January 2005-January Update

January Update
Buono Anno! (According to my language teacher, if you are not very careful to pronounce both "N's", you'll be talking about your backside!)
I hope everyone had a good Christmas and a Happy New Year! Did you make your New Year Resolutions?
I am now getting pretty comfortable at my job and already deep in the thick of things. I am "enjoying" learning the intricacies of working within a government bureaucracy. (Your tax dollars at work). All of our Holiday events at the embassy went well, the Children's Breakfast with Santa was a big hit -- we hired a "singing Santa" and he made our lives so much easier. And the Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony and Market, that I was originally the Volunteer Chair of, was a HUGE success. HUGE. So, I am very pleased about that, almost as pleased as I am that it's over. We also ended up dealing with two viewings of movies at the Ambassador's house, which of course were much more hassle than they really needed to be.
Joel also had a very busy December because he had to cover for someone that was out of town, so we were both very relieved when the holidays arrived. One week we had two holiday parties for him, one for me, the big tree lighting ceremony and market, and a movie at the Ambassador's house with lunch. No kidding. If that happened every month I'd be in the looney bin.
We're still doing verbs in our Italian class, 4 different conjugation types that we have to memorize. Unfortunately, Joel and I still have to memorize the 30 verbs we've been given. We have to perfect the present tense, because the next unit moves to past tense.
(Oh and I had a very nice birthday, thank you to everyone. I am not mentioning a number; but next year there will be a zero attached to it. Yikes.)
Christmas was great -- peaceful and relaxing. We got a real tree, even though it was only about 5 1/2 ft high, two days before Christmas, and decorated it with all of our lights and ornaments. Christmas eve we had a party at a friend's house in our building, and then came home and drank hot chocolate and open a few presents. (That was to get back at my mom who never let us open presents on Christmas eve when we were growing up.) We got a fleece throw that I made, a Christmas CD, our first family ornament, and Joel got me a Santa (like an angel) for the top of our tree.
Christmas morning I graciously allowed Joel to sleep until 8, and then we got up, had cranberry bread and hot chocolate for breakfast, and opened our the rest of our presents, which was a lot of fun. Then we got dressed and then played with all of our "toys." About 4pm we eventually had our Christmas dinner, and then called our families to join in on their Christmas morning fun. And then we watched movies Santa had brought us for the rest of the evening.
New Year's was pretty quiet for us, just a building potluck party again, and off to bed. Joel stayed up all night long watching football. (Don't bring up Miami.) In Italy though, they're crazy on New Years. For some reason everyone shoots off fireworks from their own balconies, and then throws their glasses out their windows. It can make for a dangerous evening if you are out.
And oh, funny story. Remember how last month how I was complaining about drivers here in Italy? Well, it's official. They are maniacs. I now hold the embassy record for fender benders. One early in the month where someone slammed on brakes suddenly for no reason; then two days before Christmas I had two in the same day: I was crossing traffic, and someone decided not to stop; and then while we are exchanging information(I was parked in a parking space), the car was hit AGAIN in the same spot by a very large company van. At least he spoke English and was very apologetic. So now we have a nice pretty dent in our front bumper and the glass broken in our headlight. I'm fine, don't worry about me. I had a headache for a day, but that was more from the stress I think. Joel's Italian friend is going to show us a reputable body shop next week. I am now refusing to drive as much as I can get away with, I think I'm giving off pheremones that attract bad Italian drivers.
Except for the last accident, we had no damage to our car. We are a walking advertisement for Hyundai vehicles now. We love our Elantra, it took a massive cargo van to hurt it, the other Italian cars that I had the first two accidents with had some pretty good damage to them, and we didn't even have a scratch. It's a great car.
Anyways, coming up in January: Joel will be traveling a little with his job, and I will be running the Volunteer Drive the last week of January. That's about it, it's a quiet month for us. As a bonus for working at the Embassy, we have Epiphany on January 6 (Italian Holiday) and Martin Luther King Day (US Holiday) off this month. Lucky us!
Love to all,
Julie and Joel