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!

Church in Milan

Sorry there have been no posts this week. Scott and I have been stuck at the hotel all week long, so there has been nothing to blog about. Hopefully we will find an apartment soon, and also trade in our rental car with standard transmission for one with automatic transmission that I can drive. No, I can't drive a standard. I've never had any need to learn, and I don't intend to start in Milan with their crazy drivers and roundabouts. All of that resulted in a pretty boring week for the two of us.

Today, though, we went to church. We didn't go last week, having slept through our alarm. For those of you who remember my first Milan post, we also went to McDonald's last Sunday. It was a bad day all around! But today we made it to church.

My impressions, again in list form:

1. The church is the 2nd floor of an office/apartment building. It's nice, but not your typical LDS chapel. There's no A/C, which wasn't bad today since I think it was only in the 70's in the morning. It did get warmer inside than it did outside. But the weather should start cooling off here soon, and I'm assuming we have heat during the winter!

2. They do things backwards - Relief Society/Priesthood, then Sunday School, then Sacrament Meeting. I've been in wards where it's been done like that, and I don't really like it. I'll have to get used to it.

3. Since it was a 5th Sunday, we all met together for Relief Society/Priesthood. Except the Aaronic Priesthood and Young Women also met with us. And we kind of thought they would have been better served with their own lesson.

4. I am going to have to get used to a translation device. We had them for Relief Society/Priesthood and Sacrament Meeting. I'm glad I can hear the services in English, but it's weird wearing an earpiece and listening to a missionary translate. Plus, I know there were times he didn't translate anything at all! But, as I said, I'm grateful the missionaries are there to translate. I think we have the only ward in Milan with translation devices.

5. We went to an English speaking Gospel Doctrine class. There were only about a dozen of us. Some Americans, some other nationalities. It was nice to hear everything in English.

6. The Young Men President went to Scott's Sunday School class with him and translated. I thought that was really nice. Apparently though, that class (which includes all of the youth) has had a sub while their teacher has been on holiday, and the sub can't control them. Scott said the kids talked and texted and listened to music during the whole class. Hopefully that will get better when the regular teacher returns.

7. Scott passed the Sacrament today. It was nice to see him up there. He looked very pale compared to the other boys! He wants to work on learning the Sacrament prayers in Italian, since they really need Priests to bless the Sacrament.

8. Today when we sang the hymns, we just sang along using our English hymnals. Next week I think I'll trying using an Italian hymnbook. I'm sure I'll butcher the words, but it will be good practice.

9. We met some very nice English speaking people today. Some Americans and some other nationalities. As Scott said, it was nice to hear English! I'm looking forward to getting to know them better.

10. The church is about 15 minutes away. That's a real bummer considering I lived 3 minutes from church back in Richmond! I miss that! And I miss our pretty stake center!

11. It was very different from what I'm used to, but there were also many similarities. We had a 5th Sunday lesson, just like you will back home. We had a Gospel Doctrine lesson from the same manual that's used back home. And, most importantly, the Sacrament was prepared, blessed, and passed by the Priesthood, just like back home. And that's what's important.

There you have it - our first Sunday of church in Milan.