By the way, did the groundhog see his shadow? Cause it's been awfully cold here! (And the title came from when I started this email, not when it's actually getting sent!) Rome has had an unseasonably cold winter.
Well, Joel and I are in deep with our jobs already by the end of January. Right now, between the two of us and our jobs, we pretty much have our lives planned out for us through April. It's going to be a busy spring.
January was a very good month for me in work, in that I got a lot of the administrative beurocracy work begun and several of my projects approved to start. With the help of the commputer people, we're creating an intranet webpage for our office, and we also hosted "Volunteer Week" at the embassy and our Volunteer Appreciation lunch was hosted by the Deputy Chief of Mission and his wife (2nd in command under the Ambassador). Joel also had a very busy month, traveling to Naples for work for a few days.
I hope no cooties have traveled through the internet, because the flu and some other intestinal virus are running rampant through Rome right now. Everyone's kids are puking, someone even said that Berlasconi (the PM of Italy) missed his meeting with Condoleezza Rice today because he was stuck in bed with the flu. I've felt a little run down for a day last week, but that's about as close as I got to being ill so far.
We hosted Poker Night (aka Man Night) in January. My contribution was staying in the back of the house and watching chick flicks and cooking the food beforehand. Southern Barbecue Pork sandwiches were a big hit. Man Night was a success, and Joel actually came out ahead by about 5 euros. (Don't worry, I had a friend over that morning to scrapbook and had my girl time earlier.)
We also took a break in January. Every once in a while Rome just gets to be too much for us, and we pack up in the car and get the heck out of dodge. So one Friday night, we packed our bags, fed the cats, and drove to Camp Darby. Camp Darby is a small military base right outside of Pisa. We spent a very relaxing weekend taking pictures of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and also going to this town called Lucca. You're not really allowed to drive within the old town walls in Lucca, so Joel and I rented bikes and rode around. It was great fun.
Umm, that's all I can think of in January! Besides our New Years Resolutions and just trying to pack up all of the decorations and get reorganized after Christmas. I hope everyone got the pictures I emailed around from Ofoto.
Good News! Joel and I will be home in March! Yep, after lots of haggling with work and with airlines, we've got plane tickets to Florida and Alabama! Joel and I have been dreaming about home food for ages, so we'll probably gain back all of the weight we've been losing. Oh well, who cares? I hope that if you're in the area we can say hi, though we have only a week to hit both towns and fly too. So we will try to see as many of you as we can.
Other than our trip home, February is already turned into crazy month - starting with preparing last week for Sec'y of State's visit today (she was here less than 24 hours), the Annual Embassy Chili Night last Friday night, Joel's got another work trip for a few days, and I have a training trip for my job the first week of March. Yeah, we pretty much don't stop any time soon. We're trying to get away for a weekend somewhere in there, but we haven't figured out where or when yet.
So that's it for this month! Hope all of you are well! (Figuratively and literally!)
Love,
Julie and Joel
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