My First Post

Ciao il mio amici,

Well this is my first blog post. EVER. I have thought about doing it... blogging that is, for several years. But this is the first time I think that I have something interesting enough to say. I am really happy to have this method of connecting and reporting to my friends and family, while I am away from home on my European educational tour this spring.

Over the last year or so I have been reading the blogs of several Americans who are living in Italy. But my favorite by far is the Blogger, Jeff in Puglia. Reading Jeff's blog has helped to prepare me for some of the quirkier cultural clash issues I will come up against when I am in Italy this spring. But he is a male, and I am sure there will be plenty of female gender-specific cultural issues in Puglia I will discover on my own lol. Seems to me that on the surface it looks like the Italian women have much less freedom than American women. But I sense this underlying confidence and strength in them that could only come from being the ones really in charge... behind the scenes... for generations. I will be investigating this.

The countdown. 4 weeks till launch.

I have been working, working, working sometimes up to 3 jobs at a time, since mid-October to do this. My most sincere gratitude and love goes out to all friends and family who gave me work or helped me to find extra work, to make my budget for this educational trip.

Now for the conditioning. I will be spending the next 4 weeks preparing myself physically, mentally and emotionally for this effort. I have no doubts that this will be an effort that will test my limits in all of these areas. I am stepping up my workouts to 3 hours a day, increasing my study time of the Italian language and culture to about 4 hours per day, and starting to collect up all the things I will need to take with me.

Suggestions and comments to this blog are welcome and encouraged. It will help me to feel connected, strong, secure and loved.

Here are a few links to places I will be and things I will be doing:

Wikipedia website for Otranto, Italy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otranto

Official Otranto Community Website:
http://www.comune.otranto.le.it/

The school I will be attending in Otranto:
http://www.porta-doriente.com/

Otranto travel video:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/299436/travel_italy_enchanting_otranto_puglia_italy/

And finally Jeff in Puglia:
http://jeffinitaly.com/

Under Construction