Italian Weekend, etc.

Item 1: Italy.
I spent the weekend camping on the Italian coast.

camping!

It was less of a coastal campsite and more of a beach with long-term parking. In my host family's defense, that's not their idea of the real thing - kitschy tourist towns just happen to be more practical when kids and other families are involved.

And it's not like it had nothing to offer. I saw some interesting things there including but not limited to:

* a few very creative body piercings

* This thing:

* a woman reading a magazine with the help of a magnifying class, a set of enormous reading glasses, and a pair of binoculars which were somehow attached directly to the lenses of said glasses.

Overall, it was a good time. Christian loves basketball, and even though I explicitly stated in my first letter to my host family that I do not play basketball I decided to play anyway because, you know, how bad could I possibly be? I was as bad as one would expect. Luckily, I redeemed myself when an American football was put in my hands and my ridiculous simian arms were finally put to good use. Props to my dad for teaching me how to throw that thing way back when and props to David for forcing me to go outside as a child.

Item 2: Didgeridoo

I went to a local baumarkt and made a didgeridoo out of PVC pipe and joints, with a duct tape mouthpiece. My host family loves it.

I'm not going to lie; I am pretty proud of myself for the choices I made in its construction. The tubing has the best acoustic properties I could ask for, their lengths make it compact enough to fit in my backpack, and the resonating chamber I put on the business end amplifies all the right frequencies. It handles surprisingly well - even better than the eucalyptus didge I played  a few weeks ago. 

...
Next report will be on Salzburg, apparently one of the most beautiful places in Austria.

Cheers,
-Jared Boze