Movie theater in Naples

      We found a theater nearby that plays some American movies, on occasion, in their original form-in English! (with Italian subtitles-field trip idea!!)  Aaron and I were supposed to go for a date, this past week, but the night the movie, Lincoln, was playing Aaron had to work late :-(  So, I found another 'date', my sweet friend Leslie Ross :) and we took the train to the theater.
     Before I tell you about the movie, let me tell you about what I saw on the way.  First of all, I got on the most packed train I have ridden.  It was like the bus, in that, after I got in the 'sardine can' about 15 other people got on behind me and squished me in the people in front of me. Yikes. Thankfully, I was only on for 1 stop. Then, when I got off, I spent some time people watching outside the station.  I think I could have stayed there and skipped the movie-a lot of entertainment near the station.  There was a group of boys playing soccer. They weren't just carefully juggling the ball back and forth they were kicking it as hard, fast, and high as they could; so I stood a distance away for my own safety. One boy started wailing on another kid so a woman rushed over to grab the ear of the offending boy and yell at him. He then backed away and along with many angry Italian gestures he made his thoughts known to her.  Have I mentioned that the kids here tend to be a little unruly, disrespectful and just plain rude..ugh. It's weird to me though because all of the young adults we have met have been so kind and respectful..hmm..thank God for maturity, right?
  Also near the station, there was a woman who just dove right into the dumpster nearby and started ripping garbage bags open with a little claw-like hook she had.  I guess it just seemed so crazy to me to see someone digging in the dumpster like that.  She definitely wasn't shy about it.
     So, we found the theater alright and bought our tickets. It was 5,50 euros/ticket. (less than advertised in the paper-yippee!)  I bought popcorn and fizzy water, 3,50 euros-affordable!  The theater looked very similar to what we have in the states but what we found to be interesting is that the movie stopped at one point and a big sign flashed across the screen that said, 'Intervallo', intermission.  That was different.  We asked the Italians behind us how long it would last but they didn't know either.  So, we just stayed in our seats.  It lasted about 15min. Anyway, it was quite enjoyable to go to the movies.  It's been a long time since I have done that.  I think I picked up a few new Italian words reading the subtitles too. Simple pleasures!

Abruzzi mountains

     Last weekend The LeClair family joined several other families for a day amidst the Abruzzi mountains, (appx. 2hrs drive north-ish of Naples).  It was a beautiful day but we were prepared for the weather to be bitterly cold.  We all went up there to help clean up an olive tree orchard to get it ready for the growing season.  As the saying goes, "Many hands make light work" we were a living example of that! We got to work right away and not too long after, most of us shed our coats, hats, and scarves. It wasn't as cold as we had planned for-thankfully!

     We were up there on a mission to help the nuns who live in the abbey. They were very sweet ladies and it was wonderful to be able to help out.  I wish I had taken some 'before' and 'after' pictures of the orchard. A lot of trees were uncovered from brush, ivy, etc. and a lot of limbs were pruned. Then, many burn piles were started to clear up the debris.  At one point, Aaron was seen running from one burn pile to the next with a flaming branch to start a new burn pile.

Some pictures of us workers having a well earned lunch :-).  The white dogs are Abruzzi Sheepdogs. They are pretty cool dogs!

 I got a little bit of time with these cuties.

 Pictures of a few of the buildings on the property.

 I'm sad about the lack of quality of these pictures because the views were breathtaking! The picture above is of a little village atop the hillside; the pic. below is of a really cool looking castle.