Random Thoughts from a new Napoli Resident

Well I haven’t done this in a while, and my Dad gave me grief about it on Father’s Day, so here is my first blog post for June.

Mark and I are having a great time here in Italy.  We just realized last night how FULL our days are.  We are always making plans to meet with people in the evenings and on the weekends.  We also keep busy with working out in the evenings and getting everything settled for our move here. 

We are almost officially settled.  We are only waiting on our Household Goods shipment to come.  The shipment includes everything from my stilettos to Mark’s golfclubs, our bed, our couches, our pots and pans, our pictures, etc.  Pretty much…everything.  We got word yesterday that the shipment is in Milan and being put on a truck to head down to Naples.  Once in Naples, the goods will need to clear customs before we can make an appointment for them to be delivered to our house.  We are really excited for the shipment!  Those stinkin earthquakes in Northern Italy delayed the shipment, but that won’t get us down!  We are making the ‘most’ of our loaner furniture and we are thankful that the loaner program exists so that we didn’t have to stay in the hotel for longer than 40 days. 

Today marks 59 days in Italy!  Hey Mom!  If we stay for three years, that means we are here for only another 1,036 days!  J  Since living in Europe means VERY easy travel, we have taken advantage of that!  Mark and I visited Barcelona, Spain for his 28^th Birthday weekend in May.  A few weeks ago, we went to London to visit some friends from Indianapolis who were in town for a family vacation.  Mark’s sister, Katey, is living in Rome for June and July this summer.  We visited her in Rome the first weekend she got here and then she (and some of her roommates) are coming to visit us this weekend!  We went to the Amalfi Coast the first weekend we were here and we plan to do that with Katey and company this weekend! 

Our landlords are amazing!  Gabrielle and his wife, Angela, are both 40 and have a daughter, Flavia.  Their daughter turns five tomorrow, so Gabrielle and Angela are taking her to Disneyland Paris for the weekend.  Mark and I wanted to get Flavia a gift as well.  We got her a sweet Hello Kitty necklace and stickers.  I’d say she will remember our gift just as much as she remembers her parents’.  J  Really, though, Flavia is super shy around us.  I am positive this is due to the fact that we are COMPLETE aliens in her world.  We are new people that speak a COMPLETELY different language.  But that Hello Kitty necklace got us…’in.’ 

We gave her the necklace this week when Gabrielle and Angela invited us over for dinner on Sunday evening.  “Buon Compleano, Bella!” I said (Happy Birthday, Beautiful!)  Her grandmother and her cousin came over before dinner and Flavia was showing off the necklace and stickers.  Then she opened up to Mark and I at dinner.  She showed us her ballet moves and ate dinner with us.  Dinner consisted of salad, fresh (raw) squid and mussels, fresh fish and watermelon.  When we were done with all of that (and two bottles of their family wine) Gabrielle turned to Flavia and told her that it was time for gelato!  Then the five year old girl said, “Mamma Mia, Domani, domani!”  (Which means, Mamma mia, tomorrow, tomorrow!”)  It was so cute!  Then Gabrielle told her that was nonsense and we were having ice cream as well.  He came back from the kitchen with gelato and a bottle of dessert wine.  (Second) Dessert was served.  It was a great time.  Dinner lasted from 730 to 1030 that night.  They said they served a light dinner because they knew that Americans didn’t eat as much as they did.  They also said that they started and ended early because they know that we aren’t used to eating late.  They were appalled when we told them that we eat dinner around 5 or 6 each night.  They start dinner around 930 each evening.  J 

Last weekend we had some friends over to our house on Saturday night.  We grilled out and swam in the pool.  Mark showed off the projector (even though it was difficult to figure out with all the Italian instructions).  Gabrielle helped him though.  Many of the people came with cameras to take pictures of the view from our balcony/backyard.  I love having a house that people want to bring their cameras to.  No one did that when we lived on

Hulman street

.  J 

To sum things up, we are having a great time here in Italy.  I just wrote a bunch of random thoughts from our experiences here.  I will get better at organization in the future.  This post is for you, Poppa!  I love you all!  Ciao from Napoli!!!

Baby Fever

Oh HAIL no.. don’t you dare go and get excited that I’m possibly impregnated…  no no NO.  Marko and I are in agreement that babies would cramp our style these days.  So we are opting out of the queen size bed, and sleeping in the bunk beds in our hotel room.

Mark and I HAVE to get off this base. EVERYONE here has at LEAST one baby and AT LEAST another on the way. Here is how "meeting someone" goes:

Mark: "Hi! I'm Mark! This is my wife, Tiffany!"
Potential friend: "Hi! I'm (___) and this is my wife, (____). Do you have any kids?"
Mark: "Nope."
... Potential friend: "Are you trying?"
Mark: "Nope."
Potential friend: "Oh."
....long, awkward silence....
Mark: "Okay, well... talk to you later..."

Too much fertility/baby fever around here for us to be comfortable....

People here say “it’s in the water…even if you aren’t trying, you will get pregnant.”  Let me be clear.  NOPE.  And (just to be safe) we aren’t drinking water…  We are going to stick to wine.   

 

Ciao!

Villa Shopping!

Marko and I saw the most AMAZING houses today!  We even found one that we FELL IN LOVE WITH!  It is two bedroom, two bath and has the most breathtaking views!  It comes with a pool, all brand new items, full alarm system, a projector tv screen by the pool, a cabana, a BBQ grill and fridge, a balcony, Bose surround sound outside and inside… need I go on?  …Okay, I will… 

It is IN OUR BUDGET and includes a weekly visit from a gardener and pool guy. 

So tomorrow we are going to the Housing Authority to put a hold on the house.  This means that no one will be able to rent the house over the weekend and will give us time to think about it.  This is (of course) if no one has already rented this absolutely amazing piece of property. We are going to try to have our realtors take us there this weekend just to look at it once more and to imagine the commute to work. 

Here are a couple of pictures from our dream home. 

I will keep you updated!!!!    Plan your visits!  We will be in Italy for at least three years!!!

 

Ciao!

Here

Let the games begin.  Marko and I landed about 3 hours ago.  My co workers gave us a very nice care package, complete with a bottle of wine and a teddy bear!  Mark is working on setting up the Magic Jack so that we will have a United States landline and I am working on unpacking.  We are SO EXCITED for our new adventure!  Our hotel room has a kitchen, living room, bathroom, and bedroom (complete with a set of bunk beds and a queen size bed!  haha!)

This is going to be fun.   

Ciao!

Terre Haute

Marko and I are in Terre Haute tonight through Sunday morning before we leave for our three year move to Italy.  :)  We are going to start this whole blog thing again.  Let the games (and the stories) begin.  Ciao!

wedding video for my sisster

Did you have chores to do? What were they?

Did I have chores? BAH! What chores DIDN’T I have?!? I used to tell people that my parents bred children solely to do their dirty work.

…I actually still say that. They are going to have a rude awakening when both of the boys are out of the house…and THEY have to do the dishes or (GASP*) clean the MAIN bathroom!

Kayla and I had to perform separate chores when we got home from school each day. They way it was all nice and tidy for when David and Pammer got home from work.

There were four main rooms that always needed cleaning: Living room, dining room, kitchen, and bathroom. Kayla took the first three and I took the last one. I though ti was getting ahead because my room had the least square footage and I only had to make some room sparkle versus Kayla’s three. Kayla though she was sliding one past me because she never had to clean the toilet. Turns out Kayla had the right idea. I realize now that I had to scrub the toilet every day while Kayla ran the vacuum. Well done, sis.

I’m guessing the ‘rents are going to be inviting us over to the house more often when my brothers move out… to clean.

At least we have years of practice. Hey Kayla, I call Living Room!

What was your basement like?

My basement was non-existent when we were younger. I was fortunate enough to have to experience of “trailor-park life.” The neighbors would always joke when a bad storm was coming:

“Git outside in that there ditch cus it’s more safer in a tornader than bein in yer trailor!”

That kind of talk is always comforting to a six year old girl who is already terrified of bad weather.

Then we moved to a big, fancy house without wheels. Still no basement. When there was terrible weather, my sister and I would freak out. We would grab our boom box, flashlight, and a can of Chef Boyardee and another can of Beef Stew. We would head to the center of the house: The laundry room. To make the laundry room (tornado safehouse) better, my Mom used it as a storage area for her Mason jars full of green beans. Luckily, there were never any major tornadoes when we were younger. But the laundry room always made us feel much safer than the nearest ditch at the trailor park!

Quality TV

What were your favorite tv shows growing up?

My favorite shows growing up were high-quality productions. Let’s discuss:

FULL HOUSE: I loved all the girls in this! DJ, Stephanie, and Michelle! I loved Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen. I also loved Stephanie, even though she was addicted to meth in real life. I could always relate to DJ and her issues as the older sister.

Then there were the guys of the house: Dad, Uncle Joey, and Uncle Jessie. I thought all were UBER HOT. Turns out they all had mullets. Back in the day, I loved that they all lived together. Turns out they were all bums who couldn’t live on their own. The story lines were cheesy but I loved it and still do!

SAVED BY THE BELL: Let’s discuss the characters of this cliché teenage trainwreck of a sitcom:

KELLY: The pretty girl who is bad at math. She has huge, teased bangs and a boyfriend with a phone the size of my purse.

JESSIE: The nerd alert who is always stressed about over-achieving. (THINK: “I’m so excited” scene) Jessie later did a shocking movie about stripper. What a hoe.

LISA: The token black girl whose sense of fashion is keen for the early 90’s. (Hello shoulder pads!) She is sassy and has an on again/off again with Slator.

SCREACH: The geekazoid who makes mistakes and says ‘zoinks’ a lot. He never finds a girlfriend and stays around for the sequel season. He later loses his house in real life and sells shirts to earn some dough.

SLATOR: The greasy jock with the even greasier mullet. He does the most manly sport ever: wrestling.

ZACK: The funny hot guy who has a love-hate relationship with the principal. Back to the reason he was so cool (and the reason I love this show): Zack’s cell phone was the size of Montana and he could STILL pull some tail!

**Quality TV**

Sloppy joes!!

What was your favorite meal growing up?

SLOPPY JOES! I’m not talking about homeless person Mamwich sloppy joes. I’m talking about Pammer’s special sloppy joes! This consists of ground beef, Velveta cheese (fancy), and cream of mushroom soup mixed together and slopped on a hamburger bun. The top of the hamburger bun has to have a hole torn out of it with a little bit of beef, cream of mushroom, and Velveta sticking out the top. Throw them in the oven until they are crispy. Then serve and devour. They weren’t for homeless people. They were a huge hit in our trailor park.