In the middle of nowhere.....in Italia!

So basically I am living in the boonies! In the middle of nowhere in Italy! I wanted this experience to live on a farm and have fresh vegetables and to pick fruits off of the trees but I think that it has changed my mind about wanting to live on a farm!


Yesterday we arrived at Milan centrale station. We took the green line to famagosta stop on the metro to meet our new camp director. She was nice an spoke English, so we were satisfied! However, after we got out of the station, we thought we were in the ghetto of Milan. Not so happy and unsure of what we were getting ourselves into... She told us we were taking a 20 minute drive to where I would be staying. I was hoping that it was out of the ghetto and into a nice English speaking family. Well out of the ghetto we went and arrived in basically the middle of nowhere! We started laughing when we pulled up trying to hide the nervous energy! A nice Italian woman came to the gate, made it official that there were no cats and offered all of us a beer. A good sign we thought! She took us into our home, her and her husband were delightful as can be! They spoke a little English and we sighed in relief that everythig was going to be allright!

She showed us our little apartment for the weekend. I would be staying with the other tutor from England and Ron was just staying here for the weekend because his new host family was at the sea and the other tutor was in Venice for the weekend. The mini apartment looked nice it had it's own kitchen and everything equipped with 2 large beds a bathroom and washer! We finally felt ok and began to laugh at our day.

After our camp director left, we awkwardly sat in our mini apartment, not sure what to do next. We found some biscuits and crackers lying out for us, but decided that we needed to eat a real meal, so we got the courage to ask for some real food!

To our surprise, we had freshly picked eggs straight from their backyard and fresh apricots and cheeries picked from the neighbors trees. It was absolutely delicious and was something that my body was craving the whole time I had been residing in Italy! This is what I though Italy was all about, fresh food and good wine! The yolks in the eggs were unbelievable and hard to truely describe! And I have never tasted an apricot so flavorful! I am hoping to find these when I get back to the states because fresh apricots are something that I will truely miss!! After our delicious meal, she showed us the bikes and we decided to get some exercise! We headed to the smallest town I had ever seen in my life through the corn and rice fields. Yes... Rice fields! They grow rice here and it is everywhere!! With growing rice, also brings bugs because it is grown in water! So we were glad to have put on the off bug spray!!

After our nice bike ride through the country, we took our showers and headed into the nice home of our host family. We could smell the food and it smelled amazing! For dinner you ask?? Fresh vegetables from their garden, pasta and homemade tomato sauce! Don't worry, we asked how they made it and I will be making this when I return! My body was so satisfied with the meal and thanked me for finally putting some vegetable nutrients into it! This was the first meal in Italy that I had presummed to be stereotypical of Italy! We also had white wine, fresh from the neighbors backyard! We finished dinner around 10:30. Yes very late but that's Italy for you!!

We headed to our little flat as they warned us about the Mosquitos! Oh great we thought! They turned on a little gadget that kills the Mosquitos. We closed all of the windows and put towels under the doors. Then, we proceeded to kill hundreds of Mosquitos before trying to go to bed. We spent an hour doing this and we were so desperate for sleep that we took 2 benedryls each to try to take or minds off of the bugs and put us to sleep! Incredibably hot and covered in covers so that the Mosquitos could not reach me, I slept. (Well, I think that I slept a little....)

I was surprised when I woke up, no mosquitos in sight and not a bite on my body! However, I probably lost a few pounds from sweating last night! And to think that I will have to do this for the next 6 nights and hoping that my family next week does not have this same issue!!

That being said, I don't think I could live on a farm equipped with Mosquitos but would love to have fresh fruits and vegetables everyday from a garden. I guess you have to give up one thing to have another. However, I am ready to get back to some civilization and am hoping that our trip to the big city of Milan will do the trick!!

Happy fourth of July!! And, hope you are making a flag cake in my honor! I will try to eat some red white and blue pasta or something I am sure!!