What a couple of days!
So, I figured I would do the normal run with the guys today, and so yesterday I put in some extra miles to make sure I got to 35 this week. Also my Garmin missed a bit of my run yesterday, so I’m probably already over 35 miles. What I didn’t know was it would be raining this morning, so the run got postponed. My friend had other friends to run with at the new time and we went, and boy did we, almost 9 miles! So tomorrow I only have to do like a mile and a half! I haven’t decided what to do yet, I definitely need rest, my hamstring needs to heal, but I also want to meet the challenge.
So this morning, some of the adult students invited me to coffee, it was nice. I did my best to stay silent and listen and keep my mind clear to absorb the language. The same way children learn. I think my problem speaking and listening to Italian may be related to the fact I didn’t speak at all until I was almost 3 years old. Maybe there’s some sort of block in my brain that makes it more difficult for me. But I will get there, I have been using my DuoLingo every day for the last 4 days, I need to finish up today’s bit as soon as I’m done here, and I will just keep plugging along until I get it all done and see how it comes out.
It seems the wet weather is holding off this afternoon. For all you back in the frozen Northeast, I want you to realize I’m writing this with my freshly cleaned laundry hanging on my balcony, the window wide open, my shirt off sunning myself. It’s 61F (16C) here right now, and it’s a beautiful day. After heavy rains this morning of course. In case you’re wondering, I didn’t hang out the laundry by choice, it is required here, there are no clothes dryers. I don’t think they have the power generation necessary for such things, although they could have if there were sufficient solar and wind farms in the area supplying power to Italy, instead of shipping, and I shit you not, shipping that energy to the rest of Europe. Strange right? Oh well.
Meanwhile, one other odd thing is happening in town, something that is vastly different from the United States. A couple of young people (30s) were killed in an “ambush style attack” (so read the article). Because of this, they are not allowing them to have a funeral. Instead they are taking the bodies from the examiner, straight to the grave. Outrageous right? In the US, that would never fly They’re not saying these people were involved in organized crime (although they are clearly saying it implicitly), but simply because it was like a “hit” they are denying the families the right to have a funeral. No matter how bad things ever got in the US, I never recall anyone being barred from having a funeral. It’s rather sad, and it is bothering some people in town who were friends with these two. That’s understandable. It’s definitely a different world down here. In the US such violence is so commonplace we don’t even think about it, here they denied funerals because of the fear of what might happen.
So that’s my weekend update to this point, I’ll certainly sit down tomorrow and give you some more Southern Italian goodness, until then:
Have fun, keep running and remember; If Gil can run then so can you!
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