Lugano, Switzerland -- 7, Team Trish&Adele -- 0

Point 1 for Switzerland: No stamp in our passports. The border control guys just waved us through in a secret, "don't tell the boss but you can just go on in" kind of way. Sheesh.

Point 2: Switzerland, which I thought was part of the European Union and accepted Euros as its only currency, has in addition to the Euro, its own special currency: the Swiss Frank. Which wouldn't have been a problem except all of the parking spots we saw had meters that only accepted the Swiss Frank ($2 coin) and I didn't have any of those. And this led eventually to...

Point 3: Trish and I were so frustrated by this time that we pulled into the first non "Privato" Autosilo we saw. That happened to be, we later realized (see point 4) was for a grocery store.

Point 4: After an expensive meal (do you know what the exchange rate is for Swiss Franks? NOT GOOD!) with a cranky waitress who took 30 minutes to bring us our check, we walked back to the Autosilo where we'd parked...and to our utter HORROR, discovered that it was closed--as in "no entry, no other way in, must wait until this place opens again to get your car" CLOSED. We'd missed it by 15 minutes!

Point 5: And then, to make matters even worse, we figured out that the grocery store (and thus by extension the parking garage) would not reopen until MONDAY morning. Yes, folks, that's right: we had to wait about 36 hours until we could get the car again...that's if it hadn't been towed already....

Point 6: There wasn't a phone number anywhere to be found on or near the garage or the store front--but it wouldn't have mattered anyway because my new fancy global BlackBerry unit didn't have service, despite its fanciness. And the battery died because it takes a lot of power for the fancy phone to sit in my purse and tell time. And because my fancy phone was dead, we couldn't call our Field Relations Manager, Walter, who lives close to Milan to help us out. We were completely on our own. (Did I mention that by this time, it was 10:45pm...and we were in another country...alone...?)

Point 7--Winning Point: This point was an 'assist' by a series of unfortunate events that occurred in Milan. I will not bore you with the details of the long ordeal right now; let's just say that it took us 3 1/2 hours to get from the central train station in Milan to our hotel--a journey that by taxi took 5 minutes. This "detour" involved an eccentric old Italian man who didn't understand English, getting a personalized night tour of Milanese historic locations, "sans gluten free" bread sticks that tasted like burnt toast and rosemary, and an Obama-loving, chain-smoking teenager who ended up being a knight in a shining hoody.

Game Summary: Though Lugano was beautiful (and if you take the train tour, you'll find out from the 'Ukranian' driver that it even has its own swimming pool...), I don't think I'll be visiting there again....well, except for tomorrow morning when we go to pick up our rental car.

Good job, thank you very much, amen.

Ciao, Italia!

So, I'm here. In Italy. And I love it!

Tomorrow morning (it's 11:30pm here in Milan) I'll write a longer post with pictures and a verbose, "bowl-minded" narrative about what I've experienced. For now, here are the stats:

• Amount of time that my new global BlackBerry device has worked since we left the United States: 0 hours and 0 minutes 
• Number of connections to fly to Milan: 3 (SLC to Minneapolis...to Amsterdam...to Milan)
• Hours it took to travel from SLC to Milan: 17.5
• Number of wrong turns we took while trying to drive to the hotel in our little Fiat: 3 7,000 (which is code for too many to count)
• Number of hours in Italy (thus far): 13
• Total count of Gelaterias visited in the last 10 hours: 2
• Gelato flavors sampled: 5
• Fragola [FRAH-go-la] (strawberry)
• Pistacchio [pee-STAHK-yoh] (pistachio) -- 2 times
• Mango (mango)
• Stracciatella [strah-cha-TEL-lah] (like a chocolate chip ice cream) -- 2 times
• Limone [Lee-MON-ay] (lemon)

If Life Were A Musical...

I believe that life should be a musical. This idea hasn't caught on yet...but I hold out hope. And if it really were, I'd choreograph--or have Kenny Ortega choreograph--some killer dance numbers like the one.

Some of My Recent Adventures

Me on the beach at sunrise

After FGS finished, my friends/co-workers Anna and Crista joined me on a few adventures around the Philly area.

Sunday morning we woke up and left the hotel in Philly at dark o'clock and drove to Long Beach Island, New Jersey to watch the sunrise. Even though I was completely exhausted and could barely keep my eyes open (and I was driving!), I am grateful that we did it. The end result was simply breathtaking! Watching sunrise on the beach was worth every minute of exhaustion.

The Italian Stallion...and me!

A trip to Philly would not be complete without visiting the famous Rocky Steps (aka the steps of the Art Museum) and the statue of Rocky Balboa himself.

Remember the wise words of Rocky Balboa in Rocky IV: "If I's can change, and you's can change, EVERYBODY can change!" Amen.

70,000 Frequent Flyer Miles... and Still No Place to Rest My Head

I'm on the road...again. This time in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One would think that I'd get used to all of this travelling, but I never do. Even though I'm a more efficient packer and have my get-on-the-plane rituals (curbside check-in is a dream!), I still get anxious about leaving again and still can't sleep once I get to my (very posh) hotel room.

Case in point: It's 12:32am here in Philadelphia and I can't seem to fall asleep. I've checked my email 10 times already and could certainly keep working... but I just want to go to bed. Tomorrow will be a long day of setting up the booth at the Pennsylvania Convention Hall (thankfully the convention hall is within walking distance this time) and then the genealogy conference starts tomorrow night at 6:30pm and runs through Saturday evening. It's going to be a long week....

So, if you ever think that business trips are glamorous, think about this: My job takes me all over the country, but all I usually see are 1) the airport; 2) my hotel room for brief periods of time; 3) the convention hall; and 4) whatever restaurant we decide to eat at late at night after the exhibit hall closes for the night. Once in a while, I'll get to catch a historic monument or something like that; however, mostly I never get to actually see the city I'm in, which is kind of a shame. I really love to explore and travel; I just don't get to do that with my job. I fly in to set up, stay for the duration of the conference, and then I'm off to my next "adventure" in another city.

Maybe some day I'll be able to come back and visit all of the cities I've only seen through the windows of my hotel room / the convention center...?

Loco for Moco

Loco for Moco at the Hukilau Cafe in Lai'e

Being best friends with Julie has some definite perks... like going to Hawai'i twice during a six-month period. Granted, I had to pay for my own airfare and other sundries; however, the majority of expenses were paid for while she attended meetings at BYU-Hawai'i. Mahalo nui loa, Julie!

When we visited Oah'u in March, Julie's sister Amy traveled with us. On one of the mornings when Julie was working, Amy and I attempted to find some breakfast. We stumbled upon the Hukilau Cafe in Lai'e. There we sampled some of the finest home-cooking on the island--"ono food, yeah?" as they would say there.

We returned to the Hukilau Cafe again the next morning and were treated like locals: the waitress recognized us Haoles among the sea of brown people and even remembered the drinks we'd ordered from the day before. For the first three times we ate at the Hukilau Cafe, I ordered the famous local dish, Loco Moco, which is essentially two scoops of rice, 2-3 cooked eggs, meat (usually spam or hamburger), all covered in delicious brown gravy. It was yummy -- but soooo filling!

After the third breakfast of Loco Moco, I thought I might never be able to eat it again. But now that I'm writing about it, I'm getting a craving for some ono Loco Moco -- but I'll only eat it once, not three days in a row.