Bye bye Bologna

The time has come again for the next destination. I am leaving the beautiful but very hot bologna on Monday for Sardegna. I'm so poking forward to being by the sea and with Laura. I've missed her a lot! My two weeks in bologna have been wonderful. It's like I live here again.  I've been staying with friends and seriously it's amazing how easy it is to be here. The summer nights are the best. There is always a free concert or two or three. Potluck dinners.
Lazy days with friends. Reading good books. And just being here. It's all been quite magical and I'm so glad that i got to celebrate with rachelle for her birthday and have the freedom to stroll through the city. 

Will post soon when I'm on the island.... 
Lots of love and gelato kisses 
Xxx
Al

Back to Bologna

My two weeks in Castellana Grotte are over. I had so much fun with Jenna and everyone at World Dance Movement. WDM has become family, and since im not even a dancer, I think it says a lot about the people I met there. For my last day, it was everyone's day off so we spent it by the pool just being idiots, and I loved it. Then we went out to dinner and a bunch of our Italian friends came to say goodbye to me. I did not anticipate it being this hard to leave or say goodbye. I've made life long friends, Italian and American alike. I thin I'm going to visit some of the Italians that I met there later this summer because some of them live near where I'll be going...so at least that made the goodbye a little less sad. 

I'm now on the train headed for my bella Bologna!!!!!!! I'm so exited to see the city that I came to love so much and even more so to see my friends. I've not been to Bologna  in over year, I honestly can't believe that it has been that long. 

So far my summer has been amazing, seriously I already have enough stories and laughs to write my own book- maybe I'll do that one day.  I'm so excited for the rest of the summer! 

Xxx

Al

Poglinano a mare close to Castellana we jumped off :) 

Sunrise Swim

Sunrise Swim 

Today for one of the classes Jenna is taking, taught by her good friend Josh, we (the class of 40 or so) went to the beach...We left the hotel at 5:00am and then it took about 20 minutes to get there.  Then for the piece they are doing we filmed underwater with goPro cameras and it is turning out really cool. So I manned one of the cameras and felt like a fish. It was actually really fun and the water was not that cold at all. A nice little morning workout- and the water with the sun rising in the background was fantastic. I bought a pair of kiddy goggles so I could see everything.  The water is so
clear here and lots of fishes swam by me to say hello. Everything was fine and dandy until something in the water gave me a rash on my neck...how attractive and Josh, being his sneaky self snapped a post swim photo of me sleeping on the bus...that one will not be making the blog. 

The past few days have been really wonderful. The town is so cute. I walked up to go and see the caves, le grotte, yesterday but I forgot my wallet. So just made a nice little walk about it instead...I'm hoping to go back tomorrow to actually see them. 

 Tonight there is a special dinner for the dancers at some cool place which I don't really know anything about. So we shall see what happens. 

A presto! 

Xxx

Al 

Marriage Italian Style. Round 1

Here we are at the first of the two Italian weddings of the summer. This one was for one of the head teachers had the dance workshop here in Castellana Grotte. The wedding was more like what we would call a reception because they got married 'officially' the day before in Milan. However, this wedding was hilarious. The maid of honor wore a yellow suit and a dress with silver heels...and oh yes he is a French man. It was all so fun and then the food was delicious, and there was tons of it! I had a great time with Jenna and Carly (the other girl in the photo) and I'm loving making friends with all of these fun loving Italians. 

The first week of the dance workshop starts tomorrow, so ill see less of Jenna and more of the pool....becoming very dark already. 

Lots of love! 

Xxx

Al

Day 1 as a 'dancer'

Well today was a good start to the Italian life...slept in had some nice fruit and my favorite espresso in the entire world.  I'm here in a small town a little south of Bari called Castellana Grotte. It is so nice and flat, surround by tons of olive orchards and grapes. I'll have to go exploring further into the nearby ag.   We were helping to get all of the welcome stuff ready for dancers that come Sunday. Jenna has been doing this program, World Dance Movement, for 7 years now. So she's friends with everyone here and has been wonderful about introducing me. I felt like my degree in Italian really paid off today. I wrote a lot of emails and filled out forms all in Italian and I'm not tired and no one second guessed my Italian. Hooray! Such a step up from the last time I was in this country. :). Anyways, tonight we are being taken out by some local Italians that work here. Should be fun!
We shall see if I become a dancer, they said I could sit in on classes if I wanted since I'm translating and helping out. So happy to be here with my Jenna bear.
Xxx
Al

My first meal back in Italy. Yummmyyyy

In Air

Well the time has come again for me to pack up and go on another adventure. It's been a whirlwind of a time the past few weeks. I graduated from college...said goodbye to sunshiny Los Angeles...popped into beautiful farm country for a fast 8 days...partied with the best of the best and thoroughly celebrated finishing college....now to postpone real life for just a little bit long. 

The next two months I am smiling to say that I'll be in my 'bella Italia'- And I could not be happier.  This time with a backpack full of swimsuits,sunscreen and tennis shoes ill be meandering around the country visiting friends, watching them get married, eating good food, obviously drinking great wine, and hopefully coming back with a great tan and a few stories that are too "good" to make the blog. 

Here's to the present!!! 

Xxx

Al