cup of hot chocolate EVER! My spoon was standing straight up! It was impossible to drink but would have tasted great over ice cream!)

A couple of months ago, some of us got together and played the card game canasta. The last time I played canasta was at my grandma's house when I was a teenager. It was a game that my cousins and I loved to play. Only one of the group had played recently, so the rest of us learned (or relearned) together.

I quickly remembered why I loved canasta when I was younger! It's a fun card game, with some very strange rules. It seems complicated when you're first learning how to play, but it's pretty easy to pick up.

Now we try to play at least once a week. I really enjoy those afternoons. They are some of the high points of my weeks. Fun with the ladies! Something I really need!

It's not Tuesday Evening Book Club, but it's a good substitute until August!