All about Nicolas

Here we are again, at the Internet cafe in Varese. We haven't received our modem, hence we find ourselves with no Internet yet. I am learning to write only what is important, and I am not even spellchecking anything... please forgive my mistakes. There are also no new pictures (sometime soon).

We had a special weekend as Saturday was Nicolas' birthday. We have planned to go camping nearby, just the 3 of us and the dog. We were not planning a big adventure, just something different to celebrate our boy's tenth birthday. I made him his favorite breakfast of nutella and banana crepes accompanied by fresh squeezed orange juice. Our first mishap of the day was our gift: we have purchased an electronic gadget thinking that it would work with his American bought game, but it did not work!!!

Later we decided to go to the local library (which has Internet access) to check his e-mail and see who had written to him. We got to the library as it was closing, so we explained the reason why we were there; the librarian not only let us in, but found something to give Nicolas as a present! Isn't Italy nice?

After that we went to Nick's favorite restaurant (tons of pasta and great desserts) and after lunch we left for the camping area (15 to 20 minutes from home). As we arrived, we realized that the place was not as nice as we thought it was, and worst of all, it was very crowded. So we decided against staying the night, and we drove back with a car full of our camping gear, a bicycle rack with all our bikes, a very surprised dog and a little disappointed boy. What can I say? We like to improvise.

Our next big idea was to rent a movie and watch it at home with some good butter popcorn, and some other "gourmet" choices made by Nick (m&ms, Cheetos, etc.). Fernando assured us that the movie would work on our portable DVD player, and that we were going to be able to watch it on our big TV... We ended up watching the movie on our computer! We are not giving up yet! We will master all these little differences in schedules, electronic systems, and language. You will see!

On Sunday we had guests in the afternoon, since we had invited Nicolas' friends for some cake. We also invited our neighbors (our landlords). It was nice to have someone with whom to share a happy event. Nicolas was very excited, and he got some presents that he liked a lot. (I will post pictures later). After everyone left we went downtown, since this weekend is the beginning of the "festa del paese" or the town's celebration. We had dinner at a "gastronomic festival" -the name is much more impressive than the food- and we got to hang out with all the town's people. Luca and Paulo (Nick's friends) were there with their parents and grandfather; we all had dinner together, and the children played. Nicolas made some new friends, and he had a lot of fun.

After dinner we went to a special concert at the church; one in a series of concerts focused on baroque music played on antique organs. They have one every week in a different town. I can't describe how beautiful it was. The church is a small one but it has every single inch of its interior painted with some kind of ornamentation. The music was beautiful, and the organist was a master with a very impressive resume. Not a bad ending for our interesting weekend.