Life in Sicily

Article written on between 2005 - 2007

Friday AUG 11, 2005

Life in Sicily is very good. Italians work no more than 6 1/2 hrs per day. No wonder the life is so stress free. They eat, chat and party all through the night. The city is so lively in the midnight. My husband is enjoying his job too. His job is lot less stressful than in US. Now, he says he will stay in Sicily for 3 or 4 years. Good!

We are still in temporary housing. We will be moving out to our permanent house by the end of this month. Can't wait to get back our furnitures, clothes etc. We had enough of living out of suitcase for almost 3 months. Ajit will start going to preschool in September.

Summer is terrible here. Its gets very hot. But it cools down in the night. So most of the weekends, we are in the beach. The beaches here are so beautiful. We are still in the settling down mode. So, we haven't gone out to the main land yet. The Sicilian weather is perfect for Ajit. He hasn't had the necessity to use Albuterol or Flovent yet.

I am now able to go to the gym after 3 years. Its an irony - when i worked for 24 hour fitness, i never had time to go exercise. But now i have all the time in the world to go use the gym. I have to talk about the Gym here. A 26 Million brand new Recreation facility was opened on Jun 19, 2005 in Sigonella. The amenities include an Indoor running track, Aerobics room, 50 Tread mills, 50 Elliptical m/c, 50 Cross training m/c, 100s of bikes, a group x biking room, 2 Aerobics room and an entire floor for Weight Training. It also has 2 rocket ball courts, a basket ball court, an indoor rock climbing facility and 3 swimming pools, 1 for ages 0-5, another for ages 6 - 12 and the third one for adults(lap pool). Each of them have water slides, diving boards etc. Just now, they started offering yoga classes - Beginner yoga and Power Yoga. Mon, Wed and Thur evenings, we have power yoga for 1 hour and 15 minutes. I went to this class and it was a killer :-(( 

Thursday AUG 3, 2006

I am pretty much settled in the new job. For most part we deal with computer hardware/software maintenance. Its new stuff for me. So, its interesting. Coming from private world, things are really really slow here esp. because its overseas US base. I start working at 7:30 and leave home at 4:00 (its fixed working hours). On top of it I take 1 hour workout during lunch :-)). One good thing is there is no traffic. Italians are late risers. So roads are deserted at 6:45 AM when I leave for work.

On the down side, there is no flex time or work from home etc. Moreover all Internet based Emails/Messengers are disabled at work place :-(

Ajit is in home school. I didn't put him in the DOD school since he is learning better in home school. Next year when he starts Kindergarten, I will put him in school.

Tuesday NOV 7, 2006

I was little busy (believe me)with re-organization and training. The mgmt moved me to the Engineering group with 5 Italians. Before, i was put with 10 US Military people. Work hasn't changed much, but the work environment has changed drastically. Working with Italians is lot more fun.

Diwali went off well. We had 4 single Indians over at our place - one doctor in her 60s working in the US base, another Guajarati girl doing her post doc, 1 Telegu guy and 1 Tamil guy who have internet store here. All of them have their family in US/India. So, we celebrated diwali/ramzaan with the singles. It was very boring for ajit though. He kept complaining that I should invite people with kids so he will have company too. At least he had some fun with sparklers.

Sunday NOV 10, 2006

Education has become a money making racket in India. School fees are atrocious. Come 12th std, the kids and their parents r so stressed. The entire future is determined by those 2 exams - public exam and entrance exam. I still hate the idea of public exams. For that matter, i would always miss US education system. Until 5th grade, the syllabus is easy and kids r not burdened with home works. From 6th grade on, the syllabus gets tough. College entrance is determined by so many factors - 12th std GPA, entrance exam score(u can write as many times), Boy/Girl Scout participation, Leadership qualities, Hours of Social work, and few other achievements. 12th std GPA is not solely based on final exams. It would be something like 20% for home work, 20% for project, 25% for half yearly test, 25% for final exam and so on. So, even if we fall sick for something, we can always catch up in another. The most important thing is that education is free until college because the public schools are under the government. There are private schools too. One good thing about private schools is that they have uniforms.

Wednesday NOV 22, 2006

Its festival season here. From now on until after new year, work load will be lot less. One Military personnel working with us just returned back after being deployed in Iraq for 6 months. Our dept gave a warm welcome to her and made her tell her experience in Iraq. For first time in my life, i met someone who has been to a war.

Wednesday DEC 13, 2006

We had a Christmas potluck/party y'day at work. I made chicken korma and plain rice. African Americans and Italians are really crazy about Indian food. So, it was a big hit. Couple of guys even packed the leftover curry for home and gave me the clean washed dish :-)) Of course, I had to make it lot less spicier so they all can handle it. One other Philipino had cooked beef w/spinach. Other than that, everyone else got ready made food. The truth is my co-workers are so lazy to cook. Nobody really bothers to take an effort and cook something. Everybody buys stuff like cold cut meat and cheese, chips and dip, chicken wings, potato salad, pasta salad etc.

After the potluck lunch, they had the gift exchange game. Everyone participating will bring a wrapped gift. All the gifts will be put in the center. Then names will be read out in random. The first person picks any gift from the center. He then opens it and displays to everyone. The 2nd person now have the option to either pick a gift from the center or steal the gift that the first person has opened. So it goes. It turned out very funny. One guy had wrapped up toilet tissues in a gift box. Another had bought a dozen socks. The timely comments by bunch of guys made the game even more hilarious. Most of the companies have this game during X-mas. In my previous job, it wasn't this funny. The IT people had a serious outlook there.

Saturday DEC 16, 2006

Coming Saturday, the base has exclusive x-mas program for kids. At 9:30 AM, all kids have a 1 mile fun run with Santa and his elves. Not a race and no prizes. Every kid gets a t-shirt and some snacks. From 10:00 to 11:00, they have breakfast with Santa. After that they have a visit to Santa's workshop where there will be children's activities, crafts, gift making and cookie decorating. And also a picture session with Santa. Adults are not allowed. So, Ajit will have a good time. I will be bored though :-((

Thursday FEB 22, 2007

Y'day we had a mass evacuation drill. There is an active volcano, Mt Etna, just 20 miles from our city. It has been erupting lightly for the past 6 months(but it is very harmless). The last time it erupted and wiped out the entire city was in 1693. In case it erupts furiously, the 6000 Americans will have to be airlifted to Virginia, USA. So, they did a practice drill. All Italians were made to go home. All Americans(only around 1000 people) were then herded into the air terminal, fill out lot of paperwork and made to stay there whole day. Of course, we were given "sapadu potlam" :-) and spent the day just chit-chatting.

Wednesday MAR 7, 2007

Life here in Italy is more comparable to India. Italy is not that clean. Bad economy, Procrastination, Corrupt political system, bad law and order are part of Italy. Americans are some of the most courteous people on the earth. Italians, like most Europeans, have no concept of personal space or courtesy. But to make it up for all the above, they have strong family values. Family/friends come first, work is secondary. There is depth in any kind of relationship. Dating/girlfriends are ok from age 18 onwards. But living together before marriage is still a rarity because of lack of financial stability. Single parents, broken families are not that common. Divorce is low compared to rest of Europe. Since they are Catholics, divorce takes about 3 years. So, in the fear of getting divorced, people avoid getting married. Moreover they can't have kids out off wedlock. That’s why Italy has the lowest birth rate in entire Europe. But they are so loving and affectionate with kids. Its perfectly normal for strangers to lift our kids, hug/caress them and kiss them. I still remember the first time Ajit had this experience, he was shouting at me - "mommy, kidnapper....help". It was so funny. Italian parents have the same love and affection towards their kids like us. They live with parents until they get married. My co-workers are all over 35. But none of them are married(but have girl friends) and they all live with their parents. Italy is still a male dominated society. I think its because of my submissive attitude(an offspring of Indian education system) that my team gladly accepted me:-)

Lot of Americans love Italy because of the freedom. They end up settling down here. Every part of Italy has a little America settlement town just like we have little India or little Italy in US.

Cost of living is more compared to US or India, but cheaper compared to rest of Europe. Clothing, furniture, Automobiles, Electronics, restaurants, traveling are very expensive. Meat in general is expensive. Seafood is way too expensive (and we live in an Island). I've literally stopped eating fish. My mind is always converting the Euros to dollars and rupees. I can't wait to go to India and have only fish. Fresh produce, pizza and sandwiches are the only cheap stuff here. Indu, now I realize the value of certain things that I took it for granted in US. To me, though Euro is strong, dollar has more buying power.