Sunday, January 29, 2006
Snowboarding on Mt. Etna
Sat. Jan 28 - Today was the day I was finally going to try to snowboard. I met Kim at the vans at 7:30am and we headed to pick up our 15 customers. We got to the mountain in about an hour and the roads were really clean so we didn't have to use the snow chains. Once we got up there, everyone got their gear on and she brought 7 of us to a smaller hill to try and show us how to stand up, balance, and get down the hill. I was really thankful that she gave us a little lesson because she usually doesn't do that. The little hill wasn't doing any good so we gunned it for the ski lift. It was $12 euro for an all day pass, but I figured I was only gonna be going once after I saw how long and steep the trail was. The carts were enclosed and moved a lot faster than I thought they would. Its funny, because the part of the lift you'll see in my pictures from the lodge, is actually only about a 1/4 of the hill. Needless to say, the lodge at the top was only a few hundred feet from the active volcano hole. It was a 12 minute ride and man were we scared when we saw how long and tricky the course was. On top of that, theres no middle point or emergency route if you decide that you suck and don't want to finish. "Baptism by fire" I guess you could say. Surprisingly, I did a lot better than I ever could have imagined for my first time even being on a snow board. It was too long of a course though. You'd think it must be over soon and nope, not even close. The hills were insanely steep. I had to go back and forth, back and forth like 95% of the time. It was freakin scary, having all these show off Italian guys in hot pink and turquoise ski suits zipping right by you all the time. I probably fell over 200 times and smacked the back of my head really bad once near the end. One yard sale and one face first fall too. It was definitely the biggest work out and adrenaline rush of my life though. I loved it, but couldn't do it again because both my heels and my toes were absolutely worn out. Total time to get down for my was an hour. The course is over a 1 1/2 miles straight down an active volcano. Kim was saying that it's not a good hill to first start on, but it will force you to improve quickly. It was so fun and peaceful on that mountain though. A couple of the falls I just laid back and stared into the sky. It was such a beautiful view looking down the mountain and seeing all of the craters in the distance. Enta was smoking nicely all day and we were above the clouds at the top. I have never sweated this bad, especially in cold weather. It was awesome though, I'd love to try one more time before the season is over. If I was good, it would have been cool to take a camera up there and snap some pics on the way down. We got back to base around 5pm and we had some stuff to do around the shop because the swim team was coming to pick up coolers with ice, tables, and chairs for a big swim meet in the morning. We didn't get outta there til 7 and had just walked in my room when Kim called me saying that Mack wanted us two to go to Jox to see the band we brought in. I was so exhausted and sore, but they basically didn't give me a choice. We went. One of the guys from Admin picked me up. The band was called Adam's Attic and they were actaully pretty good. I got to meet the band and all that jazz, but when I got home, my electricity wasn't working and no hot water was coming out of the shower. Kim told me just to stay the night with her and she'd bring me home in the morning cuz she was going snowboarding again in the morning with some friends. I knew I'd be way to sore to try that again. The night was fun, and we called ourselves the "MWR support" for the night. Two nights at JOX in a row and I'll probably never go there again. It was fun, but I'm ready for sleep and massaging my muscles.
Base In-Doc Training
Wed- Fri Jan. 25-27 - This week I had to participate in the Base Indoctrination which all military, dependents, and civilians must take within the first two weeks of arriving to Sigonella. Overall, the military intro was pretty useless for me due to the short amount of time I'll actually be here and the fact that I don't need to know how housing, pay, or drivers tests work. After all that was out of the way, I did really enjoy the intercultural relations part of the class. It was taught by an Italian/Australian guy named Andrea. That part of the class took the majority of the time and it went over things such as shopping tips, etiquette, language skills, gestures, traveling on the bus and trains hints, details of what Italy has to offer, and finished the class with a trip to Catania where we went to a restaurant to use our Italian to order everything thing. I was really surprised how well I did and how much Italian I learned in 1 1/2 days. It was really fun and the class only had 9 people in it. I made some good connections and Andrea was really impressed with my Italian. I spoke it during the entire field trip on Friday. Friday's field trip was so much fun. For breakfast we went to a bar (which is totally the opposite of a bar in the US) and ordered a raviola. Its a warm sugar-coated pastry like a donut filled with ricotta cheese. It was to die for and Andrea was right when he said they become addictive. I toured Catania with some of the guys and we went to the famous market. They have a huge fish, vegetable, meat, and cheese market in the center and also a giant flea market a little further into town. The market was amazing. The vegetables were so colorful, large, and smelled wonderful. There were crazy looking whole animals getting plucked and carved right in front of your face (sorry Amy) and the fish and other seafood were still moving. They have an amazing selection of fresh fish, mussels, sea urchins, oysters, and eels. I took some pictures of a huge swordfish, the little sea urchins, and anything else that looked ugly. I was surprised, but its true, fresh fish does not smell. Well, doesn't smell bad. I almost tried an oyster, but I chickened out. A little ways from the market was a wine factory where I bought 2 liters of wine for only $3.60. I felt like an idiot for buying that Pinot Noir for $22 euros last weekend. Oh well, I definitely know where I'm buying wines from now on. I got the famous Sicilian Nero D'Avolo. It's really tasty. After shopping, we went to the restaurant I Crociferi where we were served 3 courses. The first course had bruschetta, fried cheese, cauliflower, and smashed chic peas made into a little tortilla. The second course was two types of pasta. A white and an amatrachana. Andrea ordered this pasta called ink pasta which is coated in ink from a squid or something like that. He made me taste it, but it was a little too fishy. Last course was chicken with lemon and a small mixed salad. They don't use dressing like we do, they only have oil and vinegar or lemon. A bunch of people ordered the calamari and of course they made me try it. I tried someones grilled calamari, but it tastes like a tire and had no flavor. I did actually like the fried calamari though. The breading was really good and the legs were dangling outta my mouth. I told myself when I got here that I was going to try everything once, even fish. It was really fun and we left downtown after lunch. I went over to ITT when I got back to see how everyone was doing and what was going on tonight, if anything. Kim and Mack were going over to NAS II to the sports bar called Jox for some beers. They told me to come so I would know why I never need to go back there. It's got a reputation for being pretty lame. It was alright. We just hung out with these 5 Air Force guys that were leaving in the morning for Bahrain. They fly a C-5 which is like the big cargo plane from Operation Dumbo Drop. They were hilarious and I caught the 11 oclock shuttle back home.
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Snowboards and the Opera
Tues Jan 24 - Work today was productive and I finally felt involved. We are opening our skatepark today, so we had a lot of preparation and paperwork to do before the meeting with the kids and their parents at 4pm. I watched a few skate videos to try and find kids wearing protective gear and helmets, it was pretty hard, but we found a good one to show in the background during the meeting. I also worked on snowboards all morning and finally started to do all of the complete steps to finish a board. I did pretty good, the waxing is a lot harder to get the groove of than I thought it would be. I also asked Kim, my boss for now, if I could get fitted for a board and boots so I can take a set with me Saturday for our trip. She told me "Hell Yes" and now I'm already to break some bones on Saturday. JUST KIDDIN, actually probably not. There's always injuries after those trips. Rosario cooked my pasta for lunch, it was delicious. The spaghetti noodles were huge though. Anyways, I had to get my Opera Trip ready for the night. I had to find the tickets and get them ready for the customers. We also had to rent a big tour bus and find a driver so I could get them to the theatre on time around 5pm. I had to leave work early around 3 so I could go home and get dressed for the big night. We left a little late b/c we were waiting on 3 people, but they never showed up. Everyone thought I had done this trip before b/c I sounded so confident, but little did they know that was my first time in that area of downtown Catania. I had an older couple on the trip who is a retired General. I was told, that they were my VIP guests to worry about all night. All the people were really cool and I was definitely the youngest person by about 20-25 years. Hey, just like my bus tour with Grandma when I was the youngest by about 50 years. Once we got near the Theatro Massimo Bellini Opera House, we realized that there were 2 protesters who had climbed to the roof of the building and were claiming that there were gonna jump off. It made it a hassle because the police, fire department, and the ambulance were there with a huge ladder and a jump mat. The show began around 5:30 and the inside of the theatre was absolutely breath taking. It had 5 tiered levels of Gallery seats and a giant floor seating area. It was all lined in red velvet and each booth and seating area in the upper levels had small antique light fixtures. There was a giant murial on the ceiling and acoustics surrounding the ceiling. You can actually look up the theater, and it's one of the most famous opera houses in Europe. The outside of the building was pretty too, dark beige walls with statues surrouding the entire building. The inside was much better though. Oh yeah, I've got to tell you, fur coats are EVERYWHERE here, especially during fancy events like this. I'd say almost half of the Italian women had on huge fur coats. It was so disguisting. So for the opera, it was called I cavalieri di Ekebu and of course was completely in Italian. I didn't really catch onto the story, but once it was over all my other people told me that they couldn't follow it either. It was 3 hours of some powerful vocal cords though and about 70 performers. It was alright, but I probably won't be going again. At least I can say Ive been to an Italian Opera. We got back to base around 9pm and I went home and went to bed. I have IN-DOC (Indoctrination) to the base and Sicily for the next 3 days. Oh Yeh!!
Monday, January 23, 2006
Day at Work
Thank you everyone for your comments. Their hilarious, escpecially the ones from Amy. Yeah, it's scary to call this work, but hey it is the first week and they just want me to get introduced to the place, right? About the picture situation... I brought my USB cord for my camera yesterday, but it won't even upload em. This sucks, I have some really cool pics but cannot figure out where I can do this. Oh well, I'll figure something out this week when I find some time after class.
Mon Jan 23 - I went to work this morning around 9:30am and started learning how to work the front desk. It's really strange but the snowboard and paintball rentals are much like the Tux Shop. They use binders, make-shift folder separaters, and paper forms for their returns, rental info, and payment methods. It's definitely not as organized or high-tech as I thought it would be. They have computers, but I don't think these women know how to use them. I was teaching one of them how to add columns into Microsoft Excel. It's weird but this place goes through employees a lot since their husbands have to move bases so often. None of them have backgrounds in Travel/Tourism either. When they answer the phones, they don't even know about the places they are sending their customers too. I was really surprised, but two of them just read the info off of the brochures their given from the main trip coordinator, Salvo. Luckily, by next week I should be working directly under him. I just wanted to learn how to work a cash register since I've never had to do that before. At 1pm, I had to leave and go to NAS II and take a Health and Safety class as one of the required classes you have to take. It was about an hour and a half long. I have my IN-DOC training Wed-Fri from 8am-3pm this week. It'll cover everything I have to know and then I'll be finished with classes and training. Once I got back, the rest of the day was fine, I often went in the back when the returns and learned where to put the equipment and how to fix it if it was damaged over the weekend. The customers are all really nice though. A lot of them actually notice I'm new and ask me where I'm from, how long I've been there, how long I'll be there, and what I'm doing here. The women at the front could care less honestly. Another really shocking thing that I'll get to analyze in my weekly reports for school is the level of customer service these women use. They have attitudes over the phones, they work slow when a customer comes in, they don't wear their MWR Sigonella polo shirts that they're all given, and they sit at the counter eating and playing on the internet. It's all good though, theyre fun to talk to. We have our skate park meeting tomorrow with the parents and kids that want to use it. I have to go through some skate videos tomorrow morning to look for people actually wearing protective gear. The skate park will open Thursday and the staff is really worried about a high number of accidents. I guess we'll find out by next week. I did some more organizing and office work to finish up the long day. Today before I left I was offered to go to the Bellini Opera tomorrow night. Yes, I'll be going by myself, but it's one of the most famous opera houses in Italy. She gave me the English translation so I'll kinda be able to follow whats going on. We have season pass seats, but no customers ever sign up. It's $47 so I can see why it's not too popular. I have to get dressed up and catch the shuttle at 4pm and get back home around 9pm. Im excited, we'll see how today goes and if anyone else ends up coming with me. I doubt it, but I've accepted the fact that I'll probably being a lot of things by myself. I hope I don't fall asleep. I'm gonna go head to the commissary and buy some groceries, I'm sick of having to buy food at the food court everyday and then having no food at night or in the mornings. I need a new phone card and some toothpaste too. I'll probably head home and right my Valentine's cards since I need to get those in the mail. 50 First Dates is on, so Ill watch that then go to bed. Goodnight.
Mon Jan 23 - I went to work this morning around 9:30am and started learning how to work the front desk. It's really strange but the snowboard and paintball rentals are much like the Tux Shop. They use binders, make-shift folder separaters, and paper forms for their returns, rental info, and payment methods. It's definitely not as organized or high-tech as I thought it would be. They have computers, but I don't think these women know how to use them. I was teaching one of them how to add columns into Microsoft Excel. It's weird but this place goes through employees a lot since their husbands have to move bases so often. None of them have backgrounds in Travel/Tourism either. When they answer the phones, they don't even know about the places they are sending their customers too. I was really surprised, but two of them just read the info off of the brochures their given from the main trip coordinator, Salvo. Luckily, by next week I should be working directly under him. I just wanted to learn how to work a cash register since I've never had to do that before. At 1pm, I had to leave and go to NAS II and take a Health and Safety class as one of the required classes you have to take. It was about an hour and a half long. I have my IN-DOC training Wed-Fri from 8am-3pm this week. It'll cover everything I have to know and then I'll be finished with classes and training. Once I got back, the rest of the day was fine, I often went in the back when the returns and learned where to put the equipment and how to fix it if it was damaged over the weekend. The customers are all really nice though. A lot of them actually notice I'm new and ask me where I'm from, how long I've been there, how long I'll be there, and what I'm doing here. The women at the front could care less honestly. Another really shocking thing that I'll get to analyze in my weekly reports for school is the level of customer service these women use. They have attitudes over the phones, they work slow when a customer comes in, they don't wear their MWR Sigonella polo shirts that they're all given, and they sit at the counter eating and playing on the internet. It's all good though, theyre fun to talk to. We have our skate park meeting tomorrow with the parents and kids that want to use it. I have to go through some skate videos tomorrow morning to look for people actually wearing protective gear. The skate park will open Thursday and the staff is really worried about a high number of accidents. I guess we'll find out by next week. I did some more organizing and office work to finish up the long day. Today before I left I was offered to go to the Bellini Opera tomorrow night. Yes, I'll be going by myself, but it's one of the most famous opera houses in Italy. She gave me the English translation so I'll kinda be able to follow whats going on. We have season pass seats, but no customers ever sign up. It's $47 so I can see why it's not too popular. I have to get dressed up and catch the shuttle at 4pm and get back home around 9pm. Im excited, we'll see how today goes and if anyone else ends up coming with me. I doubt it, but I've accepted the fact that I'll probably being a lot of things by myself. I hope I don't fall asleep. I'm gonna go head to the commissary and buy some groceries, I'm sick of having to buy food at the food court everyday and then having no food at night or in the mornings. I need a new phone card and some toothpaste too. I'll probably head home and right my Valentine's cards since I need to get those in the mail. 50 First Dates is on, so Ill watch that then go to bed. Goodnight.
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Now this is what I call Sicily!
*Anything highlighted are things I remember throughout the week and add them.
Sat. Jan 21 - Last night, I went and saw Rent and was not too impressed. I actually wasn't impressed at all. Anyways....Today was quite an adventure. I was the ITT Representative for this trip, so I go for free and just make sure everything goes okay since it's a contracted company that we use for this event. At 9am 15 people and I get picked up by a company called Acquaterra that does outdoor adventure guiding around Sicily. I rode by myself with the tour guide and the interpreter, Stefano and Guisy. They told me we were headed to the Gole dell Alcantara (Alcantara Gorge) near Messina in the Valle Alcantara at the bottom of Mt Etna. Most people thought we were going to be white-water rafting, but since the water was too low we went Hydro-Speeding. Let me tell ya, this is freakin hilarious. It's basically glorified boogie boards that you paddle with your flippers down a river with a bunch of rapids and giant rocks. Here's how dangerous this is to put it in perspective. The guides were in full-sized kayaks and we were on styrofoam boards paddling through the rapids getting bounced off rocks and running into the person(s) in front of us. The water was 8*C, so roughly 46*F and we went 3 1/2 km down the gorge. Yes, the scenery was beautiful but it was hard to enjoy while still freezing in full-body 5mm neoprene suits, lifejackets, and water boots and swallowing nasty water constantly from laughing in pain so much. Needless to say, I'm gonna talk to my boss and tell her that we shouldn't do the trip anymore. The customer payed $51 to do this and it was cold, painful, and manual powered excercise. White-water rafting would have been much more fun. The drive through the Alcantara Valley was so amazing though. The hills and mountains surrounded you and cities were practically built into the hillsides. There were beautiful arched bridges and the farmland was well kept. I got back around 4:30 and went and ate with my new friend, Meagan. We caught the NAS shuttle to downtown Catania at 7pm to grab a beer and she showed me around downtown. As soon as I stepped off the bus, I realized that I was now officially in Italy. The streets were filled with Baroque architecture, faces in the building walls, giant statues in the Centro, the beautifully lit up Cathedral of St. Agata in the Piazza Duomo, and so much more that you see when you look at pictures. We walked the busy streets, checked out the lovely 80's fashion that is well and alive here, the greasy hair, the well manicured mullets, the women in stilettos and barely-there skirts, and all the other funny things while looking for an Irish pub called Waxy O'Connors. We couldn't find it to save our lives, but Meagan told me I had to ask a guy where it was in Italian. I didnt do so well, but we did find it eventually. I had 3, 1/2 pints of Kilkenny Ale which is made by Guiness. I'm saving my first Guiness experience for Dublin (fingers crossed). We didn't stay there long because we were catching the 11 shuttle, but we did grab a pizza on the way back. It was only .80 euros which is less than a dollar. CHEAP! After that, I came home, found out Jeff went camping with some friends from his voicemail, and went to bed.
Sun Jan 22 - I knew today was going to be amazing! Meagan picked me up 9am and we were off to explore Enna and Piazza Armerina. She has only been here a few months, so this was her first time outside of Catania, Etna, and base. We took the Autostata A19 to Enna where I saw the most gorgeous scenery of my life. Glacier National Park is a close second though. To describe it, it looked like the scenes in Lord of the Rings I and what you would imagine the rolling hills of Ireland would look like. It was all bright green, mountainous, and giant soft hills. There were ruins of castles and temples scattered all over the land. It was really cool when they'd be on the top of a hill or mountain and it was part of the silhouette of the land. Someone later that day told us that Sicily has more ruins that all of Italy combined. We climbed up to Enna through large switchbacks and steep hills to find a really old and traditional town on top of a mountain. Here, we walked to the Lombardio Castle and walked all through it. We were 2 of the 4 visitors there. You could go up into the watch towers and into the courtyards. After the Castle, we walked through town up and down cobblestone streets and churches were on every corner. We got a lot of ugly stares and negative comments, but that's pretty normal in old towns like that for Americans. She's got long blonde hair so there's no hiding it. After Enna, we drove to Piazza Armerina which ended up being way better than Enna. It took about an 1 1/2 hours to find our destination, the Villa Romana Castle. We finally did and couldn't even see from the parking lot b/c it was recently excavated in 1981 due to it being about 5m underground. Here are the world famous mosaics that depict Hercules & Zeus, Medusa, the Roman Empire, the Bikini Girls, little cupids, and so much more that described the conquering of this country. The excavation is almost complete and most of it is well maintained. It is amazing to know that this entire castle was dug up. Thermal baths, spas, public toilettes, columns (lots of columns!), rooms where the Emperor slept, and a bunch of other cool things to learn about. Two Americans, Cheryl and her husband Richard, asked us if we would like to join their tour from a crazy, fast speaking tour guide that wasn't to fresh on his English. Richard told us he'd pay for it if we just wanted to tag along. We were both really glad we did because they were great people from Idaho, ex military, and with the history of this place described to us, the stories in the mosaics came alive and the structure meant so much more than to the naked eye. We were there for about 3 hours. After that, we drove into the actual town and saw the Palazzo Trigona which is a temple with a huge green dome, several churches, the famous cobblestone streets, and the statues all over the town. We stopped and ate some Gelato before we headed back home. I also stopped at a little shop and bought a bottle of Pinot Noir. He wrapped it so beautifully that I'll probably just bring it home and drink it later. It was dark by the time we left but the drive home was still marvelous. Sicilians don't waste their land. All of the towns are stacked high and take up the littlest amount of space. We would be driving and just see little towns all lit up randomly throughout the countryside. We got back and I went back to her apartment and watched Wedding Crashers before she brought me home. She lives in Motta, which is only a 5 minute drive from Sigonella. I went home, talked to Jeff and went to bed.
Sat. Jan 21 - Last night, I went and saw Rent and was not too impressed. I actually wasn't impressed at all. Anyways....Today was quite an adventure. I was the ITT Representative for this trip, so I go for free and just make sure everything goes okay since it's a contracted company that we use for this event. At 9am 15 people and I get picked up by a company called Acquaterra that does outdoor adventure guiding around Sicily. I rode by myself with the tour guide and the interpreter, Stefano and Guisy. They told me we were headed to the Gole dell Alcantara (Alcantara Gorge) near Messina in the Valle Alcantara at the bottom of Mt Etna. Most people thought we were going to be white-water rafting, but since the water was too low we went Hydro-Speeding. Let me tell ya, this is freakin hilarious. It's basically glorified boogie boards that you paddle with your flippers down a river with a bunch of rapids and giant rocks. Here's how dangerous this is to put it in perspective. The guides were in full-sized kayaks and we were on styrofoam boards paddling through the rapids getting bounced off rocks and running into the person(s) in front of us. The water was 8*C, so roughly 46*F and we went 3 1/2 km down the gorge. Yes, the scenery was beautiful but it was hard to enjoy while still freezing in full-body 5mm neoprene suits, lifejackets, and water boots and swallowing nasty water constantly from laughing in pain so much. Needless to say, I'm gonna talk to my boss and tell her that we shouldn't do the trip anymore. The customer payed $51 to do this and it was cold, painful, and manual powered excercise. White-water rafting would have been much more fun. The drive through the Alcantara Valley was so amazing though. The hills and mountains surrounded you and cities were practically built into the hillsides. There were beautiful arched bridges and the farmland was well kept. I got back around 4:30 and went and ate with my new friend, Meagan. We caught the NAS shuttle to downtown Catania at 7pm to grab a beer and she showed me around downtown. As soon as I stepped off the bus, I realized that I was now officially in Italy. The streets were filled with Baroque architecture, faces in the building walls, giant statues in the Centro, the beautifully lit up Cathedral of St. Agata in the Piazza Duomo, and so much more that you see when you look at pictures. We walked the busy streets, checked out the lovely 80's fashion that is well and alive here, the greasy hair, the well manicured mullets, the women in stilettos and barely-there skirts, and all the other funny things while looking for an Irish pub called Waxy O'Connors. We couldn't find it to save our lives, but Meagan told me I had to ask a guy where it was in Italian. I didnt do so well, but we did find it eventually. I had 3, 1/2 pints of Kilkenny Ale which is made by Guiness. I'm saving my first Guiness experience for Dublin (fingers crossed). We didn't stay there long because we were catching the 11 shuttle, but we did grab a pizza on the way back. It was only .80 euros which is less than a dollar. CHEAP! After that, I came home, found out Jeff went camping with some friends from his voicemail, and went to bed.
Sun Jan 22 - I knew today was going to be amazing! Meagan picked me up 9am and we were off to explore Enna and Piazza Armerina. She has only been here a few months, so this was her first time outside of Catania, Etna, and base. We took the Autostata A19 to Enna where I saw the most gorgeous scenery of my life. Glacier National Park is a close second though. To describe it, it looked like the scenes in Lord of the Rings I and what you would imagine the rolling hills of Ireland would look like. It was all bright green, mountainous, and giant soft hills. There were ruins of castles and temples scattered all over the land. It was really cool when they'd be on the top of a hill or mountain and it was part of the silhouette of the land. Someone later that day told us that Sicily has more ruins that all of Italy combined. We climbed up to Enna through large switchbacks and steep hills to find a really old and traditional town on top of a mountain. Here, we walked to the Lombardio Castle and walked all through it. We were 2 of the 4 visitors there. You could go up into the watch towers and into the courtyards. After the Castle, we walked through town up and down cobblestone streets and churches were on every corner. We got a lot of ugly stares and negative comments, but that's pretty normal in old towns like that for Americans. She's got long blonde hair so there's no hiding it. After Enna, we drove to Piazza Armerina which ended up being way better than Enna. It took about an 1 1/2 hours to find our destination, the Villa Romana Castle. We finally did and couldn't even see from the parking lot b/c it was recently excavated in 1981 due to it being about 5m underground. Here are the world famous mosaics that depict Hercules & Zeus, Medusa, the Roman Empire, the Bikini Girls, little cupids, and so much more that described the conquering of this country. The excavation is almost complete and most of it is well maintained. It is amazing to know that this entire castle was dug up. Thermal baths, spas, public toilettes, columns (lots of columns!), rooms where the Emperor slept, and a bunch of other cool things to learn about. Two Americans, Cheryl and her husband Richard, asked us if we would like to join their tour from a crazy, fast speaking tour guide that wasn't to fresh on his English. Richard told us he'd pay for it if we just wanted to tag along. We were both really glad we did because they were great people from Idaho, ex military, and with the history of this place described to us, the stories in the mosaics came alive and the structure meant so much more than to the naked eye. We were there for about 3 hours. After that, we drove into the actual town and saw the Palazzo Trigona which is a temple with a huge green dome, several churches, the famous cobblestone streets, and the statues all over the town. We stopped and ate some Gelato before we headed back home. I also stopped at a little shop and bought a bottle of Pinot Noir. He wrapped it so beautifully that I'll probably just bring it home and drink it later. It was dark by the time we left but the drive home was still marvelous. Sicilians don't waste their land. All of the towns are stacked high and take up the littlest amount of space. We would be driving and just see little towns all lit up randomly throughout the countryside. We got back and I went back to her apartment and watched Wedding Crashers before she brought me home. She lives in Motta, which is only a 5 minute drive from Sigonella. I went home, talked to Jeff and went to bed.
Friday, January 20, 2006
Finally getting settled in
Thurs Jan 19 - So I finally had my first real "work" and introduction to ITT Gear-n-Go day today. I chased down the people I was gonna work with for the day for like 3 hours and finally around noon things acutally started to get put in place. My stand-in boss, Kim, didnt come into work today. I worked with Rosario and Meaghan for the day learning how to wax, fix, replace binds, boots, and all that stuff that is associated with snowboard rentals and maintanence. After I learned how to wax my first board, Rosario slightly introduced me to the paintball gun rentals. He showed me how to fill the CO2 tanks and how to sort and clean paintballs. Never get a bag of paintballs with a busted one in it. You have to dump the entire bag (500 bags) and clean off every ball. Yes, I did that slave work for like an hour and only got through one bag. I did a lot of watching and standing around b/c they were both really busy with trying to get everything ready for the hectic weekend snowboarding trip that I'm going on. I hung out a lot with Meaghan so that was cool and we started to get to know each other. Around 4:30pm, Mack, the Fleet Rec guy who helped bring us onto the USS Porter came into the shop and asked if I would like to hang out with him down at Augusta Bay b/c the USNS Laramie was leaving in the morning and he wanted to give them a big going away party. Its about an hour away so we just grabbed some sleeping bags to be able to spend the night at the little trailor that the base owns for entertaining crew that dont want to leave the Bay and go into town. Little did I know, but that was a BIG going away party. I went back to my room, packed some pajamas and a toothbrush and we were on our way to host a big party. We did a BBQ and liquor run and were on our way. I also got to experience the #8 Deadliest Road in the World, Autostrata SS114. This highway is nothing like you could ever imagine and Mack and I were in a big van going like 70-80 kmh the whole time with people driving all over the road and passing each other. I thought I was gonna have like 6 heart attacks during the hour drive. It was hilarious now when I look back at it. He told me in this country you just have to drive offensively and leave all rules behind you and drive like them. The party was awesome, the ship is a supply ship so it was 95% civilians and only had like 40 people on it. I hung out, got on the internet, met some cool people, and went to bed pretty late eventhough we had to be back at base around 8:30am. The night was fun though in general.
Fri Jan 20 - We got back to NAS I a little late, but I went home and took a shower before I went to work. I figured nothing was gonna be going on early anyways. I had to go to the Admin building and fill out some more paper work and talk to another boss guy about my room getting switched to something with a full kitchen in it. After that, we went and ate lunch and I was finally on my way to ITT Gear-N-Go where Ill be working for a few months. They had already finished with the snowboards and people were starting to pick them up for the weekend. I started cleaning paintballs and unpacking the new boots we got in this week. I sat with Meaghan all day and she's really cool. Shes alone for a few months while her husband is away and we were talking about hor bored and lonely we are. To keep a long story short, we decided we're going to hang out tomorrow night in downtown Catania and then take a big trip around Sicily on Sunday. Tentivaly, we're gonna go to Enna and Piazza Armerina to visit some castles, Roman temples, some shops and markets, and anything else we find to do along the way. It should be really cool. Oh yeah, this afternoon when I got there they asked me if I would go on a different trip tomorrow instead of the ski trip because they have no one to go on this other trip. I said hell yeah cuz I figure I can go to Etna a bunch of times, but this trip isnt offered again. It's rafting and hydro speeding in the Alcantara Gorge with a Sicilian lunch. I get to go on the trip totally free and do nothing but participate and just be the ITT representative. Its guided and driven by a contracted company. It's a $64 trip that lasts about 7 hours. It should be cool, I'm really excited. The water is so cold and crazy that they provide a 5mm neoprene suit, helmet, neoprene shoes, and a life jacket. Everyone says its gonna be super cold and thats why I got nominated to take the trip. Hey, I'm game. I got to hang out at the front counter today and kinda see how to interact with the customers, make reservations, and some other stuff. Kim asked me about Dublin so I'm starting to get a little more confident about the chances of going. Gosh that'd be freakin awesome. I just got off work at 6:00pm and i'm in the library right now and its about to close for the night. Their showing Rent at 8:00 in the movie theaters, so once I get home and talk to Jeff, Im gonna go see it. Movies here are only $3. I'm gonna see Cheaper By The Dozen 2 and some other movies next week. Not much else going on tonight, just chillin and catchin up on sleep from last night. Hope all is well with everything and Ill tell ya about my water adventure trip tomorrow.
Fri Jan 20 - We got back to NAS I a little late, but I went home and took a shower before I went to work. I figured nothing was gonna be going on early anyways. I had to go to the Admin building and fill out some more paper work and talk to another boss guy about my room getting switched to something with a full kitchen in it. After that, we went and ate lunch and I was finally on my way to ITT Gear-N-Go where Ill be working for a few months. They had already finished with the snowboards and people were starting to pick them up for the weekend. I started cleaning paintballs and unpacking the new boots we got in this week. I sat with Meaghan all day and she's really cool. Shes alone for a few months while her husband is away and we were talking about hor bored and lonely we are. To keep a long story short, we decided we're going to hang out tomorrow night in downtown Catania and then take a big trip around Sicily on Sunday. Tentivaly, we're gonna go to Enna and Piazza Armerina to visit some castles, Roman temples, some shops and markets, and anything else we find to do along the way. It should be really cool. Oh yeah, this afternoon when I got there they asked me if I would go on a different trip tomorrow instead of the ski trip because they have no one to go on this other trip. I said hell yeah cuz I figure I can go to Etna a bunch of times, but this trip isnt offered again. It's rafting and hydro speeding in the Alcantara Gorge with a Sicilian lunch. I get to go on the trip totally free and do nothing but participate and just be the ITT representative. Its guided and driven by a contracted company. It's a $64 trip that lasts about 7 hours. It should be cool, I'm really excited. The water is so cold and crazy that they provide a 5mm neoprene suit, helmet, neoprene shoes, and a life jacket. Everyone says its gonna be super cold and thats why I got nominated to take the trip. Hey, I'm game. I got to hang out at the front counter today and kinda see how to interact with the customers, make reservations, and some other stuff. Kim asked me about Dublin so I'm starting to get a little more confident about the chances of going. Gosh that'd be freakin awesome. I just got off work at 6:00pm and i'm in the library right now and its about to close for the night. Their showing Rent at 8:00 in the movie theaters, so once I get home and talk to Jeff, Im gonna go see it. Movies here are only $3. I'm gonna see Cheaper By The Dozen 2 and some other movies next week. Not much else going on tonight, just chillin and catchin up on sleep from last night. Hope all is well with everything and Ill tell ya about my water adventure trip tomorrow.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Address
NAS SIGONELLA
PSC 812 BOX 3390
FPO AP 09627-3390
- Here's my address on base, it sends it to our Admin Building. Use normal USPS postage, but will take longer, they say anywhere from 1 - 4 weeks to receive. If you want to send something priority or a package, you just pay for the distance to New York. I don't have a phone number yet, but I'm hoping to have that by early next week. BYE
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
My Beautiful Wednesday
* Before I get started, I'm starting to get concerned about the internet situation here at base. The labs (theres only 2 and they each have 6 really slow computers) are only open until 7pm each night when means I dont have much time to do all this and write my weekly reports. Their still trying to figure something out for me, but its beginning to worry me. Also, I dont know about the picture situation either. I can not take pics on base, thats against the rules, but about the pics I have taken and will be taking, theres nowhere to get them off my camera. None of these computers have CD burners to be able to burn the pics too, theres no Walmart to send them to, and I havent figured out how to get pictures onto my BLOG. I'll probably figure the BLOG thing out Sunday when I actually find some time to be able to sit and ask some questions. I have some really cool pics though that I want you all to see.
Wed Jan 18 - I wake up and get to work at 7:30 and meet Rosario (a guy) to leave for the snowboarding trip on MT Etna. The lady who I'll be working under for Outdoor Rec felt sick last night so she called him. He told me that 5 people signed up to go and we put their equipment in the back of the van and headed to parking lot to wait on them for pick-up. They all arrived and he told me it takes about 45-60 minutes to get to the top of the south side of mountain (volcano). The south side is called Nicollosi. Etna looks like its 10 minutes away though from my front porch. Its gorgeous and today was clear and the first day ive actually been able to see all the way to the top on base. The drive was breathtaking and the first city we passed through is Motta. Its in the guidebooks recognized by its castle on the edge of a mountain with Mt. Etna right behind it. The sun glares onto the castle all day from the way its positioned and on the top of a hill. Thats the view I see out of my bedroom and is the exact picture I showed most of you in my guidebook saying that I hoped that was my backyard. The towns are small with narrow roads, crazy drivers, cars everywhere, steep hills, cars with missing side mirrors, no stop signs, but cute. Yes, Sicilian driving is nothing like you'd ever imagine. These people do not know the concept of merging, blinkers, speed limits, lanes on roads, dotted or solid lines, shoulders, or courtesy. Luckily Rosario is a native and has lived here all his life and knows how to participate in the chaotic driving methods. Motta was gorgeous and we went through a few more towns before we started to head up the mountain on a system of about 20 switchbacks. Half way up, the van started to slide to he had to get out and put snow chains on the front 2 tires. We got up there, the snowboarders got out and headed to the ski lift and lodge. Since Kim, my outdoor rec boss didnt come today, I just had to sit and hang out at the van all day with Rosario. She said I can try snowboarding with the group on Saturday that I'm going to assist with. I can deal with this kind of "work." Hanging around for 8 hours sucked, but I did get cappucinos, a really good sandwich, and met new people from the base. Rosario drove me around some of the mountain so I could take pictures and we walked around one of the craters. It was so windy though that we almost blew right off the edge of Crateri Silvestri. The day went by though eventhough all I wanted to do was take a nap. The ski hill closed early due to the dangerous winds and we headed back home. It was a really cool experience, but I cant wait to go on the hill Saturday. I dont even have to pay to borrow the gear or anything. The ski lift is 12 euros for an all day pass. I cant wait, i might get hurt but Ill have a few days to heal before James gets back. I cant wait. I got back, had to run some arrunds real quick to catch up on some paperwork they had me fill out and now Im in the computer lab until it closes responding to emails and updating this blog.
* I do have some cool news for you guys though: Yesterday, before my boss left, he asked me which big trip I wanted to go on and told me to have an answer by the time he got back. Guess what the two choices are? #1. Feb. 17-20: Carnevale in Venice and Verona OR #2. Mar 15-19: St. Patrick's Day in Dublin! HMMM, tough decision, DUBLIN!!! Finally, loving and wearing green everyday will officially pay off. I hope i really get to go cuz its a $1,500 trip that Ill go on for free. WOOHOO!
* He also told me that they've planned a trip to Malta and a trip to Rome that I'll be definitely be going on within the next 3 months.
* Right now though, my main mission is to think of what I want to do as my special project which is the biggest part of my grade and I have to have some ideas by the time he gets back so I can start working on it. If you have any ideas, please email them to me. He was thinking of trying to put together an Eco-Challenge that includes kayaking, biking, running, hiking, and swimming.
Love You ALL! I'm gonna finally go to my room, watch American Idol (thats on one of the three up-to-date US channels), clean up, and go eat.
Wed Jan 18 - I wake up and get to work at 7:30 and meet Rosario (a guy) to leave for the snowboarding trip on MT Etna. The lady who I'll be working under for Outdoor Rec felt sick last night so she called him. He told me that 5 people signed up to go and we put their equipment in the back of the van and headed to parking lot to wait on them for pick-up. They all arrived and he told me it takes about 45-60 minutes to get to the top of the south side of mountain (volcano). The south side is called Nicollosi. Etna looks like its 10 minutes away though from my front porch. Its gorgeous and today was clear and the first day ive actually been able to see all the way to the top on base. The drive was breathtaking and the first city we passed through is Motta. Its in the guidebooks recognized by its castle on the edge of a mountain with Mt. Etna right behind it. The sun glares onto the castle all day from the way its positioned and on the top of a hill. Thats the view I see out of my bedroom and is the exact picture I showed most of you in my guidebook saying that I hoped that was my backyard. The towns are small with narrow roads, crazy drivers, cars everywhere, steep hills, cars with missing side mirrors, no stop signs, but cute. Yes, Sicilian driving is nothing like you'd ever imagine. These people do not know the concept of merging, blinkers, speed limits, lanes on roads, dotted or solid lines, shoulders, or courtesy. Luckily Rosario is a native and has lived here all his life and knows how to participate in the chaotic driving methods. Motta was gorgeous and we went through a few more towns before we started to head up the mountain on a system of about 20 switchbacks. Half way up, the van started to slide to he had to get out and put snow chains on the front 2 tires. We got up there, the snowboarders got out and headed to the ski lift and lodge. Since Kim, my outdoor rec boss didnt come today, I just had to sit and hang out at the van all day with Rosario. She said I can try snowboarding with the group on Saturday that I'm going to assist with. I can deal with this kind of "work." Hanging around for 8 hours sucked, but I did get cappucinos, a really good sandwich, and met new people from the base. Rosario drove me around some of the mountain so I could take pictures and we walked around one of the craters. It was so windy though that we almost blew right off the edge of Crateri Silvestri. The day went by though eventhough all I wanted to do was take a nap. The ski hill closed early due to the dangerous winds and we headed back home. It was a really cool experience, but I cant wait to go on the hill Saturday. I dont even have to pay to borrow the gear or anything. The ski lift is 12 euros for an all day pass. I cant wait, i might get hurt but Ill have a few days to heal before James gets back. I cant wait. I got back, had to run some arrunds real quick to catch up on some paperwork they had me fill out and now Im in the computer lab until it closes responding to emails and updating this blog.
* I do have some cool news for you guys though: Yesterday, before my boss left, he asked me which big trip I wanted to go on and told me to have an answer by the time he got back. Guess what the two choices are? #1. Feb. 17-20: Carnevale in Venice and Verona OR #2. Mar 15-19: St. Patrick's Day in Dublin! HMMM, tough decision, DUBLIN!!! Finally, loving and wearing green everyday will officially pay off. I hope i really get to go cuz its a $1,500 trip that Ill go on for free. WOOHOO!
* He also told me that they've planned a trip to Malta and a trip to Rome that I'll be definitely be going on within the next 3 months.
* Right now though, my main mission is to think of what I want to do as my special project which is the biggest part of my grade and I have to have some ideas by the time he gets back so I can start working on it. If you have any ideas, please email them to me. He was thinking of trying to put together an Eco-Challenge that includes kayaking, biking, running, hiking, and swimming.
Love You ALL! I'm gonna finally go to my room, watch American Idol (thats on one of the three up-to-date US channels), clean up, and go eat.
I'm here, safe, and excited!!!
Hi Everyone. Its day 3 and I finally got access to a computer and of course this place closes in about 45 minutes. I've got a lot to write, fast, so here it goes. First let me say, jumping 7 hours ahead is really hard on your body, they forced me to stay up for about 36 hours before I got to go to bed, they said it would help the transition. I'm actually covering it up really well, but it's really weird to know that while you all are just going to bed for the night, Im waking up and working for the rest of the day. Ive worked my entire shift before most of you are even awake. Okay, it'll probably take another few days to get use to, but now its time for whats been going on.
Sun Jan 15 - I got the airport on time and did all that jazz with mom, Gene, Crystal, and Jeff. I left for my gate and cried my eyeballs out cuz 3 months is a long time to be without my boyfriend, best friend, other friends, and family. The 30 minutes I sat that felt like the longest time of my life. I got on the plane and of course there were some mechanical problems and we ended up leaving 40 minutes late. Let me tell you first of all, my layover in NY was only an hour. I finally arrive in NY (gorgeous from the plane) and while we were landing I saw the sunset over the Atlantic. There was snow on the runway and we had to exit the plane and ride a shuttle to the terminal. I got in and realized I had to run almost a 1/2 mile to the exact opposite end of the airport with like 10 minutes to board. I still had 3 more gates to go when I heard my final boarding call. I made it, sweaty and bright red with a bunch of Europeans staring at me like I was crazy. I thought for sure my luggage wasnt going to make it. Of course once again, mechanical problems and it didnt end up leaving for 1 hour and 15 minutes. They fed me a delicious dinner and hot breakfast.
Mon Jan 16 - I landed in Rome and ran again, even faster and 2X longer to get to my gate which was the second to last gate in the airport. It was really weird to run almost a mile at 3:00am. Customs were crazy and the line didnt move too fast, I for sure thought I was going to miss my plane but when I finally got there, it was delayed for 30 minutes. I finally loaded the plane and was on my way to Catania, Sicily. It was a 54 minute flight. SOOOO.. by the time I arrived in Sicily 15 hours had passed eventhough I spent about 10 minutes in 2 airports all together and was only in the air for about 11 hours. I arrived and waited for my luggage which never showed up. They wouldnt let me outside to go find and meet my boss, so I filed my claim and they told me the luggage would arrive in about 2 hours which turned into 5. That was fine and I finally got to meet James and we drove to base. I got to the base (NAS I) and met a trillion people, saw all of the facilities, met his boss, did my paperwork, and toured the commissary and exchange. We went and got my luggage around 5, ate some Subway, and got settled into my room (which is not going to be my room in a few days b/c this one didnt have a stove or sink in it yet). I still havent unpacked anything. He left me for the night and when I finally fell asleep I had nightmares and woke up wide awake at 5:30am on Tuesday.
Tues Jan 17 - I woke up around 7 and had to meet James in his office to leave for the other base, NAS II, which is about 20 minutes away to get my military ID. I got the ID and he was about to bring me back to base so he could go meet up with a friend who was arriving on a ship that he met in Souda Bay, Greece from his first Navy MWR job, when a miracle happened. Oh yeah let me say my boss was leaving tomorrow Wed to go back to the states for a week so he had to see this guy today or it wasnt gonna happen. He was running late and two of the other directors were also on their way to this ship at Augusta Bay to do a de-briefing for the sailors so I went ahead and went with them. He told me in the car that I was the first intern he's had to be able to "see" a ship, and on top of that on my second day at Sigonella. There was a lot more in store though that neither of us expected. This is where the cool part begins.... So we arrive, give the Italian guards our ids, get visitor tags, and begin to drive towards the pier. Another ship had arrived a few days ago called the USNS Laramie, so there were now two in dock. The other directors tell us to go ahead and follow them in our car up onto the pier. WHAT!!! This is crazy! We drive up the dock and onto the pier where these two huge ships are docked and park the cars. They then tell us to go ahead and walk onto the ship with them for the de-briefing b/c he knew that James wanted to try and meet up with his friend. I walk on, get saluted, and am surrounded by 340 shipmates working to anchor the ship. They literally just arrived like 15 minutes before we go there. It was a Destroyer named the USS Porter, a DDG 78 ship. We find his buddy right away, whos a c-2 security officer, and he tells us to follow him and he'll show us 2 around. We werent gonna say NO, James hasnt ever been on a ship either. He starts to bring us through the little manholes and double lock waterproof doors like you see in the movies, into the control room where they can spy on ships within a 512 mile radius, the little stations where people fire off missiles, guns, and tomahawks, brings up into the mess hall, into a bunk area and through the rest of the ship while everyone is just walking right by us not saying a word or noticing that we probably werent suppose to be there. We literally walked the entire ship, every level, and then we get outside back onto the deck when he starts walking us up on the upper decks where all the weapons are kept. I was an inch away from some of the most deadly weapons in the world that could start a war. I stood next to 61 Tomahawks and giant 10 foot long missiles and a gun that shoots 5, 400 rounds a minute. There was also a gun that was 5 inches long and can shoot 13 miles. He then walks us into the captains room where the ship is actually steered and look-out happens. The ship had people with guns all the way around it and everyone was just saying "hi", "whats up?," "good morning" to us. 3 hours later and after seeing everything you could possibly see and talking to some commanders and chiefs, we left. We went and ate calizones and headed back to NAS I for an administative meeting that James wanted me to attend. I then attended a town hall meeting that they have 2X a week for the families that live on or off base. Later that night, the 2 ships were coming onto the base to hang out with 1/2 went downtown, and we went and had some beers with his friend before he had to leave town the next morning for St. Louis to visit his parents. It was really fun and they walked me home and told me to just hang out with people, go along on the 2 ski trips this week, and take some classes for getting use to the base until he gets back on the 25th when I really start working. I have to wake up and be at the ITT Gear-N-Go office so I can leave for MT Etna at 8am for the snowboarding trip.
Sun Jan 15 - I got the airport on time and did all that jazz with mom, Gene, Crystal, and Jeff. I left for my gate and cried my eyeballs out cuz 3 months is a long time to be without my boyfriend, best friend, other friends, and family. The 30 minutes I sat that felt like the longest time of my life. I got on the plane and of course there were some mechanical problems and we ended up leaving 40 minutes late. Let me tell you first of all, my layover in NY was only an hour. I finally arrive in NY (gorgeous from the plane) and while we were landing I saw the sunset over the Atlantic. There was snow on the runway and we had to exit the plane and ride a shuttle to the terminal. I got in and realized I had to run almost a 1/2 mile to the exact opposite end of the airport with like 10 minutes to board. I still had 3 more gates to go when I heard my final boarding call. I made it, sweaty and bright red with a bunch of Europeans staring at me like I was crazy. I thought for sure my luggage wasnt going to make it. Of course once again, mechanical problems and it didnt end up leaving for 1 hour and 15 minutes. They fed me a delicious dinner and hot breakfast.
Mon Jan 16 - I landed in Rome and ran again, even faster and 2X longer to get to my gate which was the second to last gate in the airport. It was really weird to run almost a mile at 3:00am. Customs were crazy and the line didnt move too fast, I for sure thought I was going to miss my plane but when I finally got there, it was delayed for 30 minutes. I finally loaded the plane and was on my way to Catania, Sicily. It was a 54 minute flight. SOOOO.. by the time I arrived in Sicily 15 hours had passed eventhough I spent about 10 minutes in 2 airports all together and was only in the air for about 11 hours. I arrived and waited for my luggage which never showed up. They wouldnt let me outside to go find and meet my boss, so I filed my claim and they told me the luggage would arrive in about 2 hours which turned into 5. That was fine and I finally got to meet James and we drove to base. I got to the base (NAS I) and met a trillion people, saw all of the facilities, met his boss, did my paperwork, and toured the commissary and exchange. We went and got my luggage around 5, ate some Subway, and got settled into my room (which is not going to be my room in a few days b/c this one didnt have a stove or sink in it yet). I still havent unpacked anything. He left me for the night and when I finally fell asleep I had nightmares and woke up wide awake at 5:30am on Tuesday.
Tues Jan 17 - I woke up around 7 and had to meet James in his office to leave for the other base, NAS II, which is about 20 minutes away to get my military ID. I got the ID and he was about to bring me back to base so he could go meet up with a friend who was arriving on a ship that he met in Souda Bay, Greece from his first Navy MWR job, when a miracle happened. Oh yeah let me say my boss was leaving tomorrow Wed to go back to the states for a week so he had to see this guy today or it wasnt gonna happen. He was running late and two of the other directors were also on their way to this ship at Augusta Bay to do a de-briefing for the sailors so I went ahead and went with them. He told me in the car that I was the first intern he's had to be able to "see" a ship, and on top of that on my second day at Sigonella. There was a lot more in store though that neither of us expected. This is where the cool part begins.... So we arrive, give the Italian guards our ids, get visitor tags, and begin to drive towards the pier. Another ship had arrived a few days ago called the USNS Laramie, so there were now two in dock. The other directors tell us to go ahead and follow them in our car up onto the pier. WHAT!!! This is crazy! We drive up the dock and onto the pier where these two huge ships are docked and park the cars. They then tell us to go ahead and walk onto the ship with them for the de-briefing b/c he knew that James wanted to try and meet up with his friend. I walk on, get saluted, and am surrounded by 340 shipmates working to anchor the ship. They literally just arrived like 15 minutes before we go there. It was a Destroyer named the USS Porter, a DDG 78 ship. We find his buddy right away, whos a c-2 security officer, and he tells us to follow him and he'll show us 2 around. We werent gonna say NO, James hasnt ever been on a ship either. He starts to bring us through the little manholes and double lock waterproof doors like you see in the movies, into the control room where they can spy on ships within a 512 mile radius, the little stations where people fire off missiles, guns, and tomahawks, brings up into the mess hall, into a bunk area and through the rest of the ship while everyone is just walking right by us not saying a word or noticing that we probably werent suppose to be there. We literally walked the entire ship, every level, and then we get outside back onto the deck when he starts walking us up on the upper decks where all the weapons are kept. I was an inch away from some of the most deadly weapons in the world that could start a war. I stood next to 61 Tomahawks and giant 10 foot long missiles and a gun that shoots 5, 400 rounds a minute. There was also a gun that was 5 inches long and can shoot 13 miles. He then walks us into the captains room where the ship is actually steered and look-out happens. The ship had people with guns all the way around it and everyone was just saying "hi", "whats up?," "good morning" to us. 3 hours later and after seeing everything you could possibly see and talking to some commanders and chiefs, we left. We went and ate calizones and headed back to NAS I for an administative meeting that James wanted me to attend. I then attended a town hall meeting that they have 2X a week for the families that live on or off base. Later that night, the 2 ships were coming onto the base to hang out with 1/2 went downtown, and we went and had some beers with his friend before he had to leave town the next morning for St. Louis to visit his parents. It was really fun and they walked me home and told me to just hang out with people, go along on the 2 ski trips this week, and take some classes for getting use to the base until he gets back on the 25th when I really start working. I have to wake up and be at the ITT Gear-N-Go office so I can leave for MT Etna at 8am for the snowboarding trip.
Sunday, January 08, 2006
One week until I leave
Hello everyone and welcome to my "Internship in Sicily" BLOG!
This should be fun for you guys and me. This is my first blog, so it may take some time to figure how many pictures I can upload onto it and if I'm going to have to delete pics after they've been on there for awhile. I hope to keep you all updated and involved in my daily/weekly adventures. I depart for Sicily on Sunday Jan. 15 and it will take about 15 hours to get to my base in Sicily. I will update you with my military email address (otherwise AOL or Mizzou email will work even better to contact me), my phone number, and my mailing address. I hope my flight goes well and I will write back once I get settled into the base. Just in case you're not exactly sure of what my internship is, it's Outdoor Recreation and Special Event Planning as a civilian for the Navy Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) at NAS Sigonella. I hope to hear from you all if anything goes on that I'm missing back home or at school. Love You!
This should be fun for you guys and me. This is my first blog, so it may take some time to figure how many pictures I can upload onto it and if I'm going to have to delete pics after they've been on there for awhile. I hope to keep you all updated and involved in my daily/weekly adventures. I depart for Sicily on Sunday Jan. 15 and it will take about 15 hours to get to my base in Sicily. I will update you with my military email address (otherwise AOL or Mizzou email will work even better to contact me), my phone number, and my mailing address. I hope my flight goes well and I will write back once I get settled into the base. Just in case you're not exactly sure of what my internship is, it's Outdoor Recreation and Special Event Planning as a civilian for the Navy Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) at NAS Sigonella. I hope to hear from you all if anything goes on that I'm missing back home or at school. Love You!
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