I checked the weather in Italy and it's not going to be as hot as we feared. What a relief!

We leave tomorrow night for Roma!



Rachel's Journal: July 15, 1998 - 12:50 a.m.
Off we go into the wild blue yonder! Honestly, I'm glad we're taking off. There is only so much opulence a person can experience before they overdose on it. *grin* The stay here was outstanding, both times I have visited here.

While Monica slept last night, I took a walk around New York at 3am in the morning. It was truly beautiful how the city lights shine. I spoke with a couple interesting people on my journey around the park. It's interesting how the places change but the pick-up lines remain the same! *chuckle*

Well, we're almost packed and ready to go. There will be a two day lapse in hearing from us...we lose a day flying over to Europe.

I am truly thankful for the support and love of my family, friends, and everyone who has an opportunitiy to read this. Talk to you again soon!



Monica's Journal, July 15, 10:30 am
Well, today is the last day we'll be in New York, and I'll be sorry to leave this gorgeous hotel and "packed full of stuff to do" city. We didn't do all the things I thought we'd do, so I'll have to make sure I come back! I've gotten a good idea of the flavor of the place, though. Not as scary as I thought, or as full of itself. Just like every beach city in So. Cal. isn't like Baywatch, every area of NY isn't NYPD Blue. Life here is dramatic in a different way, with so many people living so close together. But I've seen Mom's and friends and business people and regular joe's out in the streets, and they're just like any other people anywhere. I'm used to multi-cultural environments, because I went to Cal State Long Beach when I was just out of high school, and in NY, you encounter a lot of different cultures. So I wasn't as shocked or uncomfortable as I thought I might be here. Possibly that has to do with the part of NY we've been staying in, It's really nice here by the park, near Madison and 64th.

Last night, Rachel went out, "to mail some postcards." And she came back an hour later with some of the most expensive groceries I've ever seen. No, she didn't buy cavier and smoked salmon, but for what she paid, it might as well have been. I thought groceries in Kauai were expensive! Well, since NYC is an island, too, of sorts, I guess this could be why groceries were so expensive! Ben & Jerry's pints, $5.65! $4.50 for lunch meat, $4.39 for the smallest jar of mayo, $2.89 for a loaf of bread. And so on.

So today, we'll go out looking for those last minute, hard to find items for our trip. A travel iron, more copies of BBW magazines like Radiance to show our friends overseas, stain remover, etc. And we'll work on getting the digital camera charged and ready to go as well. So hopefully you'll be seeing more pictures, faster from us!



Monica's Journal, July 16
Rome - Well, here we are in an airport in Rome for a one hour layover before heading to Pisa in the Tuscany region. Very much like other airports I've been in. :) Every woman we've seen has been fasionably dressed, and we've only spotted one or two that would be considered voluptuous. Most are very petite, as well.

We aren't sure if we're going to be met at the airport or not. We neglected to write down phone numbers of the organizers, and they're on a web page which can't be accessed without a phone connection!

Pisa/Pontedera

In our flying, we've "lost a day." With our jet lag, I'm afraid we may loose another. It's the middle of the night, but I'm wide awake. My head is filled with phrases I know or think I know in Italian.

We were met at the airport, thank goodness. A gentleman named Fabrizio picked us up, what a pleasure to see him! We had been laying wagers on the chance that we'd be stuck at the airport trying to explain who we were, why we were there, and whom we were looking for! Fabrizio came right up to us, wearing a Cicciona Festival T-shirt. He's a member of the Forcoli Football Association here, although he doesn't play. We are quickly learning that these associations are kept up by men of all ages in the area to support community activities. We peppered him with questions about the festival. He took us to meet Gianfranco, the original organizer of the event who is the "number 1" personage of the event. Luckily, Fabrizio speaks fairly good English and is very patient. Gianfranco speaks no English. I'm looking forward to meeting Sirenna who will hopefully be able to help translate with her 'poco Italiano.'

The festival is an all day affair on Saturday, beginning at 9:30 a.m. and ending at 1 a.m. that night. There was temporarily some confusion that we'd be getting up at 4 a.m., "4 when the sun is up," to get our hair and make-up done. But it's really 4 p.m. Fortunately, we have a program for the day now, it includes 2 meals consumed in public under the eyes of the judges. It sounds like some kind of contest where hearty appetites are encouraged and put on display. That should be interesting. We've been somewhat assured (language barriers permitting), that the people who attend are the to have fun, not to make fun of us. We were very conscious of the clothes we saw most of the women wearing int he pictures we were shown in Gianfranco's shop (he's a barber), while his patrons looked on with their hair half done. The ladies in the pictures all seem to be over 40 and local. Their clothes were nice and somewhat dressy, but nowhere near as flashy as my new dress. We will wear our dresses we brought though and possibly change for the 'weighing in' portion of the day.

Another shocker for us- there are usually thousands of people in attendance! We were taken to the soccer field where the festival will be held, it's quite large. There were about 10 men building the stage we'll be using. The association is sponsoring this as a fundraiser. They sell tickets, t-shirts and food. They offered moey last year to international contestants and 10 Germans came. I get the feeling that some of the Italians who came from farther away felt it was unfair to compensate only the international contestants. So the prizes awarded will be nice trophies.

The area of Tuscany where we are is beautiful. Low mountains and hills with stately villasstanding at the top surrounded by groves of trees. Fields of sunflowers for canola oil and occasional olive groves and grape vines line the roads. The hay has been harvested and is sitting in large rolls thoughout their fields. I haven't seen any animals grazing, though.

The City of Pontedera which means, "bridge over the Arno river" is busy and full of shops. There are the requisite motor-scooters everywhere as well as bicycles. The roads are good, with round abouts instead of intersections.

We are staying at Hotel La Rotunda. The room is somewhat bare with two comfortable beds, nightstand, armoire and TV & radio. The bathroom is a nice size with sink, toilet, bidet and a very small shower. Needless to say the shower curtain is not necessary, as I block all the water efficiently! Rachel, being taller, is more inconvienienced than I am in that area.

Fabrizio drove us around for several hours after giving us some time to freshen up at the hotel. We went to a cell phone place so I could try to activate mine, with some problems, my phone needs repair and the pin# is forgotten. We met a friend of Fabrizio's, Simone, who also spoke some English and was very helpful. We dropped him off so he could go and have dinner with his wife - they are still newlyweds. Fabrizio took us by a pizza place and we ate some good pizza and had something to drink. We found out the difference between 'minerale' water and 'naturale' water. We'll be going 'naturale' from now on! The food on the plane was not good, so I was grateful to have something. He showed us a restaurant where our meals were taken care of by the festival, but when we went back to our room, we fell asleep and missed our dinner time, so we'll have to try again tomorrow.

There's a lot to look forward to, meeting Sirenna, getting on line and hopefully getting the cellphone activated...Ciao!