Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone! :) Everything here has been farely smooth sailing since leaving Pistoia. The city of Florence is great and I have started to make friends here, ironically starting Thanksgiving day. My ex-coworker and friend from the school in Pistoia also works for a NY school here in Florence and he invited me to have an American Thanksgiving dinner with the students. Their program has some 25 students all of whom were incredibly welcoming. The dinner became progressively more American starting with focaccia and mozzarella, then pumpkin soup (yum!) and then the real deal with apple and pumpkin pies and turkey, etc. Side note: we even had a real florentine Count sit at our table. Afterwards i went with Lorenzo and his coworker to an ex-communist social center and met his friends who are hilarious. The grafitied building is where the young left wing political party meet as a low-key hangout. There are also free boxing lessons I hope to give a shot sometime soon. Not the typical Thanksgiving in Winona with the family, that's for sure! The food CANT compare to what our family makes. Period. Sabrina’s pies, green bean casserole, and of course making the lemon dessert and fruit salad with LB.

Then the following Sat. we had a more traditional dinner at the family's home with all the trimmings. There were 3 languages being spoken that night, italian, english, and some german. Also one of the young cousins threw up 2x which i was fortunate enough to witness both :/ Maybe we can consider her lucky because she had thanksgiving dinner twice, haha just kidding, sorry.

In terms of work, I don't do a whole lot except pick up and drop off the kids places and maybe empty the dishwasher or take out the trash during my 'off' hours. We eat at 8 and afterwards the kids go straight to bed. I am starting to get used the parents’ teaching style but it isn’t how I want to raise kids. Anyways, they also had the pleasure of seeing me quite tipsy after a glass or 2 of wine, oops :)

It is the raining season right now so it has been a little frustrating and unmotivating to explore the city. However, I’ve been keeping busy taking a couple hip-hop classes with the fantastic teacher I took class from 2 yrs ago. Also I've visited Pistoia to see the Spanish students which was really fun. One of my old roommates bravely took on the task of cutting my hair and did a great job. And then I still have conversation exchanges here and there with really nice (and patient) Italians. People ask if I'm homesick and luckily I can say not yet. I'm looking forward to seeing Christmas in the most famous Catholic country. The city has hung Christmas lights along most of the big streets making night strolls very romantic.

Other than I've been relaxing. The carbohydrate diet is starting to take its toll so I plan to start at a local gym where they have a ton of cool classes. Christmas shopping for the family is next on my list. Hope you all have a phenomenal December getting in the spirit of the holidays. Missing everyone, especially around this time of year…kisses, Julie

couple quick things

Before I forget, I wanted to share that the elections were as much of a hit over here as I heard they were in the US! After the elections, his face was on every newspaper in the newstands and on the radio and TV. Everyone I spoke with-morocchini, italiani, spagnoli, etc.- wanted Obama to win. Someone said they wanted the world to vote for the US president because he basically decides the fate of the world. Maybe it's a bold statement but I'm coming to terms with how much precedence the US and Obama holds with the EU economy and world relations.

Then for other really good news, I'm moving to Firenze/Florence this Sunday to the family's house with 2 girls, 8 and 10. So one more move and another big change but I can't wait! Finally things are finalized and I can start packing :) I will send the details when I know more.

Til the next time!
Julie

Big changes coming

After having not written in a nearly a month, surely things were bound to change. But firstly, I have heard that Minnesota has been hit with a few snowy days but luckily it didn't stick. Maybe by the time you read this, that will have changed?! The weather here has been incredibly rainy, six days straight of solid down pour. Now that the rain has stopped, the temp is dropping but somehow there are still mosquitoes!
First the negative: After having worked at the school for 2 months and feeling neglected, my work unappreciated, and with the future task of recruiting Americans to come to Centro Studi when I didn't believe in their quality of services, I decided it was time to say, 'Ciao' and look for something better to do with the precious time here. There was really nothing keeping me here- the 3 language classes I was attending weren't any good, the city doesn't have anything to offer, and work has been far from enjoyable lately. Luckily, an great italian guy Lorenzo from Florence started working at the school 2x/week. If it wasn't for him, Id probably have pulled out my hair or given up sooner.
Seeing the school provides my housing at the moment and not being sure how they would reacte to this, I waited to speak with 1 of my directors until I was farely certain I had found an au pair position. There were several options available, families in Switzerland and Poland included, but ideally I'd wanted to be in Florence again, where I know I'd be truly happy. Right now, after interviewing with a Florentine family with 2 girls, ages 8 and 10, an italian father and mother from NY, I am really hoping this pans out. They were supposed to call me back yesterday and so I am still waiting for the final 'ok'. I also finally got the courage to tell my director I was leaving and he was neither surprised I wasn't happy here nor very enthusiastic at keeping me so I think this is the best decision I have made yet.
Life has not just revolved around this dilemma, luckily. I recently starting taking spinning classes at a gym in Pistoia. It has been an awesome energy release and I get to hear classic American songs like 'YMCA' which everyone in the room sings along to. Also Romana, our landlady, made my roommates and I a great Italian meal. She hardly sat down because she was serving all the different courses. It felt like an early thanksgiving because my pants were much tighter when i left that night. I also went to Pisa to sit in on an english language class. The italian students were engineers in different fields and therefore very itelligent. It was interesting to see how the teacher, a big-haired vivacious, Canadian woman handled the different levels of english. We watched a clip from Under the Tuscan Sun and did serveral activities...for 8 hours! Let's just say English is complicated when you start to see the rules you can't name but just know them (ie. auxilary verbs).
Other things, 3 of my 4 roommates had to move out for being 'casiniste', aka partiers in the apartment. So now it is one girl and myself and she has been gone since Friday. Luckily the other spanish students live in a house five minutes away and for example, last night we watched Grease in Italian (luckily all the songs were in English) and we danced around doing all the moves we could remember :)
Well, I will let you know as soon as I find out about the job and if i will be moving to Florence soon...keep your fingers crossed that all goes as planned. Things are starting to look up already!!! It is just ironic because I originally was planning on coming to Italy to be an au pair and everything has come full-circle now...missing you all!
Cheers,
Julie

Hello once again :) It has officially been 1 month since I arrived...1 down 8, to go. There are many things I miss about MN right now, including the changing colors of the leaves on the drive down to Winona and strangely enough, carpet! I finally bought some red, fuzzy slippers but they are already black on the bottom. Also, I'm curious to see how Italians do Halloween because this is a first here. I did see at the 'One Euro' store (just like the dollar store!) there were decorations for sale. This past weekend, my roommates and I weren't going out so we all dressed as an animal for the night. There was a bunny, a butterfly, a cat, and somehow I went from a turtle to a teenage mutant ninja turtle (funny photos to come) with a hanger as my weapon of choice.
There have been some new student additions, one spanish girl and 2 more danish students. I have been speaking mostly all in english lately which has been very easy but horrible for the learning italian part. This wednesday, I'll start taking language lessons at Centro Stranieri, Center for Foreigners with the same teacher I had at the school where I work. I've also started a convo exchange with a Roman woman on skype and met a guy in Firenze to practice. However, he was very negative and didn't have any patience with my italian so that was a first and last attempt at meeting in person.
We had an international dinner with all the students. There was salmon soup from Finland, a potato and bacon dish from Demark, spanish tortillas and crochettas, italian pasta, and banana bread courtesy of the only American. It was a true feast and very fun to have all the countries represented that night. Otherwise, I have been working on finding research on peer mentoring for my director, starting an information booklet for students, and giving another tour of Lucca, Firenze, and the library in Pistoia with the spanish girl.
Things are going well overall, I have days when all I really want is to be home and others where I truly feel blessed to be here...I recently had the best italian dinner ever at the house of my director's friend in the mountains surrounding Pistoia (just like the movies) and picking fresh vegis and fruits with my landlady Romana in her garden. I will add pics soon but hope this paints a better photo of the life here...
Much love, xoxo
Julie

Fiki (sp?), really good foreign fruit I tried for the first time




Lucca duomo and bell tower

Pistoia Church



Lucca trip with my spanish roommates









View from my window