and with august comes ferie

carissimi,

and so we come to august, that hot, hot month where everyone in italy shutters up and shuts down and heads to one of two places - a dark, cool basement, or the seaside. signs start popping up at every alimentari, pizzeria, gelateria (god forbid) and hair stylist in town: "CHIUSO PER FERIE," which means closed for the holidays. Or in the instance of the pizzeria we saw in Arezzo yesterday: "CHIUSO PER PROBLEMI PERSONALI." I am told the guy that runs this pizzeria is something of a joker...

and so i too am somewhat on vacation. The school has shut down for August (the rest of the students left today) and besides some building organization, watering the thousands of plants in the courtyard, and feeding the turtles, I'm quasi-free. Santa Chiara has had turtles for as long as I'm aware (they live in the courtyard) and a new batch of babies was born pretty recently - it's sort of amazing to see a turtle no bigger than a quarter. We found some eggs in a corner just this morning, so more coin-sized little darlings will be on the way soon.

i have been looking for ways to earn extra money while i'm here this summer, and i've started having english conversation lessons with a few teenagers in town. this is a maddening and often hilarious situation. my little marica, who is 16, is a great student - i'm amazed that she consistently spells correctly words that many americans stumble over. but try explaining why "bought" and "both" are pronounced the way they are? she is on vacation this week and i told her that she had to practice saying "i bought both of them and brought them both home," over and over this week so that she won't forget where we left off. it's actually a bitter reminder of how little i understand my own language sometimes. it's all well and good to try and teach someone else your language if they will accept what you say at face value. but if they want to know why something is spelled or pronounced the way it is...well, that's a whole other story.

i am going to germany in a few weeks to play a show in stuttgart, thanks to the kindness and generosity of some fans who live there. it will my first real trip to germany (unless you count the 5 or 6 layovers in frankfurt) and i'm looking forward to all of the strudel i'm going to eat.

i'm also looking forward to playing in your home, if you'll have me. if you want to find out more about what a house concert is, check it out here: http://www.houseconcerts.com. I have two or three already lined up for the fall and I'd love to tack on a few more. And of course, if you are ready to pre-order the new album, you can always click here to do so:
https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=acousticgirl01%40hotmail.com&item_name=Pre-Order+the+New+Album%21&item_number=LSM002&no_note=1&tax=0&currency_code=USD

more to come shortly; thanks for keeping up!
vanessa