Dedicated Tiger Fan in Padova (and it's not me!)

In case you were wondering, yes Bill is watching the World Series. He paid $10.00 to ESPN to watch the games live on our computer. This offer was only available to people with international computer hook-ups. So, he is getting up and watching the games from 2-5 am on a tiny little picture coming over the internet on our lap-top. I am, however, not doing this and just groggily ask who won the game when he comes back to bed. My only thought is that when the Tigers are getting ready to win Game 4, which I am sure they will do, that I will get up and watch the last couple of innings. And that my friends, is the difference between a true fan of the game and me, the ultimate fair weather fan. In fact, I just recently learned the names of the Tiger's pitching roster and will move on to the other players as the Series continues.

Addendum after the series: Well, we were really sorry that the Tigers didn't win the Series, but happy that they were the American League Champs and looking forward to next year's season. Bill did watch all the games in the middle of the night except for Game 4 on his little tiny computer tv screen. And, we had a lot of fun explaining baseball and the World Series to our Italian acquaintances who barely even know what baseball is - kind of like explaining the World Cup to most Americans.

The Requisite Ride

As you all know, Padova is practically a suburb of Venice and what is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of Venice? Gondolas, of course! Since before we even left for Italy the kids have been talking about going for a gondola ride. We put them off by telling them that when grandma came for a visit we would all go on a gondola ride. Well, grandma’s visit is underway and the gondola ride must be taken! To say I was lukewarm to the idea would be an overstatement. But, we made our plan to go to Venice on Sunday morning. My curmudgeonly self crabbed to Bill, “C’mon, let’s go get this #$@*&# thing over with” feeling like I was going to be wasting a perfectly perfect fall day, not to mention a big waste of money. It was sunny and 65 degrees and I was more in the mood for a visit to the botanical gardens or a bike ride or just hanging out. We had a busy day on Saturday and I thought about suggesting that we put it off until next weekend. However, I felt like this is in the same category as going to the dentist or wasting a good morning getting your oil changed, you might as well do it and just get it over with. So we hopped on the city bus, got a train and arrived in Venice about noon.

Unfortunately, I lost my section on Venice from my favorite Rick Steve travel book (which reminds me, do you have it David?). I had read the section of how the whole gondola “thing” works a while back. I was planning on stopping in the tourist information office, but the line was about 40 people and we really didn’t feel like waiting in a long line. My Plan B (that I concocted when I saw the line) was to just wander into the city and find a gondola on one of the side canals because no way was I getting in a boat that is basically just a big canoe in the choppy waters of the Grand Canal. The Grand Canal is so choppy because it is crowded with water buses, water taxis, private boats, UPS boats, etc. Plus, I have seen the sites on the Grand Canal multiple times from the water bus and didn’t need to see it again. As we were wandering into the city, I had more than a couple of moments of self-doubt. What if you don't just go “find” a gondola on the back streets? What if you have to make a reservation somewhere? What if? What if? What if? But at this point, I had 5 people confidently following me (I’m not really sure about the confident part - well, maybe Isabelle) to find a gondola I wasn’t even sure would be there and/or available. As we were weaving through the city streets we came upon many small side canals, but alas no gondolas to be seen on a somewhat quiet Sunday afternoon. Sam pointed out yet another small canal and whadda ya know? We saw a gondola with a couple of people in it, the gondolier pointed us to a set of steps about 100 yards away and a couple of minutes later we were on the water.

I have to say from the bottom of my jaded black tourist heart, it was unexpectedly one of the most enchanting things I have ever experienced. He took us for a 40 minute ride on the “back” canals and I felt like I was in a picture book of long-ago Italy. It was a magical, peaceful ride. The gondolier, of course, had lots of good stories and Bill’s Italian is so good that he (the gondolier) did not feel compelled to share his stories in English. Amazingly, I understood about 50% of what he was saying. One of us, who I will let remain anonymous, asked the gondolier if he sings. His prepared answer is “I am so bad that last year I was in a karaoke bar and they turned off the machine when I started to sing.” The boys thought that was a hilarious story and I believe Nick put it in his journal at school today. Anyway, it was just wonderful and we all loved it. Afterwards, casual pizza lunch at an outdoor café on a little piazza for the ragazzi to run and the adults to sip our vino and relax.

Come to Venice, go on the gondola!

Go Tigers Go!

Bill was very happy to stay up to 2 am and "watch" the Tigers & Yankees on the ESPN "gamecast" website. I periodically got out of bed to watch a play or two. Hopefully, the next series won't go for all 7 games, because it is hard to stay up so late. We are already scheming on how we will get up in the middle of the night to watch the World Series and then go back to bed after the kids go to school. Note to Scott - Bill tried to web-call you after the game last night to share in the excitement but you must have been too noisy to hear the call from the computer.

As I have said before, they are almost guaranteed to win the Series because we are out of the country! Anyway, Bill will be bleary-eyed for the next couple of weeks while the baseball season plays itself out without us. This is one thing we REALLY are sorry to be missing!

Weekend Update

We all had a really fun week on our excellent adventure.

I Bambini - At the kids’ school, all children are placed in one of four “houses” (yes, in the style of Harry Potter) – Giotto, Dante, Donatello or Galileo. They make sure that all the kids in a family are in the same house and we are in Giotto. Each week at school children can earn points for good behavior, finishing homework on time, picking up litter around the school, being good listeners, etc. etc. Giotto has won the house “cup” two weeks in a row and Nick won an individual award for doing all his homework (you wouldn’t believe how much homework his class has – it is ridiculous!) and Isabelle won an individual award for helping others in class. (This reward system may be a bit much – Isabelle came home this week from school, made a chart with all our names on it and is going to award us “points” with a prize at the end of the year. Although, her view of our family is pretty pathetic. The boys earn points for not “pounding” her and Bill & I earn points for not yelling at her. Are we really that bad? Or is this just the universal, existential position of the youngest child?) Sam attended the fourth and fifth birthday parties he has been invitied to this yearh and they are always at these great places because most people live in condos/apartments and so they are too small for a big party. The party this week was out in the ‘burbs near the mountains in an area famous for its hot springs. The party was at a spa hotel and included playing football (i.e. soccer), a magic show and swimming in the pool! We stayed for about an hour because these parties are generally a little bit of a drive and the parents sit around, chat and have a drink or coffee. This party we got to have champagne while we watched the magician tie up the father of the birthday boy with help from two of the beautiful, babe Italian mommies. Also, Isabelle had a lot of fun because the younger sister of one of the kids was there who is in Isabelle’s class – so everyone knew each other and now they know us because we keep coming with Sam to all these parties and all the parents and all the kids are making friends. (My god, I feel like I’m describing Grosse Pointe!) Nick had his first invitation to play at someone’s house who has just returned from two years living in England (so everyone spoke English very well) and they had a satellite dish with Nickelodeon in English – he could not have been more thrilled. His class is not as social as Sam’s, so he hasn’t had the opportunity (or inclination) to make buddies as much as Sam. And, even better, he and the little boy got along well and had a grand time playing some battle game blowing up enemy ships, creating armies, etc. – all that great, testosterone driven boy stuff that Bill and I are terrible at providing for our sons. Thank goodness they got along well, because we got lost going from the spa hotel and we were very late in picking him up - the parents were quite good natured about it and the mom of Francesco, Monica, made homemade pizza, even the dough, as Nick excitedly explained! It is really a good “mom” feeling to watch the kids making friends, going places without us, enjoying the school days, etc. And we are all much better off when we are out of each other’s worlds for at least a little while each day. They have also joined a couple of clubs at school that start next week. Nick and Sam are playing in the football club during their lunch hours, Nick joined the French club, Sam has the Spanish club and Isabelle is in the “Fun in the Gym” club. I know what you’re thinking – the French & Spanish clubs? In this school the students start a third language in 6th grade, so the 3rd-5th graders can join language “clubs” to give them some fun, non-academic exposure. Sam and Nick thought it would be fun to learn a little bit in addition to their Italian lessons, so why not? Also, we found a little music shop, right around the corner from us, so Sam and Nick have picked up their music lessons again – they were both very happy about that. So, now our schedule is full and the kids have enough to do. We aren’t doing any community sports because honestly, they are just more than we like for our kids or ourselves – for example, football, for all children, even the youngest, is two 2-hour practices per week, plus the games on the weekend. We were thrilled that the school has these lunch hour clubs, so the kids get to do a little something and our evenings have not turned into a family shuttle service.

La mamma- I started Italian lessons, 2-3 hours per day this week, a great teacher and it was a lot of fun for me. I am going to continue indefinitely. Bill has been very diligent studying and practicing Italian and I have been very . . . what’s the opposite of diligent? I also have finally been able to meet some other women to buddy around with that speak English. There is a women’s group in Padova that meets 2x per month for coffee during the afternoon and next week I am invited to lunch with some other women I met at school. And the best of all, we leased a car this week for 10 months and will pick it up early next week. A Fiat of course! It will probably cost about as much as we have been spending on our sporadic rentals, it is brand new and will be sitting in our backyard whenever I want to drive someplace. As I have said before, taking the bus, walking, riding my junky bike around is fine for many, many things – but when you need a car to take a kid to a birthday party, pick him up from a friend’s house in the evening, run out for a big grocery shopping – the taxi or bus just don’t “cut it.” There are also lots of local places we would like to explore and it really isn’t that easy with the bus or train. Another fun thing about this year is that because of the more relaxed style of our lives, I am meeting Bill for lunch a couple of times per week. At home we are too distracted by our friends and colleagues, but here with less friends to distract us, we are spending more time together. That is nice because in the evening we are so busy with the kids and so exhausted by the time we get them into bed at night, that we generally too tired for much of anything. At lunch we are both still chatty, freshly showered & shaved and in a good mood! We will have to figure out how to continue this practice when we return.

Il papa – Bill’s various bacteria, DNA and other things have finally arrived in his lab so he is “back on the bench.” He loves his lab, his colleagues are wonderful and it is a good place for him to be professionally. He also got a junky bike to ride around town, so now he can bike to work instead of the bus or walking which will give him more flexibility to do things during the day (like meet me for lunch!). He is also going to start going over to my language school a couple of times per week to practice his conversational skills. Although, his skills are impressive for an American just learning. For example, he is able to go into government offices and conduct all of our bureaucratic nonsense in Italian. Actually he can do almost anything he wants in Italian, be it more slowly and less articulate than he would like – but he really is good. Poor Bill, after 15 years in Detroit and being the dedicated baseball fan that he is, can’t even watch the playoffs. He has to “watch” the games on some ESPN website that reports each play in real time. It isn’t terrible, there is a little picture of a baseball diamond and even a little ball that goes up in the air when there is a hit. But there are no people, just little “x’s” where the players are standing. Also, we are 6 hours ahead, so last night at 2 am we got up to check the score and watch a couple of plays. By the way, there are some SERIOUS Yankee fans on his side of the family. So while of course we hope, I mean know, that the Tigers will go all the way, even if we won’t be home to enjoy the hometown glory, we will be turncoats and cheer for the Yankees if the unthinkable happens this weekend. Finally, the biochemist we (mostly I) like to razz about his scientist sense of fashion, left to go run errands this morning in a pair of jeans, a very Italian patterned shirt, blazer and good shoes. I give you Exhibit A. Could he be any cuter? We may have to move here!



I just finished a book, Paris to the Moon, written by a guy who moved to Paris with his wife and baby for five years – a writer’s sabbatical of sorts. At the end of the book when they are happily returning to the U.S. he quotes his wife, “We have a beautiful existence, but not a full life in Paris and in the U.S. we have a full life, but not a beautiful existence.” That is how our Italian life felt this week, especially to me, since I am the most removed from my “full life” as Bill still has work and the kids still have school. The everyday beauty of living in a small Italian city, the birthday party, meeting friends from all over the world, the small shops, congenial nature of others, the beauty of learning a new language, more time with my husband, hearing Isabelle start to speak in a tiny English lilt that she is picking up from her teacher, having one of the most beautiful squares in Europe right outside my window and on and on.

A Visit to the Beach

In Italy many of the beaches are “private,” meaning that to get a beach chair, space, bathroom access, etc. on the ocean you have to pay for your “spot.” (There are some public areas but it is much nicer to use the private areas.) Some people find it annoying, I actually kind of like it because you are relieved of the hassle of bringing your own chair and all the little beaches have small “bars” that serve pizza, chips, pop, espresso, etc. – all you have to do is show up with your bathing suit and towels. They even have little changing rooms and showers to wash up. They are however, crowded, but for the most part, Italy is crowded and that also doesn’t bother us because we were expecting it. Last Saturday was the last day of official beach season and all the private beaches were closing up shop for the winter. We had a car for the week, so we drove out to the nearest beach, Choggia (pronounced kee-o-jeea) about 35 miles away and found a wonderful sandy area of the Adriatic, south of Venice. Since the beach was so big, all the private beach clubs had pools, playgrounds, etc, etc. It is obviously a big resort area with lots of hotels, etc. and we were bummed out that we had found it so late in the season (so late – like as “on the last day of beach season!”). If we only knew now, what we didn’t know in those hot steamy days of July and August. It was really too cold to swim in the ocean and the pools, etc. weren’t open, but the kids had a lot of fun exploring. And, as usual, with our children, garbage is treasures and there was a lot of garbage from a busy summer season. The Brusilow children are pictured here with their “treasures.” The thing that Isabelle and Sam is standing in front of is a headless dog carcass. The kids brought it to us with great delight and sincerity thinking they were bringing the skeleton of some kind of large sea animal and we immediately acted with great disgust. A second later, quick recovery and a quick moment in the category of “politically-correct parenting in the new millennium”, we made one fast comment on how interesting it is to find something like that and took a picture, and then yelled “BUT it is a dead dog and get it away from us NOW!” (Of course these are the same children who have a grandma who took them on a hike in Colorado and brought home the skull of a dead dog, boiled it in our “cramped for space and fresh air” condo to rid the skull, but not our condo of the putrid smell of decaying flesh and Sam brings it to show his class every new school year. But I digress, apparently, its fun to find dead animals when you are a kid.) Nick gathered a palette, a rudder from some kind of small day sailor and various other things to use to make his own boat.




It was a grand day; Bill & I just got to laze and watch the boats and ocean and fantasize about staying in Italy for two years instead of just one and the kids got to run, explore, and fantasize about sailing the seas on homemade watercraft.