Kindle

Hello, my name is Laura, and I'm a Kindle addict...

I got my Kindle in October. I had not bought one before because I love actual books made of paper. But, lets face it, I live in Italy. There are not a lot of books in English to be found! So I bought a Kindle.

I love it for this reason - I can buy and instantly download a book any where or any time I want.

It's dangerous for this reason - I can buy and instantly download a book any where or any time I want.

In a bookstore, holding a pile of books makes me realize just how much money I'm spending. I don't have that same deterrent when I'm shopping on my Kindle. Those e-mails I get telling me I've bought another book come after the fact. They're not a deterrent.

It's amazing how quickly the costs can add up even when I'm only buying six or seven dollar books! Not enough to break the bank, but enough for me to think, "Wow, I read a lot!"

I'm not sorry I bought my Kindle, but when I go back to Richmond in August, I'm going to have to try to use it less. I'll have to start reading some actual books again. See if I can get this addiction under control!

Verona, Italy

On March 12th, Robert, Scott, and I rode the train to Verona, Italy. We thought it was supposed to be the high speed train, be we don't think it ever got up to anywhere near 300kmh. Maybe we'll get to ride a real high speed train when we go to Rome in May. I enjoyed the train, while Robert and Scott weren't as thrilled with it. I thought it was a very relaxing, stress free way to get to Verona.

When we got to Verona, the first thing we went to see was their Arena (Colosseum). It's the third largest Roman arena still standing, although much of the outer wall was destroyed by an earthquake in 1117. Scott took this picture from the top of the arena. It's still a pretty impressive arena - considering it was built in AD 30! During the summer, operas are performed here. I've read that the acoustics are so good that the performers don't even need microphones.

Scott took this picture looking out from the top of the arena. I love the narrow streets.
We had hoped to find some fun shops to go into, but alas, the shops we saw were all well out of our price range. We are not the sort of people who shop at Versace and Prada!

We did see this quaint old car. I believe it was a Citreon. I had to take a picture. You just don't see cars like that in Texas!
We eventually made our way to the courtyard containing the "alleged" balcony from "Romeo and Juliet". We joined the crowds of people milling about the tiny courtyard. We read the famous words from "Romeo and Juliet".
We saw the balcony. It's not important that it's actually the balcony of a restored 13th century inn. We all imagined it was really Juliet's balcony

We did not, however, have our pictures taken next to the life size statue of Juliet. Mainly because, in order to have your picture taken next to her statue, it seemed to be a requirement that you had to be cupping Juliet's right breast in your hand! And none of us wanted to do that! Apparently, that was supposed to bring you luck in love. We all decided to take our chances.

After leaving Juliet's courtyard, we walked over to Verona's castle. I didn't include any pictures, because it really wasn't much to look at. Scott did take this pretty picture from a bridge looking over the Adige River.

We enjoyed our time in Verona. It was a pretty city with a lot of history (even if some of it is fictional).

Parma, Italy

On March 8th, I went to Parma, Italy with seven other American women. Only two of us are brave enough to drive in Italy (me being one of them), so we each drove a carload down. It doesn't take much to fill a car here. It was a pretty easy drive to Parma - a straight shot down the highway (or autostrada). Plus it helped that one of the women had gotten the address for a good parking garage, so all I had to do was plug it into my Garmin and I was good to go! May I just say, I do fine in the United States without a Garmin, but I would not want to go anywhere I hadn't been in Italy, without one! It's invaluable.

Parma was a very pretty city. The pictures I took don't do it justice, but I'm including them anyway. This picture is of the river that runs through town. Apparently it dries up during the summer, so I figured I'd better take a picture of it with water!

Apartment buildings in Italy are all very different looking. Some are old and dreary, some remind me of tenements in the inner city, and some are kind of cute. I thought this one fell into that category.

I didn't take any more pictures for a while, because we were too busy shopping. The shopping was great! We walked down a couple of streets full of cute shops. We went into a shop that sold nothing but gloves and socks - so many socks! We also went into a couple of shops that sold fun jewelry, scarves (of course), and other fun accessories. My favorite store was a place called Kiko. They sold make up. The prices were more like Cover Girl prices, but the make up was Italian, so it was cooler! We all loved that store. We never even made it into a few of the stores, because they all closed for lunch at 12:30. So maddening!

We went to a great trattoria for lunch. We got some of their fried bread, which was absolutely delicious! It's heavier and not as sweet tasting as a sopapilla, but it puffs up in the same way. I could have just had that for lunch and been happy! The rest of the meal was just as good - Rick Steves recommended a great place!

After lunch we walked to a beautiful park. One of the ladies who had been their before said we needed to go see the giant teapots. We were all assuming they would be prettily painted giant teapots. We were disappointed. As you can see, they were an ugly gray color, and covered with graffiti! Not at all what we were expecting. (And yes, that is me in another picture. The one I took of the teapot by itself didn't turn out.)

After that, we drove home. It was a great day. So far, Parma has been my second favorite city (after Florence). When Kimberly comes to visit in April, we will definitely be taking a day trip to Parma.

Bergamo, Italy

On March 5th, Robert and I drove to Bergamo, Italy. Bergamo is divided into two parts - a lower city and an upper city. The lower city is much newer, while the upper city is where the tourists usually go. The two cities are connected by some tricky roads or a funicular. We parked in the lower city (since it's hard to find parking in the upper city) and rode the funicular to the upper city. I am becoming quite the fan of the funicular - they're quite a nice way to get up a hill!

We have discovered that it's impossible to go to any town in Italy (or probably Europe) and not find a pretty church to take a picture of! I don't know what the yellow building is, but I like the picture because it show's the church's bell tower and part of the dome.

It was fun to wander down the streets of Bergamo. A lot of them looked like the streets I expected to find in Italy - narrow with interesting buildings on either side. What's even more amazing is that I waited to take this picture until the car driving down that narrow street passed by! Another reason we parked in the lower city!

While the streets of Bergamo were fun to wander down, we were only able to window shop. The stores here carried designers like Prada and Versace - definitely out of our price range!

I took this picture from the upper city. I'm anxious to take pictures when Spring really hits here and the trees all start to bud. It should be beautiful.

There is another funicular that goes up to an even higher village. We were going to ride it, but when we got to the station we saw it was closed for renovations. But not just renovations - if you look towards the bottom of the sign, you will see that it is closed "because of extraordinary maintenance and renovation works"! We will definitely have to go back to see what they did that was so extraordinary!
Bergamo was another fun day trip. We are enjoying getting out and seeing the different small towns near Milan. Each has a different flavor.

Como, Italy

On January 22nd, Robert and I took the train to Como, which is located at the tip of Lake Como. We probably could have driven there faster, but we wanted to try out the trains. It was a nice trip, although we made so many stops that the train never got going very fast. But we were dropped off in the center of town, which was nice.

As we strolled along the lakefront, we saw mallard ducks, plus a few swans. Swans are such beautiful birds, although I recall being chased by one while I was in high school, so it's best to keep your distance from them!

We rode a funicular up the side of a mountain to a tiny village. Here it is, pictured in all of it's funicular glory.
Here's view of Como, taken from the funicular. It's funny, it was sunny in both Como and Lugano, yet the pictures I took in both places all look like there's some sort of haze.
After riding the funicular back down the mountain, we walked back into the city center and saw Como's duomo (large church). It was pretty, but less flashy than most of the duomos we've seen.
We were going to do some shopping, but even though this is a tourist town and it was Saturday afternoon, the shops all closed for a few hours in the afternoon. I will never get used to that, as long as I live here.

Como was a nice town to visit. I would like to go back and take the boat to Bellagio. I've heard it's beautiful there. We're waiting until April though, because we had friends who went to Bellagio the week before we went to Como, and they said everything was closed for the winter.

My only regret? Not running into George Clooney, who owns a villa on Lake Como somewhere.

Lugano, Switzerland

On New Year's Day we drove to Lugano, Switzerland, which is a town right across the Italian border. We went because Brian and Kimberly wanted to say they had been to Switzerland, and Kimberly was leaving the next day so this was our only chance. It wasn't the best day to go, because the majority of the stores in the town were closed. But the Swiss Army knife store was open, which was all that was important to Scott!

Lugano is situated on a lake and is surrounded by mountains. Here's a picture I took while standing on the sidewalk that runs along the lake shore. The picture doesn't really do the scenery justice. Lugano is really a beautiful city in a very picturesque location.

Since nothing much was open, we walked along the lakefront admiring the view. I had to take a picture of the pretty mallard duck. Pretty, unlike the ducks in Texas with their strange red growths.
While we didn't take the time to play a game of full size chess, Kimberly did want her picture taken. Perhaps to fool her friends into thinking she had actually played a game of chess.
After stopping at the Swiss Army knife store to buy Scott a knife and buy presents for my sister's boys (because who wouldn't want a Swiss Army knife from Switzerland) we had a lovely lunch at a delightful place we like to call "il Burger King". It's amazing how wonderful their chicken nuggets and fries can taste when you haven't eaten American fast food in a while!

Before leaving Lugano, Robert insisted on taking pictures - with me in them. Those of you who know me know that I avoid having my picture taken at all costs. Surprisingly, there was even a picture that I liked! That hasn't happened in a while!

Lugano was a fun place to visit. I would like to go back when more stores are open. I've also been told it's the place to go if you want to score some cheddar cheese and sour cream - two items not found in Milan.

Bolzano, Italy

I have been very bad about blogging about some of the places we've been. For some unknown reason, our internet is working well today, so I thought I would do a post.

In early December (I told you I'd been negligent) Scott went on a three day temple trip with the youth in the stake. So Robert and I took the opportunity to do something I had really wanted to do - go to a Christmas Market. Ideally, I would have liked to have gone to a Market in Germany, but we didn't have time to go to Germany. One of Robert's co-workers told us about the Christmas Market in Bolzano, Italy. Bolzano is a town not too far from the Austrian border. The town has a heavy German/Austrian influence, so their Market is more like a traditional German Christmas Market.

We drove to Bolzano on a Friday and checked into our hotel - the Hotel Post Gries. I didn't take a picture of the hotel, but here's a picture from our window. Sadly, the weather was gloomy like that the whole time we were there.

Friday evening we went to the Market. May I just say, it was AMAZING! It was everything I had hoped it would be. Such shopping! Christmas goodies - including ornaments galore and beautiful table runners - abounded. We also found some fun figurines. And I picked up two nativities - one carved out of half of a piece of wood and another featuring Mary and Joseph in traditional German clothing. I love them so much, they are still out on my shelf! We had a great time wandering around all the stalls, looking at all of the fun things for sale. Sadly, my camera takes horrible nighttime pictures (although it could be the operator and not the camera) so my pictures of the Market itself didn't turn out.

We stopped at one stall for hot chocolate. It was strange to be given my hot chocolate in an actual ceramic mug. I didn't really like that though - I wanted to wander around with my hot chocolate (since it was bitterly cold), but instead we had to drink it at their stall. That seems to be typical in this country. I'm not a big fan of the hot chocolate I've had here. It's not sweet like our hot chocolate. And sometimes it's so thick that it would be better used as an ice cream topping!

To top off our evening at the Market, we rode in a horse and wagon. It was a fun way to see some of the sites of Bolzano.

The next morning, we went back to the city center to take some pictures of the beautiful church we saw.

I also had to take a few pictures of these guys, who lined the sidewalk in front of the church. We never did find out who they were and what they symbolized. And why they had no arms.
We also took the time to go to the Museum of Archaeology to see Oetzi, the 5300-year-old man. Here he is in all his splendor.
Oetzi is Europe's oldest naturally preserved mummy. He was found by hikers in 1991. He was originally thought to be found in Austria, but it was later determined he was just inside the Italian border. Austria's loss was Bolzano's gain! It was fascinating to go through the museum and discover how much they had learned from Oetzi and the clothing and other artifacts found with him. Robert didn't want to go see Oetzi, but he ended up being very glad I made him go.

I'm so glad we made it to the Bolzano Christmas Market. And even though we couldn't make it to one in Germany, I think we experienced the true flavor of a Christmas Market.

Booked!

I have booked the following:

1. Flights to and from Paris at the end of April. Kimberly will be here and Scott has the week off, so the four of us are going to go spend four days in Paris. That was one of the places I wanted to visit before I left Milan.

2. A 12 day cruise around the British Isles at the end of July. I am so excited about this cruise. It's one I've wanted to do for a long time. We will get to go on shore excursions in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Plus we will be able to go see the beaches at Normandy.

When I was booking the cruise, I was asked if we were celebrating any special occasions. The cruise is our 30th wedding anniversary present to each other, but our anniversary isn't until August, so I said no. About an hour later I realized that we would actually be on the cruise for my birthday! I went online and changed my information, so I can celebrate my birthday on the cruise. While looking, I saw that special occasions could be celebrated if they occurred up to 30 days before or 45 days after the cruise. So we can celebrate our anniversary too! I'm not sure what they do on the Crown Princess, but I'm hoping it's fun!

So Different

Saturday evening Scott took the subway into Milan and met the three other American 11th grade guys at his American school for dinner. It still makes me a little nervous to have him go off on the subway alone, especially at night, but that's how you get around in this town. And he made it there and back, so it's all good.

They all met at a Mexican restaurant (which I didn't even know existed). Scott said the fajitas were good, and the chips and salsa were never ending, so Robert and I are going to have to figure out where the restaurant is and give it a try.

Scott got home at about 10:30. He said the other three guys were going to a club. They didn't ask Scott, since they know he's Mormon. They didn't ask him, because they were going to the club to drink. Apparently, the legal drinking age in Italy is 16!

Maybe it's just me, but even if we weren't Mormon, I wouldn't want my 17--year-old going to a club to drink.

What do you think?

11th Grade Student of the Month!

Scott came home last week and told me he had been picked as the American School of Milan's 11th grade Student of the Month. They only started doing this in February, so he was the 2nd student picked. Granted, there are only about 40 kids in the whole 11th grade, but it's still pretty neat!

I told him if he didn't bring my camera to school and take pictures, I would. Knowing I meant it, he took my camera and came home with some pictures! Here's one of the poster:

And here's one I didn't even ask for - him standing next to the poster:
Scott was quite surprised to be named Student of the Month, and still maintains that he didn't deserve the honor. I'm pretty proud of him.

Internet Woes

We have a cruddy internet setup here in Milan. Because we've been waiting to get all of Robert's papers finalized over here, we've had to use a temporary internet key. This allows us to use the internet for five hours a day total. Although it's been a pain, we've made it work.

But now it's gotten worse. Much worse. Our connection has slowed down so much, it's ridiculous.

It can now take 3 or 4 minutes to load FaceBook.

Last time I tried to download an episode of Criminal Minds off iTunes it said it would take 41 HOURS. That's almost an hour for each minute of the show.

I tried to do a new blog entry, but it wouldn't upload the one picture I wanted to post.

I can't look at pictures or videos on FaceBook, and pictures take forever to load on blogs (if they ever do load).

I can't use our Magic Jack to phone home because the connection is so bad it's impossible to understand the person on the other end.

We had thought that once Robert completed the first step in his paperwork (getting his visa in Houston) we'd be able to get good internet. But, oh no, he's got a few other steps to complete first. Steps that could take a couple of months.

There's another option that works great for some people but works terribly for others. We are probably going to go with that and hope we're one of the lucky ones.

We've got to do something, because I can't take much more of this.

Happy Birthday, Jeffrey!!

Today is Jeffrey's 20th birthday! Just one short year ago, he was at home for his birthday. Now he's celebrating on his mission in Veracruz, Mexico.

Here's a picture of Jeffrey at the beach with his companion and two other missionaries. They were jumping for joy over the fact that every companionship in their zone had baptized someone the week before. The ones in white (including Jeffrey) were the ones who had done the actual baptizing.

I love this photo. It truly expresses real joy.

I hope Jeffrey has a wonderful birthday today. I'm sad I don't get to see him or talk to him on his birthday, but I'm so proud of him for choosing to serve the Lord by going on a mission. He's a wonderful young man, and I can already see how much he's growing as he serves the people in Mexico.

Jeffrey, I love you very much and I'm proud to be your Mom.

(By way of explanation to any non-members who might be reading this - the missionaries were given permission to go to the beach for their Preparation Day. However, missionaries are not allowed to swim, so they just played in the sand.)

Jeffrey's P-Day

Last week, Jeffrey e-mailed us and told us he was being transferred to a new area within his mission. He was really excited because he found out there were ancient ruins within his ward boundaries.

For any non-members reading my blog, once a week missionaries have what's called Preparation Day (P-Day). They do laundry, go shopping, e-mail Mom and Dad, and explore a little within their area (within mission guidelines).

So I was excited to get Jeffrey's e-mail yesterday. I was excited to read about ancient ruins he explored. And even see some pictures if he could find a computer working well enough to download them.

And what did Jeffrey and his companion do yesterday for their P-Day?

They went to a slaughterhouse. That's right - a slaughterhouse! Forget ancient ruins - lets go watch animals get slaughtered!

His exact words were: "They were killing and gutting cows. We didn't get to see the killing, but we saw the gutting. It was pretty cool, but I could never do it. After about 10 minutes I got nauseous. But it was cool seeing it all."

I'm anxious to e-mail him next week and find out why exactly they went to a slaughterhouse.

I guess I should be grateful that although he thought it was cool, it's not a job he could ever do! And I guess I should be grateful that he didn't send any pictures! I can wait for ancient ruins!

Getting to Church

Robert is in Houston right now, which meant that we had no ride to church on Sunday. As I've mentioned before, I will drive in my suburban area, but I refuse to drive into Milan. And I especially refuse to drive 45 minutes into Milan! The many roundabouts along with the many Italian drivers who don't understand the meaning of the word "lane" really stress me out. So Scott and I had to find another way to church.

There's another American LDS couple that live close to us. Okay, so they're pretty much the only other American couple in our ward, other than some missionaries. They have been taking the subway to church, so Scott and I decided to tag along with them.

I picked them up on Sunday afternoon and drove us all to the Metro station in San Donato. We took the yellow line into the Duomo, which is in the center of Milan. We then changed to the red line and rode that 10 stops out to where the chapel is. After exiting the Metro, it was a short 5 to 7 minute walk to the chapel. After church, we reversed the whole process.

It wasn't bad taking the subway to church. It took a little over an hour each way, as opposed to the 45 - 50 minutes it takes to drive. I felt kind of like a native - using the Metro to actually get to a destination! It would have been nice if I could have found a seat instead of having to stand the whole way both directions. Who knew the Metro was so popular on a Sunday afternoon!

The worst part of the whole experience? Having the elevator in the parking garage be closed when we got back from church. I could have done without having to climb to the fourth story to get the car!

Shopping Story

Today I went with a group of seven other American women into Milan to do some shopping. We took the subway and had to change from the Yellow line to the Red line to the Green line to get to the area we wanted to shop in. Many of us had never been to the area before, so it was a bit of an adventure.

As we were wandering around, we came across a shop selling leather goods - purses, wallets, etc. Being women, we went in! There were signs posted in the store, but they were in Italian, so we didn't know what they were saying.

We had been in the store about five minutes, and we were all busily looking at things. Suddenly a few of the ladies who were in the back of the store started coming forward saying the owner had told them we had to leave. We were all a bit disbelieving, thinking they must have misunderstood. Then the owner came up to us and said, "Go. You leave. No touching. You leave. Now."

So we left.

But I can't tell you how surprised we were. Apparently the signs in the store said "Don't Touch the Merchandise". Tell me this, how do you buy a purse or wallet without touching it to see if it's configured the way you want it? I don't understand that at all.

Also, we obviously were not Italian. We were all talking in English - and not with Italian accents! Why would she assume we understood her signs?

Another example of Italy's wonderful customer service!

Oh, and at least two of us were getting ready to buy something. Her loss.

Finished!!

At least 10 years ago I started an ambitious cross stitch project. An A to Z Christmas Sampler. It was going to be pretty big when finished - 9 inches wide by 19 inches long. That's a pretty good sized cross stitch project. I finished about 1/4 of the sampler, and then lost interest. I don't know why. I ended up sticking it in the back of my closet with all of my other unfinished projects. Every once in a while I would stumble across it and think to myself that I should pull it out and work on it. But I never did.

Fast forward to Richmond in November. While I was there, I went into a cross stitch store and discovered cross stitch has changed! Fun patterns, wonderful fabric, and beautiful over dyed floss! I picked up a few patterns (and the fabric and floss that were needed) to bring back to Milan with me. Something I could do in Milan to keep the boredom at bay.

While still in Richmond, I was cleaning out my closet (in preparation for new carpet), and saw my partially completed Christmas sampler. I decided to bring it to Milan with me also.

After completing a couple of smaller projects, I decided to work on the big one. So about a month ago I started. It was a lot of work. Lots of counting, lots of different colors. But two days ago, I finished it! And here it is - my A to Z Christmas Sampler:

I have to say, I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I think it's the prettiest thing I've ever cross stitched. When I come home in July, I will be getting it professionally framed. They will block it, so all of the edges are straight (they look a little curvy in the picture). I can't wait to see what it looks like in a beautiful wood frame!

The sampler was a lot of work, but I'm glad it finished it.

Determined Women!

There is a group of American women who get together at a little cafe once a week. All of our husbands are on the same project here in Milan. A few of them wanted to go to IKEA (which is about 15 minutes away) and were discussing taking the IKEA bus to get there. I offered to drive, since I have a car. People were very excited and soon four of us had made plans to go to IKEA.

I find it funny that other American women are amazed that I will drive over here. None of them will. Granted, I won't drive into downtown Milan, but I'll drive in our suburban area and on the highways. I do think, though, that the Italians do drive kind of crazy. And I really hate roundabouts instead of stoplights.

Thursday we made our way to IKEA. The excitement was high! You have to understand that even though IKEA is not an American company, we have IKEA in America, so it's something familiar. I bought a foam pad for my mattress, as did one other lady. Plus we all bought from 1 to 3 bags of stuff.

Here's where the determination came in. I drive a Volkswagen Golf hatchback. The mattress pads we bought were rolled like a carpet and were each over 4 feet long. Somehow we managed to fit all of the bags into the back of the car or onto the people sitting in the backseat. The mattress pads were shoved from the back to the front through the middle of the car. I couldn't see out the back window at all. I couldn't even see the women sitting in the back seat!

But we made it back to San Donato with all of our purchases! I, as the driver, was probably the only one who was comfortable, but nobody cared! We had had an IKEA adventure and discovered that 4 determined women can cram a lot of stuff into a small hatchback!

And we've decided we're going back again.

Bummed

Scott has a week off school in February, so in September I made reservations for the two of us to fly home. Last month we decided (taking into account advice from some of you) that Scott could fly home by himself and I should stay in Houston for a few weeks longer. I was super excited about that.

Until I went to change my reservation and discovered I bought tickets that can't be changed at all. Not even by paying extra money.

So I'll be flying back with Scott after one short week.

To say I was bummed is putting it mildly. I was looking forward to staying in Houston until mid-March and coming back to Milan to find winter almost over.

I guess I'll just have to make the most of the short week I have at home. February 18th through February 26th. Leave some time on those calendars open for a GNO or two!

Airport Taxes

Scott has a week off in April. I would really like to take a few days and go to Paris. I feel like I need to see Paris before I leave Europe.

I checked on Air France, and found a flight there and back for $40.00! That means all three of us could fly for $120.00! Talk about a cheap flight. Then I noticed the price did not include taxes. I went ahead and clicked some specific times just to get the actual price with taxes.

$467.00.

Is it just me, or does it seem crazy that the taxes quadruple the price of the plane tickets?

Jeffrey

Jeffrey is serving in the Mexico Veracruz Mission. The Mission President and his wife have a blog, which they try to keep updated. They fell a little behind, and have just started to post pictures from September, which is when Jeffrey finally made it down to Mexico.

A couple of days ago, I was looking at the blog and saw a post about visa-waiting missionaries who had finally made it to Mexico. The post included this picture. Which includes Jeffrey!

It was so much fun to see him on the Veracruz Mission blog! I'm hoping that I will see his picture on that blog a few more times.

By the way, Jeffrey has been on his mission over 8 months! I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by.