Lots of Croatia/Improvement Everywhere

Italy Journal

Monday, September 10, 2012

CROATIA FISHING!

Peter’s enjoying fishing from a boat and learning all about an island in Croatia (of which there are 1000, I hear).  We are out of phone range, so I’ll hear from him tomorrow, I’m sure.

I learned from Enzo today that he was installing a towel rack in a bathroom of his new house, when he drilled through…the water pipe! EEEk! The builders came and fixed the leak, and the tilers will come tomorrow to start repairing the wall. Che bello! He told me he didn’t curse out loud because his very upset wife Lisa was there, but he sure did have a few choice words in him mind!

I spent a portion of the evening chatting with friends and family. It was good to get caught up with Nick and Julie.

Buonanotte!

Colleen

Italy Journal

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

IMPROVEMENT IN ITALIAN AND PHYSICAL THERAPY

My Italian lesson went really well today. Sara is super in encouraging me to translate into English what I hear in Italian. It’s making me pay more attention, and I think it’s really helping. I can eventually say almost anything I need to say, but I still struggle with understanding the response.  That’s improvement, though.

My physical therapy is going quite well. Today, I massaged my arm all day long, and the swelling was much less by evening. I made an appointment for an arm and back massage on Friday to get ready for sitting in an airplane for 10 hours on Saturday.

Enzo was nice enough to include me for pasta with a bell pepper sauce for lunch today. As usual, anything he makes is wonderful. I watered his plants for him in the afternoon, but that wasn’t anywhere near a fair exchange. The workmen came while I was there to repair the wall in the bathroom. He was happy about that.

A call from Peter shed light on the telephone situation. He had kept the GPS on so much that it used up all of his minutes. I got a desperate text from his professor for me to put money in his phone account. I just made it to the store before they closed. He called me right afterwards and explained the whole thing. I was glad the problem wasn’t in our phones.

Colleen

Italy Journal

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

https://picasaweb.google.com/105096135818321367223/BeautifulCroatia?authkey=Gv1sRgCJyrtuCV7LegBw

BEAUTIFUL CROATIA

Peter’s quite taken with Croatia, except for a slight glitch in our phone connection, which was resolved by this morning. He called to say they were getting on the boat from the island to go to the mainland and on to Bosnia today. Looks like lots of fun!

LOOKING FORWARD TO MY ELECTRIC DRYER

Have I shown you my “dryer apparatus?” You’ll love this one. I guess it beats the outdoor one my parents had when I was little, but I love being outside. I’m looking forward to my electric dryer the next two weeks in Georgia.

VISIT WITH ELLA AND GIANNI

This afternoon, I went to visit with Ella and Gianni (Neighbor Lisa’s parents). I was pleased to get to see the 3 girls, and Teresio, too. Elettra has finished her 4 exams, and now she will wait until Sept. 25 to hear the results of the last 2. She told me she didn’t get the score needed to go to medical school, and she didn’t know anyone from Bra that did. That must have been some test! She’s not disappointed, though, because her plans B and C are Linguistics and Physical Therapy. Her face shines when she talks about both of those. She’ll be fine!

It was a wonderful afternoon talking in Italian most of the time and tasting Ella’s torta de mele (apple pie to die for!) with hot tea. The weather was perfect for it…sweet breeze coming through the porch where we sat. Gianni told us about his upcoming book about Pollenza’s history. It should be very interesting. He’s a super author.  I told him about the books I’ve published, and he said, “Mine are only adult books.”   J

Lovely day!

Colleen

FROM CROATIA/PROGESS MOVING MY ARM

Italy Journal

Sunday, September 9, 2012

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FROM CROATIA/PROGRESS ON MY ARM

Peter surprised me by calling on Facetime today. We usually Skype, but I wasn’t logged into Skype yet. You don’t have to be logged into Facetime to get a call, but you do have to be online. Facetime worked soooo much better than Skype has…no frozen pictures or garbled words. I may never use Skype again. They are both free!! Try it…you’ll like it!

I’m making great progress with my physical therapy on my arm. Between the doc at this hospital and Dr. Nick, I am religiously soaking it in warm water while I stretch it in all directions. Then, I take it out of the water and continue to move it in the same way. Afterwards, I squeeze the tennis ball and move my arm as if I were lifting heavy weights…can you believe a tennis ball can make that arm stronger. It’s true! Then, I massage my arm to help with the swelling…that really surprised me how well that works! Thanks for the tip and the massage, Theo!! Then I start all over. I REALLY want to be able to play with the boys next week!

Peter is describing beautiful scenery galore in Croatia. It looks like the food “ain’t too shabby,” too. Thanks for the pictures, Peter. He enjoyed the day while the others were travelling on the bus. They finally met up in the late afternoon. Their itinerary is loaded with a great and interesting time.  Their professor is with them because he has been doing research in that area for 25 years! He brings a wealth of information. I know they’ll learn a lot.

Colleen

AND WE'RE WALKING...

Italy Journal

Saturday, September 8, 2012

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WALK WITH CRISTINA

Peter left early to drive 7 hours to Croatia (see photo of Peter’s view of the 10k backup at the border), so mid-morning I went on a 5-mile walk with Cristina. It was nice to go with her, as always. She’s a sweetie! See picture.

For dinner, I invited Ana, one of the birthday women from the party last night, to eat Stephen’s scrumptious left over gumbo that Peter had taken out of the freezer for me. It was nice to spend some one-on-one time with her. She’s such a fun person and delightful to be around. We ended our meal perfectly with a walk to IGP gelato. I’m not even sure how many times we said “Yum!” during that meal!

Colleen 

CAST OFF/BIRTHDAY PARTY AT CHARLOTTE'S

Italy Journal

Friday, September 7, 2012

CAST OFF/BIRTHDAY PARTY AT CHARLOTTE’S

https://picasaweb.google.com/105096135818321367223/CastOffBirthdayPartyAtCharlotteSB?authkey=Gv1sRgCK6J_Ovq--H6Ng

Drum roll, please…the doctor took my cast off this morning! Halleluiah! And, the x-ray reports were perfect, but my real claim to fame is that the people at the hospital told an older couple just to follow me when they didn’t know where to go next! Soon, I’m sure I’ll get an offer of a job guiding people around the hospital, don’t you think?

We celebrated in the evening by attending a birthday party that Charlotte and Francesco were hosting in honor of Sara’s and Ana’s birthdays! We had so much fun. It was the first time the group had gotten together since the summer break was over, and Charlotte asked us all to wear hats or bring some sort of costume. It was nothing but silly.

The pictures tell it all. Thanks for a great time, Charlotte and Francesco,

Colleen

Another Memorable Carmagnola Dinner!

Italy Journal

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

BIG EXAM

This was the day of Peter’s big 9 multiple-choice question exam over the information that was presented over the last 5 months. That seemed so strange to me to wait so long before the exam, but evidently it is quite normal here. Peter reported that he had no idea how he did. They’ll get results in a few days.

Italy Journal

Thursday, September 6, 2012

DINNER IN CARMAGNOLA!

Peter went to a beer class - 8 tastings - this morning. I really don’t think he likes beer that much, because he told me that he was going to take tomorrow ‘s beer continuation off and go to the hospital for my cast removal appointment with me. Then, he’s finishing his plans to get to the stage locations in a car. He’s renting a car in the afternoon, since our French car can’t go in  Croatia and Bosnia, and so I won’t have to drive him to the airport Saturday morning. He’s flying to avoid the bus going to those countries. He’ll meet them there with another rental car to follow the bus while there, then fly back to Milan to get the car I will hopefully be able to drive to the airport for my trip to Atlanta. It’s gotten quite complicated, but I think he’s worked it out now. NOT!

Right before our Italian class, Peter discovered that all his travel plans were for naught. He actually could take our leased French Renault into Croatia and Bosnia, and he started working furiously to cancel his flight and rental car reservations before the 24-hour deadline was up. In fact, in the middle of our class, Peter had some other epiphany and spent the rest of our Italian time on the computer. He worked on it at home some more, and we were only 20 minutes late leaving for dinner in Carmagnol. But, as Luca replied to my text, “Don’t worry!”

The evening was spectacular. Lisa invited us back to Carmagnola for dinner in the restaurant over her family’s Queen Café. As we arrived, Lisa, Luca, Andy and Lisa’s brother – also named Luca - were waiting with some other friends at the café tables outside at the front door. In the streets of Carmagnola, the Sagre dei Peperoni was still going strong. Eventually (Nobody’s in a hurry except Americans!) Andy left with some other friends to run an errand, and Lisa and our Luca took us into the lovely restaurant above the café. They were very accommodating there, and we feasted on shrimp, meat filled bell peppers, fish and spinach. We learned that their definition of, “I’m full,” was, “You choose our dessert!” How could we resist those light and tiny nocciola meringue sweets?  We hope to come back there someday soon with Luca and Lisa.

Thanks for a tremendous evening, Lisa and Luca!

Colleen

What? No pictures? I promise I’ll do better.