Monday, June 22, 2009

It's A Different World

There are many things about Italy that are different from the U.S. Some of those things I like, some I'm not so fond of. Today Ross, Colton, and I had an experience that exemplifies one of the differences that I'm not so fond of - the amount of time it takes to accomplish tasks here.

Last night Ross and I decided that we would leave the house immediately after Colton woke up and was fed breakfast to go downtown to the Vodafone store to get cell phones and Internet hooked up. We figured it would be a 1/2 hour walk to the store, maybe an hour there, a 1/2 hour walk back, and we'd make it home again in time to put Colton down for his first nap. So, we left just as we had hoped, around 9:30am this morning. We began our walk, stopping for a breakfast pastry and cappuccino along the way, and arrived at the Vodafone store at about 10:30am. Only, surprise!, the store we thought was there had closed. SO we headed farther into town to another store. When we arrived at, say, 11:00am we found it was closed. Yes, on Monday mornings the store is closed and doesn't open until 3:30pm.

Well, we had a decision to make now. Should we head back home, empty handed, to put Colton down for a nap only to go all the way back to the store later in the afternoon, or should we figure out a way to keep busy/keep Colton from melting down? We decided to stay downtown until 3:30 and filled our morning and afternoon up by running a few little errands that we had to do (ie: finding a baby store and buying plug covers). We also ate lunch. Did Colton nap at any time during the morning/afternoon? No. Should he have? Well, let's just say that he would have usually had one full nap and begun his 2nd by that time. I don't know why, but my child will not sleep if he's not at home in his bed.

But I digress.

Anyway, we made it back to the Vodafone store at about 3:25 where we waited until it opened and got right in to see the customer service agent we needed to see. It took about an hour to get our phones and Internet hooked up and we headed home. Poor Colton was exhausted, and so were we!, but we accomplished our mission for the day (and even got a few other things done). The good news is I can now contact people here in Italy without relying on Ross' borrowed cell phone AND I have Internet access at home!!!

The lesson for me? Next time, no matter how long you think a simple errand will take in Florence, Italy, pack a bottle/baby food and lots of toys in the diaper bag! :)

5 comments:

Jenn said...

Yay for ANOTHER update! i am so proud! and glad you have internet (already??) does that mean your vonage number works too? i'm confused. i need to buy a camera for my computer so we can skype...do I need anything else to Skype? Let me know...hopefully i can buy it this weekend and we can test it out on Sunday??

Lindsay said...

We found out that Vodafone does something (new to Italy) that enables us to begin using the Internet in our home before it's officially hooked up. SO - we can use the Internet but not Vonage yet. We could try to Skype and see how it goes, this temporary Internet isn't super fast but it might go ok. We should try! You don't need anything but a camera and, actually, can just do voice (without us seeing you) if you don't have one.

The Downs family said...

Linds, we are so proud of you guys! You're really doing it!!! Thanks so much for the detailed update, I just love hearing about how life is going over there. PS, from here it still feels like a little "vaca!" I'm sure it doesn't feel that way for ya'll. So I have a stupid question...if all your furniture isn't there yet, what are you sleeping on?? I know, totally random but I have been thinking about it! ;-) I can't wait to see photo's of your place, even without your furniture! Miss you all like crazy.

Gigi and Grandy in Katy said...

Yippee that you can update us more often! We got the litter box and other items and have them ready to ship tomorrow. Mark is in charge of getting to the UPS or FED/ex store to ship it. We'll see how long this takes! Love you, Gigi

Chandler said...

You're amazing! I didn't think we'd get updates this soon. I'm so amazed that you handled the flight and such as well as you did. Inspiring...I think I would have gone insane. God is so good that he doesn't give us more than we can handle. Like Ash said, it does kind of feel like you are on vaca for the summer. It hasn't truly sunk in for us but I'm sure it's much different for you. I need to reset up Skype so we can talk via computer. I can't wait until I have a number that I can just call and talk. I LOVE technology. You definitely aren't missing out on the heat. It has been pretty miserably hot so far. Most of my time with maddie involves air conditioning or hanging out in the pool. Keep the pics coming...it's all such an adventure and I'm glad we get to share it with you! Lots of love! Oh yea and we had our 2nd IUI yesterday so hopefully things will be positive this time. For now we are just waiting.