Aahhhh! It was incredible to be back “home” again and to see friends and our Italian” family”, to go to new places we had not seen before and to return to some of our favorites spots too. I cannot believe how quickly time goes - a whole month - seemed to fly by and yet we did return to Seattle once again….for now.
We had hot and sunny weather with highs in the mid 80’s for about three weeks, and realized we had not taken enough summer clothes with us for such warm and lovely days and evenings. We spent one whole day doing nothing but drinking prosecco under a beach umbrella, on vivid blue loungers and swam in the sea when it got too warm. Yes, that is a great way to live! We went to wine tastings being held on the beach or in town and got great wine glasses, which we brought home with us.
John, our dear friend, Richard, who traveled with us for two and a half weeks, and I enjoyed each town, village, and experience with great fun and adventure. We laughed a lot, drank great wines, talked to so many people, and just relaxed and enjoyed ourselves. John and I then traveled to new places we had wanted to see but had not gotten to when we lived in Italy, and enjoyed the surprises we encountered and loved seeing new art, history, and scenery.
We ate so much good food this time …seafood…clams, prawns, mussels and lots of fresh fish….and freshly made pastas with lamb, cinghiale (wild boar), porcini mushrooms….risotto with all kinds of delectable delights…and some of the best food we have ever eaten there before. We celebrated our friend, Susan’s, birthday with a 6 course luncheon, with three desserts, and as much wine as one could drink over a three and a half hour timeframe! We ate at roadside restaurants with some of the best food I have ever eaten and in some small villages that you would never know there was even a restaurant. AND we lost weight with all of the walking we did…they don’t call them hilltowns for nothing!
We arrived in Umbria in time for many feste medievali ( medieval festivals) and it was also nearing olive picking time so there were many feste to celebrate the new olive oil that would be made. We tasted many new wines that were either last years or two year old wines as the vendemmia ( wine harvest) had just ended and there are many celebrations to welcome in the wines that had been aging for the past couple of years. So many tasty reds and whites to try along with some wonderful wines from Emilia Romagna that were frizzante but dry and fruity. And grappa and limoncello and vin santo and….well, you get it!
We saw the incredible Byzantine mosaics in Ravenna and walked this beautiful city for two days. We went to Faenza, a town known for its ceramiche totally different from anything from Deruta or Gubbio or Orvieto, and bought a commemorative plate for our wall to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We said our new vows to each other in a beautiful church, Madonna della Stella (The Madonna of the Star), near Montefalco as we had dreamed of doing since we had been in that church so many times when we lived there.
Seeing all of the dear and loving people we had to leave when we moved back to Seattle was the best part of it all. We wondered if they would remember us, would they be happy we were back for a visit, and would I be as sad as I was when we left to come back having to leave them again - more about that later??? All those questions whirled around in my head but once we were there and saw everyone….it was as if we had never left … in fact in some instances, people we didn’t even know came up to us and said how happy they were to see us back in Montefalco again! AND I actually had an hour and a half left on my computer card from the Internet spot I always used in Foligno. Nicoletta, the new owner, had been working there when we left and now she owns it…she was so excited to see us, she cried! Baffo, our cute and loving dog also remembered us and leapt into John’s arms when we he got out of the car! Baffo is doing well and looks great!
We rented an apartment for about two weeks in Spello this time and it was a beautiful apartment, complete with one the best views ever of the entire Val’Umbra! We had a garden, a huge bathroom, kitchen, living room and plenty of room for just hanging out. We would definitely rent from Gina again, especially since we now know people in that hilltown and where to eat, shop, and when market day is.
We are both so happy we were able to return so quickly and now look forward to where we will stay the next time, how we will spend our time and how much time we really can spend with each family while we are there. We will make sure to take time for ourselves too. So, coming back again was actually somewhat happier in many ways because now that we know that ” you can go back again” and love it as much as you did before, in fact, for me, I love it even more. Our life in Umbria remains something we will do again and until that time comes for us to move there to live for a much longer period of time, we will love being part of it in our hearts and memories always.
November 17th, 2009
As we cross things off our “To Do” list for getting ready for this upcoming time in Italy, I find myself smiling and thinking so much about seeing familiar faces, sights, and places we know so well. I had a dream the other night about a huge festa, with hanging lanterns, music, wine, food, and dancing and I know that this will be something waiting for us upon our return because our friends have said they will celebrate all night when they see us again. I know that we will be hugged and kissed a lot and I cannot wait to see all those beautiful and loving faces again.
I have been diligently looking for items from Seattle to take to people there - calendars for some with photos of Seattle, aprons and kitchen items, Smoked Salmon, T-shirts that say Seattle…and a Seattle Sounders FC shirt for one special friend who LOVES Calcio, or better known here as Soccer. I am thoroughly enjoying all of these purchases although John keeps reminding me of how much our bags can weigh and how much I am taking. We have a birthday to celebrate, people to see and visit with, and just some little things for people we have not seen in a while!
I know that the time will go by quickly so I must savor each day and drink in the language of the people as well as just enjoy each day to the fullest - life, the Italian way. We have some foods we are looking forward to having again….pasta with truffles, sausage made from a small butcher shop near Montefalco which is to die for, the salted bread from Al Forno, on the way to Trevi, soups made at a small trattoria in Foligno, and much, much more. And of course…the wines from the Sagrantino area…our favorite Montefalco Rosso, which is soooo hard to find here and Cecilia’s wines from Orvieto. Yes, we will savor familiar things and look forward to some new ones too.
We both are wondering how we will feel when we see everyone and all the places we love so much from our year in Umbria - will we want to return immediately as we think feel now? Will it be the peaceful and wonderful spot it was when we left a year and a half ago? That will be the wonderment that awaits us and we cannot wait!!! We will keep you all posted as we travel as we have before and remember, when we return to Seattle….I know that will happen, sigh, the reality check…we will be creating a new blog for all to read and see….but until then, enjoy our travels with us once again, please.
September 6th, 2009
Yes, only a month and a few days away and then we are off to our beloved Unbria and Italy. We will see some sights we just cannot get enough of…Lucca, Lago di Como and Varenna, Orvieto, Montefalco, Spello, and the whole Val’Umbra…see some places we haven’t been to in a long time…Cinque Terre, Siena, and the Ligurian Coast… and explore some new spots….Ravenna, Emilia Romagna, and wherever we decide to go from there. We are happy to be seeing our dear friends, celebrating birthdays and anniversaries, and just being back where we love to be.
Seattle and the surrounding areas have been HOT for us - in the high 90’s and even one day over 100 degrees…not a typical Seattle summer for sure. We have taken some great road trips throughout the state and seen, tasted, and enjoyed a lot of local fresh vegetables, fruits, and wines along the way.
I am still looking for work and find it very frustrating and surprisingly harder than I remember. The job market here is as tough as anywhere in the US and is supposed to get easier in the coming year but still will be something we have not had to contend with ever, that I remember.
We have had friends visiting from other states and have really enjoyed seeing some people we have not had a chance to spend time with since our return. When you are away from your normal environment - Seattle - and then live abroad - Italy - and then travel too, you get used to seeing whatever you want to and can share it all here in the blog, but then when you are around people who have not heard about your travels, it renews the desire to get back out there again and see new places as well as visit the old ones!
We still are planning to move and live in a more rural environment but not sure where and when that will happen. I keep thinking all of this will reveal itself to us when we get back from Italy and then we will take the cues and run with them. John and I are going to create a new blog, with the ability to show John’s photos and have more information available on a variety of topics. Stay tuned…I will begin that adventure soon.
I continue to volunteer my time at Susan G. Komen and worked on the Race for the Cure in June, John continues to be a substitute teacher when school is in session which works out well for both of us. He is still that avid Master Gardener, always growing more than we can get planted but loving to give plants away to anyone he feels will take good care of them as well as he would. I will be very serious about finding work upon our return and want to do something new and interesting, if possible.
We will have more photos available for you along the way during our travels and I will keep the blog alive and well with stories from our travels. Thank you for reading about us and have a great rest of the summer everyone!
August 13th, 2009
In Seattle, we always wonder when summer will really arrive or if we have had summer already! We are hoping that the last 29 days of sunshine in May/June will not be our actual summer but is has been warm and sunny and beautiful blue skies for a seemingly long time. The temperatures got up into the 90’s a couple of days which is very unusual for these parts but now we have settled into the nice 70’s again and enjoy having morning coffee in the backyard in our shorts.
As we plan for our upcoming return to Italia and Umbria, we are getting more excited for the new places we will travel and see. We will revisit some towns and cities we had wanted to see when we lived there but just never quite made it back - like Siena…I love Siena and am excited to be in Siena again. We will also go back to the Cinque Terre and relax - there will be a Rick Steve’s tour there while we are in Monterosso which will give us a change to connect with those fun travelers. So many places to go and see which will keep us coming back time and time again for visits with friends as well as seeing new sights…Bologna, Padova, Torino, Genova, Calabria, Puglia, back to Sicily, and so many more places to see and experience.
I have connected with the grandson of one of dear neighbors from Montefalco, a beautiful woman we call Zia Luciana, who lives in Washington state. He and his wife and John and I will be getting together for coffee and taking a photo of all of us together. John will make a reprint of the photo and we will frame it and give it to her when we see her when we go back to Montefalco. I know she will love it as she has many, many framed photos of her family and friends all over her home and this will be a nice connection for her to know that we have met. She is an incredible woman and we cannot wait to see her. Today, I am writing to everyone there to let them know we are coming and to know that we will be sure and come to see them “per caffe, certo”!
Every once in a while, I find myself dreaming of being back in Umbria, in our little apartment outside the walls of Montefalco, sitting outside at the table watching John work in Anna’s flower garden, with Baffo asleep at my feet. It was a wonderful and sweet life and being back in Seattle, with all the traffic and all of the noise, is such a jolt to your senses. I miss the church bells but I have the birds singing here so I guess there are always tradeoffs in life. It will be comfortable to return to that more simplified life of seeing friends, enjoying each day as it comes. I wonder why can we not live this way here? We have tried hard to retain that mental state but it gets increasingly more difficult the longer we are away but will keep trying as Umbria and the Italian way of life is still in our hearts.
So for now, we will go to our weekly farmer’s markets to buy fresh fruit and vegetables the way we did in Umbria, we will call friends and share meals and good wine together, and just remain vigilant about keeping our life as uncomplicated as we can. After all, it is summer in Seattle and there is a lot to do and see and when summer comes into Fall, we will be on our way back to Umbria and Italy for a return to some portion of life as Americani in Umbria. Ciao for now, amici.
June 23rd, 2009
Yes, it it true! I am back with our blog and thinking and planning for an upcoming trip back to Umbria, our friends there, and life..for a mere short month…we love. Thank you all for being such good “visitors” to this blog and soon, I hope, we will be setting up our own blog with John’s photos and my words and it will cover not only our trips to Italy but our life as we know it right now. Sometime soon, we promise.
So so much has happened since we returned to Seattle. It is so hard to believe that we could possibly be back going on a year and a half already. Since then, we have been speakers at Travel Bookstores throughout the area, I have written and sold articles for local and more global papers and magazines, have begun to write my book ( several times over and over) and seen the economy take a huge nose dive worldwide which impacts travel and tourism for sure. We remain positive and have purchased our tickets for Italy at a GREAT price and know that we will love every minute we are there.
I look for work every day - which is an art in itself - and luckily John can still work as much as he wants to at least until school lets out for the summer. Being back in Seattle is interesting and we find more things we want to know about other places in the world as potential places to live but are enjoying our time here too. I have been a volunteer for Executive Alliance and helped them with their statewide Nonprofit Conference which was an excellent conference and I worked with some awesome people. Now I have begun to volunteer for the Susan G. Komen Puget Sound group and working on the Race for the Cure, coming up in Seattle on June 7th. Hopefully, I will have some nice opportunities there to meet people and to possibly work myself into a job???? - ! I would like to work there because I understand the vision and mission of the organization up close and personal.
It feels good to be back working on the blog again and I will hope to hear from you all out there. I will give you updates as to our progress along the way of our upcoming trip to Umbria and Italy and also of some other good things happening along the way. This coming weekend is HUGE for our family as my youngest nephew is getting married and we all are a part of the wedding. Very exciting for all of us.
Ciao for now and keep in touch, please. John might even add some more photos from Seattle/new photos of our travels/ and of course, of us!
May 5th, 2009
It is hard to imagine that six months have gone by already and that are half way through a year again. We are both taking life so much more in stride since we came back and have learned to take each day, piano, piano…slowly, slowly…the way Italians feel life is to be lived to the fullest. This is something we fell into step with really well while we lived there and are finding it easy to do here now. Yes, we still have a calendar and it still has things listed on it, but we are not jamming many things back to back like before. We promised ourselves that we would come back and live our life the same, as much as possible, as we did in our wonderful Italian Way.
The garden is alive and bursting with color thanks to the skillful eyes and hands of John. He really loves to tend the garden and it is lush and lovely once again. He continues to do his Master Gardener stints each month and has worked the Annual Plant sale and a Saturday a month during the summer at the local University Farmer’ s Market. I am still working on my writing and will be submitting two articles hopefully for print. I continue to do research about writing the book and have contacted several authors and some have replied with some great advice…read a lot , don’t stop writing, and be persistent! John has submitted some photos for Festa Italia, which takes place in the later part of September and may be able to work a booth at Festa with some of his photos. We will keep you all posted on how that works out.
We have made some good contacts on Whidbey Island and continue to look at houses and areas. With John’s brother and sister-in-law already living there it makes it nice to have them as our advisors about good areas to look for a house. We have decided that Eastern Washington is out…so I will not get my grapevines but our neighbors here are growing some grapes on a trellis in the adjoining yard, so that will have to do for now. We will look a bit more south and then just wait until the first of the year to make our decision. We are in no big hurry with the economy and home sales what they are. We are just enjoying this house for now and looking forward to being in a new spot.
We have made some great road trips and just got back from a grand visit in Portland. That is such a great city and so many good restaurants, museums, and so much to do there. We saw our good friend Kate and really enjoyed being together again. We had dinner at a wonderful small Italian restaurant and found some Montefalco Rosso wine there so had to drink that! We will be going to Hawaii for about three weeks in July, In August, we will be taking a nice trip over to Montana to spend some time with my brother and sister-in-law and then who knows where we may decide to travel. We like having so many options.
We will both look for work in September…it will be time to go back into the workforce and earn some money again. I have no idea what I will do but know that I do not want to work full-time, if possible, and would like to be work in a field where I can make a difference in people’s lives somehow. That was the great part of working at the Commission, I always felt we did just that. So, we will see what is meant to happen for me. John has notified the school district that he has returned and can substitute teach when and where he wants to again. It is easy to watch each day go by in such a gentle way while you are at home so we both know that going back to work will be a jolt to our senses, for sure.
We continue on with our Italian lessons and have learned so much practical and useful parts of the language. Our tutor, Susan Wolf, is a dream to work with and she is an excellent teacher. Patient and calm, helpful and guiding us all the way. Our goal is to be able to speak better and easier when we return to Italy next year and shock all of our Italian and English speaking friends with our new language skills! And I, hopefully, will have learned some French along the way.
We continue to keep the blog alive as it keeps our life updated for you, our dear friends, and for us too. I enjoy writing and we will try to remember to take photos of this area too so those of you far away and who have never been to Seattle or the areas around Seattle can see how beautiful it is here. Thank you for staying in touch with us and for reading our blog.
June 16th, 2008
It is hard to believe that we are already through the first four months of 2008. We have celebrated my Dad’s 80th birthday, my brother and sister-in-law’s birthdays together, John’s birthday, my 15th year of being cancer free (yahooooo!), and we still have more fun things ahead of us. We are feeling settled in our house again and more than eager to begin our research of other places to live in Washington state…for now.The yard is looking great and John is enjoying being a Master Gardener again. Their huge plant sale is this weekend and he will help set up on Friday and then work the sale on Saturday and he has all of his dates for working the Farmer’s Market in the University District so he is back in his groove of gardening.
I am still in the throes of doing my research for writing our book which is a long and tedious process- for every 10 emails or letters I send, I get 1-2 answers back. We are offering ourselves up to speak anywhere and everywhere…showing photos and speaking about our incredible experience of living in Italy for a year. Surely that will open a door or two hopefully. We are discovering new things in this city once again, we will begin our Italian lessons next month (yahoo again), and have found some great websites to practice our language skills with. It all seems to be coming together for us as learn to live in the US.
We have re-connected with almost everyone as we blend back into Seattle life again but we do not live the hectic, crazed life we did Before Italy and that is by choice. We told ourselves that we wanted a better and more gentle lifestyle when we returned and so far, we have been able to keep that promise we made to ourselves. For those of you who knew what our calendar ALWAYS looked like, it is funny now to see that we have blanks in many dates and months once again. We loved our lifestyle in Italy with a pace that as slow and enjoyable and we are taking time to weave that into our life here. We take little trips like going to the Pike Place Market to just amble about, we visit museums and art galleries in the middle of the day, and we go out for lunch occasionally, and I just ordered a Yoga tape and will be doing that for myself. It is a nice way to take care of ourselves and each other.
Work looms on the horizon for both of us but we want to put it off as long as possible. John will substitute teach again and I have no idea what I will do yet. I am looking at everything and know that I would like to work part-time, 3 days a week, and work enough hours to be part of the benefit program. I would love to do something where I can interact with people, ideally where I can use my new language skills and brush up on my Spanish skills too, and possibly work in a ”Green” type of environment. Not sure what that would mean but will see where those thoughts take me. I am also joining Women in Communications again as it is an excellent organization and it has some awesome women in it. It provided me wth a great sense of my communication skills in the past and I am sure it will once again.
We plan to take the summer off and will be taking two weeks in the middle of the summer to go to Hawaii to celebrate Richard’s (our good friend) 50th birthday on the Big Island of Hawaii, we decided to take an extra week and just go see how much things have changed there since Mom and Dad lived there. That will be another grand excursion we are truly looking forward to. We also will be going to Whidbey Island for our House Hunting Excursion #1 and that should prove to be very interesting. We will also be looking in other areas of the state too and then can make a decision of where to begin being serious about moving and living. That will certainly bring another new beginning!
If anyone has any good advice or helpful hints of how to go about telling our story, please let us know. We would love to hear from you all. Ciao for now.
April 29th, 2008
We have had some really strange weather here and it kind of sums up our feelings about being back to Seattle and the USA. Some days are beautiful, some days are cold and cloudy, and there even have been some days with snow! We are still putting items away, getting the yard in shape, doing more spring cleaning, and hopefully we will soon get to see some of our friends that we have not connected with yet. I get emails daily from friends in Italy who write long newsy emails about what is happening there and how much they miss us and ask when we will be back TO STAY! I purchase postcards when we go places to send off so they can see how beautiful this area of the country is and so they get a sense of our life here. All in all, we are moved back and settling in.
We spent a wonderful week with our whole family together in Birch Bay, north of Bellingham on the water, through our Vacation Internationale timeshares. Mom and Dad, Steve and Mary, and Jesse and Seth, our two nephews were in a beautiful 3 bedroom, 4 bathroom condo and we had a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo next door. These are brand new and had been built as condos but were purchased by VI for timeshare owners. It was nice enough weather and we also gave my Dad a surprise party for his 80th birthday with ALL of the family together. And he was really surprised as many friends came to wish him well and drink champagne to celebrate this wonderful milestone. It was grand to have all of us together again as we have so many occasions to celebrate…birthdays, anniversaries, and special days. We also had a chance to check out some areas in the Bellingham/Lynden/Fernadale areas to see what life might be there and will go back for a more in-depth look soon.
We are looking forward to beginning our Italian lessons once again with a private tutor and I am also going to learn some basic French too. John is back into his Master Gardener volunteering, and I have begun doing research on how to write a book! I am also checking into the local newspapers and travel shops to see if we can speak about our experiences to get a feel for what people might be interested in hearing about our year in Umbria. We have gotten so many comments about doing such a variety of things that we need to zero in on what readers would like enough to buy a book. I am determined to do this so you know it will happen. I may have to get that cork board with all the colored 3×5 cards out again!
I had a nice long chat with our good friend, Carol, who now lives in Switzerland but was here visiting friends in Seattle for a couple of weeks. We had a discussion about how different it is to come back after living in a European environment and how hard it is to adapt to certain things around you here. We both felt that Seattle and maybe the US in general is so much more violent and that people are just conditioned to it whereas people in European countries would not be comfortable watching it day after day. This is not to say that they do not have violence but the media is not as infatuated with showing it as they are here. We also do not feel safe here…you have to be on your guard and watch out more, hold onto to your purse, watch out for people around you more…maybe it was always there but both of us are much more aware of it now. Also, she lives and we lived in a rural country environment and Seattle is a large metropolitan city so that could be another explanation. Enough said about this.
I hope everyone is doing well and that you are also getting into Spring and all the beauty that comes with it. Our tulips are up along with the daffodils and John is planting and pruning away. We have a couple of little road trips coming up and are looking forward to seeing you all soon. One day, I will have to go back to work and then we will be back to trying to fit all of this into 2-3 days out of our week so we are soaking it all up for now.
April 11th, 2008
Easter is a special day here and in Italy too. It is a day with family, food, and being together. In Italy, there are no easter egg hunts or giant bunnies but there is lots of chocolate and huge, foil wrapped eggs filled with toys and surprises for the kids. Everyone also panetone, a nice light cake, in the shape of a dove and either plain or filled with some delectable delight. Easter Monday, or Pasquetta, is the day after Easter and is day to visit cemetaries and place flowers on the grave of family members and friends AND to share the day with friends with lots of food and wine and chocolate! We will never forget our first Pasquetta with our friends Cecilia and Roberto and so many of their friends. It was a warm sunny day, lots of laughter and friendship, and tons of food and wine! It will always be a great memory for us.
We have finally unpacked the last box, have found all but two items which we went out and purchased new ones, and are feeling like we are back in the USA again. That is a good thing and not a good thing, depending on your point of view. We find so many things ODD here that we just must have taken for granted before. We do not read the newspaper or watch the news much as there is a lot of violence and the media seem to thrive on telling you all of the gory details and worse…showing you! We are bombarded with sound bites on television and so many ads that a program really is only about 15 minutes long and the rest are ads. There seems to be a lot of crudeness and grossness on tv, either for shock value or maybe some other reason we cannot figure out. I won’t go into details!
But there are many good things too. Today, I met a friend for lunch and stopped by Northgate Mall on my way to meeting her. There was a giant Easter Bunny that kids could get their photos taken sitting on the bunny’s lap. There were two small children all dressed up in their Easter outfits, so excited to see this giant bunny and they really loved that they got to see him and snuggle next to him. After their photo was taken, they both kissed the bunny and told their mother “Thank You, Mom for bringing us here!”. They really were in awe of this bunny and grinning ear to ear. So magic does still happen for kids and that made my day…along with a great lunch with a good friend.
We spent a day at the Seattle Art Museum to see the fantastic exhibit of “Roman Art from the Louvre”, a selection of ancient art here from the Louvre in Paris. The exhibit shows nearly 400 years of Imperial Roman life and history in 180 pieces and many of these have never been show in the United States ever before and it is one of the richest collections of ancient Roman art in the world. We also got the bonus of seeing “The Gates of Paradise”, Lorenzo Ghiberti’s panels from the Italian Renaissance. Once the panels conclude their tour in Seattle, they will be installed in the Museo dell’ Opera del Duomo in Florence permanently, never to travel again. The entire exhibit was so stunning and beautiful and we felt so fortunate to see it, taking our time.
John is working hard on the yard and it is looking beautiful once again. And Spring is here and we are loving seeing all the flowers and plants budding all around us. Our flowering plum is all abloom, the daffodils are out -I had forgotton how many different varieties of flowers and plants we have -some plants did not survive so John has found new ones to plant in their place. All in all, it is looking like John is in charge again! He is also all signed up for his Master Gardener duties at the Saturday Markets, which is something we will enjoy much more now because we would rather buy our food from the farmers again, as we did in Italy. He has not contacted the school district quite yet as we are enjoying our time together…not working.
I am in my research mode to find publishers and how to self-publish our book. We really want to pursue this and it will be really interesting to see what the steps involved are. I am feeling pretty confident that we should have a sure fire hit on our hands and that it will climb to the top of the Best Seller’s list in no time by the reaction of many of our friends who have said ” I want the first one when it comes off the press!”Dreams are what makes living so much fun!
We want to wish you all a Happy Spring too. We are looking forward to getting out and starting to consider our options for where we move next and what part of the state we will end up in. We plan to start our first trip in April to coincide with John’s birthday so we can celebrate along the way too.We will go back to Italy as soon as we can and see what options there might be for us there…but first, for a long visit with our friends there. We hope to see more of you in the next months and thank you all for keeping in touch while we “settled in” to Seattle. We will keep you updated on our progress on all fronts!
March 21st, 2008
We have been very busy moving back into our house in Seattle, unpacking boxes, deciding what we really need to keep and what we can donate, and John has been outside making the yard look ” John-like” again. He has missed his own yard and is rediscovering what lives there, and I am determined to NOT have the house look like it did before we left and am putting things away in different spots so we feel all new again. We are still acclimating to being back and there are days when we both miss our life in Italia a great dealand knowing that we will return again makes it all much easier. We are also taking it slowly as we see our friends again and we appreciate everyone having patience and respecting our re-entry into this US lifestyle again.
We are “wired” now with high speed internet, cell phones, and a new land line and we will be sending out all the information to everyone soon, we promise.We are unpacking box after box and finding new discoveries in each box. We also have decided that this is a good time to downsize our “things and stuff” so we are finding all kinds of wonderful places to donate items that other families can use. We have also decided that we are very fortunate people to have amassed as much as we have over all of these years and that it is time to share all of this. When we move again, this will make it all much easier too. We have not gone back to work yet and if lucky, we will be able to hold out for a few more months so we can enjoy getting back into our house first before we have to think about working for a living!
We are planning to take a trip to Spokane to celebrate birthdays for Steve, my brother, and Mary, our sister-in-law and to see our youngest nephew, Seth, perform in a Jazz club there. We also, as a family, will be spending a week together in Birch Bay in March/April. We love being able to talk to Mom and Dad and Steve and Mary as much as we want to and do! We will be taking some weekend trips around the state as we decide where we want to live next…in Washington state…for now. We know that this area is growing rapidly with condos and the traffic is really gotten worse in the year that we were gone. We would love to have grapes and olives in our backyard, but that probably will be hard to find here!.It will be a fun research project for us to do together. We are also having an adjustment to not being together 24/7 like we were in Italy and we find that we end the day having a glass of wine together and savoring our time.
We love having a dryer again, Costco, Chico’s, and Barnes and Noble, which is like walking into a candy store for me.We are just enjoying seeing all the new places in our neighborhood and nearby, and connecting with friends again. I write weekly to our friends in Italy in Italian which is helping me to keep my Italian “alive” in my mind.They arevery good about sending emails and they write in Italian and let us know what is happening there and telling us how much they miss us. We have a wonderful friend who we hope will be our Italian tutor once a week and maybe I can also learn some French too. My goal is to speak Italian as well as I did in Italy and to be able to learn some good solid French too by the end of the year. Wish me luck, please.
We will have a new email address although we will also keep our current one up and running as well. If you have not seen us yet or heard from us, please understand we are still adjusting to being here and all that goes with that. It is a very interesting time for us and we want to connect with everyone, piano, piano (slowly, slowly). Thank you for your understanding and patience, once again. We will keep you updated on our forward progress.
Ci vediamo presto, amici…we will see you soon, friends.
February 25th, 2008
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