After the trip of a lifetime Tom and I are home again! It feels wonderful to be home, and strange at the same time. My house feels especially spacious. My hallways are as wide as most of Venice’s streets. The intersection in front of my home would be called a piazza in Italy, and my once “old” home seems sparkling new in comparison with the medieval farm houses we stayed in in Provence. The train ride home from the airport felt typical instead of “adventurous” and my large computer screen seems ridiculous after the last two weeks of no computer use.  It was wonderful to sweep my own floor, and I smiled as I dumped our very smelly- worn too many times without washing- travel clothes into the very hot water of the washer (in hopes of killing off any bed bugs that may have hitched a ride while staying at our one star hotels.) It feels good to be home, to know I can call each of you, e-mail you, and get back in touch with your lives. The last two and a half weeks have been nothing short of a dream. I promise we have much to report, but today I need to buy some food, pick up our mail, return books to the library, and teach a bunch of voice lessons. ‘Til then. . .