We have moved into our house. It’s a pretty house, new construction in a new subdivision, if that’s what you call them over here. We live across from a swim and tennis club and just up the street, within walking distance, is the main town complete with not one, but 4 gelaterrias. It’s a quaint little town with plenty of shoe shopping (which I might add are very expensive shoes here! We paid $98 euro for two pairs of kids Italian sandals the other day). Also in the town is the local cheese and salami shop with pastas and some bread, a small meat shop, and a local produce store. I have visions of heading downtown everyday determined to make a fresh dinner for my family. However, first I’d really like my bike to make this daily journey, and second, I’d like to know what in the world I am buying because despite my best efforts, I have not been able to translate much and the shop keepers only speak a little English. But it is fun trying. I also love that every Sunday there is a market downtown with LOTS of opportunities to buy clothes, shoes, flowers, plants, housewares and of course, both cooked and uncooked food. I’m getting better at asking for my produce, and eventually will be a pro at it.

 Alorrah, so the house itself is nice, somewhat spacious and somewhat small. It’s like living in a large townhouse. It’s a necessity to be creative in finding a home for all your stuff. And by creative, I mean making a closet or storage space out of thin area. Ikea is becoming a close friend of the family and has some unique storage ideas and pieces for small spaces. And since there are no closets at all in my house, not even one, unique storage is a MUST. We have temporary furniture until our stuff makes it here and believe me when I say this, that day cannot come soon enough. It’s one thing to uproot yourself clear across country with furniture in tow and wait a couple days for the movers. But here, I have uprooted the whole family to another country where we don’t speak the language and where getting things done quickly is not the norm or a necessity. So I say eventually, and that is a long eventually, my household items will arrive. Unfortunately that means I need to purchase other items for my home to feel somewhat normal.

Our first shipment, the unaccompanied baggage was supposed to be here last week. In that I had two air mattresses, extra pillows, sheets, towels, some kitchen utensils, a few baking items, and a small tv.  But since our shipment did not arrive and we moved into our house earlier than expected, we had to purchase all these things. For this I am not happy. Our baggage is now delayed due to recent deployments in the area so I am not sure when it will arrive. I feel so unsettled and out of sorts it isn’t funny anymore and the stress is beginning to overwhelm me.
 

The kids are sort of adjusting despite not being involved in any summer activities right now. Their main summer activity aside from staying underfoot and under my skin, is playing pokemon on their DS. I cannot remember the last time we actually watched tv since that too is a luxury here, and our AFN decoder is not connecting to the satellite so we are SOL anyhow. Most days the girls play remarkably  well together.  But of course, then we have those days and times where they tire of each other and then starts the whining and bickering. I would tell them to go play with friends but there are  few here and the language barrier hinders the making of some friends too, at least in my kids’ minds. I just wish they had some toys to play with or bikes to ride too. I know it’s hard on them and I keeping kicking myself for not sending the bikes in the first shipment. Pretty soon I will have to reinvent stick ball for them so they have something to do aside from gymnastics all over the hardwood floors and marble.

I cooked our first official meal in the house today from items i bought at the market. It included packaged risotto from one of the stores, fresh eggplant, an interesting meat mixture rolled up and wrapped with bacon, and for the kids, some fresh fish already cooked that i just needed to reheat. When i purchased the meat I really thought he said it was a filet of some sort and I vaguely remember him saying "misti" meaning a mixture of meat. Aside from the bacon, there was prosciutto, another thin layer of meat, and sausage in the middle. Interesting and tasty. The risotto was cooked perfectly and the eggplant tasted a little different than what we have in the states. Seeing how my stove is tiny, I will have to coordinate cooking better in the future.

The other large accomplishment today was laundry in my very small washer and dryer. I've done a couple loads and the dryer just took forever to dry. So today I put the towels on the drying rack outside on the porch and dried them old school. I can honestly say that I have never done that, but they turned out just fine and smell wonderful. I also learned from our sponsor that we had to dump the water from the dryer every few loads. I had absolutely no clue what he was talking about until we spoke to one of the neighbor. Lo and behold, there was a plastic container which was retaining the water from the clothes. Then it dawned upon that the dryer had no vent system so yes, draining the water was a necessity. Just another quirky thing I will have to get used to.

Well it's late and the Pokemon adventure which we completed the other day still has me worn out. I'll write about that another day because you really have to hear about this unique festival. Buono notte!