gelato gelato gelato schools gelato ikea ikea gelato ikea

pizza pasta gelato ikea metro bus gelato caprese coloseo gelato cioccolato gelato fragola gelato ikea malm tobe tjusig lillberg norden massun lova kura pasta smalland macchiato gelato bus metro fao bus coloseo pizza gelato  gelato

haaaaaaaah

I have to admit we're all very tired after a day here in the big city. it's 9 30pm and everyone is asleep except me! It's all very well not having a car and getting to know the city by public transport, which  is great for getting familiar with Rome but i seem to end up carrying Kika around for half the day, and shopping and bags etc. 

I kind of wouldn't mind having a car now.. as long as it's entirely encased in plastic or rubber bumpers  of course which surely is the way to go in a place like this where people practice a certain vaseline type of driving, you just squash yourself up against everyone else and push.  

So the news.. my digital camera is not going very well anymore.. so the last picture i can show you of Felix' school is that gate.

We like the school so far, got good support with Felix first adventures on the schoolbus and he loves the sports and music classes with specialist teachers, the adventure playground, the cooked lunch. Felix exlaimed today very decidedly that he likes Waiheke better then Rome. Rome is too busy.

However he likes this school better than the one on Waiheke, and the teacher is 'not so bossy' (i tend to agree). 

Kika is going to kindergarten tomorrow! It's in a different place from Felix's, close to our (new) house so i can walk her there between 8 and 9 in the morning. It's inside a very stately looking catholic lyceum but it has a really nice leafy play garden (nothing compared to what we're used to in NZ though.. but at least it's not a tiled courtyard) and lots of teachers and workshops (african drumming??capoeira??! archeological digs!!! djeez! i wish i could go!). It's very catholic and italian and she's very excited about the prospect of Painting With Her Fingers with a BIG Teeshirt on over the top of her clothes (i have to donate one of my tees for her). It will be Kika's first real foray into a kindy and it will be in Italian (although there's a scotsman there who teaches english everyday apparently). But the children are a very international group, as lots of FAO kids are there (also close) including the daughters of Britta, a swedish colleague of Francisco, whose house we're taking over this coming weekend and our children are obviously the same age so it's been nice to hang out a few times.

 We've spent an inordinate amount of time at IKEA lately. Some things are going to take a while to arrive however so after living in great comparative luxury for three weeks next to Willem Dafoe we'll now have to camp on the floor in our new appartment from sunday onwards. NO internet (since we don't have id cards yet) no phone, no tv no beds nothing much in the house, (hopefully we can arrange the mattresses to be there on sunday night) I've decided to go to Holland for a few days to see my dad and friends and family with Kika and Felix. My mother isn't home as she's with my brother in Melbourne where I should be for his 40th! But Felix already has a week school holiday (this is the fabled SKI break) so i figured now was the time.

Titia will be able to pick me up hurray so i can see her new baby and just do some hanging out with a friend!

By the way is it just me or is the air in Rome incredibly incredibly dry? Is it the cold?? Me and the kids have constantly cracked lips and dry static hair, they're losing their curls oh no! Kika's hair is going from blond curls to her mummy's straight brown stuff. I think we're suffering from dehydration due to extreme difference in air humidity!  Maybe it's the gelato.. mm i wonder.

guess what.. my friend Therese from Cote d'ivoire has asked me if i wanted to come tomorrow to the valentines day breakfast of the united nations womens guilt. MWAHAHAAAAAAAA> it's got to be done. We're wearing red (yes.. sigh..it's ..) and listening to one of those daft colour consultants. But Therese is lovely and a girl's gotto start somewhere, if not for the 'anthropological' experience.

oh dear i didn't write yet about my job interview last week.. never mind, didn't get the job because i obviously DON'T speak Italian 

yet...

but that was probably for the best

xx v.

hanging out

Today we're hanging out.. Went for a long walk in the neighbourhood, a play in the playground and a pizza for lunch.. then it started raining. so rain in Rome...
Yesterday we had lunch with Jogeir and Therese and their two kids at their place ten minutes south by train. Jogeir is Norwegian and Therese from Cote d'ivoire. Felix mastered riding a bike properly! (so far he was always on his running bike without pedals) He gloriously crashed into the back of a parked van, but said he wasn't hurt at all...

finding our feet and somewhere to live

This week we've been walking around, looking at appartments, and organizing more admin type stuff.
Here you see Felix on top of the fAO building, where we have lunch at the caffeteria with Francisco.
Then there's a pic of the building in which we're staying at the moment, we have another week to go here.
On our hunt for appartments you come across some interesting decorations in the courtyards (felix in front of fountain)
Anyway it looks like we've found something and if all goes well we can move in after next weekend. I'll write more about it once we're there.
The costs of all of this are a bit scary and we're still waiting for our subsidies and advances from Frano's work, so far we've had to somehow foot the bill, including our tickets and hotels. For our appartment we've got to pay 3 months AHEAD and 3 months bond..which is soooo sooo sooo much money at once! and don't get me started on Felix school fees (he really would like to go, as he's hanging out for some friends). So right now we're waiting for money and hoping it all comes this week, so we can secure the place we want to live in and don't end up in the street.