Meathead to Meatballs: My new life living in Italy : One Week Down

Well here we are at week one folks. Seven days today since arriving in Italy. Things are going well so far overall. Most of the week has been in-processing, paperwork, learning the base, learning the who, where what how why of all things working on base and living in Italy. I feel like I am keeping on par with all the big rocks I need to get moved at this point. The only snafu I have encountered is that 5 large USPS boxes I sent to myself from Wisconsin prior to leaving are being sent back home just to then have to be sent back to me again from my folks. All because I put the word Italy on the label! That moved it from APO military mail to standard priority international mail. Despite the label having the rest of the correct info on it, this messed things up for me. So now it may be 2-3 weeks yet before I get these goods. Oh well, could be worse and they be lost completely.

Been doing some darn good eating so far as well. Since I have 0 cooking or meal storage means in my hotel with a microwave and fridge just as small, limits how much food I can buy, store and make at home. A challenge for me as I do 80% or more of my meals made from home. With any luck I will be moving into a home by end of the month which brings me to my next point. House hunting.

I have found 3 places I liked and went to see all 3 of them. One was signed for and taken. I like the other 3 very much. One is a house and one is the complete floor of a 3 story apartment. Each is pretty close to the base and has a quiet, low key rural setting. I plan to make my move and select one by this weekend and start contract/lease work by Monday. Once I pick one I will make sure to show all the pictures of it for you to see yourself also.

I am pretty happy with how well I am able to communicate with local Italians here. I study quite a bit each day with Duolingo, Google Translate and some resources the base gave us for small talk conversations. I find that gets me through 75% of any interaction I have with locals. They key is to keep talking to locals every day even if your wrong or mess up. Every time I get corrected I learn something so no conversation is truly a bad one. Most Italians like the fact they I open with Italian versus English as well.

The midday siesta that almost all business and stores have here from about 12-3 or even 4pm is very different. Everything closes down for 3-4 hours midday and reopens around 3 or 4. Restaurants may not open till 5 or 6 to serve dinner. They remain open until 10 or 11pm here as well all week if not later.

Lastly, as of today I hate to say hit, got hit hard with a nasty flu bug of sorts. It kicked it yesterday a bit but as of this morning hit me full force. The whole package too! Sensitive eyes to light, headache, body aches, chills, queasy stomach and sleepy. Just dandy yeah! I blame a lack of sleep this week to allowing an open season on my immune system to catch anything going around. Ironically I heard that 4 of my 6 unit team members alsoo got sick in their first week here as well. I figure if I am gonna get sick and rebound from it, I mine as well do it early and be done with it! Took the day off from gym and may do the same tomorrow pending how I feel. I know I am truly sick when the idea of eating actually scares me as that never ever, ever happens.

Tomorrow I have a full day bus tour around town with other new base arrivals civilian and active duty. We see a few local cities, hit a popular farm to table lunch spot, a winery, cafe and visit a grocery store. Should be fun!

OK gang, that is all for now. Let me hit you with a dolce (sweet) ending and let you feast on some pictures from the week. Also be sure to follow my daily storylines on facebook and instragram to see the day to day activities I find.

Ciao amici miei (bye my friends)