3 Things

1) I was in Istanbul, Turkey for February break. Congrats to Katharine and Chrissy for being the first to figure it out, and Francie for being the only one who figured out how to leave comments!

2) I have officially accepted a job offer to stay in Trieste for next school year. I will be working in both the Elementary School and the Upper School Science/Math department.

3) I will be home for the summer in 100 days! Can't wait to eat barbeque and American Chinese and salad with salad dressing and see everybody!

Auntie Em, Auntie Em!

All of last week the bora was blowing! It's wind from Siberia that this area is known for, and wow, is it strong. This last week was apparently one of the stronger boras in recent memory, reported at 160 km/h. That's 99 mph. Shutters and roof tiles were blown off of buildings, and even the tar paper from underneath the shingles went flying in some areas. Phone booths are down and a giant shipping crane was blown out to sea. The pictures of the boats trying to pull it back in are pretty amusing.

With all this debris blowing around, simply walking home can be a bit of an adventure. I don't know anyone who was hurt, but the news was saying that at least 90 people were in the hospital. Because of wind. You know those ads for the endless pools, where you just keep swimming without ever getting anywhere? Walking into the bora feels a little like that. Sometimes you just have to stop and hold onto a pole and hope it switches direction soon, even slightly, so you can keep walking.

It's a little like a hurricane, but the wind doesn't blow in a circle, it can go on for days, and there's not necessarily any rain. When there is rain, it's pretty miserable, and an umbrella is completely useless.

Some other things I have learned:

- Those chains on the sidewalk really are to prevent you from flying away/into traffic. And they are useful.

- While Trieste is super-safe as far as crime rates and such, homeowners and car insurance are super high because of the wind.

- With the gusting and rattling the buildings, it's hard to sleep well, and combined with the extra effort it takes to just walk down the street, the whole thing's exhausting.

But now, the wind has stopped. It's super sunny, starting before I get up at 6:30. It's still cold, but I'm starting to believe that spring might actually come, and maybe, someday soon, I can stop wearing my earmuffs (which I had to chase down last week when the wind blew them off.)

Where in the world?

Not too many people back home know where I went for my Winter Ski Break. Egypt was too dangerous, Liechtenstein too expensive. So, in honor of Carmen Sandiego, where in the world is Kaitlin?

- I had a fancy bath today.
- I ate beets. I don't think this counts as a clue.
- I have been drinking apple tea for breakfast.
- On Tuesday, I visited a beautiful Mosque and a building that was first a Christian church, then a Mosque, then a museum.
- On Wednesday, I saw a palace and paid extra to see the Harem.
- I'm overwhelmed by the Grand-ness of the Bazar.
- I went to Asia for a few hours yesterday.

Any ideas? Need more clues?

It made for an interesting Monday.

I watched the Super Bowl this year. This isn't especially spectacular. I have always watched it, and my team was playing against my roommate's team. It is worth writing about here, however, once you start to think about time zones. Kick-off was at 6:30 EST, and I live 6 hours ahead of EST. The game started at 12:30 am, went to about 4:15 am, and I watched the whole thing!

During playoffs, one of the guys at church mentioned that he was planning to host a Super Bowl party. My first thought was, "oh, fun!" My second thought was, "Wait a second... what time is that?" He explained that after church that day, you go home and go right to bed. Around dinner time, we were to come over and hang out, then watch the game, take a nap and head to work.
And so we did. We ordered pizza, played video games, made posters to support our respective teams, and watched the Packers beat the Steelers. :( Well, some of us saw it; others watched with their eyes closed!
The Super Bowl on Italian television has a few, ah, alterations. First of all, it's on ESPN America. It's the same station as baseball games, college basketball, and pretty much anything else sports-related that the rest of the world doesn't care about. Because it's not CBS, or whoever showed it this year, the commercials aren't shown. It's very sad. Instead, you get fun trivia facts about football and Super Bowls past.

Also, they explain a lot more of what's going on: "In American football, instead of an extra point, teams may try to carry the football into the end zone again, resulting in two extra points instead of just one." Because I have watched the sport all my life, and occasionally cared enough to try to figure it out, these were mostly amusing, rather than informative. I suppose they could be helpful for you average Italian insomniac who stumbled across this strange sport in the middle of the night, however!

Happy Birthday

to my parents, who both turn 50 this week! I wish I could be there to help you celebrate (and eat mayonnaise cake), but I'll see you in a week!

Scouting Mission

Wednesday was a school holiday for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. As we are not Catholic, many of us decided to forgo the feast and travel instead. One group wanted to go to an authentic Austrian Christmas market, and as none of us have strong Austrian geography skills, managed to pick pretty much the furthest away, in Salzburg. Tuesday morning, they mentioned that there was one more spot in the car; would I like to come?

During my planning period I made a hostel reservation, then rushed down the hill after school to pack. We set off by six and made it just out of town when we realized we may have a problem. Several of us had written down how to get to the hostel from the highway, but getting to the city from Italy was more of an immediate concern, and much less sure. Some hazy memories of viewing the google map the day before and plenty of sign reading later, and we actually got there!

Tuesday night and Wednesday were spent wandering the city, looking at sights from The Sound of Music, enjoying Gluhwein and roasted nuts at the Christmas Market, and visiting a brewery.

Not bad for a random Wednesday... living in Europe has some advantages.

Quite a Day

Vomit and Lice, all in one day. All in about an hour, actually. Fortunately, neither were directly on me, though both my classroom and apartment currently smell strongly of cleaning chemicals. Huge thank you's to the science teacher, art teacher, learning specialist, and school cleaning ladies for making that happen!

I suppose that's life in an elementary school. Now, off to celebrate the music teacher's birthday!