I met our neighbors across the street. Kind of. I was walking the dogs last night and I saw an older man stopped on his bicycle talking to a woman on the sidewalk. When they saw me they pointed and talked louder, in Italian. I smiled because I didn’t know what they were saying (I’ve only had 4 lessons!). The woman was talking to me so I told her that I didn’t speak Italian well. She said (in broken English) “Got postcard from USA. Is it yours?” I shook my head and said “Si”. She ran to her house and came out with a postcard that said the Finger Lakes on it. I said “Si, si, grazie!”. (See how good I’m getting at speaking Italian?)

My Dad sends us postcards from home. We really enjoy getting them. The first one he sent never made it because I didn’t tell him to put ITALY on it. Oops. Andy thinks it ended up in Maryland somewhere. My Dad numbers them now, so we have two-six. The postcards take a least two weeks to get to us. The mail system here is unreliable and expensive. We have to have a lock on our mailbox for fear of theft and everyone says not to get packages delivered through the mail and to use FedEx. Amazon deliveries are non-existent. Yes, I’m dying but we are saving a lot of money!

I’d like to send postcards back but I haven’t yet figured out the post office. You have to take a numbered ticket when you walk in the door and you have to know which counter to get the ticket from and it is all too confusing for me. When I can speak Italian better, I will figure it out!

I guess our neighbors know us as the Americans. Probably because we wear tee shirts and shorts on hot days. Italian don’t. It can be 70 outside and they are still wearing their puffy coats and scarves. We are from upstate NY so 70 is hot to us. It has only gotten to 80 a couple of times here so maybe they are waiting for the really hot weather?

Anyway, thanks Dad for sending the postcards. We really look forward to getting them! I’ll return the favor soon.