Last Day, we made it home!! !

Our last dinner was great. We had about five clubs attend and it was very crowded. Luciano was the main contact for Calgliari and did a great job with getting everything set up for us. We made it home on our 10.5 hour flight, then had about a five hour lay over in Chicago. We went to Morton's for a good American Steak! It was great, we even had bread and butter and ice in our water. By the time we got onto our flight to OKC, we were hitting a wall. We all made it safely back and are glad to be home. Bose's best friend was there to welcome us with a fancy sign. I am now going through all of my new stuff and sorting out the many memories before I head out and get the rest of my life in order. I can't wait to see my girls later tonight!!!! I think I get a welcome home dinner at The Boulevard tonight with my parents and the girls. Life is sweet. I will jump back into work tomorrow and am looking forward to it. Ciao.

Cagliari

Visited a company called Aborea in Oristano yesterday. A huge milk and cheese company and very impressive. It was a great tour. Went to a local farm where some of their milk is sourced from. The bull on the left was HUGE!! The cow on the right was his girlfriend for the moment. It was am impressive farm and the owners were very kind to our group!! Saw many other spots for vocation yesterday and ended the day with great pizza and friends!!! Went to the local market this morning and saw many things, mostly various parts of every animal in Sardania. It was so crowded with the locals. We fianally got a nice day at the beach to relax and enjoy. We are just about ready to give our last presentation for the month. We head home tomorrrow. It has been a fun trip.

Cagliari Day One

Tour of Cagliari with some new friends. Dinner with my host, his girlfriend and friends. We visited the largetst Radio Telescope in Italy, the second largest in the world!! It is under construction. Had more porcetta for lunch. Lacey did not like the pic face!! I ended up eating the ear, but not the brains!! More historic ruins. It is nice in Calgari on Sunday as most things are closed. Tomorrow we have more vocation.

Iglesias

Had a great dinner with Marisa Dessi (host Rotarian) and her family last night!!! Big vocation day today. Visted a very impressive meat company by the name of Salumitaliani (or Porro). They were very advanced with technology and had an amazing inventory system for thier products. Visited a small pasta facility, family owned. The plant was close to 40 years old, but had been updated with new equiupment and looked brand new. It was great to see this process. We had lunch and a tour at a wine factory and then visted Porto Flavio, an old mining area used here in Iglesias. We were underground in the mining tunnels with hard hats and flashlights.

Oristano

Oristano was a very quick trip for the GSE team. We were able to take a tour of the city where most of the children were dressed up in traditional costumes of the area. We visited the Oristano museum, a few churches and a monestary. We later took a trip to the old ruins of Tarros, which were inhabited by the early settlers of Oristano and Sardinia prior to the Romans. Only one third of the area has been excivated so far and it has not been touched for close to 30 years. (due to funding) After our tour, we were able to relax for about one hour on a small beach next to the Mediteranian Sea. After a tour of the local fish farm, we headed back for lunch got ready to travel to Iglesias.

Ozieri

Here I am with Diego and Jiovanna, my hosts in the small town of Ozieri. Sat next to Catarina at both lunch and dinner yesterday. ( I think we are dating!) She did not speak much English but we were able to communicate well. Is it possible my Italian is getting better?? Catarina and her husband were celebrating 50 years of marraige. The night ended with the traditional Sardanian love song. Got it all on video. Yesterday, we visited two cheese plants and a small knife factory.

Supramonte de San Giovanni

RICOLA!!!!!!!!

Had a great time with both Italian and French Rotarians at the Super Mountains of San Giovanni. What a great day!! Not only did we have to practice our Italian, but they threw in some French. There is also another language spoken here in Sardania that is closer to Spanish. To many words to learn in one day, but overall, we are learning a lot!!

Porto Tores

4 million pounds of corn can be stored here!!!

Left Siniscolla after the wine tasting competition. GSE OKC got to pick the 2nd and 3rd place wine for the Sardanian competition. There was also a huge Italian wedding in the same location and it was quite the experince! The team later went to Porto Tores and had another great experience. Antonio and Nina were so much fun and hosted most of the team. We were able to break away (quickly) for a trip to the beach, but later visited the fertalizer, feed, and seed plant of Antonio. It was very impressive!! He imports fertalizer from all over the world and exports feed and seed to areas in Italy. A true entreprenuer and self made man. He loved to kiss the GSE OKC girls on the cheaks!! A totally fun guy!! The team celebrated with a bottle of champagne after the tour in true Antonio style. Thank goodness for our few interpreters.

Tivoli, Rieti, Viterbo, Bolsena....4 cities/1 week

In Viterbo I got to visit another geologist office where he gave me two presentations about the types of rocks in Italy and how they utilize seismic data. I even got to play with some of their geologic software and we discussed the differences between Oklahoma rocks and those in Italy.


In Bolsena we were blessed with a wonderful translator! Francesca is only 16 years old and she was absolutely amazing! At lunch she was even able to translate a conversation between her dad and I about wind energy b/c he is an engineer that builds wind farms (so interesting)!


In Rieti my host mom, Monica Palazzoli, was the best cook in the world! I can't wait to try her pastry recipe. I'm still missing her food. Although Giampiero and Monica (host parents) didn't speak English it was as though I could understand them perfectly. They're son Gian-Marco also informed me that he knew of OKC b/c he watched the THUNDER in the playoffs! So, OKC is officially famous!


While in Bolsena we toured an olive oil production company.


In Tivoli I spent a day with Francesco Poggi. Francesco is a geologist that owns a Travertin Quarie. The production process was pretty amazing and so was the sulfur water. The sulfur water is known for it's healing powers and I will say that my feet were SUPER soft for a couple of days after I got in it. He was even kind enough to give me a piece to take home!

Siniscola

Doing these presentations is getting pretty easy, but I need to practice singing OKLAHOMA. I keep getting the words wrong. We ate well and had Carpretto, which is goat in Italy. It was pretty good. We all got gifts from the club and the girls wanted to show off thier traditional Sardinia wedding rings. I got a cool pocket knife made out of a goats horn and Michelle got a fancy pendant. Earlier in the day, we got to go sail on the Mediteranian with Mimo our Rotarian Capitan. It was a great day overall.

They actually serve sardines in Sardania! These little suckers were brought out with the wine and cheese at a pre dinner get together. Visited a local grocery store, more like a Wal Mart of Sardania. Food, clothes and everyday home stuff. Very nice. Finally visited a huge meat plant that makes Salame, Salsiccia, Pancetta and PROSCIUTTO!! It was very impressive. This is me with the owner's daughter and our tour guide. Great family business that started small and grew to the best in Sardinia. They supply Sardania and several parts of Rome. The team is staying in the same home while we visit Siniscola, Sardania. We are staying with Partizio and Orieta. We got to sleep in a little bit today and are actually having eggs and bacon. Eggs are right from the hen house (litterally) and we had chicken eggs and duck eggs. The "bacon" is really ham, Italian style. Very salty and very good! We are finally wearing shorts due to the nice weather and lack of piove (rain). Ciao!

What a great trip with the Bolsena Rotary club. We did so much here and had wonderful places to stay!! We visited the town where the 1965 version of Romeo and Juliet was filmed (hence the death scene photo with me and Lacey). The team had a great lunch on day one with a ton of great food and wine. Many tours of museums and old Etruscan ruins, very interesting!! We also toured a sheep and lamp slaughter facility (Bose and Lacey could not take it). The olive oil company was way cool! Next time you are at an Italian restaurant, take a piece of bread and cover it with salt, apply the olive oil and WOW!! It is delicioso!! The wine cellar was the best!!!! We are now off to the island of Sardinia. Thank you to Francesca for being such a great interpretur for the team. Very smart 16 year old who will make it big one day!!! And thank you to Carlo and Lucia for being great hosts. I loved smoking your cigars!!!