home again home again jiggety jig

can you believe it's august???

well, we nyssens are back state-side, for about a week now. francis and i returned and received a welcome home present of: the flu. puking and out of commission for about a week. greg came home during that as well, exhausted, and a little under the weather after his week in india, with spicy indian food, and lots of it, for three meals a day! but he survived it quite well, i should say, and we are slowly getting back on track to life as we know it in seattle.

there shall be stories, in snippets, and there will be photos, someday, but for now i will say that it was entirely wonderful and exhausting. and worth it. and we are glad to be home.(except for the fact that we'd rather be in rome!) if anyone's wondering how it was traveling with a 10 year old: francis was absolutely great! (despite the fact that we are going thru the "terrible 10's" right now, and have to deal with some wannabe-teenage attitude lately...on the trip he did very good.) he was old enough to keep up with us, often til midnight every night, he carried (er, wheeled) his own luggage, needing only our help up and down the many many subway stairs we encountered along the way. he didn't need naps, and often had more energy than we did by mid-day. he thought every single thing we saw was "AWESOME", and he's at an age where i'm hoping this trip lasts as a wonderful memory. also, not being a teenager yet, he was still entirely content with our company, except when he saw kids playing at the beach, or park, and would ask us: "how do i say: can i join you? in italian?" and we would look it up in our book, he would memorize it and run off, loudly announcing "non parlo italiano! posso giocare anch'io!" (i don't speak italian! can i join in?) and the kids would then either practice their grade-school english on him, or just play side by side, chattering away in italian, but play often needs no translation, when there's smiles and sandcastles...

we were totally content to not even try to do everything.

we went to: rome, venice, the cinque terre, marseille, paris, dover (that was francis' pick) and london. and even that, in 18 days, was alot. we wished we had stayed more days in rome. i think that was a definite favourite.

we stayed out late, and could not get up early, no matter how hard we tried. in italy, we ate paninis, gelato, and pizza every day and didn't tire of it. i really loved ordering cappucinos, and practicing my limited phrase-book italian, and the italians were very happy to watch us try. francis even picked up on the tonal influctions, and would announce "grazie mille!" with enthusiasm, and they got a kick out of that.

in france, i had a much harder time with the language, and left most of the communicating up to greg, seeing as he took french in high school. not one single word is pronounced the way it looks! and they weren't as happy as the italians to watch us try. but, despite their reputation, and some of our own experiences with rudeness, we encountered many friendly french that proved they can't be stereotyped. maybe it was traveling as a family? i don't know. but we had fun wandering the streets, eating crepes, baguettes, croissants, and "cafe cremas"...

we traveled on foreign trains, planes, busses, ferries, boats, subways...everything an adventure. i am sorry to report that i did not cope as well as i would have liked, i was not as easy going as i remembered either, and i became a bit of a frantic spaz when it came to making our connections. we had some frustrating moments, dealing with the "lost in translation" language barrier, and always winging it. but that should be expected i guess, and i remember the vacation being wonderful, so it must not have been that bad!

anyways, real life beckons at this very moment, the sun is shining, and i must get outside. more to come later...