CLT's first post to family blog

This is my first post on the family blog. I think one of the reasons for that is because Suzanne has done such a nice job setting it up and getting it started. She has done a really good job of capturing the collective mood of the family and sharing some of the interesting experiences we are having. I’ll see if I can augment her efforts now and again with some interesting tidbits and perspectives of my own.

Maybe it should be noted that while I write this, I am eating a couple of varieties of Sicilian olives that we got at the local downtown market this afternoon and drinking a red wine local to the Veneto Region (where we live). As they say, that doesn’t suck.

We have been here almost two weeks and today was the first time we visited downtown Vicenza. It makes me so happy that we had such a nice day exploring downtown as a family. That is basically the epitome of what I have been envisioning for the past 13 years: walking casually around town on a random Saturday afternoon, seeing amazing architectural and historic buildings everywhere, sampling the wares of the local markets, finding a small little trattoria to eat lunch in, driving around with incredible snow-capped mountains on the near horizon, and simply enjoying la bella vita. Just before we left, Suzanne and I were having drinks with the Garretts and Marianne asked what we were most looking forward to. That kind of stumped me. After I mulled it around a little and realized that I had no agenda for what to do once we arrived because I was so singularly focused on getting us all here. In my mind I figured that the second we touched down in the Venice airport, as a family, my work here was done. That is obviously far from the truth, but I suppose I figured that getting here was the hard part and everything after that would take care of itself. Today’s outing downtown, however, is the kind of experience that I expected - so ordinary and so incredible all at the same time.

Here are a couple of other random notes about our time here so far:

Buying a car – you know, I think the process of buying a car here is representative of much of the in-processing procedures. We really don’t know what we’re doing, trying to follow instructions that are often wrong or conflicting, badly wanting it to work out quickly because it has large ramifications on our life and finances, but having little control over….really anything. We don’t have cell phones yet, so even the smallest of coordinations becomes problematic. There are a ridiculous number of steps in the process of buying a car, getting it registered/inspected/insured, getting licensed, and getting to the point where you are driving the car. Try to imagine the worst of U.S. Government and Italian bureaucracy and double it. Maybe triple it. But I’ve had enough exposure to this kind of thing to where I have adjusted my expectations and attitude, and I have actually found it pretty entertaining.

We are in the process of buying a 15-year old BMW – a smaller sedan that can get around on the narrow winding streets but still big enough for our family of 4, a car with some zip to navigate the autostradas and autobahns, and a car that can be easily worked on by the local BMW repair shops. It’s a truly amazing car in its features and technology, and it blows me away to think that this is all in a car that was built in 1996. We’ll probably be buying it over 2 or 3 times with repair costs, but it should still be a fun car to drive around for awhile. I have nicknamed it “The Millenium Falcon” after Hans Solo spaceship – it’s old, but it’s still a spaceship that shoots lasers and can go to warp speed (most of the time).

My job – I have changed jobs enough to know that you really shouldn’t make any assessments until at least 4 or 6 months into it. In my case here, that may have to be extended to at least a year because it’s going to take us so much longer to get settled. So we’ll see. I have a staff of 4 “local nationals” and 1 American who has been here for like 30 years so he may as well be a “LN”. As my new boss explained to me during our first meeting over cappuccino, these guys have been working here far before I got here (even before my boss got here and he’s been here 9 years) and they’ll be here after we leave our positions, so it would be best if I waited at least a year before I try to make any big changes. I think there is a lot to read between the lines there. In any case, I think I’ll like the guys on my staff, I think it’ll be a good learning experience, I don’t think it’ll be the most stressful job in the world, I don’t think I am going to enjoying a strict 9-5 M-F schedule, but overall it’s a job that got us all here and I’m grateful to have it. It trips me out to here my staff refer to me as “il capo” (the boss), especially because it elicits images of Tony Soprano and because I think there is irony in the fact that I’ll probably have no control or authority in my new position as their boss.

Italian language – I think Suzanne did a good job explaining the language situation here. There are a lot of Italians who work on post and in our department, and they all speak English well. Off post, there are a lot of Italians who really don’t know much of any English. I’ve remembered more than I thought I would, but it’s not as if I was fluent when I left here 13 years ago. I should have lots of opportunities to practice and learn the language because I am working with so many local nationals, I’m sure the kids will be conversant in no time at all once we get them into the Asilo (Italian preschool/kindergarten), and Suzanne is already not too far behind me which means we’ll be able to help each other as we all learn.

Buon Natale, tutti!

ct