Routine

It is day 2 of our Italian adventure. We already seem to have a bit of a routine, although some fine tuning is in order. Katrina wakes up at 7am and has some quiet time for herself. She wakes Brandon up at 7:30. I wake up sometime after Brandon and make sure he is dressed, fed and make his lunch while Katrina is showering. They leave for school at 8:30. I start a load of laundry, take a shower and have some quiet time to write this or do whatever. Katrina will be going to work at 11am on most days and plans to be home by 6pm. She also plans to work from home between 9 – 11pm. Today we decided to let Brandon sleep an extra 15 minutes until 7:45. Fine tuning.

Today my plans consist of: Alarm technician coming at 9am. I also plan to mop the floors. They are dirty and have some sort of black film on them that is really making our socks dirty. I also plan to finish unpacking my suitcase and stack most of the suitcases in the storage closet.
I’m really feeling lost and disconnected without internet. Hopefully we get it hooked up tomorrow.

The alarm technician reset the system, so we now have an alarm for the apartment. The Italians seem to take security very seriously. Much more than we do in the US. Everything seems to be fortified. We visited a couple of stores this morning with the Ennio, the owners father. We ended up buying a drying rack which will make hanging clothes so much easier. It seems as though I will have a few more chores to keep our apartment and life in order. That is ok. I also seem to have a more relaxed schedule.

I mopped all the tiled areas of the apartment today. We shall see if that helps keep our socks cleaner. I will mop the wood floors later. I plan to finish by sweeping and mopping the balcony.

I just took a walk around the block. It is interesting that I feel a bit isolated because of the language barrier, yet I’m not convinced I would feel any different in any American city. I’m not one to just buy a gelato or a drink and sit for any period of time. I just don’t have much reason to just sit. I’d rather be exploring. Ah, if only I had a car, I could cover more ground. I still have 3 hours until I need to pickup Brandon.

We got our first piece of mail today. It appears to be paperwork for our natural gas billing. It’s all in Italian, of course.

This afternoon has been difficult for me. As with yesterday, I am tired. I took a nap on the bed and had a hard time getting up. It helped that I had to pickup Brandon at school. Fresh air does the body good. Mrs. Williams filled me in on a few items. Brandon is doing well. She said he is making friends and is very confident. That is great.

Ugh. I just keep yawning and am very tired.

Cooking dinner is a bit challenging. I’m not quite sure what I am doing. First off, most food instructions are in Italian. Secondly, there are so many different foods and ways of cooking them. Third, I’m not sure how to do it within budget and with limited kitchen supplies.

Stevie is an interesting cat. He sleeps all day long. He doesn’t come out, even when Katrina arrives home. Then, at night he plays and annoys us all night long. I know cats are nocturnal, but this is not his normal behavior. In Oregon he would sleep all day until Katrina arrived home, when he would appear and hang around or sit on our laps. At night he would play a bit, but he was never really annoying. He usually ended up sleeping somewhere on the bed with us by early morning. Do cats suffer from jet lag? Are the night and day aspects of his internal clock messed up?

Today was the perfect day weather wise. It was a little cool and a little cloudy to begin with. By afternoon the sun was out and it was warm enough for short sleeved shirts. I think it hit 21C (72degrees).