Expensive...But Worth It

Last night I got my best Christmas present - I got to talk to Jeffrey on his mission in Mexico. It was wonderful to talk to him, but also extremely expensive. For various reasons, we haven’t been able to get a landline here in Italy. We only have cell phones. We have a Magic Jack, which is a phone system we use with our computer which lets us call the United States for free. I know there’s a way to make international calls with the Magic Jack, but whenever I clicked on their link to set it up, it said their server was down. Whether their server was really down, or whether our internet was too slow and crappy to handle their server is unknown. Skype was out of the question because Jeffrey didn’t have access to a computer yesterday. So we decided to use our cell phones. We knew it would be expensive, but it was our only option.

Cell phones in Italy are different. You don’t sign up for a plan. You put a certain amount of money on your phone and replenish it as needed. We all had money on our phones, but we decided to add more. Robert put an additional 50 euros on his phone (so he probably had over 75 euros on it) and 25 euros on my phone (so I probably had 50 euros).

Christmas night we called Jeffrey. We tried to put the cell phone on speaker, but we could barely hear him, so we gave up on that idea. I talked to him for a little while, then passed the phone to Brian, who passed the phone to Scott when he was done. About 20 minutes into the phone call, Scott said there was a beep and then the phone went dead. We then got a message saying we had less than 1 euro left on the phone! We went through over 75 euros in 20 minutes! We next called him on my phone. Scott finished up his call, and handed the phone to Kimberly. She talked to him a while then gave the phone to Robert. After about 15 minutes, my phone went dead too. It was out of money. We couldn’t even get Scott’s phone to work - he may have been too low on money. Robert quickly raced over to the bank and put 50 more euros on his phone (you do that at the ATM). I called and talked to him another 15 minutes and then the phone went dead. Our Christmas conversation with Jeffrey was over.

We did get to talk to him for about 50 minutes, but we spent at least 175 euros to do it! With the exchange rate, that’s almost $230.00!

But you know what? It was worth it. Every cent of it. It was money well spent to talk to Jeffrey and hear that he is doing well and loving his mission.

My Christmas was complete.

Sometimes You Just Have to Laugh

As I've mentioned before, Relief Society is in Italian in our ward. Occasionally we have a sister who will translate for us, but yesterday was not one of those days. So we, two of the American sisters, were excited when the teacher started playing a video of one of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talks, delivered in his very American voice.

And then the teacher, who had apparently printed out a copy of the talk in Italian, started reading the talk in Italian. Reading right along with Elder Holland. Reading louder than Elder Holland. Making it very hard for us to hear Elder Holland giving his talk in the original English.

All we could do was look at each other and just laugh. That's church in Italy for you.

A Serious Question

Scott has a week off school in February. Someone told me it's so people can go skiing. That's not what we're doing, though. Back in early September I found tickets to Houston for a really good price, so he and I are going home for a week.

I would really like to stay longer - maybe three weeks total. Having been home a few weeks ago, I know a week is not going to be long enough to do anything. Scott can't stay longer, since he needs to be in school.

Here's my question. Should I send Scott home by himself and stay in Houston longer? Sending him home alone means he would fly from Houston to Frankfurt, Germany alone. There he would spend four hours negotiating his way through the large Frankfurt airport, going through Security again, getting his passport stamped, and waiting for his connecting flight to Milan. Milan would be easy because it's a small airport and is easily negotiable.

Scott has flown from Frankfurt to Houston alone and gone through Customs there. But he's never negotiated the Frankfurt airport alone. He's fine with it. He's confident he can maneuver his way through the airport just fine. Robert also thinks he will be fine.

Part of me says, he's 17, he's a smart kid, he'll be fine with this. But the mom part of me says, he may be 17, but he's my baby. I can't send him around the world alone.

That's my dilemma. Please tell me what you think.

Cross Stitching

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I had picked up some cross stitch patterns to work on here in Italy. I thought I would post a picture of one of my completed projects. This is actually the second project I completed, the first being a very cute Thanksgiving bird. Sadly, he's back home in Richmond, so I can't post a picture of him.

But here's my second project, Merry Christmas:

I think it turned out pretty cute. The garland on the tree and in the corner are thicker, so they stand out from the picture. I didn't do a great job with the framing. I will redo it before I put it out next year. But I wanted to get it out as soon as possible since our apartment here in Milan is lacking in Christmas decorations.

I will probably post pictures of all my completed projects, although the rest of the ones I complete here in Milan will not be framed.

Scott

I'm so impressed with Scott's willingness to try things while we are here in Milan.

On Sunday, he blessed the Sacrament in Italian. He worked very hard with the Young Men President to learn how to pronounce all of the words correctly. He has really wanted to participate in blessing the Sacrament, and he persevered until he could.

Today he left to go on a three day stake youth temple trip to the Bern Switzerland Temple. He may very well be the only English speaker on the trip. The two girls from our ward who speak English are out of town (these three days are a holiday). There is another English speaking family who lives in our stake, but we're not sure if they were going. We told him he didn't have to go, but he wanted to. He really wants to be involved, even if it's difficult.

And yesterday I found out that while I was gone, he bore his testimony in Fast and Testimony Meeting - in Italian! Basic Italian, but I'm so impressed that he wanted to share his testimony and had the courage to do so.

He is much more willing to try new experiences than I would have been at his age. I'm proud of him.

Heat

We live in an older apartment in San Donato (outside of Milan). It has radiators. I've never lived in a place with radiators before.

But the radiators aren't the problem. The problem is that in older apartments, the temperature of the whole building is determined by the apartment complex. We don't have a thermostat in our apartment. The heat is turned on on October 15th, and since we didn't need it then, we turned off the radiators. When we did need heat (which happened while I was gone), Robert turned the radiators back on. That's when we discovered that it's much more reliable to have your own thermostat in your own apartment. Here, I'm either cold and wrapped up in a blanket, or hot and throwing blankets off of me!

I do not like being at the mercy of an apartment building!

"Aha" Moment in Seminary

As most of you know, Scott and I are doing daily Seminary at home because it's in Italian over here. I never went to Seminary, having joined the church during my freshman year at college. I have never claimed to be a doctrinal expert. Today something we talked about really struck me.

We were talking about the importance of agency. How important it is that we all have the freedom to make our own choices, but then we must enjoy the blessings or suffer the consequences of those choices.

A quotation from the Doctrine and Covenants and Church History Student Guide is what caught my eye. Talking about the War in Heaven we read about how important agency is to our Heavenly Father. It says, "Rather than violate their agency, He [Heavenly Father] allowed one-third of His children, led by the devil, to rebel".

That really hit me. I know Heavenly Father loves us. Can you imagine how much it must have hurt Him to allow one-third of His Spirit Children to make such a terrible choice? A choice that would take away their chance to come to earth and gain a physical body? A choice that would take away their chance for eternal salvation? A choice that would essentially seal their fate.

How very important agency must be. How much more faithful I need to be about the choices I make.

I love "aha" moments like that. Although something simple, that all of you have probably thought about many times, it really resonated with me today.

Maybe that's why I'm in Italy this year - to see what I can learn from teaching Seminary to Scott.

Sigh

While I could have done without the washing machine catastrophe that brought me home, I have truly enjoyed the 5 weeks I've been here.

And I don't want to go back on Saturday.

Sigh.

I've decided that some people are well suited for living overseas and some people are not. I fall into the "not" category. I would happily choose the comfort and security of my home in Richmond over the adventure of living in a foreign country.

Once I arrive back in Milan, I will begin my countdown to February 18th, when Scott and I come home for a week.

How to Run Up the Electric Bill

The electric bill I got in October was $133.00.

Yesterday I got my November bill.

It was $266.00

Four of those days we had 26 pretty big fans and 6 large dehumidifiers running nonstop in our house.

I'm thinking that's what caused the spike in our electric bill. What do you think?

Phone Call

Brian is not big on phone calls. He never has been. I hear from him rarely, and usually by text. So it always worries me a little when he calls.

Fortunately, he is okay, but he did call and tell me he was in a bike collision with another bicyclist. Whenever I hear the words "bike" and "collision" now, my thoughts always turn to Gary and his terrible bike/bus collision. Brian's collision was nowhere near that bad, thank goodness. In fact, he and his bike are fine. The other guy, whose fault it technically was, may have broken his collarbone. They had to call an ambulance to take him to the hospital.

I feel bad for him, but I have to say, I'm glad it wasn't Brian who was injured!

It Never Fails

Today, as I was driving down 359, I noticed a Needlework shop that I hadn't been in. I have done counted cross stitch before, and thought it might be fun to pick up some projects to take back to Italy.

I went in and discovered a treasure trove of patterns! Cross stitch has come a long way since I did it years ago! I especially love the tiny patterns they now have, patterns that are really cute and should stitch up quickly.

I bought a number of patterns. One set of three for Halloween, one for Thanksgiving, a sampler for Christmas, and a sampler about the joys of reading. I decided to buy the materials to make the Thanksgiving pattern.

First off, the fabrics they now have are incredible! I remember shopping at craft stores years ago and finding white and cream and the occasional red, green, or black. The fabrics now are linen and come in amazing colors. I will be stitching my Thanksgiving pattern on Summer Khaki.

My pattern uses nine different colors of thread. Even the threads are better than they used to be. The saleswoman was showing me how many of the threads are slightly variegated, which gives a more interesting look to the finished product. I was persuaded to buy four new threads for the larger areas, so I will get the variegated look. The other five threads cover smaller areas, so I decided to go home and looks through my large stash of DMC thread to see if I had those colors.

Okay, so if you're not keeping up with the math, my pattern needed nine different colors of thread. I bought four colors, which means I needed five more. I came home and looked through my DMC thread - all 243 colors which I own. Guess how many of the thread colors I don't have? Two. Out of my 243 colors, I could only come up with three of the five colors I needed!

If any of you have done cross stitch, you will understand why I titled my post "it never fails". I don't think I have ever done a project and had all of the threads I needed.

On the plus side, I get to go back to that fun store now...

Enjoying the Quiet

On Saturday the workmen ripped out the laminate wood floors in the dining room, game room, and family room. Then, to make sure the slabs were completely dry, they brought in 5 large fans and a dehumidifier. This is actually the second time we've had the fans and dehumidifiers in the house. The first time was right after the water leak happened, and a lot more fans were used.

But it seemed louder in the house this time. Probably because there's no furniture in those rooms, and no flooring, so everything just echoes. We've literally had to yell at each other to have conversations!

The workmen just left with the fans. I am enjoying the blessed quiet.

Until the flooring guys show up to start installing the laminate...

Flooring Update

As you know, I'm back in Richmond dealing with the aftermath of a washing machine flood. It's amazing how much damage one tub of water from a washing machine can do!

Right now, there are packers in my house. They are packing up all of the stuff in the dining room, game room, and family room. Once the stuff is packed, it will be moved into their storage facility. Then those three laminate wood floors will be taken up. Beginning on Monday, they will be replaced with the same flooring that we just put in the family room in June. My one consolation is that now all three of the floors will match! After the flooring is replaced, the movers will bring back all of our belongings and unpack them. Awesome!!

We had thought that would be all we had done. The carpets in the four bedrooms got wet (mostly in the doorways) but they weren't damaged. The padding in those areas was cut away and the plan was for the flooring people to just replace the parts that were cut away. However, when the flooring guy cut out a piece of the old padding, he said it was so "substandard" that he couldn't even replace it (gotta love the quality materials builders use). He said it would be way too uneven, so he was going to have to replace all the padding in the bedrooms. Since our insurance would be paying for the padding, the labor to remove and re-lay the old carpet, and moving all of our belongings out of the four bedrooms, Robert and I decided that now would be a good time to get new carpet. So that's what we're doing. We're getting nice, new, good quality Stainmaster carpet. I think this will be the first time we've lived in a place with better than builder's grade carpet! I'm very excited, although I won't get to enjoy it for more than a few days before I head back to Italy. That's a bummer.

Some of Robert's family is meeting at our house for Christmas (although we will be in Italy). Would it be wrong of me to tell them they're not allowed in the bedrooms?

What a Mess!

On Wednesday, Kimberly's washer and dryer were swapped for ours. It seemed wise, since my Maytag washer is almost 18 years old! Unfortunately, the movers didn't put the drainage tube in securely. And, also unfortunately, my mother-in-law didn't realize it until water had flooded much of the flooring.

According to the "water extraction team" we will need to replace at least the floors in the dining room, game room, and family room. And yes, the family room floors were just replaced in June. We may have to replace some tile and carpeting too. I'm not sure about that yet.

So, on Monday I'm flying home for three weeks. This is one of those issues that I need to deal with. It can't be passed on to someone else.

I have conflicting emotions. I'm so excited to come home. SOOOO excited. But I wish it were under better circumstances.

We're going to have to have a special GNO while I'm there.

Exciting Time for Italian Mormons!

In October of 2008, the Church announced that a temple was to be built in Rome. It's been two years, and so far nothing has been done.

Yesterday at church, it was announced that the groundbreaking is to be held in two weeks. That means that construction will begin soon, and the Saints in Italy can look forward to having a temple of their own. There are no pictures or drawings of any sort on the Church website, or else I would post one.

We will be gone by the time the temple is dedicated, but I'm excited for the Saints who live in Italy. What a blessing the temple will be to this country.

A Boy and His Boots

I have already posted about this on FaceBook, but I decided to post about it on my blog also, since it's my online journal.

Last March, after we knew for sure we were moving overseas, Scott decided he needed a pair of cowboy boots to take with him. Robert was home visiting then and thought that was a great idea. So he and Scott went to Cavender's Boot City and Scott picked out a pair of boots.

Fast forward to last Wednesday when our shipment of stuff came from home. Scott was happy to see his cowboy boots, and proudly wore them to school on Thursday. When he got home from school I asked if anyone had said anything about them and received a resounding yes! Besides getting comments from people, he had to get up in front of two of his classes and model them! The kids and even the teachers really enjoyed seeing his boots, and it really cemented in their minds that he was the kid from Texas!

Here he is in his boots. Note that he also wore his state of Texas t-shirt!

Here's a close up of the "detailing" on his boots.
As they say, "You can take the boy out of Texas, but you can't take Texas out of the boy".

What I Miss Most

I was reading a book today by Elizabeth Lynn Casey, and came across the following paragraph:

"Her great-grandmother had always said the best medicine for any ailment a woman had was time with true friends. Time spent in good-natured gossip, occasional male-bashing, and shared tears. But most of all, she said time with other women was for laughing from deep within your soul."

That's what I miss most about being here in Milan. Time spent with my good friends, my sister, Chris, and my daughter, Kimberly.

Aggies vs. Longhorns? Italians Know!

Today the American School held another event for newcomers. This one was a workshop about the Italian culture. We talked about beliefs, values, communication, and the way different cultures react to different things. It was pretty interesting.

There was a lady there from Austin. She said that she had been told that a certain hand symbol should not be used in Italy. The symbol is one commonly used by people who are fans of that inferior school in Austin. She made the longhorn symbol and was quickly told by the Italians that were there that she should never make that symbol while she was in Italy.

We all asked why the longhorn symbol was unacceptable over here, and were told that to them it meant a man who had horns because he was having an affair!

We asked if the thumbs up Gig 'Em, Aggies sign was okay to make, and were assured it was fine.

So it looks like as far as Italy is concerned, Aggies rule!

Our Italian Apartment

We have been in our apartment for a week. I had hoped to post pictures of it, but we are using a remote internet key for now, and it only allows 5 hours of internet a day. Plus doing stuff with pictures somehow uses up your time faster, so they will have to wait.

Our apartment is in a nondescript 4 story building. It’s in a very quiet area of San Donato (outside of Milan), and is surrounded by many large trees. It’s a nice area. Our apartment is on the 2nd floor, as far as Italy is concerned. Here, what you could consider the first floor in the U.S., is called Terra (ground), what you would consider the 2nd floor is the first floor, and what you would consider the 3rd floor is the 2nd floor. So in Italy we live on the 2nd floor. If we were in the U.S. we would live on the 3rd floor. Got it?

We have a one car garage, which is very nice, since I hate street parking. It doesn’t have an automatic garage door opener though, which is a pain. I’m really going to miss it when it rains!

We have a key that lets us into our little lobby. There are 6 apartments that use the same entrance, so I feel pretty safe. This key isn’t quite as exciting as the one I posted about earlier, but it is different from American keys.

We have an elevator which is not much bigger than 3 feet by 3 feet. Seriously. Scott won’t even use the elevator - it scares him a little with the clunking noises it makes! And it never lines up even with the floor when it stops. You always have to watch your step!

Once you step into the apartment, you see a small entry area and then a large living/dining area. It’s much bigger than any of the other apartments we saw. We don’t all feel like we’re on top of each other. There’s even a little nook with a desk for my computer. It has wood floors, which I like. It came furnished. We have 2 yellow sofas, which I actually like. Plus a nice TV and plenty of shelves for our DVDs and such. There’s also a dining room table and chairs. Basic stuff, but all we need.

We have a balcony, except our landlord enclosed it in glass, so it’s more like a sunroom. I kind of wish it were still a balcony.

The kitchen is fairly small, but functional. There’s a table in there, but it’s up against the wall. The cabinets are blue metal. Kind of interesting looking. But there’s not a lot of them, and there is almost no counter space. We have a very nice cooktop - 5 burners with gas. That’s the only thing I’ve seen that‘s nicer than what I have at home. The oven is tiny. No room for even a small turkey, and I’m pretty sure my cookie sheets aren’t going to fit in it. We have a dishwasher, but I’m kind of afraid to use it. There are lots of buttons, and I’m not sure what any of them mean! There’s only one sink, which will take some getting used to. The cabinet above the sink has built in drying racks in it. You put your dishes into it and they drain into the sink. Pretty ingenious, but I think I would have preferred an extra cabinet.

Right off the kitchen is the laundry room. Very tiny. For some reason, our microwave is in there. This microwave is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Another one of those appliances I’m kind of afraid to use! Right now, we also have a washing machine in there. The landlord has ordered a combination washer/dryer, but until it comes, I’m hanging up the clothes to dry. May I just say how much I hate that? There are things like underwear, socks, and garments that just need to be thrown into a dryer! I can’t wait until the new machine shows up. Also, the machines here are tiny. I can wash 3 pair of pants at one time. That’s it. And I don’t understand why it takes 1-1/2 hours to wash a load of clothes. If all front loaders are that slow, I’m never buying one!

We have 3 bedrooms. The guest bedroom has a twin bed with a trundle, a desk, and a wardrobe. There are no closets in the apartment. Just big wardrobes. But there’s room for guests, and we’d love to have anyone come visit.

Scott’s bedroom also has a twin bed with a trundle, a desk, and a wardrobe. It’s smaller than his room at home, but he doesn’t have much stuff to put in it, so it’s fine.

There’s a hall bathroom, which has a shower/tub, a sink with lots of storage space, a toilet, and a bidet. Yes, a bidet. All of the apartments here have them. I don’t anticipate any us ever using them, but we’ve got them!

The master bedroom is small. There’s a bed - close to queen size, but not quite that big, a dresser, 2 nightstands, and a wardrobe. With all of that furniture, there’s not a lot of extra room.

We do have an on suite master bathroom, which is a rarity. I think Robert only saw one other apartment with an on suite master bathroom. It is very tiny, though. It has a stand up shower, a sink with very little storage room, a toilet, and a bidet. The hall bathroom is actually much nicer than our bathroom.

Well, that’s our apartment. It’s very nice, as far as Italian apartments go. It makes me miss so many things about my house in Texas, though. I will never take the amenities I have back home for granted again!

Banking in Milan

Today we went to the bank so I could get added to Robert's account and get a debit card. Actually, Robert and I, along with one of the secretaries at work, went. She was there to translate for us. My impressions of banking in Milan (San Donato, actually):

1. To get in the bank you have to step one at a time into a tube. The door opens, you step in, the door closes, if nothing makes them nervous inside, the door into the bank opens, you step into the bank. There are little lockers outside in case you think you might have something that makes them nervous!

2. I signed my name at least 20 times in order to get added to Robert's account! That's crazy! I felt like I was buying a house. And lets hope the lady from Robert's work was really telling us what the papers said, since we would have no idea!

3. There is a charge to have more than one debit card. It's not much, but still.

4. We wanted to make a deposit. The lady at the bank told us that was fine, the first deposit is free. What? If we make more than one deposit a month at the bank, they charge us 3 euros (close to $4.00) for every deposit. What bank charges people to put money into their bank??

5. The ATM machines aren't like the ones at home that give you a choice of languages. Oh no, that would be too helpful. Your only choice here is Italian. Who knows what I might end up doing at an ATM machine here!

I am constantly amazed at how different Italy is from the United States. And I am constantly glad I get to return to the United States to live at some point.