Pensala Come Un'Avventura!!

Friday, January 28th: When beginning to learn Italian, I subscribed to a daily email called "The Italian Word of the Day". It has been fun and educational. Having been in Rome for over a week, I feel qualified to proffer my own "Word of the Day": Avventura. I find myself thinking this word quite often. At home, I would tell the grandkids, "Think of it as an adventure!" while trying to give a positive spin to a less than awesome happening. Avventura is the word for adventure. Pensala come un'avventura - Think of it as an adventure.

Every day comes with its own adventures. I have a riddle for you: How is living in Rome like going to girls' camp? No electricity, no heat, no hot water, no showers, lots of junk food...I could go on. One thing that is different is that we don't worry about bears. In Rome they have no bears, but they do have thousands of cinghiali, which are wild boars and the reason our friends said not to wander around outside at night. They come out to eat the trash, which is all over the place.

The other morning Almer happened upon a group of men avidly watching the garbage truck taking away the trash. I can only surmise that it is such a rare and holy experience that they were arrested by the sight. Seriously, if the trash dumpsters or cans are full you just drop your garbage on the ground somewhere close to the receptacles. There are at least six different kinds of cans: paper, plastic, organic (compostable), metals, mixed (non recyclable), glass, and even clothing. I now have all these lovely black  receptacles with different colored lids, but have I been using them for trash? Nope. I've been using them as solar heaters for water to wash dishes, bodies, hair, etc. It never gets really warm, but it's better than straight from the cold water tap, hence the girls' camp reference.

Saturday, January 29th: Happy Birthday, Jody! I tried to get stamps to send you a card, one of the five times in the last two days we have been to the post office (did I mention that each time you go you have to stand outside for at least an hour?), but it seems I need to go to the Tabbachio (tobacco seller) to get stamps and the cartoleria (paper seller) to get a card. I still have no idea how much it costs to send a letter to the U.S.

We are still using the next door neighbor's electricity, so I can't use my stove or more than a couple of lights at a time, or it will blow her circuits. We offered Valeria 100 euros to let us use her power for a week and she said, "Assolutamente, no!" about the money and "si" about using her power. The gas man came yesterday, and fixed our gas, so we now have heat and hot water. What a blessing!!!!! The whole adventure thing smells so much better around here. ;)