SNOW!

Today Lynnea and I woke up early and rode to Terracina with our coach Seba to go Christmas shopping for our families! We walked around the main streets of Terracina looking at the different shops and the items they had to offer. It was super super cold, similar weather to what we have in Michigan. We had very simple conversations with the people in the stores, successfully purchasing the items that we wanted! It is also so fun and rewarding to communicate with the store owners and be able to purchase items! I feel that it gets easier and easier for me every day! We headed back to Fondi at about 1 and as we were leaving Terracina we noticed that it started to rain, then by the time we got to Fondi (about 20 min) it was SNOW! According to Seba, they haven't had snow for 25 years! But one of our teammates said 10 years. Either way, that is still a long time. It was enough to stick a little to the cars, but nothing more then that.

Tonight at practice it was crazy cold, I guess the heater in the gym is broken, and it isn't a priority of theirs to have it fixed, because we knew it was broken on Wednesday. It was so cold in the gym that we could see our breath; I warmed up in a long sleeve, a hoodie, a jacket, a scarf, and pants, and I couldn't feel my toes or my hands. We have a game their Sunday, this should be fun seeing as we have sleeveless jerseys! 

After practice, we came home and had dinner, Valentina was talking to me about our Christmas shopping in Terracina, and she asked me when we give our gifts in America, I told her on Christmas the 25th. Then she told me that in Italy some people give their gifts on Jan. 6th, I asked her why and this is where the confusion started. She told me it was because of Befana. Of course not knowing what it was I asked her, this is the response I got, in a mix of broken English and Italian of course (my responses in yellow):

"So the Re Magi, what?, on cammelli, Re Magi go to see Gesu bambino, Oh the 3 Wise men, with gifts for Jesus? yes,  yes wise men... so Befana is woman who fly in sky on ginestra, shh shhh, (making sweeping action), a broom? yes shh shhh, witch,witch? broom.. she's a witch? No, yes, like witch. And kids have socks, and she gives chocolate in them, socks? hanging? she fills them, and bad kids get coal? yes coke, no no coal, coooke, coooaal, cooooke, no coaLL like you light to grill, yes carbone, so like stockings that we hang and she stuffs them, yes, stockings on camino..., fireplace, yes! So like Santa? yes, no not like babbo natale, re magi go to see baby, why the 3 wise men? why, why, I don't know why...Befana, Befaaana! WHAT, Befana, broom, I don't understand, I know, Befana, at night she fly on broom, around, umm, kids watch for her, its celebration at castle but the kids at the castle wait for her to come, (laughing really hard at this point) and she doesn't (laughing really hard), cause people don't fly on brooms, yeah (we are both laughing by now) and she take light from one room (laughing) to the other in castle, WHAT? Befana!

But by this time we were both laughing hysterically trying to figure out what she was talking about and every time she attempted to continue she would start over at the Wise Men. I think that is why I was so confused, because she didn't fully explain what it had to do with the Wise Men. And then she started telling me about the Epiphany, and that in the Bible it never says what day Jesus was born, and that Santa is not linked to Christianity, which I agreed, and had a hard time figuring out how Befana was... it was a big mess and we were getting nowhere. Maria was explaining, in very fast Italian, something about santa claus, and it didn't seem to help either of our understandings of Befana. So I told her I would google it, this is what I got: Le Befana   go read it, enlighten yourselves, its necessary!

Anyways, I guess there is a big celebration of Befana in the cities, that is when she started talking about the castle, and kids wait to see someone fly in the sky, or something; when she said that, all I could think about what watching tinker bell fly from the castle at Disney World. Who knows! But I do know that we are going to Napoli (Naples) tomorrow with Maria and she said there is a huge nativity celebration with the baby prince, and the wise men, and it sounded like people dress as them, again for some reason when she said that, I thought of that scene from Home Alone were he hides in the life size nativity scene. I don't know, but I will find out tomorrow! 

Italian word/phrase of the day: gelare "freeze"