It never ceases to amaze me how various aspects of my life will all of a sudden crash into each other when they seem like they are the most opposite things ever. Well, today was another "in your face Katie" kind of day.
Today was thankfully a slow start morning- my pre-contract appointment was at 8 so that was my first official place to be. Are you confused about all these apartment viewings, going in to make an appointment, pre-contract appointments, inspections, contracting signing? Don't worry. I always just tell them what the last step I completed was and they tell me what's next. But seriously, it's complicated. I have to share the following from an email from my dad because although it's super ridiculous, it pretty much sums it all up:
OK, so I confess I am a bit confused. You said you signed your "pre-contract" today. But I don't remember you reporting signing the "preliminary-pre-contract". And before you sign "The Contract" don't you have to sign the "post-pre-contract" and then The Contract then the post-post contract?
OK, so I confess I am a bit confused. You said you signed your "pre-contract" today. But I don't remember you reporting signing the "preliminary-pre-contract". And before you sign "The Contract" don't you have to sign the "post-pre-contract" and then The Contract then the post-post contract?
(Yes dad- I did laugh over that one.)
So at any rate Enzo convinced the inspector from the housing office to inspect my house on Friday since he'll already be in MdP. Yay Enzo! I actually think he was worried about his vacation which starts on the 18th (and the housing office is closed M-W next week for Italian holidays). I don't care- we got what we wanted! Well, pushing our luck he asked if we could also schedule the contract signing for the 25th or 26th. My vote of course is the 25th since I check out the morning of the 26th. That was a no go...even when we asked the supervisor of Enza, the contracting person we were meeting with. Oh well. Enzo assured both her and I that this place will pass Friday's inspection.
Off I go- happy that I not only signed the pre-contract but also got the inspection scheduled this week. Okay, getting to sleep in and having a chat session with home probably played into that a bit too but the housing situation is what's been keeping me up at night so it was nice to have progress (no matter how little) after 2 weeks.
Fast forward to me sitting in the chapel waiting for my amazing Green Team chatting with one of my assistants and one of the other volunteers. They too are currently going though this process and decided to rain on my parade by saying that houses never pass the first inspection. Well big boo. I'm still keeping my optimism though...I feel like the inspection of Friday was already a huge win so I'll just see how everything else plays out. And besides, I didn't have time to worry about it...kids starting pouring into the chapel and I quickly realized that without their name tags I have no idea who they are!
We made panda face drums & kazoos. (And couldn't wait for parents to sign their kids out.)
We played red light green light where I dominated. Although we played by doing the crab walk, the whole concept of "green, yellow, and red" are beginning to fade here in Italy...so I may have still moved forward when red was called? The kids did the same though and I still won but it was pretty close.
At dinner my team was so polite and quiet compared to the screaming blue team that passed us in the stair well. Seriously. My team was asked to perform the theme song for the kitchen crew but since that seems to be the "I need to use the bathroom" stopping point the performance was cancelled this evening. Maybe after our meal of chicken nuggets tomorrow they will be ready. Tonight's kid friendly dinner had my plate looking rather brown/tan/yellow - apple slices, grilled cheese, graham crackers, oranges.Where's the green stuff?
And then there was story time. We learned about King Ahab and Jezebel and as soon as marriage was mentioned, my up then pretty quiet room erupted in "ewwwwws" and a ton of laughter. I guess the ATP kicked in and my little troopers started acting like 5-7 year olds again.
Off to singing time we sang How Great Thou Art about 10 times with hand motions. My little curly haired 4 year old (who we later thought went missing but I guess just wanted to sit with the red team?) had a great time spreading her arms out for the "thy pow'r throughout, the universe displayed" portion. I had to turn my head to hide my reaction when one of the teen leaders asked the kids what "How Great Thou Art" meant followed by a "that's really really old English."
Closing was challenging yet again. After 3 hours of being together and it's late for some of them (yes, and me) kids start getting a little out of control. One of my instigators won't be there the rest of the week so hopefully it will be bit easier...maybe? I just wanted to sing and dance to the songs stuck in my head 24/7 at this point but even my ridiculous dance moves (I swear that's what we're going for, I just have a natural knack for it) can't get the kids back into it once they've lost focus.
At any rate, today's theme was God Listens to Me! (See? It's all connected.) I firmly believe this and although I often find we're not on the same time table, He hasn't let me down. I often tease that this job offer was nothing short of Divine Intervention...seriously if that other offer came through I'd be writing you from Mississippi right now. Ick. Don't throw this back in my face later on, but I'm pretty sure I'll take Naples on its worst day any time over Stennis.
So at any rate Enzo convinced the inspector from the housing office to inspect my house on Friday since he'll already be in MdP. Yay Enzo! I actually think he was worried about his vacation which starts on the 18th (and the housing office is closed M-W next week for Italian holidays). I don't care- we got what we wanted! Well, pushing our luck he asked if we could also schedule the contract signing for the 25th or 26th. My vote of course is the 25th since I check out the morning of the 26th. That was a no go...even when we asked the supervisor of Enza, the contracting person we were meeting with. Oh well. Enzo assured both her and I that this place will pass Friday's inspection.
Off I go- happy that I not only signed the pre-contract but also got the inspection scheduled this week. Okay, getting to sleep in and having a chat session with home probably played into that a bit too but the housing situation is what's been keeping me up at night so it was nice to have progress (no matter how little) after 2 weeks.
Fast forward to me sitting in the chapel waiting for my amazing Green Team chatting with one of my assistants and one of the other volunteers. They too are currently going though this process and decided to rain on my parade by saying that houses never pass the first inspection. Well big boo. I'm still keeping my optimism though...I feel like the inspection of Friday was already a huge win so I'll just see how everything else plays out. And besides, I didn't have time to worry about it...kids starting pouring into the chapel and I quickly realized that without their name tags I have no idea who they are!
We made panda face drums & kazoos. (And couldn't wait for parents to sign their kids out.)
We played red light green light where I dominated. Although we played by doing the crab walk, the whole concept of "green, yellow, and red" are beginning to fade here in Italy...so I may have still moved forward when red was called? The kids did the same though and I still won but it was pretty close.
At dinner my team was so polite and quiet compared to the screaming blue team that passed us in the stair well. Seriously. My team was asked to perform the theme song for the kitchen crew but since that seems to be the "I need to use the bathroom" stopping point the performance was cancelled this evening. Maybe after our meal of chicken nuggets tomorrow they will be ready. Tonight's kid friendly dinner had my plate looking rather brown/tan/yellow - apple slices, grilled cheese, graham crackers, oranges.Where's the green stuff?
And then there was story time. We learned about King Ahab and Jezebel and as soon as marriage was mentioned, my up then pretty quiet room erupted in "ewwwwws" and a ton of laughter. I guess the ATP kicked in and my little troopers started acting like 5-7 year olds again.
Off to singing time we sang How Great Thou Art about 10 times with hand motions. My little curly haired 4 year old (who we later thought went missing but I guess just wanted to sit with the red team?) had a great time spreading her arms out for the "thy pow'r throughout, the universe displayed" portion. I had to turn my head to hide my reaction when one of the teen leaders asked the kids what "How Great Thou Art" meant followed by a "that's really really old English."
Closing was challenging yet again. After 3 hours of being together and it's late for some of them (yes, and me) kids start getting a little out of control. One of my instigators won't be there the rest of the week so hopefully it will be bit easier...maybe? I just wanted to sing and dance to the songs stuck in my head 24/7 at this point but even my ridiculous dance moves (I swear that's what we're going for, I just have a natural knack for it) can't get the kids back into it once they've lost focus.
At any rate, today's theme was God Listens to Me! (See? It's all connected.) I firmly believe this and although I often find we're not on the same time table, He hasn't let me down. I often tease that this job offer was nothing short of Divine Intervention...seriously if that other offer came through I'd be writing you from Mississippi right now. Ick. Don't throw this back in my face later on, but I'm pretty sure I'll take Naples on its worst day any time over Stennis.
"Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely." -Psalm 139:4
See, wasn't that simple? You write, I read...it works.
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