Fun times living in Italy...

So, I thought that since I've been "offline" for so long, I'd share some of the fun adventures living in Italy...

Here is my hair dresser (& my neighbor on the far left). His name is Francesco and he's amazing! On the side he plays in the praise band at the local Italian evangelical church in town :) Plus, he gives the best haircut (& highlights) around! by the way - he's a third of the price of anyone in the states, and he's much better!

Let's see... what else do I have? oh yeah... so, moving to Italy = buying a used Italian car (well, two Italian cars)... and of course, they're both Fiats! Gotta fit in with the locals! Actually, my favorite of the two cars is the '95 Fiat Punto convertible... so I have to include that pic (with a fellow youth volunteer, Gillian - isn't my hubby a good photographer)! :) Plus, the background is the view that you see from my driveway - yep! that's the Med! This is the view that we have from every room in the house! In the haze in the back left of the picture is the island of Ischia. Naples... the best air - ha! we have some beautiful days, but many days are hazy full of air pollution! The nice part of living on the west coast of the area is that we don't get near as much of the air pollution :)

I dont' think I've mentioned the biggest obsession for all Italians! FOOTBALL! well, not what you might think of as football... soccer that is. They go crazy for it! I'm sure you know (if you don't, I'm about to tell ya - no worries) - guess which team made it into the World Cup Finals this past year?! yep, you guessed it! The Italian team! So, I (Durward was away for work) went out with a bunch of friends (including an Aggie - class of '01! WHOOP!) and joined the Italians in the street in Monte di Procida to watch the game on the big screen in the middle of the piazza. The place was absolutely crazy! How to explain it - Italians LOVE fireworks. Actually, love does not even begin to explain the obsession! fireworks everywhere! loud speakers blaring all over the place! horns honking as loudly as possible! people jumping around like crazy! red, white, & green flags flying through the air! it was absolutely craziness!

Well, that's enough pictures for now. stay tuned for more! :)

CIAO FROM BELLA NAPOLI!

A New Year...

and it's time for me to get into the blogging age!
Inspired by everyone around me... here I go! :)
It's hard to believe that 2007 is already here. What's even harder to believe is that I have been here in Napoli for 15 months! WOW!! Time sure flies!

We just finished a long holiday season around here (though as the newbie in the office, that just equated to a short weekend trip!) Our Christmas adventures took us to Prague, Czech Republic. I was hoping for a White Christmas, but no snow. That's ok! It was so amazing to see the beautiful city! What's crazy is to look around - everything around us was so much older than even the oldest building in the States! The craftmanship and the architectual & engineering knowledge - how fascinating!

For New Year's, we enjoyed our first Neopolitan fireworks spectacular. It was unreal! Definitely unlike anything that I've ever seen before. 360 degrees of fireworks - it felt like you were in a warzone there were so many in all directions. We even lit off a few of our own to join in the celebration - why not?! And a friend of ours... well, he blew a hole in a manhole cover with one, but that's a story for another day... good ole pyrotechnics, huh?

Well, I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year!! or in italiano... Buon Anno!