Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas to all my readers, wherever you maybe on this wonderful world called Earth.

Zumba class

My first day of Lifetime started with a Zumba class.
It is great how you burn calories by dancing. I loved it. I haven't done it since summer. I was a true believer of kick boxing but after doing Zumba in the summer, I decided that it was an amazing way to workout.
It was definitely soo much fun.

Looking forward for my next Zumba class.

6 miles and T-I-R-E-D

With the high that I got yesterday from my 8 mile run, I decided to run another 6 miles today. By the end of the 6 miles, I was definitely T-I-R-E-D!!
When I came home I just wanted to rest my legs.
To my surprise, my mom came back from the gym and she told me I had a month membership at Lifetime!! How cool!! I will start tomorrow.

I will tell you all about the classes I take there.
Will need some ice for my knees.

Shopping and Running

Last week I did nothing besides run and shop. Today after 2 days of rest from my last run, I decided to run over 8 miles! It's the most I have ever ran! I was so proud of myself when I finished. I went a pretty good pace and well it was definitely needed. I got a boost for sure. It's a great way to finish the year.
I think that for the New Year's Resolutions for 2011, include running these 8 miles at a faster pace and be able to run a half marathon! I will focus on a marathon in 2012.
=)

Very happy!

Back to Dallas

We went to have lunch at my brother's for the last time and then we drove back to Dallas. We arrived home and had a nice dinner with my relatives.
I was really tired but still went to bed pretty late. We had dinner with my relatives that are leaving tomorrow.

My grandma and I are going to use this week as shopping week. I hope we don't spend too much money.
I hope I get to run some too. We will see.

Another shopping day!

My relatives and my sister arrived to Austin around 8:30am and then we were off to the San Marcos Outlets.
We spent around 5 hours there and I was able to get a few things that I really needed. Once we finished shopping we all went to eat at Luby's onour way back.
It reminded me of my swimming days when we went to the State meet. I remember that my coach loved to go to Luby's right before the meet. In fact it was the best way to get healthier food in our bodies rather than fast food even if Luby's doesn't compete with a homemade meal. 
When we finished eating, we drove back to Austin and went to the hotel to get showered and ready for my brother's graduation.
We took great pictures and got good footage of on video as well of my brother and I was very happy.
We watched good a memory video of my brother in the party and had Olive Garden. It was a very good night.

Austin, TX

So today was a day to wake up early and drive 4 hours to Austin, TX. My brother had a breakfast for the students that graduate from the Liberal Arts program with UTeach.
After the breakfast, he went home and my parents and I did planning and went shopping for decorations for his party. We got his catering ordered too.
After the important stuff was done, my mom and I went shopping for dresses for my brother's graduation. Very last minute but we got them just in time!! =)
Tonight I will be able to go out with my friends from college too. I can't wait. I am soo excited.

Back in the States

I guess December 2nd was more lucky than December 1st because I am back on American soil.
It was a long flight but I was able to sleep quite a bit.
It's not very hard for me to fall asleep but sleeping on a plane is not super comfortable.
Whatever I have to go through, it all seems like nothing once you are back home and with family.
Glad to be here for a few weeks!!
Of course I am already thinking of going shopping later. It's so nice to see price tags with a reasonable price not overpriced and also in euros!!

What did people live without the internet just a couple of decades ago?

Woke up early and decided to do some cleaning I had been putting off. While I was having breakfast, the electricity went out. I thought it was something that would last only a few minutes or even an hour. Unfortunetly, I had all these plans and I wasn't able to do much because my I was stuck in Italy for the bad weather in Frankfurt. I hope the weather getscomputer, internet, TV and radio were not working today. So no vacuuming got done either, but I was able to dust, sweep, and do some little projects I had been meaning to do for a while. It's amazing what you can accomplish without the Internet, there are no distractions. It really wasn't so bad because I had things to do but it got really boring when the sun went down at around 5pm. I wasn't prepared at all either. No candles and no flashlights. Thank Gof the elctricity came back around 7pm right after I had dinner so at least in the evening I was able to use the computer and watch some TV.
I am glad it's back and I am just hoping tomorrow the weather is better and I am able to go back to the States.

Still -48 hours

Seems like the weather is not helping me leave, so I still have 48 hours to go. My flight got canceled and it seems like a day later I will be able to leave.
Let's cross our fingers.
Frankfurt is filled with fog and I am guessing lots of snow.
I got a new ticket for the 2nd after I called the American offices of Lufthansa because the ones in Europe are not 24 hours.
Even if the American offices are probably really in India. =)

-48 hours

In 48 hours I will be on my way back to the States!! I'm excited! Even if I was just there only 3 months ago, I'm very excited to be back home. I think the cold weather has made want to go to a warmer place even if it's a bit warmer now.
Today I prepared a lot of things that I need to bring with me on my trip. I finished with my list of things to do. I am so happy that I got everything done. I'm ready to sleep on the plane, watch movies and relax after today.

Graduation gift check

We went around Brescia looking for my brother's graduation gift. I think we found it. Tomorrow Riccardo will go buy it. I hope that my brother likes it.

I am excited for him because he was able to find a job as a teacher in the middle of the semester. =)

Can't wait to see him!...Just a couple of days.

10K and rewarded with cinghiale dinner

We went for a run. 10K and I think it was my fastest time to finish it.
We used to do it very often last year but we got tired of it and we stopped doing this route.
It was a wonderful day to run! It was such a sunny day!!! At least for the morning.
We had lunch and went to a mall in Desenzano (by the lake). We heard they were having very good sales bit once we got there we realized that the sales were not as good as we expected.
It started raining when we were driving back home.

In the late afternoon we went to a bar to watch Milan play of course and they won. We usually go to a bar otherwise we would pay to watch each game! Sports in Italy work like boxing in the US. You pay per view, every now and then, you can watch one game but i have never seen Milan play at home.
What I like when I go out to watch, or better, the best part of knowing we are going to watch soccer or better known as calcio, is having a pirlo. It's a spritz, it's a mix of wine, Aperol, and water with gas.

We went to the dinner that I ha told you in my previous post and it started snowing while we were eating!! In this place, I'm sure it kept snowing but where we live it was raining when we got home.

Today was the first night to go under 0°C, -1°C (32°F) to be exact. This morning cars had ice on the windshields and the grass had bits of ice over it. About 6:45am when I woke up it was 3°C and by about 8:30am it was almost 5°C.
I still went for my run about 3pm.  I think it's usually the warmest part of the day. It was a good run, despite the fact that for the first 15 minutes my hands were frozen, they started warming up and then again frozen. Finally, when I got home, I waited a bit for my hands to warm up. Otherwise, my hands feel like there's ants inside them. It's not the best feeling in the world.
In the evening, Riccardo and I went to have pizza at the best pizzeria in Brescia.
This weekend we will have dinner in a hole in the wall.  It's a small restaurant in a very little town. We went to this restaurant last year for Halloween. We had wild boar which is obviously is a wild animal that lives in the mountains. Resembles a pig's face, but full of short long hair and a lot bigger in size.


Cinghiale in the snow.

I am very excited!! It's really good!

Cold enough for gloves!!

Today was the first day that decided to wear gloves. I just couldn't handle it anymore. My hands are usually cold and cold weather doesn't help much. It was cold during the day too. We are still above zero but the temperature doesn't increase much during the day even if it's sunny outside. It seems actually that the more sunny it is here, the colder it is.
It also happened when I lived in Detroit.
So today back in Texas it was 27 degrees!! I can't wait to get some warm weather.  Even if warm to me at this point is 10°C (50°F). I will be happy with 20° (68°F).

Maniva

So today was hard to get up. Last night I went to bed late and had to get up early. I took the bus to go downtown and then I took a moment to look around and realized that the mountain Maniva was full of snow!! I wrote something about mountains last month but now the snow has increased for sure!! When I saw the mountain I was amazed. I think mountains get so beautiful with snow. It gives you a sense of relaxation and calmness. You can get some R&R in a house in the middle of the Alps.
I can understand why there's so much snow, when it rains here at 250 meters above sea level; it snows at over 1500 meters above sea level.

Today something cool happened. I wanted to run another 10K to keep training so my brother and I can go for a run while I am home. After I finished Lance Armstrong said that I had completed another 250 miles with my Nike + equipment. Therefore I'm in the third section of the Nike + chart.
To get to the next one I have another 150 miles to run.
I believe that if you run two or three tines a week only to exercise, it's quite difficult to move from one level to another. I'm sure that if I would have run more over the summer I would be father but I decided to take up cycling more serious. I think that it's important to change it up a bit every now and then.
Anyway, the cold weather expected this week it would be impossible to keep riding a bike. We don't usually go cycling when there rain but since last weekend in my opinion it is physically impossible to go!! It is just too cold! You have to wear so many layers of clothes that when you start sweating, you start to get cold.

Lucky one hour of day!

Today I went for a morning run right before lunch time. I enjoyed it so much. I got home just in time before the rain. I went later because early in the morning it was raining a lot! I guess I went the one hour it didn't rain in the day.  We're expecting rain until Wednesday night. Then again, the weather man here is not very trustworthy. We will see if he is right this time. =)

November 20 is a day to remember

November 20 is the day! It is the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution. Why is this important you may ask. Well, in honor of this event, 10 of the Mexico's brightest filmmakers are making a movie. The title is Revolución. You may see it on YouTube on 11/20 and this is the preview to the movie.
Take a look for yourself. I am very excited for this.

I found out about this, right after I went for a run.  Even though, my run was great and that is the reason I am happy. I am more happy to find out about this. I was checking online to see if this movie has been shown in important movie festivals and in fact it was. I think they are doing a great job marketing this movie. I guess we will have to wait and see to see how it is.

It was a beutiful day after all!!!

What a beautiful day! It was time!! After three days of rain, a sunny day and a blue sky is appreciated. Too bad I woke up to read some bad news though Facebook but I'm sure everything is for the best.
I went for a much needed morning run and I finished my workout with some abs.
Yesterday was so perfect that the scenery was great throughout the day.
In the afternoon when I went downtown there was an extra special view. Since I didn't have a camera again I tried to take one with my phone but I'm afraid it's not so nice.
The mountains looked exceptionally nice because the colors are changing from a dark green to some burnt orange, yellow and many shades of green.
Riccardo went to watch AC Milan play against Real Madrid. His friend had an extra ticket and invited him to go. He'll be back late. I ended up spending my evening with Riccardo's sister's family. At first I went over to help the oldest nephew in some corrections from his English test and then I ended up talking with his sister until late.
Now I'm so tired it's time to go to sleep.

Three day weekend is over!!

The three day weekend finished and it has been raining since Saturday night with high speed winds. The trees have almost lost all of their leaves. It finally stopped raining about one hour ago when I decided to go for a run. The sky is still white which means that it will keep raining later probably.
The weather forecast showed a sunny day tomorrow. Let's hope so because with one hour less of sunlight in the evening, the days seem so short and the weather definitely doesn't help.

Maddalena again =)

Bike day again. Monte Maddalena. We timed ourselves this time. We did the 10.3 km in 1:20 with a five minute break half way through to get some water. We've timed ourselves one time before and we did it in 1:10 and we cut some meters at the beginning using a short cut and I don't believe we took a break last time.
Today I think we started slower than usual but overall I feel great because I didn't get so tired like in the past and I felt a lot faster too.
It felt good to do this again.
YAY! =)

Two things that caught my eye...

You know what I admire most about Italians most is that no matter rain or shine there's always at least one person riding their bike. Right now with the cold weather they wear clothes to keep them warm but what is most amazing to me is how the women wear these amazing high heels and are able to pedal!!! I've never tried doing this but with steering problem that I have I can't even imagine adding high heels! I really think it takes years of practice.
Two thumbs up who can do that!
On another note, Wednesday I read some local newspaper and I just happened to remember because I saw the mountains today with this wonderful day.
Two things that caught my eye while reading the paper.
Number one: the mountains to the north of Brescia ha their first snowfall of the season. And in fact, today being in the south western part of town, you are able to ferns great view! The top of the mountains are all white!!! I wish I would have brought a camera to take a picture. It's such a beautiful day today, clear blue sky and no clouds. The visibility is great and the reason why I can see the mountains with snow and the top.
Second thing: Italy is now number 67 on the corruption list, after Rwanda!! The ranking included 173 countries, U.S. is number 22 and first time in years being out of the top 20.
In fact, now being in Italy for over a year now I am starting to understand how this country works. At first it was difficult just for the fact that I didn't know the language and in a years time I am able to read, understand and speak and write  (with minor mistake here and thee that I'm trying to fix).
I have to say it's nice to finally understand what people say and not imagine what they are saying. The local dialect is the only thing I still have to learn but I would like to perfect my Italian before I worry about learning a new "language".  The reason I write it with quotes is because it is not an accepted language in other countries but it is a local language so in the end it is important.

Long time no see!

Today I met one of my students that took some English classes with me last spring. He told me very good news, his girlfriend is pregnant!!! I was so happy for him.
I remember him so well because I've never met someone like him. When I met him for the first time he warned me that his phone would ring during class or that one of his accounting partners could call him to ask him something and I thought he was exaggerating but it really did happen! It was actually weird if his phone didn't ring during the class or I didn't have to wait for him.  He works in a big building that is very pretty and looks very modern. It's all made of glass and it has some sort of vertical shutters made out of aluminum or some sort of metal painted white.
He was always very kind and his secretary always made sure while I waited I received a cup of coffee or a glass of water or a piece of candy.
If there was a bowl of candy I would most likely take one because they were delicious! It was like starburst so like a chewable gummy but softer and probably more juicy.
Anyway, the best part about seeing him was that when he told me that his girlfriend was expecting was that they just found out last week but since she is getting a huge belly so fast without being able to eat because she can't keep food or liquids down, he thinks they might be twins.
He said that it's a possibility for him and also for her! So as  I wished him the best abs congratulated him again  he got a phone call and we said goodbye. =)

Funny...not!

Funny the way weather works, the minute I decide to go running, it starts raining!!! Hopefully I get to go tomorrow.
=(

Long bike day

Today was a hard! Well at least after breakfast. The morning started with a croissant with strawberry jam and some milk. What came next was another hard 4 hour work out!!it was pretty horrible!! I mean I was dead by the end of it. For some reason though, I can't get myself to take a nap in the afternoon after this long work-out.
At 8pm we met with some friends for aperitivo. I hadn't seen some in a while. Except for one girl, everyone came to have dinner. We were supposed to have dinner at the October Fest event in the town where I live. It ended up being full therefore we went to a German restaurant but no luck there again.  we ended up in a restaurant that was quite pricey! It was a good dinner though. Afterwards, we went to a Cantina for some wine, some people had left others arrived and when we got to the cantina another friend called and met is there too.
I had a good night with friends but after this long day it's time to say 'night!

Piadina

I had an early lunch today. To change it up a bit, I went out for lunch. I don't do it very often. I prefer to have lunch at home but today I was feeling like having something different. I ended up having a piadina. It's similar to a quesadilla. The piadina is like a tortilla but besides the flour they also add lard. Sounds pretty gross when you explain it but it's quite good. The thickness of the piadina is much thicker than a tortilla and the size of it is about the size of a burrito. The piadina is folded in half and you can put in whatever you like. The most traditional is with baked ham and a type of cheese called fontina. It's pretty good. Other types of cheeses include grana which is like Parmesan cheese and blue cheese. Other types of ham, bacon or tuna can be ingredients for a piadina.
I decided to stay downtown for the rest of the afternoon after having lunch. Before I came back home, I went to get ice cream again! I broke my rule of having ice-cream only on Tuesdays. It's actually not really a rule, it's more like a convenience rule. Anyway, I think I'm getting hooked but I just had to have it again! I got pear and chocolate again. I'll try other flavors next time.
Thursday evenings are scheduled as running days, like Saturdays are bike days. Tonight we went right after Riccardo got home from work. We ran for a good hour again. I had minor discomfort in the last 10 minutes of the run. We will see if my knees hurt again on Saturday when we go cycling.

Benvenuti al Sud

I watched and Italian film tonight. It was soo funny. What the story portrays is so true. There are many stereotypes between the north and south of Italy that the movie shows. I think the actors and director did a fantastic job.
Even if it's an Italian film, half of the movie is in the dialect from Naples that many Italians can understand because it's widely heard around Italy and some mafia movies. Even if I didn't understand the dialect, I understood the message of the movie.
It was something like, don't judge a book by its cover.

If you get a chance to see it, I highly recommend it.

No Strawberry....again!

Today is ice-cream day.
I went to Ribera and to my surprise no strawberry ice-cream again! I am thinking that the season must be finished and is expensive to keep making it with very high priced raw materials. Good news though, I have a new favorite flavor well, two to be exact. They are pear and chocolate. It's so strange I've always loved eating pears, I didn't think pear ice-cream could be good but it is! Someway I think that the ice-cream feeling is like a smoothie.
Very good in the end. This time they didn't have frutti di bosco. Thank God.

Very happy to have new flavors to look forward to.

Rain, rain go away....

Sunday I woke up quite early since I had a bad pain on my left knee especially. I watched TV until Riccardo woke up. It was still raining when I woke up and it kept raining all day. We had lunch at noon and at around 4 p.m. we decided to go to Decathlon. It is a French chain that sells clothing for all type of sports with very reasonable prices. They sell their own brands and also other known brands like Adidas. Even if I buy most of work-out clothes and shoes in the US from Nike or Adidas I've gotten some things at Decathlon.  For example, a light weight running wind jacket that I got today, other items that I got in the past include the heart rate monitor and some bike shorts and pants for cycling in the summer or winter.
While we were at Decathlon, Riccardo bought a new set of bike tires suitable for road cycling and some winter clothes that he can use either for running or for cycling.
After Decathlon, instead of taking the highway we went the "longer way" to check if the Fiat dealership was open. On Sundays everything is close except for some bars. This weekend though some stores were open. It's not set which weekend they will open. It's up to the store or the mall which weekend they will be open.
So for a while now, Riccardo has been telling me about a car that he thinks it's a good deal. In reality, it's more of a mini van but it's amazing how little it consumes. The price of gas in Italy at the moment is 1.34€/liter!! Even if most cars use diesel which is cheaper by a little over a dime. Italy uses other types of fuel such as methane and liquid propane. Both of these are a lot cheaper which is better and they don't pollute as much as other types of fuel.  Due to the fact that methane is a newer method, it's inconvenient because there aren't that many gas stations selling it. So sometimes you have to go out of your way to fill up your tank.
While we were in the show room, we went inside many cars and I tried the Fiat 500 which is a super little car that is just adorable. From the outside, it seems modern but when you go inside it's seems like you went back to the 60s! It's retro chic. It's actually quite popular here. Anyway if I ever buy a car here I would buy that one. It's really neat. The other cool thing is that I saw an automatic shift car. Oh how much I miss driving!!
Aftere all thi going around, we got a pizza for dinner and watched the God Father. We started to watch the second part of the trilogy but we stopped half way into it because I couldn't keep my eyes open. Tomorrow is Monday so the weekend is over, hoping the next five business days go by quickly, that way, I can see what it is stored for next weekend.

Killer work-out

Being a Saturday, it is a bike riding day cold or shine. When it rains we don't go because you can't see anything!!  We came back around 1 am last night just so we could wake up at 9. Actually, I usually don't have a problem to wake up early but Riccardo in the other hand thinks highly on sleeping until 10:30 a.m. or 11 a.m. but when we go on our little bike adventures they are the exception to the rule. Anyway so we planned to  leave by 10 a.m. after having a high energy breakfast, egg sandwiches. They were pretty good I have to say.
We always decide where we will go when we get on our bikes, there's the usual Maddalena or new choices that Riccardo comes up with randomly. Well this time we went for the new way. We had never done this one together, he had done this a few years back with his friend Sergio. Oh boy! I wish I would have known what I was getting myself into. We started with an 8 km "flat" start. It was relatively flat to what came next. I'm not sure on the distance of the uphill part but what I know was that every second from the start seemed like eternity. After about one hour of going uphill, we finally arrived to a flat area and we decided to stop there and come back home. The return was hard even if we took less than a third of the time of the way there but we were so tired that we just wanted a warm shower because it was so cold. Thank God we took all of our winter outerwear!! Gloves, long pants, long sleeves and heavy wind jackets.
After arriving home and taking showers, we had lunch. Riccardo's parents were so nice to make us lunch. I'm pretty sure we looked so bad and tired after this 3 hour workout and that was the reason they decided to do that.  We had chicken on the grill with salad. We rested a bit and Riccardo ended up falling asleep on the couch watching TV. Me in the other hand made a cake to thank Riccardo's parents for making us lunch. After having such a good meal I had energy again. While the cake was in the oven, we got ready so that when the cake was done, we could go to a bike shop to look at some tires. When we left home at around 5, it started raining like the weather man had said. We went to the store and watched Milan play at the bar with a pirlo. When the game was over, we went to a Tissue Party. One friend of the bunch collects tissue packages. He makes parties once he reached a certain number. His collection is now made up of 2300 tissue packages!!!! It's amazing how many he has and the variety!! Around midnight all the invitees came downtown. It wasn't so hard finding a parking space because it was still raining. Even if it was raining there were quite a lot of people downtown for a rainy night at least.
The night finished and when we came home and I wrapped my knees with bandages and some icy-hot because they were just killing me after bike riding.
Hoping to feel better tomorrow and walk with no pain.

Frutti di Bosco

I woke up today and was so excited because on Tuesdays I go by the best ice-cream shop of Brescia but only for strawberry ice-cream. As you all know, I've become crazy for strawberry ice-cream. In the US I never used to have strawberry. I was more of a vanilla and every now and then, I would have chocolate or cookies an cream.
In Italy, you can find any flavor made with real fruit and even candy bars or desserts. Other than strawberry I like tiramissu, kinder chocolate, cantaloupe or lemon. When I finally arrived to Ribera Gelato, I was shocked to see that they didn't have it that day!!! I couldn't believe it! I chose a flavor that I've never tried before but this flavor (frutti di bosco) grabbed my attention because it is the same flavor of these gummies that my mom, sister and brother like. I figured it would be a good choice because in fact these gummies are quite tasty but in reality it was quite bad. The ice-cream that could be translated as fruit of the forest, in reality, is more like a mix of wild berries. The ice-cream was creamy and rich like the strawberry ice-cream but it had some seeds of one of the fruits that made the ice-cream not good! I was very disappointed. I hope next week they have strawberry otherwise, I will change ice-cream shop. No, I am joking. I will probably just not get frutti di bosco.
Waiting impatiently for next Tuesday to come around.

Simone

In the late afternoon, I went to the hospital to meet Simone. He is the new born baby. Riccardo's friend became a first time dad yesterday 10/10/10 at 10 a.m. Crazy!!!
He is a cute little baby boy. The baby is healthy and the mother is doing great.
It's my second time to visit the Brescian hospital and both times for the birth of 2 baby boys. There are quite a lot of hospitals in this city and all well-known for their treatmets for certain diseases, virus or terminal illnesses.

It's nice to go into the neonatal floor because it's so warm and it feels so cozy.
Today it really felt good especially because I was feeling so bad. I think I started to get a cold. This morning I figured they were allergies again but I really feel like I am going to get a fever. I hope I don't. I have no idea how I caught this cold but I just hope my body can fight efficiently and don't spend days thinking to only need a bed to rest.

American Food in Italy

Today was a very cold day in the mountain and instead of running before having lunch we had lunch first and ran in the late afternoon. We ran for an hour and it was easier than the day before since the big steep hill was at the end. In reality that makes is harder than the previous day because the hard part was after running for an hour and I definitely felt it. Luckily, I started slower than usual because I got heartburn after having lunch.  That was actually the only way I think I was able to finish.
We came back home to shower and get our bags ready to go back to Brescia because the weekend was coming to an end. After having everything ready, we stopped to visit Riccardo's uncle that had been in the hospital. After catching up, some current strategies on the soccer field, and realizing it was time for his uncle and aunt to have dinner, we said bye and started driving to Brescia. Instead if going home and having pizza for dinner, we decided to have ribs at a restaurant at the mall. They were quite good. They were served quite abundantly, almost like in an American restaurant.
We had a good night with great laughs and got home at about 11 p.m.
I'm quite tired now so I think I'll go catch some zzz's. Until next time my friends.

Brioche

We woke up around 10 a.m. and went to a very but very little food shop, it's too small to call it a supermarket or even a corner store. Believe it or not, in it they have everything you need to eat. Ham, cheese, bread, milk, fruits and vegetables, pasta, meat and chicken.
We got some pasta, some ham, cheese, bread, and a brioche. A brioche is like a croissant but in Italy they are sweet pastries, they have a filling of jelly or nutella. This one didn't have a filling but it had a lot of sugar outside. When I had a bite I was reminded of the taste of a Mexican pastry from a Guatemalan Panaderia in Dallas. I use to have these conchas con azucar (creo que se llaman nubes) of course what better than with a latte made by my mom right before the workday to start. It was really the best way to start the day.
Anyway, after the little shopping, we went for a run. It was about one hour run. It was great, it would have been better if I were not starting to get sick. I had a runny nose the whole time. It was a hard uphill to start and then a long flat zone until another hard hill and we turned around to go back to the starting point.
We had lunch after the run and watched the movie on TV, Superman, the old one, with Christopher Reeve.
I had never seen it, it was wonderful. After the movie, we got ready to go to Vezza d'Oglio. It's a town before Ponte di Legno. Ponte di Legno is a very chic place to go in the winter to ski. Vezza is a small town in the middle of the mountains. The reason for going was because one of Riccardo's friends from college lives there. His name is Diego. I also got to meet his girlfriend, Valentina. We went to have dinner together and then the best part of the weekend. We went up this mountain to see deer. Detail being that there was crazy fog. You couldn't see more than 30 yards ahead of you. So even if we knew we weren't going to have much luck we went anyway. It was actually pretty cool, we could hear them but they sounded so close, it was quite frightening.
After hearing them for some, we wanted to go to another place to hear them but we got nothing, so we decided to go back down and then the amazing moment...we saw 3 of them! They seemed young, one was a male because he had the antlers, small but they were there.
It was soo cute, they all had white butts. Pretty neat, they ran too fast to even get a picture of them but we saw them soo close. It was amazing.
We stopped at this little restaurant on our way down to see the place inside. It was super nice inside all made of wood. It was nice way to get warm too after being out in the cold listening to deer. After getting warm, we went went home and the day finished. I was really tired after the run, dinner, deer, and everything that I knew I would sleep like a baby when I got home.

Running around

After running around all day, it was time to get my bag ready to go to the mountain house. We stopped to eat dinner at a place called Beef-Ed. Its a sort of American or better, western type of restaurant.  We had grilled chicken. It was really good! We've had dinner twice before and we liked it a lot. Since it's close to home and the prices are reasonable according to Italian standards, we figured we could stop to have a bite. We finished dinner at about 8:30pm and we went to get a coffee from McDonalds since the coffee machines were not working at the restaurant.Thank God for MickeyDs. It was amazing because it's almost a sin for Italians not to have coffee after a meal. I stand by believing that a true Italian meal is not done until coffee is served.
After the drive, we arrived around 10 p.m. to the mountain where the house is but we decided to stop at a bar for a drink. It is Friday night, so it was early to go to bed. There was a group of Germans and us in the restaurant/bar/hotel. It's a slow period since summer is over and the cold keeps people away. It was 9 degrees Celsius outside.
Anyway, we ended up playing Trivial Pursuit until 11:15 p.m. and we decided to call it a night since the Germans had left and it was just us and the barman/owner of the place.
In the mountains, places close early and we thought we were intruding. We came home to a cold house so to warm up the house you can only do it like in the olden days. Grab some wood and burn it away in a little stove that heats up the room. We just do this in the kitchen/living room because in the other rooms, we use little electrical heaters. Overall, a great cold night. It was a night with the first feel of winter coming soon!!

Relaxing Sunday

I woke up early to see that Riccardo was still feeling bad and so he gave in. It was time to try some of my home remedies and American pain killers for the sore throat that has been bothering him for about a week.
He fell asleep after the painkiller and woke up feeling better but as soon as he had something to eat, he felt worse than before.
He feel asleep again but is feeling much better at the moment...(I think the home remedy worked to make the swelling go down, and the pain killer for the little fever that he had).

In Italy, all business and stores are closed on Sundays but once a month they are open the mornings or all day. Today was the day for the month of October for the near by supermarket. Since I woke up early, I was able to go and get something for tonight's dinner, which turned out to be pretty good. The ravioli we had today were stuffed with mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, and some ham.
It was the first time to try this kind of ravioli and I was very happy with the taste. Riccardo prefered the ones that we usually buy (stuffed with meat) which have a special name. It is casoncelli because it's part of the local cuisine.

During the day, we were supposed to go by bike but with Riccardo feeling pretty bad, we decided not to go. I ended up going for a late afternoon run after Tommaso's first birthday party.
Tommaso or aka Tommy is Riccardo's nephew who just turned one!
He is adorable. He is starting to walk and stand all by himself.
We had a great 2 hours of celebrating and eating some mousse cake. It had a strage texture but somehow it all worked together. There were 3 layers, the bottom one was icy, the one in the middle I imagine was of some fruit, and the top one was like flan but was melting which seemed like ice-cream.

Overall, I had a great day.
Looking forward to tomorrow. Even if it means it's Monday and the weekend will come again in five more days. I am excited though, we are planning to go to the mountain house!!! I can't wait, I love that place. It's soooo nice. It's pretty cold there which means I will get to use my winter jacket for sure. I saw that tonight's low there was only 5 degrees Celsius!!! I'm kind of excited.
Until next time,
Daniela

Did it again....

Made banana nut bread again because well I wanted to make some to bring to Tommaso's birthday tomorrow.
Before I made it I took a picture of the ripe bananas. I thought it was strange that bananas ripe different.


Ripe Del Monte Bananas

As you can see on the left, there are the ones from the African continent and on the right from the ones from the American contient. I found it so strange because I usually never let bananas ripe and oddly enough I picked up 3 bananas from each continent on the same day and the same supermarket. I figured all bananas ripe like the ones on the right, that is how I have always seen them. I never thought it could happen as on the left.

Anyway, the banana nut bread turned out well. Not like last weeks, it was a bit more humid this time. Since in Italy nobody knows about this type of bread, everyone that has tried it so far thinks it's a dessert. They are quite surprised that this is what you can have breakfast.

Before the cake, Riccardo and I went by bike and on the road we found someone that we knew. He flies cycling. It was quite amazing to see. Well Riccardo kept his pace but I just realized how slow I am. Well I am sure I can keep a stedy pace for a long time but I need to practice more and the fall weather is not helping. It was quite cold today. Thank God that I brought my winter gloves, otherwise my fingers would have been frozen.
This time we did a new road. Riccardo takes this road to work everyday and he had done it once before but that day I didn't go with him. It was tough because you are right next to the cars that drive by pretty fast. It's a mountain road and quite narrow in some areas.
I had a bad pain on my left leg which didn't help but I kept at it and arrived to where we said we were going to meet. We got ready for the downhill with wind jackets, winter gloves, etc. and went at a very good pace on the way back.

In the evening, we went to get a pirlo :) We usually go to a bar with a big projector where we can see the soccer games. Last night we went because Milan playing, Riccardo's favorite team. Luckily we arrived right before Pirlo (this time the soccer player) scored a crazy goal. Thanks to him, Milan won the game last night.
In Brescia, there was an event called, Notte Bianca, but due to Riccardo's bad sore throat, we decided to go home early and skip Notte Bianca. It is a fun event. All shops and businesses downtown are open and the city is lighted, that way two times a year people come downtown to mingle and be out in the city. They do this event in March and October I believe. I have been twice and it's great. I was so surprised to see so many people!!!
From what I hear, Brescia is stereo-typed as a city with one of the worst dialects in Italy and for having people that just work, work, work.

I don't mind the work, work, work because it's probably one of the most wealthy cities in Italy and also in a region that is one of the biggest markets. This city is very industrialized and due to that, there are many immigrants.
And because Brescians like working so much, they never go downtown or go out after work. In the morning, they leavehome to work and after work, they go straight home. It's like they are so worried about work they give up the "fun" in their lives. Everything runs like a clock or at least most of the time, even if local citizens might not agree with this statement. I have never met a culture that is so coconscious of time like Brescians. I have seen something similar when I lived in Detroit but nothing like here.
This reminds me of a saying one of my swim coaches will say to me about being on time to practice. "If you are five minutes early, you're on-time, if you're on-time you are late."
I think that is really true. If you have an appointment at 3:30pm and the other party arrives at 3:29pm, right after they greet you, they apologize for being late.

Anyway, going back to Notte Bianca, well it's pretty much the only time of the year that you can see so many people gathered together in one area.

So we skipped Notte Bianca but we watched Superman. The old one not the recent one.
I liked it. I had never seen it.

Overall, a great day.

Last Day of September

For the last three days I've been going running. I've gone in the morning, because let's be honest, what is better than a morning run and the smell of the fresh air to start the day. I truly believe this is the best way to start the day.

Today, I ran pretty fast. I am slowly getting back in shape to where I was last summer (2009) when I was running 4 or 5 times a week, I was in such a good shape but because of the cold winter in Brescia I stopped and started again some in the spring but never got to where I was over the summer.
While I wasn't running I joined the gym and started cycling. These work well if you want to get muscle but is completely different to running.

Tuesday, I went pretty late in the morning, around 10:15am and the following days I went  earlier. For example, today, I went earlier with a pretty cold morning because Riccardo's nephew needed a sitter for a couple of hours. When Riccardo's sister asked me last minute, I accepted and even if I took care of him for like 30 minutes because he took his nap when he was with me for most of the time that he was with me, I realized how big he is getting. I realized that October starts tomorrow which means he is turning one on Monday! How fast time goes by...

This means that in about two months, my little brother will be graduating from college. Oh wow! How they grow up so fast....wow that made me feel sooo old. haha :)

Well with that said, I will leave this on your mind...
"A day without laughter is a day wasted."
I truly go by this.
Think about it. Could be a good way to start the new month with a new motto in mind.
 

Safety First

On the first Sunday of fall, I went with Riccardo bike riding.We went to Monte Maddalena (It was one stage as part of the Giro d'Italia in 1975). 
We started our journey at about 4:40 p.m. and arrived home at around 7:20 p.m. We wanted to go test our bikes. Riccardo bought a new bike on Friday and mine is only one week old but I switched my seat and fixed my brakes. 
This consists of about 8 km to this small mountain from home which are follwed by going up for 10.3 km up-hill and 7km down-hill and then 4 km to arrive home.
Today, was my second time I have done this since I got back to Brescia. Last week, I got a flat tire and it was quite a show. Thankfully, we were able to do it in time before it started to rain and the sun to go down.
This week, I didn't have a flat but I did see my first cycling accident. It was pretty bad.
There was a couple coming down while I was going up. I had passed the 7km mark when I saw a lady fly of her bike and soon after the man also flipped from his bike.
They had blood coming down from their nose and coming out from their lips. Knees were scrapped but thankfully no major injuries. They were conscious, speaking and walking.

I was so glad that they were wearing helmets because so many cyclists don't wear them. I think safety should come first!!!
Just like a  construction worker should wear a vest and a hard-hat on a job site, or a driver should have their seatbelt while driving a cyclist should have a helmet while cycling. I agree, it is not the best and can be uncomfortable but it can save your life.
You can get safety items for your company from u-safenet. The company is based in Dallas but it ships nationwide.

Going back to the accident, by the time I got to where they had flipped, a car stopped and helped the couple, a guy from this car, called the emergency number and in 10 minutes there was an ambulance there. I didn't stay for the ambulance to arrive but I heard the sirens. Before Riccardo and I left the scene with the couple and the guy that called the ambulance, we helped them move their bikes off the road. We decided to go since it was starting to get cold and off we were to finish the 3 km we had to go.
When we arrived to the top, we put our wind jacket and finished this long journey.
I was so tired when I got home.

Luckily, I didn't have to cook because Riccardo's mom made us some peperonata. It's an Italian dish made with red pepper with tomato sause. It's more like a side but I love to eat it.

Here is a view from Maddalena



View of the mountains in late February


After dinner, we went to a nearby bar to enjoy a pirlo (the true Brescian drink).

That is all for now my friends.

Daniela

Banana Nut Bread

For a few days, I've been seeing that my bananas are going bad and I have been thinking to make banana nut bread with these ripe bananas.
Finally this morning after only 5.5 hours of sleep, I decided I need to surf the internet for a recipe and make it.
Finding all the ingredients in a small Italian supermarket was easier than I thought.
I came home after grocery shopping and started preparing.
At the end, I didn't follow the recipe that I had found online but it's quite similar.

These "dessert" was actually pretty good. I got a good response and best of all, it was the first time that I made this in my life.

Below you can find the actual ingredients that I used:

• 3 medium sized eggs
• 125 grams of sugar (if you want it very sweet, you will need to add more sugar)
• 3 ripe bananas
• 50 grams of butter
• 60g of walnuts
• 10g of vanilla flavoring in powder
• 16 grams of cornstarch
• 1 and 2/3 cups of flour (I used Pioneer pancake mix)
• 80ml of milk
• 1/2 table spoon of salt

I mixed the butter and the sugar first, then I added the eggs to the mix.
In a separate plate I smashed the bananas and added then to the mix once they were mushy.
I added one cup of flour and mixed to make the mixture thicker.
I added the milk and the remaining 2/3 cups of flour with the cornstarch and the vanilla flavoring.
Once the mixture is all mixed, I cut up all the walnuts in small pieces added them to the mix with the 1/2 Tbsp of salt and ta-da, the mix is done.

Pre-heat the oven to 225°C.
Put the mix in a baking pan and bake for 50 minutes at 175°C and then 10 minutes to 150°C.
Let it sit 10-15 minutes and it will be ready to eat.

Picture of the first banana nut bread

Italian gelato (ice-cream)

So now that I am back in Italy, I decided that I needed to have some ice-cream before these shops close for the winter. Today was the first day of Fall and these shops will close soon. I hear this weekend will be raining and the temperature is going to drop.

When my friend Clarissa came to visit me and we went to the Garda Lake and Rome, we went to get ice-cream pretty much everyday she was here.
I remember we went to Bedussi ice-cream in Brescia, 1 shop at the Lake, and 2 other times in Rome. Bedussi wasn't bad at all, they have many flavors. They have everything you can imagine and more. A good choice for sure
It was too bad I wasn't able to take her to Ribera Gelato because after having it again today, I have decided it's has the best ice-cream in Brescia. I always try the strawberry flavor. They have a lot of flavors but nothing like Bedussi.
I really would love to learn how to make ice-cream. This place makes it so creamy somehow and it's made just with real fruit and water. The Italian ice-cream is like sherbet but it's just soooo good!

Still gray but so much better!!!

Many of you might remember back in mid-July right before I went on summer vacation, my beloved bike got stolen.
With that bike, I did so many things I thought I could never do.  I went to so many amazing places. For example, I went to the Giro d'Italia in Ponte di Legno to Passo Tonale, the Dolomites VIDEO (Sella Ronda Bike Day),   I suffered a lot of pain but accomplished a lot as well. I became a cyclist. There was a point I preferred to go to school with my bike rather than using public transportation. With that said, I discovered a new sport I didn't think I could like and as it turns out, I liked it a lot and enjoyed doing. Therefore, I was super sad when my bike was stolen.

Well no more sadness, today I got a new bike.
It hasn't even been a day and I already went to Monte Maddalena. It's a 10.3 km uphill.
It was a great feeling of accomplishment finishing it after no training for almost 2 months.

Here is a picture of my new bike.

Only happiness here with great memories and ready for more.
Love,
Daniela

P.S. I will always remember you.

Back again in Brescia

Back in Brescia. I got in yesterday morning. Brescia is just amazing. The scenery is nothing like Texas. It's probably the reason I like it so much.

Riccardo picked me up and I got home to shower after a long trip. My flight from Texas got to Frankfurt. It was a forever flight, because I got almost no sleep. I usually sit on a plane and there is no way to wake me up but this time, I had a very chatty guy telling me his story and all about his hopes and dreams.
I usually love to talk but I prefer to sleep when the night before I only got 2 hours of sleep.

Riccardo and I went to have some American food and a Texan style restaurant, Old Wild West.

Today, I just finished my morning run and I got to hurry because Riccardo and friends want to make a good bye to summer B-B-Q.

Will post pics soon.
Gotta run!!

Tomorrow....SA!!!

Tomorrow I will have my 5-hour drive to the city where I went to university. On my way to SA, I will pass by the capital of this wonderful state and pick up my dear friend Valerie.

The decision of this last minute trip is that my friend won a party in a bar during happy hour.
It's been a year since I graduated and so many things have changed in my life, I can't wait to hear all the stories I have missed from all my friends.

I am sure the foursome will have an amazing weekend.
I get drive back home tomorrow because I want to see my brother and that way I can spend Labor Day with my sister and mom since it's the last few days before I go back to Brescia.

See you soon!

Life Time Fitness

I have joined Life Time Fitness for one week! I am so excited. I love Life Time!! I was in a gym in Italy for 3 months in the spring. Virgin Active is nothing like LifeTime though. The service, towels, classes, locekers, and hours I think is what makes it all better.

During the last week, I have been running. I have noticed I lost some of my endurance but nothing new since I haven't really been working out since mid July. My mom sometimes comes with me like the old times back in summer 2008.

My mom and I like to work out together while I am back in Texas.
Today, I went to Zumba class. It was my first time and I liked it. It's a good workout but nothing like the legs class that I used to do in Italy. Those really made your legs burn. Zumba makes your calves burn and you do get a pretty good sweat.
I went to the outdoor pool to make some laps afterwards with my mom.
I had a wonderful first day back at Life Time.

Guests at home

My aunt Chacha and great-aunt Ale got it today for a weekend of shopping in Texas.
They will stay at my house. I went to pick them up from the airport this morning and they already had a half day of shopping so far.

I love when guests come to visit.

Riccardo's summer vacation is officially over

He is on his way back now to Brescia. It's sad to let him go but I will see him in a few weeks.
We did lots of shopping in the last few days. I still have Houston, Austin, and San Antonio to visit. I still have no plans on when I will be in these cities but I am sure I will let you know.

I will keep it short this time because these next weeks are only to spend time with my mom and my sister.

Hope that I write soon again.

Daniela

Mexico is gone but tomorrow to the Windy City

Two weeks of summer fun have gone by. We ended up going to Acapulco for 5 days. I spent my birthday there and then we got back to Mexico City for a few days. That next weekend we went to Taxco, a small city in Mexico known for all the silver that is sold there.
The next week we spent 3 days in Ixtapa, a city in the state of Guerrero. It is a very quiet city but it was great to relax away from Mexico City.
On our last day in Mexico, I spent the day with my grandma and my sister after having breakfast at Vips with my aunt and uncle, my cousin and her husband and my sister and grandmother.

Now that we are back in Dallas again, it's time to wash dirty laundry and get the bags ready....only carry-ons this time.  I am so excited to make this trip. It's been a while since I have been in the Windy City.
I went quite a bit when I lived in Michigan which was over 9 years ago.
I hear it is a wonderful tourist city. Riccardo is excited because it is his first time there.
Our plane leaves tomorrow at 8:30 a.m.

Hopefully we get in just in time to see some of the Chigago Air and Water Show.

The Start of Summer 2010

Today I took my flight from Milan so I could get back to Dallas....finally!!! It had been a while, about 6 months.
I had problems to get my ticket because, the airline wouldn't believe me that I bought and e-ticket back in October 2009. Thanks to my i-Pod I was able to get the ticket number and they were able to find some information.
Problem was that 3 days before I was supposed to take my outbound flight, British Airways e-mailed me that my flight had been canceled because of bad weather. Therefore, I grabbed my bags and went to airport and found a way to get a ticket to leave 3 days earlier so the people working on the desks must have done something on the computer that appeared that I had a paper ticket and not an e-ticket.

Anyway, after waiting around, I was able to get a ticket to London, but not for the London-Dallas until I got to London Heathrow.
In the end, I had a safe flight and here I at home with this great wonderful dry hot weather. Nothing like in Brescia that is humid with no wind.

Riccardo will get here tomorrow night and Friday morning we will be in Mexico and will spend time with my family while I enjoy the sun, the beach, and the city. I can't wait!!!

Looking forward for this summer to start!

My Blog

So this is my first entry. I have just joined Blogger. I have no idea what to write! 
For a while now, my friends and family have been telling me that they would like to read about all my adventures in Italy and with either procastination or lazyness I haven't. I am very happy that I have decided to start though.

Today, my friend Clarissa, who came to visit me, has left. It was quite sad to say good-bye I have to say. I was very happy that I had my first visitor since I moved to Brescia. She is probably now on her first flight of the four that she has to take to get back to the capital of Texas (Home of the Longhorns).

I will be going back to Texas as well in just one week!! I can't wait to be on American soil, or actually Texas soil to be exact.

I am so glad that she came to visit me because we had a great time in Rome and in Naples. I love Rome!! It was the third time that I have been but this time was beautiful I have to say. Rome is completely different in summer time. My previous times were always during winter. I have to say it was pretty hot but so worth it. And about Naples, well it was beautiful but completely different from a city in the north of Italy.

I am looking forward to keep writing.



Muchos saludos a todos.



Daniela

P.S. You can see a couple of pictures of Clarissa and I from our trip below.

Getting ready to eat the real Italian pizza at a pizzeria in Naples
 Fratelli la Buffala

At the Colosseo Romano