Domenica.

I've been letting my Italian get a bit slack which is a shame. I tried writing my journal in Italian last night and gave up when there were more question marks for words I didn't know than words I do. Something to practise on. At least I've retained the basics: oggi é domenica (today is Sunday).

Exams are finally nearly over, only one more to do tomorrow. Archaeology BC, the whole of prehistory from the Lower Palaeolithic 2.6 million years ago to the Iron Age (which actually finishes AD 70). I say finish, it's hard to pinpoint an exact date. When did the nineteen-twenties finish? In 1930? Or are they still going, and will they only end when we tire of art deco and vintage fashion? We live in with so many residualities of the past that you could justifiably argue that we are still living in the stone age, the bronze age, the iron age etc. Just a developed formed Iron Age 2.0 or something.

One thing I remember that struck me from an Archaeology lecture was a book called "Faith in Fakes" by Umberto Eco, I haven't read it yet but I'm led to believe it's very good. It discusses the inconsistencies with the recreations we make of the past. For example, a museum cataloguing Regency England will ensure that a room recreation is made up of things solely from Regency. So accurate in timing and dating and perfection we fail to see what's wrong with it. People in Regency England did not solely interact with products made in Regency England. Heirlooms, items passed down and reused. Even now we don't live solely in the present. Unless your house is a replica of an IKEA 2015 catalogue we all have residualities of the past around us. Books from decades ago, furniture from years ago, broken phones and computers that we could order in a timeline of development. We are surrounded by the past always. Anyway the book promises to be interesting, I need to find time to get hold of a copy.

Exams at university are interesting. I remember at college and high school everything went in your bag and that was left aside. At uni you are allowed to put your valuable items e.g phone, keys, purse into a plastic wallet and place them under your desk. Which is quite nice, gives you a little peace of mind. But also a little more to worry about, I kept kicking my phone underneath my desk as I moved my legs around. You also don't have to stay for the full time. All my exams are two hours and we can leave after the first hour and before the last twenty minutes, so we have a forty minute window of potential early exiting. My first exam was in a room without about 100 people not all taking my exam, at the end once all the papers had been collected I had expected them to dismiss us row by row as I'm used to. Not at Uni. There was a "You may leave" and suddenly 100 people are moving for the exit collecting possessions en route. It took a while to get out.

The exam timetable at university also runs differently, it goes Monday-Saturday. My second exam was on a Saturday afternoon, it actually wasn't too bad I got an extra day revision for it which was nice. They also aren't all on campus. My first one was, the second one was still a university building but a ten minute walk away. My last tomorrow is held at some kind of church hall I think, which is apparently a fifteen minute walk from the campus. I just hope its warm, there's nothing like a cold room to destroy writing essay answers as your fingers slowly freeze.

Recently my runs have been turning into walks. For several reasons, 1. The weather, 2. The discovery of new places and 3. I'm just not fit enough to run the whole distance. The weather leads to dangerous running surfaces which bear the necessity of slowing to a walk for fear of falling over, but also the other day when I went it began to hail after I'd ran a good fifteen minutes from the house. At first just light rain, so I thought nothing of it and carried on but then heavy hail came the stuff that hurts when it hits you. I got soaked through. Light grey jumper = dark grey. Maria = freezing. I could not jump into the shower fast enough when I got back.

I have ran into some nice little places when I've been running though, Bouskell Park for one and then just quiet little residential areas with their own little parish churches.

Lovely little church, I don't know why but I love the architecture of these buildings it feels so nice to be near them. 

You could be forgiven for thinking you were in the countryside, but just around the corner houses return.

Useful signs that stopped me from getting lost, I was literally just wandering around without a map.

I don't know if every county has it's own way of doing street signs? Or if it just depends when the street was named, but I like this style. Embedded in the walls. 

So my runs normally start of as runs until I hit Blaby then I go into a walk/explore and then run back. I broke my record for fastest km ran though which was great!

I also accidentally though rather nicely now have my total km ran as 123.0km. If only it was 123.4! But I'm pretty pleased with myself.

Yesterday after my exam I stopped off by Morrisons to pick up some bits the store has its own special bus stop and bus stop lane which is one way. I was waiting there when all of a sudden a car comes rocketing down the BUS lane, the wrong way. In fact I'm pretty sure the whole road is one way so I'm not entirely certain how any of this managed to happen without an accident. It then screeched to a halt at the end of the bus lane, realising I think it was driving towards oncoming traffic had to do an extremely tight u-turn to get into Morrisons. It was so bizarre, I'm just glad a bus wasn't coming because that could have been nasty.

Not a great picture, but it's the black car on left that was messing around.

I had a bunch of spare time, so you're treated to a hand drawing haha. It was just crazy. The whole road is one way so I don't know how it even managed it.

Church was pretty good today. My primary class got expanded by two kids which was lovely so there were six today. The lesson was on "Happiness comes from Choosing The Right". I think they enjoyed it, we learnt about how to know what right choices are like playing nicely with our siblings, helping our parents, coming to church and how to make wrong choices better by doing things like saying sorry or giving people hugs (the children are only 3-4 years old). We did some colouring and talked about things that make us happy, a popular answer (from the kids) was dinosaurs. Especially T-Rexes. Also aeroplanes. 

After the lesson we had singing time, we learnt some new verses to some primary songs. When I was in primary I hated these songs, I thought they were just the worst but they actually aren't too bad. One we were working on today was "I Know That My Saviour Loves Me" we learned the second verse to that.

1. A long time ago in a beautiful place,

Children were gathered ’round Jesus.

He blessed and taught as they felt of His love.

Each saw the tears on His face.

The love that He felt for His little ones

I know He feels for me.

I did not touch Him or sit on His knee,

Yet, Jesus is real to me.

Chorus

I know He lives!

I will follow faithfully.

My heart I give to Him.

I know that my Savior loves me.

2. Now I am here in a beautiful place,

Learning the teachings of Jesus.

Parents and teachers will help guide the way,

Lighting my path ev’ry day.

Wrapped in the arms of my Savior’s love,

I feel His gentle touch.

Living each day, I will follow His way,

Home to my Father above.

Chorus

Copyright © 2002 by Tami Jeppson Creamer and Derena Bell. All rights reserved. This song may be copied for incidental, noncommercial home or church use. This notice must be included on each copy made.

It's a lovely song. I like especially like the line "The love that he felt for his little ones I know he feels for me". The chorus is beautiful as well.

After we sang some more songs and then had sharing time where we helped the children make get well soon cards for an old man in our ward who brings sweets every week for them. He's really nice and the kids all like him so they enjoyed doing that. My cousin moved up into primary today, he was in my class and he had a good time colouring and singing.

After church I did a variety of things. I put some EFY music on, so the house wasn't so quiet. I did some family history, I'm working on my (step)grandma's line she had no children and no siblings so I thought I'd do it. I've done quite a bit already so I was just continuing on that. I like working from the ancestry website, the little hint that come up are really useful and make researching so much faster. Then I was linking all the people to my familysearch account so I didn't have to fill in the details twice on both sites.

I had bought some eggs a few days ago to make Carbonara, didn't use them all but I'm going home on Tuesday so I needed to finish them up. I decided to make some meringues. It took me so long to find a recipe, I just typed in "basic meringue recipe" and it comes up with so many complicated things, but finally I found a good one: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4630/summer-berry-meringues. I ignored the summer berry thing  I just used it for the meringue bit. They were so much fun to make, I am looking forward to when they are finished, meringues are one of my favourite desserts. I think I'll stick on meringues on a separate post - with pictures!

I decided to do some Italian this afternoon, I went on the app I use to practice "duolingo" and was immediately disheartened by the fact I had about twenty units to revise (when you don't do it consecutively it gives you units to revise) I think I got through about five of them, I'll tackle the others another day. At least these units I'll know really well because it's always the same ones I have to revise - normally plurals and possessives. Che fastidioso! Ma anche utile.

I've planned to do some reading as well. I was going to go out for a walk but the meringues are in the oven now and I don't want to leave them unattended also it's so cold outside, so I think I'll stay inside with a book instead. 

Half-Term Report

Five weeks in means five weeks left. Time seems to have started off slowly but quickened quite suddenly. So halfway through semester one and what do I have to show for being at uni. I can think of a few things: 1. I can definitely cook a Jacket Potato successfully (though I did have to ring my mum every time I wanted to have one because I kept forgetting to write it down), 2. I'm not bankrupt, from some of the conversations I hear at uni a lot of people seem really hard up - I can only equate this to a. I have a budget and b. I don't go over it. 3. Talk about time speeding up I had no essays and now I have three.

On the subject of essays I think this is the most prepared I have ever been to write them. I got books out of the library weeks in advance and started reading them and I'm currently on top of all my deadlines. I have 3/4's of my archaeology essay done (due in for the 24th) and half of my Latin source project (due in 17th). I haven't started my Roman History essay, which will be my favourite as it is on the pax deorum between the Romans and their gods definitely the most interesting aspect of ancient history, but that doesn't have to be in until the 8th December so I'll have a nice two weeks after handing my others in to get that sorted out.

Things I'm excited for: my society jumper. I ordered it a while back it's a cornflower blue colour and I can't wait to get it hopefully in time for the winter cold that's coming. On the back of the jumpers you could have a nickname printed, I deliberated over a few and I nearly went with Salisbury until I figured that no one who saw me wearing it would know what it refers to so I went with just my name in the end. What else am I looking forward to, hmm Christmas I have an advent calendar in my room already my mum gave it to me from when I last went up to visit and I'm really excited to start it. Excited because 1st December means only 11 more day at university and then I get to spend a whole month off visiting family and friends.

I taught my first sunbeam lesson at church on Sunday. Out of the four children I am supposed to teach only one was there I think the rest were away with family or something. Anyway I had trouble trying to get him to stay in my lesson, his mum had previously taught the class and I don't think he was too keen on having a new teacher. Still it was pretty fun we coloured pictures and sang songs with musical instruments and had lollipops as treats. I think he was pretty happy with me as his new teacher by the end of the lesson. After the lesson I went to help out in Nursery that was really fun. We played with the children and sang songs and did games. One of the ladies in Nursery is Spanish and she can speak Italian too so I got to talk a little Italian to her which was really nice I've missed speaking it! I still practice my Italian though, I don't want to forget everything I managed to pick up. I'm quite excited to prepare my next lesson for this week.

So this weekend was like the first weekend I'd actually spent in Leicester for quite a few weeks. It was my cousin's 1st birthday so my aunt and uncle had a party for her and it was lovely, got to spend some time with some of my extended family catching up and playing. And they had fireworks which was nice because I missed them on Bonfire Night and Halloween this year so that was fun, there were some really good ones.

My running is going pretty good, this is the third consecutive week that I've managed to go out everyday (weekdays only - weekends I get off so my legs can stop hurting). I feel a huge difference from it. Just in simple things like being able to sleep easier, get up earlier, better prepared and awake for lectures (since I started running in the morning before uni) also I just feel healthier which is good because I think in winter its hard to motivate yourself to go out into the cold. But today I ran the furthest I've run so far 4.87km in 33 minutes. Perhaps that's not good timewise, I don't really know but I managed to keep a steady pace and run for longer segments. I try and motivate myself through the music so I stick on a really long song and make myself run at least until its finished. It works, I only stopped three times on my run today and one of them was because of traffic lights. Running is a nice way to explore around where I live as well, I run from Glen Parva into Blaby and I went a little further into Blaby today before looping back. Because I run via the Nike run app it tracks all my progress and so today I squashed four of my records which was fantastic, I got furthest run, longest run, fastest mile and fastest km. My heart still felt dreadful at the end, but I can that'll get better the more I do it.

I've started picking up leisure reading again, just to make a change from uni course texts all the time, I really need to update my bookcase so any suggestions are welcome - by update the books can be old books too. I picked up Jane Eyre yesterday. Very reminiscent of Italy where I read it like everyday, mine is a different copy to the one I had in Italy though and it's weird reading it when I was so used to the other one. I've never really been attached to a specific version of a book before, but then I've never really read a book so repetitively as I did Jane Eyre in Italy. I guess I'll get used to it.

A few years ago I had a really good list of bands and music I liked but then I lost it, which is a little annoying because I can't remember most of the ones on it. Italy sort of got me hooked onto the mainstream stuff because that was the only English stuff the radio played so I was just on English summer hits and Italian stuff. The Italian bands aren't actually half bad. If I had to recommend a song: La Pioggia by Dear Jack or Come un Pittore by Moda. I've got back into the All American Rejects again recently and The Pierces and I've had some new stuff recommended which had been really good.

Guess that's it for the half term report. To surmise, it's going pretty well. It's just difficult, but that was to be expected.

The Weekend

So as I predicted I didn't do much. I feel like such a layabout but I did sleep in until noon. Oops that will probably never happened again although in my defence, it was a late night Friday and it was raining when I woke up so I think I was better of asleep anyway.

Stuck a load of washing on as after tidying my room I did discover I had enough to do one. Then hung it all up to dry on the airers in my room. Updated all my accounts and stuff, very important (but boring) I never ever want to go into my overdraft. Too risky and I am already piling up debt through going to uni I do not want to add anymore to it.

Rain sort of kept me indoors, although I had bought an umbrella the day before so technically I could have done. But, you know when you have the option to go out in the rain or stay inside dry...I stayed inside dry.

Brought my pillow and fleece downstairs with my laptop and dvd's and camped out on the sofa for the day. First watched The Tourist, I had seen it in Italy but in Italian so I thought I'd see the English version as it happens it made it a lot easier to follow the plot, understandably. I really like that movie, Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie make a good lead couple and the whole plot is entertaining. Only issue about twenty minutes before the end it started freaking out and not playing properly so I think I will take it back to the shop and get them to swap it for me! After that I watched Bridal Wars, again another entertaining one but not one I think I will watch again, it wasn't amazing.

I actually cannot remember what I did after that, I think sort out my washing and ironed it. Cooked some food, oh yeah I had the leftover pasta onion thing. I heated it up slowly so the onion had time to no longer be raw by the time I got round to eating it. Although saying that I think the pasta was thursday because yesterday I am positive I had tinned soup and bread. Foggy memory.

So for you guys reading this post that don't go to my church twice a year we get addressed by our world leaders in something called a conference. We get given talks on topics that have been highlighted as important for us to know more about or that should be re-emphasised. I love it because I always hear a message that's personal for me. Because it is broadcast from America we usually have to wait for the videos to be put online, but because I am now staying in a house with a television license it means I could watch it live. So 5-7pm saturday night I watched America's saturday morning session. It was really interesting and uplifting. One thing I thought was amazing was when the Prophet Thomas S Monson said there were more than 88,000 missionaries operating worldwide! It's such a huge number!

One talk I found particularly good was by Elder Lynn G Robbins, where he asked the question: Which way do we face? Do we represent God to the people, or do we represent the people to God? Are we willing to do what God wants us to do and stick to our standards even though the world doesn't like it or are we more scared and concerned about what our friends and associates will think of us to do the things we believe in and know to be true? Another good point was when Dieter F Utchdorf said that a trait of humanity is to assume we are right even when we are wrong. We have to recognise that we don't always act in an appropriate way and stop being stubborn.

So that was Saturday. Sunday I was invited to dinner at the family of my landlord's house which was lovely. They had a nice big cooked dinner with lamb and potatoes and vegetables with peach crumble for dessert it was great. Afterwards we watching another conference session the Saturday Afternoon Session. It was another good one. My favourite talk from it was by Elder Jörg Klebingat. He asked many poignant and thought provoking questions. Can we say in ourselves that God is happy with us? How would we feel if we had an interview with Jesus today? Happy or extremely nervous? He advised us not to let the adversary chip away at our souls and self confidence. And that the decision to change is ours alone. He then offered six ways that we can increase our self confidence to become better members of the church and better people. 1. Take responsibility for our own spiritual well-being, the Lord knows how hard we are or are not trying to become perfect and good people, we should try to be as good as we can within our own spheres of life. 2. Take responsibility for our own physical well-being, if we are not happy with ourselves we cannot be happy in ourselves. Body and soul are joined if we feel unhappy in one we can't be happy in the other. 3. Embrace voluntary whole hearted obedience, we cannot love God without loving his commandments. And casualness in spiritual matters will not bring us happiness. 4. Become good at repenting thoroughly and quickly. Embrace the atonement and apply it daily and establish ongoing happy repentance. 5. Become really good at forgiving others. As we make mistakes so will they and we cannot ask for forgiveness from God if we do not forgive those who ask for our forgiveness. Don't hold grudges against people or be easily offended but uplift others always. 6. Accept trials, setbacks and the surprises in our lives. We are all here to be tested, why should we not have trials if everyone else is? Some trials come through disobedience or negligence but they are not a punishment only a time to prove ourselves. They are there to make us stronger. We should acknowledge and face our weaknesses and try to repair them but not to become immobilised by them.  

I thought that was the best talk I'd heard all of conference and when it becomes available online I want to print it out and keep a copy because it will remind me of what I can do to dissipate the discouraging voices of the adversary and restore peaceful assurance and spiritual confidence. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865612418/Elder-Jorg-Klebingat-Approaching-the-throne-of-God-with-confidence.html

After that I got dropped back home and I watched the Sunday Morning Session of Conference 5-7pm English time but America's morning. It was another good one. It talked about how we should build up our relationship with God so we can receive personal revelation. Also how we can be more active in sustaining our Prophet. The last talk of this session was by the Prophet. He did a wonderful talk "decisions determine destiny". Our purpose on earth was to have a body and be separated from our Heavenly parents so we can have the same experiences they had and learn to choose well. Our decisions don't just determine where we will go on earth but for eternity. We are given the tools we need to get back. We have to walk as Jesus walked. Emulate Him. He is the light to guide us home. By following Him we can gain eternal life but we have to work. Only He can lead us safely home.

The last session Sunday Afternoon is showing 9-11pm but as I have a lecture at 9am tomorrow morning I think I will have to catch it later in the week when they put it on the website. https://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2014/10?lang=eng

All in all it was a very uplifting day, which is what I needed after freaking out on the telephone this morning to my mum. Panicking over whether university is the right decision...again. New stuff is hard, but it's something I can work through.

I've moved in!

Week one in the new house.

So I moved in on Saturday morning and the first thing I discovered was that I had been giving people the wrong address. Noooo. I had been telling people I lived at number 27 instead of 127. Mad panic that all my letters and things will be going to a different house. So we took a trip to number 27 but no one was in. We picked up a card from a newsagents wrote a message inside explaining the mistake and left my email so they could let me know if any post came. Then we popped back later in the evening to see if they were in, they were and they were really nice about it all! Though as it turns out, the post came to this house anyway. Although number 27 was on the same road it fell under a different village/town thing so my birthday cards still managed to get to me :) Now I have four cards waiting to be opened! Roll on Monday 6th.

Saturday after unpacking we spent at my aunt Natalie and uncle Nathan's house. I have some family over from Australia so we had a big meet up with all of which was fantastic to see them all again. They had a big bouncy castle in the garden (with no age limit) so that kept us busy alongside entertaining the smaller cousins. It was just so good to see everyone again. Then had first night at the new place, couldn't sleep so I watched the lego movie.

Early start. We were all going to my grandparents church which started at 9.30am and was a 15 minute drive from where I was living and where my family where staying. Fun fun fun, I got picked up at 8.30am. Way to early, so we got a tour of the pork pie libraries in Leicester to burn some time.



Definitely looks like a pork pie. And one of them is on a roundabout called Pork Pie roundabout.

So after church we all went back to my grandparents and had another family day which was nice. Then my family dropped me off at my house before driving back to Wakefield.

Today was a bit of a mad day. Exploring Leicester centre and seeing where the buses go. Went in for the freshers fair got some freebies and signed up to a load of societies - most of which I can't remember and will probably not carry on with. Oh well. So that was one bus to uni and then a walk. Then another bus into the centre. Had a walk around the shops to see what was there. Then another bus to Fosse Park where they have a giant Asda picked up some chicken for my tea on Wednesday and apples and chocolate. Then another bus back to the bus station and another back to home. I figured there must be an easier way to get around so I asked the lady at the bus station and she gave me a load of bus timetables and told me which ones to get so hopefully it'll take quicker the next time I go - tomorrow morning.

Cleaned out the oven when I got back as I wanted Jacket potato for tea and it looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a very very very long time. Took a while but it's in pretty good condition now. Cooked jacket potato and beans for tea. Then sat back a bit after being on my feet for most the day and watched some tv.

Tomorrow I think that I have to be in for 9 so that'll be an early start. But it is departmental induction so I should hopefully get my ID card and timetable which will be good.

Mixed Week.

Ups and downs but overall it has been a pretty good week! Came back from Italy, got my hair cut. I now have a fringe again!
Then on the saturday I got to see one of my oldest friends get married :) Such a beautiful day, it was really lovely to see her getting hitched.

So nice to see everyone again and have a good catch up! Congratulations Mr and Mrs Garland!

This week has been good so far.

On sunday I had church, nice to see everyone I hadn't for the whole summer. Said my testimony in testimony meeting. Very scary as I hadn't said it for so long but it was good to say what I felt! After I went to a friend's surprise leaving party for university. It was really good fun, we had a nice afternoon laughing with all of his friends.

On Monday I sorted out some more stuff for university found out that a bus pass is going to cost me £360 for a year and will cover the immediate Leicester area. Also tried to sign up for an nus card. Finished my application for Leicester University. So much to do!

Tuesday I took William to the library he was very excited about it. Unfortunately I asked him at 9.40 if he wanted to go he then zoomed off to get his shoes before I got told that it didn't open until 10 so I had to distract him for twenty minutes. We went and I got a book out to read also, William decided to unstack all the kids chairs, choose every book in the tub. I had to sneak some back into the box when he wasn't looking. Then he dragged me to tescos where he picked up some milky buttons and I got some flowers for my mum and dad as a late anniversary present. Went into town to deposit my savings from Italy and had a look round the shops. Nothing tempted me to buy though. Why is it when you have money to buy things there is never anything to buy? Actually that is a slight lie I bought a DVD. The Help. I bought and read the book in Italy and it was so good so I can't wait to watch that!

Wednesday I woke up with a list of jobs for me to do, looks like these three weeks are going to be busy! So I hoovered and washed up and tidied up the car which looks like it hadn't been cleaned the whole time I had been away and had an impressive collection of chocolate wrappers. In the afternoon I took off to see a friend of mine who is leaving tomorrow for university in Newcastle. We had a nice afternoon, played mario kart on the wii at which I got sorely thrashed by both him and his sister. I was shockingly bad! Then I got a really nice treat! He took me to his dad's house and I got to play on the drum kit! It had been so long since I played so he had to show me the basics again but it was so nice to play on them. I hadn't realised how much I missed playing them! After that we went into town to the DVD/CD shop. I managed to pick up a TingTings album for 99p and an Arctic Monkeys for £3.99 so that was good! Then we took a grind. I had never had a grind before and it was actually really nice. I got a sherbert milkshake the flavour wasn't particularly strong but it was nice! Unluckily we hit the traffic on the way back but it didn't slow us down too much. Also he let me borrow The Hobbit part 2 so I am looking forward to seeing that as I missed it in the cinemas last year and the last part is coming out this year!

Downer on the week - my iPhone broke. In short terms: 1. I took it to Italy and used an italian sim. 2. I put an english sim in when I got home. 3. It wouldn't let me update my apps. 4. I reset it. 5. It won't let me reactivate it. Guess who is back on their tocco lite! Thank goodness I kept it. Apple is so good when it works but it is a nightmare when it doesn't. Made an appointment to go into the apple store on Tuesday so will see if they are able to do anything! Hopefully it can get sorted without too much cost.

Week 12: Ultimate Week

Sunday:

No church today as no way of getting there instead I went with the family to watch Fede participate in his first moto race. They took his older motorbike but then found out it wasn't powerful enough to take him up the hills so they had to drive back to take his other one. It takes about an hour to drive to the race place. He did okay, stalled the bike a lot but he isn't as used to it as the other one. But he managed a lap of 7 minutes which was good. It started to rain later in the afternoon surprise surprise. Last day in Rovescala tomorrow morning we go back to Milan. 

Monday:

Left Rovescala at 10 they were all sad to leave but I'm glad to be back in the city I prefer it there. It's busier and more alive, peace and quiet is nice but after a while I longed for a noisier place. The kids don't understand why I prefer Milan and Fede said as much that I must be stupid to prefer the city. I don't think they realise that not everyone has the same opinion as them. I half unpacked and then repack my big suitcase so the things I use I can just throw into my small one. Took Fede to the park most of his friends are back from holiday now so he had people to play with. 

Tuesday:

Didn't get much sleep, I think because I changed beds hopefully tonight will be better. Bit of a slow morning as Bea and Fede did their own things homework etc so I just had to supervise. Fede was making a book that he had written gluing various pieces of paper etc together. Bea was translating songs for me from Italian to English and English to Italian. She was very good. When she wants to she can speak English well...she just often does not want to. Fede loves the 'What does the fox say?' song and keeps asking to replay it he likes the video too. Went our to the park and took an ice cream at Massimo's as he was back open. 

I found Rebecca the cat sat on my bed.  

Wednesday: 

Early awakening. I go to bed too hot so I sleep without the covers but then when morning comes I'm cold so I wake up tired. Today is colder, yesterday was very warm even too hot and the all the mosquitos come out so the cool is better. 

In the morning I did English with Fede then tired him out by walking to Porta Romana to see the hole made by all the rain but we couldn't find it. Then we walked into the centre and I picked up some final gifts for family. I read the map wrong at one point and we ended up going the long way round Fede wasn't impressed and we took the tram back. 

After lunch we went to see some friends of theirs. They live in Porta Romana near the hole so we got to see it after all. 

It was bigger before but they have already stated repairing it. All the heavy rain washed the ground away because underneath it is hollow where all the underground parking is for the flats. 

Another ice cream from Massimo's. I had salter caramel and passion fruit. The caramel was nice not too salty and not too sweet. 

Thursday:

Last full day. In the morning went out to the centre. I picked up some more bits and bobs. Gifts for the kids to say thank for the summer. Alessadra bought me a book, it's cool because on one side of the page it is in English and on the other side it's the same page but in Italian! I choose A Midsummer Nights Dream. After lunch I finished packing had a dilemma run out of weight space. Why I brought so much stuff with me is beyond me I didn't use half of it. They gave me a load of pasta to take back but I don't know if I can because of the weight. When I weigh it in at the airport tomorrow fingers crosse there will be enough room. Had a last last ice cream at Massimo's. Mandarin and Passionfruit the two best flavours. 

Built a race track with Fede out of kapla - jenga bricks. And we raced ball bearings down it. 

For my last dinner Alessandra made Lasagna yum! 

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. 

Week 8: Return to the hills

Sunday:

I think this was the first sunny Sunday we have had all summer. It normally rains. I went to church discovered that the trains I normally get back are cancelled due to the summer timetable so I had the option of waiting two hours after church finished for the next train or leave early...I left early. Alessandra picked me up and then we went to see Fede and Stefano race in a motorcross competition. Though actually none of them ended up racing because it soo began raining heavily and the pitch was too dangerous to drive on. 

Monday:
More homework with Fede much to his disgust. Though we managed to get through quite a lot of pages. Played some board games too.

Tuesday:
More homework and board games. We also went to Voghera to the huge supermarket with shops and went shopping. I bought some flat shoes from H and M. They are peach with scallopped edges, very nice. I saw some Vans in footlocker but decided against them, Bea bought some black Nike Air Force. Which are apparently the height of fashion but as Alessandra said they look like orthopedic shoes.

Wednesday:

In the morning Alessandra and Stefano needed to go to Milan for work so I stayed back with the kids. We did more homework and games and watched t.v. In the afternoon when they returned we went back to Voghera because Bea realsied she had bought the wrong shoes. She meant to get the low nike air force and she took the high ones. So I went with them and decided to take the Vans! I got red ones and they are very comfortable.

Thursday:

We went to the Lake of Garda to visit the sister of Alessandra and her family. Also Alessandra's father and wife were there and her brother and his wife and her aunt so it was a little family get together. It was a beautiful place and the weather was good. We ate dinner at a restaurant, walked round the lake and spent the afternoon in their large outdoor swimming pool which though unheated was still warm nice. Me and Fede had races and a competition to see who could hold their breath the longest. 

Lago di Garda

Meal at the restaurant

At the Lake

The outdoor pool. I'm in red at the front. 

Friday:

A sleepless night led to a trying day. I managed to coax Fede into completing four pages of homework and the reading of two pages of the English book. I also read some more of Alice in Wonderland with Bea. I played monopoly with Fede, twice. The first time I was winning until he swept the board clear of all the houses and figures. He wanted to play again and this time he won with 562,500 lira. We spent the afternoon in the pool. And it began to thunder in the evening. 

Saturday:

Today Bea went horse riding and Alessandra dropped me of at McDonalds so I could use the wifi to update my blog and email people hooray! I bought a chocolate frappe it was very nice.

In the evening a family, friends of Alessandra came for dinner. We had a barbecue it was very nice. And the smoke kept the mosquitos away from us. 

Day 19: Pepperon, Forchett, Cortell

Stefano has this funny game he plays when trying to translate Italian words into English. It is basically take the last syllable off. So Pepperoni (bell pepper) becomes Pepperon. Forchetta (fork) becomes Forchett, and Cortello (knife) becomes Cortell. It's quite amusing at times some of the words sound very funny!

Today is market day so we went to the market again. They literally sell everything. I bought some screen protectors for my phone two euros for two screens, or so I thought. When we got back I discovered it was actually one screen for the front and one for the back. Who cares about the back of the phone I have a case to protect that. Anyway it didn't matter much as I absolutely suck at putting them on. What was even more frustrating was the easy four step instruction pictures on the back. It is so hard. I followed them I even used a credit card to smooth it out and still bubbles were everywhere. I gave up and now they are screwed up at the bottom of the bin. Such a good idea but so impossible to do.

In the fish market they had a swordfish and an octopus which I thought was both cool and weird, like who was going to want to want to eat them? The swordfish still has his sword on!

Fede hates shopping, he also hates the smell of fish so we didn't stay long. When we got back after failing to apply my screen protectors I did some more English with Bea. She had finished the required grammar sections in her ridiculously large grammar book, but still had a whole book of comprehension to do. I will never complain about homework again after the amount I have seen them required to do! They have it 100 times worse.

We also went inside the church they worship in when they are in Milan. They have recently been renovating it and it looks beautiful!

Google hangouted my mum and dad before dinner! Which was nice, William waved at me but was more interested in the fact that he could also see himself and kept saying 'baba'.

This afternoon we are going up to the hills for the weekend, unluckily it has been really warm this week but has only today decided to rain! Which sucks as I was really looking forward to going in the pool. Oh well I guess more bike rides and reading books. I have managed to fit 1984, Italian pride and prejudice and Jane Eyre into my bag hopefully that will last me.

Alessandra also loaned me a copy of the Italian 1984 so I can read them alongside each other and compare words. It is a little difficult as the book is already quite hard, and things aren't translated word for worf. For example the opening sentence 'It was a bright cold day in April' in Italian is 'Era una fresca limpida giornata d'aprile' which literally translates as 'It was a cold clear day of April' so little things but enough to make your sentences grammatically incorrect if you didn't check the difference.

We got Mirror Mirror out of the library the movie with Julia Roberts and Lily Collins and Armie Hammer and are taking it with us to watch in ENGLISH with Italian SUBTITLES (hooray for me) in the hills this evening. Incidentally Mirror Mirror is called Biancaneve (snow white) which is the story it's based on rather than Specchio Specchio which sounds a little weird.

Buongiorno.

Day 17: Bambina

Today was a busy day!

This morning Alessandra had to leave early for court. So after clearing up breakfast I spent some time with Bea helping her with her English book. Her English grammar homework book is like 400 pages long. Big pages like A4 size but not quite, the weird textbook size pages. Luckily not all 400 pages are required to be completed by September but she still has so much to do. Today we looked at adjectives, comparatives and superlatives and negative comparisons. Studying English Language for two years put me in a really good position to help her!

One exercise was quite hard to fill in though. Differences between elder/older eldest/oldest and further/farther furthest/farthest? After thinking long and hard I came to the conclusion that if there ever was a difference between older and elder and further and furthest noone cares about it now because I hear and use them interchangeably. Though I did some research and found that 'farther' refers to physical distance like miles or feet and 'further' refers to non physical difference like effort or time. Like I said I think they are now pretty much interchangeable although I hear further a lot more than farther. With elder and older, elder apparantly refers to differences between two people e.g Hannah is Lucy's elder sister whereas older refers to age only e.g John is older than me by two years. I think elder just drops from use too archaic and old fashioned sounding. Plus I think the religious connotations scare people from using it.

After that, me and Fede went to Elga's house 10.30 till 12.30. I tutored Francesco and Federico first today, well Fede mostly sits there and does his Italian work because he has finished his English book and Elga is paying for France (pronounced Franky) not Fede. So I practiced with him the trouble words we identified yesterday and then we did some more exercises in his book. We also looked at labelling the body or il corpo in English with a rather badly illustrated child that I drew. Then we finished off reading Peter Rabbit and made a start on Hansel and Gretel. Same process for Alessandro. Ale had made a huge improvement on his words although he still pronounces find with a shorter I sound so it rhymes with tinned. We were looking at telling the time in his book and then we started reading Hansel and Gretel.

We came back for lunch, and then after that went to visit Alessandra's friend Laura at the hospital. She had given birth to a little girl a few days ago. The baby was so sweet and tiny only 3500g (3.5kg) she was very small! But so cute. Italian hopsitals are quite like English ones though less plasticised they actually have real walls. Though the floors are covered with the weird lino stuff, and yes they smell the same I don't really know how to describe it except for it being a sickly hospitally smell. We stayed about three quarters of an hour Fede wanted to go to the park and Bea had a friend she wanted to see.

Bea went off to see her friend, and me Fede and Alessandra took a little tour of the surrounding area. We walked through a large green park area, past the public university which was orignially a hospital built by Duke Sforza. After it was bombed it was remodelled into a university. The architecture was lovely I like all the white marbly stone they use everything looks so fresh.

We carried on walking, saw some more old Romanesque style churches and went into the usual park. Luckily lots of Fede's friends were there to play with. I sat on a bench and carried on reading 1984, I think it is a book I am going to have to read over once I have finished as I am not entirely understanding what is going on. Ironically about twenty minutes in Fede complained wanting to go home! He who had begged so hard to come to the park. We left journeying home past Massimo's and of course went in to get ice cream. I usually get Mandarin but they didn't have any so today I had passionfruit. It was so lovely. They make it all from the actual natural fruit and the flavour was strong and sweet. It's a pity I can't bring the ice cream back with me because it really is something.

For tea we had PIZZA. I think I have had pizza every week since I have been here but I am not complaining Alessandra makes a very nice pizza.

I also taught Alessandra how to use google hangouts. She has an aunt who lives far away and only contacts by email so now she can hangout her which will be better!

Ciao.

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 10: Buses, Trains and Trams

Last night it was throwing it down with rain and this morning it still was. It was so heavy and thick it was like a wall. We had planned to explore Milan in the morning but it was too wet and thundery and lightningy so it wasn't very safe.

Instead we spent the morning inside. I plaed chess with Fede and read English books with both Fede and Bea to help with their pronunciation. I taught Fede how to tell the time in English and quizzed him on it throughout the day also. 

After lunch it had brightnened up, we went to tutor Elga's boys but only Alessandro today. After the tutoring we went into the centre of Milan to sight see. 

We took a bus to San Androgomo which is a Romanesque style church from the 900's. Parts of it are much newer though. They expanded it during the renaissance and their are baroque side chapels and tombs in other styles.

You can use the tickets for bus, train and tram. When you get on transport your ticket is dated and timed by a machine and it is valid for use an hour and a half after your first use. 

San Androgomo

I couldn't decide if this ceiling was painted or stone worked?

Mosaic behind the altar

Medieval fresco

In the church you could go down into the crypt. They have the skeletons of three saints buried there it was a little freaky they were in a glass coffin so you could see all their bones. 

After the church Alessandra took us to the university she studied law it, it was opposite. Also nearby was the Milano monument for the dead unknown soldiers of World War II there are about 5 thousand soldiers buried in it.

We arrived there too late because sometimes it is open and you can go in and look round it.

After that we walked into the centre of Milan. They have a huge shopping centre full of extremely posh shops. I saw Louis Vuitton, Versace, Cartier, Prada etc. they also have Abercrombie and Fitch and more high street shops like H and M. 

The buildings of the shopping centre were very big and beautiful. There were frescoes above the shops and huge mosaic floors. 

Glass roof and a fresco

The crest of Milan as a mosaic on the floor.

After looking at the shops we went to see the remains of a Roman Imperial Palace that was once here. The diagrams show it to be huge but all that is left is pretty much rubble. 

Also, like at the castle we visited last week there were lots of the protected cats around enjoying the sun.

We went into a bookshop to pick up something for Bea to read. They had an English section! After much deliberation I chose to get the Book Thief over the Fault in our Stars. It promises to be a good read! My first purchase in Milan. 

After the bookshop they took me to see a famous theatre and opera house called the Scala. It's well known for it's ballets and orchestra but it has been clasped for two years or so for renovations to the inside. Opposite the Scala there was a statue of Leonardo da Vinci who helped design and build it. 

Leo

The Scala. 

In the evening lots of Mosquitos come out, so they put out boxes with candles I to keep them away they also look very pretty. 

Buonanotte