Day 122!

What a trying but wonderful day! Erin and I planned on meeting Alex (the girl this time—the boy Alex with whom we spent the days in Milan left very early this morning) at the train station and taking the 12:15 train to Novara. However, Alex’s first train from Bologna was cancelled, and she missed her second one, so she was late. Also Erin and I had to wait around at the hotel because Alex (the boy!) forgot to pay for his share! So we had to wait to get his credit card number so we could get our bill all settled. A little after 1 o’clock, Alex (girl), Erin, and I were finally on a train out of Milan and heading for Novara, what should have been a short trip. But when we got to the Novara station, the train doors wouldn’t open! We ran to the next set of doors to get off, but it was already too late, the train was leaving the station, and we were stuck! We had to ride to the next stop and finally got off the train. Luckily the town wasn’t too far from Novara. Erin called her relatives and her (distant) cousin Mario and his friend Enio were nice enough to just drive to the town where we were and pick us up there! Enio is a great big guy with a full beard, and he is such a joker—he reminds me a lot of a combination of some good family friends, in a good wayJ Mario took us back to his house where his wife Maria had made us a wonderful home-cooked Italian lunch—tagliatelli with ragu, chicken, cheese, bread! Mario and Maria are so sweet and hospitable. We ate very well then Mario took us to his brother Flavio’s house. We are staying with Flavio and his wife Elenora because they have more room. They actually have an unusual amount of extra space, especially for Italians, because they have an entire building to themselves. Their daughter Lisa lives on the first floor with her boyfriend Domenico, they live on the second, and their other daughter used to live on the top floor, but she moved so we get the whole top floor to ourselves! It’s really nice and definitely the most comfortable we will be during this whole trip. Once we got settled in here, Mario came and picked us up to take us back to his house for dinner—chicken, fennel, potatoes, cheese, bread, fruit, cookies—yum! I really love this whole home-cooked Italian food, entire apartment to ourselves thing! Better than even the best hostelJ And all of Erin’s relatives are sooo nice. As much as I love Christmas at home with my family, it’s really fun to be here experiencing an Italian Christmas with such welcoming people. It’s also really great to be listening to them talk and to be speaking Italian with them. What a great opportunity! I am really enjoying myself more than I thought possible! I know these next couple days here are going to fly by, but I wish they wouldn’t!

xoxo