Noel & Via

After telling the bus driver where I needed to go, he quickly explained that he was headed that way but not now. Before I could protest, he closed the bus doors on me.

I recognized him and the girl standing beside him from a previous bus ride. Seemed like they were in a heated argument. Oh no, LQ, (lovers' quarrel) I thought. And they carried on that way for the duration of the bus ride. The girl demanding that he answer her for heaven knows what accusations she had. And we circled the route in that fashion, me wanting to strangle the girl for distracting our bus driver- as we headed further away from home. I'm headed for Paris, I thought.

We stopped in the middle of nowhere for a 5 min. break, turns out our driver needed to take a leak. By this time, I was ALONE with this awful pair. I didn't know if I was supposed to go down from the bus as well since they both did. The girl sulked on a bench while we waited. Not too long after, thank goodness, he was ready to go again, but girlfriend remained sulking in her same spot. He had to yell to call her back into the bus: "DAI!" (Come on!")

I wanted to scream: "You're not the only ones with problems! People on your bus need to get home and make dinner!" It took me 30 mins. to get home instead of the usual 15. But at least I made it with just enough time to eat a quick dinner (thanks to Noel who got it started) before we caught Mona Lisa Smile (in English!) with Nicole.

Posted by Via at 09:06 AM | Permalink

Last Sunday, we distributed anti-smoking leaflets around town as part of the experience prototyping of Noel and Halli's project for school. It was a huge success by the way, not with the townspeople but with the guests that were invited to the student presentations yesterday. So much so, that Noel and Halli were asked to present it again today. (Noel will tell you more about it)

The town was so alive with a marching band, some people in period costumes, some booths selling all kinds of things. I had a shot with some soldiers which led to the women protesting, asking why I only wanted a picture with the men. So they insisted on a photo with Noel. He'll post them later on for your viewing pleasure. :) We stopped to indulge our sucrose cravings by selecting some fancy little pastries to take home from the swanky Pasticceria Balla. We would've taken some coffee there too but there were too many people there first. So we ended up in another one of our favorite coffee spots, al fresco.

Posted by Via at 10:30 PM | Permalink

I hitched a ride today with Halli to the fruit and vegetable shop that Nicole pointed out to me yesterday. Noel and Halli were on their way to school to meet for their healtcare-related project.

Even if it was a bit dark today, the atmosphere was nice. Everyone seemed to be out, doing their shopping- maybe in preparation for tomorrow's Carnivale here in Ivrea. We heard that there is going to be a HUGE cake. (It's called Torta Noveciento) After completing my shopping, I decided to take the back route back home. This involves a lot of oncoming cars and some serious, uphill, Thigh-masterlike climbing. Phew! It was only today that I noticed how many nice open spaces there were, and romantic large houses with equally beautiful gardens.

Once on the rooftop of Talponia, I realized that it wasn't so bad to be that high up in the daytime. (It looks a little more threatening at night but still pretty) The cemented roof lead up to some grassy parts. One has to be careful where to put one's feet as there's some amount of doggie doo- like an obsdoocle course! (Ay corny!)

Then from the corner of my eyes, a drove of dogs (they were large!) started running at me. My immediate instinct was to slow down and turn off the smell of fear. "I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid." I kept repeating in my head. But how DOES one turn off that scent? I smiled as one of the dogs came very near me (then I remembered my Dad telling me before that some dogs interpret baring of teeth as a sign of provocation) so I tried not to smile too much. There were about 4 large dogs in total and 1 small white one. Plus a goat. I blinked to make sure I was seeing right, maybe my nerves were conjuring up strange images... A goat???

Thank goodness the owner soon appeared. A nice friendly old lady told me all their names: Ambra, (the German Shepherd) Max (a large blackish male) Sara (the goat) are the only names I can remember. One of them would not stop barking at me. "Te sta solo salutando." (He's only greeting you) She said with a smile. I tried not to faint when one of the large ones jumped at me. The old lady apologized for that and helped me dust my coat. "Non importa." (Doesn't matter) I told her, trying to be brave. Sono bravi e affetuosi." (They are good and affectionate) She told me and added that most people were also afraid when they saw them all together the way I just did. She warned the others not to try jumping on me too. I asked about the goat. She told me even the goat (Sara) wanted to come along, so she let it, and how Sara only liked eating the dry pieces of grass- not the fresh ones. "Bimbe, vieni." (She called them kids, signalling it was time for them to go home as well) Had I stuck to my old, regular route, I never would've seen this funny friendly family. :)

Posted by Via at 01:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

For our second year anniversary, we drove to Monaco (see Via's entry) and visited nearby places like Nice and Cannes. It was a suprisingly quick drive if you subtract the time we spent getting lost. :) The drive took betweeen 3 to 4 hours from Ivrea to Monaco. Its still so facinating to me that you can cross a border and be in a different country by just driving.

The photos include our Florence trip which was part of my course here. It was to expose us to the Hospital situation in Florence. I am currently taking a course on service design and our topic is health. I've teamed up with Halli and we are focusing on smokers and how to help those who want to quit.

Posted by Noel at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We set off not as early as we had intended on the 24th because our rented Citroen afforded us the luxury of a nice Chinese dinner with some friends the night before. And of course we had to pack our suitcases for our 3-night stay in Monaco to celebrate our 2nd year of marriage. (January 19, 2002 to be exact)

It was surprisingly just a 3.5 hour drive to Monaco. (At least it would've been if we hadn't taken the wrong exit!) That made us lose around 2 hours of travel time. Nonetheless, we were jumping excitedly in our seats when we saw the sign: Francia that we just drove past. That made up for the slight mishap we had with the toll lady. (Our prepaid toll card, called a VIA card did not have sufficient credit so we changed lanes over to the one with a person in it. Which wasn't supposed to be done apparently)

Another little struggle was finding our hotel which wasn't exactly inside Monaco but in a nearby town called Beausoleil. The people were very helpful but sadly, my French was not. (Thanks anyway to Nicole, Tom and Jolet for obliging me with French 101. :) ) The Southern French, I learned were very warm, almost Italian-like which was a pleasant surprise for us. (Noel had some awful experiences in Paris when he went with his family some years ago)

We were beyond relief when we got to our hotel after about 5 times of circling the roundabouts overlooking the French Riviera (Cote d'Azur) The main place we visited that night was the very fancy Le Metropole shopping center that felt more like a hotel. Even if it was sale season, prices were still astronomical- parking included.

The next day we drove down to see the Prince's Palace where we were greeted by some eerie song called Words (I just had to include a sample sound file of it. Does anyone know why they would choose this song???? Someone tell me PLEASE!!!) No one was around except a man behind the money changer counter. Pretty Creepy.

We wove our way into the tiny touristy streets and stopped by the Monaco Cathedral as well. We killed time in the Wax Museum of the Princes of Monaco as we were waiting for 11:55 am for the changing of the guards outside the palace. Too bad we missed it due to some awards ceremony they were having for the ralley racers to be graced by the Prince of Monaco. (The younger one I suppose)

Feeling adventurous, we drove down to Nice and were a little shocked by the number of people. Also the New York-like feel of Nice was a dramatic change from pristine and flamboyant Monaco. We had a nice walk down to the shore area for some photos and a reasonable dinner. (Practically cheap after the exorbitant rates of Monaco) We ended our evening with a very well-made film Lost in Translation by Sofia Coppola in English! What was so chillingly strange about this excellent film was that it involved a young married couple in their 2nd year of marriage. I might give away the rest if I tell any more. But it's a must-see.

It was a pleasant 45-minute drive back. All the lights were lit up, sparkling against the water so we didn't mind that it was very cold still. The Monaco coastline was quite pretty. It was really kind of amazing to turn 2 in Europe and be lucky enough to just hop in a car and explore another country.

Posted by Via at 05:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Thank you for coming back every so often and checking for updates to our journal. We are sorry that we have not been writing. And for that, we have uploaded A LOT of pictures. Here they are:

Posted by Noel at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)