4 Months!

I’ve survived 4 full months in Naples. It’s crazy that 4 months have passed but at the same time I feel like I’ve been here forever. This last month in particular has just flown by; I barely remember my first 3 months in the Navy Lodge! Even looking back at pictures and previous posts there are already things I don’t remember. This is bad because I’m the one who always remembers things, but it just goes to show that this blog really is a good idea to maintain a historical record.  

At any rate, the days continue to fly by filled with the good, bad, and stinky. Work continues to be a challenge (what I wanted- right?). Unpacking/setting up house continues to make microscopic progress (Nico isn’t too helpful with this). Nights are filled with Bible study, coaching soccer, Italian classes, and if I’m lucky, hanging out with friends before turning into a pumpkin when the clock strikes 10. The trash piles continue to reach towards the sky. Smoke plumes continue to fill the air with the stench of trash, smoke, rubber and the smell I just call “Naples.”

This weekend flew by too fast and I find that this morning I’m not operating at my normal maniac Monday pace. Last week was a challenge (to say the least), but we survived. This week has already proved to slow down, however with our upcoming office move to an even deeper level of dungeon (which just may as well be another circle of hell) it’s going to be an interesting week. I also get to head to Trieste tomorrow for a quick over night trek to try to get a handle on what we actually do here at SSU. Wait. Let me re-phrase. I’m going to see how my funding documents translate into huge contracts and work being done on the ships. It may be my nerdy side shinning through but I am rather excited to see a ship out of water and see some of the things that I’ve sent funding through for. But I digress; this post is supposed to be about this last weekend, not the upcoming week.

This weekend was a hodgepodge of events: Italian cover bands of Queen, pink shirted men, the Blue Dragons amazing their coaches with a 12-0 shutout, repair guys (4 in total-including Fabio), full combat shopping at Ikea, watching team Napoli play a blow out game with lots of Italians in a local restaurant, the best gnocchi ever (with so much cheese it tasted like mac-n-cheese), wine tasting, wine purchasing, a ton of food, and my first out of town visitor! Phew. No wonder I’m tired! Nowhere in that list of events do you see “nap time” or “sleeping in.”

Now that your brains are probably trying to process what I meant by a few of those events I’ll explain. I recommend grabbing a cup of coffee (or Diet Coke depending on what time zone you’re in) since it’s going to be a long one…

Friday afternoon I didn’t leave the office until much later than planned on account I was waiting for a last minute contract to be issued. No big deal since it gave me time to chat with OG and GWB and wish them a very happy New Year’s and catch up on the latest and greatest happenings at NPS. Nothing like these chats to re-affirm that leaving was quite possibly the best decision I made all year, but at the same time realize just how much I miss these two. Pretty much 90% of my fondest memories from NPS involve these two so it’s been somewhat of a challenge adjusting to work without them here calling me up for coffee breaks, arranging “walk abouts”, & yes, evening long TRTs. (I really am looking for jobs out here for you both- just get those passports already!)

After taking off from the office, with FY11 in the books, I headed home to harass Nico for a while before heading back out to The (World Famous) Agora Hotel for their end of summer BBQ and performance by a Queen cover band. As planned, the group of folks Joe has bonded with were all sporting their pink outfits. Let me just tell you, grown men can pull off pink, but they really should avoid sequins. Trust me. While we visited and stacked empty cups, the lead singer of the band in his white track pants pulled way above his natural waist, bright yellow buckled jacket, and scary mustache danced his way around the pool singing 80s songs. At one song, he decided to strip the shirt…my eyes, my eyes. (Tracy, I think you got a picture of this? And please don’t believe a word Joe text.) After a successful kick off to FY12 I made my way back home.

Signore Nico was rather frustrated when I walked through the door at a rather late hour of the night, but luckily didn’t wake up because I needed my sleep before the big soccer game the next morning. The Blue Dragons dominated the field- 12-0. It was pretty even (1-0) at the end of the first quarter but then our super stars were put in and well, that’s when our score started to increase. Seriously, you really can’t explain to 7 and 8 year olds why they need to stop scoring so we gave up and just tried to move them into different positions. Eh, what can you do?

Next stop for my Saturday was to meet the repair folks at my place to install the shower box around my bathtub, evaluate why I can’t get hot water in the other shower, trouble shoot my shutters, and replace the light above the stove. Simple enough- right? Well they didn’t speak English and although they had an idea what needed to be done it was still fun to explain why the flush button was off the wall since I had to take the panel off to stop the continual running of water the night before.  I was upstairs while they were working downstairs and when I heard the land lady also down there I walked down to say hi. Apparently only of the 3 guys was working and the other 2 with the land lady were just standing in my bedroom chatting away. Strange? Yes, but this is Italy after all. Upstairs we went and while I was struggling with my Italian homework. 

Everything that needed to be looked at was- even with them trying to show me that the shutters really do work and that I was just closing them wrong. Really? While they were taking a break while one of them ran around the corner to the hardware store the other 2 asked about il gatto so I pointed to Nico out in his planter box stalking them. They both went out and started talking to him and I guess he liked what he heard since he was Mr. Social at that point. Not too long after that I hear a new person in my apartment- but at my second glance I realized I knew him. It was Fabio (my alarm guy) who came by I guess to help translate? Still I was happy to see him and we finally figured out which sensor was going off when it shouldn't. 


The rest of Saturday was spent with Joe with a trip to Ikea and then dinning in a local restaurant while watching the Napoli game. (They won.) Watching the game with locals was hilarious. The staff was just standing behind the tables also watching the game. When Napoli scored hands flew up in the air, along with a piece of pizza or two. They sure love their soccer. 


Sunday it was out to Avelino for wine and food. We toured the Antica Hirpinia winery and tasted several of their wines. Were they good? Yes and at 5euro a bottle you can bet that I came home with a few bottles (like 6). Hey, Tanya did the same thing. After our wine tasting we headed over to a place not too far away for food. Between the snacks served with the wine and the encore of more of the same at this place I think I consumed more meat in 5 hours than I had all of the last 2 months...but it was so good. 


After being gone for hours, we headed back to the SS where I met up with a friend visiting from out of town. She followed me down to my place where she was just disgusted with my view and stated that she'd never come back. (Ha. She may have said these things but I don't believe her for a second.) 


So yeah, good weekend but busy. I owe you some pictures but for now just check out month 5 on my facebook page. :)