Yesterday, after a long morning of Intercultural Relations(ICR) lecture for us and the CDC for Riann & Linc (Child Development Center, oh how I love the military's use of acronyms for EVERYTHING!), we met some friends at the bowling alley here on base for pizza, though it was average American style pizza... we have so few choices on what to eat, let alone where to eat while we live in the Navy Lodge. After wards, we were able to head over to our friend's apartment on base to check it out. After seeing their home, I'm anxious to get into our new place next week. Of course, they have it wonderfully decorated and their floor plan is about 300 square feet larger than what we have, and they also don't have a destructive 18-month old.
Today, Riann & Lincoln went back to the CDC while we did more with the ICR which was supposed to be a day trip into downtown Napoli. The plan was to catch the bus here, take it to the JFC (Joint Forces Command) base, from there, take a walking short cut to the Metro and ride that into downtown Napoli. It didn't quite happen like that. We all had to get our own biglietto giornaliero (all day ticket) at the booth, once half of our large group got their tickets we were then informed there was a scheduled mass transit strike from 9am-5pm today. The tour guides continued with our plan to take the train into the city, but we only made it a few stops before 9am struck... we were stranded at a Metro station far away from our true destination. Our tour guides made the best of our situation and guided us to Fuorigratto where we ate doughnut like pastries and downed a few bottles of acqua naturale (you have to specify natural or sparkling everywhere we’ve gone so far). We continued on to an open air market (where there was all sorts of seafood, even with the fishes heads chopped off and on display, cheese, baked goods, shoes and a lot of other random flea market-type items), then to an area of restaurants and shops all while our two tour guides tried to find us a way back to base, finally getting a couple of US government vans to come get us. We were supposed to see downtown Napoli, historic sights, the water… at least the CDC was free for Riann & Linc and we got to eat some good, authentic Italian food among the Neopolitans.
When we got back, we headed over to Vodafone where I got an iPhone!! We needed some way to communicate once Jamie starts work Monday, lucky for me it’s also like having a new toy to play with. Now I can keep up with my friends on Facebook, email a little more frequently when I have 15 free seconds to do so, not to mention check the weather, pick a restaurant, get directions, take pictures & post them…
Hopefully this weekend will be one of very few we are stuck on base(since we have no Italian licenses still, therefore no car). Thankfully there are a lot of playgrounds, the pool is open, and we now have a few friends on base.
No comments:
Post a Comment