Venerdi

Such a productive little Friday! Woke up semi-early for a solid workout....I love the 2 little guys that work there. Joseph (whatever the Italian version is of that) is my fav and he is always trying to help me learn more Italian. He thinks I'm super strong and anytime I'm doing a workout with lighter weights he shakes his head at me and says "facile" (easy).
Post workout Mr. President took us to the post office AGAIN to become residents and that little number took way too long, but it was worth it because he gave all of us 20 euros to get gelato :)
Finally made it to the beach!! Perfect weather, blue sky with some wind. Long swim session in the super clear, deep water. And of course lots of people watching....gotta love those little speedo's!

My finds of the day :)

The Calvin Klein model of the day

Volley tonight then adventuring out with the roomies for some drinks with many of our new friends...and will probs make some more tonight.....I'm searching for a man with a vespa....

See and be seen

Oh Italy....I am almost speechless with the lifestyle here. Let's chat a bit about nightlife:
"Everyone" knows that Italians have a later night life, so that's not the shocker, it's what they spend their time doing. WALKING. They "dress up" (I need another post entirely to describe men's and women's fashion here) and walk up and down the street. When they do stop outside a bar, most of them don't even get anything to drink, they just chat and smoke. However, I can't complain because I have had a couple drinks bought for me and both nights we have gone out we have received a rose..... We have yet to venture to a discoteche, maybe those italian stalions will get a little crazier. 

Italia

After a lovely summer living in Fair Oaks and constantly emailing my agent trying to find away back across the pond, I have landed myself a nice little gig playing some volley in Reggio di Calabria, Italy. I arrived really late September 15th and was greeted by Valentina and the President Pasquel. Valentina is like the team manager or something, basically she is like a little Italian polly pocket and I love her. My roomie/teammate Meghan arrived that Friday and we have been adventuring everyday since. Reggio is a great city and I cannot wait to learn this language because barely anyone here speaks english. That does not stop all of the men in cars and vespas who stop to stalk you as you walk down the street. We are constantly shouting "non parlo italiano!" Pretty obvi that means we don't speak Italian. The award for most persistent goes to a couple of supposed lawyers: They asked for our number and we said we didn't have a phone (lie), so they had a solution for that: give us a spare phone that they had! Weird life we are having.

My current method of communication is a combination of english/spanish/italian/sign language. Lucky for us, we have befriended some native english speakers who are teachers here. They are loads of fun and we have leaned on them quite a bit to hang out with.

As for volleyball, I have high hopes for the season. We have only had a couple practices, but with some solid girls they already have and then 3 Americans? We should be set. Since only a couple people at the club can speak english, we are a little confused on what our schedule will be like, but as of now it is looking like this. Monday: weights. Tuesday-Friday: volley 9pm-11. Saturday or Sunday: Game. Our team has been very welcoming and I think they will be a great group of people to be around for the next 9-10 months.

This is such a different culture from Sweden and I am fascinated to learn more about it. I will do my best to keep posting on here to explain the weird, weird, weird day to day encounters....there are already to many from the past week to try and write down.....