On Sunday I intended to make some pizza for dinner. I had gone to the store to buy all of the pieces only to realize on Saturday afternoon that I had forgotten to buy cheese for the pizza.
So I said to myself, I will just run down and grab some shredded mozzarella for tomorrow.
After walking around the store for longer than I should have I realized, they don't sell that here!
They only sell fresh delicious mozzarella, for really not very much money at all.
So I grabbed a ball of fresh mozzarella, paid my 3 euros and walked home.
Chuckling at my American-ness.
Also, why I ever thought to buy shredded over the delicious fresh that is available is beyond me.
Just another adventure in becoming an Italian I guess.
Monday, March 24, 2014
Lake Como
On our first Saturday in Italy we figured we already deserved a vacation. It was Joseph's last Saturday before starting his new job, we had survived the plane ride and we wanted to do something fun to commemorate.
Lake Como is just an hour outside of Milan on the train, so we thought that would be the perfect place. We took a morning train out to Como, when we arrived we bought some boat tickets to take us up the lake to another small town called Bellagio later in the afternoon.
We had about an hour until our boat ride so we walked around the small downtown part of Como, went into their local Duomo and grabbed some lunch for the boat.
We had sandwiches on olive bread, which is my new favorite thing. Crusty baguettes with olives throughout topped with prosciutto and cheese, I could eat that every day of my life and be happy about it.
The Lake was much bigger than I had envisioned in my mind, it took us an hour to get to Bellagio, but the ride was really pretty. There were a bunch of small, colorful towns built into the hills on the sides of the lake that were so pretty to look at. Jasper loved looking out the window on the boat. Although, I think he was mostly distracted by the splashing waves.
Bellagio is an old town built before the 1000s, which is something that I couldn't get over. Walking the narrow streets, hilly streets I tried to imagine people who have been walking there for over 1000 years. I know that is true for pretty much all of Europe but it blows my mind every time I think about it too much.
We walked around and got our first gelato since arriving. Why it took us three days to partake of the delicious goodness I can't explain, only to say it was as good as I had remembered from our previous trips over.
To make up for the delay we have eaten gelato almost every day since then, so there is that.
Then we rode the boat bake to Como, and the train back to Milan. It was the perfect way to spend our first Saturday in Italy.
Lake Como is just an hour outside of Milan on the train, so we thought that would be the perfect place. We took a morning train out to Como, when we arrived we bought some boat tickets to take us up the lake to another small town called Bellagio later in the afternoon.
We had about an hour until our boat ride so we walked around the small downtown part of Como, went into their local Duomo and grabbed some lunch for the boat.
We had sandwiches on olive bread, which is my new favorite thing. Crusty baguettes with olives throughout topped with prosciutto and cheese, I could eat that every day of my life and be happy about it.
The Lake was much bigger than I had envisioned in my mind, it took us an hour to get to Bellagio, but the ride was really pretty. There were a bunch of small, colorful towns built into the hills on the sides of the lake that were so pretty to look at. Jasper loved looking out the window on the boat. Although, I think he was mostly distracted by the splashing waves.
Bellagio is an old town built before the 1000s, which is something that I couldn't get over. Walking the narrow streets, hilly streets I tried to imagine people who have been walking there for over 1000 years. I know that is true for pretty much all of Europe but it blows my mind every time I think about it too much.
We walked around and got our first gelato since arriving. Why it took us three days to partake of the delicious goodness I can't explain, only to say it was as good as I had remembered from our previous trips over.
To make up for the delay we have eaten gelato almost every day since then, so there is that.
Then we rode the boat bake to Como, and the train back to Milan. It was the perfect way to spend our first Saturday in Italy.
Friday, March 21, 2014
Making the move
Luckily Joseph's firm supplied us with a moving company to make the move over to Italy. Without those guys I don't know what we would have done. There is no way we would have been able to get everything packed and ready to go.
So we packed our suitcases with the things that we would need over the next 6 weeks, then they packed our things into an air shipment and an ocean shipment. The air shipment things would be sent by plane so that they would arrive more quickly. The ocean shipment is sent on a massive ship across the sea. Where some Italian company will collect our belongings and deliver them to our apartment on the day we choose. The fact that all of this works out seems crazy to me.
So after a very long day where 4 nice men packed up and hauled off all of our earthly belongings, we spent a day in Virginia at my parents house and then flew to Kansas City to visit Josephs parents for a few days. Then back to Virginia to get all of the last minute things done, like buy and pack peanut butter and Jasper's pacifiers (who knows if they have the only brand that my amusingly particular son will suffer in Italy, and that is not a risk I was willing to take). Also, gorging ourselves on all of our favorite American foods that we won't really be able to find in Italy, Mexican food, hamburgers and fries and BBQ.
Then, on March 4 with two one-way tickets in hand we filled up the back of my Dad's pick up truck (we had 8 pieces of luggage) and headed to Dulles Airport. We had a very nice skycap man load up all of our luggage onto a cart and bring it inside for us.
Our flight left at 10pm. We had our long leg to Frankfurt first.
Oh, also just so you know they don't do pre-boarding for people with infants anymore. So you are standing in a crowd of people forever trying to board the plane, and then on the freezing cold jetway as a line has backed up since apparently it takes forever for people to stash their carry-ons.
Thankfully, many prayers were answered and Jasper slept for most of the flight while I held him and barely even made a peep. I was so nervous about the long flight.
We even got lucky and had the whole row to ourselves. Although then someone who was so sick he looked like he wanted to die sat down in the aisle across from us. Paranoid about getting sick Joseph and I basically sat on top of each other as close to the window as we could get to try and get as far away from the sick man as possible. I even tried to cover Jaspers head as much as possible to try and filter out the air. It seemed to have worked because we all managed to escape the flight without getting deathly ill.
Then after arriving in Frankfurt we had a connection and just a one hour flight to Milan. It should be said that the Germans were much nicer to us on account of us having a baby. They let us board the flight first, they gave Jasper a little rattle toy when we boarded, and they also had a special baby seat belt for him which was pretty funny.
When we landed in Italy we knew we had a driver waiting for us, which was a huge relief. However, it didn't change the fact that now we had to get ourselves and all of our luggage off of the baggage claim and through customs. I loaded Jasper into the BabyBjorn, we loaded up two push carts with luggage and we were each pulling a piece of luggage behind us. We looked hilarious. So hilarious in fact that the Italians on the other side of customs were looking and laughing at us, with no attempt to hide it. Fortunately, our driver was very prepared and he showed up with a large luxury van and dropped us at our apartment. There was also fortunately another man waiting for us at our sublet to help us carry all of our luggage up to our apartment. Or, rather, put one piece of luggage at a time in the elevator, because the elevators here are tiny!
All in all we made it and things couldn't have gone more smoothly. We were tired but excited to be in Italy. We had survived our first transatlantic flight with a baby (that in itself was a miracle).
So we packed our suitcases with the things that we would need over the next 6 weeks, then they packed our things into an air shipment and an ocean shipment. The air shipment things would be sent by plane so that they would arrive more quickly. The ocean shipment is sent on a massive ship across the sea. Where some Italian company will collect our belongings and deliver them to our apartment on the day we choose. The fact that all of this works out seems crazy to me.
So after a very long day where 4 nice men packed up and hauled off all of our earthly belongings, we spent a day in Virginia at my parents house and then flew to Kansas City to visit Josephs parents for a few days. Then back to Virginia to get all of the last minute things done, like buy and pack peanut butter and Jasper's pacifiers (who knows if they have the only brand that my amusingly particular son will suffer in Italy, and that is not a risk I was willing to take). Also, gorging ourselves on all of our favorite American foods that we won't really be able to find in Italy, Mexican food, hamburgers and fries and BBQ.
Then, on March 4 with two one-way tickets in hand we filled up the back of my Dad's pick up truck (we had 8 pieces of luggage) and headed to Dulles Airport. We had a very nice skycap man load up all of our luggage onto a cart and bring it inside for us.
Our flight left at 10pm. We had our long leg to Frankfurt first.
Oh, also just so you know they don't do pre-boarding for people with infants anymore. So you are standing in a crowd of people forever trying to board the plane, and then on the freezing cold jetway as a line has backed up since apparently it takes forever for people to stash their carry-ons.
Thankfully, many prayers were answered and Jasper slept for most of the flight while I held him and barely even made a peep. I was so nervous about the long flight.
We even got lucky and had the whole row to ourselves. Although then someone who was so sick he looked like he wanted to die sat down in the aisle across from us. Paranoid about getting sick Joseph and I basically sat on top of each other as close to the window as we could get to try and get as far away from the sick man as possible. I even tried to cover Jaspers head as much as possible to try and filter out the air. It seemed to have worked because we all managed to escape the flight without getting deathly ill.
Then after arriving in Frankfurt we had a connection and just a one hour flight to Milan. It should be said that the Germans were much nicer to us on account of us having a baby. They let us board the flight first, they gave Jasper a little rattle toy when we boarded, and they also had a special baby seat belt for him which was pretty funny.
When we landed in Italy we knew we had a driver waiting for us, which was a huge relief. However, it didn't change the fact that now we had to get ourselves and all of our luggage off of the baggage claim and through customs. I loaded Jasper into the BabyBjorn, we loaded up two push carts with luggage and we were each pulling a piece of luggage behind us. We looked hilarious. So hilarious in fact that the Italians on the other side of customs were looking and laughing at us, with no attempt to hide it. Fortunately, our driver was very prepared and he showed up with a large luxury van and dropped us at our apartment. There was also fortunately another man waiting for us at our sublet to help us carry all of our luggage up to our apartment. Or, rather, put one piece of luggage at a time in the elevator, because the elevators here are tiny!
All in all we made it and things couldn't have gone more smoothly. We were tired but excited to be in Italy. We had survived our first transatlantic flight with a baby (that in itself was a miracle).
On moving to Italy
The decision to move to Italy caught everyone by surprise - us included. The interview process for Joseph was pretty long and so we had plenty of time to think about all of the different aspects of the decision. When he first started interviewing it seemed so far-fetched, and there were so many reasons to turn it down, we were pretty sure we wouldn't take the job, even if he got it. That's what we told ourselves for three solid months. Then, as things started to progress we realized that this was actually a pretty amazing opportunity, and we started asking ourselves if would we be foolish to turn it down. And then, after weeks of deliberation, we just made up our minds that we were moving.
Granted, Joseph was doing the bulk of the interviewing during the crazy weeks right after Jasper was born, so maybe it is safe to say we weren't really in our normal state of minds at the beginning. Regardless, we made the decision and now we are in Milan.
I wish I could tell you why we made the decision, but I can't. In all honesty, it just felt like and still feels like the right thing to do. It is terrifying and exciting all at the same time.
Right now the plan is to stay in Milan for 2-3 years, Joseph will be working, I will be trying my hardest to learn Italian, Jasper will be a little Italian baby, and we hope to be able to cram in as much traveling as possible.
We know we only have a limited time here so we really want to take advantage of all of the things that living in Europe has to offer.
Granted, Joseph was doing the bulk of the interviewing during the crazy weeks right after Jasper was born, so maybe it is safe to say we weren't really in our normal state of minds at the beginning. Regardless, we made the decision and now we are in Milan.
I wish I could tell you why we made the decision, but I can't. In all honesty, it just felt like and still feels like the right thing to do. It is terrifying and exciting all at the same time.
Right now the plan is to stay in Milan for 2-3 years, Joseph will be working, I will be trying my hardest to learn Italian, Jasper will be a little Italian baby, and we hope to be able to cram in as much traveling as possible.
We know we only have a limited time here so we really want to take advantage of all of the things that living in Europe has to offer.
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Jasper gets a passport
When we took Jasper to the post office to get his passport, we didn't realize it would be such a traumatic event.
We took him when he was three weeks old because we wanted to make sure he had one as soon as possible.
What we didn't know when we got there was that the babies need to be awake. They have to have their eyes open for the picture. Well by the time we walked to the post office three blocks away, he was asleep. And by the time we made it to the front if the line he was deep asleep. And as it turns out, waking up a three week old Jaaper is not easy business.
It took us over an hour to get him awake enough that his eyes would open, we had stripped off all of his clothes, rubbed a cold drink on his feet and still nothing. At one point he had started screaming but still had his eyes open so that was awkward in the very crowded post office.
Finally he started flickering his eyes, and with some team work with Joseph theady was able to take the worst photo of Jasper ever taken. But she said it was good enough for the application.
Oh the application Joseph had filled it out in blue and apparently it could only be filled out in black which made the already surly post office employee even more surly. It also meant we got bumped back behind the next people in line, which is never fun.
After almost two strenuous hours in the post office we finally got everything submitted and were to tired to try and do anything else, so we headed home stopping at a bakery for treats on the way to soothe our souls.
Then in less than two weeks his passport came in the mail. To be honest after that whole ordeal I was concerned it would be lost in the post office matrix forever. Now Jasper is ready to be an international man of travel.
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Jasper Robin Nance
Here is the story:
On Saturday October 12th we had dinner plans with our friend Jesse and his girlfriend. After dinner we were all planning in heading to a birthday party. So we met for dinner in Korea town to get some Korean BBQ, this is on 32nd street.
During the day I hadn't been feeling very good but I pretty much hadn't felt good for several weeks so I didn't really think that much of it. Joseph and I kind of argued about wether we should even go out that evening, but being the stubborn pregnant lady I am we still went. Also, I had gone to the doctor on Thursday and she was very confident that I wouldn't go into labor since I was only 37 weeks and hadn't had any contractions during the week. She didn't even check me at my appointment. As a little bit of foreshadowing there was a low pressure storm that was passing through that week and Josephs dad had called earlier that week sort of joking to be careful because they have been known to push pregnant women into labor. When I asked the doctor about it she assured me I would be fine. So I wasn't even thinking at all about going into labor. I figured I would have to suffer through 3 more weeks of swollen ankles.
We took the subway downtown and met for dinner at 8. After we had gotten off of the subway and on the few blocks it took to walk to restaurant I noticed I was having some weird pains in my stomach. It turns out these were early labor signs but what did I know. I figured they would go away and I would feel better once we sat down had something to drink and ate some food. Jesse even commented that I looked a little stressed when we sat down to eat and I mentioned that I wasn't feeling very well. I also told Joseph shortly after sitting down that we would probably have to abandon the party plans and just go home and relax after dinner.
We proceeded to order a lot of meat for our Korean BBQ feast. After we had ordered they brought out all of the accompaniments for dinner but hadn't brought out any of the food yet is when it happened. My water broke in the middle of a very crowded restaurant. My whole pregnancy the one thing I kept saying was I really didn't want my water to break in public, but no such luck.
Having my water break was the strangest feeling. All of the sudden a huge gush just came out, if felt like a balloon has popped inside of me. My pants got soaked as water ran down my legs and there as a puddle underneath the chair. I was caught so off guard that I looked up and said to everyone, "Either I just peed my pants or my water just broke." Immediately everyone jumps up and says we need to go to the hospital, I was scared to stand up because I knew more water was going to come out. Also, I was scared to know that this was really happening. I wasn't ready. Joseph pulled me out of my chair and we walked out with my soaking wet pants. I ran into the bathroom to just check everything out and to see what was going on and at this point I was confident my water had broken. The fluid didn't smell like pee. Meanwhile Joseph had gone outside and gotten us a cab and was waiting on the curb. This happened around 8:30pm.
We took the cab straight to the hospital which was on 59th street because we didn't want to go all the way home and then have to come all the way back down. I called the doctor when we were in the cab and left a message with the answering service but she didn't actually call me back until we had gotten to the hospital.
We sat in the waiting room for 30 very painful minutes waiting for our room. The nurses and staff did not seem to be in any kind of hurry and I thought I was going to die. I was so uncomfortable sitting there in soaking wet pants with contractions that seemed to get worse by the second. By the time they had put me in a room and hooked me up to everything it was about 9:30 and I was already dilated to a 4-5. It was at this point that everyone started taking me seriously. They realized I was in fact in labor and that it was happening fast. I immediately requested an epidural. I had no desire to "see what my body could handle" or to "connect with the women of the world" by going natural. Those contractions were some of the worst pain I had ever felt and I was not into it. After what felt like forever but I am sure was just a few minutes the doctor came in and gave me an epidural. That is a magical beautiful thing, just like magic my pain went away. My legs were numb but I could still move them and I felt like I could actually focus on what was happening instead of the mind numbing pain I was in. After they gave me the epidural they checked me again and I was complete. Everyone, us included, was shocked. At this point we were waiting on the doctor who hadn't made it to the hospital yet.
Meanwhile our friends who we had gone to dinner with, ate dinner brought Joseph some McDonalds since he didn't get to eat, picked up our keys and went to our apartment to get some things for us. Our hospital bag became a paper bag from Trader Joe's. We didn't have anything with us since we had only planned on going to dinner. I vaguely remember the nurse lecturing me about why I didn't have my medical records in my purse, because they needed them. Jesse and Meryl picked up our phone chargers, the medical records, my slippers and toothbrush and toothpaste and brought it to us at the hospital. They got there just in time, right before we started pushing, which was good because both of our phones were about to die and I would have been heartbroken to not have gotten a bunch of pictures.
When the doctor came in she took a more casual approach to the delivery, she didn't even break down the end of the bed. I pushed once and it was obvious the baby was very close so the doctor took a break to put on her gown and foot booties and then we pushed 4 more times and he came right out. It took only about 10 minutes of pushing. We hadn't even turned the baseball game off in the background. It was really exciting when he came out and everyone yelled out that it was a boy. I am glad we waited to find out the gender, it made the delivery more exciting. I feel very lucky that my delivery went to smoothly. It only lasted about 4.5 hours from start to finish and went off without any complications. Jasper came out crying and was healthy as could be. It was such an amazing feeling when they placed my little baby on my chest and he was mine.
Friday, July 19, 2013
BVI Trip
For our summer vacation this year we decided to join my parents and my little brother on a sailing trip in the British Virgin Islands.
I have done this trip before in my youth as a family vacation but some how as a pregnant adult the two memories didn't quite align. For one being pregnant has brought along with it a penchant for motion sickness so I spent most on the second day puking. I did better than Joseph though who only lasted about 20 minutes before he was up chucking off the side of the boat.
After we got our seasickness under control with the help of heavy doses of dramamine we had a really good time. Not before I had to puke off the side of our water front restaurant in front of all the other patrons though, so that was definitely a highlight.
We would sail to different islands everyday and lounge around on the beach or on the boat and go swimming in the crystal clear water. There is nothing like that clear water, it is hard to even believe.
One of my favorite days was when we went to the Baths and climbed around and swam in the water. It was so beautiful. It was also nice to be on land and not on the boat. That as Joseph seemed a little surprised to find out "never stopped rocking."
Joseph did some scuba diving, we did some snorkeling, some exploring and general relaxation. I am not allowed to scuba being pregnant which was a little bit of a bummer. Just already sacrificing for this little nugget.
I have done this trip before in my youth as a family vacation but some how as a pregnant adult the two memories didn't quite align. For one being pregnant has brought along with it a penchant for motion sickness so I spent most on the second day puking. I did better than Joseph though who only lasted about 20 minutes before he was up chucking off the side of the boat.
After we got our seasickness under control with the help of heavy doses of dramamine we had a really good time. Not before I had to puke off the side of our water front restaurant in front of all the other patrons though, so that was definitely a highlight.
We would sail to different islands everyday and lounge around on the beach or on the boat and go swimming in the crystal clear water. There is nothing like that clear water, it is hard to even believe.
One of my favorite days was when we went to the Baths and climbed around and swam in the water. It was so beautiful. It was also nice to be on land and not on the boat. That as Joseph seemed a little surprised to find out "never stopped rocking."
Joseph did some scuba diving, we did some snorkeling, some exploring and general relaxation. I am not allowed to scuba being pregnant which was a little bit of a bummer. Just already sacrificing for this little nugget.
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