A week in Sicily

I have been here in Sicily for a week and I have to say that it's quite lovely. I arrived last Monday morning to find Jeff waiting for me at the Navy Airport. It was so great to see my husband again!

Jeff showed me around the base on Monday. On Tuesday, Jeff and I moved into our house with a loaner bed and a loaner table with two chairs. Then our furniture came Wednesday. It was so nice to see our household goods, even though it would mean a lot of unpacking and organizing.

We started unpacking Wednesday night and are still in the process of doing so now! Luckily, our Internet and phone service were connected the next day. So we are up and running to a certain degree.

Our living situation is similar to a townhouse or a duplex. Our house is connected to one other house.We have a carport and a small fenced-in backyard. We are blessed to have a lot of space! Downstairs you will find our kitchen, dining room, living room, and laundry room with a half bath. Upstairs we have three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Our neighborhood is in a small town. We are in the middle of the beautiful Italian countryside. This is new for me! I've never lived in the remote country side before now! The base is about thirty minutes from where we live, therefore we have a small grocery store, gym, and community centre in our neighborhood. Since it is "good hike" to the base, we try to do everything we need to do when we "go to town" or "go to the base."

We have been pretty much been staying at the house or at the base this week, trying to set up our household. However, on Sunday, Jeff and I decided to venture out into the economy. We took a drive to Catania, and went Auchan. Auchan is the Italian equivalent to Walmart, Target, etc. We thought there was an Ikea in the area, but it turns out that it is much further away in Northern Italy.

Auchan was amazing! There was fresh bread, cheese, fruit, and all sorts of neat European goodies. There were clothes, household goods, books, cleaning supplies, etc. We were overwhelmed. Since we had not had lunch yet, we decided to eat lunch before entering back into the shopping area. Auchan also has a cafe in which we tried some authentic food. I ordered a calzone with spinach, olives, and mozzarella cheese, while Jeff ordered four cheese pasta.

As we waited for our food, we soaked in the environment as it was evident we were one of the few Americans there. It was neat listening to people talk. Several people were crowded around a TV and were watching a local soccer match. Finally our food came. (By the way, Jeff did a great job talking to the waitress with his limited vocabulary. He knows more words than I at this point!)

We laughed so hard when our food came because we did not know that our dishes were going to be SO HUGE. My calzone was the size of a medium pizza....and speaking of pizza...Jeff got a four cheese pizza, not pasta. We're not sure what happened there, but it was very good. We shared our food, and then ended up taking most of it home in a take-out box. (That was another test: trying to communicate that we needed a carry-out box!)

After eating, we went back into the shopping area and bought a few items for the house and made our way home! We were very proud of ourselves for being so adventurous! Jeff had driven to Catania before, but had never gone to this particular store. We had so much fun! Next time, I have to tell you about driving in Italy--UGH!