Letters from Italy...10. Getting PUNK'D. kylie-0 italia-5

Ciao Bloggets,

Hi my little lovers I know I suck at this and its been wayyyy too long since the last post. Whoops. Well lots of fun stories this time :):):)

Well lets see... I've been doing some running lately, trying to keep off the Italian 20 that I gained last year (YIKES) And the past 3 times I have ran by this one side street where I see the same bicycle sitting there with no one by it and no chains. First of all a bike with no lock is a free bike in this country. EVERYONE steals bikes here!! I’ve always been told lock it up if you want it to be there when you come back. So back to my story I've seen this same bike in the same spot 3 nights in a row and I'm tempted to steal it because it’s all by its lonesome. So I walk up to it and look at it and think about it and I don't do it. Didn't have the guts… However I realize it looks similar to the one I have ... Then I go home and realize it was the one I HAD. It was my freaking bike all along!! Apparently Mr. Bike Stealer must have a friend in my apartment building and decided to walk out with my bike :(
Kylie -0 Italian Bike Stealer- 1

I’m telling you right now Italians seem nice (with their boisterous personalities, unruly laughs, and all those hand gestures) but they can be sneaky… Now this actually happened a couple weekends ago when we were playing our rival team Caserta (aka The Mafia) at home. We’re down by 1 and it’s the bottom of the 7^th. (FYI- This year we have a younger team, half of our Italian players are still in high school and we’re trying to introduce them to the A1 experience (which is the top pro softball league here.)) So back to the game, we start the inning with a junior girl up to bat and she rocks a double to left-center. We’re all ecstatic in the dugout jumping up and down and doing our little “dupio cheer” – “Bam bam bam she roped a double blah blah blah” Singing our little hearts out when we see her walk off 2^nd base back to 1^st. Instantly I’m so confused, like what’s she doing? Then the 2^nd baseman tags her and the umpire calls her out! Now I’m even more confused. Our Italian coach is rambling off all this stuff I don’t understand and then everyone in the dugout starts yelling more stuff I don’t understand… Eventually I asked why she went bee-bopping off second base and she said the second baseman told her- quote “umpire said you missed first, you need to go back and touch it.” And homegirl believed her so she went back to touch first BAHAHAHA. Now I’ve never in my 13 years of playing softball have I ever heard of such a thing. She got punk’d! Seriously, all the older Italian players were pissed and yelling at her. Mean while me and the other American thought it was the funniest shit we have ever heard.

 Forli-0 Caserta-2

I share groceries with my 1 roommate Andrea; we eat the same things and figure it’s cheaper if we share. However, neither of us are good cooks. So our meals seem to be a little repetitive (salad, salad, and yep more salad). Her boyfriend and his friends like to make fun of us because when they visit they have to cook for us. So I figure I’ll start trying to make things that I know how to make back home … my first attempt was a dinner for two; I did a stir fry with frozen veggies and rice. Fail. The vegetables I picked up from the grocery store were suppose to be made for soup. So they were VERRRRY salty and mushy L womp, womp, womp. No good. My second attempt was pancakes! I thought this was a brilliant idea seeing they don’t have any breakfast food here. Well let’s just say all-purpose flour was not used it was some sort of white flour alright but definitely not all-purpose flour. So my pancakes turned into crepes, which by the way is something they serve in every gelato shop in Italy. So nothing special about crepes for breakfast… I ended up with a house full of disappointed Italian women. Again no bueno. So no more cooking from me, I give!  

Chef Flop-0, Freakin Foreign Labels-2

Well friends and fam I must leave. Daaaaarchy is finally coming into town tonight and we are giving her a surprise partaay!! Gotta go hide, Ciaoo. Love you all.

Bacio Bacio, KY// Pitti

Letters from Italy...NUMERO 9. Ciao Tutti.... I'm Baaaack!!

Wow !!! Back for round two, can you believe it?? I can't. Well it is definitely different this go around. I am acting like a local. Although, I'm the only Forli based person I know of that doesn't speak a lick of Italian. And I'm thinking back to all those high school foreign language classes wishing I would've actually paid attention and studied and not cheated. But at 16 I'm thinking why do I need to learn Spanish? I have no intentions of going to Mexico to live the rest of my life? But now I'm here and everyone is telling me if you know Spanish then it's easy to catch on to Italian. Ugggh vaffanculo!! (sorry mama I swear I am trying not to curse so much, but if I say it in Italian then maybe it doesn't seem as bad to you? Hmm...?? something to think about... let me know if it works?)

Well, game one this weekend and I have a catcher that speaks very very little English, and a pitching coach that speaks NO English, so I'm thinking time outs on the mound this year are useless, lol. Unless I actually begin "stoning" aka rosetta stone (inside joke). But ya know, who knew Coach Amy would turn out to be such a good life lesson after all? I should call my KSU therapist back and thank him, haha. He was right!

Well I don't have any good stories yet but no worries the trip has just begun; although the girls still call me Pitti they're starting to see the irony of it as I drop everything, spill drinks, and never walk away from the dinner table without a little Nutella on my chin or shirt. But what can I say I'm from JOORGIA. :) Want to make sure I represent my people right. And still no cute Italian boyfriend!! Ugh, I had such high hopes.
Well Ciao for now, till next time!

-Pitti, the most clumsy girly girl in Italia!