I need to make an amendment.  Their budget for a house was $2,400 not euro so cheaper than I had thought AND may I just say this woman bugs the crap outta me.  moi

Fall is trying to fall.  The past few days have been cool and grey.  Next week it's supposed to be warm again however and I'm happy as we have a 3 day weekend and GP and I are off to Le Marche.  More on that later.  The signs of autumn....farmers buzzing around cutting corn, tilling fields and spreading eye-watering liquid pig poop.  Farm stands are everywhere with their local products.  Peppers are big around here right now.  Our new teachers, from the US, UK, Africa, Finland, are settling in and trying to adjust to life in Italy.  Poor things.  It can be quite a shock.  The school gives out a welcome packet to all new employees each year with such useful information as museums, festivals and sights to see.  Well that's great for a tourist but little help if you plan on living here.  I'm thinking of writing up a "What you really need to know if you don't want to be robbed blind, sent into convulsions by red tape, or killed on the roads."  I would include such useful information such as, "NEVER leave anything visible or even not visible in your car."  It will be broken into.  "Pretend the post office doesn't exist."  As far as our perception of a "post office", it doesn't.  "Be constantly vigilant on the road!"  There's crazies out there!  In the last week, one new couple from West Virginia or some such place, had their school bags stolen from their vehicle.  A Canadian has spent endless hours trying to sort out his visa while a nice Brazilian couple have been dealing with local providers of internet, TV, water, gas, etc which is a full time job unto itself.  They ONLY come between the hours of 8 and 12 or 4 and 6 so you have to take off work to be home and often they don't show up. 

An interesting note.  One of our school families is featured in this week's House Hunters International.   Check out the link.  Little Sophia is one of my kiddies.  And note the budget they have, (2,400 Euro a month or close to $2,700).  They have their rent paid by the company that sent them here.  Alas we have no company paying our living expenses which explains why we live in our tiny apartment!

 Password: hgtv
 https://vimeo.com/140745721


xxoo me

Thank God.  I've just finished a book.  Reading it was like slogging through deep mud.  It took ages.  The writing was very good but it was soooo sloooooow and nothing ever really happened.  I kept expecting the story to pick up but by the time I realized it never would it was too late.  I was too far in and had too much invested.  I can't, with very few exceptions, not finish a book once I'm in it.  I can name the books I've never finished;  Michener's Poland, (I kept getting all the characters mixed up because they all had similar unpronounceable names), the Bible, (never got past Genesis), and a really, really badly written mystery novel by a local "writer", (who is I hope is a better a lawyer), that I was told I just had to read!  So I had to finish this one.  Even though the characters bugged the crap out of me and the dialogue was so vague I felt like I was reading in a second language.  I never felt as though I knew exactly what someone was saying.  So, if you're up for a challenge read Surface of the Earth by Reynolds Price  xxoo me