It seems like I have misplaced just about all of my creative energy for the moment, so I apologize to the 5 of you who regularly read this blog. I suppose a brief update on my life will have to suffice at the moment until I can come up with something better. So here's a brief rundown of activities in my mountains...

1. I finished my first retreat with a school. I haven't been so exhausted in a long time. It was wonderful and frustrating and I perfected the phrase "No, we cannot throw iceballs at our classmates" in Italian. It looks like this "No, non possiamo lanciare palline de ghiaccio a nostra compagni." I'll get to practice it again next week when the next school arrives. On the whole, though it was a good time, I took 25 11 yr olds snow shoeing for the afternoon, I've never been so exhausted after only a 2km hike. I taught some traditional dancing, I love how this task gets deligated to me and I'm not even Italian. It's always fun though, and I really enjoy it, but I'm sure the parents of those children must be confused when they arrive home telling stories about how a tall, blonde, American girl, taught dances from Piemonte.

2. We can the Cena Giovane for all the young people in the village. I was in the kitchen for 10 hours that day but it was worth it. Each of the other residents made a brief apperance to cook something from their country of origin and in the end we had an incredible menu, an abundance of food, and some slightly tipsy chefs. We all ate well and too much that night.

3. The Cassanova has made another brief appearance. We stepped outside for a few minutes after La Cene Giovane, which turned into a couple hours, but who's counting. We had a rather intense converstaion about his fear of being left and why he refuses to have a relationship. This was followed by him telling me that he wanted something different now and that he might like to try to have a relationship with me. I don't know how this potential situation with me inspires less fear seeing as I'm scheduled to leave the continent in 6 months, but who am I to judge. Maybe I'll be like the practice girlfriend before he is ready to start a more serious relationship. I'm not completely convinced of this yet anyway, it could possibly be some elaborate ploy to try to get me into bed. He just doesn't know that I'm smarter than that yet...I suppose he'll find out soon enough. In the meantime we had a make out session that was a bit reminiscent of middle school years and which I thoroughly enjoyed. I'm not really holding out any hope for this whole thing and I doubt there is much potential to feel anything for him, but at least it's entertaining, and I don't really feel bad about just entertaining myself with a Cassanova.

4. My final ski outing is planned for this Friday, but I might be able to squeeze another one in the following week, we'll see how it goes. I'm pretty pumped to see Wolly and hit the slopes. I have a pretty good record of meeting interesting people when we're skiing together (see date in Torino). So who knows maybe luck will strike twice or maybe I'll just have a good time skiing with a good friend. It seems like either way I win and I like those odds. Also it may be a little easier to ski this time around seeing as I don't plan on falling off the roof this Thursday like I did before the last time we went. So all in all it looks like it's gonna be a good day.

5. I don't know that I have a number five, but 4 just seemed like a strange number to leave this at so I guess I'll fill number five with this: I've been rocking out to The Weakerthans alot lately, missing the people and places their music reminds me of, but I've successfully staved off the homesickness it could potentially evoke. So on the whole it's looking good here in the mountains, I'm still looking forward to that trip back to the States in just over 2 months, but the Italian Alps are doing it for me now. I'm finally feeling like I live here, this is my house, and this moment counts as real life too.