Time is going by too fast!

I can't believe I've already almost been here a month! Time flies when you're having fun I guess.

Tues Feb. 7 - I went into work a little early so I could meet Leslie again and see how everything is going around the office after being off yesterday. All of the boards were back from the weekend but Meagan hadn't gotten any ready for our Wed trip or weekend rentals yet. I started on those and got all of the ones I could get ready finished. We got seven new boards in yesterday and they are already all rented for the weekend. Those boards are going like crazy and Kim and I are like the new popular "snowboarding chicks" on this mountain and among the guys around base. It's so funny, we'll go eat together and people will stop and say hi to us. They said this is the most successful that snowboard rentals have ever been, they almost sold them all last year because they were afraid they were making a bad investment in them. While I was working on them Kim asked me if I had my board ready for tomorrow. I had no idea they wanted me to go again tomorrow. I double checked with Leslie and James about it and they told me to go ahead and that they are requiring that 2 people go each time for safety reasons. Alright, I'll go again...I guess. I loaded up the van after getting all the Wednesday trip ones ready and we've got 8 going with us. I worked at the front desk for the rest of the day and booked some tours and overheard some bad news. Ever since the flood here last month, money has been tight. At the end of the week, we are probably going to have to cancel our Calabria Ski Trip and Dublin due to lack of participants. We are supposed to have at least 25 for each, but we've only got a handfull signed up for each so far. You never know though, they said people come sign up last minute all the time. Maybe I can find a 4-day weekend to go up there by myself, it just won't be during St. Patty's Day weekend probably. I've realized that flying in Europe once your over here is really cheap. I've been lookin up tickets and nothing is over $300 bucks round trip. I'll have to start askin around if anyone wants to travel somewhere with me. These two months are gonna go by so fast though, its starting to scare me. I don't wanna leave, I'm having too much fun and meeting some awesome people. I told Kim that I'd take her full-time job as the Recreation Aid of the department. Sicily for a few years wouldn't be too bad... Anyways, I'm dreaming. Leslie and her husband are going to have a big welcome back BBQ on Saturday so thats what I'll be doing when I get home from snowboarding. Kim will give me a ride over there and back, I don't know if we're going boarding on Sunday again, but I've heard these parties are crazy and will last til early in the morning. That should be fun. I also got an email from the C5 Air Force guys saying that they're coming back to Sigonella and want to go snowboarding and go downtown. I'll probably hang out with them next week if they are here for a few days. They were hilarious last time they were here. Work has been nice because I actually offer suggestions of how to change forms or programs and they agree with me and let me change some. I've already created a few new forms for rentals and changed some of the existing forms to make them easier to understand and eliminate a lot of useless wordage. I'm been averaging working over 50 hours a week since I've been here. I dont want to leave ITT now since I'm really starting to get into it and they are showing me everything. Leslie is going to be a really good addition to this intern, she's really into helping me, even just after today. She suggested that I go to "Coaching Star Service" (a customer service class for managers) instead of re-taking a 2-day customer service training class that I took in Millington before I got here with MWR. It's at the Navy base in Naples, so she's going to try and set that up with James permission. She told me not to rely on it, but it would be really good for my position that I'm working towards as a manager. After work, I went with Kim into Motta (town near Sigonella) and she brought me to two Iron-works places where she buys a bunch of stuff and introduced me to the owners. I got some good ideas for X-Mas presents tonight. She drove me around Motta and pointed out some good places to eat and hang out and then drove me back home. I ate some dinner and sat around my room watchin tv and fell asleep early for my next day of snowboarding. She's going to give me some phone numbers of people to hang out with for after she leaves. She knows I want to travel around Sicily on weekends and she knows some people who do that pretty often.

Wed Feb. 8 - Another day of snowboarding.... how sad? We got going picked up our people and headed for the mountain. I brought my Ipod and some speakers for our ride up there today. There are no radios or anything in the vans so we decided last week to figure somethin out for music. It definitely livened up the trip and made it go by faster. That hour drive is like nothing now. We've got it down. We're getting good at moving quick and getting everyone dressed and on the mountain faster. Today was the most beautiful day up here ever. It was just like the first time I came up here with Rosario but of course I got to go to the top today. You could see the ocean, Augusta Bay, all the near-by cities, and all the craters down below. It was cold and windy, but the snow was groomed and perfect. She told me today was the day to try and learn some skills. A guy Keegan hung out with us all day and he helped me learn the transitions and getting down the mountain switching from heels to toes and vice versa. I took some really hard crashes right onto my hips and butt, but I knew it would be the only way to learn how to do it. They told me I'll get the feel of it and how gravity will keep me balanced after I get it a few times. I was doing really good eventhough I knew this would hurt really bad in a few hours. We made it down 4 times and taught 2 new people how to board. It was a really fun day, it wasn't busy, and the snow and weather could not have been better. I brought my camera with me the last two runs to take pics, but I don't think I'm going to do that again Saturday cuz it's really risky if I would fall on it. We'll get some pictures of us riding down and get Kim doing some jumps, but that can wait a little bit. I want to practice those turns more. I was talking to Keegan yesterday about catching some MAC flights on the other base for free cuz he works over there for traffic control. Here's the deal, I can try and catch a space-available flight to somewhere in Europe (everyone suggested Rota Spain or Germany) and get a flight back. The catch is, is that the flights are only every week or so. I would have to take a whole week off work to risk catching a flight back. I can't do that, a week is too much to get off. My time here is technically 13 weeks, but a 3-4 day weekend would be more feasible. We'll see, I just really want to do that before I leave. We ate lunch, got a group pic, got more popular with the Italian ski patrol, had fun overall, and once again, met like 4-5 new friends. These trips are so much fun and we've got 5 ships and a submarine coming in the next two weeks, so I have a feeling we'll be taking more trips up here next week. WooHoo for me! We got back around 5:15pm and re-did the boards from today for the weekend rentals. Everyone hung out at work for a little bit tonight and Kim, Mack, James, and I went to the food court to eat and hang out before everyone went home to do nothing. I got home, took a shower, watched some tv and fell asleep uncontrollably. I was so tired and starting to feel the pain from today's falls.