Quick Update

I don't have any big travel news because I haven't done any traveling, but I thought I'd keep everyone updated on my last 2 weeks.

I finally found a language exchange partner! I met her when we went to a tiny and impossible to find village outside of Brescia to buy birthday rabbits from a badly placed Garden Superstore. The poor mother of the twins who received a gift that takes so much work... Anyways, Anna works there and was really excited to be my first authentic Italian friend in Brescia. It's really really nice having someone who isn't Egyptian, isn't 3 years old, and isn't an hour away that I can sit down and practice speaking Italian with. Anyways, she reads well in English but her speaking and listening comprehension are not quite up to par so I'm going to help her with her English and she's going to help me with my terrible grammar. Yay!

We spent a weekend in Rimini because their grandmother was in the hospital with a broken femur. I would definitely have to say that it was my best trip to Rimini yet. I finally got to explore the historical center and not just the boardwalk. I found a great little bead store, and picked up most of the pieces for my new turquoise bracelet that I made by having my ear talked of by the old poet that ran the place. I love interesting characters :) I found a great deal of those in Rimini and it made for a fantastic weekend.

When we got back to Brescia, I joined a gym. I've been looking for a used bike because I want some way to exercise and get around. But then I decided that in a gym I can exercise and meet people, and then I don't have to worry about being mowed down by insane Italian drivers. Plus when I thought about it, a bike didn't seem practical since I have access to a car and I kind of live on top of a steep mountain that only the hardcore, Lance Armstrong type cyclists go up when they're looking for an extra kick in the ass. So I am now a member of Virgin Fitness Club.

I feel like I could write an ethnography on the types of Italians that go to the gym. They're ALL skinny. Not even necessarily in shape or athletic (half of them just walk on the treadmill), just all skinny. The only other people in the gym with over 12% body fat were the woman that was cleaning the bathroom and a kid who looked like he'd been ordered onto a treadmill by his doctor. The women's locker room makes me feel somewhat like I time traveled to 7th grade gym class. Good thing that being an American has given me a resilient superiority complex. Italian people are renowned for their emphasis on great/occasion appropriate fashion, but for some reason I didn't expect this to carry over to the gym. Of course it does. Women in fur coats wheel their Louis Vuitton rolling suitcases into the locker room. Afterwards they emerge in only the latest color coordinating sportswear that overpriced sporting boutiques have to offer. I look sort of homeless in my worn out Drake t-shirt and my Target shorts. Between that and the super red face from not working out since I got here, it's no wonder I got some weird looks. But, I'm excited that I joined a gym and have actually gone. It's really hip and swanky with super high tech equipment and I got a really cheap membership rate, so it's win win for me and I get to do A LOT of interesting people watching when I'm there :)

We went to Milano today to take the kids for a spin in the center and then to the park. It was fun, but a spin in the center usually means shopping for whatever they want. Since the play room is overflowing and Alessia got so many toys between her birthday and Christmas, her dad told her mom NO MORE TOYS. Valentina is maybe worse than her kids in terms of being like a kid in a toy store, so we've now started buying toys and then hiding them from Giorgio. The really great thing is that my room was named the #1 hiding place because my mattress lifts up for storage. So not only do I feel like I'm helping to feed a terrible addiction, but now that we've returned from Milano it looks like the Disney store EXPLODED in my room. They bought so many toys and new Disney pajamas and dress up clothes today that I literally can't fit them all under my bed (especially not with all the empty boxes from the toys they bought last week that we are waiting for a diversion to throw away). I would find this really frustrating if it wasn't so hilarious/slightly pathetic. Talk about an enabler. Thank god that after 2 months of asking, they finally bought a new set of shelves so that I can make sense of some of the madness that is the play room. Lesson #1: when there is no more room to play, then you have too many toys.

I've got a four day weekend coming up on Friday, and since I need to pay off my credit card bill from my London trip still, I'm mostly sticking around Brescia. I'm excited because I haven't actually spent a free weekend just paling around and meeting more people here. I also want to go to Milano to see the last day of the Dali exhibit there and catch up with all of my friends in the city. That's mostly it for now. I let you know if anything exciting happens :)