Vada, 6pm

Good evening all,

Well it has been a few days since our last update.  I think I last left off with the party we were scheduled to attend.  It was at a restaurant down on the waterfront in Castiglioncello, that really cute nearby town we went to our first week here.  The atmosphere was nice and there were lots of people on attendance.  The food was pretty good- what we could eat of it, that is...it was mostly seafood and meat but the chef was kind enough to do a couple of veggie pizzas for us.  There were plenty of meat and seafood dishes to choose from though, and when the shrimp plate came around, I thought to myself, "yeah, why not"? I generally like shrimp and hadn't had it in a long time.  As soon as I put it in my mouth I thought it was a little funny tasting but swallowed it anyway.  Felt pretty good the rest of the night until we got home.  Let's just say that here I am 3 days later, happy that I finally don't have to run to the bathroom every half hour.  Beware of bad Italian shrimp...Stick to the penne pomodoro!

The karaoke was kind of a bust too, unfortunately.  There was no real equipment or song selection books, just a big book of Italian songs.  The guy running it was playing schmaltzy Italian songs all night and accompanying the locals who knew the drill.  Ah well...

We have been doing a lot in class lately, getting ready for our performance on Tuesday.  We have a rehearsal tomorrow and then we go to Florence on Sunday for the day.  Another rehearsal Monday and then we get a lot of time to ourselves after the showing is done. 

Stephen continues to pump iron at the gym, tan and sleep in.  He's also gotten very good at cooking pasta for us.  The last 3 days I've come home to a nice Italian dinner on the table, much better I would argue, than a lot of the restaurant food we've had :)

Tonight, the girls next door are having a tea party.  The houses we live in both have gardens and patios so it's a really nice atmosphere for it. We're doing appetizers too so I'm going to make some fresh guacamole.  Gotta go but will be in touch soon...

xo,

Andrea & Stephen