We were having such a good time...

And then things got crazy.

Good thing Liz made chocolate cake.

Happy 27th Birthday, Brad and Brian!

Naples . . . and then some.

A fountain near a piazza-type clearing at Pompeii. Take note of the cloudy but bright sky.

It has been a bit since my last blogging, but do not take this as an indication that there has been nothing worth blogging about, on the contrary. As can be seen in these photos (a small, representative bit of the hundreds I have) I made it to Naples and the ruins of Pompeii a couple of weekends ago. It was, to say the least, pleasantly exhausting.

The gladiatorial arena. At the extreme right of this picture I believe you can see a tidbit of the door that acted as the entrance for lions into the arena.

The first challenge was to catch the correct bus. We wandered around the station, looking at the screens with departure/arrival times and gates. Unfortunately, we were looking at the arrivals instead of departure screen and were thus quite confused. About 5 minutes before departure time, however, we straightened ourselves out and boarded the bus to Naples. 4 1/2 hours, miles of beautiful countryside now obscured by the darkness, we arrived to find the city wet, confusing and dirty. Quite literally there are piles/mounds/mountains of trash just sitting in streets, in alleys, random corners . . . everywhere. True night was imminent (it was only early evening when we arrived), however, and so, guided by our recently purchased map and my amazing navigational skills, we managed to happen upon our hotel. We had thoughtfully purchased a bottle of wine, of Naples origins, from a very kind man. Unfortunately for us we were never able to find his shop again. Thus is Naples.

Our first view of the ruins of Pompeii.

The next day we (Ian, Amanda and I) started out fairly early after our peaceful night. Breakfast was necessary, that much we knew. We stopped at the first pasticceria/bar we saw and had a cornetto and the most amazing cappuccino I have ever experienced. Feeling quite refreshed and determined to see some museums, we set off from the shop nearly skipping. The peace of the night and refreshed feeling rapidly disappeared as we entered into the hectic world of Naples' traffic of people and vehicles alike. Shops had put their wares on the sidewalk already crowed with immigrant vendors; fresh fruit spilled out of crevice-like grocery stores; the smell of the city, thankfully subdued by the cool weather, laced the morning air. I even saw a swordfish, head and all, for sale. We were lost pretty much the entire time.

This gallery was filled with ancient busts of famous dead men - apparently Dad's style of beard has lasted throughout the ages (look closely at the white men).

We finally made it to a the Museum of Archeology and approached the desk to pick up our Artecards, which would get us into museums and ancient sites for free or reduced price. Coincidentally the internet was not working at the time. Cardless and rejected, we picked another museum on the map and headed in that general direction. I'd had practice all morning, so I was proficient at map reading by then and led us more or less directly to the museum. On the way we had to climb an innocent-looking set of stairs. I say innocent-looking because once we began our ascent we could see that they were covered in garbage of all sorts (see picture below), including a dead rat (did not take a picture of that). The top was slimy with moss and the odor was like nothing I've every experienced. Never.

The Botticelli we saw at the first museum. Not 100% positive that it is The Botticelli, but I think so.

The internet was, thankfully, up and running at the second museum. We wandered around it for over an hour, but it was mostly paintings of the "Madonna and Child" style, so we didn't stay for too long. It may be difficult to believe, but one can see too many paintings of the Madonna and Child and gruesome martyrdom scenes in one day. After an aborted mission to some catacombs we ate the most delicious pizza of my life and then checked out the first museum we had attempted to go to. Beautiful and ancient artwork and artifacts surrounded us. A lot was taken from Pompeii, so we got a preview for the next day.

A picture from the top of the nasty steps . . . only a small bit of Naples.

The next day we headed to Pompeii. It was a bit damp and chilly to begin with, but we managed to find the correct train and headed out despite the foreboding clouds. I cannot do justice in words, I don't know if anyone can, the feeling one gets upon entering the ancient streets of a dead city. Between the 3 of us I'm sure we took over 400 pictures that day so when I return home I can show them all to you. For now these few will have to do. We wandered around the ruins for somewhere around 5 hours. It rained intermittently, sometimes only a drizzle other times it poured. Exhausted and a bit damp we decided to return only to be rained/hailed on one last time while running, very lost, through the streets. Needless to say, upon returning to hotel we took showers, drank a bit of wine and crashed. The rise home the next day (once we found the bus-stop back, which took us a while) was restful and we got to see some magnificent countryside. Thus ended our adventure to Naples.

Garbage on the steps . . . imagine this EVERYWHERE!

A nice little piazza that we took a break at (mostly to check out the map).

Some random steps in Naples.

A couple of my dear friends: L. Rosanna, R. Amanda

On a completely unrelated note, there are a lot of dogs in Italy. i think everyone has one. They are all tiny but proud. I'll be sure to take some pictures for examples.

Love from italy!!!!!!

San Pietro, and more . . .

Rosanna, Amanda and Ian

leaving the central courtyard of the Church of St. Peter

Down below

The REAL medieval garden, it was through some doors in the church

A 3-headed woman guards the entrance into the chapel

Hello all! Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been quite busy and my internet isn't exactly reliable. Nonetheless, I have been enjoying my first 2 1/2 weeks of Italy. Sadly I'm not a reliable operator of my camera yet, and so I somehow took some pictures that later disappeared. A thousand words will have to suffice.

So, after moving into my chilly apartment (7 hours of heat is not enough when it is sub 40's weather) we took our placement test and began classes. My class includes students (not necessarily my age) from everywhere: Vietnam, Turkey, Indonesia, Japan, England, China, Russia, Germany . . . and they don't necessarily speak english. It is interesting, and they all seem very "simpatici" (easy to get along with/nice), but it is difficult to establish many relationships yet when all of what we know how to saw is quite superficial, i.e. - "Hi! My name is Katie. I'm from Minnesota. It is cold there. I live on a farm. I like to make cheese. . . "

Nevertheless, I have made friends. Most are from the full-immersion group, and I'm sure we will have many adventures to come. We have, in fact, already begun. Last Sunday we went to a farm that is a member of the Slow Food Movement ( an Italian creation begun to contradict fast food). They produce 3 things in particular that exemplify what Slow Food is all about: olives, pigs and beans. The olives they grow are indigenous to the area and more difficult to pick than those one would find in a wholly commercial environment. It's branches tend to grow upwards, meaning when the trees get a bit old the topmost branches are unreachable. The olive oil it produces, however, is absolutely to die for. I'd say it is definitely worth the hard work. Light, delicate, a bit sweet and a bit salty - it kicks the ass out of any oil I've every tasted (but in a quiet, tranquil and subtle fashion I attribute to the people that make the oil and the environment in which it is produced). The beans, fagiolina, are small and must be harvested at a specific time. They were nearly nonexistent on the market before a few farms decided to grow them again. Normal beans, maybe from Brazil for example, are bought for $3 per hundredweight. These beans are bought for $300 per hundredweight! Sadly we didn't get to taste them. The pigs, however, we ate a lot of during the meal following our tour (that lasted over 2 1/2 hours and was followed by a trip to the lake for gelato!) and take about 2X as long to mature, thus their scarcity. They are allowed to root as they wish, thus negating the need to inject iron into them and preventing other diseases. It was, in all, a wonderful day.

Classes and homework and getting to know people take a considerable amount of my time, so little of significance (not to say that it was not enjoyed) happened until this weekend. I was suppose to go to Barcelona with 3 girls: Aubree, Alex and Ruth (who had an eventful time of it without me). Instead, due to class conflicts, I had to change my ticket and forego the adventure. I will instead be going to Norway for a week after my program is finished (May 3 - May 10)! Hopefully some family members can be found and fjords explored.

So, plans for Barcelona extinguished (for now) some other friends (Rosanna, Ian and Amanda) and I decided to explore the city we were in, beautiful Perugia. We walked and talked for a while until we cam across what we thought was a medieval garden (see the 2nd picture below) with a striking monument in front of it (see the 3rd picture below). It was, we later discovered, not the garden we had intended to see, but was pleasant and has great potential for a picnic when the weather warms.

We went next the the enormous, nearby church of San Pietro. We wandered around it for quite some time and Rosanna and I each lit a candle infront of the crucifix. There was artwork - paintings, carvings, sculptures, tapestries . . . you name it - quite literally covering every surface inside the main chapel. Underneath it they were doing some digging and renovation of the space, but weren't very far along (we are in Italy). Pictures can not begin to do justice to the magnificence and the heavy feeling of reverence or holiness or some other indescribable feeling. There was an ominous presence and I felt as if I were performing an sacrilegious act whenever I took a picture or made a sound. (see pictures above and the one immediately below)

A little prayer room off to the side

Next weekend a group of us are planning to go to Naples and see Pompeii, Herculaneum and possibly some nearby islands. It'll be a long ride (via bus, ugh) down and back, but we're trying to go on the cheap as much as possible (projected budget thus far is around 150 Euro for a trip lasting Thursday afternoon to Monday afternoon) and well worth the trip. Many pictures will be taken and much good food eaten (I'm designating myself as the gastronomic coordinator).

Well, aside from these adventures (and the plans for those to come), and other wanderings around the city, I am learning how to speak Italian by shopping, meeting people at the bar (we go out in good sized groups, it is quite fun but a bit expensive so it will be happening from now on much more sparingly), or warding off creepy men in the street (I've already expanded my cache of nasty words). Also, I've been eating far too much nutella. Far too much.

Kurk off!

A little act of randomness

There is a pillow sale on at Shopko through Saturday- pretty much 1/2 off. And every person I work with that had soggy pillows, got brand new pillows this week. I've pretty much been dreaming about them, so I finally went and bought some tonight.
On my way home, the Statue of Liberty was standing by the stoplights on Highway 61. She did not really appear to want to cross the road; but she was either hitchhiking or just being herself and doing her pose. Which, without a torch, one can imagine, looks a little bit like hitchhiking...

~Becky

new calf for the new year and yummy dessert

Last night we had home made pizza and this yummy dessert. Liz's new creation......

Milly had a heifer calf on new years morning. Her name is Mabel. This is Milly's 14th calf.

Love, Mom

In Italia!!

Ciao a tutti! I have finally arrived in Italy. After hours of flight and waiting, a bus ride and a night at a hotel, we (Alex and I) moved into our apartment which was also suppose to house Italians, but does not yet that we know. I have include pictures of our small rooms, our small shower, a toilet (and bidet!), and pictures of the view from our bedroom window.

I apologize for the bad formatting - I'll get it eventually. Next time I'll put up pictures of the houses across from us and tell you a funny story about that one. Also, I got some delicious cheese and meat which I will put pictures of on here with a full gastromical description. Ciao!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Love,

Larry, Sharon, Brad, Lizzie, Trum Brum, Becky, Ravis T, & KT

Update

Phew, we've been busy- this is sort of a synopsis of whats been goin' on lately, on the Wiste farm (and of course there is so much more).

This is Roy Rogers-he happened on Saturday.

Do you like our new walk-in refrigerator/freezer?

Love, Mom and Becky

Getting ready for Italy!!

I had quite the adventure Wednesday trying to get to the Honorary Italian Consulate in St. Paul to have my VISA application gone over. Long story short, I initially went to the wrong address and, after calling the Consulate himself directions (phone number thanks the Tim Blanski - you saved the day), proceeded to walk Becky-while-shopping-style (all of you have experienced this know how fast it truly is) for 2.1 miles. I arrived, late, as usual, got my application signed, and headed back to Grand Ave to explore the new cheese store, get another beer kit, and purchase some delectable truffles. After all the walking it was nice to relax on a bench while enjoying by pastrami and clothbound cheddar on ciabatta sandwich (the St. Paul Cheese Shpo is HIGHLY recommended). The funniest thing about my trip was when I was nearly to Montreal Ave. (and since I don't know this part of St. Paul well I had no idea that I was so near) I saw a road sign for a Rome Avenue. I thought, "I must be near, I just made it to Rome!" Lo and behold, Montreal was the next road. Prophetic perhaps?

I also bought my tickets. SO, I am officially going from Jan. 5 to July 8 - - a long, long time.

Becky, I thought you might enjoy these new found Italian words:

lavorare a maglia - to knit

un diritto, un rovescio - knit one, purl one

See you all at Giorno di Ringraziamento (Thanksgiving)!!!!

Love, Katie

Misc.

A few random thoughts...

Picture of my new bowling shoes- We've been bowling for about 5 weeks now, and I think I am progressively getting worse, instead of better. I had a 188 a few weeks ago, in one game, a long with some other pretty good scores (which got my handicap really low); but now I'm pushing to get over 130 again, and have gotten under 100 several times (and with my handicap, it sucks even worse).
My next game is dedicated to my Mummy. She supports me even though I swim crooked and belly-dive, I can't seem to be able to properly use breaks on roller blades or my bicycle, and through my short-lived careers in gymnastics (KT is much better) and wrestling, just to name a few examples of my non-graceful approach to most sports. Needless to say, 188 was pretty amazing, but we'll see how the rest of the "season" plays out (its about another 7 months, so one would think I'd be really really good by that time, or really really bad the way things are going).

We do seem to have a pretty good time, though, so I guess that's the point. We even have our own group of cheerleaders that yell supportive comments at us, as we walk out the door of the bar (Schneip's Bar is our sponsor, and that's where we meet every week).*The stars glow in the dark.

This is the little baby sweater I knit for our friends' baby; we got to meet her last week, and she was about the best and cutest baby I've ever met. She was very laid back and smiley.


And, I realized I hadn't posted Meow since she grew her one white whisker; she's very wise now. She's been a sweetheart since its so chilly- she gets so cuddly when she wants a little body heat.

~Becky