Sono triste oggi

Well, this is it. Right now, I'm typing away on my computer about 1 in the morning (although this blog won't get posted till later). The hardest part of any vacation is its ending. And for me, it's not about the vacation from work but the time I shared with my parents. It wasn't easy holding back the tears when saying goodbye to them, but after walking the lonely dark wet road back to my house, I balled much like I did after leaving them that last time. I belive I talked about that in my very first blog. It's amazing how being half (well, really only a quarter) of a world away can bring me closer with my dad. I like that we could both enjoy a vino and just talk about nothing. But I guess it's the fact that neither of us having prior obligations here to pull our attention away from what's at hand. And for once, I was the one taking care of them. And by that I mean he felt unsure about how he'd communicate with the others seeing as he thought I only spoke a bit of Italian. Luckily I never let them down and he didn't have to worry; anything they needed, from medicine for mom, getting train and bus tickets, to finding a car rental place, I took care of them. How the tables have turned.

Going back to work tomorrow evening won't be easy. If there is one thing I can't buy here, its family; the only thing I'm without. But like I told my dad, we're in a worldly world and thus we're never far apart. But even hours of phone calls can never amount to a bit of time shared with them here. Also, I could never fully paint the picture and describe how my life is here; it took a trip here to see how it was. And now that they see how I get along here, and how I walk down the street and they hear and see everyone greeting me, they might be right as they both thought and said the same thing the very first day they arrived here in Volterra.

Grazie Mom and Dad... you never 'lost' me, my nest is just in another 'tree' across the pond, and I could of never of found my HOME in my tree if you didn't teach me how to fly like you did. And remember, you're never far from me or Volterra since I always carry you both in my heart in mind as do, I'm sure, your new friends here.

Ciao tutti!

IO!!

Other than the following tale, this blog is pretty much dedicated to my parents, which, as you know, are here now and have been for the past 2 weeks. But before I go into detail of their adventures, I need to mention a little experience I had the night before I went to Rome to meet my parents. I was walking around with a friend of mine wondering what I was going to do for dinner seeing as I had the night off to prepare for the arrival of my parents. He already had prior commitments with his girlfriend for dinner. So I walked with him to this restaurant he used to work at, Del Duca, so he could talk business with the owner. I actually worked in the kitchen at this resturant one night when they had a big party. I worked for lunch and dinner (no money) but it was fun. Well, my friend, Fausto and I are in the kitchen of Del Duca, the most well known and award winning restaurant in Volterra, and the owner decided he didn't want to eat dinner alone, so he invited me to join him. Well, of course I accepted seeing as I was starving and had never eaten a bad meal at Del Duca before. And when the owner of the finest restaurant invites you to his table at his restaurant, you pretty much feel obligated to take the offer. So in the kitchen, he holds up a bowl from across the kitchen and asks if this is ok. I quickly looked and said sure, seeing as I thought I had just seen a bowl full of fresh mushrooms. Well we went to his table and he popped open a bottle of fine white wine. I had a couple of sips before the pasta dish came out. Come to find out, the bowl he held up was full of tiny gray clams and a couple of mussels. YUCK!!! If you don't know me, you don't know that I am very picky when it comes to fish and seafood; I never ate it as a kid and thus never got a desire for its flavor. So I looked at my wine and drank damned near the whole glass before I even began to eat the pasta. Well all was going fine. I didn't gag at all and got almost all the pasta and clams down before a big plate of whole fried fish arrived for us to eat (second course). They were breaded but you could still see a dark bump where the eyes had been covered with breading. Again, like before, I looked at my glass of wine and downed it.

Before I go any further, I must mention, seeing as my family is the primary audience of this blog, that drinking, in no way, is the answer to any problem. However, this situation IS the exception seeing as you can't just get up in the middle of dinner and refuse the dinner that had been offered to you by the owner of the finest restaurant in town. Also, before I continue, if you're stomach is quesy right now, skip the next paragraph.

So I finished that pasta which, at this point I thought of as cake-walk with the plate of what I think were whole fried sardines now sitting in front of me. Well, he finished the pasta first and dove right into the fish pile. And just like corn on the cob, he rotated the body of tiny sea creature in front of his mouth pulling off the meat (and who knows, scales too). And all that was left was a spine, with ribs and a head and fin at either end. He mearly tossed the 'junk' into his pasta bowl and went for another. So I did it, I did exactly like he did and quickly ate the meat off the cob of this poor fish. I think the fish meat never even touched my tongue as it headed south to my stomach. Luckily we were on our second bottle of white wine. I was never so glad to see grilled porcini mushrooms come out to follow the fish course. And 2 years ago, I wouldn't of even eaten these muchrooms but I've since become a big fan of mushrooms after being here for some time. So after (WARNING, MOM and DAD, skip to the next paragraph!), being quite tipsy, I was headed home seeing as I had to be up at 6:30 the next morning to catch the train to Rome. Well, a couple of friends saw me and suggested I have a drink with them. So we all did a shot of two of scotch. [FRAME MISSING or NOT REMEMBERED] So I woke up at 6am, before my alarm went off, half in my bed, feet, still in shoes, flat on the floor, clothes still on, contacts out and the lights on. Lessons learned: 1, before commiting to a dinner, find out what the menu is consisting of; 2, take the tipsiness and just find a back way home, scotch only taste good when you're too drunk to taste it anyways; 3, a day of traveling on trains and busses with a hangover is never fun, especially when your stomach is full of butterflies knowing your parents, who you haven't seen in 4 months, are flying over the skies of Europe, not to far away.

With that said, I did make it to the airport before my parents landed in Rome. I had my mom convinced that I wouldn't be arriving at their hotel till late that evening. I even went as far as emailing her directions on how to get from the terminal outside of Rome to her hotel in Rome central. So I watched them walk out of customs and follow the signs to the train platform (that would take them to their hotel). I had to tuck behind columns when my dad would look behind him. Then, when there were no longer any columns to hide behind, I ran up from behind them and hugged my mom even before she knew I was behind her. It was a great moment; one of sadness and excitement, happiness and comfort. So there we stood for a bit before I took them to the train.

I could go into detail into what we've done over the past 2 weeks but rather I will only tell you anything of importance. I must say, I am very proud of them. I didn't think my mom would touch Italian caffe (espresso). She did and I was surprised and glad she did. I think she's coming around to it. Mind you a caffe here is nothing like any caffe I've ever had in the States. We've done alot. We decided to skip the big cities seeing as Rome was rather unpleasant with all the crowds and lack of community. Things were better the afternoon we all arrived here in my hometown of Volterra. They imediately relaxed and felt free to roam free without me (seeing as they had to since I had to work a few shifts). And I knew they loved my hometown after I heard they went to my favorite place, La Vena di Vino, the place that introduced me to Volterra and pulled my away from the American students 2 years ago when I studies here. They went there Sunday night, normally a dead night, but come to find out it was packed with alot of my friends. I assumed they were in bed when I walked by their apartment after work, and thus I went to bed. I was in bed even before they had left La Vena. How sad that I missed the excitement, but I'm happy to that my friends took my parents in as though they were locals themselves. My mom, since, has said she see's why I want to live here and see that my heart is here in Volterra. I look forward to seeing them here again next summer, as, I'm sure, my friends do too.

Ciao tutti!!

Troppo genti qui ora

Kind of a continuation of the last blog before I go to work... I think its been decided that I need to open up a shop that sells the stuff you can't get here in Italy, such as marshmellows, panoramic cameras and pizzas with apple, cinnamon and sugar. We also decided I'd call it "The Shit You Don't Have." You think its a good idea??

Also, it figures that the year I'm not in Detroit, the Tigers make it to the World Series... Just my luck huh? Hope Detroit is rockin with people during the games!

Anyways, time to go to work

Ciao Tutti!!

Devi inzupare

Wow... didn't realize it's been nearly a month since my last blog. I hope I didn't lose any readers. I can say that I have been very busy getting ready for my parents arrival here. They arrived in Rome on the 6th (last Thursday). Since my last blog, not much has been going on here in Volterra. Did have my first get-together at my house with 3 friends. I cooked pasta, sausages and rice for them. We had a good time, especially seeing as they brought over 3 bottles of wine. So I can say my first dinner party was a success.

Also, I know I've been meaning to tell the story about these Americans from Kentucky that came into my work shortly after I wrote my last blog. And I thought here I was safe from 'rednecks' but they prooved that theory wrong. Among other things, they screamed out to Domenico, the guy from Naples that makes the pizzas, and shouted "hey chef! great pizza!!" Now mind you Domenico is a typical stubburn Napolian that doesn't speak a word of English so it was kinda funny watching this confrontation.

Otherwise, back to talking about my parents... I think they didn't realize how serious I am about being here more permantly and how much my days in the states are limited. After seeing Volterra and seeing my face and how satisfied I am here, it's finally hitting them. With that aside, I think they too are happy here. Its amazing that it takes a another continent and not having a phone readily available for my dad to dettach himself from work. I can't remember a time in my life before that we went on vacation and he wasn't in contact with work every so often. It's been nice for him, and also my mom and myself as well. The only thing that seems to stress him out is driving the winding roads up to Volterra at night. Luckily we returned the rental car yesterday so hopefully it'll be nothing but smooth sailing for him. As his co-pilot, I can relate... I felt upset the few times I got us off the beaten path and out of our way, but seeing as I've only been a passanger while here in Europe, I hadn't had much experience with navigating the Tuscan hills.

With that car, however, we made it to quite a few places. We went to Siena, a bigger town and decided to not even stop after seeing how overcrowded it was with tourists. Smart choice because we made it the Chianti hills and visited some nice small towns and tried some descent wine. We also went to Ikea where I was able to get a few things as well.

But as your narrator speaks, his parents have arrived. Thus, I must go. I think we're going to lunch now. I will let you know how things went after they leave next Friday.

Ciao tutti!