Riddle Family In Italy

Bari 2 - Inter 2...

Well, Saturday we were at Stadio San Nicola with over 50,000 other people for the Bari-Inter game.  It was a lot of fun!  We got there about two hours early in order to ensure that we got seats that we would like.  We got tickets and they have assigned seats, but my ticket put me in one section and Micah was in another!  Needless to say, we sat together!

We had good seats in the corner.  We were just under the section reserved for the visitor's fans, obviously this time full of Interista!  The area underneath them was full of Inter fans also an I was the lone Bari fan for a good little distance.  There were two things that kept me safe, one: Micah and I spoke most of the night in English!  The people around us figured we were not Italians in this way!  Two: Micah was wearing his Inter Scarf and people also realized that we were a father/son pair that cheered for different teams!

 I was actually impressed with the Inter fans.  Before every Bari home game, the crowd sings the song "Grande Amore".  It is really something that shows the passion that the fans have for their team and is probably something that Timothy Barton (American investor who wanted to buy AS Bari) never was able to comprehend.  After the song was done, the inter fans applauded the Bari fans for the song.  It was cool to see.  Also during the song, the Bari fans all hold up their scarves as another show of support for the team.

It was actually a good game!  Bari has been playing really well all year and after beating Juve the other week, feel that they can play with just about any team out there.  During the first half, Bari was finding HUGE holes in the Inter defense, but unfortunately for them, they were never able to get a goal in the first half.

When the second half started, it was pretty much the same thing.  Bari attacked repeatedly into the Inter zone and were finally rewarded with a hand ball in the box by Samuel.  When Barretto put the ball in the goal for the penalty shot, San Nicola erupted! It was even louder a few minutes later when Barretto repeated the feat!  It was at this point that Micah made my night.  He leaned over to me, gave me a hug and said, "It's ok Dad, I still love you!"  That is a memory that I will carry for a long time!

Inter came back though.  The match ended in a tie even though I think and many other people think that Bari deserved the victory.  In order to have the victory, you still have to go out there and get it!  Next year, maybe that will be what happens.

Bari - Inter Tonight...

 

Well, tonight we are going to be heading to Stadio San Nicola for the big Bari - Inter game!  The "we" are me and my oldest son, Micah.  It is going to be crazy at the stadium to say the least tonight.  It was packed the night of Bari - Juve and I think that this game there was a higher demand for tickets!  If we wanted to make money tonight we could sell these tickets for a bunch, but I would rather go to the game with my son! 

Micah is a big Inter fan and I will be cheering hard for Bari!  Inter is the leader in the classifica but Bari was able to pull off a tie when they started the season against Inter in Milano.  Inter has a number of players hurt also, so there is a possibility of having an upset tonight.  Let's hope so!

I will get photos of the match up tomorrow!  Phil & Christopher I am really hoping that Inter goes down tonight!!  :)

Three Years...

Three years ago today, we got on an airplane in Philadelphia with our three boys and came here to Italy.  It has been an interesting three years to say the least!  We have changed.  Our boys can speak two languages now and are comfortable in a whole new world.  We have come to appreciate a new and very different culture.  We have learned that sometimes the plans that God has for your life are much different than the plans that you might make for yourself.  We have found friends and the number of people we know continues to grow. 

Each year we, as a church give out calendars and our first year we handed out about five to people that we knew.  Last year we gave out about 20 and this year we have given out between 100 - 120 to people that we know or are acquainted with here in our community.  This work of growing the church, of bringing a message of hope in Jesus Christ is what we are hear for and more and more people are hear the message each day! 

It has been an exciting three years and thank God for this opportunity to serve Him!

Eleven o'clock in the morning...

We leave the house about 8:00 am to take the boys to school.  If we are doing well, we are a little bit before eight, but in general we leave at 8:00 am.  We walk to school and then take Isaiah to pre-school and by the time all is said and done, it is about 8:30.  Sometimes we need to go do some shopping in order to make lunch and then we head back to the house.  It is truly amazing though how much time it takes us to do these errands any more.  The number of people that we know in this area has grown substantially and we are constantly stopping to talk to people and catch up on how they are doing.  It is one of the things we are here for.

One of the things that we have learned in the past couple of years is the fact that many people like to talk to each other but very few people will take the time to listen to others and what they are going through.  Being a listener takes time and because we do that, it is a rare day that we return to the house after taking the boys to school before 11:00 o'clock in the morning.  It is good though because people are learning that we do care about them and are willing to hear them and their concerns.  It takes time to be a listener, but it is time well spent. 

Blessings to you all and take time today to hear someone else's story for a little and also take jut a moment to listen to God.  It may just change your day!

American Night...

It has been almost a month so that means that I should write another blog entry!  So, here goes...

On Saturday the 9th of January, we had an "American Night" here at the house.  It was a lot of fun for us to host it and was a great time to be together with friends both from the church and from the community here in Carbonara.  We celebrated "Thanksgiving"!  Yes, it was a little late but it was a suggestion from one of our friends here and we thought that Thanksgiving Dinner was about the most American meal we could think of!  So, for the entire day, Mel and I were in the kitchen mixing, baking, cooking and cleaning to get the meal together.  We had a 14 lb. turkey with about 8 lbs. of ham with mashed potatoes, corn, carrots, peas, bread and gravy!  We did a lot of cooking!  Then for dessert we had pumpkin custard, dutch apple pies, banana bread, zucchini bread and chocolate pumpkin bars.  We ate well also!

We had 26 people in our house all at one table!!  It was so cool!  We ate and talked for about an hour and then brought out some of the games that we brought from the the States.  Over the past couple of weeks I was even able to get a Corn Hole game constructed!  It is truly an American game to which we have added an international flavor!  The "holes" are the American and Italian flags and the bags that we throw are in the colors of our favorite Italian soccer teams! 

Our friends enjoyed the time together and also the games that were new to them.  We had Rush Hour, Stormy Seas and Ugly Doll going most of the time.  It was truly a blessing to see so many in our house and having a good time together.  We hope that we can build on this experience together and have more of them in the future.