Monday, January 19, 2009
Back in the USA!
Thomas and I finally made it late Sunday evening. We had a brilliant trip. Thomas was very good and even slept for a few hours on the last of our flights. We were very lucky to upgrade to business class on the long flight, and it proved invaluable. The flight attendants took very good care of us and gave Thomas a special dinner. He was quite popular among the ladies! All would have been perfect if the airline had not lost our luggage, and I had not lost my coat (with both house and car key in pocket no less!). The airline has apparently found our bag, although is not ready to provide it to us yet!?!? As for my coat, I hope it is waiting in the Frankfurt Lost & Found where Bret can grab it up on his way next week . Here's to a great stay and a better return trip!
Thursday, January 8, 2009
American Life in Italy - Part Uno
Subject - Television
We do get limited American programming. We have an American Forces Network (AFN) satellite which shows mostly soap operas (General Hospital - yay; no As the World Turns - boo hiss), sports (even Redskins - yay!), radio stations (ok, AFN radio stations - boo hiss) and a variety of shows from a bunch of different networks (sometimes we get Food TV shows or PBS specials). Don't get too excited. We get about six channels even though our satellite tells us there are 200. Almost everything except the news and Oprah (go girl!) is a day late. That stinks when you haven't watched the finale of Dancing with the Stars, and the winner is posted on the front page of AOL the morning of the day it is going to air - grrr! On the other hand, if you want to know what's going on on Oprah today, I can tell you at 10am EST, and you can plan accordingly.
After a few weeks, I convinced Bret we needed the Sky (Italian/British programming) satellite - lots more channels, including movies, some American sports, lots of kids stuff, music channels, etc. At first the only one who watched it was Thomas! Lots of the kids' shows are in English, so he loves to watch Curious George and Handy Manny (Manny Tuttofare - translates as "Manny who does everything" in Italian...LOL). You may (or may not) find this hard to believe, but apparently the Italians love Law & Order. It's on at least two channels every hour of every day. We also get CSI, NCIS, According to Jim (seriously, do Americans even watch that?) et al. Now I tend to watch this programming more than AFN. I like to watch shows in English with Italian subtitles - a good way to communicate.
Now, to the good stuff. Bret doesn't watch much other than sports, Thomas cartoons, and me pretty much everything else. However, we have all found one show we LOVE and watch pretty much every day for at least 10 minutes. It's called Shaun the Sheep (Shaun, Vita di Pecora). "Life's a treat with Shaun the Sheep!" Enjoy him on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGh7gHjmDWw&feature=PlayList&p=58985094B0F775A7&playnext=1&index=3
We do get limited American programming. We have an American Forces Network (AFN) satellite which shows mostly soap operas (General Hospital - yay; no As the World Turns - boo hiss), sports (even Redskins - yay!), radio stations (ok, AFN radio stations - boo hiss) and a variety of shows from a bunch of different networks (sometimes we get Food TV shows or PBS specials). Don't get too excited. We get about six channels even though our satellite tells us there are 200. Almost everything except the news and Oprah (go girl!) is a day late. That stinks when you haven't watched the finale of Dancing with the Stars, and the winner is posted on the front page of AOL the morning of the day it is going to air - grrr! On the other hand, if you want to know what's going on on Oprah today, I can tell you at 10am EST, and you can plan accordingly.
After a few weeks, I convinced Bret we needed the Sky (Italian/British programming) satellite - lots more channels, including movies, some American sports, lots of kids stuff, music channels, etc. At first the only one who watched it was Thomas! Lots of the kids' shows are in English, so he loves to watch Curious George and Handy Manny (Manny Tuttofare - translates as "Manny who does everything" in Italian...LOL). You may (or may not) find this hard to believe, but apparently the Italians love Law & Order. It's on at least two channels every hour of every day. We also get CSI, NCIS, According to Jim (seriously, do Americans even watch that?) et al. Now I tend to watch this programming more than AFN. I like to watch shows in English with Italian subtitles - a good way to communicate.
Now, to the good stuff. Bret doesn't watch much other than sports, Thomas cartoons, and me pretty much everything else. However, we have all found one show we LOVE and watch pretty much every day for at least 10 minutes. It's called Shaun the Sheep (Shaun, Vita di Pecora). "Life's a treat with Shaun the Sheep!" Enjoy him on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGh7gHjmDWw&feature=PlayList&p=58985094B0F775A7&playnext=1&index=3
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Christmas
Thomas had a great Christmas! He had piles of presents under the tree from his family and friends, and he didn't really know what to do with any of them. For all the curiosity leading up to Christmas, he was not the least bit interested in opening anything! We opened most gifts on Christmas Eve, and then Santa left him some things Christmas morning, including a new kid-sized chair with his name on it. He loved all his toys but seems to particularly like his Mr. Potato Head. He is starting to learn body parts, so I think that's why he finds it interesting - "eyez, nose, mou - aka mouth, hat...". Ok, so hat isn't really a body part, but he sure likes saying it.
Christmas Eve presents!
Thanks to everyone for the gifts. He is enjoying playing with all of them!
Santa gifts...
Happy New Year/ Buon Anne!
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