Zinkwazi

April 16, 2007

Ben and I had a wonderful time on our trip to Zinkwazi Beach, South Africa. We flew from Milan-Lison-Maputo, Mozambique-Johanessburg-Durban. We joined my sister Fiona and her 4 kids (Mitchell, age 12, Lauren, age 10, Max, age 4 and Scott, age 3), plus another friend of Mitchell's, Alex, at their beach house. It is a spectacular house and has already won Best Home for it's region. It's on the beach, has two pools and is very peaceful and cool. The week before we arrived, there had been a mini tsunami that had washed out many decks and beachfronts in the area, but Fiona's deck and beach was fine. The beach there is so wild and rough. The waves were huge and beautiful.

We spent our days at the main beach, or right in front of the house, playing an insane amount of table tennis, watching kids movies, and hanging out with everyone. Mike, Fiona's husband is climbing Everest (again) right now and just got to base camp. Fiona is going to meet him at base camp on his way out in May.
We had dinner a couple times with their friends in the neighborhood and it was great to be with other english speakers and have a good time. One day we went into Durban to a water park/aquariam called uShaka. It was a lot of fun and beautiful too. The weather was perfect most of the time, except 2 days that were grey. The kids were lots of fun and it's neat to see them grow up. As we do not see them but every couple years, we can really tell how much they've grown. All in all, we had a very relaxing, luxurious time. We are so grateful to have gone there for a much needed Italy-free break.

A Performance to Remember

April 5, 2007

Hello All! It's been a busy couple of weeks for Ben and I. Ben's parents came through town on their fantastic European adventure and it was so great to see them and see how much they were enjoying Italy. When they left, I started my two week run at Teatro Out Off with my company, Corte Sconta. The shows were great and it was an all around good experience.
Ben had his final exams for his second term and started his third term where he will be specializing in marketing. He had his first week while our friend Heidi was visiting us from New York, with her friend Stephanie. It was terrific seeing them and getting to hang out. We showed them around Milan and went to Como for one of the days. It meant a lot to me that they could see my performance and see what I've been working on.
Tomorrow, we leave for South Africa for some relaxation and sun.

Happy Easter Everyone.

Busy Bees

March 19, 2007

Well, life is moving fast for us here in Milan. The weather has been warm and sunny (although not today) and I have been very busy with rehearsals. The situation with the company has become much better. After that first week, I haven't been very sore and I feel like I'm understanding the work better. Even so, being with these people 6 hours a day is stressful because I am trying to understand what they are saying and what is going on at all times and that takes a lot of energy. I now understand the ways they work and most of what is said, but there are still those cultural differences that I'm unsure of. Living in a foreign country makes you realize how disconcerting it is not knowing what to do in every situation, having to always be aware of what others are doing and try to figure out yourself.

I like my fellow dancers and they are being nice to me. Somedays they help me practice my Italian which I am getting much better at. This week is the last week of rehearsals and then we start performing March 27th until April 5.
After that, we are off to South Africa to visit my sister, Fiona at her beach house near Durban. Ben and I are so excited to go and relax with family (and people who speak english).

Last Saturday, we went to Bologna for the day. It was a great city and had a lot more interesting architecture and character than most other Italian cities we've been. We didn't do much that day, but sit in the main piazza and watch people and eat. But it was fun. After a while, doing the touristy things get old in these northern italian cities, so it was nice to just take it all in.
Being busy, for me, has really helped me be happier here, although sundays are the days that we miss home the most.

Marla and the New Job

March 3, 2007

Our friend, Marla, from New York came to visit us right as both Ben and I caught the terrible flu that is apparently going around the world. She was in town for Milan's fashion week and she walked the cat walk in about 12 shows while she was here. It was fun to get to see her when she returned from the shows, with crazy make up and hair. We loved having her here!
Ben and I recovered while she was still here and we got to spend time with her, including Carnivale. Her driver, Ricardo, took us to Varese, a town outside of Milan the day of Carnivale. All the children were dressed up in costumes and there was confetti and silly string littering all the streets. There were games and clowns in the streets and a parade here in Milan. Ricardo said that not a lot of people celebrate Carnivale anymore, except for kids.

After Marla left us, I started my new job dancing for Corte Sconta. It has been frustrating time so far. The language barrier is hard and it is just a different way of working than I'm used to. Everyone is allowed an opinion and I just want to go crazy when 5 people are telling me different things to do, most of them in Italian. And they talk so much and their concepts and ideas are sometimes impractical. The dancing itself is cool, but really hard on my body. I have been so sore this week, and it doesn't seem to be getting better. I think it's going to be a long, and confusing 3 weeks before the show.

It looks like spring has come to Milan and the weather is nice and warm. Ben's been riding his bike to school and continuing to work hard at his classes. Tonight he goes to the Milano Vipers hockey game to watch the league playoffs!

Coastin'

February 12, 2007

As we explore more of northern Italy, we find more places that rekindle our admiration of this country. This past weekend, we went to Genova, which is on the Mediterranean Sea. Our friend Catherine invited us to come to her indoor track meet there on saturday night and we decided to make a weekend of it and check out the area. Genova is a hilly city with lots of the colored buildings like in Como. It has a big port that was fun to walk around and have dinner right on the water. We wandered around, saw Christopher Columbus's house (he was from there) and enjoyed seeing the ocean and all the unbelievably gorgeous yachts and sailboats.

Catherine's track meet was way behind schedule, so when we arrived, we got to witness a strange event of speed-walking, which is just hard to watch because you want to shout at them and say, "You know if you pick up your feet more, you could go faster????" We also got to see pole vaulting, high jump, shot put, and the 60 meter sprint before we got to Catherine's 800 event. She didn't do great, but it was so fun to watch and cheer her on.
So far in Italy, we've been to this track meet and 3 pro hockey games, which we actually enjoy. Of course soccer here is so popular, so much so that all the stadiums this week were empty because of a riot down in sicily at game where someone was killed and they banned all fans from attending games.

The day after, we took a train a little east to a small town called Nervi, which is right on the ocean, up from the Cinque Terre. There is a long walkway right along the water and it was so beautiful to watch the palm trees, water and huge rocks. The town was so tropical with hills in the background and the ocean below (and it was about 60 degrees in the sun). Orange and Lemon trees were everywhere (we picked an orange, it was not good). We ate lunch in a park filled with tropical plants and watched kids play soccer. I think it was the most naturally beautiful place I've been in Europe and we were happy to find it.

In other news, I have been offered a contract with the dance company i've been dancing with and will be performing with them for 2 weeks in March and April. I start working for them the last week of February and I am looking forward to learning their stuff.

A Better Italy

January 29, 2007

On Friday, Ben and I took the train to Torino. It is a great city and much more tourist friendly than Milan. The city, first of all, is set up like a grid, which always makes thing easier. The buildings are clean and bright. It's a pretty big city and you can see the mountains and hills from it. When we arrived, we walked around and realized that while we were there, it was the Winter University Games (like a university level Olympics). So there was tons of stuff going on and we went to an outdoor concert that night. Also, there at this time was a light art show going on around the whole city. So on each major street, there were different designed lights covering each block. We went to the big Egyptian museum there, which has one of the biggest collections in the world. It was very well done and we saw huge statues, human mummies and mummified cats and crocodiles. Torino just had a relaxed, but orderly vibe and I enjoyed it very much.
After that we took the train to Aosta, which is north of Torino on the border of Switzerland, in the Italian Alps. The train ride was beautiful the whole way as we watched the rugged landscape become snow capped mountains. The town was very nice and full of Roman ruins, which was neat to see. They were having a local festival that day and we saw lots of wood workers selling their furniture designs and also a huge tent of cheese, chocolate, wine and grappa. It was great to see parts of Italy that we prefer to Milan and to appreciate as an observer, rather than trying to integrate into a culture that is so different than our own.
This month has seemed so long, and I am glad to be moving into February.

2007 Begins

January 17, 2007

Well, the new year is here. And what has it brought us??
Firstly, it has brought us to say goodbye to Michelle and Melody, which set me into a couple days of sadness.
But then it brought us our friend Daniel to us from New York for men's fashion week. He has been for castings for the runway shows and we have been so blessed to have another visitor from home. He has been staying with us and making fast friends with Kato. He'll leave this weekend for Hamburg and Paris, and then be back with us at the end of the month.

Secondly, Ben got to do some great cycling in the first week of January (see pictures above). They rode to a place around Bellagio (near Lake Como) where there is a church dedicated to the patron saint of cycling. He had a great time with his friends, Patrizio and Jorge.
Since then, he's started school again, and is happy to find that he has 2 American professors, which seem to have it together. His classes this term include, International Business Law, Business Ethics, Managing People, and Corporate Finance.

Also, this month, I, Melissa, have been dancing everyday with a modern dance company called Corte Sconta. They invited me in December to take company class with them and I started to do that. This week, they invited me to start learning some choreography. They said that they don't have any contracts open right now, but the future is open. So, there is a possibility that I may get to perform while I am here. That was very encouraging, but in reality, so far, working with Italians is such a pain and the language barrier is awkward. But I am grateful to have this opportunity.

The one thing that 2007 hasn't brought has been letters. Our mailbox has been empty, except for one awesome letter from my Mimi. So please send us a letter or a card or something, please. Because we miss our friends and our family a lot and knowing you care means a lot to us.