Deux amis de mes parents, connus par mon cousin et sa femme à l'occasion de leur mariage, ont écrit un email à ma mère. Ils réfèrent à "votre fille charmante" et offrent encore pour que je leur rende visite en Belgique pour avancer ma connaissance de la langue française. Heee!

I should really do that. One day. When I finish paying off my debts, I should save enough to travel to Belgium and stay for a few months. It really would make the most phenomenal difference to my French. Of course, mes amis (ma soeur et mon frère italiens especially) would take it amiss if I did not visit them too in Italy. Hell, I would take it amiss, lol.

I wonder if I could save up enough to stay in Italy for three months, and Belgium for three months? (Anyway, Belgium is close enough to Besançon in Franche Comte to visit Marion if I wanted to.)

Of course, the minute I start saying that about Belgium (or France) and Italy, immediately Portugal and Spain at hovering at the edge of my mind vying for attention and inclusion.

This burning desire to know and have a command of all these languages is ... problematic. I don't want to learn in a school scenario. Immersion is key. It's also expensive.

Dammit.

It completely slipped my mind to mention that Valentina called me on Sunday evening.

My little sister successfully applied to study veterinary science at a university based in Bologna (Italy). She is sharing an apartment with other students, but has to catch a train every morning out to the small village where the school of veterinary science is based.

She was also excited to tell me that the guy she dated while she lived with us in Australia will be visiting her in November for 2 months! They are not dating now, but I think there's a connection between them still. And it's very nice for both of them to get to spend such a decent chunk of time together. I wonder if he will pick up some Italian! (I'm sure he will, but I wonder how much, and if it will prompt him to learn Italian back in Australia afterwards.)

I filled her in on things at my end. We discussed whether or not she would make it to Australia for our winter (her longest break) or whether or not it was a possibility for me to visit her. I guess that second depends on other travel commitments that I have going ahead. Exciting discussions though.

I also told her about my weekend (which you can hear about in my next post) where I made her some jewellery because the fabrics available to choose from made me think of her.

My parents have another exchange student. Francesco, from Italy. I hope to convince him to visit Sydney. He seems a sweetheart and willing to help with things around the house and take things openly and positively. My mother is tired, though, and my father has just gone to Malaysia for a month. Not sure how much help my brother is.

Exciting!

We didn't end up at the Windy Point restaurant. It was booked out - and the kids hadn't thought to book (well, probably hadn't realised we might have to). So we went to dinner in the city instead, since the majority of us were still nearby, instead of going home and working out what to do.

We ate at a restaurant called Chopstix. The food was quite nice - heavily Thai in influence, I think. We selected a dish each to share, but I ended up not eating much at all because I don't enjoy duck, the mango-coconut chicken was too rich, and my mother overruled my choice of chicken Kway Teow and ordered seafood instead (woo!). Still, the vegetables from the duck dish were nice.

After dinner we went to a cafe/dessert bar ? (possibly restaurant) called Cocolat. I asked for one of the slices of orange dipped in chocolate, but the nice guy who served me gave me two. He said that one looked lonely, and that it was on the house, lol. I didn't eat the second one though - I offered it to my mother.

We talked a lot about the things that the kids had expected in coming here, and the things that had surprised them. We also talked about the difference between their experience of our family and their families. It was interesting to hear.

It was a generally pleasant way to finish the night - and made me more aware of how close I've actually become to N and J despite the short duration of their stay. And also despite the headdesk moments (ok, sometimes hours) with N. She's sweet and I will miss her quite a bit - but not the headdesk moments, lol.

I love having exchange students.

I ripped my skirt at work. It got caught in the wheel of my chair and tore. I'm not panicked - it's fixable.

In other news, I'm going here for dinner tonight (apparently - because they haven't worked out yet if it's open). The exchange students are taking us. They leave Australia on Friday and Tuesday (next week) respectively.

I bought Jorge some ugg boots. I haven't gotten Nora anything. Actually, the reason for that is that I just have no idea what to get her. Except for maybe chocolate?

Any ideas?

Only last night I was lamenting to myself at the lack of interesting things to post in my journal. Much of what has been happening lately in my life has been of a negative tone, so I haven't really wanted to share it with you all - in the interests of not dragging others down and maintaining the "my journal is a fun read" for everyone involved (myself included).

And then.

I got up to tell the Spanish exchange student that I was going to go to a shop on the weekend that sells Ugg boots. He has been wearing (well, we both have, actually) my brother's Ugg boots ... and I thought a nice thing for him to be able to take back home would be a pair of them. I need some myself. J said in fact that his mother wanted him to wear shoes or slippers in their house but he didn't like it, but he found that he very much liked the Ugg boots. Perfect! ;)

Anyway, that's the back story. The rest of the story is that I saw the Italian exchange student N exiting the bathroom and saying goodnight to J, so I assumed he was in there brushing his teeth. No such luck - he was stripped to his boxers and preparing for a shower. I got such a shock that I went red, laughed and put my hands up to screen everything of him except his head ... only from laughing and shock I couldn't look him in the eye and had to go out of the room for thirty seconds before I could go back in to talk to him.

So, yeah, we're going to buy Ugg boots on the weekend. w00t!

My hand shook when I signed the form, in front of the Justice of the Peace as a witness. I think I was a little overwhelmed at finally making it official and proper. And maybe a tad nervous. Now I'm trying to figure out a signature.

Oops. Focus, Sari, focus.

No, really it's just difficult to find a nice way to write my last name without it going all over the shop.

Also, I am going to spend tomorrow cleaning my room and James' room in preparation for the arrival of Gianluca ... Have I mentioned him before? The Italian exchange student we are taking for six months, to give him a chance to learn English and me a chance to brush up on my Italian? He's going to stay in James' room anyway. And I need to tidy it. He's arriving on Thursday.

Also, I will probably watch some of the dvds I bought with my birthday vouchers yesterday. And practice my new signature. Plus I need to visit the bank as I didn't get around to that yesterday. Also, I may go into the city briefly and use some more of my vouchers/birthday money. Plus I want to try to fit in a visit to the doctor.

I don't think I'm going to manage this. More like I'll have to put off the doctor until Thursday or Friday.

I saw my other doctor today. I told him about the dizzy spells and stuff. He took my blood pressure. Get this: 85/55 when 110/60 is normal. Uh, so ... there's the reason for the dizzy and the nausea. On the upside, my adrenals and my iron levels are looking pretty damn good (80% better than the first visit I ever made to him) and we have no idea why - except that something's doing right. I suspect this is a combination of where I am now, emotionally and mentally and spiritually, and so forth. Exercise, also.

Anyway, I visited my cousin tonight and we played some kind of karaoke game on his PS2 - was fun! More next time ... or, after Australia Day!