Time is flying!

Looking at the calendar today, I realized that we have already been in Italy for four weeks. How did that happen so quickly? Lucia and I counted yesterday, we have visited 12 cities already. And we haven't even been south of Rome yet! It's strange how comfortable we are starting to feel here. Tasks which we would consider routine back in the US, and which we found challenging at first here, are starting to feel routine again, in a good way. If that makes sense.

For example, yesterday I got my hair cut. In the US, this is something I wouldn't think twice about. Here, I was a touch nervous about it, and put it off for a few days. It got to the point where the hair was just unacceptably long so in I went to the barber yesterday. I was able to get my intended haircut style across to the barber in broken Italian and hand gestures. We got to talking, and he actually complimented my Italian, and another guy in the store joked that I spoke better than some Italians. The barber recommended some places in Puglia to visit, because that's where he was from. It turned out to be a fun half an hour.

Not to say that any of the above means that we now intend to stay here forever. America will always be home, and we would miss our families way too much if we stayed here. But, for the moment, we feel comfortable and at home here. This weekend we are going on another trip to Rimini, and perhaps next week we will make a bigger trip to Sicily. Stay tuned!
Arrivederci!
Ricardo