Ciao, family!
I am writing one letter for now which I will either email or mail to everyone. There’s so much to say, and I can type faster than I can write, and my stationery isn’t here yet anyway – plus I can put pictures in here!
I have been in Italy for one week now – well, one week in a couple of hours. It still feels like the first glimpse of it everytime I step outside! Everything is so completely different that you wouldn’t believe it. Even the smallest things, that you wouldn’t even think of, make me feel like I am in another world. All I have really done so far is eat out, shop a little for the house, and do things on base. And yes, shopping and eating out CAN be very different!
I am still amazed by the sounds. Our house is not air-conditioned, so we have all of our windows open all the time, and the sounds of the town are so different from anything I am accustomed to. Around 4:00am the roosters start crowing – first one, then several. Then the birds begin to chirp. Then dogs barking. One or maybe two cars go by on our street (right under our window), and a vespa (motorbike) or two. The church bells (two blocks away) begin ringing at 7:00am and go for about 3 minutes or so. One morning a horse even clip-clopped by on our street. And of course, any voices we hear are speaking Italian! It’s surprising how disoriented you feel just because the people around you speak another language – even when they are not talking to you!
I passed my driver’s test last week – thank goodness, because it’s not an easy test. But the class scared me to death about driving. They said that’s what they wanted to do – scare us – because when Americans begin to get over-confident and try to drive like Italians, that’s when all the bad wrecks happen. The statistics were scary – I don’t remember the numbers, but our province and the neighboring one have the highest fatal accident rate in Europe – and a ridiculous number of the accidents involve Americans. So I am driving only when I have to, and like a blue haired little old lady, making the people around me mad, I know.
Thursday and Friday Mike and I went to a class called Bienvenuti (Welcome). He didn’t have to go since he’s been here before, but he went with me anyway and it was really nice. The class was awesome!!! It was taught by an Italian man named Allessandro, who speaks nearly perfect English. The first day was all classroom time. He talked to us about really basic stuff, like customs and manners, and basic phrases for asking directions, ordering food, and shopping. (You know, stuff like “how much does this cost?” and “where is the train station?” and “one coffee, please”.) We also learned letters and numbers, and general rules of pronunciation, which are actually surprisingly easy for me, thanks to my French background.
The second day was a field trip day. We had a bus, and we toured the base, then we went to a small town nearby called Porcia (por-CHEE-ah) to walk through the market. It was such a beautiful place, and I was so mad I didn’t bring my camera. I have to go back and take pictures of it. It has an old castle in the center of it, and the market was spread out along the outer walls of the castle. There was even a stream nearby with swans – evocative of a moat, of course! I told Mike, what more could I ask for on my birthday?
After Porcia, we went to the closest (relatively) large town, which is Pordenone (por-deh-NON-eh). We walked through a church that dates back to the 1500’s (can you believe that???), did a little window shopping and wandering, and had lunch at a nice restaurant, where we could practice our eating-out skills! We then went to the train station, where each one of us had to buy our own train ticket (using the words we’d been taught) to Sacile (sah-CHEE-leh), which was about 15 minutes away. We rode the train to Sacile, toured a small winery, and then came home. It was an exhausting day, especially because it was SO HOT out, but it was a lot of fun and VERY useful learning.
Yesterday was the first day I drove alone. I went to the BX (like a WalMart on base) and the Commissary (grocery store on base). They are in the Flightline area, which is about 5-10 minutes away by car. The base is actually divided into about 4 areas, three of which I will go to sometimes. The flightline area is where the BX and Commissary are, and where Mike’s office is. Areas 1 and 2 are only about 3-4 blocks away, and have the gym, the pool, the post office, the community center (where I can get online until we get our internet service started), the family support center, and a Shoppette (like a minute-market).
Today was market-day in Aviano. I got up and went, yay me!!! All by myself!!! I made a point of buying stuff (yeah, it was tough) just so I would have to interact and use my teeny, tiny bit of Italian. I think I did okay – I just try to smile and say grazie (GRAH-tzee-eh), which means thank you, really often. The people are generally nice and very forgiving, and a lot of them speak some English, too, so I get by. I also wandered around town in the shops, which gave me some more practice.
Our house is so beautiful I can’t even believe it. Every day, every night, I just look around and think, I can’t believe we live here!!! I’m including a few pictures, mostly of the backyard because inside the house is a mess since we haven’t gotten our stuff and we are living out of suitcases, boxes, and the floor! We have a loaner bed, couch, dresser, and kitchen table (which we actually use for the computer instead of the kitchen). We also have our “permanent” loaner stuff, which we will keep until we leave here – four wardrobes, a refrigerator and washer and dryer. We’re using two of the computer boxes for bedside tables right now. Our stuff is supposed to be delivered on the 27th, if all goes as planned.
We went to a nursery and bought some flowers this weekend; I am including pictures of them. You can tell we really WANT to settle in and make a home out of this place, but until we get our stuff it’s hard to do that. It doesn’t matter though, because it is SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!
Brandy is settling in fine; she doesn’t seem traumatized at all by the trip. I think she is getting old, because she really doesn’t run around the yard a lot like I thought she would. She likes it though, and she plays ball with us like she did in Monroe. Mostly, though, she just hangs out, naps, and chews on her bones. We let her in the house a lot, which is really funny because the floors are so slippery that she has a hard time even sitting (her butt slides out from under her until she’s laying down) much less running. I shouldn’t laugh at her, because I can tell her arthritis makes it harder on her, but it’s so funny to see her scooch around the living room.
Mike leaves tomorrow for Denmark for ten days. I’m kinda scared, but mostly just bummed. I’ll be better, though, for getting some rest and some confidence in going around by myself. This just forces me to go ahead and do it.
Thank you all so much for your love and support. You don’t know how much it means! Thanks, Beth, for my birthday call, and Faye, for my birthday card (it came today or yesterday, the 13th or 14th). It makes me smile everytime I think of you guys.
I don’t know what else to tell, so I guess I will go for now. I love you all and miss you already!!! I can’t wait for you all to come and visit and let me show you this amazing place!
Talk to you soon,
Shelly