The Big 3-0

So it finally happened to me . . . I turned 30. Ed had a great party for me with lots of wine, wine, and more wine . . . yummy Italian meat and cheese . . . it was a great time. We had a wine tasting contest where everyone brought a bottle and rated which one they liked the best. Ed got me a New Kids on the Block CD to "make me feel like I was sixteen again." It worked. I do feel sixteen again, but only when I listen to it, not any other time. I feel 30 the rest of the time. It was fun to have a bunch of friends over to celebrate. Now its starting to sink in, and I guess I really don't feel any different, but life sure flies by fast, especially when it's a good one!

What Happened to Halloween???

This year, Ed and I decided to stay home and take it easy. It had been a long week, and we were looking forward to passing out candy from our house and seeing all the kids from our neighborhood. Ed did not get home from work until around 6, so I had the candy all ready to go and even had one customer before he got home. When Ed finally came home, he came into the kitchen wearing his "king" mask that he loves so much. When he wears it, he definately gets into character and doesn't say a single word. I didn't notice it at first. After talking to him for a min. or so, he wouldn't answer me and when I looked up, the King was staring at me! He succeeded in freaking me out, but what I think he was really looking forward to was freaking out some little children! However, it was not to be. For some reason, we didn't have any more trick or treaters the rest of the night! I couldn't believe it. I mean, we live in a condo, so I didn't expect there to be a ton of kids, but at least more than one! We were both pretty disappointed. The King felt better, though, when I offered him some chicken wings.

Soccer/Foosball international style!

Well, soccer across the lake would be more fun, but mls soccer can be pretty cool when your there, especially with drunk Canadians. Joel and I got to see Toronto FC play the Chicago Fire from the 2nd row right at midfield and had a pretty good time. It was the last home game of the season and the crazy dudes sitting next to us said that its tradition to run onto the field when the game is over for the last game. I was ready to do it, but it looked like there were about 100 police officers that came out towards the end of the game and lined to field. So, yeah, I didn't get a chance to get arrested in a foreign country. If I did get thrown in jail I wonder if it would've been like Brokedown Palace but without the 2 hot girls???? Anyway, it was almost as exciting watching these dudes play human foosball than the soccer match itself. I think I'll try to rent this thing for the next party.

Toronto Weekend

Last weekend Ed and I took a trip with our friends Amy and Joel to the lovely city of Toronto. It was a quick trip, but we had a great time. Ed and Joel went to a soccer game while Amy and I did some shopping downtown. We also went to the Second City downtown, which we all really enjoyed. Below are some pictures from the trip:

MEAP Madness

So the last couple weeks at school have been a bit crazy because of the MEAP testing. I not only need to give the test, but also monitor all the accommodations for the 8th grade special education students. It's usually a very crazy time because schedules are all messed up, the kids are a little more on edge or stressed because of it, and we as teachers have a lot to organize. I have to say, though, that this year for me has been better than any other year with this test. After doing it a couple years, I feel like it is a bit easier. There were a few glitches on the first day, but after figuring that out, it's gone a lot smoother than in the past. I'm still excited that tomorrow is finally the last day of testing (as long as no one is absent!) A glass of wine or two will be in order after the day is over to celebrate!!

The After Picture

Hey friends! I shared my before picture of my classroom right before school started, so I wanted to share the "after" picture just so you don't think that we are educating children in the mess I showed you back in September!

Back in the Swing of Things

So I finally feel like I am back in the swing of things as far as school goes. We have been back for about a month now, and it's acutally going pretty well right now. Things have really been busy and crazy for the last few weeks, though. I've been working so much and bringing things home to continue working at night and then on the weekends, but now it seems like it is slowing down just a little bit. Still pretty busy, but at least things are starting to fall into place a bit. The new teacher that I am working with this year, Danielle, is really great. We get along well and think along the same lines which is a big relief. I think we are going to have a great year. Anyway, soon I need to get an after picture up on the blog so you can see our classroom the way it is now that we've got it all cleaned up!

Ah, the joys of 'back to school' . . .

3rd Annual Cooke School Car Show

The car club I'm in, Overdrive Detroit, participated for the first time at Northville's Cooke School's car show and we had a great time doing it. This event raised a great deal of money for this school, which specializes in educating special needs high school students. And although this was a predominantly domestic car show, no one yelled "jap crap" at me once. At least not to my face. Seriously, everyone was nice to us, and thanked us for giving the show a little variety. We look forward to participating next year.

Back to Normal Life

Okay, so we have been back for a few weeks now and although we wish we were still in beautiful Italy, it's been good to see our family and friends, tell all about our trip, and continue enjoying our summer. I've been working at Biggby Coffee in Northville this summer and it's been a whole lot of fun. I really like the job: chatting with customers and making (not to mention drinking) coffee! It's great! I'm going to continue working there once school starts on Saturdays so we will see how that works out.


Speaking of school, I am a little excited, but also dreading the end of summer. There are a lot of changes for this year, including a new teacher that I will be working with and sharing a classroom with who I haven't met yet. So a lot of anticipation, but excitement too. I'm really enjoying the summer, so going back will just be hard in general. Other than working at Biggby, I've been enjoying organizing our pictures, blogging, reading, watching the Olympics recently, and I've been involved in a great bible study at St. Matthew on Daniel. Hopefully the next couple weeks will go by super slow!!!

Florence and Venice

We were only in Florence for about a day and a half, but we did the major tourist attractions. We saw the duomo (the big church) and the baptistry. Both were really awesome on the outside especially. The baptistry was beautiful inside as well, the ceiling is all gold with pictures of the last judgement. Very impressive! We also, of course, went to the Accademia to see Michelangelo's David and then head to the Uffizi galery to see the greatest collection of Italian Reinessance art. It was very cool, and Ed was especially impressed with the sculpture of David. What a masterpiece! We also went to San Marco church and monestary where we saw frescos from Fra Angelico which was very neat. I have some illegal pictures from this place, which is cool! I didn't know pictures were not allowed until a lady had to come up to me and tell me to stop taking them. Oops! BTW, you cannot take pictures anywhere in this town unless you are outside it seems.


We did some great shopping in Florence. There is a great outdoor market that we had a blast at. It was fun bargaining deals with people and buying some great leather goods and soccer jerseys.
We also had the best gelato EVER in Florence at this place called "Grom." If you ever go to Florence, you MUST get gelato here! He uses all natural, organic ingredients, and you could just see the difference (and most importantly, TASTE the difference) between this place and others. Absolutely amazing!


We had the best meal as well here at Osteria del Porcellino. We had this great pasta, tortillini filled with cheese baked with pears and walnuts. EXCELLENT! Then a great veal with orange peel. Soooooo good! Great meal, great wine, and great service. He even gave us some lemoncello on the house after our meal.

One great thing about our trip to Venice was that it was pouring rain when we arrived by train. It was so wet everywhere. We stood in the rain to get tickets for the boat ride to our hotel. By the time we had the tickets, the rain had stopped, and by the time we got to our hotel, the sky was blue and it had practically dried up everywhere. We didn't see a drop of rain on the rest of our trip. It was perfect. Our prayers were definitely answered on that one. I was so worried and praying like crazy when I saw the rain pouring down! So it was a wonderful thing when the rain completely stopped as soon as we arrived!

We spent the first evening just walking around. There is no way to NOT get lost in Venice. That is the thing to do there and you must expect it to happen EVERY time you try to go anywhere. It is just the way it is, and it is kind of fun too. Just wandering around that city is fun; there are so many little alleys and bridges. Following a map is virtually impossible. We went to a couple museums while there. First, we went to the Correr Museum, which has some Venetian art and history. We basically only went there because the ticket also covers the Doge's Palace, where the ticket line was long. So we only spent a short time in the Correr, then headed over to the Doge's Palace and bypassed the line! This was a cool place to visit. The neatest part was crossing over the Bridge of Sighs and touring the old prison.

We also had some great gelato in Venice! It's called La Boutique Gelato. Very very good! Almost as good as Florence. We also had a really great (and REALLY expensive) meal on our last night. We ordered flounder, so the server took a whole flounder right out of the case in the front of the restaurant and put it on a plate in front of us to see if we approved. Then took it to the back and cooked it up Venetian style. AWESOME! It had this wonderful sauce with tomatoes, potatoes, and olives. It was wonderful.

We finished out last night off by grabbing a couple of drinks to go (it's weird that you can just walk around the streets with a beer in hand there) and went out near San Marco square to watch a huge fireworks show. The next day (the day we were leaving) was the Feast and Regatta of the Redeemer, so to celebrate, there was this huge display of fireworks the night before. It started at 11:30 p.m. and lasted for a good 45 min. or so. It was so great! There were so many people there, and the show was magnificent. The fireworks seemed so close and just lit up the sky! It was a fantastic way to end our trip!

Cinque Terre

Cinque Terra was beautiful. The first day we got there, we did the hardest hike, from Vernazza to Monterosso. It took us about 2 hours total, was hard, but way worth it. Much of these hikes go right through people's vineyards and lemon groves. There was one man during the hike down a ton of steps who was selling fresh lemonade (making it right there in front of us with his own lemons), and lemoncello. We bought some of his lemoncello to take home, and had a nice refreshing break drinking some fresh, cold, lemonade. Yum!! We had a nice dinner that night outside by the sea.

The next day, we took a train to Riomaggiore and hiked from there all the way back to Vernazza. We stopped for a long time in Manarola to eat and then walk around the town and to the cemetery to pay tribute and spend some time thinking about Grandpa. It was a very nice walk and very nice place to do this. Then we hiked all the way back to our town, Vernazza. Wow, what a walk! It was very pretty! We really loved this place!

Remembering Grandpa Maitland

The funeral for Grandpa was Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. italy time. Ed and I were in Manarola in the Cinque Terre. We walked up the town around 4 to a church. There was a nice alter in the church. I lit a candle there and prayed for a while.

Then we took a walk through lemon groves and vineyards up through the town. It was beautiful. It lead to a cemetery overlooking the water. It was a beautiful place. We spent about a half hour just looking at all the pictures and tombs of the people buried there.

At 5:00, I sat on the ledge by the cemetary just overlooking the town for about a half hour. I thought about all the good times we had with Grandpa and just spent time thinking about everyone back home at the service and praying for all of you. I wish I could have been there with you and with Grandma.

The rest of Montepulciono and La Cicolina Vineyard

After Pienza, we had a few days left to relax in montepulciano, which was good, since we've been walking and running around a lot the past week. We did get a great tour (unofficial) from Allesandro of the vineyard. He's about 9 yrs old and he doesn't speak english, but he did a good job. I had to bring our Italian/English dictionary along! I also got to eat a bunch of kinder eggs with him which are always good. It was pretty cool walking around the vineyard as there were plum trees, and fig trees around as well. I think at one point Allesandro was telling us that some animals were around, so I told him we were scared so we went back. I'll throw some pics in here when I have more time, as Jenny is far better at writing about our adventures. And now we go to Cinqueterra!

Things that are cool and things that are not cool in Italy

things that are NOT cool:
-not being able to read bus/train schedules. when i finally think we've got it, we're riding in a bus and end up in the same place we started, or we end up in La Spezia train station from 11:30 p.m. until 1 in the morning instead of in the beautiful village of Vernazza. NOT cool!!!

-La Spezia (see above)

-we call it military time at home. here they just call it time, but after 12:59 p.m., i'm always confused about what time it is.

-all the cats in Cinque Terre. and the couple at the table next to us during dinner in Monterosso who kept feeding them . . . yeah, thanks for that . . .

-public and restaurant bathrooms. . . usually no toilet paper and sometimes even no toilet, just a hole in the ground. interesting trying to use those.

-walking or standing next to Italian women in very fashionable high heeled shoes, nice outfits, perfect hair and make-up. Yes, it makes me feel a little inferior in my now beat up tennis shoes, no make-up, and wearing the same thing I wore yesterday. (Their feet must be genetically made for these shoes and these cobblestone roads . . . i couldn't do it!)

things that are very cool about Italy:

-Picorino cheese from Pienza . . . a taste of heaven

-coffee . . . yes, its even better than Biggby!

-okay, so even though the bathrooms are not the greatest (see above), there most of the time seems to be plenty of soap and water, which is very very very appreciated.

-the Cinque Terre trail . . . my shoes and maybe even my feet will never be the same, but it was worth every second!

-Riding the bus in Tuscany successful. only happened once out of several tries, but it was a good feeling.

-SHOPPING! i successfully bargained down the price for a suitcase today in Florence at the market (15 euros!) by myself. Ed would have settled for 20. (we bought too much stuff here and need a place to put it all!)

-Lemon trees, olive groves, rows of grape vines, tiny villages on the edge of cliffs, clear blue water that you can see through all the way to the bottom, and the view of a pink sky over the water while eating seafood and pesto for dinner.

Pienza

Ciao Amici,

Its been so great here in Tuscany. We have had such a relaxing time. Last night we had dinner with Elsa, Grezelda, and her son Alessandro outside on the back porch facing the vineyard. It was so nice of them to invite us. The meal was malto bene, very very good!

Then today, we spent the day in Pienza, a small town just 30 min. by bus from Montepulciano. We loved it there. They are known for their Picorino cheeze, so we made sure to try some while we were there. We loved it so much, so we bought some of this cheese, along with wine, and very yummy italian bread (as well as some plastic cups!). We sat overlooking the beautiful tuscan countryside while we had this for our lunch. This was the best day yet in Italia so far. This little town is so beautiful. So many little niches and spots that we could never do justice to with just words or pictures. We also toured the palace of Pope Pius II, which was very interesting.

Before we left Pienza for the day, we went back and bought a bunch of cheese to take back to the U.S. with us, but hopefully we will not eat it all before we get there!

Back in Montepulciano, we tasted some salami at another shop. The flavor is still in my mouth and it is to die for!!!! We have not even had an actual meal today, but I have to say it is the best food that we have tasted here yet! I wish you all were here with us! We miss everyone!

euro-trash or euro-fabulous????

if you need a visual of some things i've seen, go to http://www.youtube.com/ and search for "gunther" and "you touch my". you wont be disapointed. still not sure if this is considered cool or not here. but im digging the shades.

Montepulciano

It's so wonderful here. Yesterday we spent some time in the market, bought some fruits and veggies. Then headed up, up, up hill to the main square in the town. We had lunch there and just enjoyed walking around the town. It is very nice and relaxing so far. We also went shopping for some groceries at the supermarket. We walked here from Le Coste de Cicolina, which was about a mile or so up hill and hot sun shining on us in the late morning, but on the way down, it was much better since it was downhill and shaded at that time.

The views here are amazing. We thought that maybe today we figured out a way to put pictures up on the blog, but it didnt happen. Oh well, we will keep trying, but if not, we will post pictures as soon as we get home.

Last night was a very hard night. While I was making dinner, there was this glass piece on the stove that totally shattered from getting too hot. I thought we were using it right, but, whatever, something happened and must have not been right and it broke. Yep, glass everywhere, small tiny pieces. It was so horrible!!! Dinner was ruined and we spent about an hour or so cleaning it up. Anyway, we just felt so bad about this and, me especially, spent all night nervous about telling the family about it in the morning. Ed remained calm, though, and told me it would be fine, and we would just make sure to pay for it. And he was right, it was fine. Elsa told us it was just a small thing, to not worry about it. So now we feel a lot better. It just seems like one thing after the other on this trip! Craziness!

I'm thinking maybe for us both to have good luck, we both needed to be crapped on by a bird!! As Ed would say, though, many things are also going well on this trip, so I shouldnt keep pointing out the things that have been difficult. Anyway, today is great! The weather is so nice here. Nice breeze, just the right temperature in the shade, its perfect! We will spend some time in town today, maybe do some wine tours and tasting. Maybe some shopping! Ciao for now! Thanks for all the comments. It's good to here from everyone back home! And thank you for the support and prayers for my Grandpa!