Translation: To market, to market...
To say we have been busy is an understatement.
Friday morning our regular shipment of household goods arrived at 8:30am, 5 guys (only 1 fluent in English) were in and out of our place for about 4 hours hauling box after box, piece of furniture after piece of furniture. Jamie and I have a little "rule" we implemented several moves ago (though it has had to change a little now that we have kids): we have to unpack every box in less than 48 hours after delivery. Crazy, I know, but moving so many times we have learned we just like to be settled again, have our HOME back again. We're not completely psychotic, we do not have our art up on the walls... yet. We had a lucky move once again, nothing was lost, nothing was broken and this time our things traveled a lot further than they had before.
Saturday, we were invited to go to a fresh air market in Caserta with some friends, Sonja & Jonathon (they were in Mechanicsburg with us, but we never really knew each other, they have really been a huge wealth of information for us. They have everything at these markets: shoes, clothes, junk... fresh produce, cheese, meat, seafood. Some of you may have seen my picture of Riann near one of the seafood vendors - she liked the eels. Eeewww. We got quite a bit of produce which was all MUCH cheaper than the commissary (base grocery store). And it was so much better too!! We also stopped at Campania Mall for some lunch, it was quite delicious! We didn't have time to stop for gelato because Lincoln was getting past the point of miserable being so close to nap time.
Sunday, I headed to Ikea with Sonja & Jonathon for a few necessities for our place. It was insanely busy there! They also took me to another mall that is anchored by Auchan, a Super Walmart-like type of store. I ended up doing a little grocery shopping there, getting a few things to make dinner for Fathers Day, not forgetting the dessert and local beer. Of course, trying to check out at the register, I had the deer-in-headlights look when the woman asked me something about bags... Um, excuse me?? I went into panic mode, forgetting any bit of Italian I ever even thought I knew: she wanted to know how many plastic grocery bags so she could charge me appropriately. Yes, they charge for grocery bags, the plastic Wegmans or Target ones you get when you forget your reusable ones. All the woman did was hold up the bags and asked "Due o tre?" (Two or three?) Hahaha...
Jamie also met a neighbor just moving in to our building... a couple with a teenage son, the husband was leaving for a year in Guantanamo Bay while his son and wife stay here. I asked Jamie why would they stay here??? the wife has family here, she has pretty much lived half her life in the US and half in Italy. When she was in the US, she taught Italian and obviously speaks fluent Italian... Once again, could I get any luckier having Italian neighbors living on a US Navy base?? This woman, Cybil, told Jamie "whenever your wife is ready, I'll take her everywhere!" I can't wait!!!
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Jamie and I had Area Orientation which was mostly a lot of small presentations on what to expect while living in Italy. Some of it was useful, some of it we had already heard or read, and some of it was just common sense. Riann and Lincoln went to the CDC all three days, Riann loved it, Lincoln did not...
Last night, we got our internet hooked up. yay!! I can finally update this, respond to a few emails and now we can skype on a more regular basis.
I have a million pictures downloading from our camera to our computer, hopefully I will be able to get them posted online one way or another soon. Most of them are from the US, but for those of you who really know me, you know I'll be taking a million more to share in the first adventure out in town!
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