Settling In

So far, we like it here a lot. Our village is a safe place compared to some of the Parcos that people are living in. At some of those Parcos you don’t want to be outside after 10 pm, and you can’t sleep with your windows open, either. Well, this is a safe place. We’ve been told it is protected and “looked after.” (By who? Those guys in the “pizza business” I think.) But it is true. The other night we were all out eating and it was getting late and the meal wasn’t over yet. It was way past Sammi’s bedtime, so she and I just walked home. Yep, I walked home alone with lil’ G at 1130 at night. Not only did I feel perfectly safe, it was perfectly safe.

I am just waiting for September so I can start taking Italian lessons. Knowing a little of the language would help. I am learning some each day – like I know when people ask me Sammi’s age and name, and the words for fruits and vegetables that I buy. I don’t know about you, but when I am trying not to speak English if I don’t know the word in Italian my mind translates it into another language that I do know. So, my mind is always translating stuff into Spanish and Turkish. Spanish is similar to Italian, but they always act like, “what? Huh?” Even when I speak Italian I put the wrong em-PHA-SIS on the wrong sy-LAB-les. Today when buying parsley I was saying “prez-ze-MO-lo” and they are looking at me like “what?” Finally, they figure it out, “Oh, pre-ZZE-m’lo.” Yeah, that’s it.

The other good thing is that they have MorningStar Farms brand at the commissary. Yay!! On our first trip there I bought about 10 boxes of the breakfast strips. It is fake bacon but so delicious. We call it beggin strips. Anyone remember that commercial for Beggin’ Strips for dogs? That dog is running around going “bacon bacon bacon bacon!! BACON!!” then the guy says, “Dogs don’t know it’s not bacon.”? Well, we say, “Guys don’t know it’s not bacon.” Mmmm, fake BLTs. We’ve been eating a lot of those lately. I don’t know why you can’t get that stuff in Ottawa. We can never go back there now – not until they get the beggin strips.