OK, where to start – 5 days have passed!! And I made it through my first week! :)

We left Thursday afternoon for their mountain house in Madonna di Something (the name is escaping me at the moment). The 5-hour drive up there wasn’t as bad as expected. It went pretty quickly and Irene and I chatted a little – trying to teach her new words. Highway, hand dryer (when we stopped at an Autogrill), truck, etc.  It was pretty entertaining.

Their house there is a 3-bedroom apartment – very quaint and nice.  First time in a bunk bed for me in I don’t even know how long! And I really wish I knew there was a light switch outside the room instead of just next to the beds to avoid the massive blow to the head by the top bunk the first day. I really thought I had a concussion! I’ll never force my children to have bunk beds just for that reason alone! (and putting sheets on the top bed is a huge pain as well)

Irene and Raoul skied each day with Rosanna and I off to walk the town and do some shopping. She did all of the shopping. Over the 5 days, we went to 4 stores for ski pants. For a 3 year old. And they were expensive. We went to even more stores for clothes for Irene. And 2 of those stores were the same! Except one said Lorenzetti Chic instead of just Lorenzetti – huge difference. Not really because the clothes were the exact same. So Irene got some beautiful Burberry, Gucci things, which she doesn’t even care about. She just wants to wear jeans and a shirt all the time. But Rosanna keeps trying! She even asked me why does she keep buying the girly clothes when she doesn’t like them? It’ll be interesting to see how it all works out as she gets older. But until then, she has a closet full of beautiful clothes!

So days were spent waking up, having breakfast, get dressed, walk to town (which is all of a square), get what we want for lunch, shop, back  home for lunch, eat/read/sleep, Irene and Raoul come home, I go for a walk, back home for dinner. One night on my walk, I went to a bar. Had a very tasty beer (not sure if it really was or just because I hadn’t had one!) The moment lasted all of 20 min because then I met Irene and Rosanna at, where else, the store! The next night I went to the same bar even later – 10pm. It was my “night out”! :) The bartender spoke English very well and kept telling me people will be coming in around 11pm (which he was right on about) and then they go dancing around 2am. I tried to explain that I didn’t have keys to the house and had to be heading home way before 2am. I stayed for a couple glasses of wine, and yes, I’m the tool that sits at a bar and reads a Kindle, and headed back home. I’d love to have been more social, but I’m really struggling with the language I feel like and didn’t want to be pretty much just sitting there. But it was still nice to get out.

The last night we had dinner with another couple out. That was also fun – very nice couple.

The car ride home was uneventful which is good. We didn’t stop at all and it reminded me of the times driving to Brigantine and my father just “wanting to get there” so no pee stops allowed! Granted that was a less than 2-hour drive versus a 5-hour drive, but still! But we all did well. :)

So I think the take away is that I don’t seem to get out much here, huh?! :) And I don’t mean it to be that way. I guess just being in the house mostly and with Irene makes me feel like each social outing is an event. That and I don’t really have people to be social with, so I’m sure that adds to it. For some reason I feel like I’m struggling more with the language this time around. I know it’s only been a week or so, but I feel like I’ve been more communicative other times even just being here for a short vacation. Hopefully it’s just a block and I’ll get better.

This week is going to be quiet for the most part. I’m planning a long weekend trip to Switzerland to visit a friend there. Definitely looking forward to that! It’s a long train ride for the time I’ll be there, but I’m just going with it!