Dave has been sick all last week and I have been sick all weekend and we're both still struggling. I should've gone to la posta (post office) last week when I was well to pay our bollette (bills), but I kept thinking that maybe one more would arrive and I could pay them all at the same time. I wasn't happy to go outside because it was sprinkling, but I figured I had to since our Internet/phone bill was due today.

After lunch, I went for a walk to see my friend Simone at his restaurant. He told me that he'd be there early because he was changing the menu again. Since I didn't go to the gym this morning due to working late and getting up late, I decided to walk to Simone's restaurant.

Today was the Festa dell'Immacolata (Immaculate Conception's day) in Italy, which translated to large quantities of people walking the streets of Florence doing their Christmas shopping. The banks, post offices, and some of the grocery stores and other shops were closed, but many of the shops in the main shopping area, like in via Calzaiuoli, were open.

As I walked to the gym this morning, I was wondering why even though there is a small marciapiede (sidewalk) on our street (and many streets downtown), people generally walk in the street. Even women pushing babies in strollers do the same. It sounds dangerous, but it really isn't as long as you know how to do it safely.

Dave found out on the Odeon cinema's Web site today that on Tuesdays there is an aperitivo (aperitif) for 5 Euros each from 8PM until the beginning of the film. We decided to go since normally we go to the earlier showing. And luckily, we didn't go any earlier because we had thunder and lightning since this afternoon.

Well, I'm not home sick right now, but I can easily be tempted to buy a few American items, like Doritos, peanut butter, root beer, and few other things eventually. In via Ghibellina a new shop has just opened called, Sam's Market. They sell lots of American and imported items to all of us expats who have our cravings.

Today, I woke up and didn't feel great. I had a bit of a fever and so I decided to stay home (and mostly in bed) to relax. To me, relaxing means staying in my pajamas all day and lying in bed with a few good books. I was planning on going to an open market at Santa Maria Novella with a few friends, but I just didn't feel up to it.

My friend Yoshie's son, Lorenzo, was born at the beginning of September this year. I didn't get a chance to see him before we left for the US because she was very busy taking care of her newborn and her other son, Davide. I was so happy when Yoshie called me to tell me that I could come to her place to see Lorenzo. I had been waiting for awhile to meet him.

When I went to the McRae bookstore last week to pick up a book on Munich before going, I received a flyer, indicating that Magdalen Nabb was going to be there. I hadn't heard of her before, but I was eager to meet a British murder mystery writer who lives in Florence. I know that there are many writers who live here even though there aren't any writing groups that I've heard about.

It's been raining since we got back to Florence. The day starts out a little gray, but then begins to rain from lunch until the evening without interruption. I don't think I've bought an umbrella in years. I usually don't use one when walking around downtown and generally wear a hat to keep somewhat dry.

We signed back up at the gym today. We really have no excuse to not go since it is only a few blocks away. The gym itself is only about three times the size of our apartment, but it's clean, not crowded, and very close. Of course, we go at 10AM when not many people are there.

I planned for us to take the train back to Florence so that we could see the countryside between Munich and Florence. We went through Austria and stopped in Innsbruck and then later in Verona (Italy). The scenery was quite diverse, mostly mountainous, little to a lot of snow, and a few small villages/towns.

We were supposed to meet Marco at an Asian restaurant (that said they had Chinese, Thai, Japanese, etc. food), but I didn't feel good enough to go probably after all that alcohol in my warm drinks yesterday! So, this morning when we got up, we decided to go for brunch and meet him there.

Today, we woke up at 7AM and decided to go for a walk while the sun was finally shining outside. It's the first time since we arrived on Wednesday that we've seen the sun. We had coffees at a chain of coffee shops, called "San Francisco Coffee," and then we went to a little grocery store to get some still water, of which there was none, and to walk past the Bavarian National Museum (pictured here) and the English Garden.

After breakfast at our hotel in Oberschleißheim, we took a taxi to our other hotel in Munich (in the Lehel) area. We assumed the taxi would be expensive since the taxi we took from the airport to the hotel was around 40 Euros. We were happily surprised to find out that the taxi only cost us 22 Euros. We immediately walked outside in the snow and went directly downtown to get clothes for the snow. We were not prepared for snowy sidewalks and a chilly breeze.