Barcolana Weekend

Finally some air around here! I can sweat for a reason rather than just because I exist!

We have gotten through another Barcolana weekend. This was my 9th. I didn't participate or anything. I normally don't, but it is a milestone every year, and one of two occasions for Trieste to wake up for a weekend before laying down its sleepy head for another season. (The Bavisela marathon is the spring counterpart to the Barcolana regatta in October). The Barcolana gets all the Triestini to dig in their winter clothes boxes (we do a change of season here where your summer clothes get put away for winter and vice versa) for their SLAM sailing jackets so they can put them on with their jeans and put the collar up (so cold! Must protect neck from unwanted drafts!!) so the reflective brand name shows.

The real sailors, of course, have their fancy team jackets on and matching pants. They have the added advantage of looking great for free! How the rest of us long to be one of them (without having to do any work-- unless you call hanging off the side of the boat to create weight work)!

Anyhoo, I went down to check out the action (sweet wind-stopper jacket, not slam, but just as conspicuous, a present from my mom, bless her!) and the dog was sniffing everything in sight and she was pulling pulling pulling and I was tugging back and people were tripping on her, and I was tripping on them, and the baby was sleeping in the marsupial on her papa's chest, oblivious to most of the goings on.

A radio station was broadcasting live with a few beautiful women dancing with short sleeves and tummies showing and mini skirts but no one was too worried about their catching a draft (foreign girls, myself included, don't catch drafts, but these girls were freezing with smiles on their faces). That scene made the place seem a little depressing. You just can't enjoy girls dancing when they're outside like you are and you're freezing and you're all covered up and they're definitely not dancing hard enough to get warm, and it's all just to make the radio station look sexy? Didn't get that.

Going downtown during Barcolana weekend makes you feel like you're living the city, though, and that's definitely worth doing.

Dear Summer,

You can go now. Um, there's the door!

Did you hear me?

Come on, put a fire under it (well, on second thought...)

See you next year!

Love, Karoline

Feeling Homesick?

A friend passed me THIS LINK. You can practice your Italian and get Oreos at the same time. But, can I just say something? If you're missing any of these items AT ALL, I think you and me need to have a talk.

Happy Eating!

All Clear- Stalkers on Holiday

Just an update. One of our stalkers was caught and the other seems to be on holiday. :)

The Association has two stalkers at the moment

People think that since we are a library with lots of English books in it, there used to be an American consulate down the hallway (did you know that Trieste had one of the first Consulates in the world?? The first one was in something like 17something something... ), most of us speak English and happen to be from America, that we ARE America and therefore should be stalked.

But we are NOT America! So please, don't send us anymore weird letters with crazy pictures on them! For one, I know you hate America, but I also know you love it, otherwise you would not want to be in the Army so bad. Also, it's not our fault your ex dumped you. Also, no, I cannot put you in touch with Obama or fly you to his office with a plane from the Aviano base.

No, we are not America, we are a cultural association trying to get by. Send checks, money orders, loose change, but quit sending us wacko letters!!

Finally Went to the Beach

And it wasn't so bad. We took the baby to the spiaggetta, where the little ones go. It's one of the few places where you can enter the water gradually, so it's awesome if you have a baby in your arms. Since it was her first time, I wanted to ease her into it, and that's tough if you jump in to where you can't touch.

It was a success by the way. The water was pretty chilly, but it is SO HOT AROUND HERE these days that WHO CARES.

I feel like a better mom now, at least according to Triestino standards. Phyoo!

Not been to the Beach yet?

I have been bad. It is July and I have not been to the beach once. I was reminded of this yesterday when I was teaching some English to business people and we were talking about our vacations. Of course that's what's on the Triestinis' minds lately. The days have been beautiful, so who can blame them. What came out of these conversations yesterday was how much vacation these people have!! Mamma mia-- some were going on 3-week vacations in August, others had a week in May, two in July, and the office is closing in August for a week! One person was actually complaining about how LITTLE vacation time she has left (she has been on 3 major trips this year!)

What a loser I felt like. Here I practically make my own schedule and I haven't even taken the baby to the beach. But that's probably it. In theory I have all this "time" but I don't really feel like I have that much at all. In fact, the days fly past and I have stuff to do on all of them, including weekends. Most of it is work.

What am I doing wrong?

Not that I want to be an employee again. I have definitely outgrown that gig. But... I don't know. I need to think about this more.

A note about the beach, though.

There's no sand. It's rock and cement. Many Triestinis say the sand is "unhygienic" (for real!).

The best part of the beach is playing in the sand, right? So maybe baby isn't missing so much. We're going to have to make a plan for the weekend. I want to make sand castles. I guess that means going to Grado or Lignano. But then there's the problem of traffic.
Hmmph.