"February 28th, Remember That!"
Buongiorno, everybody!
Here we go again with the weekly re-cap of my adventures here in Italia...
We'll go day-by-day...
sabato (Saturday) - a fairly quiet day, really. Alle ran around in the morning (after we'd had a late night with his friends for dinner), getting his hair cut, picking up packages frm the post office and other little errands. Afterward we stayed home and relaxed for the most part, then went to Blockbuster to rent videos. We picked up copies of Catch Me If You Can and Dreamcatcher (to sate my curiosity on how far off it was from the book). We watched Catch Me... and then retired for the evening, since Sunday was a special day.
domenica (Sunday) - we got up around 9am, and we straightened up the dining room in preparation for the day's dinner with Alle's Dad, Roberta and Andrew. It was Dad's birthday, you see, and a small celebration was in order. So we gathered around Noon, had lunch (a big lunch, at that), and capped everything off with a bout of silliness, aided in great part by my most recently arrived package from the 'States! Before I left, I had sent out a box filled with silly toys that I had purchased at work; it contained such things as giant inflatable plastic baseball bats, little "smiley face" shooters (they work like pop guns of yore - you push the "trigger" and a foam ball smiley face pops off toward your target, remaining tethered to the shooter), and the like. After Dad blew out the candle on his cake, we attacked, and soon everyone was popping little smiley face missiles at each other and giggling like kids! Then Alle and Roberta batted Dad with the baseball bats, which he then seized and began whacking them with in return. :) It was all silly and great fun, but soon Alle had to leave, having promised Croce Verde (Green Cross, of course) that he'd work a two-hour rugby match in exchange for the next Sunday off duty. So, once he'd gone, Dad and Andrew settled in to play cards and watch a football (soccer) match on TV, and Rob and I headed downstairs to watch music videos and chat after we'd taken a look at her parents' wedding album. Alle came home late - around 5.30 instead of 4.30 because someone got hurt at the match (an injury at a rugby match - how is that possible?? LOL!). (That is to say, someone besides him... He got so excited when one team scored that he jumped up, arms upraised, and cut his index finger on the low roof of the enclosure they were sitting in.) So we went upstairs and had something light to eat, put on Dreamcatcher and settled in for the evening.
The next few days were fairly uneventful, really... I did my usual stuff, Alle worked and came home in the evening for dinner (usually before Dad got home). On mercoledi (Wednesday), however, I decided to branch out a bit and went for my first walk alone into the town. I only went to the library, but it was a bit of an adventure for me, in its way. I needed to return some books, and rather than wait for Alle to get home and walk in the dark, I wanted to go out into the unusually warm weather and do it on my own. We had already discussed the route I should take, anyway, so there wasn't much left to chance. So, off I went, carefully avoiding the copious amounts of dog poo along the walkway (people here love their little dogs, but apparently there aren't many rules to require cleaning up after them... ick)... I took some photos, this time, of the church Alle used to go to when he was younger, of his old house (the door, actually), of the street where he lived - even of the front of the barber shop where he's gone all his life. I also snapped a quick pic of the bakery where they get their bread every day. Then I made my way home to have a cup of tea and relax and read until he got home.
Last night we went to bed early, since I had to get up with him today and join him at work. Well, that's not all true... I joined him at work because we had things to do in town (the boss is on his way to Moscow right now), and it made more sense to leave from work after getting a few things done, and to return afterward.
So... This morning, after an hour at his job here in Rubiera, we went back to Reggio Emilia and caught the free bus to get to the town hall. It was jam packed, hardly enough room to turn around, really, and nowhere to sit. So we held on to the bars until we reached our stop, with me gritting my teeth while my ankle protested such strange uses. We walked through one of the piazzas where the morning market was bustling, with marquees over the wares and even jugglers along the walkways, while the day warmed up considerably. We went to the Stato Civile (the town offices), where we registered for the "publications", meaning the announcement of our marriage to the town. On our way to the Prefettura (the state offices), we met up with James, Alle's barber - he doesn't speak English, of course, but he was so sweet to me and said kind things about Alle, too. (That much I could understand, anyway...) Then we bought the stamps we needed (not postage stamps, though they look similar... basically, they just show that we've paid the fees for filing, etc.), and we went on to file our other paperwork. So now, on Wednesday of next week, we'll pick up the processed paperwork at the state offices, meet at the civil office for the publications, and then...we're set!
On February 28th, the day after Alle gets back from Russia (St. Petersburg), we'll make it all official.
As for now, I'm exhausted. I'm writing this on a "spare" computer at the offices where Alle works, and we're getting ready to make some pasta for lunch with his coworker, Linda. We're the only ones here today, so it's quite informal, which is nice. We'll stay here for a bit, then head home for the evening after we pick up the pictures I've sent to be developed. I hope to upload them for your perusal at this site, but I don't know when I'll be able to get it done... ASAP, of course! ;)
That's it for this week - as always, I look forward to hearing from you when you get a chance to write. So, take care until next week...
Ciao!
Kim
