My first few posts here will be talking about the events over the last month. Even though our hotel was a blessing in some ways it sure was not a blessing for internet. We had no connection and had to walk to the nearby soldier center. It was a really nice facility, but only a few computers allowed for full access to the internet and it was always a battle for those. Then, the few times I was able to acquire one of the open computers, there was usually some kind of problem with the connection, so I gave up for the most part. However, now that we are moved in to our new house we have a decent connection and I feel reconnected to my life and the world.

We ended up staying in the hotel for 30 days exactly. What an ordeal. We had no car and had to walk everywhere. Not such a big deal since the post was very small, but it was so hot when we had to do it. The humidity here is unreal. I guess for people having lived in a humid environment it is not too bad, but coming from AZ and its dry heat it requires a big adjustment. Thank goodness we also had the stroller for Nathan. It not only helped for him, but I made many trips to the commissary (grocery store) and laundry facility (in the main hotel) using it. I got strange looks from many walking with an empty stroller down the road on the way there and then with it loaded up with groceries on the way back. However, those in the same hotel with older kids and no such stroller showed looks of envy. The main walk we had to make almost every day was to the housing office to endure the brutual hunt for a house. Our first day to the housing office we were offered government quarters. This was a house in a nice town about 10 min. from post that the government leases and pays all rent and utilities. It was a really nice house in a nice area except it was small and there would be no internet connection for who knows how long. Their infrastructure is not keeping up with technology so we had to wait for about 100 people to move out of their houses or disconnect their internet connection before we could get a slot in the box. This created a huge problem for us since we are both trying to finish our master's degrees through online courses and Jeff only has one year to finish his. We looked at another really nice house in another town that we would be responsible for rent and utilities. It was huge and I loved the kitchen. The problem there was there was no A/C unit in the upstairs and no mosquito screens on the windows. Let me take a minute for a side note about those pesky little bugs. They are like vampires here. The poor kids looked like swiss cheese for the first 2 weeks here as each morning they would wake up with about 10 new bites. They have adjusted now and a new bite is not a major catastrophy requiring immediate medical attention. Let's just say Madison is a little dramatic and you would have thought she was dying everytime she got a new bite those first few weeks. OK, back to the house. Without those two things the house was not ideal for us as it did not have a garage either. So, we were back to square one. You only have 30 days that they will pay for you to stay in the hotel so it is a push to find a house as soon as you can. So, every morning at 8:30 the kids and I would walk to the housing office so we could sit down on the computer to look at the houses available for rent just praying that something new would pop up that morning. Here is how it works. They keep a computer database with pictures and details of every house they have. When you find one you like and want to go look at you book an appt. When you do that it removes that house from the system so others can not look at it. You will then make an appt. to go look at the house with a taxi/interpreter service. After looking at the house you have 24 hours to let them know if you want the house or not before it goes back onto the computer for others to see. Fine and dandy if it really worked that way. We soon learned that some received favoritism and knew about houses and saw them before they hit the system. Very frustrating when there were so many people looking for a house and they will only take you to see 5. All but one house we saw had some really nice features. None had everything though that we were looking for. Finally, on our 4th house we found the one we are now living in. The kitchen in this house was the most beautiful of all we had seen. Here is the thing about Italian houses and kitchens. Most come with nothing more than a kitchen sink. Italians move with their kitchens so many houses don't have them. If you move into a house without one then you get issued government cabinets and appliances. Not very nice. Sometimes you can negotiate with the landlord to give him more money each month to install a full kitchen, but only if the rent is below the amount you are authorized each month.Other things we liked about the house was the automatic entrance gate and the double car garage that appeared long enough for our van to fit into. It probably is, but I can not get down the driveway and turned to park in there without doing about a 50 point turn each time. Not going to happen. So, where I park the van blocks the entrance to both doors and Jeff can not get his car into there either. The biggest negative is the lack of yard. It has enough for the dogs to roam and the kids to play, but we can not set up our patio set or the new trampoline we bought for the kids just before moving. If we chopped down the olive tree in the front yard we could make it work, but I don't think the landlord would like that. Another positive about the house was a closet. There is one in the master bedroom and a linen closet in the hallway. The house has two A/C units, one in the living room that works great for the downstairs and one in the far corner of our bedroom. We have to run 3 fans to get the cool air from our room to the kids rooms just so they are comfortable. It will be months before we receive our first electric bill to see what this costs us. We try to only use them when we are in the rooms or sleeping as utilities are outrageous. I do have a dishwasher also that I only run about every 2 days. I have a European washer and dryer. They are very nice and high tech, but very small. I did a load of towels the other day and could only wash 4 at a time and it took 2.5 hours for them to wash. Most clothes I hang out to dry to save money, but I can't stand the hard towels so I ran the dryer for those. It took over 3 hours for them to dry. No more only doing laundry 2 times a week. I have to do at least one load a day. By the time we signed the lease for our house, went through the nightmare of having the utilities switched to our name, and moved in we had been here in Italy living in the hotel for 30 days exactly. It is not an easy process by any means.
That was our ordeal with finding a house. There are even more headaches to accompany it. Italy is such a controlling company. Jeff had to be issued an Italian social security number to sign the lease and the kids and I have to be issued what the call sigornno's. They are basically Italian ID's that we will need to carry with us every time we leave the country or we will not be able to re-enter. The vehicle registration was a pain also and cost quite a bit of money. You have to get a ride over to another area of town to pick up your vehicle only after you have gone several other places first. You really need to make friends quickly with someone who has been here for awhile with a car or rent one.
As you can see things are not exactly easy for the first month or so. I think that is why we relied on good times with friends and wine to help ease the stress. There was one night was sat out making fun of our situation that we laughed so hard we were all crying. It felt good to be able to laugh about our situation if only for a few minutes.