Weeks 2-3

Sorry it has taken so long for our second post. We wrote our last one, and then moved to an apartment for the rest of May which had no internet. But…we are back in business and have lots to tell you, so here it goes!

5/21: We moved to our new apartment which was huge. It had at least the essentials to cook and two twin beds with mattress covers and a washing machine. The only two rooms we really used were the kitchen and bedroom. Our beach towels were multi-use: they tripled as our beach towel, shower towel, and sheets at night and we used blow-up airplane pillows & clothes for pillows. We tried to go grocery shopping at about 1:20, only to be kicked out at 1:30 because most places close from 1 or 1:30 to 4, then open again. We learn something new every day! We took a walk through a nature reserve area near our place. Our apartment is a 5 min. walk from the beach and 15 min. from Casey’s work, so very nice minus the internet.

5/22: Didn’t do much – woke up at 11:30 and did laundry, which is a whole different story here. The washing machines are tiny and take about 1/3 of the capacity as our loads at home and about an hour to run a full cycle. Then we hang them up to dry and we get clean, crusty, and loose clothes to wear – perfect! A little different, but we are getting used to it. We went for a walk on the beach, which is where it gets exciting!! As we are watching the sunset on the beach, Casey said, “Well, I guess this as good a place as any” and knelt on one knee and proposed to me!! Of course I cried tears of surprise and happiness and said yes!! So…Casey and I are now engaged!! So, after a slow start, a very good day =) (pics above)

5/24: Casey went to his first day of work where he did some computer drawings, then went to Guido’s class he teaches at the university. For lunch, he wandered around with Francesco, Luigi, Nicola, and Fabio, who he works with, for about an hour and a half! While Casey worked, I read and tanned at the beach and took a nap – very difficult!!

5/26: I met up with Alessandra – from the English meet up group we went to. We walked around Pescara and she showed me some of the nice sights and good places to go. She has just finished school studying language (English and Arabic) so she is very excited to have someone to practice and learn more English with. I am grateful because I have a friend who I can actually speak with!! I do ask about how to say things in Italian and work on some small sentences in Italian, but I really don’t know a lot, hopefully I’ll get better also! She took me to the Coast Guard to see Luca (also from the meet up group) and then we went back to her apartment and she cooked lunch and I hung out with her and her flat mates! Overall, a very fun day! Casey worked and went to a conference at the University about Earthquake Engineering, which is what he is working on.

5/28: We went out with Alessandra and Nicola at 10 (which is still early for going out here!). We went to Historic Pescara to a Cicchetto bar (shots). 40% of people here smoke and there are lots of people trying to sell you stuff, but we are learning to ignore both like the locals! We walked down to the pedestrian bridge by the beach, which has lights and is very neat at night, then to a bar on the beach. You have to pay €8 once you get in to get a drink and a little card that says out so that you can leave. Also, throughout the entire night, we spoke mainly English, but were constantly learning words in Italian and Spanish (Nicola is from Peru)! We finally got home at 4 AM and went to bed, exhausted!

5/29: We went to a BBQ put on by Torrie for the English meet up group. However, it also ended up having a bunch of people who are a part of couchsurfing.com. They let visitors stay at their places, for small amounts of time for free, from around the world – pretty interesting. There were probably about 50 people there – many who could speak English. We met people from America, all over Italy, and South America. It was pretty sweet to hear peoples’ stories about what they have done and where they have visited. We had our first arrosticini, which is a sheep kabob, absolutely delicious!! It is a delicacy in Abruzzo, where Pescara is located in Italy. We also had goulash, Italian salami, other snacks, Prosecco, and wine. Again, got home at 2 AM, exhausted!! (pics above)

5/30: Went to the beach and to an open market called Le Bancarelle that was right near our apartment and bought a few small souvenirs. Then we decided to walk over to our new apartment and see what was around it, grocery stores, etc. Everything was closed and the city seemed deserted because there was an Abruzzo Championship soccer game. We would have gone, but we didn’t know about it until too late – kind of a bummer, but then we didn’t have to deal with traffic or anything. Our small walk turned out to be 3 hours long and we finally made it back about dinnertime. We heard fireworks going off, but we got downstairs too late to see any, but there was a procession of people praying, plus a band so we guessed it was some sort of religious holiday, but we never found out exactly what.

5/31: Casey worked and I finished packing and cleaning up the apartment because tonight we get to move to our new place! We were able to get everything over in two bus trips (just to make it easier on us). We are excited to have a place for the rest of our stay. The apartment has: sheets, pillows, wardrobes, a nicer kitchen, showers (our last place only had a bath tub), etc.!!

6/1: At our apartment, we have 3 roommates – Patri is from Madrid and Ana & Maria are from Belgrade. They are all here until the end of June studying at the local universities. There is obviously a mix of languages, so communication is difficult, but so far going ok. Casey went to L’Aquila with Guido, which is where the huge earthquake happened in spring of 2009 and saw some of the damage. The firm he is working with was proposing some seismic isolators for buildings in the city. For dinner, we went to Chieti with Alessandra, Nicola, Fabio, and Evo (works with Casey). We went to a restaurant and got more arrositicini! It was delicious, then we got some gelato…also delicious!!

6/2: We were able to sleep in because Casey didn’t have to work because June 2 is the day Italy became a Republic. It is a holiday celebrated by everyone so pretty much everything was closed. It was nice enough we were able to go to the beach, then some planning for our first trip to Rome in a week. After dinner, there was a huge downpour and we realized that the water streaming off the roof was splashing and coming under our door in our room. We had to soak it up with towels and then we used a piece of plastic attached to our clothes-drying rack to block the water, a hectic event! Our roommate, Patri, let us use her internet until we get our own so we were able to talk to my family and Casey’s brother. We are excited to again be connected to people at home!!

Until next time, hope everyone else’s summer is off to a good start! Love you all!

- C & L