'First Impressions' By Beti

Aha! A new season of my life has started! It is the most interesting season yet! First of all I'm in a room with Carmen and Esther Lambright in the basement of an apartment in Besigna  Itlay. Yes I'm really in Italy!!! And it's been so weird , exciting,  so strange and unreal! I feel like I landed in an adventure book and not knowing the language is ever so frustrating! Being here and there I am truly in culture shock, naturally! After the jet lag wore out (which it's still doing) I realized 2 things. The culture is so so so different and Rodica wants everyone to eat all the time! :) 

It now is 12:00am Saturday  but back home it is 6:02 pm friday. We're gonna beat NY to Saturday by 6 hours!!:) Take that you old time change! Btw your so confusing right now! :-) My body wants to think that I'm still at home and wants to keep going. 

Ughh and also another tragic thing. Noo wifi!!:(( But there is wifi about 10 minutes from here the next town on the side of the mountain over. Actually it's like 5 minutes with the way Rodica drives that Fiat. And may I add the roads are ridiculously narrow as are the small cars! I have seriously never seen such small cars. Anyway, back on point, wifi. It's located at a sports bar that is also a morning hangout where we had pastries and some real cappuccino (Super spiked!Strong and heavy) and not to forget we also had to greet the locals, with smiles and a 'Bonjourno'. 

We are so foreign it's not even funny! People all over smile at us and nod as if we stepped off mars. Rodica doesn't fail to mention that we are her girls from America. However the people are so friendly! They are so helpful and neighborly. We have been here only 2 and a half days and already we meant Franco, Roberto, Maria Luis, Lucia, Katie (an English speaking Canadian that lives here with her Italian husband) and also the cute little grandma Rodica lives with and takes care of known universally as Baba or her real name Asunta. She never ceases to take my hand and speak in Italian to me ,emphatically. I so wish I knew what she was saying. All I can do is nod and say 'Si Si Si' a dozen times. She's so adorable and tiny and I'm sure  full of stories from her cow herding days. But then again, everyone has a story to share don't they?

Okay next subject, the language barrier. All I can say is Vi De Mine meaning Oh My! Between Italian and Romanian I'm having a hard time keeping my English! I've mixed up so many sentences today it's not even right So many times I've said such weird things and we laughed so hard. Truth is we are all having such difficulty trying to understand this or that. My Romanian is little by little coming back one word at a time but its getting mixed up with  Italian. Somewhere all this Romanian is stuck in my brain but my mind is having  a hard time trying to figure out the words. It's the same equivalent of someone having hearing aids and hearing what is being said but not making it out. Sometimes it's so frustrating but I tell myself it's only day 3 really and I have quite more time to try to figure this all out. 

Oh we went touring today! We saw amazing alps, saw a man walking his Czechoslovakian   wolf, drove up and down mountain after mountain passing village after village and seeing cows, horses, and other grazing animals on the steep slopes and the cats and the dogs running around and the woman gathered under the umbrella in the street to talk. There is so much more to say but now it is time to say ciao and lay me down to sleep on this oh soo soo hard bed.