One Whole Month....Without Milk!

Well folks, it's true.  One thing I think about when I think about having been here for a whole month is the fact that I haven't had a sip of milk in one whole month.  For those of you who know how much my family and I love milk, you will know what a big deal this is...we love our milk!  I miss it dearly and can't wait to indulge in a lot of cereal when I get home.  :)

In other news, my first day with Elia at home was yesterday and it went really good!  We did our English lesson, played cards, went for a walk, had a wonderful lunch, and had an overall good time.  He did a great job of listening to me and not putting up many fights, so that was a huge blessing!  Thank you so much for the prayers! :)

I wanted to tell all of you about this past weekend!  It was such a fun few days and I could go on and on about all of it, but I will try to limit myself.  Friday night I was able to go out with my friend Marianna again and boy did she come through!  We went to a town called Follonica and walked around the town square and the seaside.  It was so beautiful!  It was dark out, but I am hoping to go back during the daytime to explore a bit.  After walking around for a while, we drove to this club that looked like it was seriously from a really cool movie!  There were so many people there and everyone was dancing and the lights were crazy!  It was very upscale and right on the beach with sitting areas set up on the sand.  There were even firecrackers coming out of champagne bottles, streamers flying everywhere, and guys running around trying to get pictures of people (maybe famous Italians?? I wouldn't really know...).  But it was just such a fun atmosphere, I had a blast!  I was able to get a couple of pictures, the first is of me in Follonica and the second is over Marianna and I on the sand at the club!

Friday night was a lot of fun and I definitely made some memories, but Saturday night was almost more fun!  Elia had an end-of-the-year dinner with his class that night.  The dinner party was located at the top of this hill overlooking Venturina, and it had the most gorgeous villa on the top.  We ate right inside the villa!  It was such a gorgeous place to have dinner.  Here are some pictures of the view and the building!

We had a fabulous dinner of pasta pomodora and hotdogs with fries!  Rosy asked me if I was okay with being seated with the kids and I gave a definite yes!  I don't think I've ever been so glad to be sitting at the kids table.  I have never been so excited to see a hotdog and fries in my life!  The adults were served some delicious looking appetizers and I was feeling a little disappointed, but then the servers came out with clams!  So let's just say I was super glad with my hotdog!  Call me silly, but I took a picture!  (The kids at the table laughed so hard that I took a picture of a hotdog...)  

After dinner the kids and I went outside to play in the garden.  It was dark by that time (we finished eating by 10pm and didn't leave until around midnight...everything is always so much later here!)  But I had the best time with those kids.  When they heard me speaking English, they just stared at me and waited for me to talk more.  It was hilarious!  Eventually they were talking all over each other asking me questions about where I was from, where I was born, how old I was, what my parents' names were, etc!  I tried my best to answer in Italian and asked them the few questions I knew in Italian.  It was just a great time for me to teach them English words and them to teach me some Italian.  I had the best night!  Here are some pictures of the kids and a video of Federica teaching me an Italian game!

The view was gorgeous!  You could see all of Venturina!

I think I've said it before, but I'm not a huge fan of seafood....at all.  So I was a bit nervous, knowing that Venturina was right on the coast and thought that surely I'd be having it a lot.  Well, I have been very proud of myself - I try everything (no matter what it is) just to say that I tried it and I've even enjoyed things I didn't think I liked (like cherries, spinach, kiwi, artichoke salad, etc.)  Without knowing it, however, I ate a pasta that had octopus and cuttlefish (I had to look it up) pieces in it...I didn't ask what the meat was until after dinner on purpose.  I literally almost threw everything up.  If you don't know what cuttlefish is, just look it up and you will understand!  I've also had fish...at least three times that I know of and it really wasn't bad!  I don't really care to eat it again, but at least I did it!  :)  I really wish my dad were here...he would love the food - fresh fish, fresh produce, everything.  I would definitely let him eat my fish for me!

Lastly, I want to leave you all with some pictures to remind you to always protect your skin!  Enjoy! ;)

Thank you all so much for reading and for the prayers!  It means so much to me that I have so many people supporting me throughout this experience.  Look forward to the next blog...we are putting Daniele's boat into the water on Thursday and then spending the night out on the water this weekend I think!  I am super pumped!  I will make sure to take lots of pictures!  Until next time!  Ciao ciao!!