So in less than a week, I will be heading back to Colorado. While it will be nice to get home, I really don't want to leave Italy. There has been many frustrating times here with work, being around people for nearly 24/7 that I never really hung out with while in Colorado (and one that I had never met before), and not really having anybody to hang out with (outside of said coworkers).
However, I still thoroughly enjoy Italy (or maybe just Europe). I enjoy seeing that the gender roles are a little more blurred. First example is of Italians kiss both cheeks when greeting or saying goodbye to their friends regardless of if their friend is of the same sex or not. The next example is just how people dress. Granted I mostly notice how guys dress, but it is acceptable for guys to wear short shorts or baggy shorts (same goes for swimwear, like i stated earlier in a blog). I believe the fashion or how guys dress is more European though, as in Australia I had noticed the same thing (more or less), and they have a pretty big European influence (correct me if I'm wrong). Anyways, i've digressed. I've enjoyed the food i've eaten here, even though most of it has been from Pranzo Piu which is the place that is near work that i got lunch from at least 80% of the time for lunch. I haven't nearly eaten as much gelato as i should have, but have had enough to fill my desire for it.....well almost, lol.
I am really hoping that after my trip to Nepal/Mt. Everest that my work will send me back here to continue working on the type of testing i've been doing here. Was actually hoping they might send me to Vancouver before my trip to Everest, but it doesn't sound like that is going to happen which makes me a little sad. Oh well though as by the time this year is over i'll have spent about 1/3 of it in a different country :-)
Things that I have missed while being here include (in order more or less):
1. Avery (and other family members)
2. AK (amongst many other friends like BF, BS, CK&KH, KS, LB, and MM to name a few)
3. A clothes dryer
4. Qdoba and Chik-fil-a
5. Mountains/camping
Qdoba and Chik-fil-a I could probably continue living without. Could probably also go camping here if i knew some people that had the gear to do so, so really it's just the top 3 things that i miss. Is it sad that a clothes dryer ranks up there with people???
Well i can't think of much else to write. i know i could probably write about the last 3 weeks or so, but don't really feel like it so i'm not :-P
Ciao tutti
Monday, August 23, 2010
Thursday, August 05, 2010
multi-week update
Well once again i've procrastinated on writing an entry. nothing really exciting has really happened in the last couple of weeks though. i guess last week i did play soccer a couple of times with a co-worker and some of his friends. it was pretty fun. we played 5v5 on artificial turf so it was definitely a fast paced game. other than that nothing really happened during the weekdays.
The past 2 weekends i've gone to Venice. the first time was to make it to Murano and buy some glass, which i definitely did :-P i was glad i was able to prevent myself from buying too many things. i really wanted to buy myself a nice vase or centerpiece, but then i talked myself out of it as i realized i was going to have to carry it with me on the plane. later though, i thought that if i spent a couple hundred dollars on it, what's another 40 or so to just mail it....kinda glad i didn't think of that while i was looking at them, lol. actually the ones i really liked were waaaaaay out of my price-range, but i can always dream :-P Since i did all my shopping and so on the saturday, on sunday i just went to the beach on lido and relaxed in the sun. i ended up meeting a couple of people, the first of which was actually was from hawaii, but has lived in italy for the last 15yrs or so. he then introduced me to his friends, which most of which spoke a little bit of english which was nice as then i was trying to learn some italian from them and they were learning a bit of english from me. this was actually the reason i basically went back last weekend as well. it was a fun group of people to hang out with at the beach and a way to work some on my italian while not feeling insecure while doing so. last weekend i also definitely needed a couple of days of sun and beach as the week had stressed me out.
that then brings us to this week. nothing that exciting has happened this week at all. there really hasn't been much time for anything to happen as i've been working 10hr days this week, which means all of tomorrow is going to be overtime :-) the downside of working 9-8, is that i really haven't had any food at my apartment since friday as the grocery stores close at 8:30 and the last time i was grocery shopping was last monday or so (and i only buy what i can carry, lol). so right now the food i have is some pasta (no sauce, but do have some butter), some slices of salami for sandwiches (but no bread), some mayo, nutella, and some beer (which is left over from when we hosted a bbq a couple weeks ago). once i run out of the nutella and beer, i'm really going to be in trouble, lol.
the other bad thing i guess is that i haven't made it to the gym this week at all for my training for Nepal/Mt. Everest. One week off won't really matter will it?
hmmm....what else???? there is a bit of a rumor that my office here is going to want to bring us back for 3 more months, which i think would be fun. the only problem i see is that i have the Nepal/Everest trip that would be right in the middle of it. So maybe they'll bring me back after my trip and i'll get to spend the holidays in Italy, which would definitely be different (in both a good and bad way). I do know that if they are going to be bringing me back i am most definitely going to get myself some better learning Italian books and CDs. plus i know i can work on my Italian during my Nepal/Everest trip since the one who invited me on the trip basically is fluent, or at least fluent enough in Italian.
Anyways, i should probably head to bed soon. Might wait until my clothes are done in the washer, although i don't think they'll really dry that quickly outside since it's been cloudy/rainy all day. Hopefully this weekend it will be nice.
Oh yeah, this weekend! This weekend i really don't have anything exciting planned. I am going to go to Florence on Saturday though and try to find a nice leather belt, not to mention anything else that jumps out at me, lol. Sunday i think i'll head to the outdoor pool if its nice, or maybe even try to head to a beach that's an hour or 2 away.
Alright, now i'm done. once again hopefully i won't take so long to write my next entry.
ciao tutti
The past 2 weekends i've gone to Venice. the first time was to make it to Murano and buy some glass, which i definitely did :-P i was glad i was able to prevent myself from buying too many things. i really wanted to buy myself a nice vase or centerpiece, but then i talked myself out of it as i realized i was going to have to carry it with me on the plane. later though, i thought that if i spent a couple hundred dollars on it, what's another 40 or so to just mail it....kinda glad i didn't think of that while i was looking at them, lol. actually the ones i really liked were waaaaaay out of my price-range, but i can always dream :-P Since i did all my shopping and so on the saturday, on sunday i just went to the beach on lido and relaxed in the sun. i ended up meeting a couple of people, the first of which was actually was from hawaii, but has lived in italy for the last 15yrs or so. he then introduced me to his friends, which most of which spoke a little bit of english which was nice as then i was trying to learn some italian from them and they were learning a bit of english from me. this was actually the reason i basically went back last weekend as well. it was a fun group of people to hang out with at the beach and a way to work some on my italian while not feeling insecure while doing so. last weekend i also definitely needed a couple of days of sun and beach as the week had stressed me out.
that then brings us to this week. nothing that exciting has happened this week at all. there really hasn't been much time for anything to happen as i've been working 10hr days this week, which means all of tomorrow is going to be overtime :-) the downside of working 9-8, is that i really haven't had any food at my apartment since friday as the grocery stores close at 8:30 and the last time i was grocery shopping was last monday or so (and i only buy what i can carry, lol). so right now the food i have is some pasta (no sauce, but do have some butter), some slices of salami for sandwiches (but no bread), some mayo, nutella, and some beer (which is left over from when we hosted a bbq a couple weeks ago). once i run out of the nutella and beer, i'm really going to be in trouble, lol.
the other bad thing i guess is that i haven't made it to the gym this week at all for my training for Nepal/Mt. Everest. One week off won't really matter will it?
hmmm....what else???? there is a bit of a rumor that my office here is going to want to bring us back for 3 more months, which i think would be fun. the only problem i see is that i have the Nepal/Everest trip that would be right in the middle of it. So maybe they'll bring me back after my trip and i'll get to spend the holidays in Italy, which would definitely be different (in both a good and bad way). I do know that if they are going to be bringing me back i am most definitely going to get myself some better learning Italian books and CDs. plus i know i can work on my Italian during my Nepal/Everest trip since the one who invited me on the trip basically is fluent, or at least fluent enough in Italian.
Anyways, i should probably head to bed soon. Might wait until my clothes are done in the washer, although i don't think they'll really dry that quickly outside since it's been cloudy/rainy all day. Hopefully this weekend it will be nice.
Oh yeah, this weekend! This weekend i really don't have anything exciting planned. I am going to go to Florence on Saturday though and try to find a nice leather belt, not to mention anything else that jumps out at me, lol. Sunday i think i'll head to the outdoor pool if its nice, or maybe even try to head to a beach that's an hour or 2 away.
Alright, now i'm done. once again hopefully i won't take so long to write my next entry.
ciao tutti
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