First night...

It was my first night in Lugano on August 23rd...late on August 23rd. After my flight out of San Diego was canceled I was rerouted in order to still arrive in Lugano Sunday, which was important since I was starting work on Monday morning. Instead of the more direct route, I flew from San Diego to Dallas, Dallas to Heathrow, Heathrow to Zurich, Zurich to Lugano barely. I was literally the last person to board the flight to Lugano. If I hadn't made it on the plane, I might still be stuck in Zurich, unless I had taken the train. I finally arrived in Lugano after at least 24 hours of traveling. Blair, a returning TASIS teacher, was so sweet and picked me up at the airport at about 7pm, only about 6 hours late. From the airport, with none of my three bags, we went to meet the rest of the TASIS Elementary School teachers at a Grotto for dinner. We were told Grottos are just outdoor restaurants owned by families. To me, it seemed like we were at the most picturesque camping site you can imagine. Unlike you would think in a town with a strong Italian feel and influence, the specialty at the Grotto was mainly meat. We had red meat that was similar to a beaf stroganof flavor and coniglio or rabbit. These dishes also came with polenta and mushrooms. To drink, we had just the local table wine with "gasoso" to make it a little more bearable, kind of like a wine spritzer. I was looking forward to some great italian wine. After dinner, Blair took me to antoher teacher's apartment to borrow some clothes. From there we finally headed to my apartment for the next two months. I was able to get to sleep rather easily, but woke up at 4 am and was not ever able to get back to sleep. Luckily, the internet and landline are already hooked up in the apartment, so I had some diversions. It was an early morning heading up to Di Nobili (the dining room) for breakfast at 8am.