Planes, Helpers, The Beach, Water Bottles, & Parties!!!

Well this update is way overdue, especially since I said I would update more often. Starting NOW I will! The problem with not updating is that I don't even know where I left off. I usually have to go back and look at the picture to remember. The few days after my last update I hadn't really done much besides regular work around the house, but on Friday is when a bunch of stuff started happening.

Friday morning (the 12th) Elisabeth's friend Renato (we call him "The Plane Man") took me up in his single engine airplane and flew me around Orte and the surrounding towns, it was so awesome! I didn't know I was going to go until the day before, but we got up early and drive over to the "airport", which was really just a small hanger for 6 planes and a grass runway. You can see in the pictures what I mean. But it was so cool to fly up in a small plane like that. As far as I can remember I only had been in a helicopter once before,

and never a small plane. It was much quieter and much more relaxing than I had thought it would be, almost made me want to take lessons! Renato used to be a pilot for Alitalia airlines and now he just flies once a week. But I got great views of Orte, the surrounding towns, and even Elisabeth's house! The pictures are of the airplane, Renato and me, the runway, Elisabeth's house from the air, and Orte from the air. We were up in the air for about 15 minutes total and I saw quite a few things though. I think Renato has taken

everyone in Elisabeth's family up in the airplane at one point or another. He lives about 20 minutes away and has a farm of his own that he takes care of. He usually comes over for lunch or dinner once or twice a week, so I've gotten to chat with him before. Very nice of him to take me up in the plane though and definitely an exp erience I never would have had in Italy if I had just stayed in hostels in the big cities the entire time!



That was Friday, and on Thursday night we had another helper come here, the one I said was cute in the picture Elisabeth showed me. And while she was cute, she was definitely not cut out for working on a farm. Notice how I said "was"....we'll get to that later. Anyway though, she got here Thursday night and didn't wake up for breakfast until AFTER I got back from my plane ride, which was like 10:30-11:00. Not a good start, which she compounded by making excuses for it. Usually we work from 8-11 or 12, then rest and work a little in the afternoon. And yes I knew she didn't know anything about the house right away, but Catherine was there to give her some simple jobs if she would have woken up. It was all pretty much downhill from there. Camilla and Elisabeth are just different people and everytime Camilla wanted to help she would do it her own way and act like she was in her own house. I figure that going to someone's house to work is like a recipe....at first you follow the recipe and how it's done, then after you're used to it you make changes to do it your own way. Camilla didn't realize that and whenever she would do something wrong she would just make excuses and not admit she was wrong. On the other hand, Elisabeth didn't treat her very well and didn't give her much of a chance to let her learn. It was just a bad situation that didn't work out. She ended up leaving on Sunday....I can explain more at home if anyone wants to hear it all.

Sunday though, Camilla left with a friend of Elisabeth's son, Simone, and he had to drop her off at the beach on the Mediterranean Coast at Santa Marinella. I went with to check it out and it ended up being pretty cool. We ended up being there 5 hours while Simone was sailing. The water was great and the beach was pretty good.





Monday/Tuesday were simply work in the morning and then sit by the pool in the afternoon, pretty relaxing. Today Catherine had a party for the end of her school year with 8-10 of her friends over. They are all about 7-8 years younger than me and all only seemed to speak Italian, so I just hung out helping cook and sitting by the pool. I also had an interesting conversation with Elisabeth about water bottles. I'm against bottled water, it's simply bad for the environment. I've got one of those unbreakable Nalgene bottle that you just refill from the tap or a water fountain. I kept it in my bag until today since it was really hot outside so I filled it up and put it in the freezer. Two things wrong with this apparently: 1) Cold water is bad for your health and 2) Any type of plastic container is not allowed in the house, even if it's reusable....

Correct me if I'm wrong, but how in the hell is cold water bad for your health? Water is naturally cold in the mountains and from spring where people drink it. Sticking it in the refrigerator uses energy to make it cold, but there's no way it could be bad for your health. But please, someone correct me if I'm wrong. And secondly, I find it ridiculous that I can't use my own container that will never be thrown away. I use it to drink water simply because I have a lot at a time to drink that way. It's not really a big deal to live with at the house, we just have discussions about it all, but that's just an example of life here. Some stuff seriously just doesn't make sense.

I'm still having fun though, despite some different views and beliefs Elisabeth and I have, and there are two girls coming tomorrow from Boston. It will be nice to have some company, hopefully they are actually prepared to work and end up staying longer than 3 days.

This time I'll REALLY start to update more often. Thanks again for all of your comments and e-mails everyone! Ciao!

P.S. To make any of the photos bigger just drag them into your address bar at the top of the screen.