Babysitting in Como

Jon informed me that I have written only one entry recently compared to his 5.. just since we are keeping statistics I felt as though I should update everyone on the minature golf Como round.. match play goes to Colleen 4 and 2. Stroke play also goes to Colleen who beat Jon by 10 strokes ( in mini golf!) ..dont worry, pride will surely evoke a rematch..

In other sports, Jon also lost a close match of fooseball 6-4.. after begging for a rematch it was granted and I, feeling sorry for him, let him win the next two matches. He will likely write some tall tale about how he came to loose to a girl but do not be decieved, he was crushed!

I feel as though few words have been written on the end of our summer course and my final week as a college student.. in Como we were introduced to Terragni, a modern architect who began working here in Como in the 1930s (at the age of 23!)

Highlights of Terragni s work included tours of two apartment buildings as well as a school. Ironically, three of the other buildings that we visited in this leg of the trip, one by Terragni, the other by Mario Botta, and the last by a woman whose name escapes me at the moment, were three of my favorite visits of the trip. Unfortunately, these two school buildings would have been so unbelievably perfect for me to look at while working on my thesis project (also a school) and my professor (who was on my committtee) (and who is extremely familiar with these buildings) never mentioned to me that I should look them up... Although I was extremely sad and livid at the missed opportunity, I did get plenty of motivation to push my project toward the right outlet. (Jon and I have been brainstorming)

The last day of the program was held in Switzerland, we traveled to a large castle across the border..the steep staircases were worth the views at the top of the towers. Also, Jon and I have discovered the delight of digital video on our cameras.. We have now accumulated video of 1. a view from the top of above mentioned casetle, 2. duck feeding (almost a daily ritual..jon apparently loves ducks), 3. Italy winning the world cup (best one yet), and 4. hydro-aerobics on the side of the alps along Lake Como set to the lyrics of some cheesy raunchy american teen toons - i think that they should stick to Italian operas.

We have decided that since we just spent the past 6-8 months non-stop working on school stuff we would make it easier and cheaper on ourselves and stay in Como until flying to Spain. Southern Italy and Cinque terra have been compromised however I think that we were biting off more than we could travel... instead we have had time to catch up on sights in Como (today we visited Bellagio, and Varenna along the coast of Lake Como.. thank goodness there were hungry ducks there to feed), attepted to fix our tan lines from sketching in Rome, and we are just cracking the surface of the multitudes of things that we now want to read about-invesitgate-discuss as a result of the trip.

Yesterday we wandered down the lake to find the public pool. On the way we watched a sea plane take off, watched more ducks (jons idea), and stumbled upon the museum that we had been searching for for a few days. As it turns out the pool was all we had anticipated and more...

Rules for the pool -

1. Bikini bathing tops are optional for 70 year old women slathering their snake like sagging skin in oil.

2. The hot tub is not a hot tub.. rather it cost extra euros because it is a hydro massage! Apparently acting like an unknowing american does not get you a smile or a chance in the hot tub-hydro whatever..

3. Anyone wanting to go into the pool area must first walk though a turnstile which results in a shower of water.. you apparently must be wet before entering the pool..but that is not all...good thing that you are able to go through and get your hair wet..otherwise when you put on your mandatory rubber-condom -swimmy cap you would rip your hair off!

4. Do not take off your rubber-condom-swimmy cap in the pool otherwise the 70 year old lifegaurd in a speedo (who probably is married to the topless "something about mary" old lady - see number 1) will yell at you in Italian. Luckily we kept our rubber-condom-swimmy caps on and looked like idiots.

5. Italian mothers will trust anyone apparently. I was asked to babysit a young sleeping curly haired cutie (no not jon) while he was sleeping for a few minutes! Luckily he didnt wake up and I didnt loose him.

Okay, more to come later, probably no more pictures for a while but hopefully sometime next week!