wow, mccain proposed to lift the ban of oil drilling in USA. bush is in support of it, too, that he has asked the congress about it.
they said it will help our gas prices.. true, but think ahead! not only that oil drilling will be terrible for our already suffering environment but also what other countries might do to us for the oil?
also, in many ways i am glad that the gas price is high-- it is making us take the alternative transportations.
do you agree to the proposal?

environment ... ambiente

i am in cossato, italia

i arrived on the 31st and it is good to be here again... it is especially good to be with luca again. i have been spending my days doing errands, getting to know luca's son, brian, catching up with luca, studying italian, teaching luca english, food shopping, and lots of cooking!

i think i have not missed a day of food shopping.. italians are all about foods! every time i go to the store, i see the same people from the last time. at first i thought that it was coincidence... then later i realized that, no, a lot of italians shop for food everyday. luca talks a lot about food and i think it is funny. i am not only learning italian everyday but also about foods. now i know for sure that they were not exaggerating when they used italians as characters in the kitchen in the cartoons when i watched as a kid. :)

last night i had a dinner at brian's mother's house... her name is cristina. i was nervous, of course, because you know how the italian mothers are. at first she was kind of cold to me... kept on talking to luca and brian without any eye contact to me. but i was not afraid to talk, too, and i am not bad at italian sign language. she knew i was a vegetarian and she was nice to cook me a proper dish. she made polenta with vegetables and a little bit of fish. after coffee, i became quiet and took the time to study her italian sign language... it is hard to learn advanced italian sign language ever since luca and i have became comfortable with our own language. so i took the advantage to study her. italian sign language is beautiful... like the spoken italian language-- it is smooth, romantic, and slow. but at times i get frustrated because i am used to ASL, which is the language that usually gets to the point quickly. even luca, who is proud of his language, admit that ASL is effective especially in intellectual discussion. the dinner ended well. i talked with brian for a little while about animals (we both love animals!). i gave cristina a bag of icelandic licorce. i think we are on good terms :)

i gotta go now-- sorry.
ciao!

happy ... felice