here's a photo of me one day after work. what you can't see is that i haven't shaved, showered or changed clothes in 3 days. the little girl is Rufta, she's the daughter of the Eritrean family i'm sharing a house with. she likes me but doesn't know what to do with me. the feeling is mutual. here you go:


that's all for now, come back again!

if you're wondering where i am...

here's the website:

http://www.giardinoreinhardt.com/it/index.html

also, extra credit: i've heard this movie was filmed and takes place in the area:

Under The Tuscan Sun

i've yet to see it, but i will. feel free to watch it and let me know, yeah?

photo update!!

right. quick update:

i've uploaded all my photos so far, and you can now view them here:

http://gallery.me.com/jacobdanger

enjoy!

This is the time. And this is the record of the time.

Greetings, my frisky little brain surgeons!

i know it's been over a week since i last updated, but this computer hasn't been able to access the internet and i'll be danged if i'm gonna update by phone. so hi!

Blogspot just deleted my entire post, leaving only what's above in a draft form. no me gusta. no va bene. so, here goes with the rest of the post as i remember it:

still in Cortona, Italy. working a little, getting some sun and eating. the Eritrean (google it) family i'm staying with made me some zighini. it's vegetables and meat in a bit of sauce, served on plates of this spongy bread-like thing. similar to a taco, which i tried very hard to eat like a taco, but not similar enough. you rip off a piece of the bread-like thing, scoop the vegetables and meat onto it, and put it in your mouth. no silverware needed. it's good, a little spicy.

i've also eaten... falafel, ratatouille, countless pastas, two pizzas, and one lasagna. i'm eating well.

work is good. gardening and nipping buds and weeding and trimming and watering and such. it's different, but not too bad. i've discovered i rather enjoy weeding. it combines my slight destructive urges with my tendency to focus on tiny details to the point of neglecting the bigger picture. so it works well for me, i think. there are only two problems with this. 1)sitting or knealing hurts my back after so long, and 2) i only know two kinds of weeds, so i know i'm missing many other kinds. i'm not efficient enough, but i enjoy it anyway.

i've met many different kinds of spiders. and lizards and frogs and mosquitos and bees and wasps and beetles. but the spiders interest me most. i'm not as afraid of them as i used to be, i think. but maybe i'll change my mind if/when one of them attacks. mostly i think they're interesting, the way they look, and how they interact with their webs and how they live with the other animals. FYI: spiders LOVE daylillies.

anyway. i'm slowly learning the language, picking up words here and there. i use a translator app i put on my iphone when i need to say something to my coworkers, and that seems to be working out okay for now. i've gotten to the point where i can understand most of the directions i'm given. well, most of the directions, i can understand most of them. if that makes sense.

on Tuesday i got a ride into Cortona to run some errands. i got groceries, work pants, and a haircut. i feel much better now.

the haircut was kind of awesome. the guy used only scissors on my whole head. i was impressed.

then i got a coffee, then a beer. waiting for my ride to pick me up and take me back to my apartment. she went to the post office while i was in the hair salon. it worked out well, and a good time was had by all.

i've worked out that i'm only allowed to stay in the European Union for 90 days. so in a little over a month, i have to leave Italy. either go back to the US, or to China, or to some country outside the EU, but there i'd have to stay for 90 days before i could come back to the EU. not sure yet which i'll do, but at least now i know what my options are. extension visas are granted, but only for certain reasons (business and schooling are common. i doubt i'd make a compelling reason.)

so there's that. i think i'm done now. i'm sure i forgot something, but oh well. have fun, and drive safely!

send money.

Loc. Piazzano, 1
06069 Tuoro S. Trasimeno
Perugia, Italy

please no anthrax.

Today we escape.

today is the first day ever i could say: i'm glad i didn't shave this morning. it just wouldn't have been worth it.

welcome, one and all, to another edition of America's least favorite game show: things i've put in my mouth that were not meant to go in my mouth! today's addition to the list: a lighter. not a Zippo, which would've been more awesome, but just a normal crap lighter like you have three of in your couch cushions, whether you smoke or not.

Whistling: because saying the person's name is too damn hard.

and now for the actual informative part of the update:

hi everyone! i'm not dead! i'm in Cortona, in Italy. working in a garden/olive grove. it's very different from what i'm used to, it's some digging and carrying plants and trimming flowers and trees and pulling weeds and i sweat a lot. mostly because i sweat a lot, not because i'm doing sweat-making activities. but it's good so far. i've been here one week so far. according to the owners of the place, a couple named Reinhardt, i can pretty much stay as long as i like, as long as i'm contributing. so that's good. not sure how long i'll actually stay, though. at least a month, maybe. depends on how stir-crazy or homesick i get. but they'll definitely need the help in the next few weeks.

they've been feeding me three meals a day pretty regularly. sometimes i have to fend for myself for breakfast, tonight i'll have dinner alone, but they always warn me so i'm prepared. they gave me money and a ride to the store for food, so i've got a crap-ton of pasta and some fruit and meat and yeah. so i'm good for a while. they're vegetarians, so the only meat i eat is when i feed myself, but it hasn't been a problem yet. they give me too much food, it's insane. although, to be fair, i tend to eat the last bits of pretty much anything they offer, so perhaps i choose to eat too much. i'd be more worried about getting fat if i weren't sweating and working in the sun every day. maybe i'll get fat anyway, just for the heck of it.

Sunday i went to a town about 45 minutes from here, called Perugia. it's the capital of Umbria. i missed the Umbria Jazz festival, which i've been told is quite nice, but i did get to wander a bit the underground city. i had pizza and Italian coffee and bought an Italian-English dictionary and another guidebook to Italy. so i'm set on Italian reading for now. something i've been thinking about is buying a book in Italian that i've already read in English. like Dracula or a Palahniuk or something. but i'm not sure that'd be very helpful to me, so i may have to settle for See Spot Run. anyway. Perugia was nice, but mostly closed on Sundays, so i may try to go back another time and see more. and ride the Mini-Metro (it's adorable!).

here's how to make Italian coffee, near as i can tell. you need coffee grounds, boiling water, and a shot glass. one part coffee to two parts boiling water. fill the shot glass with the ingredients. add sugar and milk to taste. drink. it's... different from what i'm used to.

on either Monday or Tuesday i FINALLY met an Anti-American. worse, she was British, which means i understood everything she said. i'm kinda socially inept, so i didn't really notice the contempt dripping from her every syllable, but i've heard accounts of the meal from those who are more in tune with such things. and i know it's not just me she hated, because there was a couple from Connecticut at the meal too, and they got the same treatment. i really don't understand Nationalism like that, and i'd like to ask her about it, but i don't think she'd answer me, even if i could somehow convince her i wasn't trying to start a fight. oh well.

i flew from Prague to Vienna, Austria to Florence last Wednesday. stayed in Florence one night, then train to Camuchia-Cortona (they're both really small and close to each other, so they share the train station.) in the Prague airport, waiting for my flight, i decided to spend as much of the last of my Czech crowns as i could. it was just pocket change, so i walked into a coffee shop/snack bar/diner thing, like you would find in any airport, and i ordered an orange juice. i sit at one of the tables, take out my book and a packet of nuts i bought earlier. one minute after i finish the juice, the waitress/barista walks over to my table, sets down a bacon sandwich, takes my empty juice glass, and disappears. as soon as i realize what happened, i look around for someone to talk to ("um, i didn't order this") or even to thank. there's two other customers, but neither makes eye contact or gives any indication that they have a clue what's going on, and the barista is still missing. i wasn't even that hungry, but i ate it. i'm still trying to process how i felt about receiving the sandwich. it's a simple emotion, i think, but unfamiliar. anyway. i finished the sandwich, looked around again for someone to thank, and, finding no one, walked out. it was weird, but not in a bad way.

by the time i got to my hostel in Florence, it was 1a.m. got up the next morning, checked out, and sat around the train station for two hours until my train came. not a great story, i'll admit.

Tuesday night i went to Cortona with one of the other employees of the olive grove, a 25-year-old named Tommy. he's learning english and already pretty good at it, so we talk a lot. i'm not learning nearly enough Italian from him, i think. anyway. we met up with two of his friends and had some drinks together. so it was an American (me), an Italian, a Swiss girl, and a German. an odd mix, but it was okay. sometimes i worry that i'm forgetting how to talk to people. not that i forget words, but how to put them together in a meaningful and inoffensive, hopefully encouraging way. the night's conversations did nothing to assuage that irrational fear. but it was nice to get out a bit.

i have no TV, no computer in my "apartment" that i share with the family of another employee. husband, wife, daughter, then me. i have my own room, but everything else is shared. actually, i've been meaning to talk to Tommy about getting a TV so i can watch movies in Italian with English subtitles. i think that might help me learn. also i downloaded an app onto my phone. not so much with the talking to people yet, but it'll come.

actually, now that i mention it, i'm on a computer in the main house, just after lunch (which is an hour and a half long). i'm supposed to be making the printer work, but it's just not happening, it's ticking me off. perhaps i should finish this and get back to the printer or maybe the garden?

since i'll probably be here a while: if you want to send me something (e.g. money, books, food, money, tear-stained love letters, etc.), let me know and i'll see about getting an address to you, at which i can be reached. or if you'd like mail from me, that can be arranged too. just say the word.

alright, i think that's it. if you've made it this far into the post, i owe you a cookie. goodbye for now!