Daily Life in Massa

Here are a few snippets of life in Massa, over the last week.

On Sunday, after we had "church" in our apartment, we took a drive down to the sea, and headed left when we reached Marina di Massa. There are so many little private beach clubs, where you rent your little beach chair and umbrella, that one can barely see the ocean at all! So we drove until we found a free, open beach. Ellie enjoyed running down to the water, and throwing handfulls of sand at the sea- then shrieking and running back when the waves came in.

There is no denying that we produce a LOT of trash. When it's time to take the trash out, here is where it goes. Blue for bottles, yellow for paper, and gray for everything else. It's not a long walk, but since it's a common trash area, and it serves a number of buildings, it's a few hundred meters away. There is a big dog in one of the yards that likes to bark at me. First time he rushed to the gate, teeth glaring, I almost jumped out of my skin! Where did he come from?!

When we were leaving the grocery store one day, I looked up and saw all the clothes drying for two particular apartments. At first I thought, "The one family only wears white" and "that other family must only wear black". Which of course would be quite humorous.

Jess pointed out that "MOST people tend to wash the SAME color clothes in a single load, UNLIKE you". She used this opportunity to remind me that brand new reds simply can't go in a load with whites- a mistake I made last week.

Okay, check this out. My kids are a bit tired of the pasta and pizza, and they enjoy fish occasionally, so why not find some fish sticks here in Italy? I'm thinking, "Oh, this will be great. Pop 'em in the oven- lunch in just a few minute. Nice change of pace."

I must have failed to read the packaging, which I translate loosely from the Italiano: "Picture on the front cover has nothing to do with the fish by-products on the inside. Be forewarned that we have put something we found at the dock inside a box and now give it to you." The word Nasello on the cover is strangely similar to the word "Nasal", and given the resulting lunch we created, nasal was about right! One bite, and it all went in the trash. Come se dice "Disgusting"?


So, mama needs some new clothes. Her little tummy is already pooching out! So we went up to the Oviesse store, which was probably equivalent to a tiny Kohls or Meryvns. From what I could tell, quite a decent selection of nice, fashionable clothes. While Jess picked out some maternity pants and skirt, I took the girls next door for lollipops. It sure beats having Ellie barking like a dog, on all fours, inside the department store.