Do you ever muse over how some weeks or days can be incredibly long, slow and uneventful, while others can be full of adventure and wonder? I’ve been wondering that these last few hours. This whole week was hot, dreary and slow for me in anticipation to get a solid response from Vittorio on a request we had. The last two days, despite having not heard from Vittorio as planned, have been refreshingly adventurous, eventful and beautiful.
Given, adventure is easier to find when you are not doing the same ol, same ol, but sometimes it appears even in the same ol same ol. Side note: currently (as I type, not as you read, :)) I am eating gelato from Sinatti Pasticcerie – prodotti artigianali, where I brought home apricot, mint, chocolate chip and coffee flavors...random mix, but SO good!! How did I get this gelato all the way here to La Ripa? That story is to come…
Before I embarked on these Italian adventures, Lara gave me an assignment to use this time to know myself. Last night Claire was watching me journal…and giving me a hard time about my perfectionism – aka needing the lines on my blank pages to be straight, the date in the upper left hand corner, all my writing the same size. She challenged me to write diagonally – humph – I never refuse a challenge. So now my journal is no longer orderly. Why the heck am I sharing this? Because it confirmed that I am a walking contradiction to life. I live inside the box and outside the box at the exact same time. I march to a beat of 7, 5, 2, 12, 9 while all the other penguins march 1, 2, 3, 4 (reference to a childhood book I loved growing up called Slappy the Penguin). I am a random perfectionist, I am finally admitting it - there are some things in life that have to be in order…including Rummikub cubes! ...and some things in life that are just random, such as my thoughts, actions, bedroom, some of my things, mostly my thoughts. (PS – the apricot is really good – I am eating it for each of my readers right NOW! Or whatever flavor from above you wish… ) Besides the fact that I have perfectionist tendencies, I have also learned that I am still ridiculous, still injury prone, and still able to find humor in any situation…yes, my blog title has a purpose…but before I get to that, I have not mentioned food in a while, and so it is that time in my blog’s life to once again to share on the adventures of my taste buds!
After a week of low motivation and extreme heat (UGH!), Claire and I have both been in dire need of a change, of excitement, to “go out on the town” (in quotation marks because there really isn’t much of a town to go out on around here, especially with bus limitations). Thursday, after a great lesson, Anna offered to bring us pizza up from Ferraia…yay! I love pasta, but change is always good. And then later she said we could go there, for fresh pizza (in our heads, for a night out)…double yay! Sad confession: we were fifteen minutes late because we were getting dressed up (which means clean hair, clean jeans and one piece of jewelry)...hey, when you live in sweat, dirt and grime, any excuse is a great excuse to put on nicer clothes! Despite our tardiness, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We had dinner with Anna, Stefano (the cook…who helped me make pasta a while ago), and Tatiana (another full time employee at Ferraia…super nice!). The 5 of us chatted and had some delicious pizzas (random topping combinations of potato, rosemary, eggplant, peppers, sausage, olives, onions, pesto, and I don’t even know what else). When we had our fill of pizza, wine and ice water, we helped them clean up in the kitchen after the guests who ate before us (28 of them!). During that time I discovered the amazing-ness of a 2 minute dishwasher and I definitely started to feel more refreshed to tackle the rest of the week.
After that dinner, we forced ourselves to go on a morning/afternoon ride yesterday – an exploring ride! I was riding Saturno – the three year old loose brick wall that I spoke about a while back. We went down to the river and went left instead of right (the road less taken). It was beautiful! Tree shaded paths, ferns sprouting around the trail, moss covered rocks, grassy patches. Then in the middle of nowhere an abandoned building that was roofless, covered in ivy vines and trees hugging its walls, and lined with arched doorways appeared out of no where. SO COOL! We spent some time riding in and out of the doorways and taking pictures before continuing on our way. We came to another fork and chose the lesser traveled one, again – forging our own trail now. The ground was covered in purple flowers and bright blue dragon flies. We weaved in and out of trees, ducking occasionally to miss a branch and humming with contentment to ourselves. As I was weaving, I tapped the wrong brick on Saturno – he didn’t go where I wanted. Before I could comprehend what was going on I felt a big SMACK to my forehead and shooting pains in my back. The stupid horse ran me into a very low branch on a very badly placed tree. Stunned, I managed to get out of the tangle of branches. Ow. For a few minutes I was not okay – seeing double, lost contact (equating to blindness), and shooting pains. I managed to find my contact on Saturno’s mane and realize that my yelp was more out of shock then pain. As we headed home to bandage me up, I started laughing and singing that infamous song “George, George, George of the Jungle, strong as he can be!” although in my head it was more like “Trace, Trace, Trace of La Ripa, silly as she can be!” All I could say for most of the ride home was “Look Out for that Tree!”…I may have hit my head harder than I thought. As the double vision disappeared we realized we made a wrong turn and so we wandered through the peaceful forest (disrupted with my singing) until we finally made it home. Yay Siesta time!
Speaking of Siestas…I have officially started utilizing that time in the day to learn to play the guitar. I can now play C, G, D, A and E minor chords! The transitions are rough, but you know…I’m learning! I still can’t sing well, in fact I seem to be more talented at blurting out random words to random chords! Anna and Claire seem to enjoy listening to my very poorly composed, sing only once songs. Fortunately, my singing may not be limited to these million dollar compositions…Claire has lots of patience, can hear a beat, and is teaching me to sing. Under her tutelage I might be able to rescue my vocal talents from the landfills…she at least has hope in them and seems to think they are rescue-able.
Okay…ready for random story 2?! It’s pretty intense, I left you hanging earlier…but now the time has come to share how on earth I got this delicious Mint gelato! You may, or may not find this story entertaining, *smile*. It started simply enough. Woke up and fed the horses. Came in and had Claire’s awesome pancakes (I think I would starve or get very bored with the same thing over and over again left to my own devices) which sadly also means our syrup is gone. Oh well…very worth it. (PS – did you know that peanut butter on pancakes is awesome?! I hate peanut butter! What is happening?! First coffee, then tomatoes, now peanut butter?! What is next…peaches and strawberries?! Bleck.) Anyways...Thomas came to pick me up for Mass and we went to San Domenica in Siena. Mass was held in the lower Church and it was beautiful…if felt like Mass – I felt home. The Chapel itself had gothic style brick ceilings and walls decorated with beautiful stained glass windows. I was too entranced by the crucifix to really notice what pictures were in them. The whole experience is hard to paint in typed words, the only other thing that can be shared simply is that the celebrant, Fr. Alfred White was from New York, which was comforting for some reason.
After Mass, as Thomas and I walked to get him coffee, I could hear drums in the background. I watched the skyline full of pigeons and narrow roads up ahead, we were moving toward the sound. We walked down a cobble stone alley, past a restaurant, and up another road (past the white wine gelato shop) and then we saw them. How could I forget my camera?! Amidst the old buildings, orange roofs, and endless stone walls…here in the streets was the celebration of a contrada. Not only that, the Torre contrada – my favorite contrada. They had on medieval costumes, they were twirling flags, beating drums (1,2,3 fast, 1,2 slow), townsfolk dancing behind. Thomas and I walked next to them on our way. I felt a grin spread across my face...for thirty seconds I felt part of the magic, walking side by side with a drummer, entranced by the flag throwers, excited to celebrate. The drummers and flag throwers are all boys, the youngest that I saw looked about 12 and the oldest about 50…so diverse in their unity to celebrate! But what were we, I mean they celebrating? I asked Thomas. Cool history lesson! Each contrada has a patron saint. When it approaches the feast day of their Saint, they march through all the streets of Siena…praying to, celebrating, honoring their Saint. Who was getting such an awesome procession today? St. Anna and James Major. This wasn’t a show for tourists; it was a genuine procession of prayer and celebration...costumes and everything! I have a flyer from it (some of the best souvenirs you can not buy in a store) that has made me question - why don’t parishes honor their patron saints in America in such a cool way, or better yet…at all?! Hmph.
Moving on. Due to the sidetrack of this celebration – coffee was no longer needed, time was slipping by and Thomas was awake. We started to drive home. Snap. His car battery died, leaving little ole me (I am gladiator don’t forget) to push his car through the streets of Siena. I did it! I was surprised how easy it was…until I realized that the car was probably in neutral and I probably wasn’t THAT strong, bummer. We continued on our way and as always Thomas showed me another beautiful back road. This time consisted of a little windy road shaded by big overgrown trees that straightened out into fields of sunflowers and old buildings...to wildflowers and rolling hills in the distance. As we drove I smiled again, to my right was sunflowers (Big and tall, some small…some lost their petals and others seemed to be consumed with petals…all beautiful) Side note: Erin – I think of you every time I see these, I know they are your favorite and every time I wish I could share the moment with you! Well, I am always thinking of someone from home, but, well, anyways…to my left were tall (insert name here) trees…like in a Tuscany postcard. Someone pinch me, please. As I was lost in my surroundings, Thomas pulled into a very randomly placed parking lot. Surprise! He tells me this is some of the best real gelato. I walk in, try some flavors and buy some. We drive home. I know, pretty simple way to acquire it, huh? Be honest, were you expecting something more dramatic than running into a TREE?! :) haha.
And as always, there is so much more to share…but these are the highlights (rather detailed highlights, might I add!)…I have to save something for when I get home!...like Mini training, bugs in the ear, eagle sightings, kitchen adventures, and well… ;) (And I only put that list for future reference for myself…I have the memory of a goldfish, or maybe even worse!)
Actually, if you are bored at work or something, I will share the bugs in the ear story…it is rather humorous. If you don’t have all day to read my musings; then consider your self caught up on my life for the moment, scroll down to lessons. Last week we took the ponies for a walk down to Ferraia. Claire ran in to check her email. All of a sudden I heard a buzzing in my ear, thinking it was a fly I shooed it away. It came back, switched to my other ear. Back and forth it went. (it is quite a shame no one saw this, really…) As I got more agitated I took off my hat and started swinging it around. This made the little bugger even more mad. The ponies started freaking out at my flailing arms and crazy hat. So from the outside I imagine this is what I looked like: some girl holding two wide eyed ponies flailing her hands all around her head with a Japanese tourist hat, screeching and grumbling, yelling “stupid bug, go away, no seriously…I am telling you…GO AWAY…I am warning you…BUG!...argh….ponies stop that!...NOW!...BUG!...I…will…get…AHHHHHHHHHHH”...at which precise moment you see a serious head banging movement and eyes bulging out of the girls head. The stupid bugger flew INTO my ear. Still swatting I start to walk away from this thing that is now following me. (really, I must have looked ridiculous). The ponies won’t move. So now here I am swatting at this thing and playing tug of war with two stubborn little ponies and getting no where. Panting, I place the hat back on my head, take a deep breath and try one more time, at which precise moment the bug goes away and the ponies walk like nothing happened. Ridiculous. Thankfully the stupid thing didn’t go deeper…into my ear canal, I would have freaked out even more. Lol.
Lessons of the week:
- Watch out for that…TREE!
- Saliva is a great way to save dry, dirty contacts
- Ice is actually a special treat when you have not had it in a very long time
- When in Italy…don’t be picky with your food…saying you don’t care, or you are open to anything when choosing pizza toppings is the BEST thing to say…ALWAYS try new things, new concoctions…very pleasant things happen in your mouth…Italian cooks are generally better at choosing flavors than me.
- Pushing a car is not as difficult as it might seem…or I am just suddenly super strong! :)
- Playing rock paper scissors for who makes lunch is a bad idea – I usually lose and my lunches tend to be unrecognizable – burned cheese is usually involved.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
58 euro syrup?! What?!
Here are some San Galgano mayhem pictures!
She shoots, she scores! Claire – 13, Tracie – 2, Flies – 0. Claire is a hand-eye coordinated fly killing genius! We have had no new strange critters and the fly population in our house is quickly decreasing…mostly in part to the geniusness of my Raid skill and Claire’s swatting skill. The war will be won! (Is it sad that I find entertainment is updating on the bug killing?!)
Here at the farm I’ve started giving riding lessons to Anna and Mini has become my project horse. Last night I tried cantering him for the first time. It was…interesting. I felt like a sack of beans flapping my legs, kissing, and bouncing through his uneven trot. I have a long way to go before he is ready for beginners. Teaching Anna is lots of fun, and very educational for my own growth. I am learning that I am a stubborn “hard ass” and won’t put up with BS. As in, I hate it when people don’t make an effort and it makes me crazy to simply be ignored. It amazes me that despite this stubbornness, at the end of lessons Anna will give me a hug or randomly tell me that she loves me. It amazes me more that when I call her out on her dis-respect of me trying to help her learn to ride she actually listens and changes her attitude. It amazes me the most that despite my “hardness” we still laugh and have fun. I’m hardly a perfect teacher for her…I think I am learning more from her about who I am, and how to help through love, not control.
Anna’s favorite phrase is “I don’t know”. My dad used to get SO mad at me when I would answer questions with that answer. I have a much better understanding of that frustration now, I see some of him in me, and I appreciate his efforts to try and get me to say more beyond that. Dad, how did you do it…how do you get a pre-teen to talk beyond “I don’t know?”
So, if you didn’t know, I am terrified of the dark. No, I am scared of being in the woods alone at night. A few nights ago I tackled that fear. I took a ride by myself at twilight to pick up Claire’s hard drive down at Ferraia. I can’t lie, it was a little scary. But as I sang to myself (there was no one there to listen) I kept the scary thoughts away (you know the ones that say a vampire is hunting me). And then I started to enjoy myself! I let my hair down, closed my eyes and asked Saturno to canter. Cantering when you can’t see more than 5 feet in front of you with fireflies dancing is an amazing feeling. I felt the breeze in my face and the even rocking of his gait below me. I couldn’t help but smile, it was a fairy tale come true! I think I conquered my fear that night. I feel safe on the back of a horse…even the three year old that almost threw me a week or so ago, especially at night, it was like riding the whole way with my eyes closed, except not, and I love every second, especially the silence of the crickets and the whisper of the trees.
Sundays still remain my favorite day – a day of complete rest. Today we went to Mass at San Galgano and afterwards walked around the Abbey – open air cathedral ruins. Claire came with me today and we had a blast walking around, taking ridiculous pictures and admiring the beauty of the history, of the scenery. We played on the hay bales and admired the building from the 1100s. They even had the sword that San Galgano thrust in the stone still in the stone…Yea St. relics!!
But beyond that, I am smiling and hanging my head in shame as I hesitate to share the appalling truth of this story, the ultimate motivation for this blog. At the same time, it is so ridiculous I can not pass up keeping it in silence, with only Claire to share it with. Folks, I present you the fable of the rare and delicate 58 euro maple syrup:
It started off innocently enough. We took a day trip to Siena on Wednesday afternoon, did some shopping at the market, ate some gelato (I had vino bianco (white wine), which was SO good!), had some pizza while overlooking the Duomo, did some more shopping, and navigated through piles of tourists. As a side note, Claire makes rock star French toast. Unfortunately, the last two times we have had it, there has been NO syrup, which is just wrong!! So for two weeks we have been on a mission to get syrup. On Wednesday, on our way out of town, we went grocery shopping like we always do. We couldn’t find syrup! On top of that, the lines were long and we lost track of time. As we hurried through the cashier, we had to literally run/walk super fast with our canvas bags and week’s worth of groceries in tow to catch our bus on time, which leaves at 6pm! Phew, 6:10 and the bus is running on Italian time…we made it! We knew there was some syrup for sale across the street, without even thinking of the time, without even thinking, period, Claire runs to buy it. Bus comes. Bus tries to leave. I run out yelling “Wait! Cinque minuto por favore, mi ami”…as I point towards the door and my bags, probably looking like an idiot. The bus driver points at his wrist and the clock…he has to go. Fine. I wave him off. STUPID! Naturally, one minute after the bus pulls away, Claire comes running up. We missed our bus. Ridiculous! We call Vittorio, Anna, Thomas. No answers. Finally we learn that Vittorio is in Florence with an unknown return time, Patrizia’s car is broken, Thomas has company at his apartment. We are stuck. Taxi? Super expensive. As the clock ticks we play sticker tag with the fruit stickers and munch on cereal, we refuse to pay for a taxi. Sadly, as 10 pm approaches and Vittorio is still not answering his phone, we need a plan B. Hitchhiking is not an option, sleeping at the train station doesn’t sound like fun. Taxi it is. 5 euro syrup, plus 50 euro taxi ride, plus 3 euro tip equates to 58 euro syrup. How embarrassing. The next day we have French toast for lunch and the syrup tastes stupendous. We treat the bottle like it is made of gold and roll our eyes at each other while laughing. Only us.
Lessons of the week:
- Cold showers can feel better than hot showers
- Wind is AMAZING in this heat (I hate wind!...usually)
- Missing the bus for syrup makes for a great story
- Night rides are more relaxing than scary
- Being ridiculous is just an awesome part of being Tracie!
- Never underestimate the usefulness of large Japanese tourist hats
- I need to learn to say “I don’t know” in Italian
- It is amazing how many meals you can stretch spaghetti with meat sauce into!
- Watermelon Sundays are awesome Sundays
Monday, July 13, 2009
I am Gladiator!!
Warning: I have not proof read this, but wanted to post it...please excuse any grammatical, spelling, random thought errors! :)
In case you are interested, here is a blog I forgot I wrote from 2 weeks ago (June 27th and 28th): Even though it is outdated, still a keeper for the memory books!
I realize in the many new experiences and stories I have hardly talked about the main reason I am here – my job. Or at least, not as in talking about the horses and the “Italian Way.” Italian way being having different supplies, more limited and more expensive than the US. Example: Swat in America is five dollars, tops, here we saw it was twenty five euro!!!
Side note: Today we turned on the TV to try and find the forecast (failed) and stumbled across MTV, which was playing in English Michael Jackson’s song Black or White…random! (until later last night when we saw that this week is Michael Jackson week) (UPDATE from current times…now realize that it was from his death…funny we didn’t find that out until oh, last week!)
In riding the same horse for nine years I have come to know her very well and she doesn’t challenge me as much as she used to. I know when she is being silly and when she doesn’t understand. She is a seasoned, well trained horse with good days and bad like any of us. Out here, riding younger, less well trained horses has given me a greater appreciation for all the time I put into knowing and training Precious. Sometimes I wish she were here. On the same hand, riding so many different horses is challenging me to be a better rider – mainly in the department of patience, calm, and accepting that I am less experienced in the problem shooting training department. There is a saying in the horse industry that “a horse is always honest.” Given, you can have a poorly trained horse, but for the most part in the honesty of a horse, it is humbling and hard to recognize my faults, or at least to try and see what I am doing wrong, or could do better. I find that I don’t trust unresponsive horses. Today (Saturday June 27, 2009) on the way home, I was riding a three year old, Saturno, and he grabbed the bit, ducked his left shoulder and pulled a hard turn on me…thankfully I have a strong seat, but I nearly came off…it shook my nerves! It was hard to not get mad at him! Saturno is young, so he gets some slack – but his responsiveness is that of a brick wall with a few loose bricks, and it is unpredictable which bricks are loose…not so much slack in that department.
Last semester we had a woman’s night at Church and the speaker, Dr. Kim spoke of two emotions – fear and anger – and all the side effects they can have. The best cure? Deep breathing. I never thought I’d actually use it!!! After all, I am NEVER scared or angry. I have used that “trick” more often this month than I ever thought imaginable. Oh that night I was not feeling good, sitting at the commons on the back couch next to Allie, Michele and Ashley. Another lesson that is actually applicable out here is HALT – when I feel my emotions getting out of control, I think of this acronym Monica taught me. Am I hungry? Angry? Lonely? Tired? 9 out of 10 times, the answer is yes to one of those. Who would have thought I’d actually utilize the wisdom taught to me by others?!
Speaking of utilizing information, as Claire and I try to make this place into a more efficient stable we are realizing the value of business plans and budgets that exist (or in our case don’t exist…). I have decided that having the materials you need to take proper care of the horses, a stated business plan, and job descriptions are completely overrated, along with clean floors, ovens, microwaves, toasters, dish washers, bathtubs, normal refrigerators, freezers, dryers, function-able screen windows, bug free living quarters and cars. Side note: Why job description? Claire and I have recently received a request/goal/need to have done task of…training donkeys. I am sure one of you giggled out loud. Well, every time I think of it I laugh. Do you KNOW how stubborn they can be? After trying to get Rusty in the stall, I can only laugh at the tasks Claire and I are now in charge of: the care, training, and conditioning of 13 horses, 2 ponies, 3 donkeys, and 1 mule…along with an endless to do list of cleaning, organizing, and more cleaning. Busy much? Yes.
I frequently laugh at our desk…a mixture of random lists…you could say we have mastered the art of to do lists: what needs to be done when the vet comes, what do we need to talk to Vittorio about, what to do next time we get to the internet, what do we need at the store, what places do we want to see when we take our day trips, what needs to be cleaned, what needs to be done around the barn and probably at least four other categories of “to do/get” lists.
The last few nights we have been hearing really weird noises in our wall…I assumed it was just a horse fly caught somewhere. I was wrong. Last night we were watching a news clip on the Palio and we heard the noise. Claire looked above her head and we found the source…a scorpion. EW. She grabbed the Raid and well, that was the end of that. As I have mentioned before, here, bugs are our constant companions. We have ants in the walls of our living room and seem to be constantly battling with the flies and (now) scorpions (hopefully that’s just once though). Luckily, the both of us aren’t easily grossed out and find our constant horse-like swatting pretty funny. A can of Raid is by far the best investment made thus far. We have been waging war with the ants and victory is imminent! Updates from the front to come soon.
And every now and then I get to go on little adventures. Today Thomas took me to run an errand and we ended up in the kitchen of a little old woman, who gave us sheep cheese and bread…it was pretty good and another awesome cultural experience. (Yes, I had to mention food!)
Current day: July 13, 2009
Water soluble paint – water based paint; sprite – tonic water; 2 o clock – 4 o clock; 9 o clock – 10 o clock…they are all the same, right? Not exactly.
This week has been a week of a whole lot of bleck! Bleck meaning “stupid stomach flu disease, virus infection of GI tract, keep you in bed, force you to memorize route to il bano (to prevent hitting walls at night), nauseating sickness.” It started off innocently enough…and then hit me out of nowhere…beware of hitchhiking ghosts!!!
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STUPID FLIES! They keep landing on me and I wish I had a top technological gun that would shoot darts that chase them and stab them through their miserable little bodies. I can’t quite explain it, but there is something about them that will make you go absolutely crazy. Maybe its just the general grossness associated with them, maybe it’s the feeling of a light *annoying* tickle when they land on you, maybe it’s the buzzing that never leaves your ears. Either way I am growing more convinced that a great torture device would be to stick someone in a room crammed with them for any length of time. Claire agrees. Yesterday we got a fly swatter in IESA. Is it bad when buying a fly swatter is just about as exciting as getting that new dress that fits just right or a new car? Well, even if it is, this is life at La Ripa, I could not stop smiling, so excited to start swatting flies!!
Okay, now that I have had my vent session about those most annoying black buzzing things, I figured now would be a great time to write about oh, you know…my job! Typical me…writing about adventures and travels and I haven’t even really shared what I am doing day to day. Silly me. Well, as always there are up days and down days and this week was definitely a big drop on the roller coaster week. Monday was great, went to look at a potential horse for a beautiful evening trail ride and laughed nearly the whole time, we had conversations ranging from how I am a caution sign to how Claire is an antique lightstand. Life was good.
Tuesday we finally go to shop for options to obtain much needed barn items and did research on donkey training (31 pages!). We also went to look at a potential horse for Vittorio to buy. He was beautiful. As Claire and I watched him move and looked at his overall health and chatted to each other, Vittorio talked to the trainer, in Italian which equals cluelessness in my world. All of a sudden we realized he bought the horse! Fastest purchase…ever…at least in my books. Minion (now affectionately known as Mini) is a 6 year old bay Anglo Arab (meaning he is 60% Arabian), moves beautifully and is just good looking! He is also only half trained, which means Claire and I have another project on our hands. I am actually very excited about this project, it should be a lot of fun and a great learning experience. The disadvantage to having a new horse is that Vittorio is a business man. He wants to make money, he will only keep a certain number of horses. He told us on the drive home that we had to choose 1 or 2 to sell…in Italian language that essentially means slaughter. :/. We were very quiet on the way home, rather depressed for a few days. How do you choose a horse you have come to know and love to be processed for some sort of food? They are all good horses. Needless to say, we were depressed for a couple of days. I wrote about the issue of horse slaughter in my Capstone class when we talked about ethics, I understand that it is actually a very logical method of horse population control – I would be okay with it in the United States again. However…I am not okay with choosing the horse, I am not okay with a horse going simply because someone doesn’t want to pay for it anymore. I am not God, don’t like choosing who lives and who dies. Deep breath, moving on. That night I started feeling queezy.
Wednesday – Queeziness starts to increase, stomach aches on the rise. By night I have stopped eating, or at least anything of substance, mm bread. We watched Gladiator – awesome movie!
Thursday – I am full blown sick in some way or another, I won’t share the details, but I was bed ridden. Phrase “I am Gladiator” arises. See, feeding horses when you want to lay down/sit/bend over every 3 steps is miserable. As I woke up to feed, I thought of Russell Crowe killing the emperor with a wound in his side. Surely I can kill hay bales with a sore stomach! (The adrenaline rush might be a little different, but it could work, right?) And so my gladiator training began. I am Gladiator I said, trying to fight the misery. Mission? Pretty much a fail, I was useless beyond forcing myself to help feed. My meal all day? 1 bowl of white rice – plain (not a great substitute for chicken noodle soup) that led to a great reflection on hunger in third world countries. We also picked up Mini…yay! Vittorio told us that there is a lady who might be interested in one of the horses to do therapeutic work. I am hoping that she will want Frieda, it would definitely save me from growing in ways I don’t want to grow.
Friday – too sick, still not feeling well enough to go to Montigiorni like we planned (they were having a medieval festival…how cool would that have been?! Stupid stomach.). We stayed home and prepped for Saturday and then went to Siena. Saturday we were supposed to have 12 12-14 year olds for a day camp. YIKES! Hopefully my stomach wouldn’t act up…I was on the hill back up to healthyish! Vittorio brought us paint so we could paint the horses, way fun! The only problem? We asked for water based, he brought water soluble. I have a funny feeling you can’t wash acrylics off of horses. But you know, they are all the same, right? Also that night I asked for Sprite for my tummy, they gave me tonic water…ew.
Saturday and Sunday – stayed in bed all day and it was marvelous. Camp was cancelled, the kids were not coming. And so life at La Ripa is back to normal - horses are breaking pens, Rusty is bothering Nutella again (this time we just said deal with it…no energy to fight that one!!), the dogs still won’t stop barking, two more halters are broken, and the sun still shines with random thunderstorms.
Update on the front: Claire has found only one more scorpion (on the shower curtain) and the ants are gone…yay! We have fixed our screens so keep out unwanted extra critters. As the frustration showed earlier…the flies are our most current threatening battle. However, armed with Raid and a fly swatter they are starting to submit to our ferocious attacks and determination. Mercy is no longer a game factor…the flies must die!
Currently we are cleaning the Med room – aka the secret lab of Dr. Jeckyll. How so much junk has fit in one room is beyond me. The courtyard is currently swarmed with microscopes, bunson burners, flasks, incubators, needles, saline solution, betadine, saddles, tubes, harnesses, reins, tarps, 1000 copies of one horse’s pedigree, and a whole bunch of other random and unidentified items. It’s a slightly overwhelming picture and task. In the midst of trying to decipher this secret lab of sorts, we did find some awesome tin helmets that we can’t wait to wear! Now I really can be a gladiator! HA!
With that, I hope these 2 in 1 blogs have not been too long and well, I guess I failed in describing my job, but hopefully hearing my week has been entertaining enough. Maybe someday I’ll get to it.
PS – Every now and then (like just now) these giant silver fighter military airplanes fly over us and all you can here is the roar of their engines far before you see them and long after they are gone. I’ll try and get a picture, I think my military fan readers would love them! I don’t know much else about them beyond they are big and intimidating and really cool!
Lesson of the week:
Always overpack!
Love you all,
Tracie
In case you are interested, here is a blog I forgot I wrote from 2 weeks ago (June 27th and 28th): Even though it is outdated, still a keeper for the memory books!
I realize in the many new experiences and stories I have hardly talked about the main reason I am here – my job. Or at least, not as in talking about the horses and the “Italian Way.” Italian way being having different supplies, more limited and more expensive than the US. Example: Swat in America is five dollars, tops, here we saw it was twenty five euro!!!
Side note: Today we turned on the TV to try and find the forecast (failed) and stumbled across MTV, which was playing in English Michael Jackson’s song Black or White…random! (until later last night when we saw that this week is Michael Jackson week) (UPDATE from current times…now realize that it was from his death…funny we didn’t find that out until oh, last week!)
In riding the same horse for nine years I have come to know her very well and she doesn’t challenge me as much as she used to. I know when she is being silly and when she doesn’t understand. She is a seasoned, well trained horse with good days and bad like any of us. Out here, riding younger, less well trained horses has given me a greater appreciation for all the time I put into knowing and training Precious. Sometimes I wish she were here. On the same hand, riding so many different horses is challenging me to be a better rider – mainly in the department of patience, calm, and accepting that I am less experienced in the problem shooting training department. There is a saying in the horse industry that “a horse is always honest.” Given, you can have a poorly trained horse, but for the most part in the honesty of a horse, it is humbling and hard to recognize my faults, or at least to try and see what I am doing wrong, or could do better. I find that I don’t trust unresponsive horses. Today (Saturday June 27, 2009) on the way home, I was riding a three year old, Saturno, and he grabbed the bit, ducked his left shoulder and pulled a hard turn on me…thankfully I have a strong seat, but I nearly came off…it shook my nerves! It was hard to not get mad at him! Saturno is young, so he gets some slack – but his responsiveness is that of a brick wall with a few loose bricks, and it is unpredictable which bricks are loose…not so much slack in that department.
Last semester we had a woman’s night at Church and the speaker, Dr. Kim spoke of two emotions – fear and anger – and all the side effects they can have. The best cure? Deep breathing. I never thought I’d actually use it!!! After all, I am NEVER scared or angry. I have used that “trick” more often this month than I ever thought imaginable. Oh that night I was not feeling good, sitting at the commons on the back couch next to Allie, Michele and Ashley. Another lesson that is actually applicable out here is HALT – when I feel my emotions getting out of control, I think of this acronym Monica taught me. Am I hungry? Angry? Lonely? Tired? 9 out of 10 times, the answer is yes to one of those. Who would have thought I’d actually utilize the wisdom taught to me by others?!
Speaking of utilizing information, as Claire and I try to make this place into a more efficient stable we are realizing the value of business plans and budgets that exist (or in our case don’t exist…). I have decided that having the materials you need to take proper care of the horses, a stated business plan, and job descriptions are completely overrated, along with clean floors, ovens, microwaves, toasters, dish washers, bathtubs, normal refrigerators, freezers, dryers, function-able screen windows, bug free living quarters and cars. Side note: Why job description? Claire and I have recently received a request/goal/need to have done task of…training donkeys. I am sure one of you giggled out loud. Well, every time I think of it I laugh. Do you KNOW how stubborn they can be? After trying to get Rusty in the stall, I can only laugh at the tasks Claire and I are now in charge of: the care, training, and conditioning of 13 horses, 2 ponies, 3 donkeys, and 1 mule…along with an endless to do list of cleaning, organizing, and more cleaning. Busy much? Yes.
I frequently laugh at our desk…a mixture of random lists…you could say we have mastered the art of to do lists: what needs to be done when the vet comes, what do we need to talk to Vittorio about, what to do next time we get to the internet, what do we need at the store, what places do we want to see when we take our day trips, what needs to be cleaned, what needs to be done around the barn and probably at least four other categories of “to do/get” lists.
The last few nights we have been hearing really weird noises in our wall…I assumed it was just a horse fly caught somewhere. I was wrong. Last night we were watching a news clip on the Palio and we heard the noise. Claire looked above her head and we found the source…a scorpion. EW. She grabbed the Raid and well, that was the end of that. As I have mentioned before, here, bugs are our constant companions. We have ants in the walls of our living room and seem to be constantly battling with the flies and (now) scorpions (hopefully that’s just once though). Luckily, the both of us aren’t easily grossed out and find our constant horse-like swatting pretty funny. A can of Raid is by far the best investment made thus far. We have been waging war with the ants and victory is imminent! Updates from the front to come soon.
And every now and then I get to go on little adventures. Today Thomas took me to run an errand and we ended up in the kitchen of a little old woman, who gave us sheep cheese and bread…it was pretty good and another awesome cultural experience. (Yes, I had to mention food!)
Current day: July 13, 2009
Water soluble paint – water based paint; sprite – tonic water; 2 o clock – 4 o clock; 9 o clock – 10 o clock…they are all the same, right? Not exactly.
This week has been a week of a whole lot of bleck! Bleck meaning “stupid stomach flu disease, virus infection of GI tract, keep you in bed, force you to memorize route to il bano (to prevent hitting walls at night), nauseating sickness.” It started off innocently enough…and then hit me out of nowhere…beware of hitchhiking ghosts!!!
.
STUPID FLIES! They keep landing on me and I wish I had a top technological gun that would shoot darts that chase them and stab them through their miserable little bodies. I can’t quite explain it, but there is something about them that will make you go absolutely crazy. Maybe its just the general grossness associated with them, maybe it’s the feeling of a light *annoying* tickle when they land on you, maybe it’s the buzzing that never leaves your ears. Either way I am growing more convinced that a great torture device would be to stick someone in a room crammed with them for any length of time. Claire agrees. Yesterday we got a fly swatter in IESA. Is it bad when buying a fly swatter is just about as exciting as getting that new dress that fits just right or a new car? Well, even if it is, this is life at La Ripa, I could not stop smiling, so excited to start swatting flies!!
Okay, now that I have had my vent session about those most annoying black buzzing things, I figured now would be a great time to write about oh, you know…my job! Typical me…writing about adventures and travels and I haven’t even really shared what I am doing day to day. Silly me. Well, as always there are up days and down days and this week was definitely a big drop on the roller coaster week. Monday was great, went to look at a potential horse for a beautiful evening trail ride and laughed nearly the whole time, we had conversations ranging from how I am a caution sign to how Claire is an antique lightstand. Life was good.
Tuesday we finally go to shop for options to obtain much needed barn items and did research on donkey training (31 pages!). We also went to look at a potential horse for Vittorio to buy. He was beautiful. As Claire and I watched him move and looked at his overall health and chatted to each other, Vittorio talked to the trainer, in Italian which equals cluelessness in my world. All of a sudden we realized he bought the horse! Fastest purchase…ever…at least in my books. Minion (now affectionately known as Mini) is a 6 year old bay Anglo Arab (meaning he is 60% Arabian), moves beautifully and is just good looking! He is also only half trained, which means Claire and I have another project on our hands. I am actually very excited about this project, it should be a lot of fun and a great learning experience. The disadvantage to having a new horse is that Vittorio is a business man. He wants to make money, he will only keep a certain number of horses. He told us on the drive home that we had to choose 1 or 2 to sell…in Italian language that essentially means slaughter. :/. We were very quiet on the way home, rather depressed for a few days. How do you choose a horse you have come to know and love to be processed for some sort of food? They are all good horses. Needless to say, we were depressed for a couple of days. I wrote about the issue of horse slaughter in my Capstone class when we talked about ethics, I understand that it is actually a very logical method of horse population control – I would be okay with it in the United States again. However…I am not okay with choosing the horse, I am not okay with a horse going simply because someone doesn’t want to pay for it anymore. I am not God, don’t like choosing who lives and who dies. Deep breath, moving on. That night I started feeling queezy.
Wednesday – Queeziness starts to increase, stomach aches on the rise. By night I have stopped eating, or at least anything of substance, mm bread. We watched Gladiator – awesome movie!
Thursday – I am full blown sick in some way or another, I won’t share the details, but I was bed ridden. Phrase “I am Gladiator” arises. See, feeding horses when you want to lay down/sit/bend over every 3 steps is miserable. As I woke up to feed, I thought of Russell Crowe killing the emperor with a wound in his side. Surely I can kill hay bales with a sore stomach! (The adrenaline rush might be a little different, but it could work, right?) And so my gladiator training began. I am Gladiator I said, trying to fight the misery. Mission? Pretty much a fail, I was useless beyond forcing myself to help feed. My meal all day? 1 bowl of white rice – plain (not a great substitute for chicken noodle soup) that led to a great reflection on hunger in third world countries. We also picked up Mini…yay! Vittorio told us that there is a lady who might be interested in one of the horses to do therapeutic work. I am hoping that she will want Frieda, it would definitely save me from growing in ways I don’t want to grow.
Friday – too sick, still not feeling well enough to go to Montigiorni like we planned (they were having a medieval festival…how cool would that have been?! Stupid stomach.). We stayed home and prepped for Saturday and then went to Siena. Saturday we were supposed to have 12 12-14 year olds for a day camp. YIKES! Hopefully my stomach wouldn’t act up…I was on the hill back up to healthyish! Vittorio brought us paint so we could paint the horses, way fun! The only problem? We asked for water based, he brought water soluble. I have a funny feeling you can’t wash acrylics off of horses. But you know, they are all the same, right? Also that night I asked for Sprite for my tummy, they gave me tonic water…ew.
Saturday and Sunday – stayed in bed all day and it was marvelous. Camp was cancelled, the kids were not coming. And so life at La Ripa is back to normal - horses are breaking pens, Rusty is bothering Nutella again (this time we just said deal with it…no energy to fight that one!!), the dogs still won’t stop barking, two more halters are broken, and the sun still shines with random thunderstorms.
Update on the front: Claire has found only one more scorpion (on the shower curtain) and the ants are gone…yay! We have fixed our screens so keep out unwanted extra critters. As the frustration showed earlier…the flies are our most current threatening battle. However, armed with Raid and a fly swatter they are starting to submit to our ferocious attacks and determination. Mercy is no longer a game factor…the flies must die!
Currently we are cleaning the Med room – aka the secret lab of Dr. Jeckyll. How so much junk has fit in one room is beyond me. The courtyard is currently swarmed with microscopes, bunson burners, flasks, incubators, needles, saline solution, betadine, saddles, tubes, harnesses, reins, tarps, 1000 copies of one horse’s pedigree, and a whole bunch of other random and unidentified items. It’s a slightly overwhelming picture and task. In the midst of trying to decipher this secret lab of sorts, we did find some awesome tin helmets that we can’t wait to wear! Now I really can be a gladiator! HA!
With that, I hope these 2 in 1 blogs have not been too long and well, I guess I failed in describing my job, but hopefully hearing my week has been entertaining enough. Maybe someday I’ll get to it.
PS – Every now and then (like just now) these giant silver fighter military airplanes fly over us and all you can here is the roar of their engines far before you see them and long after they are gone. I’ll try and get a picture, I think my military fan readers would love them! I don’t know much else about them beyond they are big and intimidating and really cool!
Lesson of the week:
Always overpack!
Love you all,
Tracie
Friday, July 10, 2009
Giovanni the Pig Chef
Telling the watermelon who is boss!
Yay American flag hamburger buns!Oh 4th of July. What to say beyond it is purely American? You can also say that it is a seed spittin’, hamburger grillin’, firework watchin’, song singin’ heck of a good time!!! (Thanks to Claire, who wrote that while I was hanging up laundry!) :).
Side note: There is a fine art to putting clothes on the line…I have not mastered it, but getting there.
Truthfully, I don’t even know where to start. Just as July 2nd is a day I’ll never forget, this is a 4th of July I’ll never forget. Leading up to the big day, part of me was excited, the other part was dreading it. Would I miss everyone, how homesick would I get? Would our plans actually be fun? I was constantly thinking of my family in Valley, NE and the crazy activities I was missing. I absolutely love my family, the loudness, the random chatter, the games, picking water fights with my brothers (even though I know I will lose…every single time!). I love that there are fifty changes to a plan of getting one thing done, I love the exploding insane fireworks, building sandcastles, playing volleyball, water skiing, surely there was beer and wine, Grandma’s beef brisket, midnight boat rides, and of course the annual trip to the steakhouse in LeShara where we all sing at the top of our lungs way off key. It was hard to not think of Maddie ruining the sandcastles, and of everyone laughing and having a great time.
My response to myself? I can always go next year, how often do you get to celebrate an American holiday in Italy?! The day started off decent enough, we went for a ride and well, the details are hardly important. Claire and I had made big plans. We were going to grill at the garden at Ferraia with Angelo and his friend Giovanni and Vittorio and two of his friends – Serena and (I forgot!). We took showers and right before we headed to the bus station I got a very surprise letter from a friend at home! Thank you Annie! It put an extra smile on my face. I read the letter a couple of times (it was fantastic!) and then we headed to the bus station to go get groceries. Vittorio ended up giving us a ride to a different store with “foreign/exotic” foods.
There is a funny thing about shopping for an American barbeque in Italy – Italians are not American. Duh. I love pasta, don’t get me wrong, it is by far the main part of my diet. However sometimes you just crave a big juicy burger, some potato chips, baked beans and corn on the cob. Our menu was to include (yes I am going to list it out): cheeseburgers (with ketchup and mayo), potato chips, watermelon, corn on the cob, and baked beans. Unfortunately, as stated, being in Italy, we were missing a few key ingredients: cheddar cheese, barbeque sauce, and actual corn on the cob (we had to buy canned). We were two ladies on a mission: If the barbeque sauce wasn’t with the beans, then maybe it was with the bread? Or the baking stuff? Well, if it is not there, then they must keep the barbeque sauce with the ice cream. Fail. Claire bought a Frisbee (blue!) and we were ready to celebrate America’s independence in Italy…almost…we needed to get hamburger buns! I can’t quite explain the excitement we both had when the wrapper had an American flag on it…yay USA!
At the barbeque, Vittorio brought wine and chicken (which he cooked with bricks) and Giovanni brought baby wild boar. Our 4th of July was turning into quite the mixed cultural celebration! Claire taught me to make hamburger patties and I cut my very first huge watermelon…without slicing off a finger thank you very much! My patties were…interesting looking, but boy did they taste good!! Claire taught me that Worstershire (sp?) sauce is a great burger dresser upper when grilling. As she grilled and I sliced watermelon, Serena and ?? taught us more Italian, they were so much fun! They kept calling our barbeque “an American party.” It was fantastic that everyone was genuinely interested in trying our food. I hope we did it justice!
The overall atmosphere of the evening was pleasant, relaxed and full of happy chatter. I did think back to NE, but as I looked around me, smiled at Claire, and ate boar all I could find was contentment. How cool it was to be sitting at the magical garden with a full moon, lightning bugs, candles and great company. I ate way too much! Watermelon is just addicting.
I think the icing on the cake of the night, the moment that really made the day 4th of July was when I did something I never thought I would do…ever. Serena and ?? were asking us about the traditions of 4th of July. We told them about fireworks, baseball games, barbeques and of course the music and songs. They wanted us to sing one. HA! If you know me, you know that I have absolutely ZERO musical talent – no sense of a beat or tune. I rarely sing in my car and definitely don’t sing solo with an audience. Its actually a rather unpleasant sound to hear me sing…my siblings used to tell me I was going to break the windows, . That’s okay. I looked at Claire…I was definitely going to need more wine to fulfill that request. As separate conversations took place again I looked at Claire. Could we remember any of the words? Or rather, could I? Together, thinking no one was listening we started hashing out the Star Spangled Banner. Claire led me along and as I sang I stopped caring how off key I was. Memories of baseball games, family, and fireworks flashed through my head as we smiled at each other through each line. As we sang the last line “…for the laaaaaaaand of the freeeeeeeeeeee and the hoooooooooooome of the braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaave!” I could hear crowds going wild, the first fireworks shooting off, and the off pitch singers around me...well, in my imagination. Different, but better here in Tuscany...at the end of our song, was seeing a smiling, knowing, understanding Claire, 3 audience members smiling and clapping...they actually enjoyed - LOVED our singing!, a rising full moon, and having an American sense of pride and joy in my heart. It was beautiful and perfect.
Close to the end of our million dollar performance, we walked out from the gazebo, and just sat and looked at the sky...my thoughts again drifted to family in Valley, NE, where they were probably busy carving in the sand and eating their own American barbeque burgers (and of course enjoying baked beans for me, :)). Here I was under the Tuscan moon, celebrating the independence of my country on my own (ish), worlds away...what an experience!
Of course you all know that I, in the midst of a beautiful night, can not go a whole day without some form of ridiculousness. And, it would not be 4th of July without some good solid jokes, silliness and laughter with new and old friends. So along with joking about the location of the barbeque sauce, (which we clearly were not going to find by the time we were pondering if it could be with the laundry detergent), we found a title for our new friend Giovanni (age 20), as indicated by the title of this blog. After we cleaned up, Angelo and Giovanni gave us a ride home. Amidst broken English/Italian chatter he asked if we liked his boar. Yes we did, it was moist, tender, and dark meat...yum! He replied with “because I am pig chef.” I couldn’t contain my laughter...Giovanni the pig chef. All four of us laughed for a couple minutes before the conversation moved on. He challenged Claire to a soccer match…very cool. Fortunately Claire has a sense of sanity and common sense that I sometimes lack in my searches for adventure. The time at this point was about oh, nearly midnight, and the boys offered to teach us to drive the motorcycle right then! On second thought, it is probably a good thing she wouldn’t allow that to happen – I’m not injury prone at all, honest! We got home and promptly slept, it’s been a busy couple of days!
Lessons of the holiday:
- The Star Spangled Banner is the absolute perfect 4th of July song that enhances American pride in your heart
- Barbeque sauce has never sounded so good (and is not kept with laundry detergent)
- Celebrating your country's independence in a foreign country is a completely unexplainable experience!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Who wants to see?!
Well, there are always more pictures, videos, and more stories, always more stories, but for now, here is something visual to share with you besides my insanely unorganized ramblings that for some reason you all enjoy reading, which I LOVE!
Copy and paste this link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2096173&id=15101586&l=2859fb8c28
Copy and paste this link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2096173&id=15101586&l=2859fb8c28
Monday, July 6, 2009
It's Like Sticking Your Finger in a Hornets Nest!
The crowds are starting to come
Waiting in the El Campo!
Well, fortunately (or unfortunately?) I am rewriting this entry. I typed FOUR AND A HALF PAGES and decided that it was too long, I am sure you don’t want all the gory details of my July 2nd afternoon. If you do…send me an email (Hoover101@gmail.com) and I’ll send it to you.
This week (as in last Monday to this Monday) has officially been dubbed the week of roller coaster highs and lows. I can honestly say thank God Claire was here or I seriously would have gone crazy.
To start, let me give you an update on the front of the battle: We have been courageously battling new armies of scorpions, crickets, and an occasional slug. The ants are slowly fading out…the ferocity that Claire and I have with the Raid is definitely an intimidating sight!! The flies are threatening to win when they buzz in our ear in the early morning hours. We have found a new strategy to prevent raiding our selves – practicing our hand eye coordination with a crop as a fly swatter – mission still needs practice. We have only lost one battle (I have bugs (unidentified) in my bed…not yet eliminated), but the war will be won, victory can be tasted!
Claire has mastered the fine art of improvising desserts with cake in a frying pan and cookie dough with no eggs or brown sugar. The horses are continuing to take a year off of our lives with their unpredictable never a dull moment-ness. In one day we had a thrown shoe, 3 leg lame horse, broken stall door and fight with Rusty, with a fine icing of a group of seven canceling on us at the last minute. We have had crazy beautiful thunderstorms (The kind with constant rumbling and where the sky looks like someone is flipping a light switch on and off…no rain). During the one on the night of July 1st, the fireflies came out and it was absolutely beautiful. I thought of Colorado Springs at my aunt’s house and the time I almost spent the night on the porch during a bad thunderstorm. Haha. We have also mastered the fine art of moving giant round hay bales through the mud into shelter in the middle of the night with only our sheer arm strength! Yay!
And after a crazy week of the injuries, cancellations, and trail adventures, waiting to go to Siena on Thursday morning felt like waiting to go to Disneyland as a kid. July 2nd will always have a special meaning for me. I don’t know when each of you last had your “edge of the seat, hold on tight to someone or something, heart stopping, built up anticipation, gasping, yelling” adrenaline rush, but mine was that morning, July 2nd at around 8:30 pm Italian time. I had the incredibly awesome opportunity to experience the oldest horse race in the world and in a most unexpected way!
The morning started off early, of course with some technical difficulties along the lines of late buses and stubborn hay bales. We had to wake up at 4 am to feed and catch the 6:30 am bus from Tocchi. We sat on the bench and waited, and waited. At around 7:15 the bus was still not there. We started thinking of alternate plans. Walk? Hitchhike? Drive an unlicensed car with no international drivers license? Fortunately by the time we were starting to wonder if it would be possible to teleport ourselves or if we were going to be rescued by our men in shining armor, the bus arrived, precisely one hour and three minutes late. That in itself was an adventure…I didn’t think it was possible for a bus to drive that fast down a windy road. I felt so sick, but we finally we made it to Siena!
The afternoon was great. Highlights: Learning great news from my roommate, spending one hour translating a Peanuts comic, seeing the end of Mass on the Campo (square in the middle of Siena), seeing the Palio horses walk through the town streets, eating lots of gelato and pizza and pastries, having a nice sit down lunch at a restraunt (I tried liver on bread…interesting!), and catching up with world news (I finally learned about the death of Michael Jackson!)
Around 2, we headed to the Campo and found a little space against the fence to have good seats. We sat in the campo for three hours, waiting. I felt like I was at Disneyland with my dad, sitting on blankets at the front of the lake, waiting for Fantasmic, guarding your territory with all your belongings. We talked with our neighbors and we all worked together to keep our spot, ours. One of our neighbors was a group from Australia and the other was from China. I also met a couple from Galilee…way cool!
Anna got a phone call from her dad. If it dumped buckets the Palio would be cancelled for today. In that case, the Americans with the tickets that cancelled on us would not be able to stay and watch it…we would get their seats. Claire and I screamed and squealed at the idea. We got some pretty strange looks. I prayed for God’s will to be done. Still, the sky didn’t drop the buckets. About twenty minutes later, close to 5, Anna gets another phone call. I think I needed someone to pinch me. The Americans from Boston that cancelled on us invited us to join them on a balcony above the Campo for free! (These are extremely expensive seats by the way.) We squealed and jumped in place and held hands and pranced out of the Campo. We were little kids at Christmas…probably worse than, you would have thought we won a million dollars…what a gift!! We pranced around holding hands, hugging and squealing for at least ten minutes before we could be calm. Good thing we got it all out before they came to show us the way to the seats!! It didn’t rain. We were going to see the Palio…in real life! Not postcard pictures, not James Bond movie intro, but the real 699 year old Palio. I actually felt a tear of joy on my cheek, I am so blessed!
The race itself is hard to put into words…I don’t think any amount of words can really justify the experience. There is a parade that is about two hours…not as a show but for tradition, with all the mid evil clothes and everything! You can feel the tension build as the parade nears the end (The actual palio - a big painted banner pulled by four ox, the prize of the race). Each race has ten horses. Siena is split into seventeen contradas (District in Italian), and the horses that race are basically chosen by lottery (too much detail to explain here).
The competition is fierce (take Boulder v. CSU at the big game every fall and multiply it by five and you might get an idea of the intensity). Grown men cry, songs are sung, and the celebrations last for days. The race itself ended up taking a long time to start. There are no starting gates for this race, only a rope. There are negotiations/agreements made (if you do this to this person, I’ll…which is totally legal!) Then, one rider hangs back behind the line and is the one who gets a running start. The Palio would never ever fly in America, we are so orderly. At this race, no one knows when it is going to start – it is all chosen by the jockey who stays in the back. Then it is just a waiting game, the only rule: They have to start before it is dark outside, which is essentially 9 pm. Beyond that there are no rules, even a jockey-less horse can bring its contrada to victory! We had FOUR false starts, you could feel the electricity in the air...the anticipation was too much sometimes! Each false start agitated and amplified the crowd. (Hence the “Its like sticking your finger in a hornet’s nest!)…The energy of the crowd, the cheers, the boos, the increased tension each time the cannon went off (signaling a false start) got my heart rate up! At last the race went off, three intense laps, two ninety degree turns, crazy jockeys being slammed into gates.
Naturally speaking, around 8:30 pm, nearly twelve hours since we left the bus station in Tocchi, Claire’s battery was low and my memory card stick full…REALLY?! I mean, why would our cameras be functionable when we needed them most? We quickly put her card in my camera. My battery lasted until the jockey FINALLY decided to run the race and had a real start…then it went low…I only got to film half of the first lap.
We were voting for Istrice, the porcupine…who came in dead last…unfortunately his jockey pulled him up/slowed him down due to what we suspect was injury. The winner? Tartuca…the turtle. We saw a very rare thing – he led wire to wire, which apparently never happens in the Palio! It was awesome to watch. The best part? Seeing the reactions of the members of Tartuca…tosee the joy of the members of that contrada…I don’t know if I can describe it except lots of tears, hugs, jockey on the shoulders of people in the crowd, people pouring onto the track, more tears and hugs, flag waving and cameras, singing and chanting.
The lady from our first breakfast in Siena was right…to a tourist the Palio is a crazy horse race…to a Sienese local, the Palio is what they live for, a race of tradition and honor. It is just amazing to me that a race of such importance has so few rules, so much history, and such a cultural feel. It was such an AWESOME experience that words, pictures and videos really can’t give justice to. I am so so so glad that I got to share it with Claire, it would be cool to see alone, but having someone to share it with is a million times better. We screamed and jumped and cheered together and gooed and gawed and pinched each other…yes the day did happen. We saw the Palio.
I remember sitting on my cousin Eric’s couch right before I left for Italy, doing some research on Siena…clueless to the Palio…almost (The exception being watching the new James Bond movie at a friends house). When I found it and read up on it, I thought it was a little horse race that few people knew about, something cultural that would be cool to experience…especially because it dealt with horses, I was so excited at the thought of going! Well, I didn’t realize how cool it would be, I didn’t realize that the Palio is well known! Despite the tourists flooding half the Campo…it is a very cultural tradition...the parade is not for show, it is a crucial part to the whole thing. The Sienese live for the Palio...that much was evident as we watched the winning contrada march home underneath our balcony.
It is a day I will never, ever forget, a day I will remember every July 2nd, a day that will remind me to always trust God with each situation!
Apparently the August 16th race is an even bigger deal, Claire and I are definitely hoping to attend!
In the meantime, I have faithfully resumed my position as instigator (causing water fights, etc), and have started to give riding lessons to Anna, which is soo much fun! Thomas gave me the keys to the chapel at Castello so I can go pray in Church whenever I want (time is the only issue), and my ability to cut fruit is gradually improving. The grocery store is no longer intimidating, and Claire and I are slowly picking up Italian. She and I have had many laughs, and are starting to think the same…uh oh. She even understands my half finished sentences…it is almost like we spend all day, all night, every day, every night together!! Hmm…
Lessons of the week:
- Bananas are unpredictable, but can be tamed
- When you haven’t had cake in over a month, chocolate stove-top cake is a delicacy.
- In the end, everything will work out the way it is supposed to
- Handwritten letters from friends and home have more meaning then ever before
- Chacos have multiple functions (hiking shoe, running shoe, riding shoe, muck shoe, casual shoe, dress shoe, feeding shoe, and rain boot)
- Flies are the worst alarm clock…EVER
- Your camera will fail to function when you need it most
- The phrase “Italian time” is not a joke – things just happen when they do
PS – yes it is long, but it is a whole page shorter and hopefully more entertaining then what I had before…there is just so much! I guess I should save some stories for face to face, eh? …my 4th of July? That is a whole ‘nother story to be posted at a future day.
Love and miss you all!
Tracie
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