Confused

I've felt confused to some level every single day since we moved to Italy. I have a feeling those days won't end anytime soon, either. So, I wanted to capture on film and share with you some every day tasks that, here, are so confusing! Never take for granted the ease of life in the U.S.! :)

The first task I found really confusing was buying baby food. Luckily, I know enough Italian to know what the food is... but I really got confused regarding the types of food available, and the amounts. For example, I have seen no orange veggies - anywhere! Do Italian babies only eat green veggies? Aren't they missing out on important nutrients??? Another example would be the fruits. They sell a ton of fruit but almost all of it has added sugar. I guess I just suck it up and let him start loving sugar early, huh? Finally, their measurements are all in metric so, instead of ounces, baby food is measured in grams. There is no "Stage 1," "Stage 2," "Stage 3" indictors on food here so he just neded up with what he ended up with. Poor baby. Below is the stash I wound up with.

Most of it was pretty normal except:

Baby food cheese?!? I just had to get some, though I've yet to use it.

...and the meat. I got the regulars - chicken, turkey, beef - but also added lamb (which he loved) and rabbit (which he hasn't tried yet) to Colton's diet. Next new meat? ...Maybe horse! :)

The second task that really stumped me was doing the laundry. Yup - even that is confusing here. I mean look at the washing machine dial! What does that mean?!?

I spent about a half hour looking up words in my Italian/English dictionary, converting celsius temperatures to fahrenheit, and phoning a few friends before I attempted my first load of laundry! "Easy-tronic-plus?" Really? I don't think so.

Very few people have driers here so we have to hang our clothes to dry outside. I'm sort of thankful for that now because it was easy - nothing to be confused about there! :)

Finally, even one of the simplest tasks of life is confusing here - plugging in electric devises. "Why?" you might ask. Well, check out the pictures below for your answer...

Outlet type #1:

Outlet type #2:

Outlet type #3:

Outlet type #4:

Yes, folks, there are four kinds of outlets - IN OUR APARTMENT!!!!! That's the beauty of Italy, nothing is standardized (electric outlets included). So, when you buy an electric devise it could have any one of those four types of plugs. Do any of them fit into any of the other outlets? No, of course not. So, what you have to do is buy adapters for outlets that allow you to plug different sized plugs into different sized outlets. Is this making sense? Probably not. It can get a little out of control, as you can see below.

Sometimes we feel as though we are living in "The Christmas Story." Adapters plugged into adapters so that we can finally plug in the appliance!!! Ha!

The worst part about the crazy plugs, for me, is that we haven't yet been able to find outlet covers for any of them except the three little holed ones. Therefore, Colton could electrocute himself any number of places in our house. Lovely.

Anyway, I just wanted to share a few of the every day differences between life in the States and life here in Italy. One thing's for sure... This place sure keeps me on my toes!