Something New

Well, I'm sorry to say that my craptastic hair has returned. However, this time it's due to the crummy weather and not any appliances that I shorted out.

It has rained or snowed here all weekend long. I actually welcome the snow over rain, because the rain is steady, cold and completely bone soaking. Not pleasant I assure you.

This morning Sean and I had our lease signing over at housing bright and early. It took nearly two hours to complete all of it. The housing lady said mainly because the apartment we picked is brand-new, which requires a little bit more of paperwork.

It was quite a scene in the office. Picture Sean and I, who don't speak much Italian, unless you count my mastery of the Italian numerals from 1-10, the alphabet and the all important, "I'd like a table for two" among other things. Not exactly a mastery of the Italian language. Then picture our landlord, who as far as I know doesn't speak a lick of English. It was quite interesting.

Our government furniture and appliances are being delievered Friday and hopefully our household goods and unaccompanied baggage will be along soon. I actually went to Transportation the other day to inquire about them, but all the lady could tell me was that they were delayed. It was hard not to be sarcastic, I mean really? They're late? I never would have guessed. I guess they were scheduled to arrive the 26 of January. I'm hoping they aren't too late. I kind of want to get my stuff.

I'm busy all this week trying to get the utilities set up for our apartment. Tomorrow is the electric company, Wednesday is the house inspection, Thursday is the gas company. Don't worry about the language barrier though, they are kind enough to send a translator with you to help out with the process. Thank God!

I have some big news! Sean and I got a laptop. I must confess I am very behind in technology. This is our first laptop, but I'm so excited. It's a Toshiba and quite honestly it's just awesome. I can't get a good wireless signal in our hotel though,so I'm still having to visit the library to check the Internet, but it's nice to finally have a laptop!

Oh...and I'm happy to say that Sean has stopped with the muffin-top nickname. I guess telling him that the blogging world thought he was a jackass for calling me that helped immensely. He even cooked me dinner Friday night and took me bowling. Don't even ask about bowling. I honestly don't have that many gutterballs, maybe 3 and yet I still can't break 100.

Hope your Monday is great!

A Confession

Today has been another dreary sort of day here, luckily not dreary enough to hamper my view of the lovely mountains.

My morning consisted of waking up at 5:30 to the sound of the electric going off and the back-up generators starting up across the street at the health center. Besides a full night of raining, I'm not sure what could have possibly caused the electric to go out. It was back up and running though in a couple of hours.

Sean and I had an early appointment at the housing office this morning for our pre-negoiations. The lady in charge of private rentals called our landlord and nailed down a few extra details. We are set to sign the lease on Monday and will move in next Friday. I am very excited. The only non-exciting part is we don't have our car yet and will be relying on someone from Sean's unit to shuttle us back and forth, but that's already been set-up so I don't feel quite so bad.

I've been reading a lot since I've been here. I just finished a book about the FLDS and Warren Jeffs, written from the perspective of one of the wives who had been in a polygamous marriage and then later escaped with her eight children. It was a very good read. I believe it's called Escape by Carolyn Jessop, if you have time you should check it out. Other than that I've mostly been devouring the travel books that the on-post library has. They have an unbelievable selection and I've been trying to get a feel of what places I want to go see in the near and not so near future.

I also have a slight confession to make. I noticed the other day on one of my posts that a few people commented about me moving here and being brave. Trust me, I don't feel brave at all. The first night we landed, I'm not sure if it was stress/jet lag or a combo of several other things, but I was a wreck. I had been so excited to move here for so long and then when I finally got here I felt overwhelmed. It was a new place, I didn't know the language, I was across the ocean from all my friends and family, etc. To put it mildly I was scared silly. So it means a lot that ya'll are encouraging and actually think that I am brave. So thank you!

For some reason Sean put me in charge of trying to find him some winter PT's...why this is my job I have no idea.

Ciao!

A Tale of Two Homes

Just a lazy Sunday here in Italy, Sean and I are at the USO using the computers since the library is closed on Sundays here. Always closed when I need to find a good book. Isn't that the way it goes?

I did however want to update all of you on our housing tours the other day.

First up was the pink house, which in reality isn't as pink in person as the pictures make it seem. At first glance it seemed great. I mean, a whole entire house to ourselves. Just what I thought would make the perfect Italian experience.

Then we got inside.

Ok, so it wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great, it wasn't even close. For starters it's not finished. The landlords are painting, wires are sticking out of the wall, waiting for someone to finish up with that, etc.

I do love the room that it offers us. Our living room would be downstairs, where one of the bathrooms and the garage is.

Upstairs we have two larger rooms, a small area that would be great for storage and a kitchen. Boomer would even have a slip of a yard.

Then the landlords mentioned that a previous tenant had been robbed. Of course they added he never locked his doors or windows, but it gave me a bit of an uneasy feeling. I mean, reality is I'm going to be by myself for a big chunk of time while Sean is deployed and I don't want to worry about getting robbed. It's a scary thought.

So...we looked at the apartment. The rosso apartmento or red apartment. It's on the second floor, it's brand new and in a part of town where there is supposdly an excellent market. We have a locked garage, underneath our apartment building as well as a locked storage room across from it. The only thing I don't like about the place is Boomer has no yard to play in and the kitchen has nothing but a sink. Which of course the landlord said he could put in the rest of the appliances.

I think at this point we are leaning towards the apartment. We both like the house, but we think it could either turn out really great or really bad like the movie the Money Pit. Ever seen it? If not, it's a must-see.

Either way I'll be happy, there's just a lot of factors going into our decision. Personal safety is the main one for me, so in that way the apartment would be the better choice.

Oh..and in the way of travel, I'm going to stop by the ITR office on Monday to see if I can get signed up for the trip to Florence this next Sunday. It's a tour of the Ufizzi Gallery, which is supposed to be the best place in Italy to view art. I'll be uber excited if I get to go.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Moscato and Greek Yogurt made mine quite enjoyable.

Just a few Italy Updates

Time for a few updates.

Housing

We went to view the three bedroom apartment the goverment was offering us yesterday. It was a great layout, three bedrooms, nice kitchen, even a extra closet.

However, we turned it down. There were a couple of things we just couldn't get over, even though we like the layout.

1. It was about a quarter of a mile from the Autostrada. I didn't want to deal with the noise coming off that.

2. The first floor apartment facing the walkway has two dogs. One is quiet the other is the most obnoxious and loud Beagle I've ever seen in my life. He would NOT shut up. I love dogs, but I can't put up with a dog that loud

3. From the look of others balconies, the people who lived there were pretty trashy. I'm talking trash and beer bottles everywhere. No thank you.

So, Sean and I have booked a couple of private rentals to go see tomorrow.

The first is a pink house, it reminds me of a Mexican restaurant back in Oklahoma called Casa Bonita. It is actually a house instead of an apartment and we both like the look of it.

The second is a red exterior apartment that is fairly new.

I think we'll be deciding on one or the other tomorrow. We have to kind of push the housing along because Sean is taking a class starting Monday that will last for an entire month.

Language

I actually uddered an Italian word other than Ciao the other day. I said Buon Giorno and mi scusi to our maintenance man the other day. That may seem like very little, but to me it was a lot. I'm terrified of sounding like an idiot when it comes to foreign language. Yes I know that's something I need to get over and quickly.

Food

Sean and I went back to eat at the cafe on post yesterday and I actually didn't offend anyone. I ate my entire portion of caprese, which is a tomato and mozzarella salad cut into layers with salt, pepper and olive oil for taste. It's delicious!

As for all the questions about Moscato, I don't know how much it would be in the States, but according to other girls you should be able to find it. The award-winning version that I buy here is only about $10.00. (Can you believe that?) I may have a giveaway soon and include a bottle of it.

I tried some Ritter chocolate the other day, they sell about 20 varities of it here on-post. So far I've just tried the chocolate mousse. Good, but nothing to write home about. Obviously I need to investigate the chocolate further.

Random Tidbits

The sun is finally shining here today. I've never been so glad to see the sun in my life. All the haze and clouds were getting a little depressing.

Oh..Sean and I were updating our ID's yesterday and the woman doing it for us told Sean to put his index finger on the glass so she could read it. He puts his ring finger on there! I laughed so hard and the lady thought it was funny too. Did I marry a goober or what?

A Few Culinary Favorites

I'm happy to report that my posterior no longer hurts, so it seems as if my fall wasn't as damaging as I previously thought.

Whew!

As I mentioned in my last blog Sean and I were supposed to swing by housing today and go see our first apartment. I thought it a bit odd that she scheduled it today, on a holiday, but since other things on-post are open I thought perhaps housing was too.

Negative. The walk-out gate to go to housing was locked up tight, which I believe is the only way on-post to get out to housing, so I'm guessing they were closed today. Sean is supposed to call in the morning and see about getting that appointment rescheduled.

Sorry to say we didn't get out to the town this weekend. Sunday we both seemed to have a touch of some sort of stomach bug and although I know I shouldn't let the weather stop me, I didn't really want to take my camera out in the rain. These last few days the weather has been what I'd imagine Seattle to be like. Rainy, cloudy and cold. It's not freezing, but it's not my favorite weather to be out and about in.

To answer Brandi's question, I have to get authentic Italian pizza, although I have gotten a few good suggestions for some places.

The thing that makes me laugh is that there are Mexican and Japanese places off-post to eat at. Sean and I were discussing what the Mexican food would be like. I'm honestly quite curious. I'm under no illusions that it would be similiar to what I'm used to in the Tex-mex way of things.

I have found the best wine I've ever tasted. It's a green label, which according to Rick Steves means that only a certain number of wines in Italy have that distinction and it did say that it was the number one sweet wine in Italy. It's heavenly. It's Moscato...I believe that is the name of it, with hints of citrus and honey. Seriously...it's amazing.

A few other food finds that I like are this yogurt called Froop. I think it's German, but I'm not 100% on that. It's unsweetened yogurt with fruit on top and comes in delish flavors like strawberry and lemon. It's unlike any yougurt I've ever had and it's amazing. I'm also in love with the potatoes and meat cuts that they have. The potatoes are so moist and almost buttery.

Obviously you can see I'm going to gain 50 lbs while I'm here.

*sigh* At least I'll be enjoying some good food!

If you had today off, I hoped you enjoyed it!

La mia casa è la vostra casa (My house is your house)

Today is the first day since we've been in Vicenza that the sun hasn't been shining. It actually rained on me a little bit when I walked to the library this morning. I'm a little disappointed because I can't see the mountains today, but maybe the air will be clear tomorrow.

I already told Sean that I want to go to Switzerland, stand on a mountain with my hair in braids and do my best Heidi impression. He just laughed and told me I was weird. Seriously though, I really want to start traveling, BUT I have to admit I'm a little nervous. Mainly because of the language barrier. I really don't want to end up lost because I don't know what signs or people say.

There is a sort of travel agency here on post called ITR that puts together trips that you can sign up for. Right now I'm looking at a trip in late February that goes to three towns in Tuscany. It looks like fun and how scenic would that be? I'm thinking I could get some good pictures on that trip.

Speaking of pictures, I forgot to tell you guys how I did in the Army Photography Contest. I won 1st and 2nd on two pictures that I entered and now Ft. Polk has forwarded those pictures onto the national level of the competition. To say I'm excited is an understatement.

My title of the blog comes from the fact that Sean and I went to the housing office yesterday and tomorrow we have an appointment for them to show us a few homes (online I believe) First up is government housing and if we don't like either of the homes they show us then we move on to privatized housing. At least that's how I understood it to be. So, my question is this: For you ladies that are in Europe, what do you honestly think about those options? What has been your experience with eirther one of them? I told Sean I just wanted to sure we got what is best for us. I'm honestly not expecting a lot of room, but after seeing cute places like Casey and Allison's I'd like something comparable. Granted I know both of you ladies are in Germany and not in Italy. Any specific questions that I should ask them when we go to our appointment? I can use all the help I can get.

One last thing, I see that I've acquired some new followers in the last week or so. Hello and thanks for adding me to your blogging list! I promise I'll try my best to get over to your websites and comment soon, I'm just running a bit behind on that since I currently am without a computer.

Well, I'm off again. I'm supposed to attend a Drivers Orientation class with Sean this afternoon so I should get back to the hotel.

Ciao!