TUTTO

HOME SWEAT HOME- (yes, sweat)
We have now been in our apartment for 3 weeks and we're loving it! We feel very fortunate to have found this place.
We got to experience Italian HEAT and no A/C for the first couple of days that we were here. You know it's hot when you're not moving a muscle, and you're drenched in sweat. Needless to say, if any of you are considering visiting, I would NOT recommend coming in late June, July, or August... unless of course you like the idea of sweating profusely. Luckily, we've had a few storms pass through, which has helped to cool things down.
For those of you keeping track (ok, maybe it's just me) we've been living in hotels for 6 weeks, and sleeping on a blow up mattress for the past 3. After 9 weeks, I am sure excited at the thought of sleeping in my own bed.
I can't wait to start decorating our place; unfortunately, that won't happen for at least another week because our belongings are being shipped to us. (Literally, they are on a boat across the Atlantic.) For now, the base has loaned us some temporary furniture that looks like dorm furniture. I feel like I'm back in college because this stuff is almost indestructible! I know a few of you have mentioned wanting to see pics of our place. I'll be sure to post them once we get our furniture delivered and set up.

PLUGS-
Electric plugs and outlets in Italy are a whole story in itself. Each home in Italy has at LEAST two different types of outlets: one is Italian, and the other is European. Some homes actually have FOUR different types of outlets. It makes things very tricky! We've had to buy numerous transformers and converters for our appliances and anything requiring electricity.
Outlets are not always in convenient places. We only have one plug in our laundry room/bathroom, so you can either use the washer or dryer. You can never use both; however, if you were savvy enough to find a plug to be able to use both at the same time, you will blow a circuit. We tried using our oven and dryer at the same time, and the power went out. Housework takes a little longer in Italy, as a result.
I'm still trying to figure out how to do laundry. Our washer and dryer are half the size of what we're used to. Plus, our washer is in Italian, and our dryer is in German! Have no fear though because our microwave is in ENGLISH! Yay! So I guess that means we will be well fed, but smelly.

COINS, CONDOMS, THONGS, AND TOBACCO
Nick and I are still loving Italy, and everything it offers. (of course!) I have found a few things surprising in the past month like the fact that 90% of places in Italy play American pop music. I'm almost getting tired of Katy Perry's song, "Wide Awake," and Rihanna's new song because you hear them everywhere. (Especially in touristy places like Venice!)
Italian's have some VERY strange vending machines like: a cigarette machine, (almost everyone smokes here), a condom machine, and a thong machine. (And by "thong," I do not mean a flip flop.) I don't think we'll see many of those vending machines in the States any time soon.
The currency here in Italy is the Euro. It looks a lot like play money to me. Nick has reassured me that it is NOT play money. :) Most people use coins instead of cash for small purchases. They have .1, .2, .5, .10, .20, .50, 1, and 2 Euro in coins. We paid for some coffee with a 20 Euro bill the other day, and the cashier was slightly annoyed because our purchase was only 3 Euros. She had to go digging in her wallet to give us 17 Euros in change! (Oops!)

BK & MD -
I was warned on many occasions before I arrived in Italy that fast food will be hard to come by in Italy. Italians love their own food, and they love any occasion to sit and eat with family for a long meal. (which is true!) However, they also love fast food. There's several McDonald's and Burger King's in each town around us, and there are signs EVERYWHERE for McDonald's.
We passed by a McDonald's while we were running errands and the parking lot was packed, and the drive- thru line was backed up into traffic. I was shocked, as you probably are too!
Normally, I'm the fast food junky in the family, but here Nick is always tempted to get a cheeseburger when we drive by Mc-ie D's!

LOWLY LIEUTENANT-
Nick is loving his squadron. This is the first base where Nick is not technically here for training. It's our first official base and squadron. The people here definitely seem more invested in us because they know we're not leaving in just a year or two. It feels a little more like we actually belong!
Nick is the lowest ranked in the squadron at the moment, so he gets to do a lot of tedious jobs like refilling the snack bar every week. 
He gets teased a bit more than most people, but he loves that. They've come up with a few options for his call sign. Right now everyone has been calling him 2-cats, even though he's supposed to be called BNG. (Brand New Guy) A few of the other options have been Iceman and Drama. Iceman was the character that Val Kilmer played in Top Gun, and Val Kilmer is a Christian Scientist and actor. They came up with Drama because he's a Theater major. It may not end up being any of those options, but it'll be fun to find out in a couple weeks what they will be calling him.

FLOATING (or flying) ON CLOUD 9-
I think Nick might be in heaven here in Italy. Most of you know that Nick LOVES kite boarding. We just discovered that nearly half of his squadron is trying to learn how to kite board. One of the guys in his squadron has taken one lesson, and has now convinced himself that he will be in the 2016 Olympics for kite boarding. Haha! Not only that, he's also convinced Nick that he should be in the Olympics. (oh boy!) So every weekend that we've been here, Nick has wanted to go kite boarding. I never thought I would have to literally convince Nick to go traveling around Europe. It actually did take some convincing to get him to go to VENICE! Here we are just a train ride away from at least a dozen countries, and all Nick wants to do in his free time is go kite boarding. I have a feeling I will be visiting mainly lakes and oceans in Italy. I guess I still can't complain too much!

RECALL-
I always have a funny story about Nick, so here's his story of the week. A couple weeks ago there was a base-wide exercise going on just to prepare everyone for the "what-ifs" that could happen. It's always good to be prepared, right? The weekend after the exercise was over, Nick received a text from a guy in his squadron that said, "Total recall at 7pm on base." Nick started to panic. Was the exercise so bad that they are having a briefing about it on a Sunday night? We went on base to get some groceries before 7pm, and we happened to run into the squadron commander. (THE BOSS) Nick immediately chimed in, "Boss, did you hear about the recall at 7?" The shocked look on the squadron commander's face indicated that he had no idea what Nick was talking about. "Yeah, I just got a text that said, 'Total recall at 7 on base,'" Nick said.
 The commander's face changed from scared to slightly annoyed.. and amused. "He's texting you about the MOVIE Total Recall at the movie theatre ON BASE at 7." Hahaha! I immediately starting laughing so hard that I was crying. I wouldn't be surprised if Nick got a call sign from that incident. :) We all laughed...and I'm sure that story will come up again. :)

For those of you wondering about the title, TUTTO means "everything" or "all." You got a little taste of everything in this update...except for pictures. Next time!

Ciao, ciao! Arrivederci!