At any rate, we are currently in Loano, Italy, at a wonderful resort hotel. We will see Charlotte in a couple of days. Here is what Charlotte told Kate about what we should wear in Italy:

for clothes — also tell this to mother — bring the most expensive casual clothes you have. not cheap jeans or anything. obviously shorts, summer dresses, swimsuits, tank tops, etc. no really neon colors like hot pink, highlighter yellow, etc. except for swimsuits it’s okay. and no brightly colored pants or shorts. make sure to dress well as far as common sense goes – NO socks and sandals. a nice bag would be good. tennis shoes but not ugly running shoes. for going out at night, a pair of comfortable heels (to spend all night in) and a shirt and skirt or dress, nice but not too formal, short, and a small handbag to match.

as for Nate and Dad, tell them to bring the most extravagant, hole-filled, expensive, bejewelled jeans they can possibly find, t shirts that are too tight, basically dress like the guys from Jersey shore (but do not do the hair like that o.o or the spray tan).

Livin’ la vida Italia!

Here’s one of the recipes:

Recipe #1: Steak with Greens
The greens could be spinach or arugula. This is like a recipe I made you from the Barefoot Contessa cookbook that you bought me for Christmas.
It is very easy to pan-fry a steak (and James Beard says this is the best way to cook one). Salt and pepper a steak on both sides. (Use garlic salt if you want.)
Heat a skillet to high, and put the steak in. It will start searing right away. Once it is browned on that side (after a couple of minutes), flip it over and sear the other side. Then reduce the heat and flip it again. Cook on both sides for a few more minutes until the steak is firm when you press it. (You can also cut into it to check.)
Put the hot steak on a bed of greens and eat it. The juices will warm the greens and make them taste good.

Nate wrote back and said:

I made the steak last night it was aaaaaawesome. Also what’s the trick to having the scrambled eggs so buttery again?

Nate has always loved my scrambled eggs, so another email was enroute:

Here is how I make scrambled eggs. It is based on James Beard.
Crack two eggs into a small bowl. Add a tablespoon of cold water and a few shakes of salt and pepper. Beat well.
In a small fry pan, put in 2 tablespoons of butter. Heat the butter in the pan over medium heat. When the butter is melted but not sizzling, add the eggs. Turn the heat down just a notch. Let the eggs sit until the bottom layer is cooked. Gently fold the eggs over and let the runny part into the bottom of the pan. Let that cook again and continue gently folding and turning until the eggs are cooked. (It only takes a few turns.)

The next day, Nate posted on Facebook: Best eggs I ever cooked!

Guess moms are still good for some things.

Nate has his own computer so is online when he has time, which is often at night our time. I am usually in bed but Norman is a night owl. Charlotte seems to have access to the host family’s computer just about every day before dinner, which is in the morning our time when I am getting ready for work. But Norman works at home so he is available.

So the good news is there have been a lot of chats, sometimes once a day with each of them, but I can’t possibly give you all the details.

So for today, I’ll give you a summary and go from there.

On May 3rd, Nate was accepted to Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, for a three-year bachelor’s degree program in International Business. This was great news, although all three of us are really hoping that he gets accepted to Tokai University outside Tokyo in Japan. We won’t learn until May 27th about that.

Nate got an elbow from a teammate on May 6th that resulted in a broken nose. It was just a crack mid-bridge, but he was out until this past Saturday. I don’t think he got much playing time in Saturday’s game, but his team won 71-0.

The following week, Nate didn’t go to work because he suddenly had pain in various joints all over his body. And then he quit his job in the packhouse because well, he hated it: “It wasn’t just a boring job, it’s a terrible job, and I already cycled different attempts at mindsets with it but no matter what it felt like a huge waste of my life and I felt like I was out of place.”

Nate is looking into other jobs such as grape pruning or construction. He had saved $600, which will last him about five weeks, according to his budget calculations. He is also supposed to be looking into getting student loans and any kind of aid or scholarships, and training intensely now that he has downtime.

Nate is happier since he quit his packing job, but is in a holding pattern until we know his school plans. As he told Norman: “Of course, I’m actually a lot less miserable without that job, which goes to show how bad the job was, but if I’m not working, then I want to go somewhere where I’m doing something anyway. Being not working or in school or even on vacation, it just feels like a waste of time.” Norman encourage Nate to focus on training, which he is.

On May 17th, Nate went to the hospital for his nose. He reported to Norman: “The middle partition of the inside of my nose is separated and slanted to the right side, which is why i can’t breathe out of it. It’s causing swelling, which leads to the constant congestion. If I want to breathe properly, I have to get surgery. For the past few days, I’ve been having significant breathing problems while sleeping. It’s like sleep apnea all over again–I  sleep for 10-12 hours and I’m still tired.  I wake up with my mouth really dry and my nose totally blocked up. The doctor said that over 6 weeks, the swelling will reduce, and that’s when I’d have to consider signing up for the operation.

Norman remembered that the inside of Nate’s nose was already injured: “Your nose was already bad; this injury just makes it worse.” He added “You can get surgery but if you continue to play rugby you may hurt it again.”

Nate said “Iasked about that. The way mine is bent is uncommon. Actually, I  got seen by 4 doctors because of it. One of them was some high-up specialist, and his three interns…” To sum things up, the doctor said “They regularly do it on rugby players because it’s inside the nose, but they don’t do things about the outer part until after they finish their career.”

Of course, we have no idea how this could be paid for while Nate is over there. Our insurance would only cover emergency treatment for him, so it would be up to universal healthcare over there. Norman told Nate to follow up with the doctor about surgery, but that is  still TBD.

Charlotte and Eli also went to Bern, which is the Swiss capital, and saw the famous Bern bears.

At 3:30 in the morning Wednesday, we got a call from Charlotte. She had left  her wallet at Matt’s house and had to backtrack to get it, so they missed the bus home. (Matt had gone to Paris for work, so he couldn’t just drive them to Zurich where they could have caught up, but oh well, these things happen.)

Charlotte was upset and disappointed because she was going to miss her school trip to Torino the next day. She had called the host father to see if they could take the train back instead, but he said to wait until the next bus on Saturday. Norman told Charlotte that we had to respect the host family’s wishes, so Charlotte and Eli spent a couple more days in Switzerland.

Matt’s wife Marina suggested that they visit Lausanne and then Geneva. (I didn’t see either of those.) Charlotte emailed and said: “I had a lot of fun, yesterday we went shopping in Geneva. I got a nice new pair of pants and a jumper (European for sweater) thing.” So they made the best of the situation, and hopefully learned to allow extra time when traveling.

So we finally got the trip set up, and then Charlotte called from Abrezzo. She wanted to go to Switzerland, but the cheapest option was the train, at 400 dollars, and that seemed like a lot for just four days. Also, the host father lost his job so the host family is understandably concerned about expense. I said that we could help out with the tickets if that would work.

Charlotte said that she and her host sister were really looking forward to it and had no other plans for Easter, so I said she should go for it.

On Friday the 22nd, Charlotte emailed: “So I got the package with the stuff for the cookies, thanks. Unfortunately I won’t have time to use it for another two weeks.”

She went on to say that  they had decided to get bus tickets for the way home because they cost less and return Wednesday night. Charlotte was not thrilled about it but went along with the host family’s wishes (they did not want us to pay for the return tickets–again, understandable). She added: “I will get home at midnight from Switzerland and have to be at school at 6 am to go to Torino.”

On Saturday, she emailed: “We got to Switzerland last night after and eleven hour train ride. Our first train was stopped by prostestors lying in the train tracks so we had to get another one.. We had to go from Pesaro to Bologna, Bologna to Milano, Milano to Zurich, and then Zurich to Neuchatel. It was a very very long train ride. Today we went to see the city, it’s nice, very cute and swiss. the weather is nice. The people are a bit mean though.”

I wouldn’t say that the Swiss are mean. They are a bit standoffish, maybe, but not everyone can be extroverts like Italians!

Postscript: Neuchatel is in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, so that might explain the “mean”-ness.

Charlotte traveled to Arezzo for a weekend

Charlotte said that the “theme” for the week was movies, and so the main thing they did in Arezzo was to watch them.
First they watched “The Shining.” Huh? Charlotte had no idea why. Then, “Life is Beautiful,” which is of course Italian. Charlotte said that it was good, but very depressing. (I haven’t steeled myself to see it–it took me years to get ready mentally for “Schindler’s List.”) Finally, they were going to watch “Amarcord,” which I saw many years ago in high school. I told Charlotte that it was kind of a memoir by Fellini, and I had enjoyed it, but that’s all I could recall.

“So the internet at my house is gone for at least eight more days. I don’t know if I’ll be able to be on email  a lot. right now I’m at an Internet point.

In other news, there’s an American and a girl from Argentina who are here  for a week and so we are doing things like going to see the Palazzo Ducale in Urbino, taking painting lessons, and Renaissance dance. We have a dinner on Saturday, and I’m supposed to make something to bring, and I wanted to make chocolate chip cookies, but it turns out brown sugar doesn’t exist in Italy, so I’ll find a recipe without it, but it won’t be as as good as the traditional ones, or I’ll make peanut butter cookies. It’s weird how they don’t have things like brown sugar or cream of tartar. They don’t have muffins either. and the donuts suck.

If all the trips I have planned work out, I will be travelling for half the month of April: first to Torino, then to Arezzo, then to Switzerland. and then in May to Policoro, so I will be needing a lot of money to pay for all those trips. At school, the next time we have a school movie field trip will be in April and guess what, the movie is Milk.

I hope everything is going well at home. I got Grandma’s letter yesterday.”

That just sounds like Charlotte. I sent her some cream of tartar and brown sugar via Priority Mail this past week. Hopefully she will get a chance to make “American” cookies soon.