oops...I did it again...

So I sprained my ankle...again! And the way it happened and the things that happened around it is essentially happening the same way.

It happened during kickball and it was close to home plate, but instead of celebrating a run for our team, a run was just scored by the opposing team. I got off the field quickly thinking, "Why is this happening again?!?!" Ahh! Tim was great and got me back to the apartment to rest and ice my foot. Interestingly enough, he will be venturing back to Italy on Saturday (the last time this happened, he was leaving the following day).

Today, my cousin, Joel, invited me to see a comedy show. I was a little hesitant considering last time I took a cab to and from the comedy club by myself. Normally, this would be okay, but it is an added $20 to my night. Anyway, when I told him that I don't want to do that, but would love to see the show, he paused. "Wasn't your foot messed up last time we went?" And yes it was! This time it will be a Nick Kroll show, instead of Doug Benson (yay, difference!)

I'm going to have to re-track what I did last time I injured myself and make sure that I don't repeat certain things. I fixed one thing, which was getting crutches (Thanks, Joel!) and trying to speed up my recovery time. Whenever I'm home, I will ice my ankle and elevate it. I will keep my air cast on for as long as I can. I will take Advil everyday! I hope to walking like a normal person by next week. Wish me luck!

What's Up With That?!

So I haven't written in this blog for some time now and I wanted to continue about whatever I want. And that's what I'm going to do.

Today, I wanted to get some coupons, since I am going to a friends house for dinner and I am bringing something over to contribute. Since I am going to the supermarket, I figured I can buy some stuff for my pantry, too.

Everyone pretty much knows my OBSESSION with cereal. Lately, to save money, I have been purchasing store brand cereals. Instead of Lucky Charms, I purchased Magic Stars. Instead of Apple Jacks, I purchased Apple Dapples. (You get whats going on).

Since I want to fill my cabinet with tons of cereal (name brand this time) to last me at least 2 weeks (Did I mention I'm OBSESSED?!?), I decided to save some money by going to Coupons.com. I actually really like this website, but I came across something that bothered me. I saw a coupon that had a box of Kellogg's cereal, which normally would be awesome for me. But instead the coupon reads something funny..."Buy TWO (2) boxes of Kellogg's cereal and get $1.00 off peanut butter." WHAT?!?!

How can you write a coupon that seems like it's for cereal and make it for peanut butter?? Listen, I love peanut butter, but this doesn't seem to make sense. I decide not to print this coupon and move onto the next cereal coupon.

Another Kellogg's coupon and this one says "Buy TWO (2) boxes of Kellogg's cereal and get $1.00 off a bag of flour." You have got to be kidding me! I don't quite understand the connection. And why should I buy TWO boxes to get a deal on something else? I am baffled and disappointed.

I guess I'll stick to the cut out coupons in the Sunday paper. At least those deals somewhat make sense.

Day 16-Homeward Focus

We woke up at around 6-6:30am so that we can be ready and downstairs by 7:30am. Our taxi was coming at 8:00am, but it would be nice to experience the continental breakfast before we leave the hotel for the last time. We make it downstairs, had a HUGE breakfast with croissants & biscotti (and I smothered them all in nutella :))
Lilliana & Christina were also going to the airport to fly back to Romania. Their flight was later than ours, and when they found out that we would be sharing a cab, they were upset because they would have to be at the airport earlier. Since Tim & I try to be as accommodating as possible, we offered to leave an hour later than we wanted. Well, that was problem number one. Problem number two was trying to fit 4 people with luggage and a driver into one car. Our driver, Carlo, did not want to part with his Mercedes for a Van (which would have made more sense), so I volunteered to have one of the most uncomfortable seats in the car. I chose to have a seat behind Tim (who was in the front seat holding my bag up on the dashboard so that it wouldn't cover the gear shift) and I had his smaller bag where my feet should go and 3 other bags on top of me. Christina, seeing my discomfort, offers to take one of the bags off of me, which was very nice of her. And the third problem was being in this position for an hour! My feet were falling asleep.
We finally get to the airport and we only have an hour to get our bags checked in, go through security and get to our terminal. This is all because we wanted to accommodate others. Tim is in a panic, but I just keep thinking that the lines are short and the plane hasn't left yet. We should be fine. I print our boarding passes while Tim checks our bags in. We get through security quickly and get to our terminal with 20 minutes to spare. Whew! We do some last minute shopping that we didn't get a chance to do and walk back to the terminal just as they were boarding. And thank goodness we didn't need a bus to get to our plane.
The plane ride was only 5 minutes late, so getting our next flight in Paris wasn't going to be a problem. We arrive and we have to take a bus to our terminal. Ahh, what is up with all the buses in airports?! We get to the area where our terminal is and I am floored. Why wasn't my Paris airport experience like this before?? High end stores everywhere. A really nice food area and elevators and bathrooms. AND an internet cafe. Where were you internet when I needed you a couple of weeks ago for 5 hours?! Ahh!
Anyway, we make it to the airplane and Tim and I were supposed to be in an aisle and middle seat. The window seat was open. We were getting anxious to see if someone would be sitting there or not, since it would be extremely nice to have this row to ourselves. Too good to be true, especially when a woman comes around saying that she thinks she's supposed to be in this row. But she then freaks out in front of the whole plane, "Why did they tell me I have an aisle seat when this is a WINDOW seat? I WANT AN AISLE SEAT!" "We don't mind moving down.." Thank goodness we were so accommodating AGAIN.
The plane ride wasn't too bad. We hit some turbulence from time to time, but I was able to watch a few more movies: When in Rome, Dear John and The Bounty Hunter. I fell asleep for maybe a half hour, which was definitely not enough. I just couldn't get comfortable. I don't think Tim had slept either on this 7 hour flight.
We finally land and it is like American heaven! Everything is in English...People are speaking in English...For once in the past couple of weeks, I actually know what's going on! Even a little boy who was standing in front of us at the customs line was pointing out us speaking in English. America America America! I love America!
My parents pick us up and they treat us to a lovely Chinese meal. Chinese in America! Awesome! There are some other foods on our list of things to eat: fruit (surprisingly, not very good in Italy), Japanese and Mexican. I'm excited for Mexican and Margaritas at my favorite place, Dos Segundos! Or even just to have a restaurant open throughout the whole day! There are so many things that I look forward to doing and enjoying more from this trip.
Tim and I also picked up our cars. A big thank you to my parents, my brother and Leah. Thanks guys for giving me a full tank of gas and my car in one piece. It was just the way I left it.
Although, it may seem like I didn't enjoy my trip, I really did. It was a great experience and I saw so many good things. It just also made me appreciate the things that I have at home that I might not have appreciated before. I am a lucky girl <3

Day 15-Day on my own #6.5

Oh to be on a routine and only to realize that I will be flying back into the states tomorrow. I did my usual today: blog writing, go to the pool to tan and hang out with Tim when he gets home from work. We went to our last dinner here with some more of Tim's co-workers. They did speak English, but at times I stared out into space when they were speaking in Italian...AND French...AND Romanian. Some what frustrating, but whatever...it's the last night!
Well it's been great. I spent quality time with my man friend, I saw lots of beautiful things (as well as some not so beautiful things) and I got a pretty good tan. All in all this was a great experience. I am extremely thankful that I was able to come to Italy. My travels, however, are not over. To the airplane....!

Day 14-Day on my own #5.5

I got up to do my usual schedule: Update my blog, Shower, Get to the pool for some good quality tan time, Shower to see the tan progress, Hung out until Tim got home. This time instead of going to the restaurant (thank goodness) or ordering room service (thank goodness), we opted to walk into the heart of the city of Savigliano for dinner.
The walk is about 10-15 minutes from our hotel. And after another 2 minutes, you can walk completely around the piazza thats in the city's center. My stomach starts to growl (so what else is new) and ask Tim if we can eat dinner now. We go into a "restaurant" that only sells Panini's and EVERYONE was basically looking at us as if to want to say, "Why would any english speaking person want to come to this part of town?" Well, because we want to eat! The hotel restaurant is actually the best restaurant in Savigliano, and we thought thats the direction people would point us to. Please, we want to avoid that!
We finally get to a place that specializes in fancy pizza. I ate one called "Godzilla" without the uozo (egg). It came with ham, mushrooms, and bacon. What I didn't know is that most of the bacon was uncooked, so I gladly picked at my pizza and set it off to the side. Tim had a pizza with sausage, onions and that uncooked bacon. We were both a little disappointed in the pizza, but its ok. With only a day and a half left in Europe, it made us look more forward to coming back to America. I <3 America!
We paid for the check, which was tough since they were so busy. We waited about 20-30 minutes until we decided to just go up to the cashier to ask for it. And then the cashier was rushed and speaking so fast that it was a good thing the total flashed on the register. It also gave me a minor strain in my neck from nodding my head pretending I understood what she was saying.
We picked up some gelato, since that is never a disappointment. I had Creme & Caramel on a cone. Now THIS is what I'm going to miss. And I don't even care about my constant forgetting of my lactaid pills (although I know I will care tomorrow). Gelato is one of the best things about Italy.

Day 13-Day on my own #4.5

Sleeping was really great today. I slept so much that I missed going to the pool. Oh well, there's always tomorrow :)

I did, however, meet Tim and his co-workers for lunch and I discovered a new pet peeve of mine. First, I came down to the restaurant in the hotel where they were and his co-workers had put Tim in between the 2 of them. Normally, this would be fine, because it's not like Tim and I need to be next to each other at every moment. But what did bother me was the fact that for 50% of the time they would speak Romanian or Italian to each other, excluding Tim and I basically. And I'm not going to shout over them to speak in English to Tim. I do have manners.

A part of me realizes that they also are a little annoyed that I am here. They both have husbands in Romania and I'm sure they would love for them to be out here. But, they both have been going home every weekend and Tim has yet to go to America for the past 2 months. And although I am here, Tim is still working. The first few days that I was here was the first time he had stopped working since he has been in Italy. So they can be rude all they want about it, but the work shows that Tim does deserve to have me here. Now as for me deserving to be here, who knows?

Anyway, after lunch, Tim (of course) went back to work and we decided that we should just keep to ourselves for the rest of the trip.

Speaking of that, I can't believe we leave in a couple of days. Time is going by very quickly!

PS...Make sure to check out my picture page & that I do enjoy reading every single one of your comments :) Keep them coming (and I think you can comment on the pictures themselves)

Finally...PICTURES!

Here is a link to my picture page.

Enjoy!