We have been here a full two weeks now, plus two days. I know I am overdue for "thoughts on Sicily". I am still catching up with Germany and a few more summer outings, but I need to get some thoughts down before they are lost. I find myself often comparing our current situation to the situation we had in Germany. Both were temporary and in Europe, but that's where a lot of similarities end. There are some things better about Sicily; there are many things we miss.
Currently on my mind is laundry. I just got back from starting a load. This is a plus for Sicily. We were very fortunate that the ONLY place we found to stay in Germany had laundry facilities in the basement. It would have been far worse if we had to drive out somewhere to do wash. That said, the washer was very small and slow and the dryer sometimes made the clothes smell cooked. In Sicily, we didn't exactly have much choice in picking where to stay before coming, because only one place answered my calls/emails. We could have stayed in a hotel for a couple weeks and looked once here, but it turned out that we talked Orange Park (where we are) down 800 Euro from their original asking price and it is going to work out fine. One of the pluses it had was on-site laundry. I do have to walk about 50 meters to the laundry room, sometimes in the rain, but it is well worth it! Somehow they managed to get a big American washing machine (dials in Italian) and dryer. I can do two loads and be done for a few days!
Before I go into more plus/misuses, I'll share some info about Orange Park. The owner is an older Sicilian man who looks uncannily like good Senator Palpatine. His name is Guiseppe (juice-EH-pay), but at home we refer to him as senator or emperor. He is a marvelous cook and has made dinner for us twice. He arranged the time and then had it brought over. Salad, Eggplant pasta (mmmmmm), bread, meat. We sent the wine back with thanks. He has a husband and wife from Sri Lanka who live here and work for him taking care of cleaning and upkeep. Their names are Upatissa (Oo-pah-TEE-sah) and Thilini (Till-EE-nee). They are super friendly and love the kids, especially Jessica. All the Italians, we have met, like Jessica's name best. They try several times to get Isaac and finally settle on I-seek-ah. You would think Makenna would be easier because it ends in a vowel, but they struggle with it as well. Then we say Jessica, and they smile, relieved, "Ah, Jessica!" Stefania is a sweet Sicilian lady who works here in the mornings until 1300 as secretary. She is the one who gets credit for us being here. She speaks the best English out of the group and was very conscientious about emailing and calling and bargaining on the price to get us to come.
There are a few different buildings on the "compound". We live in the one furthest from the gate. It's like a duplex. We share a wall with a DoDDS teacher and his wife. Their last assignment was 4 years at Guantanamo Bay. Wow. They are waiting for their Italian house to be finished with some renovations. We have a family room and kitchen downstairs. The kids sleep in the "loft" at the top of the stairs. They each have a real bed (not a mattress on the floor) and share a big shrank. Also upstairs is the little bathroom--yep, we are all still sharing--and our bedroom. There is a desk outside the bathroom where we have the computer set up, so we get to use the kitchen table as a kitchen table, plus. There is a big balcony off the bedroom which is really good for storage--we have our 4 huge, wheeled Rubbermaid shipping crates out there. There is a big table out the backdoor, but we haven't used it because od weather. Today is clam and sunny though, so maybe we'll try lunch outside. There is also a place to make a fire and cook pizzas in a brick oven, but it has fallen into complete disrepair. sigh. There are several smaller units grouped together that seem to turn over frequently to temporary people. A guy Matt worked with stayed here for a few days on his way out to Guam. He left Saturday. Overall the house feels more "homey" with the up and downstairs and the kids in real beds. It helps that I can and do cook a lot more than Germany. The kitchen is much better equipped.
Animals: There is a chicken house somewhere. We can hear them faintly over the racket of the non-domestic birds. Upassia has also brought us eggs. Bingo is the resident dog. He is calm and the kids like to pet him--a plus for Sicily. There are at least 5 cats, less friendly than Bingo, but the kids like to feed them sometimes. There are lots of lizards, probably snakes too, but we haven't seen them here, yet. Unfortunately, the wildlife doesn't stop there and this is a big minus. There are SO MANY snails and centipedes/millipedes. When I drive Matt to work in the morning, it's pitch black and at least one of us will crunch something gross under our shoes as we walk to the car. And there are spiders and way too many mosquitoes. We have spray, we have smoking things, but we still get bit. A lot.
It's called Orange Park because we are stuck in the middle of a big orange orchard. And it's not just our compound. There are dozens of other people's orchards too. It's mostly oranges as far as you can see, the one glaring exception is the new mall about 1/2 a mile from the gate. There is a big vegetable garden between our house and the owner's. When I first saw the garden I thought, great, the kids can help weed. But weeding isn't really something they do here. Maybe more so when it's not the rainy season, but plants are so prolific, that it seems they just don't bother. Va bene. There is lots of ground cover (weeds) between the orange trees. The kids took a bunch of pictures the first day we were here while I was unpacking the boxes we mailed to ourselves. I'll stick them on the end. the flowers are nice.
This is getting very wordy, so I'm going to charge through some other points quickly.
Minus--water pressure. The shower is completely pathetic. It does the job, eventually, but come on! Yes, you had to hold the sprayer the whole time in Germany, but it was so strong. The girls dropped it once or twice and and it rocketed around the tub spraying the whole bathroom. Not a worry here. But it's so humid, it kind of feels similar anyway.
Minus--running. I had visions of running through Mediterranean hills or along rocky cliffs by the sea. Not So. sigh. The first two times I went out the gate along the road for a few miles. It was midday and low traffic, but still admittedly very dangerous. The "two lane" road doesn't have room for a painted line down the middle let alone either side. The residences or orchards all have gates--we have a clicker to get in ours. I always stayed on the left and as soon as a saw a car I would either climb on a low wall (preferrable), press into the wire fence/thorny bushes/cacti as the car whizzed by by staring uncomprehending and sometimes honking. It was tense the few times cars traveling in both directions would converge right where I was. No accidents other then scratches on skin and snagged clothing, but running here doesn't offer any of the normal benefits of running. Both times left me more stressed than when I started. I asked Stefania about running or walking paths and she says, no, that's just not something they do here. So now when it's not pouring, I run to the mall and do laps around the outside. 3/4 to 1 mile lops depending on how I crisscross the parking lot. I get curious looks, but no glares or honking. I hate laps.
Plus: English speaking branch. It's a little smaller than the German branch, but more kids and no translation needed. The first Sunday I went to Primary with the girls and learned they didn't have a pianist. I am no pianist, but I can plunk out the top hand. And they were actually thrilled to have me. They were getting ready for the primary program. So I got the job of pianist and the girls were given scriptures and quotes to read and Makenna was assigned a talk. It is next week. The super duper great thing about me trying my best to help, is the primary president offered to let us borrow the keyboard that sits unused in her house. She brought it over last night. We get to use it during our time here. The kids are SO excited. There has been constant piano music all day--they switch off to get school done too.
Minus: We don't speak Italian, and the vast majority of local Italians don't speak English. Matt is feeling this most poignantly. The kids got used to the language barrier in Germany. They picked up some words, but for the most part they would zone out if Matt got into a conversation with locals. I knew enough German to easily get by. We are hopeless here. I know the most, but it is paltry to put it in the best light. We overheard some German tourists during our one excursion. Matt started talking with them. I couldn't tell who was more relieved, them or him, to be able to converse. They didn't speak very much Italian and were feeling similarly frustrated. Too add insult to injury, he lost a contact down the drain last Thursday night. He is looking into Base options today--hopefully there is one--because our little dictionary doesn't have "gas-permeable" and we can't imagine how difficult it would be to have an eye exam when doctor and patient don't understand one another.
Big Plus: I can get on base easily. Because my old ID expired and Matt was mostly recently working on a German base, and he is here only temporarily, we have limited access. We were worried that I would have to be accompanied by some kind person (from church or work) every time I wanted to get on. But I got a Flag Pass which lets me drive on alone for 30 days. I will another an then another finish up our time here. And at the gym, they let me sign the girls up for a jazz dance class twice a week. (Sign of a small base. The class had openings a week after the session started!) Isaac will do scouts on base on Mondays. There is a tiny library, but the kids, especially Jess. love it. The first week, the kids and I pretty much stayed at home. Matt was getting settled at work, we were jumping back into school. It was fine for a few days, but then you start to feel rather isolated.
Minus: village life. Ingolstadt wasn't a village. It was a two letter license plate city. But still we had two great parks, 3 super bakeries, neighborhood grocery stores, lots of eating options, and an amazing swimming pool within a ten minute walk. There is the mall here, 1/2 mile rather unsafe walk (rather just because it's the back way and only construction traffic). But that is all for miles.
trash
Minus: Italian food. You would think that this would be a plus. But we had fabulous Italian food made by Italians in Germany on a possibly too regular basis. We eat at home almost exclusively here. We do have goals to try and find a restaurant, but except for our day trip to the seaside, we haven't been tempted to try. Driving to and from church through Catania is enough adventure and Sundays are supposed to be the non-busy days! It is rare to see an unmarked car: dents and damage in varying degrees. Matt was advised by fellow co-workers to GET all the insurance. Sunday after church the senator opened his car door too wide and hit ours. He shrugged and said, "it's just a car." Smiled, said ciao and went in. Huh. Let it go, we got all the insurance.
Biggest Minus: trash. Trash. Trash. There are so many places along the sides of the road where people have decided to start a convient dump. Bags of trash, broken glass, an old sofa. I'll take some pictures. I have stepped into it avoiding cars on my first two runs. If you can look past this, there is a beautiful countryside. We know there is a great history here. But there is no pride in the land. They don't take care of it. It's really sad.
That will have to suffice for now. I'm not sure anyone wants to read anymore.
Makenna holding the bizarre huge flower that hangs down from the banana bunch.
Currently on my mind is laundry. I just got back from starting a load. This is a plus for Sicily. We were very fortunate that the ONLY place we found to stay in Germany had laundry facilities in the basement. It would have been far worse if we had to drive out somewhere to do wash. That said, the washer was very small and slow and the dryer sometimes made the clothes smell cooked. In Sicily, we didn't exactly have much choice in picking where to stay before coming, because only one place answered my calls/emails. We could have stayed in a hotel for a couple weeks and looked once here, but it turned out that we talked Orange Park (where we are) down 800 Euro from their original asking price and it is going to work out fine. One of the pluses it had was on-site laundry. I do have to walk about 50 meters to the laundry room, sometimes in the rain, but it is well worth it! Somehow they managed to get a big American washing machine (dials in Italian) and dryer. I can do two loads and be done for a few days!
Before I go into more plus/misuses, I'll share some info about Orange Park. The owner is an older Sicilian man who looks uncannily like good Senator Palpatine. His name is Guiseppe (juice-EH-pay), but at home we refer to him as senator or emperor. He is a marvelous cook and has made dinner for us twice. He arranged the time and then had it brought over. Salad, Eggplant pasta (mmmmmm), bread, meat. We sent the wine back with thanks. He has a husband and wife from Sri Lanka who live here and work for him taking care of cleaning and upkeep. Their names are Upatissa (Oo-pah-TEE-sah) and Thilini (Till-EE-nee). They are super friendly and love the kids, especially Jessica. All the Italians, we have met, like Jessica's name best. They try several times to get Isaac and finally settle on I-seek-ah. You would think Makenna would be easier because it ends in a vowel, but they struggle with it as well. Then we say Jessica, and they smile, relieved, "Ah, Jessica!" Stefania is a sweet Sicilian lady who works here in the mornings until 1300 as secretary. She is the one who gets credit for us being here. She speaks the best English out of the group and was very conscientious about emailing and calling and bargaining on the price to get us to come.
There are a few different buildings on the "compound". We live in the one furthest from the gate. It's like a duplex. We share a wall with a DoDDS teacher and his wife. Their last assignment was 4 years at Guantanamo Bay. Wow. They are waiting for their Italian house to be finished with some renovations. We have a family room and kitchen downstairs. The kids sleep in the "loft" at the top of the stairs. They each have a real bed (not a mattress on the floor) and share a big shrank. Also upstairs is the little bathroom--yep, we are all still sharing--and our bedroom. There is a desk outside the bathroom where we have the computer set up, so we get to use the kitchen table as a kitchen table, plus. There is a big balcony off the bedroom which is really good for storage--we have our 4 huge, wheeled Rubbermaid shipping crates out there. There is a big table out the backdoor, but we haven't used it because od weather. Today is clam and sunny though, so maybe we'll try lunch outside. There is also a place to make a fire and cook pizzas in a brick oven, but it has fallen into complete disrepair. sigh. There are several smaller units grouped together that seem to turn over frequently to temporary people. A guy Matt worked with stayed here for a few days on his way out to Guam. He left Saturday. Overall the house feels more "homey" with the up and downstairs and the kids in real beds. It helps that I can and do cook a lot more than Germany. The kitchen is much better equipped.
Animals: There is a chicken house somewhere. We can hear them faintly over the racket of the non-domestic birds. Upassia has also brought us eggs. Bingo is the resident dog. He is calm and the kids like to pet him--a plus for Sicily. There are at least 5 cats, less friendly than Bingo, but the kids like to feed them sometimes. There are lots of lizards, probably snakes too, but we haven't seen them here, yet. Unfortunately, the wildlife doesn't stop there and this is a big minus. There are SO MANY snails and centipedes/millipedes. When I drive Matt to work in the morning, it's pitch black and at least one of us will crunch something gross under our shoes as we walk to the car. And there are spiders and way too many mosquitoes. We have spray, we have smoking things, but we still get bit. A lot.
It's called Orange Park because we are stuck in the middle of a big orange orchard. And it's not just our compound. There are dozens of other people's orchards too. It's mostly oranges as far as you can see, the one glaring exception is the new mall about 1/2 a mile from the gate. There is a big vegetable garden between our house and the owner's. When I first saw the garden I thought, great, the kids can help weed. But weeding isn't really something they do here. Maybe more so when it's not the rainy season, but plants are so prolific, that it seems they just don't bother. Va bene. There is lots of ground cover (weeds) between the orange trees. The kids took a bunch of pictures the first day we were here while I was unpacking the boxes we mailed to ourselves. I'll stick them on the end. the flowers are nice.
This is getting very wordy, so I'm going to charge through some other points quickly.
Minus--water pressure. The shower is completely pathetic. It does the job, eventually, but come on! Yes, you had to hold the sprayer the whole time in Germany, but it was so strong. The girls dropped it once or twice and and it rocketed around the tub spraying the whole bathroom. Not a worry here. But it's so humid, it kind of feels similar anyway.
Minus--running. I had visions of running through Mediterranean hills or along rocky cliffs by the sea. Not So. sigh. The first two times I went out the gate along the road for a few miles. It was midday and low traffic, but still admittedly very dangerous. The "two lane" road doesn't have room for a painted line down the middle let alone either side. The residences or orchards all have gates--we have a clicker to get in ours. I always stayed on the left and as soon as a saw a car I would either climb on a low wall (preferrable), press into the wire fence/thorny bushes/cacti as the car whizzed by by staring uncomprehending and sometimes honking. It was tense the few times cars traveling in both directions would converge right where I was. No accidents other then scratches on skin and snagged clothing, but running here doesn't offer any of the normal benefits of running. Both times left me more stressed than when I started. I asked Stefania about running or walking paths and she says, no, that's just not something they do here. So now when it's not pouring, I run to the mall and do laps around the outside. 3/4 to 1 mile lops depending on how I crisscross the parking lot. I get curious looks, but no glares or honking. I hate laps.
Plus: English speaking branch. It's a little smaller than the German branch, but more kids and no translation needed. The first Sunday I went to Primary with the girls and learned they didn't have a pianist. I am no pianist, but I can plunk out the top hand. And they were actually thrilled to have me. They were getting ready for the primary program. So I got the job of pianist and the girls were given scriptures and quotes to read and Makenna was assigned a talk. It is next week. The super duper great thing about me trying my best to help, is the primary president offered to let us borrow the keyboard that sits unused in her house. She brought it over last night. We get to use it during our time here. The kids are SO excited. There has been constant piano music all day--they switch off to get school done too.
Minus: We don't speak Italian, and the vast majority of local Italians don't speak English. Matt is feeling this most poignantly. The kids got used to the language barrier in Germany. They picked up some words, but for the most part they would zone out if Matt got into a conversation with locals. I knew enough German to easily get by. We are hopeless here. I know the most, but it is paltry to put it in the best light. We overheard some German tourists during our one excursion. Matt started talking with them. I couldn't tell who was more relieved, them or him, to be able to converse. They didn't speak very much Italian and were feeling similarly frustrated. Too add insult to injury, he lost a contact down the drain last Thursday night. He is looking into Base options today--hopefully there is one--because our little dictionary doesn't have "gas-permeable" and we can't imagine how difficult it would be to have an eye exam when doctor and patient don't understand one another.
Big Plus: I can get on base easily. Because my old ID expired and Matt was mostly recently working on a German base, and he is here only temporarily, we have limited access. We were worried that I would have to be accompanied by some kind person (from church or work) every time I wanted to get on. But I got a Flag Pass which lets me drive on alone for 30 days. I will another an then another finish up our time here. And at the gym, they let me sign the girls up for a jazz dance class twice a week. (Sign of a small base. The class had openings a week after the session started!) Isaac will do scouts on base on Mondays. There is a tiny library, but the kids, especially Jess. love it. The first week, the kids and I pretty much stayed at home. Matt was getting settled at work, we were jumping back into school. It was fine for a few days, but then you start to feel rather isolated.
Minus: village life. Ingolstadt wasn't a village. It was a two letter license plate city. But still we had two great parks, 3 super bakeries, neighborhood grocery stores, lots of eating options, and an amazing swimming pool within a ten minute walk. There is the mall here, 1/2 mile rather unsafe walk (rather just because it's the back way and only construction traffic). But that is all for miles.
trash
Minus: Italian food. You would think that this would be a plus. But we had fabulous Italian food made by Italians in Germany on a possibly too regular basis. We eat at home almost exclusively here. We do have goals to try and find a restaurant, but except for our day trip to the seaside, we haven't been tempted to try. Driving to and from church through Catania is enough adventure and Sundays are supposed to be the non-busy days! It is rare to see an unmarked car: dents and damage in varying degrees. Matt was advised by fellow co-workers to GET all the insurance. Sunday after church the senator opened his car door too wide and hit ours. He shrugged and said, "it's just a car." Smiled, said ciao and went in. Huh. Let it go, we got all the insurance.
Biggest Minus: trash. Trash. Trash. There are so many places along the sides of the road where people have decided to start a convient dump. Bags of trash, broken glass, an old sofa. I'll take some pictures. I have stepped into it avoiding cars on my first two runs. If you can look past this, there is a beautiful countryside. We know there is a great history here. But there is no pride in the land. They don't take care of it. It's really sad.
That will have to suffice for now. I'm not sure anyone wants to read anymore.
Orange tree on our back patio
Makenna holding the bizarre huge flower that hangs down from the banana bunch.
The banana tree out back. The above flower broke off from that thick stem in the middle.
Pomegranate tree.
More huge flowers. This is a big bush and there are loads of flowers on it.
Flowers in a hanging basket by our front door.
Looking out at the orchard.
The garden between our house and the owner's.
There is a fence behind the little round about--where you turn around to go out, else the mall would be REALLY close.
Looking at the family room window.
There are lots of plants that look dinosaur sized. There are weird striped leaf plants we see along the freeway that would fill a whole room.
The kids' loft/bedroom. Makenna is on her bed, Jess has the green one. Isaac is on the side. The railing looks over the stairs. That TV has never been turned on. It now displays the kids' recently acquired kinder egg toy collection on top. When Thilini and Upatissa come clean, they always make the girls' beds so cute with their animals tucked in a top blanket by their pillow.
Jess is at the sink. You can see the kitchen table, and looking into the family room and front door. Just to the back right out of sight are the stairs going up.
Thanks for the updates! Fun to keep up with your family. Sounds like lots of pro's and con's, just like everything and situation in life:) Fun to see the kids. I will have to show Aspen when she comes home from school. Take Care!!
ReplyDeleteJen