WORK: Mahlon's working at the hospital in the Emergency Room. The best thing about that (to me) is the uniform he wears. I call it his fancy pants or fire pants or hot pants uniform. It's bright highlighter orange pants with reflectors all over them! Right now he's going thru EMT training. This week he's learning how to drive the ambulance, SWEET! The hospital where he works, like everything else here, is beautiful:
Mahlon is still planning on finishing his degree while we're here too. Beyond that, he's still trying to decide exactly what his next step will be.
I haven't begun to apply for jobs yet, but I'm asking around. I have to apply for my Soggiorner's permit (that allows me to legally stay in the country) before I can get a job, and I have an appointment coming up soon for that. I've been keeping busy though. There's a free bus that runs back and forth to base all day. There are small day trips I can sign up for with my friends. And I've been working on my Italian language skills!
CHURCH: We've got a good one! There are American churches in town, but we've found the contemporary protestant service is great at the base chapel. Our chaplain is new here, and he has lots of big ideas and is starting a lot of projects right now. So it's a good time to be new! Besides the Sunday services, I've been attending the PWOC (Protestant Women of the Chapel) Bible studies, and I just signed up for the Christmas Choir. I'm excited about that!
FRIENDS: It's great, we've already got so many friends here! Our sponsors, Mike and Renee have been great and have become great friends. We met some fun couples in INDOC: Kari and Adam, Trish and Jesse, Brittany and Marty, Heather and Joey. And we continue to meet new cool people every day!
That's me, Trish and Brittany!
This is my first experience living as a military wife in base housing and I was so worried about making friends. Everyone's been great though and so nice! I love it!
THE HOUSE: We got our express shipment, but we're still waiting for our household goods. So we're still living without all our furniture and most of our cookware and clothes. It'll be really nice to be settled in. It'll feel more like home.
THE BABIES: Cash and Baby Jean are doing ok. Kitty took a couple of days to settle in, but she's fine now. Cash was ok at first. Now he's started acting out. He's suddenly begun to freak out at night and go crazy banging around in his crate. One of our friends said that's an animal's instinct, that some animals have that reaction to the volcano's activity. I never thought about that, but maybe that's it.
SHOPPING: Is good and bad. What I mean is, cool clothes, waaaay high prices! There are some great shopping places here. It's funny though how much more expensive everything is here! I haven't seen a pair of jeans for under 100 euro. (And in case you don't know...euro's value is higher than the dollar!) Oh, and there are t-shirts everywhere that you can get at walmart for $10...selling for 80 euro or more here! Know those vintage rock shirts or family guy stewie t's, novelty t-shirts? OUTRAGEOUSLY EXPENSIVE HERE! I almost wanna have someone send me a bunch and have a little stand out in town selling t-shirts on the cheap! If it wasn't illegal I'd totally do it!
FOOD: Oh my gosh everyone told me the food here was so great I'd never wanna come back to the states, that food would be ruined for me forever! Not true. It's good, don't get me wrong, but it's all the same! There's no variety here! Your choices are Italian, Italian and Italian. Oh, and Italian too! There IS no going out for chips and salsa. The thing I miss the most is ordering a giant salad with grilled chicken or steak on it. Mmmmm....I miss it! There is no ranch dressing here. Your dressing choices are oil and vinegar, or lemon juice. It's good like that too...I'm just saying...and I never thought I'd say this...
The thing I miss most of all, is American food!
Well, I miss my family and friends first. And THEN I miss American food.
All in all though, we LOVE it here!
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