Settling in

24.9 Woke up this morning with a bad cold. Stayed in bed all day and was very grateful to have Mamma here to run things while I just hibernated. Sadly, without supervision she did something, who knows what, and the washing machine seems to have, er, exploded. Roisin told me who to call for the repair, but he can’t come until Wednesday (today is Monday). Mamma does a load of laundry every day, so this makes her very nervous.

Our neighbors at the back of the house, Claudio and Ornella, lent me books to photocopy while we wait for Rose’s books to come in. Their son, Ricardo, is in first grade and at the moment is effectively in Rosie’s class since she is doing all first grade stuff just now.  I don’t have the books yet because it was only explained to me today that I had to order them myself since they weren’t ordered with the regular class order. This was extra confusing because when I hear “you must order them” that sounds like “you must pay for them.” So I was confused. No, it turns out that I only had to order them; the Comune pays for them. This makes no sense to me, but okay. When I took the books back over I mentioned something about the washer being broken. Seems Claudio is a mechanic of sorts and has some knowledge of these things, so he came over and had a look, but it was more complicated than he could do. However, they did look at Mamma’s “broken” window – the multifunction hinge had come loose at the top and we couldn’t figure out how to reattach it. Claudio showed me how the handle control works. New bit of knowledge for the data banks: do not turn the handle UP. Horizontal or down only. Up releases the hinge.

25.9 Still miserable with cold but errands have to be run, so I went to Salso anyway. Roisin had told me about Acqua e Sapone, a store right behind the Coop – every kind and usage of soap you can think of, plus various housewares, cosmetics, etc. Of course, with all that soap you get LOTS of perfumes floating through the place, gack. It’s pretty overpowering. Still, everything bathroom-y, kitchen-y, and cleaning-y you could want, and generally for a lot less than the market charges, with way more selection. I even found Elise's favorite shampoo!

I managed to find the cartoleria at which to buy Elise’s tech drawing materials. (Have I mentioned how jealous I am that an 8^th grader gets to take tech drawing and I never have? Pooh!) 70E later, ugh. Art supplies am expensive. The excursion not only sapped all my money, it sapped all my energy for the day, so I ended up sleeping for much of afternoon. My only other “excursion” was to Amazon.it to see if they have SPQRisiko. Forty euros including shipping isn’t TOO bad, but I have time. I’ll continue to look in toy stores.

Since I have local friends on FB now, I used FB in Italian to find out where free parking in Fidenza for Firenze trip was. I was, frankly, thrilled at the response, because Francesco and Stefania both described a spot to me that I could actually find all by myself! They offered to pay my ticket if I got one :)

School last week was all short days, so no lunch at school. Today was the first day they stayed till 4, and Elise is of the opinion that 6E is totally fair. Lunch was three courses, pasta, main dish and dessert, and because it’s served by the kitchen ladies to a mere 50 kids, they bring around seconds and even thirds if there’s enough. It’s all fresh cooked on site (microwave? What means this word microwave?) and apparently just delicious. And so way easier than going down to get them, coming up, rushing through lunch, and going back down again. Fine, I’ll pay it.

26.9 Repairman fail. I’m gone first thing in the morning to take the kids to school and OF COURSE he showed up looking for us in the 20 mins that we were gone. Now he can’t come again till Monday. So I bit the bullet and took laundry to the lavanderia in Salso that Vitale recommended. Probably 100E worth, but whatever. Olga, the laundry lady is very nice. Only problem is, it won’t be ready till next Tuesday. Well, if we have to do undies by hand for a day or two we won’t die, and the sun is still pretty hot so things dry fast. Mamma considers it a disaster. I think it’s pretty darned annoying, but disaster? If the house had been rendered uninhabitable by a water main breaking, THAT’s a disaster. This is a bore.

27.9 Ornella came by today and asked if Aurora wanted to come up to the farm in Berzieri, then added, “well, if all of you want to come.” Why would all of us come? Why, to getfresh eggs and raw milk, of course! Lorenzo, Stefania’s dad and Emanuele’s uncle-by-marriage, owns damn near everything we can see. “I have 13 tractors, but only one driver. ME!” There were no eggs in the henhouse, but Lorenzo knew where a secret nest was and pulled up 7 for us! Ornella advised that we boil the milk before drinking it. “I’ve been drinking it all my life, I’m used to it, but maybe you aren’t.” So, in the interests of food safety and whatnot, we boiled it. And what do you make with boiled milk? Best. Hot chocolate. Ever.