Week 10: Rovescala

Sunday:

Took the train as usual to church. Some kind of attention warning was given out not sure what was said fingers crossed it wasn't too important! The two sister missionaries were leaving as they had finished their missions so new ones next week, they got me to add them on Facebook so we can keep in touch. 

We had a barbecue lunch and after we went to see a castle and medieval village. Which as it turns out wasn't medieval but built by a duke in the 18th century it is very nice though. 

Drove back and had an early night.

Monday:

In the morning Alessandra and Stefano had to go to Milan for work so I stayed back with the kids. What a fun morning that was. Refusing to do homework, fighting with each other. Fede wanted to start with summarising chapter 2 not chapter 1 in his excercise book. All in all I was glad when their parents returned. 

Tuesday:

Rainy and cold so spent a lot of the day inside eating and watching movies. 

Wednesday:

In the morning me and Fede played spies which involved turning the sofa and table into a tent/prison and me getting shot at a lot and killed. After lunch me and Bea went on a bike ride and picked up Alice and Sofia then we all rode in the pick up up to the motorcross pitch to see Fede ride. 

Thursday:

In the morning we went to look around Pavia. It is a little bigger than Piacenza but still quite small. At least it stayed sunny. In the afternoon the girls came round again and we went on a bike ride around Scazzolino together. Then when we came back we walked into Rovescala to take ice creams. A tiring but fun day! 

Friday:

In the morning I tidied and hoovered up my room. Fede and Bea argued for a lot of it. Tried to coax them into English no success. Sofia and Alice came over to play but left quite soon as their aunt was coming to take them to Pavia to see a butterfly exhibition yuck! After lunch Fede and Bea wanted to go on a bike ride but I said not until they had both done some English. Fede started and then refused to finish so in the end only me and Bea went. After that Bea went horse riding and Alessandra dropped me off at McDonald's where I could use the wifi to google my family and Jemima was there so I got to speak to her too! 

Rovescala has a festival this weekend which I had forgot about until I went to bed and I could hear the singing. Tough nights sleep. 

Saturday:

Pretty much spent the day on no sleep. After not being able to drop off until the band stopped singing I was awoken again by thundering rain at 4 in the morning. Scared of water coming in under the balcolny door I picked up everything attached to the floor of mine - shoes and suitcases - and put them on the other side of the bed to be safe. Luckily it stopped after a bit and I managed to get some more sleep. Today was another weird day yet again noone wants to do any English so I am bored. Can't go out because it's cold and wet. The only exciting thing is the bicycle race going past. 

This afternoon the showers drain decided to stop working and it up chucked water all over the bathroom floor. Alessandra after mopping it poured some acid chemical thing down it to dissolve whatever was blocking it and it smelt horrible it really made you feel sick. 

In the evening we went down to Rovescala again for the festival. They had a live band...with an accordion. Let us now say I hate that instrument with a passion! One song MAY sound good played on it but a whole nights worth was awful. Still it was a fun night free food and music and it didn't rain. 

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. 

Giorno Ventuno: Trains

Sunday is always the nicest day! Got up early again 7.15 as Fede and Stefano were leaving at 8.15 for the motorcross dropping me off on the way.

We left closer to 8 as we were going in the pick up truck which had the motorbikes on the back. I thought there were only two seats but there were actually two more albeit small seats. 

I got dropped off on Via Francese and then had a five minute walk to church. The centre of each city cars can't drive in so they dropped me as close as they could. 

I found church okay! First time going solo although it was 28 degrees so walking even five minutes made me feel so hot. Then when I got there they hadn't switched the air con on and there were so many people it was so so hot! I drank tons of water. 

First Italian relief society today. The lesson was on battles we face in life. Then Sunday school, the missionaries are teaching gospel principles so I had no translator but it was something in 1 Kings. Sacrament was fast and testimony meeting and Sister Gross translated for me! Although some of the people spoke too fast for her to understand what they were even saying in Italian. Afterwards I tried handing my tithing in it's different. You give it to a member of the presidency, they count it out in front of you and sign the slip, rather than just handing in the envelope like I'm used to. 

I left pretty sharpish after that because I wanted to make sure I got on the right train. I also had to buy my ticket and I wasn't sure how long that would take. Luckily I made it to the station in time, bought a correct ticket and got on the right train. 

The tickets you buy from the person at the station are different to the ones that you but from the machine. They look more like aeroplane tickets. 

As Fede and Stefano were still out we had tuna pasta for lunch Fede can't stand sight or smell of fish.

After lunch, me and Bea went to sun bathe it was too hot to do much else. However the deck chairs were near the pool and in hot weather giant flies take over the pool and it's surroundings unless someone is swimming then they go. We had an electric fly swatted but there were too many of them. Everywhere we moved the chairs they followed it was so irritating you couldn't relax when all you could here is buzz buzz. So we went inside. 

Alessandra had made a sorbet thing with watermelon blended with sugar which was very nice. After having some of that me Alessandra and Bea went on a walk into Rovescala itself. Halfway up the hill a friend passed us in the car and offered to drive us up the rest of the hill. The sun was so hot we accepted! Then we walked to get a ice cream sat in the shade for a bit and waited for the clouds to come back out. Luckily they did and we walked back in shadow. 

The cafe

The view

All the fields for grapes

We got back at like 5pm and Fede ad Stefano were still out. So we had more sorbet and me and Bea did some English reading and questions whilst eating golden bears. 

Shortly after we started Fede and Stefano returned from the motor cross training tired but luckily no bones broken. 

We had dinner and then afterwards packed up to go back to Milan. 

Slept in the car on the way back. It was a very long hot day. 

Buonanotte.