we’re ENGAGED!!!

We decided Sunday evening after watching “Old Dogs” to go to NASA on Monday just for fun. It started off as a normal day. I was fully equipped with my rocket shirt & star earrings – very Ms. Frizzle. We had a great time there & got hungry. We headed back to The Woodlands to eat Buffalo Wild Wings. Jack cheated at the trivia game. We laughed, we talked. We went to Sport’s Authority bought him some cleats, just a normal day…then it happened.

As I complained about walking around Portofino Shopping Center in the heat, he stopped me at the center fountain. “Hey,” he said, while handing me a quarter, “Make a wish.” So I turned around and threw the coin in. Then, I looked at him and he got down on one knee. I sorta don’t remember much of what he said, my mind went blank. He later told me he said, “Will you be my wife by marrying me & making me the luckiest man alive?” I remember saying, “Are you serious?” with my hands on my hips, smiling as big as ever. I, of course, said “YES!” and now have a beautiful ring on my left hand.

He had told me that he wanted to ask me at a totally unexpected moment and boy was it. With baseball cleats in one hand and my hand in the other, we walked back to the truck – stopping and kissing all the way.

Calls, texts, & Facebook announcements were made and over 100+ responses/comments later. We are still smiling as big as ever. My cheeks actually hurt.

Exciting journey ahead.

substitute teaching adventure 03/26

today was one of those days…you know where you re-consider if the career choice you are trying to attain is really the one for you.

had a boy throw a paper wad at my head.
had another boy tell me “you should stick to subbing for P.E., you look better.” (Still trying to figure out if that was a compliment or not).

8 months ago.

9 months ago, I set out on a journey to be a faithful writer.
8 months ago, I stopped writing.

time to get back in gear.

we’ll start my new fresh, first blog back as an update of my current life situation.

i will be 25 years old in a month. oh my…
i have been dating my boyfriend, Jack, for exactly 1 year & 1 week. <3
i still attend the University of Houston.
spanish is kicking my butt this semester which doesn't really make sense since:
a. I am practically a native Spanish speaker.
b. I am taking JUNIOR level courses.
c. I am trying really hard.
i work a total of 5 jobs – yes, that’s alot. yet, bills still can’t get paid.

that’s pretty much it for now.
here i am attempting to commit to my blogs one more time.

so til the next one my dear friends…

dual.

It’s so nice to be both an American and an Italian. It means I get two nifty passports.
It means that when the line for non-EU is a mile long, I get to skip it by going to the
EU line with only 3 people in it.

Life is good.

what a way to start the end.

The day has finally come for me to head home. We woke up at 3:30am to begin our
decent down a million stairs, down the cobblestone road, and into the piazza where our
bus and friends were waiting to say good bye.

We arrived at the Catania Airport to checkin only to find that both Charilyne and I had
bags that were overweight. After throwing away some toiletries. I was able to slide
by being 1 pound overweight and was able to have them let Charilyne in, even though she
was 23 lbs overweight. I should really consider being a salesperson. All this smooth
talking in Italy really paid off.

46 minutes after finally clearing through checking in we make it to the security counter.
They stop me as I tried to sneak some contact solution in my check in bag. As she continued
to dig around for my hidden tea/nutella snacks, I began to distract. I need my snacks for
the flight! I won! She stopped searching and the tea made it on board. I know. I am bad.

Then we make it to the gate and we are sitting down taking a breather. I joked with
Charilyne about them going to call our name on the intercom. Not 1 second later we hear
“Attention! Ladies and gentlemen, Gemellaro, Cristina … is needed at gate 14.” We both
just burst out laughing. Apparently, our plane had already boarded and they were waiting
for us. We are famous, what can I say?

We arrive on the plane, find our seats. We just get settled in and the man next to us
throws up all over the floor. Of course, I look to see what the comotion is about to see
his dentures in the midst of the throw up. Great. I felt bad but not as bad as it smelled.
AlItalia, being known for their AMAZING customer service (NOT), just threw down some
newspapers on top of it – instead of cleaning it up.

So I am now midway to Rome and already have an experience I’ll never forget.

P.S. He threw up again as we were landing.

McDonald’s Heaven

Charilyne and I got back from Milo around 8pm and we were craving McDonald’s so bad. We hadn’t had any fast food or even bad food since we got here but we needed it. At that very moment, Heather had texted me asking if we wanted McDonald’s so we took that as a sign that we HAD to go. We decided to walk not knowing it would take about 45 minutes on foot in an ugly side of town. When we saw those golden arches. In the midst of our sweat and out of breathe selves we knew we had made it to fast food heaven.
Ordered myself a large drink, large fries, 2 cheeseburgers…only to find out that if you wanted Ketchup it going to cost an additional .20 euro cents per packet. Grr…
We had all the intentions of walking back to the apartment but we were scared of the dark and decided to take a taxi. That’s my excuse but the truth is I was too full to walk. LOL

scusi.

I decided to take a “passeggio” around town tonight. I went to a lot of stores and window shopped. I walked into Zara and they were having an amazing sale. I found the cutest skirt there for only 9 euros. I went into the dressing room to try it on, but something just wasn’t right. I tugged and tugged at it – no luck. I peeked my head out of the dressing room to call the salesgirl over to ask her if that was how the skirt was supposed to be. She took one look at me and started to laugh. I wasn’t trying on a skirt at all. I was wearing a tube top.

 Dressing room FAIL.

battling the storm. not really.

We battled the storm. Well, not quite a storm, more like an absolutely pleasant day on the Mediterreanan. Michelle, Charilyne, and I went kayaking. I was kind of scared at first. My biggest fear was claustophobia. Those things are itty bitty and I have the longest legs of the bunch. Second biggest fear – dying. Haha! But I was excited to find that I got the hang of it super fast. It was so relaxing. Even though my arms didn’t think so. It was nice to be gliding along with boats and fishy’s. Unfortunetly, past the bay it was a bit choppy so we had to return to the bay, but an hour was plenty for my arms. Plus, the seasickness was starting to kick in. This trip has really made me push my bounds as far as my adventurism. Probably wont be getting on a rollercoaster anytime soon but it’s a start.

I’ve been in Italy for almost 4 weeks and it makes my heart smile so big when we are out and about and locals recognize us. While I was kayaking for my life, the man who took us on the coastal caves tour smiled and waved at me. It’s so nice to be remembered.

Speaking of remembering – I think of all of you daily. See you VERY soon.

Pics are being posted on Facebook.

Many more will be posted once I return.

Lovelovelove

July 26th

massages in caves. i think yes.

Today was great. We spent the day with Michelle – API treated us to massages in a cave. You heard right. In a cave. It was fabulous. It was the closest to AC we’ve gotten. Especially since the heatwave is causing the tempurature to rise to about 40 degrees Celcius (104 degress Farenheit). The no AC is really messing with my head,  can you tell? Its my only complaint thus far. Well, other than that awful day I had last week. We laid out on a lido and just relaxed all day. I needed it.

 

July 25th

the coast.

Our sailing trip got cancelled due to .. well, actually I don’t know why .. but it was totally ok. We got to go on this cute motor boat for the ENTIRE day. We departed from Ortigia and got all the way to Vendicari. We took some amazing swims in the Mediterranean. I swear the water here is so amazingly beautiful. I could see fish swimming right next to me. The water was so clear you can see atleast 5-6 meters down with no problem. Its almost unfair. I wish I could just dump some of it in the Gulf of Mexico so we could enjoy Galveston. Oh well. I got a nice tan going so that makes me feel better. After our long day, we decided to go to Zen, which is a hot spot here in Siracusa. One problem. We got there and for some strange reason it was closed until midnight. So Charilyne and I decided to hang out at a pizzeria. We are so classy. We had french fries and water.

 

July 24