Now THAT'S going to take some getting used to! Part 3

Out and about:

You have to go to the tabbaccheria (tobacco shop) to get a stamp to mail a letter.  You then drop it in the red mailbox located just outside the shop.  So what do you do at the post office?  You pay your bills.  For anything from apartment rent to a parking ticket to a hospital stay, you get a “ticket” to take to the post office to pay.

The dates are reversed.  Today is 24/2/2012.

Keyboards have extra letters.  The regular 26 are the same, but Italians need extra keys for accented letters like è í ò, and other symbols like the Euro €.

Commas and decimal points are reversed.  Working in estimating, this really gets me.  Three and a half is 3,5  and ten thousand Euro is 10.000,00 €.  Either way would have been fine, but whoever decided that Europe the US should be opposite is an idiot.

Paper size is slightly different.  Instead of 8.5x11, they have A4, which is 8,27x11,69.  No real problem, just strange to look at.

The metric system.  Yes, the metric system far superior to the crazy units we use in the States, but I’m just not used to thinking in kilos.  And for baking, they measure flour etc in grams.

Shops close for lunch from 12:30 until 3:30, and close for the evening at 7:30.  And they are closed on Sundays.

You can only go to a restaurant for lunch between 12:30 and 2, and for dinner after 8:00.

Most intersections are roundabouts.  This basically eliminates left turns.  Genius.

The majority of the household goods we buy, especially food and clothing, are produced in Italy.  Very impressive.

Curious about anything else?  Leave a comment or Facebook me.  Or call, but if you call me, you won’t hear a ring, you’ll hear a tone.  If I don’t answer, it will go to voicemail.  You’ll hear Italian at first, then my recording, more Italian, and finally a beep.  I don’t have caller ID, so if you don’t leave a message, I won’t know who the missed call was from.  

Our first sight seeing trips, Lago Maggiore and Carnevale

What a busy weekend!!

Saturday morning I did some shopping.  I got a couple pairs of jeans, a couple shirts, and a stack of clothes for Ben.  The shops are nearing the end of their big sale.  Every shop in town has a sale starting in January, and goes until they run out of merchandise.  They start with 30% off, and by now most shops are at 50-70% off.  I hear they do the same thing at the end of summer.  In Gallarate, each shop is their own brand (like American Eagle or Express, but not those specifically of course).  There is one shop near our apartment that has famous designer brands, but based on the window shopping (€€€), I have yet to venture in.

Saturday afternoon we went to Switzerland.  We were headed to a town called Bellinzona, where they have some castles.  We took the scenic route along Lake Maggiore on the way there.  It was a beautiful drive!  The lake is 66 km long and 10 km wide.  There is a road that closely follows the shore on either side, and we drove up the west side for about an hour and a half.  I’m glad Tim was driving, because the road was narrow, curvy, and very close to the water at times.  The lake is right in the Alps, and the mountains go steeply into the water.  

 

 

I enjoyed looking at the houses as much as the landscape.  Around every bend, there was a small town built into the side of the mountain, and the houses, restaurants, and churches were all the Mediterranean style, with the clay tile roofs and weathered white, orange, yellow, and pink exteriors.  There were even a few villas built on their own islands in the lake.  

Crossing the border into Switzerland was easier than driving through a toll booth.  There were guards, but they don’t stop many people.  When we arrived in Bellinzona, we discovered that today was their celebration of Carnevale.  This was a surprise, because most towns celebrate on Sunday, or over several Sundays.  Almost everyone was dressed up in costume; all of the children and most of the adults.  We saw one family of three all dressed like cows.  Little girls were dressed like princesses and butterflies; boys were comic book characters; adults were clowns.  They must have just finished their parade, as several people were carrying instruments, and there was confetti all along the streets.  Unfortunately, most of the streets were closed off in the town center, and we were not able to get to the castle.  But even driving through town, we drove through some of the castle walls, and past several towers.  

We also drove past two Aldi’s.  We stopped at one, but it had closed at 5:00, and we were 45 minutes past.  I am still curious to see what it is like, so next time we go to the castle, we’ll plan to stop at Aldi as well.

 

Sunday we went to a nearby town Oleggio (oh-LAY-jo) for their celebration of Carnevale.  We knew it started at 2:30, but other than that we had no idea what to expect.  We got there right when it started, and it wasn’t crowded yet.  All of the children were dressed up as princesses, fairies, puppies, cowboys, Indians, pirates, etc.  The amount of "American" characters surprised me.  Some of the adults were dressed up.  Young couples dressed up as the opposite sex.  Lots of guys in skirts and wigs.  We saw a whole family of Smurfs, another whole family of playing cards.  We wished we had Ben’s dragon Halloween costume.  It would have been perfect!  

There were a few carnival rides, mostly for little kids.  The parade was just getting started.  There were a few bands, about ten floats, and a group on stilts.  The parade went in a circle around the festivities, which covered a few blocks.  Ben loved it!  Especially the bands.  

 

 

The people on/with the floats didn’t throw candy, they threw confetti.  Some would come up and bomb you with it.  We were covered!  Families also brought their own bags of confetti, and kids threw it at each other.  

 

There were vendors selling things similar to funnel cakes, cotton candy, roasted nuts, candy, and hot sandwiches.  The funnel cake is one food thing the US does better than Italy.  Something fried, fatty, and covered in sugar, go figure. 

 

We left after about an hour and a half.  It was pretty crowded by then, and the parade was still slowly going in a circle.  It was a small celebration, but it was perfect for us.  Ben had a great time!

Febuary 17

It has finally warmed up here to where it is supposed to be, upper forties, or about 8°C as we call it now, and I am finally over my nasty cold.  We are going to get out and do something this weekend!  I’m not sure what yet.  Carnivale is going on this weekend, like Mardi Gras, but I don’t know if there is anything we can take Ben to.  I hope we can find a parade or something.  Our other option is to head up north and take a scenic drive near lakes and mountains, and cross into Switzerland and see a castle.

Ben is still very happy at daycare.  He likes it so much, he doesn’t want to sleep!  He sleeps only 45 minutes in the morning and 45 minutes in the afternoon.  Then he immediately falls asleep in the car on the way home, and stays asleep when we carry him in.  He never used to stay asleep getting him in and out of the car.  Last night he slept from 6:30 when we picked him up, until 8:30.  He still seemed tired, so we put him to bed about 20 minutes later, and he only woke up once in the night.  It makes me sad that I hardly get to see him.  And we don’t have half-day Fridays over here like we did in St. Louis.

Ben ate white potatoes and apples this week, and started eating soup at daycare.  It is vegetable soup, with nearly microscopic pieces that today were carrot, pumpkin, potato, and celery, with rice cereal powder and olive oil.  And tonight we found something he likes almost as much as bananas: egg yolk!

Our shower is still leaking.  Just a little puddle that comes out from somewhere underneath every time we use it.  Luckily it’s the shower in the blue bathroom, and we use the orange bathroom.  But, the owner and plumber have been out 6 times now to look at or attempt to fix it.  I have no idea what the problem is, or why they can’t fix it.  It is a brand new shower, so there must be a small part that did not get completely sealed when they installed it.  The most recent time, they had it completely out from the wall.  The most interesting part of it is that they don’t speak any English, and we hardly speak Italian, so it’s tough to communicate.  I'm usually the one that comes home from work to meet them.  I can now understand the Italian words for “needs more silicone”,  “don’t use it for two days”, and “the plumber will come back next week”.

 

Now THAT’S going to take some getting used to! Part 2

Our apartment:

To get in, we open the garage door under our building, and push the button for the car elevator.  We take the tiny car elevator down to our tiny garage, then take a tiny elevator up to the 5^th floor.  The elevator claims to fit five people, but I doubt that.  And you have to pull open the door to get in to or out of the elevator.

The refrigerator is also small.  Bigger than dorm-style, but not by much.  We are managing pretty well with it, because food doesn’t last as long, so you can’t really stock up.  And all of our spare milk is not in the refrigerator.  The freezer is on top and also small.  But again, we manage, because they eat more fresh foods here.  I think this picture actually makes it look big, but trust me, it's not.

The washer, another super-small appliance.  The one machine washes and then dries.  It’s located in the guest bathroom.  It is a front loader, but it will hold about one single arm-load of clothes.  It only hooks up to the cold, so it has to heat the water if you set it to hot.  There are dozens of settings for temperature, amount of water, amount of soiling, type of fabric, stains, etc.  And it takes about 2.5 hours to wash.  If you want to dry the whole load, it will take at least 3 hours, and it will come out with pressed-in wrinkles.  We usually stop it after the washing, take out shirts and pants, and just dry a few things.  This only takes another 1.5 hours.  It is not a vented, fluffing dryer.  To dry, it spins really fast to squeeze out the water, and gets really hot to dry it.  Hence the wrinkles, since everything is stuck to the sides the whole time.  If you can get in the habit of doing a load of laundry every day or every other, it’s not really a big deal.  It’s actually kind of nice that you never have a huge laundry basket of clothes staring at you, just a few pieces at a time.

 The washer

 

The dryer

The bidet.  Every bathroom in our apartment, in hotels, at work, and in restaurants has a bidet.  We haven’t used ours yet, but the cats seem to love it.

Heating.  There is a radiator in every room, each with a knob to turn high or low.  That’s all the control we have, because the one system heats the whole building.  And it shuts off at night.  Not a problem for us, but I wrap extra blankets around Ben (Babies in the States are not supposed to use blankets, but here they all do, and pillows, but I’ve not gone that far.)  The heat runs from October through April, so any strange weather patterns, and you are out of luck.

No air conditioning.  The window have no screens.  People say this isn’t really a problem, and it doesn’t get quite as hot here, but I’m not sure how this will work with the cats.  We still have a few months to worry it.  The great thing about the windows are the shades.  I don’t know why we don’t have these in the States.  Every window has its own shade that rolls down on the outside, controlled by a rope on the inside.  You can roll it completely down to block out all light, you can let it have slats for a little light, or you can put it partway or all the way up.  This makes it possible for Ben to sleep in till 10:00 on the weekends.

Feb. 13, 2012

 It has been almost a month!  We are still figuring some things out, but we feel pretty settled in to our new normal.  We bought a TV, mostly for movies and for watching things over the internet.  We finally got them to come out and install internet.  Our shower is still leaking.  They have been out 5 times now to fix it!  We don’t yet have our things we sent with the movers, but we knew that would take a long time.  They tell us we will have them soon.  Work is work.  There are some differences with international cultures, but nothing too crazy.  Tim and my desks face each other, touching.  The sales department is all in one office kind of like “The Office” TV show, but not that big, or that funny.  We get there about 8:30 and are usually the first ones here.  We leave a little after 6:00 so we can make sure we pick up Ben by 6:30.

Ben still loves his daycare.  He lights up when he sees his main teacher, Monica, in the mornings.  He slept through the night for the first time ever one night last week!  We put him down at 8, and he woke up 10 minutes before my alarm went off at 6:30.  Most other days, he wakes up once per night.  Much better than every three hours!  His cold has been gone for almost a week, but we’ll keep the humidifier on him for the rest of winter.

Ben is back to eating food, after being sick.  Recently, we’ve tried more pumpkin, more peas, and now potatoes and pears.  The only thing he loves is bananas, but we keep working on the rest.  I read it can take up to 14 tries for them to like something.  Towards the end of last week, he went for 2.5 days without pooping.  Since the doctors say don’t worry until it’s three days, we decided to try some apple juice, so we wouldn’t get to the worrying stage.  I kid you not, within 30 seconds of the apple juice touching his lips, it worked.  They will be trying some apple pure at daycare soon.  I hope that doesn’t go too far in the opposite direction.

Trying to eat potatoes

 

I love Italian cooking.  I make pasta almost every day, either as the main dish or a side dish.  There are so many kinds, that you could eat it every day for a few months before ever repeating.  And each shape/size has a purpose, and a specific sauce that goes with it.  I’m still trying to get better at that, but I do okay.  Eventually I’ll get an Italian cookbook, but for now, I’m having fun combining the pastas, sauces, meats, and vegetables (and wines).  The ingredients are so good to start with, it really makes the cook’s job easier.

We received our first round of paperwork, called the Nulla Osta, so we are ready to apply for our work visas.  We fly to Chicago on March 5^th to go the Italian Consulate,  and go to St. Louis March 6^th.  We fly back to Milan on March 19^th.  We are looking forward to seeing a lot of people, and especially excited about meeting my best friend’s baby who was born the day we arrived in Milan.

Now THAT’S going to take some getting used to! Part 1

There are a lot of things that are different in Italy than in the States.  Note, I am not complaining about them, because some are better (but some are not).  I only thought you might be curious about certain things.

The grocery store: 

The carts move forward, diagonal, and sideways.  All four wheels rotate a full 360 degrees.  This makes them much easier to maneuver, but when they get really full, it is quite a workout to turn the direction you want to go.

The fresh fruit and vegetables.  I already wrote about how delicious they are, but they are a bit complicated to buy.  You have to put on a plastic glove before you can touch anything.  The gloves are right next to the bags, and the bags are just like in the states.  So you put your produce in the bag, then you have to look what number it is, 1-99.  Then you take it over to the scale, push the number button, and it prints out a sticker.  Just don’t grab the sticker with your glove hand.  It’s quite tedious if you are buying several kinds of produce, but it is organized, and very quick at the checkout.

The milk.  Most of you know that I bought milk several gallons at a time in the States.  Here you buy it by the liter, so that’s a lot of containers, and I now buy them by the case.  But, it’s only 70 cents per liter, so it’s not that much more expensive.  Turns out that I’m not drinking it as much here anyway (may have something to do with the excellent wine).  Also, you buy the milk at room temperature (but we still drink it cold).  It has been treated at a ultra high temperature, and it is good for 2-3 months.  You can also get fresh (cold) milk, but it’s only good for about 3 days, and they only have whole and part skim, not full skim.  The UHT milk has a bit of a funny taste, like it’s been cooked, but it is available in skim, I decided that I like that better than the fresh, part-skim.

Feb 5, 2012 Daycare, Snow, and Parking

Ben started daycare this week.  They have an extended entry process in Italy.  His first day was Wednesday.  I stayed with him, and we were there for an hour and a half in the morning.  Then we came home.  I stayed with him for an hour Thursday morning, then went to work, and picked him up at lunch.  Friday, he stayed about three-fourths of the day before I picked him up.  He had a great time when he was there.  He liked the teachers and the toys.  He came home and slept 3.5 hours the first two days.  His main teacher is Monica. 

Most of the teachers don’t speak any English.  The woman who sits at the front desk speaks pretty good English and was able to answer all of our questions to get him enrolled, and is able to tell us all the necessary information about what they do throughout the day. 

Ben and I are still battling our colds.  He started eating real food again Thursday, so that must be a good sign.  I still haven’t been able to taste anything for the past almost a week, which is really unfortunate in Italy, but I think it's starting to come back.  But, now I understand why he didn’t want to eat his real food.  Without tasting anything, textures seem weird, even though I’m used to them.  Since he is not used to textures at all, he had no idea what we were putting in his mouth.

 Ben ready to go outside.  Don't know why this picture won't rotate.

 

It snowed the whole first half of this week.  It didn’t really accumulate much until the last day, when we got about three inches.  Thursday morning the roads were pretty bad, and then they brought out the salt trucks and plows.  The salt trucks were about what I expected, but they did not have plows.  The plows came out later, and they were hooked to what looked like farm tractors, plowing the streets.  In the center of town, there is a cobblestone pedestrian area, several city blocks wide.  I was wondering if they would try to plow that, and it turns out that they shovel it by hand.  By Thursday afternoon, the roads were mostly clear.  I got to do a lot of driving in the snow, taking Ben to and from daycare at the odd times.  Tuesday was only the first time I had driven here, so I got quite the initiation.  After this week, I can definitely say I feel comfortable driving.  

View from our apartment.

 Snow covered palm tree.

But oh, the parking. Tim and I are both really good at it now, but it is crazy.  We have a station wagon, and the space in front of our garage is exactly the same as the length of our car. 

And the width of the garage opening is about an inch or two wider on each side than our car mirrors. 

But the best part is the car elevator to get in and out of our garage.  When we are in it, there is about two inches of space on all four sides of the car.  Luckily we have parking sensors built in that beep faster and faster the closer you get.  

Actual picture of our sensors.  Maximum red.

Note, the red bars in the picture mean you’re way too close, and are accompanied by the sound that has, by now, changed from beeping to a steady panic tone.  Then you have to sit there in this confine while you are holding the button to take you up two floors to street level.  Lets hope it never gets stuck!

Ben started sitting in the big-boy seats in grocery store carts.

At home, we're still working on tummy time and rolling over. 

 

We went to dinner for Tim’s birthday.  We thought about doing a little day trip up to the mountains, but we decided that there was too much snow up there.  And we went shopping for a TV, but we could not make up our minds, so we’re going to do some more research.  Today we are at Kristen’s again so I can blog and Tim can look at TVs.  We had some guys from the telecom company come and install an internet line, but now someone else has to come bring a router.  That should happen in a few days.  It will be so nice to have internet!