Ridere (to laugh)

At Nono Piero's: (left to right) Stefano's sister and her kids, Nono Piero, Sara, Federica, Marco, Chiara

I was going to take a picture of one of these blue bows previously because I thought it is interesting: One of these is put on the outside of a house to signify that a new child has been born, blue for a boy, pink for a girl. At the farm, a new baby lamb was born three months ago, and so they put up a bow :) 

Nono Piero's house. This is a traditional farm. Sara's two brothers and their families, and a few of her cousins, as well as, of course, her dad, Nono Piero, all live here and work on the farm. This is the house I remembered so well that I would even sketch it in my journals, years ago! 

This is a milk station where you bring an empty bottle and fill it up with the fresh milk! This one is on the farm (the cow farm- no grapes! ;D ...well, actually, there are, but anyway...) but later we went to one just five minutes away from the Greselin's house and filled up bottle with the milk we used for dinner!

Chiara and her cousin walking into the new cow shed at the farm.

Through the window of a church I thought was really unique and cool. All of the windows were stained glass in abstract shapes. Very pretty.

 

Left to right: (front) Federica, Katerina (back) Me, Marco, Chiara

Marco at the end of the year festival of his cousins' school

This was yesterday: we all went on a walk with Marco's school, through the countryside, to a little church where all of the children first listened to a lesson from the priest and then were blessed by the Priest and a nun there.  I have more pictures of that, which I want to show you because it was beautiful!  

Today I really laughed for the first time since comming, and it was so wonderful to feel that piece of myself again! At a party after a baptism, Chiara, Federica and I were

I met an 11 year old girl named Katarina, who was really, really sweet and fun. At one point, she, Chiara, and I were talking about pets. She (Katerina) said her dad doesn’t like pets or hamsters or cats or anything. “Does your dad like any animals?” I asked. “Yes, she said…the lion!” :D Chiara said, “For the house….YES!” HAHAH!!! Oh man, the look on her face and the way she said it- it was so funny! She is such a jokester and she makes me laugh a lot! 

During lunch (my breakfast for the last two days because I’ve been sleeping so late!) I decided to try some beer, because that’s what everybody was drinking (even the girls). It smelled like wine, was fizzy like the fizzwater here, and to me, it tasted a bit like vomit =\ 

Well, tonight in the kitchen we had a very casual dinner of cereal and cookies. For some reason I was in a really silly mood (I think partly this was because Sara and the girls were in a good mood and not arguing, yelling, and bickering like usual). I was laughing really hard because I brought out the brownies Aunt Gina made me (thank you!), as a desert. Everyone said they smelled, but I didn’t think so. Sara tried one and she asked me how old they are. “Only a few days.” “But why didn’t you give them to me when you got here!?” she asked. “Because I forgot!” It went on and on until we figured that they were probably made on Monday and they are really no good now- though I would have eaten them! :D “Io sono stupido!” I said –“stupidA” Chiara corrected me. HAHA! “I can’t even say that I am stupid correctly!” I exclaimed- but Sara was on the phone and shushed me, and I just laughed and laughed…everything was so funny! Finally, after a few more incidents such as this- oh I remember the other one! My KitKat bar! I brought it with me today to share with the ninos ;) (don’t get confused-that’s not Italian), and it completely melted in my bag (in the wrapper!). The kids who came by all poked it, disgusted. It was quite funny. When we got back to the house, we followed through with our plan to freeze it. After dinner we remembered it, took it out, and of course it was freezing and rock hard! Federica suggested we put it in the microwave and I said “poverino!” (poor thing!)- it has been through everything!!! Then Federica did this whole little sign language skit to say what kind of poop we would have after eating this crazy candy bar!!! Oh man, it was so funny. I was laughing so hard at everything! “It was the beer!” I said. “The beer from lunch! I have never had it before, and now: see what happens!?” :’D it was really fun. 

Alright. I’m going to bed now. Not much to report except for little cultural observations that I can’t remember and I don’t have time to write (if I did). Oh, but we did go to see Nono Piero, Sara’s father, which was wonderful because his farm was one of the places I remembered most, and would always think of a few years ago whenever I longed most to come back here to Italy :’) It was great to see it again. It is very close to here (I didn’t remember that), so the girls and I are going to ride bikes there one of these days. 

Love you! 
Buona Notte