An Average Day in Foligno

So what is a typical day for me? Well, it starts anytime I choose, really. My time off is in the mornings, so I have until 12:35 when I pick up Maria Vittoria to spend however I’d like. I can go shopping in town, go for a walk, go sit in a caffé, go to breakfast with friends, go to a nearby town by train, or sleep in! Now, I haven’t done half of those things yet, but at least I have the option. :) So far, most of my mornings I get up around 9 or 9:30. The kids are up at 7 and off to school by 8ish I think, so it’s pretty quiet around the house when I finally get up. Zoila has meetings and business things in the next town every now and then, so when she’s gone it’s just me and the housekeeper, Manuela, who comes to the house every morning for a couple hours. I try to get out of the house by ten or ten thirty so that I can spend some time in town before picking up MV. This past week, I have gone several times to a particular caffé on the main square in town that I really like. I find a quiet corner by myself and sip my cappuccino, or hot tea, and read for a couple hours. I have been reading quite a bit lately and am finding that it is very restoring. There’s so much for me to learn still, and I love having new thoughts and ideas put into my mind each day. And of course, the more I read, the more I want to write. All these new thoughts have to have some place to go! So I take a little time usually at night before I go to bed to make some sense of the ideas swirling around in my head and let them out on paper.

Even though this is what an average morning looks like for me, my schedule does vary at times. On Tuesday, the girl Julia from the caffé came to work a few minutes early and spent her time chatting with me. She asked if I wanted to meet together the next day for breakfast at the caffé. On Wednesday, I met her at 11:00, and we found another cute little caffé down the street to enjoy our brunch in. We spent over an hour just chatting and getting to know each other. She invited me to go to the mall in Perugia on Sunday with her and her boyfriend.

That night, Aurelio came home with great news. He was going to be on TV! He has been working like crazy lately, and hasn’t been around much because he has had a very serious court case that he’s involved in. In fact, he assured me last night that he really does live in this house, although I have yet to see that ;-). Aurelio’s client that he is defending had been a target of some pretty awful hate crimes, so there’s been tons of coverage on the local news channel about it. Not only that, but a national magazine (equivalent to Time or Newsweek) contacted Aurelio yesterday and wants to interview him for an article on the story! He also came home today and showed me an Internet site that he’s on about the case. He’s everywhere! The site is all in Italian, but if you want to check it out, here’s the link: http://www.lanazione.it/umbria/cronaca/2010/11/19/416877-alpaca_sono_pronto.shtml. That night we all crowded around the TV to watch Aurelio’s debut. When the kids saw him they proudly declared, “Our dad’s a famous guy!”

On Thursday, Maria Vittoria was sick with a bad sore throat and a fever. She didn’t go to school that day, so I stayed home to help take care of her. However, Zoila did let me take a couple hours in the afternoon to go out, which was really nice. I found a different caffé (although later figured out how ridiculously expensive it was!) and spent a couple hours there thinking and writing. On the way home, I stopped by Foligno’s public library. I could not believe what I found. If I had ever wondered before where all the people in Foligno my age were, I knew now! The library was absolutely packed, full of college students everywhere! Before I walked in, there was groups of 20-something year olds standing outside talking and smoking, and I realized that this might be the place to find people my age. When I walked in and headed up to the second floor, I discovered two rooms with about ten long tables each, completely filled with college students studying, reading, and writing. I was so excited to finally find people that I felt like yelling out, “Who speaks English and wants to be my friend?!” Don’t worry… I’m not actually that crazy. :) But I hope to come back again sometime and see who I can meet!

Zoila serving lunch to the kids

Delicious lunch with the family!

And now back to my schedule… After I pick MV up, we come home and start cooking lunch. Zoila usually makes some sort of pasta with fruit or bread on the side. Aurelio comes home for lunch (either he or Zoila pick up Cesare from school), and we all sit down to eat together around 1:30 or 2:00. Cesare is always pretty hyper when he gets home, so he and Maria Vittoria play for a while after we eat while Zoila and I clean up. Sometime between 2:00 and 3:00, Cesare goes down for a nap. In the meantime, I play with Maria Vittoria. We draw, play Guess Who, do puzzles, read stories, watch SpongeBob or the Disney channel (in Italian of course), play dress up, and play with Barbies. On Mondays and Thursdays, she goes to swim classes, so I have a little bit of time at home to work on stuff. At 4:00, MV and Cesare (if he is up) get warm milk. Otherwise, Cesare gets up around 5:00 or so, and we usually have a snack around then. Between 5:00 and 8:00, Zoila starts cooking dinner, and we both spend some time playing with the kids. Aurelio comes back home around 8ish, and we all sit down again to a delicious meal. We don’t wait too long after dinner to head downstairs (the kitchen is upstairs) and start the very long process of getting the kids ready for bed. After brushing teeth, putting on the jammies, and going potty, we finally tuck the kids in and I retreat to my room, around 10:00. I use the rest of the night to do things like write this blog, edit pictures, and make phone calls.

My faaavorite food... pesto!!

As for weekends, I’ve only had one so far, so I can’t quite tell you yet what a typical weekend is like. In Italy, kids go to school Monday through Saturday, so a Saturday is not too different from other days of the week, except that I get a little more free time to myself to explore other neat places nearby. This Saturday, I think I’m going to try to go to Rome to find an English version of Harry Potter playing. I have no idea if I’ll be able to or not, but I’m sure I’ll enjoy the sightseeing either way!

Just having fun :)