It feels like summer today. The forecast for this week is mid 80s, with sun sun sun! Apparently I'm not the only one confused in Italy...the weather is too! But hey, I'm not complaining. It is so wonderful to spend time outside without instantly sweating or keeling over from heat exhaustion...as would have happened at any point this summer in San Antonio! But this week looks like it will be fantastic. This morning Ava and I had some yogurt and cheerios outside in our garden for breakfast. I decided to risk life and limb and go for a run since the sun was shining and there was a great breeze. Right behind our house, on the hill up towards Fiesole, there is a European University that has many paths and gardens around the campus. I remembered walking around there in June, but I obviously forgot about how many hills there were! So, in about 15 minutes I was completely exhausted...but if felt great to get out and do some sort of exercise after a whole week of doing nothing! Back at home, Ava and I both did some school work inside (ie, I did my Bible study and she made two lovely paintings) and then went back out to the garden to play. I've really been trying to help her with the hand-eye coordination, so bouncing and rolling a small ball to each other provides great exercise for both of us since neither one of us can catch a ball to save our lives! (Above is a picture of our garden in the early evening, with the gazeebo on the left and at the far end is where our neighbor's chickens and rooster live). We had planned on going to a park to play for a couple of hours, since our cheuffeur offered to take us and pick us up, but with all the fun in the sun this morning, Ava just konked out for a nap! But how wonderful it was to hear my daughter laughing this morning, and feeling comfortable in her surroundings. In just 1 short week, I can already see that she's adjusting better than I am! I'm thinking that it's moments like these that I need to keep in mind what a good life we have and be thankful to be living this incredible experience.
(To the right is the view out of my bedroom window...with the small waterfall of the River Mugnone)
I think the sunshine today has helped to lift my spirits a bit too. The last couple days I've been feeling a little overwhelmed with the difficulties of living in Firenze with a child. When I lived here before, it was so different and much easier. I could walk wherever I needed to since I lived a block from the Duomo. I was right in the center of the city so whatever I wanted was at my fingertips. I had American roomates my age that I could talk to whenever I was bored or just wanting to talk (as girls certainly love chatting about nothing in particular). Now here with Ava we are in a lovely house, with a lovely garden, but without a motorino it will take us half an hour to get into the city. We have new Italian friends, and adopted family, but the language barrier presents tension when I would just really love to talk to them and get to know them all! I knew all these things would be difficult before I came here, but somehow I'm not feeling as brave as I thought I was. I know I should just be patient and realize the language will come with time. But I just feel so stupid sometimes. The funny thing is, I'm an intelligent person, with interesting and insightful things to say--but it's all totally lost in my elementary translation! I truly want to learn the language, but any book learning I have attempted doesn't seem to stick in my brain. Everyone says "You just need to start speaking the language...just anything, no matter how wrong you think you are in the grammer or pronunciation" and I know that's true. I guess I just need to be forceful and make my friends teach me.
(Here is a view of the garden from the office in which I write this blog)
There is a possibility I could help a friend's son learn better English, meet with him to practice converstation/pronunciation etc....so I must demand he helps me with Italian too. His father wants me to teach him to speak "American"...haha...not British English, but American English. And perhaps I should force him to teach me Florentine Italian, which has some different pronunciation and grammar than other forms of Italian (or so the true Florentines tell me!) Well, all this said, I suppose I just need to get over the fact that I'm going to be in a constant state of confusion for the next few months. I need to just get over my natural know-it-all attitude that I've had since I was 4 years old. Time to get humble, ask for help, and laugh at myself when I do or say something completely ridiculous. I mean really...I'm just a stupid American girl trying to live in a silly European country...what could be more hilarious?
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