Great Italian Birthday Gift

Well today is my 25th Birthday (don't forget it's my Dad's Birthday, too!). Thanks for all the greetings all of you have sent through snail mail, e-mail, and facebook! This is only the second birthday I've had that I haven't been with my family. The only other time was on my 21st birthday, when I lived in Cincinnati for the summer. It was probably good I wasn't with my family for the 21st (j/k Mom and Dad). For this birthday I received one of the greatest gifts ever. Since I wasn't at home for my birthday, my 4 yr old nephew Nathan and 1 yr old niece Olivia (my cousin Jennifer's kids) decided to send me a special greeting. They made signs and cards to wish me a Happy Birthday and sent them to me through snail mail.

I think it was exciting for the kids because 1) My sister and cousin had them do it on Nathan's birthday (so he was on a Birthday high) 2) There's this fascination of sending something across the world for kids and 3) They got to draw. My sister helped them with the words and the kids traced out their hands and feet. Olivia apparently had fun with the tracing part and didn't want to move her feet off the paper even when she was done tracing.

My parents also sneakily left behind cards with my roommates when they were here in May. My roommate gave them to me about a week ago. I decided to wait till last night to open them. My family gave me a season pass to Disney again. About 2 years ago, my sister started getting season passes and that eventually spread to the rest of my family (including Nathan & Olivia's family). It has been really fun to go to Disney. It seems that there are certain ages that Disney is fun to go to. College age seems to be one, especially when you can go with kids like Nathan & Olivia. It's one of the things the kids and I are looking forward to once I get back.

More Pictures (Click to Englarge):

And then there were...________

This is kind of a rough day you can probably say, although it's a joyful day for the Italians at my University. Well, here is kind of a quick lesson in Italian culture. August is like national shutdown month. While (officially) most people take a vacation for 2 weeks in the month, many take off the entire month. So just like in Christmas time, Universities kind of go on shutdown. The funny thing is that according to our laboratory standards, nobody is allowed to make measurements or do experiments when no official staff (the head honchos in the lab like professors, researchers, and technicians). So when these staffers go on vacation, you essentially must take a vacation, too. I was reminded of that today by one of my researchers I work under. I know...tough life eh? I love it though. I think it's where the expression "La Dolce Vita" is really able to thrive.

So why a rough day? Well since it's the last full week of July, this is most people's last day and the phrase "Ci Vediamo a Settembre" which means "we'll see each other in September" has been thrown around a lot. People are going to Valencia, America, to their hometowns in Italy, and even simply to the Seaside to just relax while Rome continues to be a hot bed.

Well the first rough aspect is knowing that people are going on vacation while I'm going to stick it out until August 10th when the last professor will finally start his vacation (which means I can run experiments till then). The main rough aspect is that I leave in September. So today, I am basically saying goodbye to all the people and experiences that I have enjoyed at school. Just being at school regardless of the work that is being done has provided a very enjoyable experience. This includes all the group lunches, going 2 or 3 times a day to the bar to get espresso, learning to hold your breath while keeping all the smokers company, juggling the soccer ball, and just sitting/joking around in the office. With everyone gone, there's no more of that and essentially the University will become a ghost town for a few weeks. BTW...this never happens in American University Research Groups except maybe on Christmas day.

The Filipino Family Switcheroo

The previous post talked about my trip to visit Corrado's family in Priverno, Italy. This post is about Francesco's trip to my hometown of Orange Park to meet my family on the same weekend I was in Priverno. Well I heard from both ends that my family and Francesco had a great time. Maybe a good tradition was started with my mom and Francesco exchanging recipes. Francesco taught my mom how to make his famous lasagna (picture above). They brought this to my nephew Nathan's 4th birthday party at his family's house out in Jax Beach. The lasagna was a hit! My mom made a ton of food (as usual) for this party so Francesco got a few lessons, too.

Francesco got a little taste of everything. He went with my Dad to look for a new car for me (more on that later). My sister took him around OP to run some errands for my mom. She also took him to the beach and Super Target (my sister's favorite store). The main thing though was visiting a ton of my extended family at my cousin's house for Nathan's party. Who would have known an Italian would have had fun at a 4 year old's Pirates of the Carribbean themed party. Everyone is already looking forward to the next time .

More Pictures (Click Thumbs to Enlarge):

The Italian Family Switcheroo

So, this weekend I went with Corrado to his hometown of Priverno, which is about 50 km South of Rome. I was always curious why Corrado always went home practically every weekend. So when he invited me, I jumped at the opportunity. I told Corrado that going to Priverno reminded me a lot of going to my hometown of Orange Park to get away from Gainesville. In fact, the travel time from Rome to Priverno by train was about the same travel time from Gainesville to Orange Park by car. So we left last Friday night directly from school and took a train from Termini. Right when we got out of the train, Corrado's dad was waiting for us with the trunk of his Fiat 500 open for our stuff. It took us about 10 minutes to get to Corrado's house (shown above) and right when we got inside I met his mother. Just like when I arrive at home in OP, dinner was on the table ready for us to eat. It was the beginning of a great weekend of eating. Just on the first night, we had Cotoletta di Milanese, Caprese, and fresh Mozzarella di Bufala. I think I impressed Corrado's parents with my eating ability, given my skinnyness.

The rest of the weekend was spent meeting some of Corrado's friends (old and new) which included seeing some of his friends perform in a band. I even saw Corrado perform with his band. The two other guys in his band are brothers and lived on the family farm. They had this cool rehearsal space on the property. That was fun because I've been helping him make sure the English in his songs are correct.

Corrado also took me to his nearby beach. His beach was also about the same distance Jax Beach is from OP. So driving out to the beach listening to good classic rock again reminded me of being home. The nearby beach city had very much the feel of Jax Beach, with palm trees and people walking around in beachy clothing.

Corrado took me to the historical part of Priverno. It was very Medieval looking. I teased Corrado that this was the only different part of compared to Orange Park. We don't really have a historical center where I live.

The rest of the weekend could be summed up with eating and relaxing. If you combine the facts that Priverno is a more tranquil village than Rome, Corrado's family is so sweet, and many old friends still remain in the city, it's so easy to understand why Corrado enjoys going home so much. His family's hospitality is the same I see that my family extends to my friends. It's something typical I see both in Italian and Filipino families. So this weekend really made me feel like I was at home.

More Photos from the Weekend:



Priverno Photo Set (Flickr)

Note: Thanks to my friend Dennis at Thought and Theory for helping me get Lightbox to display my photos in a cool way.