Roommate Remodeling

I have a new roommate. Norman, my Irish roomie, has left me to travel around Fiji. Consequentially, I have a new roommate- Luca. I have spoken about Luca before. He is the Italian (from Rome) who was none too pleased when I moved up to the third floor over him. After living with Norm who was an ideal roomie, I was a little hesitant about the type of roommate Luca would be. I had visions of him blasting his favorite Italian techno tunes all night long while I tried to sleep with earplugs. Fortunately, he is great!  We get along wonderfully and, just as with Norman, he is very respectful, friendly and fun. And bonus, he doesn't snore! Luca wants to improve his English and so he is also super pleased to have me as a roommate because he is able to practice with me. I decided that I want to try and learn Italian in return. I have no expectations of becoming fluent in Italian, but I would love to be able have a basic conversation. Right now I have mastered "Chow" (haha, correctly spelled Ciao), as in "goodbye." Also, one of Luca's female friends from Rome just moved to Sydney this week. Her name is Marta and I adore her. She too wants to improve her English as well, so we have been chatting a lot trying to get to know one another. Both have been so warm and friendly to me, inviting me with them out for dinner and drinks, etc.  Luca and Marta are looking to move in the next few weeks to a larger apartment with some other Italian friends, and they said anytime I need a place to stay I am more than welcome to stay there. I feel as if I have been adopted into a little Italian family. I'm looking forward to continuing to build our friendships, and hopefully soon I'll be conversing with you all in Italian. Ciao!

Back! Although With A Temporary Crisis (I Hope)

Hi All! After two weeks jammed packed with traveling, visitors (Kristin) and being a full-time tourist we are now back to our regularly scheduled blog updates. However, there is a slight problem. My computer has DIED! Noooooooooooo. Ok, well I'm not sure if it is officially dead, the doctor hasn't made the call yet, but it is definitely sitting on life support right now and I am devastated. First of all, I had just finished writing a lovely, lengthy blog about my camping trip to the Outback. That's gone. I had just uploaded ALL my photos from my 10 days with Kristin in Sydney. Gone. Then there's the other thousands of photos I had taken from my first three months in Sydney. Gone as well. Needless to say I may have a nervous breakdown, but I am hoping with every cell in my body that I can find someone, some computer geek hero, who can salvage my computer and/or retrieve all my photos! Asides from wanting them for myself, I want to be able to share them all with you. So let's all bow our heads in prayer together and pray for the health of my computer. Thank you!

With that said, I am going to omit the past two weeks of events and pick up my blog from the present point in time just so we are back on track. And the second that I get that data back (because I will! think positive thoughts) I will fill in the blanks and you will be 100% updates.