When family comes to Naples...

Well, here is the first a couple blogs to come. All of which pertain to my sister's recent visit to Naples and our vacation to Rome thereafter. Let me begin with few words and few pictures.

To start:

When family comes to town... don't let them come without a few gifts and treasures from America.

Even Aaron was excited about everything he had to carry through a couple of airports...

Let us not forget:

Mardi Gras did not go uncelebrated by me this year. My sister is good. And so is Louisiana KING CAKE! Give her a round of applause ladies and gentlemen.

more to come...

High Life in Rome

Sunday my sister and Aaron arrived in Naples. So it has been a busy week running around the city with them. Now we have made our way up to Rome for a few days of vacationing... There are tons of pictures to post, but this fancy hotel doesn't have free wifi, so the pictures will wait.

We got to Rome, and took a Mercedes Bens taxi to our hotel, The Westin of Rome. It's fun to bum off of my sister's nice life! I'm just glad to see her and get to spend some time with her.

More to come when I return home...

WHO DAT!!!!!!!

Well I have a million things that I have not written about in the last week or so. But the main point is....WHO DAT!!!! Superbowl Champs! Paul and Mackenzie threw a little Who Dat party Sunday night. Paul boiled some shrimp and we ate good. Played some Risk, and then watched the Saints beat Peyton in the Superbowl. The game didn't start until about 12:30 here, so we were up until about 4:30 because we had to watch Drew when his MVP! It was a great night. If I was in America I probably would wear only Saints attire for the next month. But I'm not. I'm in Italy and I think people would look at me weird instead of cheering me on.

I also was reminded, once again, of my inability to speak English. Apparently I can't say the word "boil". Or "ask", which I already knew. I can't say the word "remember" either. It's not my fault I was born in WHO DAT NATION!!!!!! :)

THE SAINTS

Well really I could just write about the SAINTS!!! Miami bound!!!! I definitely stayed up until 5 am to watch the game. I called my sister on skype and she put the computer in front of the tv so I could watch it. I think it is still sinking in that we actually won and that we are actually going to the super bowl. I really would have loved to watch that game with my dad. But more so, in two weeks I bet it will be amusing to watch him watching the super bowl. Bottom line.... SAINTS ARE GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL!!!!!! I really love Louisiana.

But I love Italy too!

Today I saw a guy with green spikey hair. Which is not best described in words, and I didn't take a picture, therefore you really can't picture it how I saw it. But just trust me, it was funny.

I cooked fajitas for dinner, and ate a whole thing of greek yogurt with my fajita. Greek yogurt is Italy's take on sour cream, I guess. It tastes the same, so I guess it doesn't matter where it's from or what they call it. All I know is that I ate yummy food tonight. I cooked a little too much though. O well!

Music makes me happy

So I'm discovering how fast my days go by. I feel like I never get done what I plan to get done. Only about 40 % of what I plan actually gets done. It's because I plan on American time, but I live in Italy.

Yesterday I went out to see some friends I made about a week ago. I went to where they normally stand, but they weren't there. Meanwhile I get stopped by some guy who asks me to donate money to a hospital. So I give him my money, and then he stops a guy with a guitar. I hear the guy say that he has class and doesn't have time to stop. There is a music conservatory a couple of blocks from my apartment, so I wondered if he was heading that way. Mind you, I really want to get in to this conservatory. So what do I do?? I definitely follow the guy to see if he goes to the conservatory, and he does! Except I didn't talk to him, because then that would be creepy since I followed him. But I see a sign posted for some guitar thing happening in the Galleria today. It made me happy, so I planned to go.

Well of course I didn't wake up on time to be there for 10 this morning. That is when the poster said it started. I got there at 10:40. Did I miss anything? Nope, because it hadn't started. It finally started at around 11. I ventured off because I heard some other music playing and I heard drums. It was ghetto though. Truly ghetto. Like, not St. Martinville ghetto, more like Breaux Bridge ghetto. I wanted to go play with them, but I restrained myself.

Anyway, the guitar thing started and it ended up being this get together of 20 men or so, with guitars and mandolins. They did all these Napoletano songs, that everyone around knew, which turned in to a whole bunch of people singing. It was fun, but I couldn't understand anything because no one speaks Italian.

Then I remembered I had other things planned and I was already an hour behind what I thought I would be. So I left, and so you see, that life in Italy is never on time. BUT music makes me happy!

Living downtown...

Well last week I moved in to the new apartment and took the week to get settled, and maybe be lazy (just a little). But this week is a fresh start in the new neighborhood. I've been getting out a little to just walk around, find everything, and get acquainted. I've put some pictures up; these are all from the the two piazzas next to the apartment. Sometimes it's nice to live in Italy. haha Sunday afternoon was beautiful, so I ran out for a little and got a few pictures. Maybe one day I'll get around the rest of the city to take some pictures.

This week I'm busy working on a promo video for the team. This would be one of the many reasons why I love my job! I love getting to do things that I love, and in the process meeting new people. Yesterday I went around the city shooting some video footage. Along the way I met about 5 new people, that I was able to stop for 10 minutes or so and talk with them. It was a good chance to practice some Italian.

So, I'll be busy shooting video and editing video the rest of this week. Pray that my computer holds up. It is on it's last leg. Poor little blackie.

Anyway enjoy the pictures, and disregard my lack of photography skills...

Weird things that happen...

So we just moved to our new apartment this week, you know this already. But, we have no grocery store close by. At least not one that has a huge range of stuff inside. There are lots of fruit stands, or vegetable stands, or stores with just food, etc etc. But I needed fabric softener and have been looking for a store that had that kind of stuff. A side note..... I've also been looking for some red jewelry....back to story. So I went out just now looking for fabric softener and I walked by a shop that had a red necklace I wanted. I was looking in the window, and the man called me inside. So I buy the necklace, that he let me choose the price and then changed it. Anyway, he was muslim and started asking me why I was here. He talked to me for 30 minutes about my work and life and religion and everything else that had anything to do with that. Then he walked me to a store to buy fabric softener. The best part..... his name was Ali Ababwa. Yep. Ali Ababwa. Yes I laughed when he told me. Whoops. But I got fabric softener and a new necklace. Now for that I will treat myself to Gay Odin gelato! Sweet Jesus!