exclusively in italy:

now your mean-muggin' baby can be in a gang! check out this ad i found on the back of one of the girls' topolinos.

the beginning.

my initial plan for this blog was to keep it as something to show my friends and family what i'm up to while i'm here in italy. as i got the project started i became more and more interested in blogging. recently i decided to use this blog to not only document my time here for friends and family, but as a way to connect with others in the au pair community too. in my curiosity as to what exactly was already out there in terms of blogs concerning the au pair world i came across kacy's blog. she later asked through my formspring widget about how i got started with this job, etc. i have been making a little mental list over the past few days of the posts that i would like to write to help integrate my position as an au pair into the blog, but for some reason the answers to kacy's questions were nowhere in that list. and what better place to start than the beginning? so, here it is:
i first became seriously interested in working as an au pair over a year ago when a good friend of mine went to spain for the summer as an au pair. with the drama of the proceeding year all thoughts of travelling abroad completely escaped me... until one day i saw a facebook update from my other friend, ayana, announcing that she would be spending a year in germany. she told me about the website that she used and i immediately signed up.
the site is called great au pair and it really is wonderful. it's easy to use and you can register for free. (however either you or the family must be a paid member in order to view each other's contact info). i created my profile about march 21st and i left home for italy on may 14th! everything has happened so fast that's it really is hard to believe that i've been here for more than two weeks already! it's also a little sad, because that means that i am already 1/6 through my stay here.  for those not interested in doing the math that means i will be here for three months. without a visa my stay here is limited to 90 days, and getting a visa seemed like a nearly impossible task. i had enough worry over getting a new copy of my passport!
though the time is going by quickly, i'm certainly grateful for what i've got while i've got it. i was very fortunate to find a great family. they have two girls who are ten and eight. they are really great people who are interested in showing me everything that i can see here and are always eager to include me in what they are doing.
over the next few days i'll be posting more about my daily life here, my recommendations for selecting a host family, being an au pair, and more. in the mean time feel free to submit any questions and comments! you can leave them here, in my formspring widget, or my e-mail. also, if you are an au pair it'd be great to here how you got started, where you are, etc!

bare with me.

just a quick update:
i recently discovered that flickr will only display my most recent 200 pictures... and since i took over 100 just in taormina the other day, i was definitely frustrated. i originally planned on just uploading all of my pictures to flickr and then giving everyone the link to my photo stream so all of my photos were available in one spot. however, as that isn't exactly going to work out, i'm in the process of trying to figure what will be the best way to share ALL of my pictures with everyone. i think i've got it, i just need a little more time. on top of the photo thing i'm also working on changing the blog a bit AND writing some new posts featuring tips and general insights for anyone who is or is thinking of becoming an au pair. so one i begin posting again i should be coming back with quite a few new posts.
i'm also trying to dedicate more of my time to studying italian- which means about two hours a day that i won't be spending working on this... AND i'm trying to work some exercise into my daily routine. and also just generally spend less time on the internet...
anyway, here's a picture from my quick trip into taormina while you wait. let me tell you, i was there for three hours and the entire time i had to keep reminding myself i was in a real place, not on some movie set.

update: my current solution to the flickr foto fiasco is my new photo links page. we'll see how this goes. feedback would be greatly appreciated!

just some thoughts on a sunday.

today is my "day off", and let's just say my morning didn't exactly start well. so, understandably, i wasn't in the best of moods. i was laying on my "bed" catching up on some blogs and trying to take my mind off of what's bothering me and all of a sudden i hear ophelia start singing in her room. she has been singing for a few minutes now and it's so adorable that my mood has totally been lifted. ophelia and i definitely have some difficult moments, so it really makes me appreciate the times when i see how sweet she can be. i try to bottle them up and remember them at the times when she is ignoring me, or trying to run way in front of me when we're walking along a busy street and it's really hot and i'm tired because i was walking for an hour before she even got out of school and she acts like i don't even exist and neither do the crazy italian people who completely disregard all common sense when driving. and it actually works.
*update: it turns out she was actually writing a song for eva, who was away on an overnight camping trip for scouts. absolutely precious. she performed it for everyone when eva returned.

non parlo italiano.

i bought these books to help me learn italian. but really so far the only new things i've picked up are: "i don't speak italian" and some pronunciation things (like ci sounds like "chee") and that there are like four or five letters of the english alphabet that don't even exist in italian, oh and also that i hate italian. i'm sure i would love it if i could actually speak it, it's pretty awesome-sounding. however, i cannot speak italian. and italian is way harder than spanish. in spanish a singular "the" is always "el" or "la" depending on gender. in italian, the masculine singular "the" can be TWO different things and i don't really even know the difference yet. and don't get me started on making things plural... i miss spanish.
for now, i will keep up my "non parlo italiano" repetitions.

what i'm looking at right now.

so you can get the full ambience, this is what's playing in the background. no big deal. just an awesome patio, calabria, and a beautiful full moon..

what was that? oh, yes, my life is awesome. thank you for noticing.

cuppycakes, meet nespole.

until i came here i had never in my life seen nespole [ness-pole-ay] (called "medlars" in english, according to the interwebs). and, for all nineteen years of my life, i was fortunate to be ignorant of their existence. why? BECAUSE THEY ARE TOTALLY THE MOST DELICIOUS FRUIT EVER. seriously. my nespole will pwn your fruit with its awesome fuzzy stem behind its back.