Joyce's Pub

Hi everyone!
I forgot to let you guys in on a few developments! We finally got our 1 free meal a day from the team! WHOO HOOOOOOOO!!!!! We couldn't be more excited! The place is pretty close to our house and it's called Joyce's Pub! To get in you have to ring a little bell and they buzz you in - talk about security! Nate, Jordan, Eric, Coach Jag, and I get one free meal a day (always dinner for us) from this lovely restaurant! We can order pizza, pasta, or paninis! I can't even tell you how good our meals here have been! The first night I ordered gnocchi with a four cheese sauce. The next night, pizza with spicy salami, onions, and cheese! My last two dishes have been pasta (tomato sauce with eggplant and various spices) and they have been so incredibly delicious!!!!! Here's a pic of the boys at dinner

Also, I forgot to inform everyone that the young elephants football team played their first football game against Messina last Saturday! I was on hand to watch the game and enjoy the beautiful, sunny day! The team plays at the CUS which is the field at the University of Catania. This is where Jordan's team will play their games as well! The field is pretty nice and on a sunny day, it makes the perfect tanning spot :) The boys played a great game! They went into double overtime and ended up losing by only 1 point! Check out the view of the field complete with Mt. Etna in the background! 

Arrivederci :) 

Taormina

Hello all!
I couldn't wait to blog about the trip that we took to Taormina, Sicily yesterday! Jordan and the boys went to work out in the morning and then we went to Nate & Eric's house in Acitrezza to meet up. We all piled in the car (Eric, Jordan, Nate, Lance & Laura (Eric's friends who were visiting) and me (in the trunk!)) It's about a 45 minute drive from Catania to Taormina and it's one of the most beautiful drives I've ever been on! The mountains, the vineyards, the green hills . . . so gorgeous! When we got to Taormina we parked and headed out to tour the city. It's a very quaint town right on the sea in northern Sicily. We walked around taking pictures, stopping at souvenir shops, and stopping for a bite to eat. It is one of the coolest places I have ever been to! The town is adorable, the water is so blue, and the views are breathtaking! We can't wait to come back in the summertime and hit the beach! Hope you enjoy some of my favorite pics from the trip!

Ciao for now :)

city sidewalks

Andddd we're back! Sorry about the long delay! Just wanted to get you guys up to speed on what's been happening here in Catania! Jordan's game is coming up this Saturday in Milan and I get to fly over there with the team and see it! I'm so very excited! Also, my mom and wonderful friend, Lauren, are coming to visit us on Sunday! Hooray! This weekend will be full of fun! The weather has been wonderful lately . . . until today! It's currently storming and quite chilly outside! Summer can't get here soon enough!

For this blog post, I'll share some pictures and some stories from our walk around the city with Nate and Eric.

Here we are with the one and only George W! We found him on an Italian photobooth in the middle of the city!

 Here are the boys in front of a fountain in the middle of a piazza near our house! Very pretty! If you look in the background you can see the date spelled out with rocks and grass. How cool is that?!

Here are the boys in front of Mt. Etna! It's so neat that it's so near our house!

The ruins of what was once the 'colloseum' of Catania! Just like the colloseum in Rome! You can even walk down the stairs and venture around the ruins!  

This is the inside of the church of St. Agata! It's really beautiful and quite large! There was a service going on while we were inside - complete with a children's choir!

The famous 'elephant statue' in the middle of the city! Hence where the Catania Elephants got their name!

This is the outside of the church of St. Agata! Super ornate and very very beautiful!

That's all for now! Jordan's coming to pick me up from the bookstore since it's pouring down rain outside! The power went off a little bit ago so I think it's best to get home quickly! Sorry for the delay and I promise that we will write again soon! Can't wait for you to hear about our upcoming adventures!

Ciao, ciao, ciao



Team 'Namberdanic'

Hello all!
Hope you've enjoyed reading our blog so far! It's a lazy Sunday for us here in Catania! Jordan and I slept in, he made eggs for breakfast, and 30 minutes later was already starving haha. We had a little bit of food at our apartment but decided to go get some more pasta from our neighborhood ARD (supermarket). To our surprise it's closed on Sunday! Oh no! As we were walking back home we saw a little cafe that was open and decided to stop in. We got an arancino, a calzone, a cappucino, and Jordan got a macchiato! The coffee was delicious but the food left something to be desired. When we got back home I made 'pizzabobs' on the stovetop - a grilled cheese with mozarella and salami inside, and some spicy pasta! Molto buono! After lunch Jordan and I watched 'The Town' on my computer and then headed to the bookstore! What a nice day!

This week was our first chance to meet Jordan and Nate's new teammate, Eric Marty! Our wolf pack has grown by one and we're officially 'Team Namberdanic' (NAte, AMBERly, jorDAN, & erIC) Our first night with Eric we all went to dinner - horse meat, horse hamburgers, cipollata, sausage, and vino! It was so very good and we closed the place down!

On Thursday night we all went out in downtown Catania. We stumbled upon a neat little bar where the walls were covered with post-it-notes! All of the post it notes had messages or pictures on them - mostly in Italian, but some in English. Jordan, Eric, and I decided to make our own and put them on the wall - Of course we made shout outs to the Catania Elephants, our wonderful home country, and the greatest state in all the land!



Last night we went to a club in downtown Catania for an Elephants team party! The owner and manager spoke, the imports (both American and Italian) were introduced, and we got to see some neat video highlights of the elephants and the Italian Football League! So much fun! Everybody on the team wore a black tie with the elephants symbol on it and we danced and partied the night away! Too bad drinks were so dang expensive! Jordan paid 16 Euro for 2 drinks! CRAZY!

And in honor of the rodeo starting in Houston I wore my cowboy boots. I'm a Texas girl at heart!

That's all for now. Sorry this post is so lengthy! Happy Sunday to all of you!
Ciao from Catania! XOXO

Pizza Files: Party Time!

Annnnnd I'm back! Sorry for the hiatus folks, we have been experiencing the coldest and wettest winter in Catania in the last 100 years so it's been hard to get out and get some good internet. Other than the weather, things have been great. We downloaded some movies/tv series from another Elephant teammate, and have been watching alot of 'Dexter' and 'Family Guy' while hiding out from the weather. Also, when I return back to the states I will be opening my own cooking school based solely around the prinicples of only being able to use a stove top while still managing to cook up tasty meals... cause that's all we have right now and Team Jormberly is keeling it* in the food prep department! Alright, and now without further delay... It's time to go clubbing!

We decided to go to this house music* club last Saturday to hear a female, German DJ bump some good techno tracks and fist pump like real Italians. It was about 15 minutes outside of Catania so Amberly, Nate, Mathieu (teammate), Jag (head coach), and myself piled into Nate's whip, said our prayers (if you read the Mt. Etna blog, you know why I say this), and all headed out to the club. Here is the dancefloor/stage area before the show.

Another Elephant teammate, Christopher, works there as a bartender so we were able to bypass the lines all night which ended up being great cause it got really crowded once the show started. The DJ was awesome and had everyone on the floor going gnutes*

Now for those of you out there who have never experienced a house music show, there is a lot of fun and excitement about hearing this different genre of music in a live setting that just cant be replicated anywhere else, but it brings out some weirdos...

Now in gold Kanye's defense, it is Carnivale time of year which is basically Mardi Gras over here so he wasn't the only one dressed up, just the weirdest. Just ask this 14 year old boy in a tuxedo...

 Oh wait, that was our female German DJ. This photo doesn't even do her weirdness justice, but she could spin some sick tracks so its tutto bene*.

This is a picture from right in front of the stage. if you have some time, try and pick out how many different people in costumes that you can distinguish. For example, I have picked out 'Jack Sparrow' and a pimp, but I'm still looking for Waldo

And then there are these two Americans making idiots of themselves... But we all had an awesome time and everyone got home safe at the end of the night. We hope you enjoyed our review of nightlife in Catania, and be sure to check below for my new addition to the blog: Jordan's Translations!*

Ciao,ciao,ciao,ciao,ciao,ciao

Jordan

Keeling it- doing something really good.

House Music-  electronic music that relies more on beats and sounds, than on words and melody

Gnutes (noo-tz)- when something is awesome, it can be described as 'that is nuts'. When something is gnutes, it is even more awesome.

Tutto bene- Italian for 'it's all good'



Around the city

Howdy! I hear it's 'Go Texan' day in our neck of the woods so I thought I'd start this post out right! We have been slacking on our blogging and we know it! Today, we're here to remedy that situation. I'm posting some pics of our wonderful city! We thought you might enjoy seeing what we see every day when we walk out of our apartment and when we drive around the city! Just the general sights & feel of our lovely Catania! (I apologize for the poor picture quality)





The view from outside of our apartment 

 Our apartment door! (right next to that sweet blue graffiti)

Jordan standing in front of the square on via etna - the 'carnivale' was going on (everybody dresses up and it's like a mardi gras party! Too bad it was rained out!)

 The Mediterranean Sea

The view of Mt. Etna and the city of Catania from the road

 The street signs in Catania - could they be more confusing?!

Another view of the city from the road

Mt. Etna! Isn't it beautiful?!

That's all from me for now! Sending love from Sicily!
Ciao!

internet!

Howdy folks! Sorry for the delay in posting but . . . we finally have internet!!!!! Well . . . sort of. Here's the story:

This afternoon we walked to go get aranchinis (fried balls of rice, cheese, meat, and sauce) with Nate, Eric (the new qb), Jag (the coach), and Christian (an Italian player) for lunch! They are so so so delicious! When you walk into the restaurant, you see what you like in the glass cabinet, you pay for it at the cash register, you hand your ticket to the man behind the counter, and then he hands you your food. You don't sit down to eat, you kind of just mill around and feel super in the way the whole time. When we were done eating, Christian drove us back to our apartment and started setting up our vodaphone internet. Normally this is great, but since we live in the dungeon, we get no service - and that's what the internet needs to work! So, as I write this blog, I'm sitting on the stoop of our apartment, in our courtyard, in the rain because this is the only place the internet works. Haha, sadly, I don't care because I'm just excited to have internet at/near our house! Whoo hoo! We'd love to skype with anybody that wants to - we skyped my grandparents and my parents the other day at Nate's house and it's pretty fun! So,find us @ amberlyjune or jordan lake!

Also, some other developments, we've officially found our mailbox, labeled it, and had the postman fill it with mail! Whoo hoo! Thanks sands, nana & gramps, and Mrs. Andrea for sending us mail! Makes us feel good to open it up and read some english :)

Alright, that's all for now as the rain is starting to pick up (it's rained for the past 2 days straight). Miss you all and love ya bunches! Pics & another post coming soon!


Ciao