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.