!Yo Diggity!

When Sasha was here, I thought it would be a good chance to throw a party… so we did! I made my ‘famous’ Cincinnati chill (ok - I got the receipe from my friend Joe so its not MY chilli) and invited some folks over that I’ve made mostly through church… along with a couple random.

Look how happy they all look to be tryin’ the chilli. heehee Almost all were from the US… but very different areas… California, North Carolina, Colorado, New Jersey, Texas… many more. So some had never had the Cincinnati style (for those of you who don’t know, it’s bean-less chilli on top of pasta)

And I know you are going to look at this picture and say, “What kind of party was this?!” heehee

But really… this was just an innocent game of Cranium. One part of the game is a bit like sharades where you have to act something out and Heidi did a VERY good impression of a mermaid! haha

Here the gang playin’ the game:

… and more action shots…

The game could even be played by those who’s first language is NOT English… in fact, Simone did very well - her team won!!

Just a side note… I do have a DVD player which is right now serving also as my CD player… works wonderfully actually! Mostly I use the TV for CDs as I only get two English channels… well three really. All of them are crap though just nothing that you would want to see ALL THE TIME (CNN, MTV and Real Life movie channel).

Some people had a really REALLY good time. Dave had a hard time saying goodbye…. heehee

I’m excited to get back from Christmas already to hang out with my new friends!! God, AGAIN, is totally blessing me with some REAL cool people here…. I guess I need to quit being so surprised by that… I seem to meet the BEST people on this planet… wherever it is that I might be!!

OK, OK - sorry about the post that is password protected! It’s directions to the Chicago airport for my parents who are picking me up there when I come home. They’ve never been to this airport so it was an easy why for me to give them comprehensive directions (thus the title ‘Directions’) with maps and all. It’s generated quite a bit of questions so I wanted to assure you that there was no great secret there… just directions!!

If I had a secret… I would certainly not post about it! heehee

Well Sasha was my first visitor AND it was her first visit overseas. I was so very very excited to see that girl!! Made me really miss her… and all y’all… that is for sure!! Was really cool to have a close friend get to see and actually experience my new living situation. It made me realize that things really are a bit odd over here….

Even the small things are a little strange. Eggs, for example. They do not refrigerate their eggs here. You go to the store and you buy them off the shelf. Not sure if that has anything to do with why the yolks are sooooo yellow? Don’t know.

Efficiency is different here. We flew on Whizzair to Rome. Cheap airline - sweet for savin’ money, but funny thing was that when we got to the gate there were like a million people all gathered around the glass to get to the runway. Wel… we weren’t going to get into that mess… and then we realized. First come, first serve… on a full plane!! So we did want to sit together so we joined the masses. We fought and scratched our way to the front… only to find that we fought for the line to the BUS which would take us to the plane. From there, the doors opened up and it was a complete RACE to see who got in line first. We we apparently not very good at that piece. haha

And everything is smaller here… WAY smaller than ANYTHING in Texas!!

The cars….

You’d think that there are a lot of midgets that live here… but they don’t (Kevin, please don’t be scared). These are average cars!!

And the bathrooms… wow. There was literally a hole in the floor which they jammed a winding staircase in. Sheesh!

“Weird that it’s just Sasha in all the pictures, Jessie?!” - I know this is what you are saying… but it’s true… I was there too… and man I am gettin’ to be stranger and stranger… just like Europe!!

JUST KIDDING!!! ) I’m still normal…..

I know I’ve been so slow to post lately… sorry about that! I’ve been gettin’ ready for my trip home! Can’t wait to see everyone! I leave here on Wednesday morning…. give me a hollar if you want to meet up! I’ll be in IN for 2 weeks and H-town for the last week of the year… hope to see ALL OF YOU!

Wow - what a great 12 days!! Sasha got here on Thanksgiving day and this morning I had to say goodbye. Was so so so fun, Sash!! Really, thanks for makin’ the jouney! Lots of great memories… makeshift taxi’s in Italy, rain-rain-rain, best lookin’ homeless people I ever saw, tinest cars ever, shopping in Vienna, the Dan-boo river…. some of these I’ll be sharing here so keep watchin!