First few days--getting acclimated

It is now Wednesday afternoon and Francesca is “trying to take a nap” and watching the flies bump in to each other in the bedroom. For those of you unfamiliar with European homes, there are no screens, the bugs are meant to fly through the houses and apartments.
I left off the last post arriving in Jesi. Joe took us on a walking tour of the city. We walked to the Parco Publico and Francesca checked out the playground, then we walked through the town center which is in the walled part of the city, past Joe’s school, and then to a Pizzeria. It was great food, and it was wonderful to see Joe.
Jesi is not a tourist destination. It will help us to understand Italy better by experiencing the culture and the slower pace of life that the Italians have (aside from the driving). The people here are friendly. On Monday, Francesca and I went to the park and then to a grocery store to buy a few items that we had failed to pack. While in the grocery store, a woman stopped to ask us if we were “Inglese o Americana?” I responded appropriately only to have her excitedly speak to me in Italian and then notice my baffled facial expression. The last thing she asked was “Capiche?” and the correct response was “no” and that was the end of it. This was not the only time we have had people ask. I’m guessing that no too many Americans frequent the stores like Francesca and I will. The culinary school does have American students, but they are in class all day long and the school purchases groceries for them twice a week.
We also have groceries delivered through the school. It is great, Joe brings home the left overs and if you have seen the picture of “Pranza” on his blog, know that there are only 8-10 people eating lunch so the left overs are split among the students. This is great because we don’t have to worry too much about food costs. We do plan to eat out once a week to experience some of the restaurants here.
Francesca and I had lunch yesterday at Joe’s school. Everyone was very nice. The kitchens are wonderful and the food—fantastico!
One thing we didn’t plan for was the rain and cold that we experienced yesterday, so our first order of business today was to buy jackets. I am still without, but Francesca got a cute little blue hoodie.
This weekend we hope to get to Senigalia which is a small beach town about 30 minutes away by train.
Not much else to report at this point in time!