Can't Sleep

Less than 2 hours ago I couldn’t keep my eyes open in the car on the way home from dinner.  Kim woke me up because I kept tipping over onto her, but I couldn’t help it.  Ex. Haus.  Ted.  So now it’s almost 1am here in Napoli, and I’m wide awake.  Let’s talk.

I’m going with the flow, ok?  Kim’s bags didn’t make the flight to Roma from Amsterdam, so we only had my bags and our carry-ons for the first 2 days here (if you count the day we arrived).  It turned out to be a blessing in disguise because we were barely able to get my bags on the train.  Wow.  Dad was right, this is too much stuff for me to carry.  Because I worry about getting it all to Genova on my own, Teresa kindly shipped a box of some of my heavy things to my new roommate Francesca at my new address.  Hopefully that will help my continued journey.  It’s still the same number of bags, though…..

 

I’ll back up.  Kim and I are in Napoli, staying at the apartment of her cousin Nico, short for Dominico.  (Holla, Dom!)  He lives just below his parents, Teresa and Dino.  Swell people, all around.  They are so much fun to talk to, and are really taking great care of us.  Nico basically handed over his apartment to us and is staying up at his folks’ while we’re here.  Va bene.  Unfortunately, they ran out of water the day we arrived.  In our travels around Napoli so far, we’ve seen the water men working on the problem, but they haven’t fixed our place up just yet.  So yes.  We smell.  Haven’t showered since Ohio!

 

So far we’re not freaking out.  We have Tons to learn and will be quite dependent on the English-speaking for a while, but we’re getting by with those who speak only Italian.  Kindness, patience, dictionaries, and hand gestures all contribute to our continued success.  Living out of a suitcase with family to take care of us, it feels like vacation right now instead of a move.  And I guess it is.  Things will be different next week when we move into our real places.  That’s when it’ll get weird.

 

There’s more to report from our first full day in Italia, Friday, October 10, 2008.  But that will have to wait for another post.  I can’t hog it all myself!  And tomorrow, Capri.  Buona notte.