A big delayed hello to all my friends and family! I apologize for my complete lack of a post in over two weeks, but honestly, nothing much blog worthy has happened. Jess and I are currently working at a hostel in Brindisi, Italy, and let's just say we had a rough start. When we arrived, there were two other delightful workers here through workaway, Amy and Sara. They are both from England and studying Italian at a top notch University in England. On our first night here we met Amy, Sara, Maurizio (the hostel owner), and his girlfriend, Steph. Also living in the hostel is Maurizio's 21 year old daughter, Marianne, and her fiance, Luciano. A frequent visitor of the hostel, Maurizio's slightly neurotic ex-wife, Elaine, was also "introduced" to us during our first few days. She's nothing but nice to Jess and me, but let's just say things get loud when her and Maurizio are "talking". Sometimes she brings along Maurizio's other daughter, 15 year old Julia. It was a very strange arrangement to us at first, and a little awkward while they fought, but once we got to know Maurizio and his daughters better, things became a bit more comfortable. The daughters are both lovely and speak perfect Italian and English, thanks to an Italian father and English mother. Jess and I eat lunch and dinner every day with Maurizio, Steph (whom we love!), Marianne, Luciano, and whoever else is working in the hostel. Sara and Amy left about a week after we arrived, but not before they taught us everything we need to know about running the hostel. There's checking in the guests, making reservations,serving breakfast, stripping beds, laundry, serving drinks at the bar, and just attending to the guests in general. Maurizio has a cleaning lady come do all the dirty work and she's quite the character. Between the hours of 12 and 3, whenever is most convenient for her, Ensa the cleaning woman meanders in, cigarette in hand. We've told her in Italian several times we don't speak any Italian (It's the only phrase we've learned; "Non parlo Italiano"), but I think she's in denial. Amy and Sara warned us that would happen and to ignore her. So Jess and I look at her blankly and say yes and no in random combination. It seems to be effective because she just goes back to work, always with a cigarette in one hand and a cleaning rag in the other. If anything, her antics break up the day, which can be very long and boring.
Maurizio, Steph, Marianne, and Luciano get up at six to open Maurizio's latest business endeavor, a bar/mini mart/coffee shop. It's about a one minute walk down the road and seems to absolutely devour their time. Jess and I, and our recent addition, Susannah, watch the hostel from 7:30 until 1 AM. At first, Jess and I were pretty miserable. After Amy and Sara left, it was just us two for about a week and a half to run the hostel. Maurizio's a really a great man, who's a barrel of fun and seems to really care about his workers. The problem is, with his newly acquired business, he doesn't have much time to be at the hostel. The work load is easy enough, but when it was just the two of us, it was difficult staying in the hostel morning, day and night with nothing to do. And even if we did get out, Brindisi is not the most prime location. There's a pretty main street with lots of shops, but that's pretty much it. In the beginning, the guests were minimal because of the close of the summer season and for some reason, there were a lot of 50+ couples staying here (in a YOUTH hostel). Not that there's anything wrong with being 50+, it just wasn't what we were expecting and they tend to whine a lot more than the 20 year old backpackers thankful for a bed to sleep in. Despite the less than ideal situation, Jess and I made the best of it. I've been keeping busy by utilizing my newly found organizational skills and revamping a lot of the storage areas in the bar and kitchen. There's a lot of "stuff" here (hoarders heaven you could say), and I'm doing my best to rearrange things in a more aesthetically pleasing manner (and also trying not to give into my very strong desire to throw everything away). We have each made lunch for everyone, both a great success I might add, and Jess has whipped up a lunch for just us a few times as well. Jess insists on doing the morning shift because that's when the most work needs to be done and that girl just can't sit still. I try to help out, but I usually become hyper-focused on one chore and end up spending hours on it. In the afternoon, Jess likes to sit on the roof, go on walks around the city, or take the occasional nap, while I sit in the lobby and watch over things. I've gone on a couple of runs and walks, but mostly I just sit in the hostel. After only a few short days, Jess and I were looking to get out, but Susannah's arrival has greatly improved things. She's from Richmond, Virginia and taking a gap year in college just to travel around. She's very upbeat and perky, which is just what we needed here. Also, since her arrival, we've had a lot of young guests who have been really amazing to meet. At night we play cards with the guests or just talk about our different travels and lives back home (a favorite point of conversation with EVERYONE is the drinking age in the States, which we enjoy discussing as well). The three of us got a couple hours off one night and we went to a festival in Brindisi, which was really fun! There was live music, lots of lights, live infomercials, tons of unhealthy food, and just a bunch of stuff for sale (purses, jewelry, birds, snakes, and any other small animal). Susannah also watched the hostel for a whole day while Jess and I went on a day trip to Lecce and Otronto (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otranto, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lecce,_Italy). Both places were really beautiful and totally worth the mess of transportation that it took to get there and back. There was a 45 minute train ride to Lecce, a two hour train ride to Maglia, then a 45 bus ride to Otronto. It was a hassle, bus as I said, totally worth it. We had some DELICIOUS sea food in Lecce on our way home. I had "pasta with seafood", which was a linguine pasta with shrimp, mussels (I finally braved those terrible smelling creatures), and squid. Jess had swordfish and we both devoured our food with relish. That trip was a couple of days ago and now we are back in the old swing of things. Now that things are going so well, we are sad to leave (which we are doing earlier than planned), but we are also highly anticipating our next workaway undertaking in southern France! We both leave Brindisi on Sunday, Jess heading to Rome and I to Interlaken. We will then meet up a few days later near Geneva and spend a long weekend helping out a couple with their bed and breakfast. Jess will travel after that and I'm heading to Spain for the month of October to help out at a horse farm. But as you guys know too well, plans do change. In summary (I'm sure all my English teachers are all cringing at that conclusion intro haha), Jess and I had a rough adjustment period here, but we evolved and found solutions. Our time here is quite enjoyable with the new company and more vibrant guests, but Jess and I remain restless during the day, hence our early departure time. I promise to let you guys know how Switzerland/France is once I get there!
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