I don’t live in Tahoe or any other ski resort area. I live in Tuscany, Italy and I am having a WHITE Christmas! I am drinking Hot chocolate, listening to American Christmas Carols and lost in my American-Italian dreams. You ask what is different?

Well … these might be the top 5 that come to mind …

1. My tree is smaller because everything is smaller in Italy!
2. Today, I walked in the snow to pick my daughter up from school. No SUV.
3. My coat is drying on a radiator and not in a dryer.
4. I can’t find a Candy Cane or Egg Nog to save my life!
5. There will be NO stores open OR anything open on December 25th or December 26th (St. Stephen’s Day)… PERIOD!

Sharing these five differences that come immediately to mind on this snowy Christmas spirited day, I will say the ONE thing that is the SAME no matter where I am in the USA or in ITALY is the LOVE, the SPIRIT, the JOY and the REASON we celebrate this wonderful holiday!

May His light shine bright in all of us across the world for this Christmas and 2011!

Root of All Evil … What is yours? Mine I think is learning a new language.
It is not an easy feat. I know what I need to do. I need to speak Italian EVERYDAY … IN MY HOME and NO ENGLISH. That sounds so simple, Yes? Not so easy, let me tell you!

A little story about me telling the man down stairs: “Ho messo un appunto sulla tua la porta” (I will put a note on your door). Note, this is NOT perfect grammar! He understood I said door (la porta) BUT had NO idea that I said note (appunto). So I had to change what I said to: “Io scrivo su carta e mettere su la porta informatzione per prossima settimana” (I will write on paper & put on your door information for next week). AGAIN, terrible grammar but he got the point & was VERY kind (molto gentile)!

I walked out feeling frustrated (frustrato) because I was hung up in my head about the word “appunto” for note. I remembered the Italian tutor specifically teaching this helpful word (parola).

Lucky for me, as I walked out I saw my friend & I asked him as he speaks English. He looked at me dazed & confused and said, “No this word you are saying does not exsist”!

The word you want is, “nota”. Well, this solved it. I sucked at the Italian language. I my memory was shot, I was definitely having a bad day but the good news was … “nota” was going to be easy (facile) to remember in the future.

It was about 1:30AM and I couldn’t sleep, nothing too irregular for me these days, so like usual I grabbed my iPhone I took a look at my emails. There are normally emails from the USA and someone to chat with! However, to my wonderful surprise there was an email from my Italian friend and he said, he was so tired from work & the correct term was “appunto” … not “punto”. So perhaps I did not emphasizes the “AP” enough & he did have his scooter helmet on.

This small success made my world (world) a better place for the next few hours of sleep and gave me some peace of mind and that maybe I will conquer Italian. However being a linguist like Maria Gaetana Agnesi might have to wait until my next life.

I received one of the biggest compliments (complimenti) I could ever receive the other day. I was told by an Italian friend, “You will never be happy”!
You might be thinking HOW could this be one of the biggest compliments of your life?

ITALIAN TRANSLATION 101:
I was taken aback at first myself but than it was clarified that everyone should be like me and I realized the REAL statement that was being conveyed was:
“You will always strive for more”!
Trust me, I did confirm this and was correct … phew!

This conversation (conversazione) was not intended to be a blog post but then I received this email from a blog I follow by a really extraordinary woman who no matter what you think, stays true to herself, is successful and walks her “own path”.
Her post was:  5 Reasons to stop trying to be happy!
When I read this, I could relate because one reason why I started this blog was to open the world of Italy and Living Someday’s TODAY! Staying in a place of contentment makes it very hard to reach new goals and achieve dreams.

I am told that I am a dreamer and to me that is the best! To have passions and to try new things because “Someday” may never come, so TODAY is a great day! Everyday, I have new ideas, creative thoughts and things I want to do! I just hope there is enough time to do all the things I want to do! 24 hours in a day, just doesn’t seem like enough time. My surroundings effect me deeply so when I am at the sea (il mare), or near an Italian structure that is thousands of years old, or walking down the street with the fashion filled windows (vetrine) or even being told “I will never be happy” WOW!  I LOVE IT!