Halleluiah!  I passed my written exam!  Thank God.  I feel as though a huge weight has been lifted.  So let me recount my adventure because of course it didn't go without excitement.  My appointment was at 8 a.m., so I got there a few minutes early.  There were tons of nervous looking teenagers milling about, smoking cigarettes and talking on cellphones.  The doors were opened at 8 and we all swarmed into the waiting area where we waited.  At about 8:45 they started calling names.  Now there are two things to note here.  One is that people who work in the public sectors in Italy are notoriously grumpy cause they get paid whether they work or not and can't be fired, so postal workers, police officers and office bureaucrats alike are all bad-tempered and unhelpful.  Secondly, many of the people waiting to have there exam are like me, foreigners, except they are usually from some developing country and here to do the menial jobs that Italians refuse to do.  There's the set up, this is what happened.  There were two "officials", a man and a woman, who read ours names off a list, checked our documents and then sent us to a computer station for the test.  The woman came to the name of a man from some eastern country and she couldn't pronounce it so she spit out some sound and then yelled "or whatever the hell your name is!".  Then after we were seated she started to harass anyone who breathed wrong.  She yelled at a Muslim woman to uncover her ears which were under her headscarf, because she could have earphones on.  She told a kid from southern Italy with a very heavy accent that he'd better not pass because he'd be a menace on the road.  I kept my head down and tried not to make eye contact.  Then they gave us instructions as to how the exam worked.  The first thing we had to do was insert a card with our data on it into the correct slot.  On the screens it showed the slot to be a part of the computer itself and that the card should be inserted vertically, when in actuality, the slot was in a type of mouse attached by a cord to the computer and the card needed to be inserted horizontally.  The poor girl that pointed that out.  The test itself was fine except the Nazi lady kept weaving in and out of the aisles between our seats making everyone nervous.  When we had finished, we had to return our data cards and go back to the waiting room.  When one guy walked out with his card the official lady started to yell at him and tell him he'd be hunted down by the police and never given his license if he didn't return it.  I gave mine back asap!  After another 1/2 an hour we were called back again to get our results.  In my group alone there were about 50 people and in the meantime another 50 or so had arrived for the next round of tests.  So the tiny waiting room with hardly enough space for one bunch, now had two bunches of "testees" trying to figure out which doorway to go into, whose name was being called, what was being said.  It was utter chaos and so typical.  In the middle of all this we were trying to get our results and heaven forbid them from making that easy.  The results were an illegible scribble at the bottom of our paperwork.  The guy working there must have thought I was french with my name so I was lucky as he decided to practice his high school french on me and spoke slowly and clearly in "Fritalian".  But the kid in front of me got a mumble and made the mistake of asking him to repeat it and was called stupid and deaf.  These were not nice people.  I thought the kid was going to cry.  Let me tell you I was very glad to get out of there. 

Alas it is not over.  Next step is that I have to go back tt the motor vehicle department to pick up my "pink slip" which I have to take to a driving school so that I can have, (and pay an arm and a leg for), 6 hours of driving lessons so that they can tell me all the stuff that I'm doing wrong.  Then I'll have my practical driving test.  Hope I get this all done with before June!

Yesterday afternoon Grace and I had our hair cut by Mario, (a genius and ex-boxer), in the city and then came home for her to pack up for her trip.  We dropped her off this morning with the Germans and they are on their way to Bettmeralp, Switzerland.  An hour ago Dutch friends dropped their dog Belle off with us to doggy sit and so we traded a daughter for a dog for the week.  She's a small well behaved non barking French mutt.  Very cute.  Tomorrow, Easter Sunday, we're going out to lunch with my in-laws.  I'll miss our Easter Egg hunt at the Tibbitt's!  Happy Easter all!!  xxoo me

Late March has been rather a lull before the storm.  Not much has been happening and we've stayed close to home.  April however will be full of activity, especially for Grace.  She leaves on Saturday for a week of skiing in Switzerland with friends.  Later in the month we have visitors from home for 4 days and then we have a 4 day weekend in London.  Hope the weather cooperates as spring has still not really shone up!  Europe is suffering it's coldest March in years.  Next week, vacation, had better to be nice as I have offered my services with gardening to two friends as well as having plans for my own!

Today I'm home doing practice exams on-line.  My written driving test is tomorrow.  My appointment is at 8 a.m. but I'm sure that hour is just to torture us and the actually testing won't start till after 9.  They'll make us wait in hard-backed little chairs, staring at blank computer screens.  Fingers crossed for me everyone!  I never want to have to read about reaction time,space and speed limits,(none of which are not observed in this country), again!  I'm also going to nap, as last night we had dinner with the German family that is taking Grace skiing.  We took them out as a thank-you to our favorite pizza place in the city.  It is owned and run by a guy from south of Naples who has all of his products imported from friends and family who make them in the heart of pizzaland.  Incredible mozzarella that melts in your mouth and Limoncello to die for.  If you don't know Limoncello, it's a distilled alcohol made from lemons.  You drink it, very cold, in tiny shot glasses after dinner.  Unfortunately, in this place he brings glasses and the entire bottle to the table and one sips to their hearts content.  Peter, (German dad), and I seemed to have kept the bottle down at our end of the table.  We sipped a lot.

I suppose I should get back to my tests.  Ugh.  MUST   KEEP   EYES   OPEN!   xxoo me

Yesterday was a first for me.  I went to a mass for a friend of ours who died 4 years ago.  On or around the anniversary of one's death, family members ask their priest to mention the deceased during the mass.  Yesterday's service mentioned 5 or 6 people including Stefano's.  Catholics must have some serious thigh muscles on them.  I feel like I got a work-out standing up and sitting down and standing up again for over an hour.  In many ways I suppose the service was very traditional.  There were some "alter children" dressed in white and gold robes, carrying olive branches (Palm Sunday is Olive Sunday here), looking like Goya paintings with their solemn dark faces, big brown eyes and long black hair.  But multicolored sneakers peeked out from under their robes.  The priest was relatively young with a lovely singing voice.  In fact he sang part of his sermon.  The choir was accompanied not by an organ but a young hippie guy playing the guitar.  The church itself was an monstrosity built in the 70's, all cement and wooden beams and bizarre stained glass windows that look like slices of pizza being eaten by birds.  After the mass we all went back to the family's home for a dinner.  There was of course lots of wonderful food and wine and we stayed out past my bedtime.  Today I'm tired but as it's a rainy Sunday I don't plan on doing much more than make soup and read anyway. 

Speaking of rain, the other day I put down grass seed in our little patch of lawn, knowing that nature would take care of the watering for me over this next week.  Well that would be all well and good if it were not for the damned Magpies that keep swarming in and munching up all my seeds!  For those who have never seen a Magpie up close, they are large shiny black birds that look almost like Ravens until they turn and you see their bright blue wings with white tips and white chests.  They are quite beautiful but loud, aggressive pests.  They abuse all the smaller birds and fight amongst themselves high up in the trees.  There are tons of them around here, just as noisy and numerous as the seagulls at home.

Well GP is napping, Grace is studying Macbeth, so I'm off to study for next Friday's driving exam!  Argh!
xxoo me

across the street, heading down the hill

turning the corner

near the Post Office - 10 min walk

heading to Tobacconist

 our famous church

Tobacconist - 15 min. walk

heading down again

the main drag down at the bottom of the hill

Easter eggs

the Greengrocer with FedEx in front

turning back up our road

first rest stop

second rest stop

back home.  trees still naked

Yesterday was my day off.  I went to the Post Office but they didn't have the right stamps so they sent me to the Tobacconist.   You don't buy tobacco at the Tobacconist.  You buy stamps and the "tax stamps" that you need to put on every document so the government gets their due.  You can also buy wrapping paper and such, so I bought 3 gift bags for Easter presents for Grace and the two children of the friends who are taking her skiing in Switzerland for a week.  After the Tobacconist I stopped at a bakery/ sweetshop to buy some Easter candy.  I was very good and bought nothing for myself.  I'm still trying to work off the 1/2 lb. Swiss chocolate bar with hazelnuts I polished off the other day.  Then I went to the Greengrocer and bought about ten pounds of fruit and vegetables.  Blood oranges are in season now so they were five of those pounds.  Did I mention that I had walked?  Yesterday was well into the 60's and sunny so I decided to do all of my errands on foot.  Heading down the hill when I started out was no problem whatsoever.  Heading back up the hill with my ten pounds of produce was another story.  It doesn't sound like much until you start up a steep 1/2 mile of sun -drenched road.  By the time I reached our gate I was drenched too.

xxoo me

The view over the school roof.

The higher court with Grace.  Mont Viso in the distance.

The lower court looking out over the countryside and villages behind the hills.

The weather here used to be so static it is strange to have a beautiful spring day like today following two days of heavy snow.  It's like being back in Maine without the ocean (there) and with pollution (here) and mountains and 4500 pizza places between here and the center.  How much pizza can one possibly eat I ask?  Anywho.  Today was gorgeous. At lunch I often take a short walk with a couple gals from work, just to get some fresh air and sunshine.  Today was ideal.  Grace also had a make-up tennis lesson and the club is high up in the hills in a very expensive residential area.   I took a walk up and down the road and peeked at the houses of those who can.  Wow.  Then I watched the kids play for a while as was so warm they played on the outside courts.  I think my freckles are springing!  xxoo me

I had a talk today with an American gal who teaches at the school.  Like me, she had been driving with an International license, (meant only to be used by tourists), for years but decided it was time to bite the bullet and go for her Italian license.  She passed the written test a couple of months ago and took the practical this past Saturday.  With great joy, I heard her say it was many times worse than the written test.  She said it was torturous.  She had to wait three hours while person after person tried and failed the exam.  Some were crying, some were throwing papers around.  She managed to pass but only because her instructor from the driving school had accompanied her and argued her case.  I'm gettin' me a case arguer!  This will never end.

Dinner last night at the grandparents was wonderful with all of GP's favorite foods.  Italian boys walk on water for their mothers and never grow up in their eyes.  Girls not so much.  Girls are expected to learn to cook, clean, iron and sew while boys have mother do all of that till they find a nice girl to take over.  This is why Italian men don't leave home until they marry.  They willingly live with mommy well into their 30's and over, are waited on hand and foot and treated like the second coming of Christ.  That being said, we all eat at the Grandmother's every week, dinner is grand and we are not allowed to lift a finger.  I think I've done the dishes there twice in 28 years.  xxoo me

Yesterday was GP's birthday so after a day of Saturday duties which included laundry, cleaning, etc., we went into the city for dinner.  We left early to check out a "new" area that we have yet to see.  Torino is really extensive and there are many zones I've never explored.  When I lived here 20+ years ago, the northern part of the city was all heavily industrial, much of it dead or dying.  With the winter Olympics in 2006 came a lot of money and major changes.  An enormous abandoned industrial zone was razed and rebuilt as a green zone and green living area.  There are huge apartment complexes attached by walking bridges over green space, shopping districts, and acres of parks.  The trees and gardens are all still tiny and bare but it's going to be something to see someday.  The area probably houses 100,00 people and all brand spankin' new.  Didn't seem like the same city at all.  Then we went back into the center for dinner.  GP chose Japanese so we went to a great little sushi place that Grace goes to with her friends when the do their days in town.  It was very yummy and a nice change.  As much as I love my Italian food I do like something different once in a while.

Spring was supposed to have sprung ages ago but it's flippin' snowing today!  This is not what I signed up for!  Grace is studying, GP is working, and I get to spend the day doing practice exams on line in preparation for "the test" at the end of March.  Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all.  Alas no green beer to be had here.  xxoo me

Well the car saga continues.  After two weeks the dealership has finally called to say that we can pick up the car we bought.  It takes two weeks evidently to switch ownership from the dealership to us.  Now that we have the certificate of ownership we can present that to the insurance agency and get the car insured.  Liability auto insurance in Italy is obligatory.  It also costs a lot.  To insure our car for damages done to other vehicles and persons in case of accident, (and being responsible for said accident), is equivalent to around $1,000 annually.  That covers no damage done to our car if we are responsible.  For full coverage we'd have to pay about $3,000 a year.  Obviously this is a high risk endeavor.  I drove into the city today to go to the market and saw about 100 violations.  I know my violations when I see them now that I've been studying for my stupid driving test for months.  It's usually the guys in the big flashy cars that are the worst.  On my list of people I hate are Alfa Romeo, BMW, and Mercedes drivers. 

Grace just got back from her school trip to Poland.  They visited various Holocaust related sites.  She said it was very grey, cold and moving.  I guess many of the kids cried their way through the visit to Auschwitz.  On a lighter note, one of her classmates taught her how to play blackjack.  I told her she can go to Vegas and win her college tuition.  xxoo me

Hey, there's a new Pope.  It has been like watching New Year's Eve in NYC.  Every channel on TV has been "Live from the Vatican"!  They may have chosen an Argentinian, but he's probably only 1st generation.  His parents undoubtedly came from this region of Italy as his surname is a common name from Gian Piero's home town.  While in the beginning of the past century thousands of Southern Italians immigrated to the U.S., as many thousands of Northern Italians went to South America, especially Argentina.  GP's had a great uncle who immigrated to Buenos Aires.  He seems like a nice guy, started out with a joke, and is modest and humble.  I would have liked to see the American Cardinal they were considering.  He's big and loud and back slapping.  For Catholics this is a big deal as he's the first non-European Pope. The center of the church has moved south!  xxoo me

Saturday, while Grace and her friends cruised around the city eating sushi and trying on teeny tiny clothes, one of the moms and I went cruising on our own.  We bought some produce at the big market and stopped for a couple coffees.  We went into all sorts of wonderful clothing shops where nothing would fit me,(Italian women are built like 14 year old girls), and I couldn't afford it if it did.  But we walked and gabbed and had a good time.  Sunday was warm, in the 60's, and sunny, and I played in my little garden all day.  Our next-door neighbor is a landscaper and had all sorts of left over plants he kept handing over the hedge between us.  He gave me pansies and primroses, raspberries and a Jasmine.  I had a grand time.  Today my thighs hurt from all the squats.  Neighbors were all out on either side, yelling back and forth over the hedges and passing garden tools and fertilizer.  The gossip was about the fact that the upstairs owners, (those with terraces but no gardens), accuse the 1st floor owners of using too much water, (watering our mini yards).  The opinion amongst the downstairs folks is that the upstairs folks are jealous of our tiny bite of paradise.  GP, who loves discord, made a big show of pulling out our water meter from winter storage and installing it.  He then took a photo of the numbers on the meter to show anyone who makes accusations at the next condo meeting.  These Italians can make drama out of anything!

Grace's 9th grade class left for 4 days in Poland this morning.  They flew out at 6am so rising time was 4:30!  They are studying the Holocaust so will be visiting the Krakow ghetto, Schindler's factory and Auschwitz.  Cheery. 

Back to my studies as have 2 weeks and counting to my test!  xxoo Me

It's International Women's Day and in Italy it's a big thing.  The supermarket's are filled with bouquets of Mimosa, the symbol for IWD evidently, which men are supposed to buy for the women in their lives.  Just another invented holiday to get people to spend money.  And it works.  Last night I went to a women's dinner at a near-by restaurant organized by the PTA.  It was fun though I was parked in the middle of a big group of German gals all chatting away.  I had to talk across the table to the one English speaker, Scottish, most of the time.  The attendees were mostly Ps,  with only 2 T's, myself included.  As the school has such a fluid student base, most of the moms are not employed.  They have followed their husbands jobs from place to place around the world, having everything paid for by the company, and generally living the good life.  They were all talking about the exercise, cooking, language lessons they take.  They belong to the foreign women's groups in the city.  Go skiing, shopping and site-seeing during the week when the kids are at school.  So basically they are all happy, attractive and really well-dressed.  I tell myself they are shallow and of weak character to make myself feel better.  Then I make catty comments about their hair or clothes to anyone who will listen.  That really makes me feel better.

We are getting spring rains.  April showers come in March and May's flowers are coming along too.  My little yard is all pale yellow with primroses popping up everywhere.  Sunday should be warm and sunny and I can't wait to get out.  Friday is pizza night so I must call in our order.  Tomorrow a wander around the city with a friend while our girls go shopping and out to lunch.  xxoo me

view at lunch

I'm a faster walker

What a beautiful day it was today.  GP and I went up to the mountains to snowshoe.  Grace rode up with friends to cross-country ski.  It was brilliantly sunny and so warm we sunbathed at the "refuge" hut after lunch before heading back down the mountain again. 


Yesterday we spent the day car hunting.  These are the autos we've gone through since arriving in late August.  GP's company ordered a new car for him in the summer but it hadn't arrived when we got here so we started off with lease #1 which was replaced in October by lease #2 after a minor accident involving a sudden stop (not me).  On various occasions we also borrowed my in-law's car if I needed it and GP was away for work.  In December the new car finally arrived, a long-term lease that was part of his contract.  Then last week began with one job terminating (there goes the new leased car), another job beginning, a car accident (still not me), a new rental, and now, as of yesterday, a car of our own.  Of course this being Italy you don't buy a car and drive away with it.  There's paperwork.  A weeks worth.  We won't actually get the car until a week Monday so tomorrow we have to exchange the company leased car, (the 4th), for a car which we will rent until we can pick up the car we bought.  Mind you I still don't have a car and can't get one till I pass my exam.  So we bought a Chevy!  Never did I think I'd own a Chevy but American car companies make models for export that they don't sell in the US and they are quite nice.  Two of our rental/lease cars were great Fords and this new car is terrific.  Sporty, comfy and super efficient.  It runs on natural gas which is pretty much non-polluting.  To encourage people to buy these vehicles the government waives excise taxes on them.  It's a great idea, like closing city limits to autos that don't pass certain emissions tests, and closing centers for authorized vehicles only.  I wish the States would do more of this sort of thing.  I'm off to do some practice exams for my driving test.  Joy.  xxoo me