My City on the Bay...Just a Different Bay

As round two of Italian class comes to an end, it's field trip time! The various classes met up early last Saturday despite the dark sky to gain even more culture and history of the place we're currently calling home.  Although we treked through many areas I've already seen, this time around we were lead by locals that new the history of the city. Instantly the buildings and streets came alive with stories from the past. And don't get me wrong...when I say "past" I really mean past...like 2,500 years ago!

Our first stop was a castle, now transformed into a B&B, to see what a typical Neaopolitan house. Once again I had the feeling that I was born in the wrong country, in the wrong time period...

The outside of the building was being restored and as we walked under the scaffling into the entry way it looked just a little sketch. Just for a moment though because as soon as we climbed the stairs, faded frescos and mosaic tiles greeted us before one of the members of the family that owns it. We toured the beatiful building while being told the history and on several occasions that it was used for a scene in a Jack Lemon film.

Our next stop lead us through Piazza Dante where the statues overlooking the piazza were explained and also how the different parts of the city used to be separated by walls and gates. We stood in a parking lot where they unification of Italy was announced. After hearing history, we then proceeded through one of the old gates (now Book Alley). Orderly. Not breaking down the gate like they did in the old times when the plague hit the city.

It this square we stood next to a 2,500 year old Greek wall (Greek because they stack stones on top of eachother like that) while being surrounded by modern buildings.

Then it was off to a church. A church that I honestly can't remember the name of but someone really famous in church history used this place as his library. I want to say it was St. Agustine, but don't quote me on that! We snuck inside the church moments before a wedding was starting and truth be told, the red ball gown being worn by one of the guests is still what I remember the most. That and a NY Catholic official in burried there as he apparently died when in Italy, with his Italian girl friend. Oops.

Through the exit of the chuch we ended up near the Univerity and stopped for coffee. We stopped for coffee and the rain started to pour. Within minutes the semi crowded streets cleared out, and my to my regret even the two Santas playing African drums moved out. We booked it up the hill to the Museo Cappella Sansevero where some of the most amazing statues I've ever seen were. Check out the link because pictures aren't allowed so you have to look at the professional ones. The ceiling of the chapel was beautiful in brillian greens, blues, reds. Legend has it that the artist Raimondo de Sangro  used bile, blood, and other biological "pigments." Like I said, the art was amazing. Symbolism, technique, all of that but the most interstesting thing? As we left there were two skeletons, a male and female that still had their vascular systems. Again, legend says that an imbalming agent was injected into the live subjects to preserve the system while the flesh decayed. Well, I explored a little more (since it didn't look quite right) and I guess a study back in 2009 found that parts of the skeletons were actually contructed of silk and wax.

Another great day in Bella Napoli and even more fabulous new places to take visitors! Best part? I didn't even have to speak Italian.

Che cosa è il Natale come in Italia?

Well, I don't know what Christmas looks like and won't this year, but I can sure show you and tell you what it looks like a few weeks prior!

This past week on the 8th, the Immaculate Conception was celebrated. That night heading home from work through my little towns I was rather impressed with all the lights now illuminated. (Some of them had been up for weeks, just never turned on.)

Seriously. I can almost give directions from the "Bumpy Tunnel" on just by types of Christmas lights out there....follow the red chasing lights, pass under the white stars surrounded by blue outlined garland, turn right at the bush covered in large blue lights and follow the road under the shoot stars up the hill. I could go on but none of you should be visiting me in the next few days and I'm sure next year the creativity will continue. All I know is Nico loves the blinking lights our neighbor has flashing out our window and just stares at them when he's not checking out his Christmas tree.

There are also a ton of LED lights flashing across our kingdom. Once the sunsets, many, many rooftops look like airport landing strips with their blinking red and green lights. A little closer to home, our local piazza has a tree made of blue lights at the perfect level for our rooftop patio. I still get a little confused as to why my living room is glowing blue in the morning, but another day or two I should remember. Should.

The garden shops now have a ton of cyclamen and poinsettias. They also have small potted evergreen trees. I've noticed that even the ones not in pots are sold with a root ball wrapped in canvas. Maybe they are just clearing out their landscaping department but I'd like to think that they are doing the more "eco friendly" thing. (Yes, I do realize that I live in the part of Italy notorious for their trash issues...)

Over the weekend my music playing Santa count started. It started with two walking down my street carrying a keyboard and guitar on my way to the field trip. When we were downtown, two more Santas played African drums as those walked by got an instant dose of holiday spirit. Later that evening driving home, another one was spotted but I only saw his tip container so I'm not sure if he was a musical Santa or maybe a dancing Santa?

Speaking of Santa- his name out this way is Babbo Natale. The commercially produced images of him still portray him as an old, fat, white guy. I'm not sure if this is because these items have been produced in China and they are producing them for the main market segment or what. And yes, for you large inflatable fans- I have spotted a few of them throughout the neighborhood. (These may be American homes...I know they live out here but since I never see them I can't tell you for sure.)

Well, that's what I've experienced so far. I'm still on the hunt for a deformed Ariel but I just may have to wait for Candy Cane Lane...I really don't think that one can be beat! 

As for me and Nico's Christmas decor I'm so thankful that I went a little crazy last year (okay, and the year before) because I've been able to rework some of my decorations since running to Michael's for new supplies really isn't an option. Shoot. Running anywhere for craft supplies really isn't an option. With little BP racing around the house and looking at a few of my ornaments from years past I was once again reminded why we always had "cat decoy ornaments" on the lower branches of the tree. Rather than tempting fate and having one of my ornaments destroyed via being dropped in a water bowl (his newest game) or rolled downstairs those were put in cat free zones and/or packed back up.

This also goes for our cute little tree. Again, thankful that I bought a ton of plastic ornaments for wreaths last year. Nico decided to go for a black, silver, and white theme. I helped him out by purchasing "shocking" lights  (which apparently means obnoxiously bright and blinking) and tying the bow on top since clearly the gold star I have won't work with his color scheme. 

If time permits tonight we're going to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas so he can try to get the real meaning of Christmas. He does keep checking out the nativity scene though. As in thinks he needs be part of the party and just like that catzilla is sticking his head into the manger. Entertaining? Yes but another reason I need to look into getting a wood set and always have superglue on hand.

At any rate, it's definitely Christmas time out here and my office advent calendar that gets raided daily for chocolate proves it. (Shoot we hit the ones from this weekend on Weds last week). It's come without peppermint ice cream or a red Starbucks cup full of chocolatey, peppermint, coffee. And I'm okay with that for the time being BECAUSE it's come with the opportunity for me to get back to the states and the state that I care most about...California since it's where the family is. Well, will be once Miss Texas gets herself back to the 831.

Meeting My #1 Customer

It's one of those weekends again. The kind  where I'll be running from event to event and come Sunday night I'll be more exhausted than I was Wednesday morning when that gym alarm goes off way too early.

But it's okay. I do after all choose to do all of these things and I mean why wouldn't I choose to take my boss up on his suggestion to go visit our other office in Gaeta on a Friday? Why wouldn't I plan on going to a dinner with local orphans to present them with Christmas gifts? Why wouldn't I plan to attend my class field trip to Naples? ...but I get ahead of myself. One day at a time.

After a rather hectic week in the office and my cancelled trip yesterday, my boss fully supported our reschedule trip to Gaeta to happen today. So this morning, a good hour after I normally leave my house I met up with my coworker and we headed up the coast to Gaeta. Gaeta several years back was the base for this area and still remains the home port of 6th Fleet's Command Ship- USS Mount Whitney.

The MW and I have really gotten to know each other over these past few months as I process, log, and closeout all funding documents for her necessary repairs. Let me tell you- she has a lot. Only recently did she return from Croatia from a dry dock. Yeah, as in they pulled her out of the water to make some major repairs. At any rate I feel like she sealed her fate as my #1 customer this week when I processed at least 2 documents for her each day and stressed over the fact that although these were emergency things I had no more money to use. Nothing like having to wait 6 hours to have the east coast to approve funds before your person signing documents in Bahrain goes home...like I said, busy week.

Today's mission was to gather information the MUSE barge, the power supply for the ship when it's in port. I tagged along as "official photographer" and to foster customer service. It was good to see some of the guys I talk with weekly (if not more) but never see. After hanging out in their office reminding that accurate estimates are key to not tie up funds in jobs (the reason for my headaches this week) I headed out to the barge with the real engineer. The Italian contractors gave us a great tour and offered us coffee. I'm still not 100% sure what all I saw but come Monday I'll get the big picture from my coworkers and start making sense of all of this.

After a fabulous seafood lunch with great company talking shop and other stuff we headed back to the port to get on the ship. The SSU engineer, knowing the week I had, suggested that I meet the chief engineer on the ship so I had a face to go with the next requests I saw. Why? Apparently he feared for my computer screens' safety this past week when I kept seeing the requests come through. Well, like most of his ideas this was a great one. As in gold star quality. The chief engineer is a great guy who agreed to take me on the 5 minute engine room tour but it quickly turned into the 45 minute tour as  he lead me around, taking the time to explain how things work. (Can I just say that I find it rather ironic that after my days on the TSGB I never though I'd be in an engine room again and yet this is the second one this year?) During our tour I got to see the galley with its new hoods and met the Captain of the ship. He personally thanked us for the support our office provides him- sweet!

Realizing that we'd put in way more than our 8 hours and it was late Friday afternoon we thanked everyone again and headed back south. Along the way we called our boss to report in. He was once again impressed that I have no fear running around engine rooms. Shoot, I was even in heeled boots today. No. Not exactly ship exploring shoes but that wasn't our original plan! Oh well, as it was also pointed out on the drive back, when I tag along for visits we get the VIP tours. The things I do for my country :)

Another Thing I Can Cross Off...

...my "well, I never thought" list.

This morning when I was already running a smidge late, I saw something I didn't want to see as I came out of the curve along bamboo road: the red lights indicating the guard rails were down over the train tracks. Well, as I slowed down to see what was happening the car in front of me crossed.

Turns out the guard rails were down, but seriously out of whack. This is the same crossing that several months back the rails were down but no train for ages (they don't even run at this hour of the morning) but since they were down I couldn't cross so I had to go the wrong way down a one way to get back on the main road....remember?

So after making sure that no train was coming down the track I too crossed between the rails that were running somewhere in between parallel and perpendicular to the road. My guess is a car went plowing through them in the night...unless some of these CAT4 winds messed them up. No lo so. Some things just can't be fully processed that early in the morning, before several shots of espresso.

All I know is I may just head that way tomorrow morning on my way to work to see if I can't get a picture, however with my luck they've already been repaired.

Well, Now I Know...

"Ciao Enzo. Questa Katie. I have a problem- my oven, stove, and dishwasher aren't working. I've flipped all the breakers and still nada. I hear/smell the gas from the stove top but don't hear the clicking to ignite it."

"Did you flip the switch?"

"In the breaker box- yes."

"No, the switch in the kitchen. It needs to be on in order for it work. Maybe you hit it while cleaning."

"Um, I don't think so. I did a fair amount of trouble shooting prior to calling you. When I get home I'll check though. Grazie." (I couldn't admit to him that I haven't actually cleaned my kitchen in a week...or the fact this wasn't a new discovery but I finally remembered to call him and I knew I'd be home before 9pm.)

After hanging up the phone I had the feeling that he honestly believed that I had no idea what I was talking about and I couldn't help but to think that it was because of my gender. Really? I've been without what I figured to be power to my 3 appliances since Saturday, but maybe even Thursday...since that's when I ran my dishwasher. 

You see,  dirty dishes, coated in blue frosting and a light dusting of flour from sugar cookies were very festive transforming my counter into a winter wonderland scene, but they were also daunting.  Very daunting, especially late at night after a long day at work. Finally on Thursday when I realized I needed dishes (those of you who have been my roommate know how long I wait sometimes...) so I started to attack them by hand I remembered that I have a dishwasher! I'd still trade it for a garbage disposal any day of the week but it's a good thing to have when you make a mess with just about every pot, pan, cookie sheet, and utensil coated in food. It wasn't until Saturday afternoon when I really wanted coffee did I realize that my kitchen was not fully functioning. Grr.

That's when my engineer Katie mode started and after exhausting my ideas I called in a few experts for their feedback. They suggested everything I had already tried. Finally today I called Enzo to see if he could relay the message because I still can't talk home repairs in Italian. That's when we had that conversation. That's when my cranky day at work got even worse.

At any rate, as soon as I chased Nico down from when he ran outside when I got home (yeah, that was fun) I went to straight to the kitchen to prove Enzo wrong. Unfortunately I proved myself wrong instead. When I called him to let him know it was fixed he had to ask if it was the switch. I fessed up and told him yes. Then he went on about how it's a safety thing which I disagreed with him...it's clearly a decoy for Americans. Oh well. Like I teased earlier- now that my kitchen is up and running again I better go spend more time in it because clearly this woman doesn't know her way around it well enough!

Seriously though, I know I didn't flip that switch. Maybe one of the cookie sheets hit it? Maybe it was Nico? I mean, I don't mind the fact that it was a such a quick fix (once I finally called) but it would have been nice to see my favorite repair guy...just sayin'.  And yes, I find it hilarious that just today at work we were once again laughing about  although we have "degrees" sometimes the simplest of things gives us the most difficulties.

Soccer & Wine

Um no. Not together but combined into the same day makes for a pretty fabulous Saturday, especially when you add a Nap. Yeah, you read that right. Nap with a capital n.

Actually, let me back up. The first event of the day was running out in Lago with my training buddy. Just 5 miles today but for some reason it was rather brutal, even with the promise of coffee and a pastry at the end of our miles. Luckily, a portion of the pack of dogs realized that we were lacking motivation and on our way back up the hill they came barking after us. Our days of "stop, drop, and roll" were quickly adapted to "halt, turn, and yell." Even in English those dogs knew not to mess with us. Adrenaline rushing, that last half of mile, up hill was no problem. Oh and that cappuccino was fabulous too.

Next stop of the morning (um yeah, it was only 930 by this time) was Carney Park for...drum roll please...queue trumpet fanfare....the last soccer game of the season! Don't get me wrong, coaching was fun but with holidays interrupting the season it was beginning to feel like the season would never end. My Blue Dragons rocked it on the field once again and ended their season with only one loss. Turns out the team we lost to (that nasty orange team) lost to another team we beat so- had we been at full strength that day the outcome may have been a tad different. None the less, as I passed out their blue jersey and gold star sugar cookies I was really proud of them.

After our award ceremony I went to watch my coworker's youngest kid play since I'd been trying to all season. This is the kid that I've been asking to run with me for months and the one I've won over by telling him about Nico and that I live above a pizzeria. He's such a cute 4 year old- but then again I find most 4 year olds adorable. His team also won (yay Red Dragons!) and I watched him get his soccer medal. And with that, I was totally soccered out.

Once home rather than cleaning my rather messy house I found a sleepy kitty and decided to make him share my big bed. How is it that something so tiny can take up so much room!? Three hours later I decided it was probably time to wake up. Told you- it was a Nap. A fabulous nap.

Last event of the day was a wine tasting event at the bottom of the hill organized by a coworker. It was a lot of fun to hang out with coworkers outside of the work environment. My co-coach and his wife were there, with a beautiful picture drawn by my little buddy when he remembered that they would see me. As the rain came pouring down (because it couldn't rain during my run or soccer game) we sat and talked about things other than ship repair and it was a blast. Once again I was reminded just how much I like my coworkers.

Wine sampled, yummy food consumed, and bottles purchased, it was back up the hill for bedtime. So what if I slept a large portion of the afternoon? Not only was it a busy day but the morning held the promise of a trip to Shoe Alley. Yep. Again.

Holiday Party/Farewell with LPN

"Are you almost here?"

Grrr. Yes. I've "been here" for at least 2 laps around the rather large block but I can't find a place to park. I did however teach my GPS the difference between roads and pedestrian areas as I backed out a very narrow road with cars parked on either side. Of course this was after the thought of "I sure like this one better than the one I was using ..." Figures right?

Uncle Gianni to the rescue and a primo spot in front of the news stand was there just for me. Totally worth the risk of being on the street with the parking guy watching it rather than being blocked into the lot made for 8 (American sized cars) but currently holding way more than that.

I'm here!

As were lots (and lots) of the LPN members to unfortunately say good bye to a few of our members but also to celebrate the holidays. And that's what we did with pizza after pizza, Christmas karaoke, and the Italian version of Bingo.

That's right- Italian version. The cards were were handed had blank squares on them and only 5 numbers printer per line by 3 columns. To win you first only had to get 2 in a row. Then for the person with 3 they got a slightly larger prize...4, 5, and then all the numbers covered. Well my card stunk but my fabulous marathon training buddy's didn't and one won her a free registration to the marathon! We of course credited the win to G.Nome who was her good luck token. I guess he was sick of me and Alida at this point?