The Italian Countryside

The rest of the week Sara, Mom and I spent together in Italy was fantastic, and tomorrow you will hear more about it. However, one of the highlights of the trip was Sunday, June 21. We were, of course, staying at a Church of Christ missionary facility, so we got up on Sunday morning and got ready for church. The people we stayed with were kind enough to give us a ride to the Church of Christ in Florence where I went every Sunday when I studied there for one semester of college. The director of the over seas program I participated in gave the message that morning, so I got to say hi and get reacquainted. He then invited us and another family to take a day trip with him to San Gimignano (pictured on the left at the top), and attend a local festival just outside of Florence. We immediately agreed and so began a magical day in the Tuscan countryside!

San Gimignano is a small medieval town with many towers. I was told there used to be more than 30, but there are 14 or so that have survived the years. It is not abandoned. and while it does attract quite a few tourists, it is not an "attraction." People still conduct their everyday lives in these beautifully preserved medieval buildings as you can see in the middle picture on the left. Sara is in the white sweater and a skirt. The cathedral here has some of the oldest surviving frescoes in Italy! Unfortunately, we didn't get to see them because, guess what...they were having a Renaissance fair that day! Can you imagine a Renaissance fair in this town? They don't have to recreate any medieval buildings; they just had to get dressed up and walk around!



When we were done at San Gimignano we drove down to a small town outside of Florence where they were having a festival. At this particular one they have a donkey race at around 10:00 p.m. People spend the evening before attending a parade, eating, buying local crafts, and putting money down on the donkeys. Oh...and I mention eating! My love for authentic Italian food was rekindled at the meal we had that evening. In no restaurant have I ever had food as good as home made local Italian food. We started with cantaloupe and prosciutto, then on to the pasta dishes, penne with home made tomato meat sauce, and tomato cream sauce. For a main course we had a sampling of grilled meat including, steak, chicken, ribs and sausage. We finished with some fresh watermelon. Great great memories!

Catch up

Trying to describe how the last week and a half has been is difficult. Since Scott and I left Moscow we have been bounced around from place to place catching trains. Sometimes this was a simple task, and other times it involved panic, running and crying. I also had a bout with culture shock and homesickness. Despite these challenges, I have had a good time. I think the culture shock and homesickness have passed, and I am enjoying my trip to it's fullest extent.


The pictures to the right are from Rome. One on the bottom is Scott cooling off on the balcony of our hotel room. It was cute, cozy, and comfortable and just down the street from the University where Scott had to work the first day. We didn't have much time for site seeing, but we did get to look around at the Coliseum, so I have included a pic of that too.

Next, we caught a night train to Germany where we met up with my college roommate Melanie Horst, and her husband. Even though the are packing up to move back to the states as I am writing, they let us stay with them while Scott measured various skulls in Bonn and Stuttgart. I got to eat some sushi off of little floating boats, eat German ice cream (sooooo good), and hang out in downtown Wiesbaden with great friends (See pic above).

On Friday (19th) I said a hesitant good bye to Scott and picked up my mom and sister at the Frankfurt airport. That evening Mom, Sara, and I caught a night train to Florence.
We got to celebrate Sara's 16th birthday in Florence which was very special. I found that I remember a lot more Italian than I thought, and that has really made this part of the trip easier. We climbed 800 stairs to the top of the Duomo, ate gelato, and great Italian pizza the first day. We ended the day at the Piazzale Michilangelo at a fancy restaurant and the best view in Florence! The picture of Sara on the far right is from the night just mentioned. The picture of the three of us is in front of the Piti Palace.

More later...stay tuned!

Busy Busy

Well everyone, this it the first internet access I've had long enough to post on my blog. I am in Wiesbaden, Germany with my close friend and college roommate, Melanie Horst. We arrived by train at around 10:00 a.m. which is 3:00 a.m. for all of you. We arrived very sleepy and smelly, but they let us in their house anyway. I can't you tell how how great it was to see a familiar friendly face. We are exhausted, but tonight we had some great sushi, that floated around on boats at the sushi bar, and some beautiful and rich German ice cream. I am very full and very happy to reminisce with a dear dear old friend. I am soooo tired, so no pic postings today. I promise some soon since I am in a predictable internet spot for a couple days. Ciao!

Maddux Moscowian Life

For today's post I thought I might give you a little taste of what things have been like day to day here in Moscow.

In this picture Scott is at his parent's laptop checking email, as always, at the kitchen table. It was surreal to walk in the front door of the apartment and recognize the furniture knowing we had just traveled to Moscow. The same grandfather clock I am used to seeing and hearing in their house in Flower Mound, Texas now resides in the entry way of their charming two bedroom apartment in Moscow.

This apartment is different than American apartments in several different ways. Expectantly, one of those ways is the presence of a bidet in the bathroom that holds the newspaper. However, unexpectedly the towel rack is heated! The towels are always dry and cozy. Also unexpectedly,...there are windows on the bedroom doors...*raised eyebrow* (pictured right of Scott) Now, don't ask me why there are windows on the bedroom doors, it's just the way things are. In fact the only doors without windows are the front door, and the two bathroom doors. Needless to say, it has made life interesting.

Life outside the apartment has had its surprises too. It turns out that early June is when all the poplar trees are seeding witch means that there is this cotton-like fluff constantly in the air. These trees are EVERYWHERE, so the "cotton" falls like snow, and collects on the ground like snow as you can see in the picture on the right.

Cars here are surprisingly familiar. The cars we have actually taken rides in are Fords! Other familiar cars we have seen are Toyota Corolla, Honda, VW, Suzuki the list goes on. There is even a little Scion xA that is parked everyday on the same street as our apartment! I have only seen one Smart car in all of Moscow. I think there are more in Iowa City!

Our adventure here has been wonderful! Scott worked with the fossils here for the last time today. We had dinner with Erik Trinkaus which was great. He's an intelligent, gracious guy. Tomorrow we have one more day of leisure and site seeing with Scott, and then Sunday afternoon we fly to Rome. We have been very comfortable here this week, and we hate to see our stay draw to a close. I may or may not get to post again before Rome, so ciao......

Life and Death

On Monday, June 8 Jana and I took a tour with the American Wives Club to the cemetery at Novodevichy Convent in Moscow. I heard that the tour was good, but I didn't expect to be as touched by it as I was. I know that cemeteries are good places for learning history; I've been to many and I have always appreciated the value of the history and memories housed there. However, this one at Novodevichy was peaceful, and by that I mean literally full of peace. It washed over me for the duration of the tour.

To understand why you need to know that the cemetery is very crowded and all the graves are beautiful with monuments and especially decorated with flowers. Many of the graves we passed had fresh arrangements of flowers on them, and not just one -- several big colorful ones! I learned that it is the responsibility of the family to keep up the grave sites. Sure you can have someone do it for the right price, but that is not the tradition. I know that we do this to some extent in the US, but not to the extent I witnessed, and will hopefully be evident from the pictures. In this post you will see two pictures of people tending grave sites with such caring tenderness. The cemetery was not about death. It was about love, life, and remembering beloved family. It was comforting -- almost as if these loved ones were not gone. They are still cared for and waited on by those who miss them most.



June 8 also happened to be Scott's birthday and this first day Scott went to work on his fossils. This means that it was also the day Scott met Erik Trinkaus -- a famous and highly respected biological anthropologist. I was able to keep my tradition of making Scott a cheesecake for his birthday. Jana had some candles, so we sang happy birthday. We didn't have 29 candles, or a number 2 and a 9 to put together, so I just put two candles on one side and nine on the other. As usual I worried about how it would turn out, but it tastes great. Between the cheesecake and meeting Eric Trinkaus, Scott had a good birthday, and I was grateful to get to celebrate it with him! So ended a beautiful day of life and death.

Moscow: Day 1 and 2

I have finally found some time to blog about our trip so far. It took much more time than expected to set up a system for how I might do this more efficiently in the future. As you can see by the pic on the left Scott and I arrived safely in Moscow with no incidents. We even got a little sleep on the plane, and have had no problems adjusting our sleeping to the new time zone.

In this picture we are on Red Square in front of St. Basil's Cathedral, and some trees that are totally in the way. Friday, June 12 is a national Russian holiday, so they have a big stage in front of the "normal" view of this beautiful building. This pic is the best we can do for now. This was our first day of sight seeing. Scott, his parents, and I had a private tour of the Kremlin and Red Square.




This picture was taken the evening we arrived in Moscow. In order to try and get us on a normal sleeping schedule Dave and Jana took us out to dinner with some of their American friends to an Uzbekistan restaurant. If you look carefully at the picture, you will notice that there are no chairs. We are sitting on cushions Jesus style at the table. There were lots of extra pillows to make ourselves comfortable. The decorations were absolutely stunning. The picture below should give you an idea of our surroundings.




There were belly dancers that came out and danced every hour or so. You will NOT see any pictures of them because I didn't enjoy watching scantly clad women shakin' it anywhere close to MY husband!! Everyone else seemed to enjoy the "show," and took lots of pictures. Dave tried to get me in one or two of them, so if you know Dave and ever see any of his pictures of this particular night I'm sure you will notice how much fun I am having. It's written all over my face!

Despite the occasional gyrations of "sparkly-boobs," I had a really great time. They had crazy food and Scott and I took full advantage ordering baked rabbit in cream sauce. I haven't had a meal that good in quite a long time. I'm salivating just thinking about it! Jana was also brave, and ordered horse, which we also sampled. In case you're wondering, the way they prepared it tasted like roast beef. Needless to say between the dancing "tarts," the decor, the unique seating arrangements, and the food it was a memorable experience. I couldn't have picked a better way to start our adventures in Europe.

So I know I posted these picture in the wrong order as the restaurant happened first, but like I've said, I'm a newbe. I will get better at this. Stay tuned....I've seen a lot more than this so far!!!

Greetings from Europe!

Welcome to Assertions by Tressa! To give you an idea of what to expect when you read this blog, you need to know that I don't like to read very much (sorry, Mom and anyone reading this from Strawberry Hill), I don't like to write very much either, but I love pictures. To me, pictures are worth a thousand words. I also speak fluent exaggeration. That does not mean that there will be any falsehoods in my entries, just that I have a tendency to express myself dramatically. While I have never written a blog before, I imagine this one will reflect these elements of my personality. My entries will be relatively short and heavy on the pictures. Consider yourself warned, and happy reading.