Italy Part 1: Monterosso al Mare

We went to Italy May 13 - 27, and here - finally - are some pictures of our trip!

We flew from Dallas to Paris to Rome, arriving in Rome around 3pm on May 14th. Then we hopped on the train from Fiumicino airport, through Rome and Pisa to La Spezia, and then changing to the regional train to go the last few miles to Monterosso.

Monterosso is one of the villages of Cinque Terre, an area of five small fishing villages along the northwestern coast of Italy. We arrived around 9pm on Saturday, and while we could hear the sea, we couldn't see it because it was dark. :)

Sunday was overcast and a little rainy, but in the afternoon it cleared up. We spent the day wandering around the town, admiring the sea, and eating great food.

(As always, you can click on a picture to make it bigger.)

There weren't many tourists at the beach on Sunday.

This is a view of Monterosso from the hills at the edge of town.


On our way up the trail, we encountered a cemetery:

Each of the cubby holes in those walls is a tomb.

And each tomb has the name of the occupant.
Many of them also had a photo or engraving of the deceased (as can be seen in the upper-left).
It was kind of creepy!

Monterosso has two sections: the older east side (where we stayed)
and the newer west side, where the train station and more modern housing are.
This is the west side, taken from the breakwater.

Another view of the west side, taken from the trail that connects the two.

Standing at the far west side, looking back to the east.
The old part of town is hidden by the rocks.


On the left side of the photo (and in the center of the previous photo)
you can see the old (16th century) fort.

Just below it, on the rocks, there is a round cement WWII bunker.


Here's Gus checking it out! We went inside, and then sat on top of it for a while.

Moonrise

Sunset

And my favorite photo:

Night time in Cinque Terre. If you look closely, you can see the four other villages.
From left: Vernazza, Corniglia (up on the hill), Manarola, and Riomaggiore.

Next up, Vernazza!

Aha!

So that's where all the birdseed is going!

Bathroom "Before & After"

When we bought our house last month, here's what the downstairs bathroom looked like:

Left side of the room...

...and right side of the room.

Lovely wallpaper, eh? We pulled all the wallpaper down one evening, only to discover that the drywall behind it had...issues.

Exhibit A: Mold along the tile at the top of the shower

Exhibit B: Weird patchy plaster and red wallpaper glue residue.
(Maybe...I'm not sure what that red stuff is.)

So we hired a painting company to come in and kill the mold, prep the drywall, texture the walls, prime, and paint.

Then we bought new accessories: curved shower curtain rod, new extra-long shower curtain, rugs, towels, etc.

Here's how it looks now!

:)

Neighbors

So, now that we've been in our house for a month, we've gotten to know a few of our neighbors a little better:

These two neighborhood cats were hanging out under one of our trees this evening. The grey one on the left is very shy and hyper-alert. When he realized he'd been spotted, he quickly made his exit. It's a shame, because he's so pretty!

The black and white one hangs around a lot. Although he won't let us get closer than 5 feet from him, he has been known to sit in our driveway and meow at us when we get home. He even helped me paint the kitchen cabinets! :)

(Poor quality photo taken with my cellphone)

He didn't mind me taking his picture through the screened-in porch screen.

And then I tried out my new camera's zoom, and even through the screen, the picture turned out pretty nice!

(Psst! Hey, cat - let me pet you!)

Kitchen Before & ... Intermediate

I painted the kitchen cabinets over Spring Break! The kitchen walls are awaiting a crew to come in and remove wallpaper, fix flaws, and paint. That'll happen next week. In the meanwhile, here are photos of the freshly painted cabinets.

First, a "before" shot:

From "Eew!" ....

Now:

... to "Ooo!"

Note the shiny new cabinet hardware, too. It's so pretty!

I'll post more when the walls are finished. :)

The house

We put an offer on a house today. Here are some photos!
(As always, you can click a photo to see a larger view.)

The front
From left-to-right, the windows on the first floor are bedroom,
entry door, living room, dining room, and garage.
On the second floor we have windows to a bedroom, stairwell, and bedroom.

The front porch, complete with swing!

The entryway, looking toward the fireplace in the den.
The living room is to the right.
Two bedrooms and a bathroom are to the left.

Partial view of the living room and the dining room from the entry.
The doorway in the dining room leads to the kitchen.


Kitchen, with breakfast area and back door beyond, viewed from the dining room.
Just beyond the fridge, turn left to go into the den.


Breakfast area. The closed door is a 1/2 bath.
The back door is to the left of the bathroom.


Kitchen, seen from the breakfast area, looking toward the dining room.
The closed door just behind the microwave goes into the garage.

Part of the den.


Stairs from the den to the second floor.
The hallway to the right of the stairs leads to the front door,
with two bedrooms and a bathroom to the right.

Another view of the den, looking toward the breakfast area from the foot of the stairs.
The glass doors on the left go to the screened-in porch.

A view of the screened-in porch from the den.


Part of the backyard, just outside the back door.
The rest of the backyard is to the left.


More of the backyard, standing outside the screened-in porch.


A view of the back of the house.
The screened-in porch is on the left.
Our realtor is in the center. :)

The side/back of the house.

Goats!

Our apartment

Here are a few pictures of our new apartment. Yes, it's small (500 sq. ft.), but we both love it!

Kitchen, viewed from the front door.
(The door in the picture is the pantry.)

Kitchen again.

The rest of the apartment, as viewed from the front door.

Bedroom.

Looking from the bedroom toward the front door.

Back in business

We left Texas for Thailand on March 9th. On January 9th, we rolled back into town. It's good to be back.

Work (for me - Angela) will begin again on January 16th; between now and then, we'll be moving into a new apartment and settling in. I will also have to move my work materials into a new office building, since my department moved while I was overseas.

More updates later.

Redirect

For those of you not in-the-know, we have a new blog going while we're in Thailand: http://thailandt.blogspot.com. Come on over and have a look!

We bid a temporary farewell to Texas.

We left sunny, warm-ish Texas Sunday late afternoon and - after an overnight stop in Wichita, KS - arrived in the cloudy, frigid North late Monday evening. We'll be spending about a week with our families before we fly out of MSP next Monday morning.

All of our household belongings are in a 4x10 storage unit in Denton. Our house sale will close on March 25th. We're taking a total of 3 suitcases of stuff with us to Thailand, and one of those suitcases is full of books and materials for me to use in the classroom over there. Traveling light is the only way to travel.

It was strange driving away from Texas, and it was stranger still (and oddly comforting) to hear the southern "y'all"s gradually turn into the northern "you guys". :) However, though the Texan accent terrifies me, I like living in Texas and look forward to returning there next January.

Betrayal

Just when the flowers are blooming, the trees are budding, and the birds begin to nest, THIS is what Texas dumps on us. Traitor.

Snowy front yard

Snowy hammock

Snowy trees

Snowy bushes

These pictures were taken about 12 hours after the snow stopped falling, and some of the snow has melted already. I think we officially got 5" of snow yesterday. And actually, when this is (as the locals claim) a once-every-25-years event, it's kind of fun! I couldn't believe how many snowmen sprang into existence within 1 hour of when the snow began to fall!

It'll all be gone in a day or two, but for today, UNT is closed and I have vacation. As they say down here, yee-haw!

Time's a-wastin'

We have plane tickets and visas for Thailand, a condo there has been rented for us (by my boss' boss' boss), and we have a buyer for our house!

Packing is proceeding apace. Gus has been working hard to cull our belongings into a manageable pile. The Spring I term is now finished at work, so I (Angela) have some time to actually help get us ready to leave - and we leave balmy Texas on Sunday afternoon, March 9th. We'll spend about a week up in the frigid North before we fly to blazing hot Thailand.

Must go pack....

Briefest of Updates:

We've been given the green light for Thailand. It looks like we'll be leaving in about six weeks.

My Thai?

There's an 80% chance that I (Angela) will be sent to northern Thailand in March for at least 2 months to start, head up, and teach English at a new branch of our department. I would, of course, be taking Gus with me. :)

At this point, it looks like I would be the only teacher being sent this first term while we're getting the program going! If it works as planned, then other classes and teachers would most likely be added beginning with the summer term. I have the option (read: they would really like it if I would) to stay for up to a year. Gus and I both think it would be very fun.

The city we would be in is Chiang Mai. It's in northern Thailand and it's the second largest city, after Bangkok. However, Bangkok is 45x the size of Chiang Mai! :D Chiang Mai has about 200,000 people and is - according to a friend of ours who has family in Chiang Mai - a modern city with everything we might need, including broadband internet!

Chiang Mai is located at the base of a mountain range and has a river running through it. There are, of course, lots of local Buddhist temples, a number of large universities in the city (the largest one has 25,000+ students; the one I'd be at has around 10,000), and lots of shopping, including a very cool and very large night market!

Now we just need to learn Thai! :)

Favorite pictures

I recently decided to print out some of my digital pictures, since I'd love to have them in 8x10 format on our walls and not just in JPEG format on my computer. Just for kicks, here are a few of the pictures I'm printing! (All pictures were taken by me, Angela.)

The Shambles
York, England
March 2007

Skipton Castle
Skipton, England
March 2007

Groundskeeper's cottage and groundskeeper

Rievaulx Abbey, Yorkshire, England
March 2007

Mount Evans, Colorado
September 2005

Mount Evans, Colorado
September 2005

The Atlantic Ocean as viewed from our beach-front cottage
Vieques, Puerto Rico
February 2004