A unique experience and some randomness!!!

I have always felt like my name fits me, even if it was somewhat of a common name. I'm pretty sure that in jr. High there was at least 1 Jennifer in everyone of my classes, sometimes 2. 

Today while eating lunch with my teammates someone said "Antonio", which is our trainers name. He looked around to see who was calling his name. Turns out they weren't talking to him, someone else with the same name in the cafeteria was who they were referring to. As I sat there I just had to smile to my self because even though my name is common in the States, here in Italy it is unique and if my name is called, chances are they are referring to me, and not someone else with the same name.

..... Lots of random thoughts ....

So before leaving for Italy Kyle had converted me to American-Mexican food. I know what real Mexican food is like and that is not what we eat in America, so I refer to it as American-Mexican food which I find to be very good. So when this picture was sent to me...

I thought my mouth would just start to salivate and I would just start craving that good food, however my tongue must have found home, because I was just fine with my real Italian pasta here in Italy. 

One of the Italians on the team trains in America down in Florida and I asked him: "What do you think of the Italian food in America?" I will edit his response "it's crap!, unless a real Italian owns the store and makes the food. The cheese is awful unless you pay a fortune for the really good stuff". And for all of you Olive Garden lovers out there he even named Olive Garden as being one of the worse offenders. So I guess just like the American-Mexican food we refer to as Mexican food the same is probably true of all ethnic food out there, it's defiantly true of Italian food. And I will say this its true of American food found in other countries. I am not a big McDonnell's fan but after being in China for 2 weeks Kyle and I got desperate for something American so that is where we went. And I can tell you it was not the same, not even close.

         .....more randomness....

Well Colter made it home and there was a reversal of roles when he arrived. Usually the mother is waiting for the missionary to come down the stairs but because my moms airplane in Atlanta was struck by lightning before the passengers boarded they had to find a new plane which delayed them by 2 hours. Because of this delay my mom instead of arriving an hour before colter she arrived an hour after colter. So the missionary was waiting for the mom to arrive.

  I'm sure that everyone was just happy that everyone arrived safely and the wait was worth it. Welcome home Colter, but not officially just in case he can go back out after the surgery.

And one last random thought... Or maybe it's more of a statement!!!!!

Look closely at typical parking here in Rome. Mom said something about renting a car when she first arrived in Rome, I did my best to dissuade her from doing that. Once she got to ride around in the city from the back seat of the cab she was very glad she didn't rent a car. It's not just the typical city driving but the streets are just crazy and it's easy to get lost in the spaghetti bowl of Rome.