Wine Tasting

July 4-- Wine Tasting. I did not try any because (guess what?) I was sleeping...on the couch next to the tasting table. I promise I'm not narcoleptic; I was just jetlagged... travel is exhausting!

But here are some pictures....

Truffle Hunting

Happy anniversary to the most wonderful parents and beautiful soul mates! (Yes, Ima and Daddy, I am referring to you) We knew the day had to be something special, to celebrate their 20^th wedding anniversary.  And it was.

            The day started off with a dream of Daddy’s: truffle hunting. I always had assumed that pigs rooted out the truffles, but apparently the pigs are too dumb to be trained and end up eating the truffles they find. So they have now turned to using dogs.

            So we pull up to a small villa type place (again, I was sleeping during the drive). We then transfer to an incredibly dirty van with an adorable dog in a little cage in the back. Seeing this dog made me want to get my own. A regular dog, not a truffle hunting one (Well, I did want a truffle hunting one, until I learned you had to train it to dig out truffles for three years from when it is just a pup, then you had to take it truffle hunting for at least two hours a day for at least five days a week and you had to get a special permit and truffles don’t grow near Claremont and so it just didn’t pan out logically).

            We all get in the van (which smells heavily of dog), and drive for a few minutes (I didn’t sleep on this ride, be proud!) to a small dirt road in the middle of a huge field. We were having a major flashback to Trochenbrough. The owner/truffle hunter only spoke Italian, so we had a translator, Marco, translate everything for us.

            We started walking down the dirt road towards the truffle hunting area. Apparently, which I did not know when we starting, you have to walk for about twenty minutes to get to the place with the trees where there MIGHT be truffles. Luckily, (spoiler) there were truffles today.

            Anyways, we followed the owner and his dog, which was named Jolé. It was incredible the stamina both of them had, considering the owner was a grandpa, probably in his late sixties to early seventies, and Jolé was ten years old, which is seventy in dog years.

            It was a lot of walking, but occasionally Jolé would sniff around and start digging rapidly, after which the owner would come in with his shovel and dig out the truffle. Jolé was incredibly talented for a truffle-hunting dog. It was really exciting.

            We walked across fields, hiked into forests, ducked under trees, sweat disgustingly because of humidity, tripped on branches, jumped over ditches, hopped over mud, and our day wasn’t even halfway finished. But it was off to a great start.   

Arrival in Turin

 We have finally arrived in Turin, Italy! 

Our tour guide met us outside baggage claim, and helped us load our bags into the car. Giving a brief summary of the day’s plans, he suggested that we go off schedule for just a little bit: we would tour a castle that wasn’t on our itinerary, but was recently restored and was now very beautiful. After weighing the options (do nothing in the hotel rooms/sleepy town our hotel was in or tour a castle), we decided to give the castle a try.

            Now, also note that at this point Daddy and I are still exhausted from the miserable plane ride we endured. But hey, it was a castle. Also, it gave me the chance to put some of my awesome art history knowledge to use.

            We walked around the castle; it was magnificent. Shayna found it hilarious every time I tried to describe an art piece in relation to its time period and correct artistic terms. “You sound so fancy!” I took it as a compliment, and continued to describe the inclusion of fenestration, AKA windows, in the room as a strategic way to alleviate the stress of the roof, in addition to the oculus that resided on the top of the central dome. Ms. Sturgill would be so proud. Shayna was just obliviously cracking up.

            After the castle, we went for lunch at an adorable little café nearby.  Our first real Italian meal! It was very nice.

            Getting back in the car, we took a 45-minute or so (I wouldn’t know, I slept on every car drive) drive to our hotel in Turin. It was beautiful, in a very quiet and scenic village. There wasn’t much around to do but it was gorgeous; vineyards and fields as far as the eye could see. We went for dinner at a the hotel restaurant, then fell asleep in our quiet hotel rooms overlooking majestic Turin.

Long and Strenuous Travel Day(s) told through gifs

Because it's the best way to tell any story.

I "wake up", totally ready for the day

We're finally ready, and load our bags into the car that will be taking us to Newark airport

Long car drive...

Arrived at Newark airport, where they couldn't find Daddy's plane ticket

But I was entertaining a small toddler in line next to us

Finally found the ticket, but we were now separated...but our seats must be okay enough, right?

While Shayna and Ima were sitting near the cute baby in line, sleeping peacefully,

Daddy and I:

Were behind the emergency exit row

Had terrible movies on the TV

AND, to top it all off, were sitting less than 10 feet from the bathroom

Lovely.

It was bad.

So I slept approximately 0 hours on a 7.5 hour flight

So all in all, it was a bad day

But onto Europe!!

Monday, June 28

*Will add more pictures when I get them uploaded. Sorry!

Monday we got up early to take Shayna to this fancy camera store called B&H Camera on the (Lower East Side). It was an incredible place if you were a photographer. Basically, it was a department store for photography. Something like three floors, stacked wall to wall with photography equipment, cameras, audio equipment, camera bags, lens, and anything else even remotely related to the art of capturing the moment, on film and digitally.  Shayna made a well-thought out purchase of a very nice macro-lens and a lens cover. (I’m actually not totally sure what the camera stuff is, but it was very nice and fancy, I can tell you that).

AND all the camera stuff came down on a conveyor belt! No joke—you chose what you wanted, you got a receipt with the barcode on it, and when you went down to the cash register, your items would come into the storage area behind the cashier on a conveyor belt. So cool!! I should also mention that we think the company is Jewish/owned by Jews. Here is our evidence: most of the workers there wore Kippot, it closes early on Friday and even earlier on Fridays in the winter, it’s closed on Saturday (Shabbos), and the owner’s name is Samuel Goldstein. Just a hunch.

            We then made our way to Brooklyn by subway and met up with someone named Becca from AJWS who Shayna and Ima had met on their trip to Senegal. She very graciously took us through Brooklyn, giving us a nice tour of a beautiful area. Needless to say, a lot of walking. I crashed about an hour before we were planning on getting back in a taxi/finishing the day. The heat was unbearable, it was humid, I was sweaty and sticky, and we had been walking for about ten miles. Also, we walked a mile out of our way to go to a yarn store I thought I had a coupon for that I later learned had expired. So that was a bummer.

 But me, being the resilient person that I am, pulled it together with some lemonade and an Italian ice. Not to toot my own horn or anything (but toot toot!). 

After we walked across the Brooklyn bridge, took too many photos, and finally got in a cab, it was time for dinner with my mom’s brother and sister-in-law, along with her cousin (my second cousin), and his four year old daughter, Beatrice (not sure how she’s related, but she is just the cutest thing!) It was a nice dinner—I was wiped out, accidently ate the appetizers as my main course, and slept through half of it, but still, a wonderful dinner. Finally, FINALLY we made it back to our hotel (by subway—we are experts on the public transit system by now), and slept: a deep and restful sleep.

Sunday, June 27

*Just catching up on NYC, will post pictures later

We got to sleep in just a little bit, waking up around 11 am (please note, that’s still 8 am California time). We met up with an old friend of my mom’s, Ricky Nickel and her daughter, Izzy. Izzy is going to be a senior in high school, so I was able to share all my godforsaken experience and tips for the journey of the college application process. (I’m just kidding, my application process was actually pretty easy/okay…I did all my applications over the summer and got accepted to Pitzer Early Decision so my stress was over in December. If anyone out there is applying to schools, I can give you some advice, but my main one is write your essays and applications over the summer. Trust me, you’ll thank me later. Doing that is what allowed me to be on tech for my school’s fall musical and really be able to experience my first semester of Senior year.) We went for brunch at an adorable place called Alice’s Tea Cup (if you don’t know, I am currently obsessed with Alice in Wonderland, so this was a real treat for me). 

Brunch was delicious, then we walked a little bit and my mom showed us this cupcake ATM. It’s made by Sprinkles, and dispenses cupcakes 24 hours a day. Shayna pointed out that it should really be called a cupcake vending machine, which I don’t disagree with, but I guess “ATM” has a cooler ring to it.

            We then had to catch the matinee for If/Then, the new Broadway show starring Idina Menzel. It was fabulous, amazing, fantastic. I loved it; I heard some people, including my family, found it hard to follow, but I was okay. (Tip if you go to see it: “Liz” wears glasses, “Beth” does not. That’s the easiest way to tell them apart.) It was written by the writers/composers (something like that) of Next to Normal—a show I’ve also been meaning to see. (My parents refused to take me to see it since it had a lot of triggering themes when I was struggling with my bipolar misdiagnosis and overmedication. They encouraged me to see it now, though of course it’s not playing anywhere currently).

            I’m also going to post a link here of Idina singing “Always Starting Over” from the show, If/Then, on the Tony Awards. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmFrXC-uGsc.

            Our day wrapped up pretty quickly after that; we went for a nice dinner with Uncle Paul and Aunt Susan (I think they’re my great-uncle and great-aunt; Paul is my grandfather (Poppy’s) brother). I order this nice dish of fish that came whole (head and everything), which I then struggled to debone and get over the sheer grossness of the fact that I may have seen the fish’s brain. *Shudders*

Here is a picture of Shayna doing her fishy face:

Overview of NYC: Saturday

First day of the trip. Walked about 12 miles in less than ten hours. 

We walked to Times Square (stopped along a farmers market, of course) walked across the highline, ate and toured around Chelsea Market, then back to Times Square to scout out discount tickets. By some magical happenstance, Ima and Daddy had bought tickets they surprised us with to NEIL PATRICK HARRIS’ show “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”. I’m sure the looks on our faces were priceless. Probably just about as jaw dropped as when we saw the show. Great show, don’t get me wrong, but WOW. It’s a bit risqué, for those who haven’t seen it. Check out NPH’s performance from the Tony Awards (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY1y-c_cIjI). 

Nevertheless, Neil Patrick Harris (yes, I have to use his full name every time) is incredible!! He performed a killer rock show, in heels, still managing to be perfect, hilariously funny, and held himself together enough to perform again three hours. Talk about talent!

Pictures from the day: