Surf’s Up!

We’re here! It’s strange! We had a great 4 day drive from Wisconsin. It was really cool to see the Rocky Mountains. Janine really got a kick out of driving out there with me “showing her It-tai guy” what the west was like. It was fantastic! We left Madison and headed south until we got the high-way to Des Moines Iowa – and then out to Lincoln Nebraska – Bruce Springsteen’s best album! We stayed in Lincoln for the night and the next day went through Denver and into the high Colorado Rockies (the mountain range). It was spectacular. Like the alps, but somehow more wild. And the little towns and cities have real “western” feel. They are lined up along a main street with shops along the sides of the road and sidewalks. The mainstreets are quite wide, but still. Then outside the town centres there is always a shopping centre, industrial park or broader residential centre. And the mountains are everywhere! The second night we stayed in Grand Junction. It was amazing! Very different from Wisconsin! OK – here it comes. The next day we took a short drive to…

LAS VEGAS! This was the coolest, tackiest, most interesting, most disgusting city I’ve ever been in. It lives up to the movies! We stayed in a cheaper hotel and just walked around all evening. We ate at a place called the Peppermill – which was alright. We didn’t go into casinos – because rent in San Diego is going to be pretty expensive and we have all the setting up expenses to pay. Moving costs money! It was just amazing to see the place – all the lights and hotels and – a surprising number of Italian-American services (hotels and restaurants). We didn’t go.

After Las Vegas we drove THROUGH THE MOJAVE DESERT! The day before we were in high mountains and then in desert HEAT! Any Russ Meyer fans out there? Faster Pussycat territory! Again, it was spectacular – but no place for the car to break down! We bought a lot of water before we left Las Vegas. We didn’t have any problems, but it’s easy to imagine getting cooked out there! We arrived at our new apartment in the later afternoon and met our landlord. She’s very nice and very helpful.

It was so much nicer walking into a strange appartment this time. One reason was that I’ve done this before in Madison – only last year! The most important reason was that I wasn’t alone. Janine has been great with all these changes. I love it, but it does make me a bit nervous – and tired. I find it really tiring. In Italy I had all of my stuff in one place and my friends and places to go all in one place – since I was kid. Madison was great adventure, and so is this, but I think being back in Italy for a couple of weeks this summer just brought back old habits or ways of doing things. Then I came back to Madison, finished packing and “hit the road”. There was no time for re-culture shock (even if its only 110 V – ha ha!). We’ve been here a little more than a day – and haven’t really had time to explore yet. I start work officially next Monday – but I’ll go in on Friday to say hi and tell them I’ve arrived etc. this evening we ate at Chin’s Szechuan Restaurant – mostly because it was on Madison St. and we were a little homesick! It was really good though – I’d recommend it to anyone! It’s much better than the chinese food we got in Italy. Anyway – it did a great job of curing homesickness!

So tomorrow we’re setting up the house more and going to the grocery-store and shopping centre to get supplies. It’s been a crazy period, really since just after that presentation in March. I’ve got internet set up now, which is good. I e-mailed Frank, but haven’t got a reply yet. Madison seems so far away. Maybe because it is!

Expression of the day “We’re not in Kansas anymore” – it comes from the film “The Wizard of Oz” when the character Dorothy realises for the first time that she’s not in her hometown in the state of Kansas. By now it is used to mean “We’re in a strange new situation that is beyond our control – for now”.

I can’t keep up! I must!

I went back to Italy for a couple of weeks, it was great to see everyone at home again and, heh heh – graduate from Urbino. Thank you Prof. Bogliolo! I just arrived in Madison to finish getting my things together and then Janine and I are MOVING TO SAN DIEGO! Yes – you heard me, Janine is coming too! My parents thought I was taking things a bit fast, since I’ve only known Janine for less than a year, but we figure that things will work out the way they work out whether we’re in Madison or San Diego. I guess that’s the part they’re not comfortable with – the fact that I’ll be in the US. Mum gets it a little more than Dad, but they’d both prefer I were in Italy somewhere they could see me regularly. And I thought they’d be used to it by now! Anyway – they’re basically happy, and very happy about the job.

It’s going to be really hard to leave the gang here in Madison. I got to know them pretty well, and really feel at home here. Like Frank says, though, I’m too young to be “set in my ways” (have rigid plans). I told him that the plan was fine, it’s just that I’d miss everyone “a whole f*ck of a lot”! (One thing about being young in the States – they say “f*ck” a f*uck of a lot! heh heh”. Watch US action movies or crime dramas – in fact it’s worse when they make movies about Italian American communities or what they consider “ethnic” communities. Anyway – that’ll be a discussion for another day.

San Diego – It seems really nice out there. It’s got a lot to offer as a city and I like the south western feel. What is south western? Well – somewhere between “The Big Lebowski” and a Tommy Lee Jones movie. It’s got all of the Los Angeles components in some ways, but it definitely has a more southern, desert feel to it. From San Diego, you know Mexico is just across the border and Arizona is not too far away. It’s got the ocean, which I love, and lots of tourist and cultural things. Anyway, it’s a big city – the seventh largest in the US! Maybe I’ll learn to surf more than the internet. We’ll be living in North County – which borders on the Los Angeles area, but it’s relatively close to the company and has a pretty cool beach culture. It seems “laid back” (I think I explained “laid back” once – it means “easy going”.)

http://www.sandiego.org/article_set/Visitors/8/119

This link is from the San Diego Tourist Bureau’s website. CEO’s changing into wet-suits to go surfing on their lunch breaks! I could live like that!

Anyway – I’ve got a million and a half things to do RIGHT NOW! We’re going to Janine’s parents later in the week and we’ll drive out to California from there. I’m really going to miss everyone here. (But I get to take Janine with me!) It’s going to be strange to go through the leaving and arriving phases again – so soon after settling into Madison. Oh well – that’s as it should be!

“Well I’m goin’ out west where I belong.

Where the days are short and the nights are long.

And I walk, and she walks.

And I run, and she runs.

And I shimmy, and she shimmies.

And I fly, and she flies.

And we’re all just a havin’ fun – in the warm California sun!”

(I know the version of this by the Ramones – but I don’t know who originally did the song – actually – let me look it up…

Wikipedia says it was written by Henry Glover and Morris Levy, is a song originally performed by Joe Jones in 1961, covered very successfully by The Rivieras in 1964. It reached #5 in the main U.S. pop chart

here’s the Ramones version of the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z9iUdiS3hI

and here’s the Riviera’s version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LH8q95xJ34&feature=related

I hope to have time to post more soon!