"We were no longer following any trails and were hands and feet planted to the 45ยบ slope of the mountain that disappeared into a chasm below us. It wasn't long before Tiziano waved me over to where he was standing, whispering my name as to not alert anyone who might be hidden in the trees, to show me his big discovery."
10.18.2009 | Ramblings | Brian
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So you have your papers in order, your plane ticket in hand and you're gung-ho to make the jump across the ocean and start a life over here. Not so fast! I received two emails this week both asking the same question: "Is there anything from the US I should bring that I can't find over there?"
07.20.2009 | Ramblings | Brian
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I have so many unfinished draft posts, I'm going to start pounding these out -- punctuation and coherence be damned! It's been four years since I sold all and moved to Italy and there is a semi-famous festival nearby that I have managed to consistently miss every year for one reason or another. Th
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It was near midnight and tension filled the air, bandannas fastened tightly to our foreheads, menacing growls on our faces. We were outnumbered at least 2 to 1. The final battle was imminent. We took our weapons in hand, the ever dangerous and highly volatile foam balls in socks, and stood shoulder to shoulder against a greater foe. "VIA!" In less than a second the air was filled with crisscrossing red and white spheres flying aimlessly towards the opposite sides of the field. Vincent hurriedly organized groups of fighters to stave off the incoming attacks and I was using my patent-pending throw-like-a-girl tactic to win sympathy from the enemy. But alas, our efforts were in vain and my shoulder giving out on me forced me to the sidelines.
11 CommentsThe emails I get from other American expats here in Italy almost always focus on the same topic -- how am I coping with the falling Dollar? Everytime the Dollar falls another cent or two, I grumble and groan and tell myself, "It can't fall anymore than that!" I've been saying that since the Dollar
7 CommentsIf I were to think of a single word to describe me, "scholar" wouldn't be it. Throughout my school years, studying mathematics or writing a long thesis would require a level of focus that, at the time, I never believed I possessed. Lectures would waff in through one ear and rocket out of the ot
8 CommentsGood to see that politicians are smarmy the world 'round, and not just limited to any geographical area. I saw this news report from Austin today about how Texas legislators vote in the House. I also learned that Italian politicians do the same thing, except here they have a name: "pianists."
4 CommentsMy last post about my banking situation got a little press. At the bottom of a Wall Street Journal article about ATM crime, there were a set of links to two blogs that they thought referred to that article -- mine and someone else's. Yikes! That post ended up getting a lot of visitors from gove
09.28.2007 | Ramblings | Brian
9 CommentsI've been thinking a lot lately about banking. In fact, my current bedtime reading is an excellent book called Medici Money, a really fascinating and hilarious look at the history of Italy and the Church during the Renaissance when the Medici were at their peak of banking power. It's a very ente
09.18.2007 | Ramblings | Brian
10 CommentsBack near the beginning of August, I made the starting discovery that while ADSL still wasn't available for me personally, it's available for my landlords downstairs. You see, in Telecom Italia logic, it's completely normal to say that one person living on the bottom two floors of a house are withi
09.14.2007 | Ramblings | Brian
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