Saturday, February 26, 2011

Italy 7

Today after breakfast we didn’t do anything. Well, I watched “Hotel Rwanda” and Barca studied. Then at about noon, everyone except me and Barca’s mom (she doesn’t ski) went skiing at the mountain here. I stayed at the hotel because 1) I was really tired, 2) It was super windy down here, and I figured it would only be worse at the top of the mountain, and 3) I am going skiing again in a few weeks, but there probably won’t be a sauna there(:

So I stayed here and went to the sauna for a while. It is so relaxing. I’m definitely going to be using Grammy and Grampy’s sauna when I get back, haha. But after that I came back up to our room to wait for them to get done skiing. It was about 5 pm, and I expected them back anytime. So I started watching “The Sting” while I waited. At about 6:20, when I was starting to worry, I got a call from Barca’s mom, saying, “So you know, Barca is in our room. She broke her leg.”

I went down to their room right away, where Barca was sitting with a splint on her leg. She said it was super windy on top, and like all ice. She had fallen and kept rolling for 10 meters, is what I understood. I’m just glad she is one of the few people here that wears a helmet the whole time she skis. Her mom and I came and got her some clean clothes, and now she’s showering and I’m waiting in my room for them to call me to go to dinner.

George Clooney's Pig
During dinner, we had some interesting conversations.  The choices for dinner tonight were pork or rabbit. Of course, I got pork. I’m just gonna reinforce my idea here, eating rabbits is just wrong. They are fluffy and adorable pets, plus a certain rabbit brings candy during Easter…my point being, pigs and cows never bring you candy, so it’s ok to eat them. Haha, no. I just think there is something not quite right about eating rabbit, but apparently I’m the only one here who thinks this. So Erik was eating his rabbit, and laughing at me because I was making my “they are pets, don’t eat them” speech. Then he pointed out that George Clooney has a pet pig. And he made the observation that George Clooney also has a house in Italy, and maybe tonight his pig wasn’t at home…to which I replied, “Well, his pig was delicious.” Which kinda canceled my original point, but oh well. Then later in dinner, he said that he was staying in my room tonight. And I’m still not sure if he was kidding or not. Because he said Barca will stay in her parent’s room with her dad, and her mom would stay with Erika, so Erik would stay here. And I think he was kidding, but either no one else was listening, or they were not making any other jokes or anything because he was serious. But I’m not sure, I will see later. I’m guessing Barca might stay here, but I don’t know if she will because of the stairs, and also if it were me, I would totally want to be with my parents after I broke my leg.

Actually, I think she just tore some ligaments in her knee or something similar, because it’s the knee that’s the problem, not the bone. She said she will have to have surgery in a few months. Now she can walk, but not dance or anything, which is why she needs the surgery, or so I understand it.

Ok, so now Barca and her parents are in here. Barca is trying to get situated so her leg doesn’t hurt, and I can’t do anything to help. I feel really bad, there’s nothing I can do. I have offered to help. But everyone just tells me, “Oh, it’s fine.” So ok…

Italy 6

Today after breakfast we (everyone left in our group) went skiing. Half went cross-country, and the other half, downhill. I went downhill with Barca, her dad, and another guy. We were at a different place than earlier this week. Also, I borrowed Erik’s skis, which saved me a lot of money (nothing is cheap here). WE only went skiing for two hours, but it was really fun. I think this was the best place we have gone, but I think I’m the only one who thinks that. It was just one really small hill. But I liked it, because it reminded me of Shannon at Caberfae. I went on like 10 runs, I think. I fell three times. The first time was because I had loosened my ski boots going up the hill (Poma lift) and forgot to tighten them. The second time was because I was turning super slow because I had just fallen, and my skis crossed. The third time was later, and I took a turn too sharply. But besides that, it was amazing. Because it was so small, there weren’t many people there. And you couldn’t really get lost on the hill…haha. Also, there were a few bumps in the run that made for great jumps. The first time I jumped was semi-accidental, but the times after that were totally on purpose. I’m not sure how far I actually jumped, but I know I was about a foot vertical in the air. It was shweet.

Gnocchi(:
After our skiing, we all met up for lunch at a restaurant that was near the hill. I had gnocchi, yum(: Our waiter was really cute, too. (I do love Italian boys! haha) So lunch was good. After lunch we went back to the hotel, but we didn’t get here until about 4:15. Then we hung out. Barca and I finished “The Sound of Music” which I still can’t believe she had never seen before. Then we got all dressed up for dinner.

Barca and her friend
Dinner tonight was a five course meal. All delicious (duh). During dinner, this adorable little German (I think) girl made friends with us. She was peeking over the divider and talking to Barca in German. She was three, she told Barca. Then after dinner (we didn’t finish until 9:15!), we just came upstairs to look at the gazillion pictures I have. And now to bed.

Italy 5

This morning I slept in a little bit, so I didn’t get to breakfast until about 9:00. Still delicious, as always. After breakfast, I went to our room and read, while Barca went to her parents’ room to study for school. Her parents went cross country skiing. I’m not sure what everyone else in our group did. I do know that one couple went home today. And the father and son that came the day after we did also left. (They got stopped at the border and had to wait for like a half hour because the son forgot his passport, and the authorities were convinced he was kidnapped. But they got home safe, so it’s all good.)

Today I mostly hung out. I filed and painted my nails (purple, of course).  I finished my book. (It was really good, great twist at the end.) I was reading when housekeeping came in to clean. Funny story. The lady came in, and started speaking in super fast Slovak, so I said I didn’t understand, sorry, I don’t speak good Slovak. So she asked, “German?” (only, in German, of course.) And I shook my head no, and asked “English?” to which she replied, “No. Italian?” And again, I had to shake my head no.

Side note – I think that I am at a distinct disadvantage, coming from America. By the time kids here (in Europe, I mean) are my age, they speak at least two languages, if not three. I only speak English, and I’m learning Slovak (duh) but I feel like a loser when all these people can switch languages as easily as I try on new shoes. It’s mind-boggling.  And I wish schools in America would start teaching languages at a younger age. Like, first grade would be a good place to start. Anyways, enough ranting.

Eventually we (through sign language and such) managed to communicate that I was going to a different room so she could clean. So I called Barca, and went and read in her parents’ room for 45 minutes. Then I went back, and our room was nice and clean, the blankets folded into hearts (no idea why) like always, the pillows folded to create a heart-ish triangle shape. And Snuggles sitting happily in the fold in my pillow. This was new, since I usually put him in my suitcase before I leave (since it’s mildly embarrassing that I still sleep with a stuffed duck, but whatev. Not anymore, since I’m telling the internets lol), but today I forgot to. I appreciate how nice housekeeping was to him, not just plunking him in the corner or something. Kudos to you, housekeeping.

After I finished my book, I watched “The Shawshank Redemption” for like the 5th time. (Great movie.) Barca came in when I was almost done with it, and I think she found it a bit amusing, the parts she was listening to, anyway. After that, we went on a walk to take pictures. Well, actually we spent about a half hour putting on makeup and changing clothes first, but oh well. We got a lot of silly pics, but a few really good ones too. I found the ones with the cows most hilarious. Ok, so there are cows here. Big deal. Well, to Barca, they were. She hadn’t seen that many cows before (unlike me - Hello, I’m from Holton!), and so she was a little scared of them. Which I found funny.  (Right after I made sure Barca was ok with this paragraph: Barca- “I just don’t see cows everyday since they are not living in Piešťany.” Me- “well it’s not like I see them everyday either. What, do you think I live in a barn? I don’t live in a barn!” Barca- laughs and laughs. Pff.) (So I just acted out a cow trying to attack Barca, and she said I looked like a squirrel with rabies. Thanks. -_- )

Yum
We ended up going inside once we were totally frozen. Inside, we just hung out for a little bit before dinner. For dinner tonight we had “Italian Cuisine”, which to me, was regular food.  That surprised just about everyone, when I said that this was normal food for me. And it was. Fried zucchini, tomatoes and mozzarella, melon and prosciutto, seafood. All normal for me, but not for my Slovak family. It was very very good. After dinner, we went down to the game room. When we got there, I was super excited. I got to see TINKERBELL!!! Mind you, it was in Italian, so I didn’t understand near as much as I would have liked, but still. It was Tinkerbell! So I watched Tinkerbell with the other 5 year olds, and Barca watched the adults play poker. After, we came upstairs, and saw an Italian musician in the lobby. A bunch of little kids (a few of my friends from watching Tinkerbell, too) were dancing, and I took an adorable video.  But we only watched for like a song and a half, and now we are upstairs being random.  

Italy 4

Today I went skiing with a few people from our group. Well, technically I was skiing alone, but they were on the mountain with me.  I went on the first run with a woman from our group. She didn’t really give me a choice of which trail to go on though.  She just told me, “We are going on this one.”  It was a red (intermediate).  And I didn’t really want to go on that one for the first run today, but I didn’t really have a choice.  So we went down that one, me very slowly.  I fell at one point, but it wasn’t a major wipeout or anything. It was more like I took a turn too sharply and kinda floated to the ground. So it didn’t hurt or anything, which was good. After that run, my legs were complaining about skiing…so I asked if we could go on an easier run, and she said that I could, but she wasn’t going to. So I did. It was only like 9:45 and we were meeting at 12:00, so I had a lot of time to ski by myself. I did like a gazillion (or, ya know, like 10) runs on my own. I did them all on the same hill. It was funny, because at the top I had to watch out for all the little kiddie classes that were learning to ski, and at the bottom I had to pay attention to all the really good skiers that were going 8000 miles an hour. But it was good for me to work on the basics, like turning, and stopping when I wanted to. 

I met up with everyone for lunch (pizza and flan for dessert, yum), and then I did two more runs, this time a guy from our group went with me. It was starting to snow a bit, so we only had like 15 feet visibility, which was actually good for me. Because it was more instinct then, and less “ok, if I go here it will be faster, and here is steeper” and such. On the second run I was doing good till the end. To quote one of my favorite books, “I’m actually quite good. I can slalom! I can turn! I can- Smack! –fall on my butt.” So yea, I wiped out…majorly. Like, I hit some ice, and knew I was going down, so I tried to ease into it a bit. But either it didn’t help, or I was doing it wrong, because somehow I ended up on my back, feet pointing in (painful in skis) and headfirst down the hill. Quite a sight, I’m sure. But I was helped up, and made it alright the rest of the way. It was getting late-ish, so after that I rode the lift back down, and returned my skis, and caught the shuttle back to the hotel.

Here I put on my swimsuit and went down to the pool, nabbing a book from the resting room on my way. (The book I started yesterday.) I read at the pool for a while, and then swam for a little bit, and read some more. Then up to change for dinner. Dinner, then back here. Now I’m about to go to sleep. I have no idea what I’m doing tomorrow, but I think maybe cross country again. 

Italy 3

The top of the mountain
During breakfast this morning, everyone was talking about what we were going to do today. The original plan was for me to go skiing with Erik and Erika, but Barca said people were saying the weather was bad on the slopes. So my options were to go skiing with them anyway, go cross country skiing with Barca and her parents this morning and then into town, or just stay at the hotel.  At first I was going to go cross country, but then I decided that I’m probably going to only be in the Alps this one time, so I went downhill skiing.

Halfway up the hill...
These hills are crazy huge! Like, the one run from the top to the bottom is about 5 kms, I think.  But that was black (expert). I only went on blue runs today (beginner), because I haven’t skied a lot lately. I have only been once this year, and like once last year, and I don’t even know before that. But not a lot since we moved to Holton. So I’m a little rusty. Hence the easy runs.  One of the many things I like about skiing on huge hills…the lifts. You take off your skis, and they sit in this little thingy on the side of the lift. And then like 6 people can fit in the lift. And it had a floor, so your feet aren’t just dangling there, which is a major plus.

One of the runs
Oops, I need to back up. So I went skiing with Erik and Erika, and two other people from our group here. They all had skis already. Erika went with me to the rental place. And then I got my lift ticket. The lift tickets here are electronic. So you just put it in a pocket, and when you get to the lift, you put it near the sensor, and it lets you through. Very smooth.  So we had to carry all our gear to the lift, get it in and go. As we were going up, I was just thinking “How on earth am I going to get back down? I really must be crazy.” When I thought we were near the top, Erik said to me, “No, we are not getting off here. We are going all the way to the top.” Um…wasn’t this the top?? Nope. We were only halfway up. When we finally got to the top, it was amazing. We were on the very summit of the mountain. And up there, you could ski down in any direction you wanted to. There were restaurants and I think some stores, too, there. All at the top. We started on the easy hill, for me. We did that run 3 times, and then we took a break. We had a snack at the top of the hill. How crazy is that? After our break, we did one more run on that trail, and then Erika and I went on a different easy one, and the others went on a little harder one. Erika and I ended up doing 3 runs on that one, I think.  I had a few mantras that I was repeating. Mainly, “Oh shoot, slow down slow down!” but also, “Ohmigawd, this hill is huge!” And then when I was doing better, “I’m no Jacob Mitchell, but I’m holding my own.” That last one was usually followed by “oh shoot” but still. (For those of you who don’t know,  Jake is my friend that is a really amazing skier. The last time I remember skiing in Michigan was with him, his mom and sister, and Jack. Which is why I was comparing myself to him. And compared to him, I suck.)

Then we met up with everyone else. They decided to take the black trail all the way to the bottom. And that is the only trail that goes all the way to the bottom, I think. So I just rode the lift back down today. Actually, a lot of people were riding the lift back down. Like most people who had little kids, or older people. And me. I might attempt that run another day, but it’s 5 kms, and it’s black. So…not today, because I was really tired after all that skiing. We all met at the bottom. I returned my skis while I waited for them. Then we went back to the hotel.

I started writing this then. When I was in the middle of this, Barca and I decided to go down to the sauna. (Which is why this might be slightly more random than usual.) At the sauna, oh dear. Can you say AWKWARD? A few of the adults with our group were there…naked, of course! (I’m laughing at that because in the brochure about the hotel, it describes the different saunas. And in each description, “naked, of course!” Which I find amusing.) But I really didn’t need to see people that I know, and will be having dinner with, naked. Ick. (Yes, I am a prude.) But today Barca and I showered between each sauna, which we didn’t do yesterday. Although, we did it so one of us was showering while the other was holding up a towel to create a makeshift shower curtain, and having eyes tightly shut. So we did 2 times in this one that we don’t know the name of. But it was like a cave, and very nice. Then we went in the herbal sauna, which I don’t think smells all that appealing…After that, Barca wanted to go study, but I wanted to do the cave one again, so I actually put aside my prudeish-ness a little, and took a shower without anyone holding up a towel. Mind you, I faced the wall the entire time, so people would have to work at looking at me, but still. So after my last sauna, I went into the resting room where Barca was. I found the one book there that was in English, and started reading that. It’s actually pretty good. I was only in there for like a half an hour, so I’m only on like page 55. But I will hopefully finish it this week. Then I came back up to our room, and now I’m waiting for dinner.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Italy 2

This morning I woke up, and Barca was gone. I was like, “Oh crap! What time is it?” Cause I knew that we had to be down for breakfast at like 8 am. I checked my phone and it was only 7:30, so I got ready, and Barca showed up at about 7:50 (she had been in her parent’s room). We went to breakfast, and there was so much food! I’m not just trying to be dramatic here (well, not much anyways). But there was cereal, and bread, and sausage,  bacon,  prosciutto, and mortadella (spelling?), and cheese, and fresh and dried fruit, and eggs, and muffins,  croissants, and danishes (spelling?).  The danishes were better than Mom’s, but not as good as Aunt Joanne’s, to give you an idea. Still delicious though. 

It's mud! I promise!
After breakfast, Barca and I went back up to our room to get changed for skiing. Now, today I didn’t try to kill myself by downhill skiing, but I think I will tomorrow. Today we cross-country skied.  This was a completely new experience for me. And let me tell you, it’s a LOT harder than it looks. It looks like you just have to walk, or maybe move your feet like you’re skating. Uh, no. You have to use your ski poles to push yourself along, and slide your feet forward. And it is very tiring. I was doing pretty well. I could go forward pretty fast, so I (being oh-so-humble), tried to ski the “professional way”. Meaning I tried to do the skating-ish motion like you see on TV. And actually, I did ok with that too. I got about 10 yards. Until I sorta lost control…(Now, the trail we were on was fake snow on a cornfield I believe. So if you went off the trail, there was mud. Keep this in mind.) Well…I fell. It didn’t hurt, the actually falling. But I couldn’t get my ski off, and so my ankle was hurting a bit. Barca, once done asking, “Kathleen! Are you ok? Did you break anything??”, helped me to get the skis off. Then I could stand up. And oh yea, I fell in the mud. I looked like I had a little accident…nasty brown mud and white ski pants do NOT mix. At all. I did make some new friends though. Mainly because I found this whole situation hilarious, and was laughing as Barca helped me wipe off my butt as best we could. All the professional type people that went by us were laughing at me because I smiled at all of them and gave a few people a thumbs-up. One guy asked if I was ok. So after I got up, and was back to beginner skiing, it was all good. But people were still laughing because I had a mud stain on my butt. So attractive…sigh.

After we were done skiing (I skied 5 kms!) we drove into town to find somewhere to buy lunch. Except for the fact that it’s Sunday…so not much was open. We went back to our hotel, where Barca and I had lunch. I had to explain what ravioli was to her, which is just a crime against nature. How can you not have ravioli? But I digress. We had our veal and herb ravioli (YUM) and went back to our room. Now we are waiting until the wellness center opens (pool, sauna, solarium, etc.) and we will go there.

Stupid Air-less Air Hockey
Barca finally got up…after me waking her up and believing her when she said “Ok, give me a minute.” 45 minutes later, I woke her up again, and we got ready to go. Wearing our swimsuits with ugly bathrobes over them (that were way too big), we headed down to the wellness center. We first swam for like 10 minutes, then got in the hot tub, sorry, whirlpool, for a bit. Then on to the sauna. Now, before this little experience I wouldn’t exactly call myself a prude…but OMG, I am. I understand that you use the sauna naked. But is it really necessary to stand outside of the actual sauna, drinking tea, without bothering to close your robe or wrap a towel around yourself? Add onto this the fact that most of the people there were over 45, and not in great shape. This was one…different…experience. But I liked the sauna (even though I further proved my prudesh-ness by keeping a towel around myself the entire time) and after that we had tea and lay on these awesome waterbeds in the “resting room”. And then back up to our room to change for dinner. After dinner (delicious again), we went down to the game room to play poker. I wasn’t allowed to play for money, being underage and all…haha. But that was pretty fun. I ended up being dealer because I was the only one who could actually shuffle. I quit after a bit, and played foosball with Barca and another girl. Then we played air hockey, except it was stupid, and didn’t have any air. So it was like table hockey, but boring. And then Barca and I asked how to get online, which is why you can read this now(: But it is really expensive here to use the internet, so I will upload pictures later because it takes too long to upload. So check back next week-ish for pictures.

Italy!

Cow!
So today I was picked up at about 9:50, with my one suitcase (amazing, right?).  We (me, Barca, her parents) drove to Bratislava, where we stopped at Marian’s friend’s house. We rearranged some luggage, stayed and talked for a bit, and then hit the road again. (All six of us in two cars.) We drove through Austria until about 3 pm. We stopped for lunch somewhere…I’m not sure the name of the place we stopped at. But, for the first time in about six months, I ate COW! I was super happy. And it was delicious, although I think it was cooked a bit too long (it was about medium-rare).  But very good. Then we drove some more…somehow we went through Germany. And I know I don’t have the best geography, but I still don’t see how we had to go through Germany to get to Italy…ah well. Germany was fun because there are no speed limits in certain areas…hahaha! (Good thing no one here lets me drive.) And then somehow we were back in Austria. And we spent a LONG time in Austria…in reality, only about 3 hours, but it felt like forever because I was so excited to be in Italy. When we finally crossed into Italy, I couldn’t stop smiling.

Side note – Italy is the reason I became an exchange student. I have wanted to go to Italy as long as I can remember. Originally, I didn’t want to go through Rotary because you can’t pick your exact country, and in other programs you can. But I ended up going through Rotary (duh.) and I’m glad I did, because we have awesome conferences. But back to my point. I originally decided to be an exchange in the hope that I could see Italy someday.  Once I found out I was going to Slovakia, I wasn’t disappointed. I’m still in Europe for a year, which not many people get to do. But I have always been interested in Italy (I’m half Italian), and so this is to explain why I was (and am) so excited to be in Italy.

Once in Italy, I just spent the rest of the ride smiling and looking at how gorgeous it is here. We drove for about an hour to get here, I believe. When we were about ten minutes from our hotel, we got a call from Marian’s friends, that they were in a car accident. They are fine, but we went back to where they were (about 3 minutes behind us).  They got rear-ended, so it wasn’t a super big deal, but they still had to do the whole trading-insurance thing. And they speak Slovak and English, and the guy that hit them spoke Italian, a very little English, and German. So we had to go back so Marian and Barca could help with translating. But Barca and I mostly spent the time, instead of waiting, in eyeing the guy that hit them. Because, let me tell you, those stereotypes are right. Italian guys are very cute. Like, really really really cute. But we didn’t talk to him, we went on our way.

We arrived at our hotel at about 7 pm. It’s a 4-star hotel, and I love it(: Sadly, I have actually been paying attention to how expensive everything is. Sigh. I’m so used to just letting Mom and Dad take care of the little things, like, ya know, PAYING, and I don’t like this…because now I feel a little guilty bout spending money here. Not guilty enough to not buy stuff, but enough to hesitate first. So we had a delicious dinner (cow again, I’m so happy!), and then got our bags and went to our rooms. And I read the brochure that explained everything. Like how it costs 5 euros an hour for internet…crazy! So if this isn’t posted until way later, that’s why. But Barca is fluffing her pillow, which I will take as my hint to sign off(:

Friday, February 18, 2011

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho...

...It's off to Italy I go!

Yes, you read that right. Tomorrow I'm going to Italy for a week with my second host family. We are going skiing in the Alps, and I'm very excited. I don't know exactly where...but it's Italy! Does it really matter? (:

So, there are many things that I haven't written about. First of all, I'm in my third family. I'm only living here for a few weeks, and no, I'm not sure why I had to move. But hey, that's Rotary for you. I really like them, they are nice. They have a pet rabbit that growls...it's hilarious.

Last Saturday was the Rotary Ball. Basically, I got to get all dressed up, and then go and sit with Ernesto for like six hours. No, it was fun though. But many adults dancing to music that I can't really dance to. Well, ok...I can, but I would need someone to dance with, and Ernesto wouldn't. But it was fun to listen to the music. And the fact that it was a live band, so I could finally point out to people what a bari sax is, and be like, "That's what I played in the US!" And then I got some strange looks, but hey.

There's probably lots of things I'm forgetting, but it's really late here. Anyways, I'm going to Italy, yes, I will take lots of pictures, and I will blog about it when I get back. Hopefully I don't kill myself on the Alps...haha!

What do you think of my dress?

Sunday, February 6, 2011

My Annual Cold

So, if you know me really well, you know that almost every winter, I get a cold. Not a big deal. Just the same old runny nose, cough, sneezing, and tired deal. Well, it's here!

My host family seems really worried about me, which is good, but I don't think they believe me when I say I'm fine. I have tissues, water, nasal spray, blankets...I'm set. Plus tea. Lots and lots of tea. Yum. So I think I will take a few days off school this week (walking 20 mins in the cold to school probably won't help my cold...), and hopefully I will be better soon. I will keep everyone updated, but if I don't post, it's because I have been home, resting.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

SCORE!

Mwah-ha-ha! I'm so excited right now, I am going crazy(er than usual...haha)!

So, basically, here's the story. I have a 20 minute walk home from school. I found this cute little coffee shop about 5 minutes from my school, on my way home. (I might have mentioned this before...oh well.) The first time I found it was about two weeks ago exactly, and I went there once that week, and I think once last week. But this week it has been really cold and I actually have small change, so I have gone there like every day this week so far.

Today when I went up to the counter to order my usual coffee to go with milk, the lady (I think I'll call her Em) just asked "kavu s mliekom?" (I might have spelled that wrong...but I'm ok with that, since my spelling sucks in English, too.) And I was so happy, because now I am like officially a "regular" and I have a usual order! Also, then I got a croissant, and I barely had enough money for it. I'm like 99.9% sure Em knows I'm a foreigner, and don't speak that good of Slovak. So I was paid my 1,75 euro price with one euro, two 20 cents, one 10 cent, one 5 cent, and the rest in 1 and 2 cent pieces hahahahaha. It was actually pretty funny. Em found it funny, not annoying at all, which is good. Because if she hadn't been smiling at me, I think I would have been super embarrassed. As it was, I just found it amusing. But then after that, she started talking really fast, and I didn't understand at all what she meant, until she showed me one of those "buy 9 of our coffees and get the 10th free" cards. So now I have one! I feel super happy. The only other time I remember having one of these was back in Cadillac, and using it for hot chocolate at the one place. I never knew the name of that place...so if anyone knows what I'm talking about and would like to inform me of the name, I would like it(:

On a side note: I'm going to try to blog more often (most likely about random things like this) because I follow a few other blogs, and I know I always wish they would post more often. So I will try. And again, if you have any requests for topics for me to write about, just let me know! (: