Busy Morning

After heavy rains, thunder and lightning last night, we woke up to sunny skies this morning.

Katrina walked Brandon to school after taking a very cold shower. I took my shower while she was gone and it too was very cold. Katrina talked to our door keeper, Anna, and she sent the maintainance man (her husband)to check things out. We are not sure what happened or how it was fixed, but we now have hot water again. Cold showers really made us feel like we were camping.

We met with Simona, one of our relocation people, at the bank this morning. After Katrina acquired the appropriate paperwork on Tuesday, we were able to finally open a bank account. Banking is another interesting difference between living in the US and in Italy. At our credit union in Oregon we only had to sign one or two papers to open multiple accounts and investments. This morning we had to give 6 signatures each just to open a basic account. Getting a local account opens up more possibilities...like finally getting TV hooked up.

Forgive me if I've told this story in an earlier blog, but there is one other rather interesting thing about banks in Italy. When you arrive at a bank, you cannot just walk in. Each bank has a set of lockers outside the door for things like: guns, umbrellas, cameras, and a few other things. I even had to put my change into the locker. You close the locker door and take the key. Then, you enter the bank one person at a time. The door has a button you push to open it. It slides open and one person walks into the entry. Its actually an xray machine with clear doors on each side, almost like what you see at the airport. If you don't set off the detector, the inner door opens and you go in. If you set off the detector, you go back out and see what you forgot to put in the locker. Its sounds like more of a hassle than it really is, but they really don't have problems with bank robberies like we do in the US. I'd take a picture, but I'm not sure I legally can?!

After we finished at the bank, Simona drove us into downtown Monza to finally get a Sky Channel subscription. We couldn't do it last time because we didn't have a local bank account. We are now all set for a tech to come out and install Sky Channel sometime in the next week. Apparently some buildings have a common dish on the roof and all you do is subscribe. Our building does not, so we will have a dish on our balcony.

I picked Brandon up at 1:15pm today. He had a short day because tomorrow is a holiday. Since today was his last day of school for the week, we walked over to the Gellataria - our new 'last day of the week routine'. I had pistachio and vanilla. Brandon had limone and cherry vanilla. Its has been a beautiful day. It was supposed to be sunny and 16c (62 degrees) today. I think it actually hit 74 degrees.

Brandon and I took a walk around the building. He kept telling me that we have a pool. Oh my gosh, we do. We were never told about it. Of course, its an indoor pool and it is empty. We actually have two. One for wading - small kids - and one large one. We also have a weight room. Who knew! If only they were full of water and the exercise room had equipment. We also took a walk around the neighborhood and stopped at a different park a few blocks away. What a glorious day!


Brandon and I went next door to Parco di Matteotti. Brandon loves the park and loves to swing.

After dinner this evening - tacos, chips and salsa (without two important items I could not find: sour cream and cheddar cheese), we decided to go for a walk through the surrounding neighborhoods. We really like this area and look forward to learning more about it.