New Job and Cinco de Mayo

Wed. May 3 - After I got back to base, I took a nap and had to start my new job at 3pm. I knew I'd have to take the bus over there since it's on the other base, NAS II. The bus schedule is really inconvenient, so I have to leave my base over an hour earlier than I would if I could drive. James has found a vehicle for me to drive temporarily while I haven't really mastered a manual transmission. For these next few days, he is going to drive me home from work since I don't get off until 11pm or later. I am taking my drivers test for my Italian Translation on Friday so that should be cool. I get to drive a huge camoflauge pick-up truck once I get my translation card. The place I'm now gonna be working at a little more than part-time is Take 5, the recreational building complex for the single and unaccompanied sailors E-5 and below. I got there and CeCe, the manager, showed me around and gave me the run through about closing the building at night. I was going to be mainly working by myself and had to close out the register at the end of the night, take out the trash, turn out the lights, and lock-up the building. She went over everything pretty quickly, but I figured it couldn't be that hard. The shifts I'm gonna be working suck to say the least, 2pm-11pm each night I work. That means I won't be getting home until around midnight on nights I work. The night went well overall. I just sit there and play 8mm movies all night long, make popcorn, manage the Internet station (we have 20 unlimited access computers for them to use), keep the dining area clean, rent out pool sticks, ping pong equipment, and XBox 360's. It's an easy job, but I know a lot of the customers that come in through the night and a bunch of my friends come in and visit me while I'm on duty. The biggest challenge of my night was learning how to make popcorn in a popcorn kettle machine. I remembered going to the airport and visiting Dad at work when I found out I would have to make popcorn all night long. It was kinda tricky at first but a friend of mine that works at the movie theater gave me a thorough lesson. The night FINALLY ended and it felt like it took forever. Oh well, I will only be working about 25-30 hours per week here and filling in the rest of the time at ITT. James bought me dinner and brought me home when I got off. I got home around 11:30pm.

Fri. May 5 - CINCO DE MAYO!! I woke up early this morning to take my driver's course at 9am. I got there and there were about 15 other people in the course with me. It was cool, I knew the chief teaching the class. It was a good class, he said it would last until about 2pm. We went over basic laws, rules of the road, road signs, and some other boring stuff. The street signs were the best thing to learn because the signs here in Sicily and Italy are crazy. It was cool though, I took the test and passed with a 98% and then had to run over to NAS II with Pirate to pick up the actual license since I needed to start driving tomorrow. After class I headed over to ITT to hang out with the girls and catch up on what was going on for the week. Leslie asked if I would help her hand out rock climbing gear on Sunday morning for her club, but then she just asked if I would be interested in going with her. I told her yes and she called up our friend Kat to see if she would bring me up there on Sunday to Mt. Etna. Kat told me she'd pick me up after I handed out the gear and we'd go rock climbing for the day. I just had to be back for work by 5pm at Take 5. I helped Rosario clean all 12 of the kayaks for the sea-kayaking trip to Giardini Naxos tomorrow afternoon. He asked me if I wanted to go and since I had nothing to do, I said HELL YES! After that I headed back home for Cinco de Mayo to begin. I went and bought some Corona and limes and a bunch of friends went and played in a Halo Tournament. It was fun, I tried to play for a little bit but I am not coordinated enough to play video games. After the tournament we all sat around and drank margheritas. It was a lot of fun but I needed to get up early tomorrow morning to go kayaking with Rosario.