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 6: Caldo - (Hot)

It was even warmer today when I woke up. Heat is nice, but when you are sweating as you walk it becomes very unpleasant!

The weekend days are the chill out days. Alessandra and Stefano were working on repairing/modernising various bits of the house. They plan to run a section of it into a rental flat for tourists to stay in. 

In the morning I went with Bea to her horse riding lesson, she normally rides a horse called Cisco (Francisco) but today it was Parcifal (Percival). Interestingly they don't have canter in Italian. They just walk, trot and gallop - I guess they would consider a canter to be a very fast gallop. 

When we got back I played basketball with Fede luckily the court was in the shade today so it wasn't so hot. 

I also studied some Italian, the alphabet and the cardinal and ordinal numbers. I get so confused with Spanish and French! Whilst I was studying the builders who were working on the house found a ramarro (green lizard) in the garden it looked plastic. 

After lunch, me, Bea and Fede went on a bike ride to the middle of Rovescala (the village) and back again. There were so many hills we got so hot from riding the bikes. 

When we got back we went straight in the pool for a while to cool off. We had races and contests to see who could do a handstand the longest it was fun. We also climbed up the steps and jumped in. After the pool me and Bea sun bathed for a bit. I think I may have caught the sun on my face it begins to feel sore, my arms have tanned up though which is nice! 

For tea we had pizza!! The mozzarella is so much nicer in Italy than the plasticy stuff in England. After dinner we drove into Stradella to get ice creams. We walked through Stradella eating them, even at 9/10pm the shops are still open! And even in the evening the weather is still very warm, at night too it is warm which can make it difficult to sleep. 

Ciao. 

Day 5: Move to the Hills

Today is very warm again going up to highs of 28-29 degrees.

This morning Alessandra went out for an appointment. So at home I helped the children with their English homework, getting them to read out the English to practice their pronunciation. 

After that I helped Bea tidy dust and hoover the house. Then Bea went out to see a friend, so me and Fede went out to see the mercado (market). 

It happens every Friday in the morning. There are several in Milan but one is very close to the house. It is huge and they shut the roads off to have. It takes up maybe 3/4 long streets and they sell everything. Clothes (I saw some Levi's going for €5 but I was unsure of their genuineness) also fruit and vegetables and cleaning supplies, shoes, cheese. 

We walked up and down labelling things in English and Italian. I found out the difference between pesche and pesce! (Peach and fish). It was very hot though so we didn't stay for too long. 

When we returned, Bea was still out so me and Fede built some Lego models with his Lego bricks. He had instructions for lots of models. We built first an ambulance, a mini castle and cannon and then a transformer dog thing. Which was fun!

Then Fede did his guitar practice the songs are very nice, he can play jingle bells and also Frere Jaques but it is known by a different name. After that we went on the wii again. Then lunch - Austrian gnocchi which is spinach and flour it was very nice! 

After lunch we packed to move to the hill for the weekend. The drive wasn't too long but it is hotter here 32 degrees but it's pleasant. The house is much bigger and the air is nicer to breathe. I have the whole top floor to myself a huge bedroom with an en suite and balcolny. 

Outside they have a basketball court, table tennis and a swimming pool in. The huge garden. The pool is not in the ground and it is deep, it comes up to my waist. The water is very nice and warm because the sun heats it up although in comparison to the external temperature the water does feel cold! 

Me and Fede

I was squinting because the sun was so bright!

In the children's room they also have a football table so we spent a lot of time playing on that. 

For tea we had lamb and polenta. Polenta is cornflour and water I think it makes a kind of potato mash thing but it tastes nice. In ancient times it was a staple of the poorer peoples diet. The Southern Italians call the northern Italians polentini - polenta eaters. 

After dinner I watched some Italian television. I could understand some things they said but it was very hard to translate. But the pictures helped me understand what they would be saying. 

Buonanotte.