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Day after Feb 14
15 February 2005 10:03Why is quattordici Febbraio important you ask? Not only because Catholics celebrate St. Valentine, the priest who performed secret marriages when they were outlawed, but more importantly because that is the day that Bart and Brandie met. We call it our meetaversry. That is true. We have known each other for a full year and a day now. How much our lives have changed. Married, trips to New York, California, Washington, Iowa, Arizona and now here we are living in Naples, Italy. We have new cell phones, but no internet. No cars, but we are proficient at public transit. We don't eat meat regularly, but the pasta is cheap. So is the bread. We should be getting a mattress this week. We had to exchange the one that our landlord, Livio, bought for us because it was just too small for two people, though very nicely sized for one.
Bart and I (mostly Bart) have done, I think, a very good job of ridding the apartment of mold, including the new batch we found last night. I am allergic and have a cough and chest congestion and a stuffy, runny nose since we got there, but today I feel pretty okay. We also got a shower curtain which has made the bathroom smell of plastic, which is no better or worse than the bleach smell it had before, but is much better than the mildew smell it had before that.
Bart is amazing. I have never met another person like him and I am confident that I never will. I am so very glad that he is here with me. I am also very thankful for Michael, the Hoboken-born police officer who works at the questura processing requests for permits to stay in the country. As has been usual, we were misinformed about the requirements for Bart to stay. Michael, however, was wonderful, explaining what we had wrong and why it would be impossible to get him a residency permit. If I were here on a work visa, no problem, but since I am on a study visa, there is no rule addressing this issue and in fact, we were the first case that Michael had ever encountered. There is an agreement between all of the EU countries that addresses this issue, but we are not from an EU country. We told him that we totally understood what he was saying and why it couldn't work, but that I wouldn't be staying in the country without my husband, so what can we do to get around this detail? He went away for a long while. In total, we were at the window for over an hour. When he came back, he had it all figured out. We were very relieved. Currently, Bart is on a tourist visa that is good until May 18th and we should be able to get him permission to stay before then. It looks like he won't have to leave the country and re-enter either! Whew!
I have read on many an expat website that Italians are not friendly. I completely disagree. Everybody here has been nothing but wonderful in helping us get around rules that everybody knows are stupid. I really like it here even though the weather has SUCKED since we arrived.
Bart and I (mostly Bart) have done, I think, a very good job of ridding the apartment of mold, including the new batch we found last night. I am allergic and have a cough and chest congestion and a stuffy, runny nose since we got there, but today I feel pretty okay. We also got a shower curtain which has made the bathroom smell of plastic, which is no better or worse than the bleach smell it had before, but is much better than the mildew smell it had before that.
Bart is amazing. I have never met another person like him and I am confident that I never will. I am so very glad that he is here with me. I am also very thankful for Michael, the Hoboken-born police officer who works at the questura processing requests for permits to stay in the country. As has been usual, we were misinformed about the requirements for Bart to stay. Michael, however, was wonderful, explaining what we had wrong and why it would be impossible to get him a residency permit. If I were here on a work visa, no problem, but since I am on a study visa, there is no rule addressing this issue and in fact, we were the first case that Michael had ever encountered. There is an agreement between all of the EU countries that addresses this issue, but we are not from an EU country. We told him that we totally understood what he was saying and why it couldn't work, but that I wouldn't be staying in the country without my husband, so what can we do to get around this detail? He went away for a long while. In total, we were at the window for over an hour. When he came back, he had it all figured out. We were very relieved. Currently, Bart is on a tourist visa that is good until May 18th and we should be able to get him permission to stay before then. It looks like he won't have to leave the country and re-enter either! Whew!
I have read on many an expat website that Italians are not friendly. I completely disagree. Everybody here has been nothing but wonderful in helping us get around rules that everybody knows are stupid. I really like it here even though the weather has SUCKED since we arrived.