Internet Junkie

Confession time - I am an Internet junkie. Tonight is the first time I am actually online in our little Bed & Bunnies apartment and its better than . . . hmm . . . never mind, my parents and father-in-law are reading this blog (in fact, they may be the only ones). We already knew that we would have a high speed connection at our long term apartment, but the B&B apartment we are staying in until Sept 1 did not have an internet connection, although the owner has a connection upstairs. Unfortunately, our Italian is not good enought to explain a wireless router, etc. to our very charming landlady, Vladi. So, we sent an email to her daughter in California asking her to explain it to her mother, which she did with the final result being Vladi coming downstairs and saying "computer" and making the universal hand & arm gestures for "go ahead, do whatever you want." It did require finding the local "Media World" store (by bus, of course), selecting and buying a wireless router and a web cam, then 3 visits by Bill up to her apartment for installation, security, no security, etc. - but we are now online!!! I am so happy and if any of my friends and family have a webcam, we can actually talk online with them. For only $29.99 you can see us and talk to us in that stilited surreal way that you may remember from the early days of videoconferencing (if you are old enough). The kids favorite thing to do is to position the camera not so you can see us, but to point it at the computer screen so that the caller can see themselves - apparently that is more fun than just visiting with the caller.

But I digress - instead of sending a bunch of long, overdue emails to my friends and family, I used the internet to read the NY Times, check the weather, and go to my favorite fashion satire site, gofugyourself.com. And, I suspect I may even play a few games of literati before I actually get around to those emails.

By the way, we love Italy except the heat is really getting to all of us - there are very few air conditioned places, stores, etc. However, being mammals, we all appear to be thermo-regulating and getting used to it (a little).

B&B stands for Bed & Bunnies

Picture - This is the view from the backyard and we basically have the first floor of this building and the owners live on the second floor.

Today I want to talk about bunnies. Bunnies are cute, they are featured prominently in many of the books I have read to my children and I was just charmed when on the first day we moved into our Rivard house and there was a bunny in the backyard (we also watched a crow die of West Nile virus in our yard on that same day, which I should have immediately taken as an omen). But there really is too much of a good thing. At any given moment in our Grosse Pointe yard, there are at least 5 bunnies munching on grass, hostas, flowers, bushes, more hostas, etc. My favorite topic of conversation with Molly is how we would like to chase away, maim, kill or at least sterilize the rabbits that are chewing their way through our hard work and dollars in our yards. So, imagine my delight(?) when after our 18 hour journey, the first thing our landlord Vladi wanted to show us in her backyard was her bunnies!! In fact, it really was THE very first thing they all wanted to show the kids. So, in the beautiful yard of our B&B apartment is a small herd of "feral" bunnies. (I guess they are feral, they are uncaged and seem to come and go as they please - they kids describe them as the "wild bunnies who stay in Vladi's yard because they like her.") And they aren't the nutbrown hares of Grosse Pointe, they look like the fuzzy, little pet bunnies every child wants at Easter time. They are all different colors and sizes - white, gray, black & white, brown, a couple of albinos; all of them very cute with little tufts of hair behind their ears and they hang out in the yard and chase each other, lounge on the grass like cats in the sun, and stare at you longingly looking for food. There are so many of them, I was really surprised when I saw Vladi out there with a lawn mower a couple of days ago, there is grass left to mow? The kids feed them little pieces of bread, pet them, even, catch them once in awhile (Sam has the most patience for it, so he is the most successful bunny catcher.) What I am not exactly clear about is if these are Vladi's pets or that she just likes them in the way that people who raise chickens like their chickens? If they really are wild rabbits, there should be a lot more of them. Will we be dining on the little cute gray one in the future? And will we know it? (I am almost sure that they are pets, not dinner, knowing Vladi.) Anyway, they are terribly cute and the kids already have their favorites and will probably start naming them all soon. For example, this little guy's name is Blackie and he eats out of everyone's hands and I heard he has started the process to get a green card and follow us back to the States.



By the way, this experience has not softened my cold cruel heart or changed my mind about wanting all the rabbits in my own backyard to go away or be dead.

Venice at Midnight with Urchins

Ahhh, Venezia, the oldest tourist destination in the world (assuming that nobody was actually traveling JUST to see the pyramids or the great wall of China) or as it should be called, "Disney Originale" although the rides are strictly two dimensional. To avoid the heat and the peak crouds (although crowds are unavoidable)and since we essentially live in a suburb of Venice, we took a train out to Venice at about 6 pm, arrived at the stazione, hopped on an overcrowded boat, and arrived the famous Piazza San Marco about 7:30.

Think about that. At 6 PM we STARTED a trip with 3 children under the age of 8, which in itself involved a 3 block walk in 90 degree heat and a bus ride to the station.

At the piazza, the children were fascinated by the pornographic boxer shorts and kitchen aprons on prominant display at the tourist chotzkes (sp?) kiosks. Michelangelo's David would be so proud to know that his genitals were being strategically silkscreened (life-size and think about how big the real David really is) on aprons to be worn in kitchens around the world. We were trying to casually ignore them, but it took the kids about 13 seconds to spot them and even Isabelle immediately "got it" and is still talking about it. There really isn't anything funnier than weiners, is there?

Piazza San Marco - pigeons, pigeons, and more pigeons. We can't understand why anybody would eat anything within a two-block (two canal?) radius of that place. Yet, it is lined with places to eat outdoors. I was grossed out by the pigeons 10 years ago when I was in Venice with Terri and still am today. Somehow, we escaped without being pooped on! The picture is Nick getting away just in time.

All the kids behaved great until dinner, when the top came off the pressure cooker, and we are all lucky that we didn't spend the night washing dishes in a small diner in Venice. On the good side, we found the one place that served chicken patty sandwiches and homemade french fries. We then wandered back to the train station, only to miss the 10:30 pm train and had to wait until almost midnight. So, in July on the steps of the famous Grand Canal, our children sang and danced a variety of songs from High School Musical (looking very scruffy indeed). A confused German woman almost looked like she wanted to put some coins in the hat, but alas, there was none.

The kids fell asleep almost immediately on the train which was a good thing, because on the night train there were many couples necking, groping and lots of other "ings." We got back to Padova at 1 am, poured ourselves into a taxi and fell into bed. I guess we will wait to visit Venice again after the tourists leave and the floods arrive.

Jet-Lagged in Padova

Well, we actually made it to Venice and arrived at 4:30 pm on Friday afternoon. We were all exhausted and still had a half hour ride to Padova from the airport. Graziella, our wonderful realtor, had 2 guys meet us at the airport - one with a van for the people and one for the 10 bags plus guitar. We were hot, tired and had neglected to feed our children lunch or make sure that Isabelle had gone to the bathroom. So we had the fun of stopping on the side of the road as she said she was desperate and doing the "potty crotch grab" in the van which she refused, so we went up the road to a rest stop and got a glare from the attendent when I only had a 20 cent piece and sent Bill back with more change. Our B&B apartment is on a typical center city street where the apartments/houses are all behind big medievil looking doors mixed in with the shops, restaurants and gelato places which caused Isabelle to scream (many times and loudly) I'm not living in a store!!! I'm not living in a store!!! And the boys were just quietly confused until the big doors were opened and there you step into a beautiful little courtyard with about a dozen apartments, a huge garden, and two sweet and beautiful Italian nonne to greet us. So we got settled in, had pizza for dinner (which Bill, Kathleen & I devoured and the kids refused) and fell asleep.

The next day everyone was out of sorts and we had all sorts of fun adventures along the lines of one child throwing up in the street, one person peeing on the couch while napping and generally awful behavior which had even the sweet and even-tempered Kathleen ready to pull her hair out. Things calmed down a bit when Bill & I went to the grocery store and came back with the makings for peanut butter and jelly, fruit and cookies. Day 2 has already been much better for all after a solid 10 hours of sleep.

Our little apartment is incredibly charming and I will write all about that on another day.

Sleepless in Amersterdam

Well, they let me into the European Union even with my dirty looking feet. The plane ride was uneventful and we were paired up - Bill & the person who made him stand up multiple times during the night because she wanted to lay down and sleep on both seats; me and and a little guy who wanted to snuggle and Kathleen and mr. traveler wearing his tye-die, wooden frog necklace with his name on it and Michigan State Fair baseball hat. Now we are just hanging around Schipol airport trying not to lose any of the children in our sleep deprived and depraved states.

It was kind of hectic getting out of the house and we must publicly apologize for the mess we have left for Suzanne and publicly thank both Allison & Suzanne for getting us to the airport.

I wish we could download a picture of our scraggly selves, but then again almost anyone taking the trouble to read this blog has seen all of us at various other scraggly times on a fairly regular basis.

I lost my shoe!!

We're off and I've lost one of my shoes I was going to wear and now I'm going to have to wear the ones that make my feet all black and the Italians will think I'm some gross, dirty American and not rent us their house and send us home and Bill's career will careen in a downward spiral and I'll be too depressed to finish my PhD and the kids will all drop out of school and we will end up living in a flat in Toledo and Bill will work at a gas station and I'll be the customer service girl at the local Chevy dealer.

Postscript 4 August 2006 - My mother found the lost shoe under Bill's dresser last week.

24 Hour Countdown & Leaving

Tomorrow at this time we will be checking in at the airport with our the kids, our babysitter, 10 large pieces of luggage and a guitar. I'm pretty sure that whole process will involve lots of snipping and snapping at each other as Isabelle bumps herself on something and has a meltdown, Nick tries to stack the suitcases 10 high and use them for a jungle gym and Sam can't decide whether to laugh or cry. Its been pretty crazy this week and we have all been frazzled. Bill just finished a grant application today, I completed all the adminstrative steps to have candidacy for my degree and the kids have been driving us all crazy! All that's left to pack are the carry-on bags complete with crayons, paper, books, snacks and water bottles.

Last night at dinner, Nick looked at us and said very seriously, "Why are we going to Italy?" Apparently, he hadn't occured to him to ask this question during the year of planning. Bill gave him a thoughtful answer about learning new science and Nick's follow-up question was, "And why do we have to go with you?" They then had a conversation about how we would really all miss each other if Bill went for a year by himself and we stayed in Detroit.

Speaking of the year of planning, I can't believe how everyone has listened so patiently to us talk about this for what seems like forever. I know I'm sick of listening to myself talk about it, so I can't imagine how it must be to listen to it. The whole sabbatical process of interviews, approvals, visas, etc. really does take a full year.

So now we vado anno sabbatico.

Postscript, 30 July - Here is a picture of all our luggage waiting in the driveway to be loaded.


Leaving for the airport and our adventure in our various states- Cindy is exhausted from doing the bulk of the packing, Bill and Nick are ready to go, Sam is ready & willing but reserving judgement and Isabelle wants to just get in the car, now!

One Week Countdown

Welcome to the blog of our family's anno sabbitico in Padova, Italy. Mostly I'll be posting, but I hope to get Bill and the kids to add some comments along the way. We leave one week from today and are all very excited.

I had a relatively sleepless night worrying about the important things like which shoes to take and how I'm going to get tickets to a human chess game in Marostica (not far from Padova) in September. Unfortunately, it occurs to me that I should really start packing today and that unfortunately includes getting all the laundry done, cleaning my bedroom and negotiating with Isabelle the number of stuffed animals and beanie babies she will be bringing.

The great thing about setting up this blog is that now I have a legitimate excuse to take a break and post entertaining and interesting posts for our family and friends versus taking a break to play literati (note: literati is an online scrabble game through yahoo) with strangers across the world who are probably other harried moms avoiding the drudgery of it all, grad students avoiding school work and software written by tech geeks posing as real humans.

I hope this blog does not become the written equivalent of home movies, but if I ask you about it and you say something like "Wow, Italy and Padova sound like really great places and I never knew the climate that far north was so temperate" or "That story about the kids was just hilarious" I will be fooled into thinking you are reading my blog and none the wiser. At the very least I know my parents and Bill's dad will read it if for no other reason than parental loyalty, parental guilt or
both.

Okay, the blog is set up and I need to have some coffee and get to work!!