Well, it was bound to happen. I knew that Patrick would have to go back to work sometime, and today is that day. We are finally finished with Indoc and Patrick has his first day of 'real' work today. And what that means for me is this: nothing. I have nothing to do. My days are now going to be spent contemplating the meaning of life. Ok, that's not entirely true. My job for the next few weeks will be finding our home for the next three years, and trust me that's not an easy task.
There's no Craigslist here. I can't spend hours looking through places on the Internet researching areas and homes. I have to depend on the housing department here. Which is fine, except they are stretched a bit thin, and I'm worried about depending on people to do their jobs. There is a database that you can search for homes, but there are not as many listed as I would hope. But I'm going to work with what I have and hope that something wonderful will come along.
Last week we had two field trips with our ICR class (part of Indoc). Granted they were both places we had been before, but we still had fun. The first was Catania and the second was Motta Santa Anastacia (just Motta for short). In Catania we had a great time walking through the extremely large flea market, Patrick had our nice camera (the one I got for my birthday that I knew once he got his hands on he would refuse to give up, and I was right) and he took some fun pictures of the market, as well as some of the more fascinating characters at the market.
At the back of the flea market was all the produce in a rainbow of colors. There were radishes (the biggest I'd ever seen), eggplants, zucchinis, tomatoes, basil, parsley, etc. Basically a cooks dream. Then you come across these huge olive carts. They have dozens of different kinds of olives and salads. As soon as I glimpsed these carts my mouth started watering instantaneously. Unfortunately (and fortunately) we had to go to lunch afterwards so I wasn't able to buy anything, but there will be a next time. At the end of the market it opens into this big piazza with a beautiful church overlooking it.
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In Motta there is a large Norman castle, well in fact it is the keep of the castle. Sicily has had a varied history, under many different rulers. The Normans are from France and ruled here for a number of years. They left behind their blond haired blue eyed heirs, and some of their architecture. The most impressive thing about this castle are the views from it's tall vantage point. I took a few photos with my point and shoot camera, but haven't downloaded them yet, when I get to it I'll add a few more pics. Motta is right up the road from the base, sometimes it's called NAS III because there are so many Americans living there now. It's only about ten minutes from base. I was glad that we got into the city a little bit because there are some charming old streets.
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| Mt. Etna in the background |
Last week we had two field trips with our ICR class (part of Indoc). Granted they were both places we had been before, but we still had fun. The first was Catania and the second was Motta Santa Anastacia (just Motta for short). In Catania we had a great time walking through the extremely large flea market, Patrick had our nice camera (the one I got for my birthday that I knew once he got his hands on he would refuse to give up, and I was right) and he took some fun pictures of the market, as well as some of the more fascinating characters at the market. 
At the back of the flea market was all the produce in a rainbow of colors. There were radishes (the biggest I'd ever seen), eggplants, zucchinis, tomatoes, basil, parsley, etc. Basically a cooks dream. Then you come across these huge olive carts. They have dozens of different kinds of olives and salads. As soon as I glimpsed these carts my mouth started watering instantaneously. Unfortunately (and fortunately) we had to go to lunch afterwards so I wasn't able to buy anything, but there will be a next time. At the end of the market it opens into this big piazza with a beautiful church overlooking it. 
Looks wonderful! Good luck house hunting...
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