Days 2-6

Has it really been six days already?! Mama Mia!

Our bags are unpacked and everything is finally put away. It always seems like a daunting task to get things in order with children under foot. The best time to put things away undisturbed is, of course, when they are sleeping. They, however, are sleeping in the bedroom, where, yes, all the clothes go. I can now take pictures for everyone to see our new "domicilio". Actually, it's a video tour, in two parts. How high tech, I know.





On Sunday, I was totally depressed. It was a horrid night's sleep with the kids and Matt still being jet-lagged. Somehow, I made it past jet-lag pretty quickly, but have had to suffer the side-effects of everyone else's. I tried to go to mass, but didn't know the correct times. I actually went too early (9:00) and was very intimidated by the large crowd of people eating and talking with great gusto at the picnic tables next to the church. So, I must confess, that in addition to Matt's being tired beyond safely being left with the kids, I was deterred from returning this week. I think Matt ended up sleeping until 3:00 that afternoon.

The worst part about Sunday, however, was that I was so hungry. All day. See, we had gone out for pizza in the city centre the night before (a very delightful meal, outdoors, on the cobblestone street, in the shadow of a great statue of Cavour), and neglected to go to the grocery store again. So on Sunday, not only were all the restaurants closed, but all the grocery stores were closed. What were we going to do? I had snacks for the kids and baby food...but nothing for Matt and I. He would just sleep through it while I waited in misery. Being roused from his slumber by my despair, he pulled himself together, and we went looking for anything that might be open. After walking 3/4 mile, we found a Famiglia Pizza (conveniently next to a gelateria) which was just opening. He made pizzas just for us! A really nice man, we had a little conversation in broken Italian/English and had happy tummy's. Also, as a reward for Dominic's excellent progress in potty training we had some strawberry gelato (ice cream).

Monday, Matt began Italian class at the Bertrand Russell school, in the center. It's about a 35 minute walk. It went pretty well, although he definitely has to stay on his toes because almost all the instruction is in (fast) Italian with an impatient teacher. He seemed much more comfortable trying to communicate in Italian even after that first day. We try to practice at night when he comes home. There is certainly more urgency in learning the language now that we are here and need to use it every day! He came home right after class and helped me load up on groceries and household things. You'd be proud. He was a regular pack horse! We loaded him up with the backpacking backpack and he carried all the stuff while I pushed the stroller and carried a smaller bag.

Well, I guess the rest will have to wait. The internet is really slow here...those video uploads took almost all night to finish, so I lost a lot of time and energy! More later.