Una Mese (One Month)

Morning sunrise view of Aviano from my 2nd floor patio

As of this writing I have now been residing in Aviano Italy for 31 days. Just over a month and I can't believe it has been that long already. I have gotten a lot of things knocked out and done within this time and the biggest hurdle of all.... moving out of the hotel living situation and into my own home! Matter of fact I have been in my house for just 72 hours as of this post! I am loving it too. Having my own place to sleep, eat, store and cook/make food, shower, etc... Of course, resuming my routine of weekly meal prep has been amazing! As one who takes his nutrition and food plan pretty seriosuly, not having full control or access to meal prep was not an easy feat for 4 weeks folks. My very first meal in the house tasted extra good knowing it was 100% homemade let me tell you that.

I can actually shop for more than 2 days of needs now! Yes!

toasting to being a homeowner in Italy!

the first of many homemade dinners

Its been a busy week and a half since my last post with a trip to Venice with the ITT group on base to go see the annual Carnevale festival events taking place there all month through this weekend. In the short full day spent in Venice, I saw and did allot but could easily have made that a weekend trip full of sightseeing, food sampling, festival interactions and more. The costumes and masks the people adorned were top notch. This rivals anything I have seen for Halloween in any city I have ever lived and all you should know how serious I take my Halloween (favorite holiday)!

st marco basillica 

standing above the venice grand canal

looking cool next to venice grand canal

1 of many waterways throughout venice

I would have posted many of the pictures I got but to do so would make this a half hour blog read alone with the 40+ pictures I took and shared on my IG/FB storylines (which hope you all got to see). Just Google the term "Carnevale 2019" or Youtube search it and you will now see endless videos and images of this year's happenings. It is THE place to be last month and the rest of this weekend for sure. Tomorrow I am heading back to Maniago (cutlery capital of the world) to attend their annual celebration of the festival and parade.


Now being moved into my house is nice but does provide some challenges. Such as getting furniture from scratch. Like everything that is. Couches, bed, rugs, chairs, tables, appliances etc. Lucky for me the 57th Squadron spouses network kicked in big time for me and stocked be full of all my basic kitchen needs like pots, pans, plates, cups, mugs, utensils, crock pots, coffee maker, towels, etc. All for free too! Major kudos to those wives who helped me out there! I have purchased a bed from the BX and await its arrival to have it delivered to my house and installed in the next week or so tops I hope. For now, it's me sleeping on the (nice) new sofa I bought from a local friend a contractor like me whos moving to Turkey in a week. She hooked me up solid with a nearly new IKEA sofa and stool and best yet, she lived like 3km away. I have a simple rack I assembled for the few bits of clothes I brought with me on the plane for now until my car arrives with all my other clothes and essentials inside.

So why not send all my household goods over from St. Louis? Active duty sends their car and HHG overseas 99% of the time. Why didn't I? I would have and wanted to but.....at $8450 out of pocket cost to ship a modest 2 bed and 2 bathroom apartment of 1 guy overseas? Hell no! Way too much for so little to be shipped. Yes, I had some nice new furniture not even 18 months old but still. That alone would have eaten up 90% of my relocation package from my contract. No can do. So if you're in Madison, WI or close by and need new furniture items, please, hit me up, I likely have it in storage and would like to sell much of it!

On that note about my car. My car left Oregon, WI on Jan 26th and as of today, I found out via the website tracking system of my shipper, that it will not yet leave NJ port until March 12! Not the thing I wanted to see. Arrival date is listed as April 3rd! Another month to wait for my car and all the stuff I packed in it! I was told it would be 5-6 weeks at most upon pick up. Tis not the case it seems. This also means another 450 Euro for a months worth of rental car. Ugh! I am not even sure if this means April 3is the delivery date to me here in Aviano or if this is just the arrival in port over in Genoa Italy? I await that reply from the shipper.

The kicker for me is that the cost to ship my car is $3050 and with the 2-month car rental costs of $1022, I could have for that same expense, bought a 2016 Mini Cooper 3 with 40k miles for $4100 and pay 0 tax!(first car purchase only). And it would only have taken 2 weeks processing from time of signing for the car and the day I could drive it off the lot! In hindsight now this is super clear and obvious but prior to this, I had no clue it would take this long (told it wouldn't) to ship my car or how likely it is to find nice local cars for so cheap at such good quality.

Another lesson learned as I move through early life in Italy....hidden expenses and bad assumptions. It's true what they say....ASSumptions make an ASS of us all.

I ASSumed I was getting my first payday and reimbursement lump-sum Feb 20 since I started Jan 31st. The 20th is my monthly payday for my contract. This was not written out in my contract but simply stated that each month of the year I get an equal pay amount to total the agreed upon salary of my contract terms. Bad assumption! March 20 is actually the first payday and lump-sum reimbursement day! Suprise! This meant I did not see the bank account get fed as planned when planned. Have to wait 28 more days to see that happen. Fine and dandy sure, not the end of the world but....when you have not had a payday in 6 weeks and you have 3x as much cash outflow as normal, it hurts a bit....more so when you're a frugal bastard like I am. Here are just some of my major expenses since arrival in USD.

• Meals: 20-30 a day for 28 days (mostly grab n go and take out)
• Hotel: 1512
• Rent + half home painting fee: 1033
• Rent deposit: 1372
• Car rental: 511
• This besides the normal cost of my health insurance, car insurance, car payment, storage unit fee in WI, and new cell phone cost.

Yeah....all expected charges but again, when no $$ is coming in and these expenses going out.....it hits that pocketbook, hard!


So what to do huh? I share this so that other American expats and contractors like me who do not get some of the nice perks active duty members and spouses do, can learn from my rough patches and plan ahead.

You can find many many things for cheap or even free on local community facebook group pages. I have found tons of stuff from 3 major local pages and the spouse's network page as well as the squadron itself. I have also found the app VarageSale as a huge help to search and find nearly anything for pretty cheap and many cases free. Many airmen around here or any base about to PCS out are ready to sell tons of stuff still in great shape. Major bargain and huge savings to be found. The base itself has a thrift store here with free or low-cost items contractors can shop for the last Wednesday of each month. I made a killing here already last month.

One area I never skimp on in cost is my bed! A nice, clean, new bed, fit for my liking is one item I will spend more on to get what I want. I love my sleep and want my sleep each and every night to be grade A Z's! So I did go out and get myself a quality queen bed now on the way from the BX and at a great price, plus no tax!

Now being in my house with a nice nearly new fridge (free from Varagesale member!) I can meal prep and buy bulk foods from the commissary (no tax!) and make my own meals far cheaper than eating out every meal. I still buy many American brand items and shop the same way I did in the states matter of fact. Homemade meals will be 80% normal as always. Some local items and brands will, of course, make their way into my kitchen often sure. Its when I go eat or dine out that really tend to dive into the Italian cuisine and want not only the food experience alone but also the vibe of the venue, the sights, smells, sounds, the families, the Italian locals; speaking and learning to use my Italian to order etc....that is when I intend to experience the full Italian food/culture interplay. But for now with myself placed on a pretty tight budget until payday this month. Frankly, I don't plan on spending a whole lot of dining out for a few weeks here to stretch that dollar as long as I can.

Keep in mind that the Euro is worth about $1.14 USD right now and hovers right about this amount since I got here. So it's technically 14% more expensive here and that adds up quickly as well. All the more reason to shop carefully and use the BX and Commissary as much as possible for the needed essentials I have found.

I still need to score chairs for my kitchen, a wine rack, a coffee table for the patio as well as an outdoor patio chair. I need a recliner seat for my living room and 2 more rugs for the bedrooms. I am dying for my ninja blender big time....me without my daily massive 40oz 'Monster' shake just ain't been the same! I also plan to use the base laundry since I live so close and they have larger units as well. For $4 I can wash and dry a good-sized load of laundry every 2 weeks. This saves me paying $650+ on a washer and dryer in my house, not counting installment, shipping, and water bill increases.

I am also really trying hard to adjust to the trash system here as well lately. Its complicated IMO to say the least. Had no idea so many cans were needed to separate trash! And this from a guy who routinely did the careful separation of glass/metal, waste, paper/cardboard in the states too!

The 4 trash bins I have outside my house.

My language is picking up by the day yet. I try and use it any chance I can and it gets easier each time I find. I try and pick up 1 or 2 new words or phrases a day and then review them on my apps I have been using as well as Google Translate which has been super helpful so far on reading, speaking and listening to Italian. This coming week I begin taking Italian 1-2 classes at the community center on M-W nights. 5 weeks for each course. A major goal of mine here is to become fluent in all forms of Italian language communication.

I leave you all with this. Where is my first big trip going to be in or outside of Italy? Well first, I can travel anywhere I wish in or outside the country as of March 7th when I get my soggiorno documents in hand. I am currently thinking Lake Bled in Slovenia (2 hours drive) or heading down to Sicily to see my relatives in Palermo whom I saw back in Nov 2007 for my first visit to Italy. Perhaps both of them will happen later this month when the financial situation shifts back in my favor as I am itching to get out and about and see all that is around me both local and countrywide.

That's all for now, my friends and family of the states. I miss you all but fret not, I am far too busy getting immersed in my job, my people, my town and the food to be too homesick honestly. I eagerly await when all of you can come on over and see the awesomeness that is Aviano and Italy that I am taking in each and every day.

Ciao miei amici. Vi amo tutti!