Can you believe it’s November already?!!?!
Joel and I appreciate all the emails and notes we’ve gotten from everyone. We love keeping in touch with you all; it makes that Atlantic Ocean just a little bit smaller!
October was a pretty intense month for us. Our language classes are becoming a little more involved: we have started conjugating verbs and dealing with making things plural and the masculine and feminine endings on words. I’m not sure why words have to be feminine or masculine – does anyone really care if a car is feminine ("la machina") – but apparently I don’t get to make that decision! Anyways, we now have more homework and memorization we have to do after every single class.
On Columbus Day, someone from Joel’s office took us on a small tour and we had lunch in downtown Rome. (Amazingly, I had horrible service and horrible food – a first for Rome. But it was just me, not anyone else.) Joel also had his first business trip this month, just an overnighter. And we went to the Embassy’s Octoberfest party. It was very well attended and the food was really really good.
We’ve been over to several homes for small parties this month, which was really neat because we got to see other apartments and how they are laid out. The cool thing about this community and our "lifestyle" is that everyone has this amazing furniture and stuff from all the different countries they’ve lived in. One couple had this beautiful wood furniture and rugs from Turkey (wouldn’t mind going there now, too!) and another couple had spent some time in Africa and had this ornately carved bar. I look forward to being able to decorate my home like that one day too. :)
I also went on a "field trip." In Naples Italy, the NATO Base had a charity bazaar one Saturday, and several women from the embassy rented a bus so we could all go. Oh, thank goodness Joel didn’t let me take the credit card with me! I could have done some serious damage there. There were booths and vendors from every single country in NATO, and there was a food tent also. I had chicken curry in the British pub. I did get some really cute Christmas decorations and ornaments; and am already planning on going back next year.
Last week, Rita and her fiancé came and visited for one night as they were passing through Rome; our first guests! We had a nice Italian dinner and feasted on gelato for dessert. This past Friday night we volunteered at the Halloween party for the embassy. I’m assuming it was a good event; but I don’t really know. The whole evening I went from the grill to the buffet table dumping more hamburgers and hotdogs for people to eat. I swear, there must have been over 200 people there. Joel got stuck behind the bar, serving drinks the entire night. Everyone seemed to have fun though.
Last night Joel and I attended the Marine Ball. It was very glamorous and ritzy, and we had a very nice time. The marines cut the cake for the ceremony and did their program. Oh, and we got to meet and speak to the Ambassador! Very cool stuff.
Which brings us to good news. Wednesday, our shipment finally arrived!!! (I was thrilled, because I had nothing to wear to the marine ball.) It was very exciting, but I have been unpacking ever since. I think I’ve done about 20 loads of laundry since Wednesday. Slowly but surely, our little home is getting put together. And I have to say thank you to everyone who had given us wonderful things for our home at our wedding. It’s been SO MUCH FUN to finally take everything out of their boxes and put things in their places. As of this moment, our books are on the shelves, almost all of dishes, etc. are put away, the new sheets and towels are out, and the breadmaker is making our first loaf of homemade bread. It’s like Christmas! Since Nov 1st is a Catholic/Italian holiday, Joel and I planning on having the bulk of the work done this weekend. (He says hello, but right now is struggling to get the TV hooked up correctly to our cable system.)
So, hopefully November will be a little more settled now. My scrapbooking is off to a kickin start and rolling right along. Joel and I are getting reading for Thanksgiving. It’s going to be such fun serving turkey on our fancy china dishes. We are continuing with our language classes twice a week, and starting to plan for Christmas. Oh, I almost forgot! I volunteered to Chair the Embassy Holiday Tree Lighting and Holiday Market Event in December. We’ll have the tree lighting and school choirs perform, and a holiday market at the same time. I will probably be tearing my hair our before it’s all done but it sounds like a really cool party.
I hope you and yours are all doing well, and we look forward to hearing from all of you soon! Oh remember to vote, turn your clocks back, and Happy Halloween!
Julie and Joel
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