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!!!