FINALLY 8. Ciao Tutti

Hey yall,

Wow it has been awhile I must say but my apologies to the three people that actually read this thing :) but nonetheless im happy to have you three: mom, dad, and dan. Haha. Well still enjoying the life of watching Shrek movies during the day, practices at night, and yummy food and wine in between! Had the family over and am already starting to miss you guys again lol just kidding think of you guys everyday!! How much you would enjoy the little moments with me. Its not quite fair im living this life when yall are the ones that deserve it but no worries im enjoying the life for ALL of us. Literally ive eaten for 4 since ive shown up! But the college roommates show up tomorrow so im super excited to see what these adventures bring. That is if they actually find their way to italy... God bless. I can only imagine what these next two weeks will endure.

Well looks like ill be here till October since we have the European cup in August then the playoffs (which is like a conference tournament- the top 4 team play each other) during the month of September. We are in 1st for the playoffs so we should win and our team feels confident that we will do well for the European cup too. SURE HOPE SO!! 

Well hope to have the computer up and running again soon so I can chat with you guys more often. Missing all you dearly. Hugs and kisses and cannot wait to see you for halloweenie!! 

Ciao Loves, K 

Letters from Italy...7. CHICKEN'S 40!!

"Chicken Cup" one of the games we made up for our coaches 40th birthday-his nickname is Chicken. In the video is Chicken and our head coach JK. The party was a success as you can see!!!

Well we played Caserta and it got pretty scary during the games! Their 3rd baseman is an older lady who is married to the team's manager (which means she does whatever she wants because she can!) She almost got into a fight with two of our players and was playing dirty the whole game. She had a dirty slide into our 3rd basemen and came up and elbowed her in the face. Then one of our girls slid into her at home and she went off yelling and pushing her. But because of the particular circumstances the umpire threw our girl out of the game! Basically he was scared by the other team and what could possibly happen so we got the shit end of the deal! But I ended up hitting her at the end of the game, haha of course! I was expecting her to charge the mound but she just threw her helmet and sat down on the ground and was yelling out some Italian profanity. "Scuza non capisco."  But we went 1-1 again against them. It is a definite adjustment to only being able to throw in 1 game a week. The foreign pitcher is only allowed 1 appearance. Although it is probably best I don't believe I would make it through another season of college ball, I am becoming an old lady. BUT good luck to my Kent State girls this weekend!! It is their last weekend of regular season games and I wish y'all the best and I am watching :)!! MMM well my nickname has changed from Pittinì to Bob "the truck driver" haha my southern farm girl ways are coming out. They said looking at me you expect a polite ballerina but you get Bob the truck driver :) Sorry mom. I think it's the fact that I have broken half the cups/bowls in our house, I spill everything, and my tendency to run into things... Oh well.
But I have truly enjoyed myself over here!! The housing situation has turned out for the best my roommates and I couldn't get along better and now the more I am over here the more I want to come back for a second season. I will truly miss these girls when its over; we are already planning trips to visit each other (The house now consists of: myself, Andrea, Marta, Darcy, and Mara on the weekends.) I am so excited for my fam to come over in a couple of weeks, ahhhhhh I really can't wait!!!! And my friends as well, everyone has their tickets booked and I can't wait to share this experience with you all. Such good food and good people. I know I keep saying it but I truly couldn't ask for more in my life. So a special thanks to my mama for pulling me off the jet ski during the summer to go pitch (ughhh) wasn't happy at the time but HEY look it worked out after all! Haha you do know best. Well i'll try writing more later! Out to get some drinks and appetizers with my roommates... Hard Life I Live :) Love it.

Letters from Italy...6. Expect The Unexpected

Well we took our one really sweet trip this weekend to the island of Sardinia where our team gets to stay in a nice resort with a pool and is literally 2 minutes from the beach. The island itself isn’t very big but it is pretty well known and a lot of rich movie stars own land on the seaside. According to some of the girls they even have a night club that is out on a pier and the floor is all glass looking down over the ocean BELLA. We stayed in a city called Budoni which is an hour from the city of Nuoro, which is where the ball team was from. Unfortunately for us it rained the entire time we set foot on the island :( NOT happy with mother nature!! and I found out some funky Italian softball rules. But we were doomed from the very start. Our team usually flies out on Friday so we can go to the beach and have a good nights rest but being Easter Sunday (Happy Easter Everybody or Buona Pasqua Raga) we couldn’t get a flight out till Saturday (we were suppose to play Saturday night) So we arrived, drove to the resort showered ate lunch, and then drove the hour down to the field knowing we weren’t playing (it was storming at this point and the fog was so bad we could barely see driving). But if both teams aren’t present when the umpires show up at the field at game time then your team gets the loss and is fined (basically you forfeit the game with a no show). So we had to drive down to the ball field both Saturday and Sunday for the umpires to tell us it was raining.. I want to be like there is a better way to handle this I swear... But we got up again on Sunday and did the same thing for an expected 9:30 game time. When it finally stopped raining which seemed like a little bit of hope for us to play a game they put the world’s dumbest field crew into the picture. Honest, they asked if they could put gasoline on the field and light it to see if they could dry the dirt faster! :) At this point all I could do was laugh but we sat around till 11:30 at ended up practicing and leaving Sardina with no sunshine. I was pretty bummed we didn’t get any beach time in orrrrrr games. Boo

TRYING to upload a picture but its not working :( . You'll all have to see my new facebook album instead!

Interesting fact: I did find out the team we play this coming weekend, Caserta, is owned by a mob family, bible. They do really good recruiting because they have the best supply of cash for a club team… go figure (Angelica Selden pitches for them). I was just wondering how I would explain this situation; calling home to tell my parents that the club team I play for in a foreign country happens to be owned by the Sicilian mafia, no biggie. asdffhkjshdfkjhs, Whaaat? Crazy!! This information still boogles me every time the Italian girls talk about it. Our Italian pitcher Mara actually played for them last year and apparently their coach is one of the biggest buttholes. Throws things at the players, screams a lot, and uses racial slurs. I wouldn’t last an hour on that team! Not much of mafia girl myself cry way too often.

Anyways we have a team BBQ tomorrow our assistant coach is turning 40!! So as a team we organized some fun drinking games and a nice little feast starting at 2 so I got to go get some sleep tonight so I revive myself for tomorrows activities! Goodnight or Buonanotte. Ciao Ciao. Miss you guys!!

Letters from Italy...5. You Only Live Once...

Ciao, Kiss-Kiss

Well lets see my last weeks plans fell through completely because I was so tired from practice and our ball game that I didn’t end up going anywhere and I got pretty sick. So I can no longer blame Ohio for its horrible weather it ends up its just me; I’m just one big disease... doesn’t matter where I am. But tomorrow I am finally going to Rimini to watch the baseball team play and hopefully get to see my high school buddy who lives there (maybe even meet a super hot stud, and fall in love, just sayin, haha). Super excited lets just hope these plans actually happen!! The traveling to Rimini part I mean.
I started working at the school this week. Where I go and teach softball to the little Italian kids during their P.E. class. It is quite hilarious but definitely a challenge trying to control a bunch of 8 year olds when you can't speak their language. Keep in mind baseball/softball isn’t popular over here. So these kids don’t even know how to play (they didn’t know they had to run after they hit the ball, they're standing 3 feet away from the hitter not understanding they were going to get hit in the face, and were just pegging each other instead of throwing to the actual base-No this is not dodge ball... it was a disaster!) And I found out the boys and girls play on the same team till they’re 13 so the boys are forced to play softball till they are old enough to play baseball, Bizarre. Leah you'll enjoy this story. I had this adorable fat boy come up to me, bow, then proceed to tell me he was Chinese but he could speak English. "Your shirt is blue." (It was red) Haha he was the cutest. They were so funny. And I fell in love with this tiny Italian boy who introduced himself as Francesco. I'll be sure to bring my camera next time and take pictures!
As far as training goes- my pitching practice happens before our actual practice and most of you know I'm not much of a utility player so when I'm not pitching I don't have anything else to do. They put me in right field for like a day and realized that I'm not an outfielder- I'm slow and a poor judge of direction with fly balls. My coach is a very straight-forward honest person so he told me to just go sit down because I looked awful, lol, thanks coach. But I may ask to start hitting! I know kind of crazy after taking 5 years off but at least I wouldn't be completely useless at practice anymore. We shall see.
And not much of an update on the Victoria Secret bod ... I'm still eating like a fat kid :-/ can't help myself, everything taste so good here! But I am super excited that my parents and Leah have both confirmed their trips over hopefully by then my Italian will be fluent and I'll be able to order off the menu for us. Right now I am hopeless when it comes to eating out I can barely manage to get ice cream from the gelato shop next door. Yeeks. Leah see if your new big girl budget allows you to purchase a ticket for Charles (he's about the same weight as a small toddler).
Well I was going to upload a very funny video of my roommates last Friday we had an interesting "girls night". The Americans were teaching the Italians 1. The soldier boy 2. How to dougie and then they decided to show me their Beyonce skills with Single Ladies. It was horrible but quite hilarious. They knew Beyonce but didn’t have a clue what a dougie was. Needless to say the softball girls over here aren’t winning any Jock Jams competitions either! Hopefully I can figure out how to upload the videos because they need to be shared. It would be a youtube sensation I'm sure. Alright check in soon. Hugs & Kisses form Italia!

And 1st Place goes to ........(long pause).........Mara (winner of the single ladies dance off*)

Letters from Italy...4. Baby, It's A Wild World!

Ciao Raga, (In other words hello everyone)

Well I was informed by my dear friend Leah that I am slacking in my blog posting (which just means she is slacking at work, lol, love ya buddy) But anywho we played our first set of home games last Saturday, again went 1-1, should have won our first game but we are making stupid errors. Which I think is typical for beginning of the season play; I really feel like we will do well as long as the starting 9 stays healthy! But other than that life is good in Italia. I experienced my first bit outside of Forli. Which was me and Darcy shopping in Bologna till our legs hurt. Then we sat down for some yummy gelato! I found it to be a very successful day.

Marta (aka George) with my new shades on. Hot mama.

Well I cannot believe I have already been here a month. It's crazy to me! The daytime goes by kind of slow because we have a full day to do whatever we want then practice late at night (starting at 7:30) then we come home make a family dinner, shower, skype (I have met everyone's family via skype), then head to bed. Very busy life I know... which is where I am wondering where all my time has gone, hmmm. And I have freakin access to a gelato shop across the street, ahhhhhh! I've tried my very best to steer clear. We have decided as a house (meaning me, Katrina, & Darcy aka the foreigners) to be sexy and have abs for the summer time. FYI I came here assuming Italians ate a lot of pasta and would be jolly, fat people (Not so much- I meant about the fat part they are jolly. By the way this is not meant to offend the Italians I'm just retarded). It is a mystery to me how everyone here is in the best shape, I am determined to discover their secret!! Nevertheless we have spoken to our trainer, Silvia, to make us a work-out to get us a Victoria Secret bod! I'll be sure to keep you posted on how this attempt to look hot works out. Plan B would be to just go get the abs tattooed on us. Yikes. I was told Rimini is the beach we go to and it is the equivalent to being in Miami in the U.S.-should be interesting. But they apparently have a national beach day which is the first day you can go, not really sure when that is though, need to look into that...

Andrea preparing a healthy dinner for our Victoria Secret diet...

Drea is the mom of the house; she tells me and Darcy when we are being stupid Americans and doing things wrong which is often then teaches us the proper Italian way- like making coffee, and opening a box of milk (we are hopeless individuals in this place)

Planning a trip to Rimini this Thursday to visit Andrea's boyfriend (he plays baseball there) and going home with her Sunday to experience some real homemade Italian food. Needless to say, I am super excited. AAND we play Leganno this weekend and my old friend Sam is suppose to be playing for them. So it looks like a good week ahead! So no worries Leah I am sure a new blog will be posted to tell you all about this coming weeks adventures.

Miss you all <3 KY

Letters from Italy...3. The Adventures of Forini Softball

Where to start, Where to start... Well we played our first set of games against San Marino. (They are known as a feisty team who talk a lot of crap) So everybody really wanted to win plus our coach promised we could skip practice on a Monday so we could all go to a concert- Ben Harper and Jack Johnson are playing and its on the seaside (which is the beach area in Tuscany and I heard it was beautiful and my roommate lives there so we don’t even have to pay for a hotel and I love Jack Johnson and Ben Harper so I really really want to go!) But unfortunately we lost! Lol. Well technically we went 1-1 since we won the 2nd game on default (they played too many foreigners and not enough Italian girls) but hey a wins a win :). I did witness the oldest softball player ever though; a 47 year center fielder with neon orange hair! She was actually really good except I accidentally hit her when she was up to bat, whoops, I didn't realize it was her till after and then I felt real bad. The funny part was the umpire goes "Strike. (because she swung- probably more of self defense) Time. Ice." (maybe you had to be there but it was quite funny) I only hit 2 people though and the 2nd one was a change that bounced first, so I only count 1 person. Which means I am right on track with my normal regime. Sooo the girls give everyone a nickname and they decided to call me Pittinì which apparently means "girly girl." I don't know about the nickname yet :-/ but I guess its better than manly girl... But Saturday I did do well enough to get a high five from my team’s owner (he only speaks Italian so I think he meant good job) and a beer from my coach; I was quite nervous considering I haven't thrown in a real ball game in almost a year. So I walked off the field to a cold beer and a high five. I like these people more and more each day! I have to say its a nice alternative to college ball. Never in a million years would I imagine KL handing me a beer!

Please explain why my head manages to look big in every country I go!

Funny story. First I am learning more and more of the Italian’s norms/customs each day and I pretty much expect anything now a days. Anyways, we have all male coaches which I really enjoy. But I look over in the dugout and this girl decided she wanted to change her under armor and has got her drawers pulled down... I mean top off, pants down! So she is in her sports bra and panties basically, in the middle of the dug out. I was just sitting there like oh my girlfriend, no shame, lol. AND I am still trying to get used to the fact we are all suppose to shower together after the games. No body warned me about all this beforehand so it was an interesting occurrence when I walked into the locker room to a bunch of naked girls with no fore warning. Mmmmkay. Modesty is not an option

Friday I get to go with my roommate to her class at the University in Bologna where she studies Philosophy. And they have a nice market where I get to go shopping for EVERYTHING and its cheap : D! I went to the one in Forli and it had everything from panties,socks, to dresses you could wear to work! Literally everything!! Bologna is suppose to be even better! I am really excited I do love to shop (= Pittinì). Maybe they are right...

I truly enjoy their way of life here; it is awesome. They never rush (they're on a slow time (if you ask my mother is my kind of time) well that is unless they're driving!) but they really seem to enjoy everything and appreciate it. It’s great. Mostly I like how they are extremely family oriented. It is so funny to see how they all live in what they call a house but it's like an apartment complex with uncle/aunt downstairs, grandma & grandpa across the hall. Everyone is right there. Love it. I cannot imagine living with ALL my family in the same house!! I mean I do love y'all and I miss y'all and my cheese grits :) Ha. Well anyways I cannot wait for everyone to visit- to share all this great food with you guys! Hugs and Kisses from Italy. Ciao. Till next time.
<3

Una Casa!

My bedroom!

Waiting for the arrival of Darcy Pagnini

Balcony from our room

Living room

Kitchen

Andrea's room

Mara & Marta's room

The wonderful hallway

And of course this is how we make coffee for our tiny tea cups. Haha

Letters from Italy...2. New Found Facts About Italians!

Well Hello Family & Friends!!

Welp still having communication problems... since my roommates are gone for the week because they are traveling with the national team, I'm stuck trying to read Italian labels with not a clue as to what I am actually buying. I tried the smell technique in the grocery store picking up meats and cheese, unfortunately what I thought was turkey ended up being bologna :( Gross. But I'm excited because the weather is starting to clear up so I have gotten to walk around a bit and explore.
Anyways, I wanted to share with you a few interesting facts I have learned from my Italian friends since my arrival! (please know it hasn't even been a week.)

1. They put tomato sauce on everything! My first lunch was tuna in tomato sauce on top of some noodles; made by the house chef, Mara. Actually ... Not so bad.

2. Although they do eat and drink a lot slower here (which is obviously my biggest challenge since I'm a fat kid at heart) They don't waste any time with their tiny ass coffee. I understand the amount you get isn't very large but they take it like a shot. (I do miss my big coffee mugs)

3. The Godfather still exists- "Leave the gun. Take the cannoli." According to my sources the North and South are still very different and don't see eye to eye. The Southern people are thought of as untrustworthy and the two areas have completely different dialects, so they often don't even understand each other. Anyhow apparently southern Italy is filled with mafia families and going outside of the touristy towns isn't very safe. So yes the Godfather is still alive :)

4. Their wine comes in a box. Thought my days of drinking boxed wine were done but hey I'm in Italy and if that is how they sell it then allright. AAAANND one of my teammates lives in Forli so a team tradition is to go cut grapes at their Vineyard. I'm pretty excited! I’m going to be such an Italian come September J

5. Their driving is well interesting... Think tiny cars, tiny roads- lots of circles, cars going in and out like crazy. My room sits overlooking one of the circles and I hear car crashes daily. They are providing me with a car but I am not having any part of it! They take parallel parking to a whole other level. My roommate stole bicycles from the train station last year and is giving me one of them (una bicicletta) apparently she said she spray painted them so I shouldn't have anyone yelling after me about a stolen bike... grrrreat haha.

6. My Italian name Ki-yee. Or at least that is how they pronounce it. It is pretty funny to see the name translation (Steph as in Stephanie is Stefie and Michelle is Mickel ) they’ll correct you if you say otherwise.

7. You have to buy your own grocery bags, .70 cents a bag! Guess going green here is no joke.

8. And lastly...They don't usually eat pasta for dinner!! I was baffled by this comment and I told her I was under the assumption Italians ate pasta for every meal. Apparently it’s a lunch only thing. Bummer. And I was told before I got here, they don't actually serve spaghetti and meatballs or chicken parm, this was confirmed. Again kind of upset that my favorite Italian meal (spaghetti and meatballs) isn’t in fact Italian!

9. OOOH yeh I almost forgot. They do the double kiss greet. Which I love!! But please know it's left then right cheek. I'm retarded and forgot and it got real awkward with my coach haha.

Hopefully this was helpful to those of you who are coming over to visit! It is an interesting place, like no where else I have ever been. But the people I have met so far have been worth the journey. They are so fun, caring, and welcoming to everyone. I hope to see some of your pretty faces soon. Till then ciao!

Letters from Italy...1. Welcome!

I'll have to admit it has been quite the adventure and I have only been here for a couple days. I was expecting a little bit of a culture shock but it is certainly different once you're here and living it. The people here are unbelievably kind I have never met so many welcoming individuals. I have four roommates, all Italians (2 from Tuscany-Marta & Mara, 1 lives north of here whose family owns a farm- Andrea, and the other is somewhere near Bologna -Sara). This is only the living situation for a couple weeks till the other foreign girls come in- Darcy from Los Angeles and Katrina from New Zealand. 

Stories from Day 1:

I get up the next day recovering from my jet lag and craving coffee (del caffe). What I got was a glass the size of a thimble. Espresso shots are what they serve here! My roommates found this was hilarious- my expression to Italian coffee was something quite unexpected.  Apparently I didn’t Google enough about the Italian lifestyle… It was yummy but after adding lots of sugar; it’s so strong!

During lunch we are all sitting around the table and three of the girls speak fluent English the other one seems to understand me but it’s difficult to carry conversation. Anyways they found out I liked red wine and two minutes later I have homemade wine cracked open in front of me and we’re all drinking a glass, even with practice in a couple hours (totally against KL’s rules, haha KSUSB)! It was great; they don't seem to have a care in the world. Next comes homemade salami from my Andrea’s farm for me to try. Her family makes a lot of homemade stuff, cheese, wine, meats… her house is an hour from here and I’ve already been invited, definitely going there!! Day one and I've already had homemade wine and salami. I could get used to this hospitality.

So practice was an adventure in itself! It’s definitely more relaxed than playing college ball in the U.S., with coffee shots being served during practice to whoever wants them and the coach cracking open a 40 oz. beer once practice is done. I was very amused to say the least. There are several different coaches, all three Italian coaches were there today, although the head coach doesn’t come till next week because of the earthquakes in New Zealand he is home attending to his wife and kids. So I was practicing not understanding a word being said and balls being hit every which direction! The girls were trying to translate everything to me but it was truly chaos. I was told the practices will be getting better once the head coach shows up and we start playing games. Dear Lord lets hope J

I went to dinner with two locals from Forli who play on the team (they’re sisters), the owner, some of and their friends and families. It was quite the experience; I had my first Italian pizza! YUM! And I couldn’t finish it because it was huge. I mean really big (GRANDE). But of course everyone finished their meals, really way to stand out like an American! I immediately realize I’m going to get crap. And when I said no to dessert, oh my, they acted like I just shot them in the foot. It was actually quite funny, and they were very kind about it. Although they did tell me "I must gain weight… eat more like an Italian!” So I do know I have come to the right place!

Well I must be going heading to the grocery store now so I am sure this will hold more stories since I'll have no idea what exactly the packages are saying :-/  Well looks like I need to be spending more time on Rosetta Stone! Miss you all and love you!

Ciao!