Week 9: Rain, Sun, Rain, Sun

Sunday:

Late night and an early start up at 7.05 to get ready for church. There were two new sister missionaries as the others were transferred or had completed their mission. They were both lovely and unfortunately they both finish their missions in a week and a half so there will be new ones again! Got picked up from the train station, the family had guests over some friends from Milan. We had lunch and afterwards I went to bed I was so tired I couldn't stay awake and Alessadra sugested I go. I think they find it slightly amusing how much I sleep the hot weather certainly has an effect on me! I managed a nice three hour nap.  Fede and Stefano spent the majority of the day at the motor pitch riding their motorbikes. Fede came back extremely tired and therefore cross and agitated. An early night after a long day. 

Monday:

Woke up at 2.30 in the morning with a massive headache, luckily I was able to find the paracetamol without having to wake anyone up though it took me an hour or so after to get back to sleep. English with Fede and Bea. Cleaned my room out thoroughly with Hoover and sister bye bye all spiders. Went in the pool. 

Tuesday:

Finished reading Alice in wonderland with Bea. Fede got in a really bad mood with me because I asked him I do his guitar practice instead of watching TV. Which he had been doing for the whole afternoon. 

Wednesday:

Went into Broni with Alesandra who did the food shop. More English with Fede. In the afternoon we wet in a walk - me Alessandra Bea and her friend Sofia - round Scazzolino where we picked figs. Fig is a strange fruit it looks like a sea anemone and I have no fondness for it.

A house had it's own little shrine on the side of it in Scazzolino

Fig tree

We also went up to see Fede at his motorcross circuit he was good!

Over a jump: Fede

Thursday:

Lack of sleep last night, it was almost like waiting for Christmas Day to come, waiting for school results. I did respectfully though I had hoped for a little better. Three A's in: Medieval History, English Literature and English Language and an A* in General Studies. I really wanted an A* in History though but nevermind they are still fantastic grades and I've comfortably earned my place at university. In the afternoon a parcel arrived from home with chocolate and English books. Then me Alessandra and Bea went blackberry piling we didn't find many though it had been a bad season for fruit. I caught my ankle on the gate as I was closing it and managed to take a chunk out very sore and makes it a little difficult to walk as it is on the bend.

Friday:

Today is a special feast day in Italy for all the Catholics. So at 10am they all went to mass, I stayed back though I was invited. Though curious to see a catholic mass I thought as I didn't speak Italian there wouldn't serve much purpose in me being there. After they came and picked me up, and then we drove to the mountains where we had a picnic. 

Very green. 

The clouds were pretty, fluffy white with the edges lit up lit silver

After the picnic we went into the woods to pick raspberries we found quite a lot. The kids have found out my fear of insects so kept pretending to thow bugs at me etc. it was funny at first but then annoying. However I got my ownback haha ;) 

After finishing picking fruit we went back to car as it had started to rain. As I opened the boot I saw something jump inside and then dissappear. A lizard. All of them hate lizards, Bea, Fede, Stefano and Alessandra. So I said "wait there is a lizard in the car" already Bea and Fede screamed and ran away (they hadn't even seen it) Alessandra didn't believe me at first because she knew I was waiting to tease Fede and Bea back. I looked in the boot and couldn't see it anywhere. It didn't help I was laughing so much they still thought I was kidding. Until we lifted the base up and there it was in a little side pocket! 

The real screams began now!

It began to rain a little harder. All the contents of the boot was on the ground outside and we didn't know how to get it out. Eventually Alessandra managed to get it out by wrapping it in a cloth which she then flung on the ground. 

It was quite a sweet little thing. 

I think it might have been hurt because it want moving very fast and it was staying in the middle of the car park. Stefano asked if I could move it. So bravely I picked it up and deposited it in the woods. It felt soft rather than scaly but even I got a bit squeamish when it started wiggling in my hand! Of course having now seen me touch the lizard this was too much for Bea and Fede and they refused to come near me, so I chased them round the car park a bit with my finger! Payback for the insects! Then when we had to get in the car to go, I normally sit in the middle but Bea and Fede had squashed right up the other side of the car so I got a nice side seat! They didn't want to be near a hand that had touched a lizard in their words "che schifo".

Saturday:

No horse riding today as the guy is on holiday, so another trip to McDonalds for us! Had a mini brioche. Made good use of the wifi, updated the blog, and all other social network sites. Thank goodness McDonalds is so close to the supermarket or I would never be able to visit it this often. It looks like it might be rain for the rest of the day it rained last night and the day is not looking too good. 

Day 14: Two Weeks

Today was long and long and long and long and long and involved some crying.

I got up at 7.15 to get reay for church. Then at 8 Alessadra drove me to Castel San Giovanni's train station so I could catch a train to Piacenza where the branch I attend is. It all went fine on the way, I got on the right train and got off at the right stop. 

The American sister missionaries met me at the train station and walked me to the chapel. Sister Gross and Sister Beaumont. It was about a ten minute walk. It was fifth Sunday so we had a combined on missionary work more specifically their branch mission plan. 

One of the sisters translated it into English for me. 

Throughout the meeting Sister Gross translated what they were saying. 

After the combined we had Sunday school. Sister Gross skipped gospel principles to translate for me which was great. It was supposed to be on love, but  it seemed to be a lesson on dissing King Solomon. 

In the break between Sunday school and sacrament I got introduced to lots more people and also got roped into saying the closing prayer of sacrament - fortunately I was allowed to say it in English. The guy that introduced me called Stefano during his introduction also told everyone that at some point I would be giving a talk. Hooray. Better learn some Italian very very fast. 

Afterwards, I got introduced to the two Elders they were also from America. Four Americans it is brilliant so many people tha understand EVERYTHING I say. Then the sisters walked me to the train station again. Here is where the crying starts. 

We got there in plenty of time, stood waiting at the correct platform - platform one. No train. 12.30 no train. It was supposed to leave at 12.35. 12.33 no train. As I scanned the platform to search for it I saw a side platform also called platform 1 slightly hidden by the main building with a train waiting. So I ran but the doors wouldn't open and it drove off. I felt so awful the train I needed came only every hour and the family I was staying with were having guests for dinner. I wanted to cry so badly and would have except the sisters had waited to see if I got the train and I wasn't going to cry in front of them. 

So I had to wait and hour for the next train. The Sisters offered to stay but I told the to go as it was already past lunchtime it would be a long wait and I had a book with me so I would be fine. When the train pulled in I triple checked it was the right one and when I sat down I burst into tears. I was so upset with myself. 

Luckily for me it had started to rain. This meant that the dinner guests cancelled due to the bad weather and so it wasn't such a problem. The only side effect seemed to be everyone ate a lot more at dinner because they'd waited so long for it. 

After lunch I read a lot more of The Book Thief and then me and Bea went on a bike ride. It was a bit of a go slow day. It didn't brighten up until later afternoon so we stayed inside most of the day. After the bike ride I finished my book. 

I cried again. 

I cried a lot at that book. 

It's a great book. 

Now I need to see the movie. 

Of course they all found it funny that I had cried at the book but it was moving. I can't wait to read it again. I also have a new favourite name - Max. I'll add that to my collection.

After I finished we all packed up and moved back to Milan. I prefer it here in Milan. Yesterday night and tonight are One Direction concerts. More tears because Bea really wanted to go but couldn't. She was almost able to as her friend got hold of some tickets but she sold them to someone else so that made it a lot worse. 

However this week me and Bea are going shopping and I discovered she likes baking so we are also going to make cheesecake! 

Ciao. 

Day 13: Relax, take it e-easy

Mika is quite popular over here his songs are on the radio a lot which are great because I really like them. Today it was Grace Kelly. It's in all the supermarkets too.

Lied in until 9am today I was up so late last night. Watching a program on Italian TV that didn't finish until midnight!! 

Had apricot pastries for breakfast they were very sweet and tasty. 

After breakfast we took Bea to her horse riding lesson. Normally she rides Cisco but he had a sore leg so she was on Loulou instead. Loulou seemed okay but was a very small horse. Hopefully Cisco will be rideable next week. 

After we got, I continued reading the book thief. I got through quite a bit I like it a lot more the more I read it. It's a very good book. I was reading in the living room but then the boys came in to watch motorcross on the TV and it was hard to concentrate. 

We had lunch skewer kebab things. They were nice but had cubes of fat skewered on them which I found bizarre and couldn't eat they were too slimy. 

After lunch I sat outside to continue reading the book their. I fell asleep but luckily it wasn't very sunny just warm so I avoided sunburn. However I got woken up because the house next door were spraying their grapes with pesticides and Alessandra called me to come in as it is poisonous. It smells horrible and they did it last week as well. 

After they had stopped, me and Fede went on a bike ride again. He always rides so fast so we get back really quick.

When we got back Stefano took me Fede and Bea out in the car for a drive to see the surroundings. We went up a very steep gravel hill I thought the car might begin to roll backwards because it was hard to get up. Luckily we didn't. There were some nice views at the top though. 

We picked up pizza for tea from a pizzaria. They make the base differently, it's very thin almost like pancake and very crunchy. It was okay but I prefer the thicker bases. You can get one called 'Americano' which has chips and bacon on. I had Margherita. 

Buonanotte. 

Day 9: Quello = Kwello not kello

Curse my Spanish lessons! I get it totally mixed up with Italian!

Today in the morning again I went over the Elga's house to tutor her sons Alessandro and Francesco. Today we focused on reading aloud and pronuncing words correctly. We worked on reading the questions and exercises aloud and also pointing at various objects and labeing them. We also looked at telling the time, parts of the body and how to introduce yourself in English.

After that we came home and had lunch, after which Alessandra had appointments  so me and Federico played chess again. I'm so out of practice he beats me every time! After chess finished we practiced reading aloud. Fede read from an English copy of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, we read about six pages and made a list of all the words he struggled on to practice and attempt again tomorrow. After that I read aloud from Fede's Italian book. My promouciation is so bad! It doesn't help that the alphabet is pronounced differently and has letters missing!

The Italian Alphabet is: ah, bee, chee, dee, ay, ayffay, jee, ahkkah, ee, jay, ayllay, aymmay, aynnay, oh, pee, koo, ayrray, ayssay, tee, oo, vee, tzaytah (a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, I, j, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, z). This one word in particular 'quello' I keep pronouncing as 'kello' but it should be 'kwello'. My Spanish education makes it harder because the words are so similar but not the same. 

After reading we all went on the wii Mario tennis, then Beatrice did her piano practice and Fede practiced his guitar. When they had finished we watched a movie - Guillaver's Travels - in Italian with English subtitles so they could compare languages and see the English spellings. 

There seems to be a lot of summer storms in Milan. It is sunny one minute and then the next it is throwing if down with rain! But by morning it is as if it never rained. The thunder is very loud and the lightning very bright too. 

The sky

Can't really see the rain but the view from the balcolny 

For tea we had fish. Fede can't stand fish the taste or the smell so he has to eat in a separate room to the rest of us. 

I started re-reading Jamaica Inn again. After reading Rebecca I didn't particularly like Daphne du Maurier, but Jamiaca Inn is incredible! Why do we always have a soft spot for the 'bad' guys in literature? Jem Merlyn may be a horse thief but like Mary Yellan does you feel a strange attraction to Jem.

The attraction to Jem is probably helped by the fact that he's played by a rather good looking actor in the BBC version with a rather sweet accent. 

Ciao