Thunderstorms, Sunsets, and Settling In
It feels SO GOOD to settle into some sense of normalcy, to putter around the house doing laundry, organizing stuff, planning the next week's menu, etc. I'm still dealing with a little bit of guilt on the days that I'm NOT running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I have been in GO!GO!GO! mode for three years, and it's hard to undo those habits and just slow it down and be okay with doing less.
This post will hopefully demonstrate some of the new habits that I'm striving for, along with plenty of photos of the beautiful scenery that we encounter here every day.
Our appointment was perfectly successful when we went to the Soggiorno Office on Caserma Ederle (the main base in Vicenza). I say "perfectly successful" because the lady was very impressed that we didn't forget anything and that the forms were all filled out correctly. This was the follow-up to our appointment at the Italian Consulate in San Francisco last month. It's still going to take a little bit of time to get through the process, something that we're learning as we go along. At this appointment, we had to produce forms and documents such as our marriage certificate, the rental agreement for this house, proof of Scott's new job, visa photos that we took for free in the little photo booth that sits in the hallway, etc.
This is the door to the Soggiorno Office . . .
Once these things have all been reviewed, then we can schedule the next appointment to get fingerprinted downtown. Once that's done and they see that we are not criminals or terrorists, then I *think* our paperwork will be in the final stage to get our soggiorno papers. I've heard horror stories of times when my friends from Vicenza traveled to another country in Europe for whatever reason (vacation, son's soccer game, etc) and they accidentally left their soggiorno paperwork behind. You can get in real trouble if you don't bring your soggiorno document PLUS your passport everywhere you go.
Noted. I will be oh so diligent about bringing my soggiorno and my passport when I travel.
Through the kitchen windows, I see the field behind us, the mountains in the distance, and the sunsets.
Through the dining room doors, I can see my neighbors working in their gardens, rototilling, planting, etc.
Through the bedroom windows, I can see the lovely home across a small divide, where an older lady putters around with her leaf blower, or carries a watering can on regular rounds for her pretty flowers.
I made these tostadas for dinner on Cinco de Mayo. Huge success. The recipe can be found here:
One evening after dinner, we went for our habitual walk. We have many options to choose from - but this time we chose to walk in the fields between our street and Del Din (the base where Scott works). We tried a new loop, the one that takes us to the east side of the fields and close to the base. Wherever we go, no matter which direction, we always end up walking for about 45 minutes by the time we return home.
The clouds turned into an interesting spectacle as our walk progressed . . . soon they began to look like wispy pink cotton candy that was stretched into clumps across the sky . . . Also, we were suprised to see the lights of Monte Berico and the Basilica that sit atop one of the tallest hills in Vicenza. You can see it lit up on the far left in the photo below.
This is what we saw on one of the first days of the war: (29 seconds)
The ants had formed a unified highway trail that marched up the side of our 3-story building and up to the tippy top! Something we did regularly was to spray where we could actually reach (down near the bottom) to break up that well-worn trail. This, combined with all the other tactics, has been working remarkably well.
Del Din, sitting across the river, looked as if the sky had formed a giant spotlight to illuminate it . . .
With rain almost every day for several days in a row, it's no wonder they collectively decided to find higher ground. We do live on the edge of several farm fields, so we're on the precipice of nature and civilization. I'm learning to be patient with the discrepancy and to find new ways to protect the sanctity of our home on the third floor.
On one particular evening, we took our evening walk through the fields again. For the first while, my main focus was just on how beautiful the photography opportunities were with those moody clouds . . .
I took a quick selfie as we waited for the gate to open up to our long driveway . . .
I left my rain jacket downstairs to drip dry and then I carefully squooshed my way up all the flights of stairs to the top. My shoes were literally so saturated that two days later, they were still damp! We finally had a little bit of sunshine to where I could lay them in a sunny spot to finish drying. Wow, what an adventure that whole thing was!
The next day, the clouds began forming another beautiful sunset. I took a series of photos to show the progression as I prepared dinner . . .
We passed through a really cute town called Roveredo en Piano on the way. You can see a little glimpse of it here: (15 seconds)
Their church was tall, stately, and pretty, especially with the mosaic of Christ on the front facade . . .
All of their furniture had recently been picked up to begin making its way up to Germany, so we sat and visited on the floor of their living room. They had a few things left to make life somewhat comfortable during the transition, but most of the house was empty.
Kylie and Miles recently bought a new car, a BMW (because they're cheaper over here when we live so close to their source!). They practiced making sure that their suitcases, TV, and misc. items that were intentionally left behind could all fit into the car, because they wanted to make sure before the moving company drove off with everything else! Now, they're just waiting out the next few days until they can begin their drive up to Ramstein, Germany to start Miles' new post up there.
*Note: Since last weekend's visit, Avery, Kylie and Miles, are all settled into a hotel on the base in Aviano. I was supposed to go up and help Kylie get the house clean last Tuesday, but then she found out that her landlord planned to hire someone to just do it instead. This was a big relief for Kylie because she was already exhausted from doing everything else up to that point.
We are heading up to see them again tomorrow (Saturday), since they leave early next Friday (May 23) to drive up to Germany. Thankfully, we're already making some plans to see them in September, once they get more situated.
We took Avery on a little walk down the street, past the church, and over to the Italian Cemetery.
Video of Avery wanting to "run fast": (5 seconds)
Video of Avery running along, promising to beat her mom: (4 seconds)
Video of Avery and Scott playing some soccer in the parking lot of the cemetery: (6 seconds)
I feel the need to add that I do interact with Avery A TON!! But nobody is taking photos or videos of me, and that's okay. I'M the photographer . . . so that often means that I am mostly just capturing other people's moments.
Video of Mr. Italian Farmer spraying his crop of corn: (3 seconds)
Watch her here: (23 seconds) (*I'm certain they do NOT use their bidet as an actual bidet!!)
On the drive home, I was poised and ready for several minutes in order to get this video for Scott. We had passed underneath a unique overhead structure as we drove up to Aviano that morning, and he was super curious about how it was put together. I made note of a nearby exit to watch for on the drive home later, and here it is:
(11 seconds)
We made our weekly pilgrimage over to the Iper Tosano grocery story after driving back from Aviano. Something I noticed in their pasta aisle is that some of their colorful shapes and sizes are made from natural ingredients - not from any food dyes.
They use carrot, red beet, turmeric, spinach and tomato to give the pasta those pretty colors!!
I also wanted to share just a small portion of all the specialty cheeses they have in this store. This is a video of the locally made, or regionally made, cheeses - and does not include the separate refrigerated aisle of regular cheeses (sliced, shredded, bricks, etc.) Also, it should be noted that the prices you'll see in the video are per KILOGRAM. The actual price of each package is much, much lower.
(12 seconds) https://photos.app.goo.gl/uRZ4KBy2AoRZ8Tdy6
I wanted to make a heart with the colors of the Italian flag.
I had to do a little research because I haven't done anything like this before, even though I knew exactly what I wanted as the end product. What I ended up having to combine was the technique of "raw edge quilting" mixed with "scrappy piece quilting". Raw edge quilting ends up with a sort of rag quilt look once it gets washed. The edges of the seams will curl and create a cute, shabby-chic effect. Scrappy piece quilting basically means you are piecing together scraps and making it all fit together. There is some trimming involved, of course, to make sure it will work out okay.
I watched a few YouTube videos until I was somewhat confident to begin my project.
I had a piece of thin fusing material on hand, so I used that as my foundation. I cut out and stitched on some coordinating pieces of green fabric that overlapped at the seams, and I laid them out in a mosaic sort of pattern, sewing one piece on at a time before adding the next one.
I pinned a paper heart onto the mosaic of green, white, and red . . . and I cut out a heart shape.
In total, it took me a chunk of one afternoon to complete the entire project. I love how it turned out! I want to make a second one for myself, one that I can put into a frame and hang on the wall. Maybe I'll make another heart with colors of the US flag, too. And I'll hang them side by side. Yeah, I think I'll do that. :)
Scott took me over to the gym at Del Din for the first time a few days ago. We parked the car in one of the parking garages and then we had to walk maybe 1/4 of a mile across the "campus" to get to the huge gym. They even have an indoor pool!! It's only open M-F from 0600 to 1400 hours, but it looked really nice, with swimming lanes set up and diving boards, too.
I used the rowing machine and then the stair climber. That was a great combo and I can't wait to get back and do it again.
When we got back to the parking garage, we saw an adorable little Fiat. It was just my size!!! XOXO
I've also started back up on Maisie's Quiet Book this past week. My sister, Melanie, helped me get this page started when she visited me recently in Idaho Falls, and now I'm adding more details to it. When it's done, it will be a counting page, but also a fun activity where you can pretend to bake some cookies. Each cookie will have corresponding chocolate chips on top, with the numbers 1-9 underneath. The cookies will velcro to the baking pan. The baking pan won't move (or fit into the oven), but the oven door will open and close and she can place one or two cookies inside. The cupboard doors will also open and close, but I'm still deciding on what little items to put on the shelves inside . . .
The next surprise was that the storm slammed one of the kitchen windows shut while we were watching a show that same evening. It wouldn't have been such a big deal, except that a bottle of vegetable oil was holding the window open at the time. When the wind slammed the window shut, the bottle of oil crashed onto the floor and started spilling oil everywhere. Thankfully, the bottle was made of plastic, but it took some effort to clean up all the oil.
I put the oily towels into the hamper to wait for laundry day. That was a big mistake.
As more clothes landed in the hamper, they soaked up some of the oil from the towels. Yuck.
When I did the load of laundry a few days later and hung them out to dry on the balcony, several items clearly had oil stains on them even after being washed. Hmmm . . . how to fix THAT?
ChatGPT came to the rescue once again, with a remedy for getting the oil stains out. It involved using Dawn dish soap, a scrubber or brush, and some baking soda. We had to go to the Commissary for the Dawn dish soap, since it's not sold in Italian stores. And then it was a series of multiple attempts to get it all resolved.
The process went something like this:
~Scrub some dish soap into the spot
~Let it sit for at least 30 minutes
~Wash it in as hot of water as it can handle (In our case, I just threw it into the washer)
~Hang it to dry
~Then check to see if any oil stains are still visible
~If not, then YAY!
~If so, then back to the beginning and start all over again
Scott's khaki tactical pants were the most resistant out of all the items that needed attention. I washed a duvet cover using this method, along with some other clothing, and they turned out great the first time. But his pants were quite stubborn. When the dish soap didn't remove the oil, I had to scrub in some baking soda, too. And each round involved lots of waiting and patience, since our washer takes about 1.5 hours to do one simple load of laundry.
"This work is dedicated to the washerwomen of times gone by. In their toil, in fact, lies our entire history." Vicenza, 3 December 2022
There is an old washing station in front of the mural and plaque . . .
This same neighbor was also out rototilling a portion of his garden yesterday morning. I took a sneaky video of him: (16 seconds)
It's just nice to see that people plant gardens and do stuff in other parts of the world. :)
As for last night, HOLY CANNOLI - I think that was the biggest storm I've ever seen in Italy!!
While we were watching a show and relaxing after our walk, the rain began to fall. The rain turned into torrential rain, which soon turned into hail. The lightning and thunder made us jump several times, as the thunderstorm persisted well past when we tucked ourselves into bed a couple hours later. I thought about putting on my sleep mask so I wouldn't be bothered by the lightning flashes behind my closed eyelids, but thankfully I was sleepy enough that I didn't need it at all. I slept hard through the night and when I woke up this morning, a nice cool temperature trickled in through our open windows, and the birds were all chirping and chattering and singing.
I love Italy.
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