Complete

Two weeks in and we have something like a routine.  We wake up a bit earlier than everyone would like.  Eat a pretty normal breakfast filled with sugary cereal and toast.  If I'm moving at the right pace, I get a shower.  If I'm off by a few minutes, well, I can try again tomorrow.  It seems like we are for sure going to be late for the bus as we walk out the door, but inevitably we wait for 5 minutes at the stop.  Pack like sardines into the bus for 3 stops until the high schoolers get off.  5 more stops until we get off, get a warm welcome from Flavio the crossing-guard, and then drop the kids off as the bell rings.  If I'm lucky, Lindsay and I stop at the bar for a cornetto and some form of caffeine.  On the bus back towards centro and I go to the observatory and Lindsay does whatever the day requires.  At the end of the day I cook some sort of dinner.  We entertain the kids for a bit (now with more soccer!), make them get ready for bed, fall asleep on the couch ourselves, and then go to bed for real.  We aren't home, but we are at home.  It's pretty ok.

There are many things back at home that make life easy and comfortable.  I like our house and our life in Ann Arbor.  But though it's only been a couple of weeks, I am surprised by how comfortable I am here.  Even though we don't have some of the things that are nice from our house in Michigan, we have other things that make this feel like a real home.  I've been blown away by the generosity and kindness of many people that we've met.  Of course we are eating quite well.  My job here is going as well as I could have hoped.  And we are finding ways to do some of the things that we enjoy in Ann Arbor, including soccer and board games.

But, while I feel like I have been setting in quite well, I had been missing something.  Until today!

A new addition to the family!

In a few months, Ben will have been born 10 years ago.  Somehow, we were the first out of our local group of friends at the time to make the leap and hatch a child.  When other people saw that we survived the ordeal and subsequently decided that they, too, would have a go, they would ask me what it was like.  My response was always the same: Your life will be different, but different than it was different for me.  I never had much advice for people that were getting ready to have a baby.  I have know idea what your experience will be like.  The only thing that I do know is that it wont be like mine.

Anyway, 10ish years later somehow we managed to bring two kids to Italy for 4.5 months.  While Ethan was, for the most part, excited about the trip before leaving, Ben was sufficiently anxious to make up for it.  So it was, I don't know, good? weird? after the first few days of school to look at them both, see how happy they were, and think, "huh, they are actually going to be sad when we leave this place."  It didn't take much to make this home for them.  It only took convincing the principal of their school that we weren't terrible people.  A few days for them to make friends there.  I don't know, 50 miles of walking around Padova?  A good 10 lbs of fresh pasta.  Parents that seem like they can speak the language.  And just a ton of time hanging out together as a family.

For me, I was at home as soon as Ben and Ethan seemed fine.  It's weird dropping the kids that you've owned for 9 and 6 years off at a new school in a new city with people you met two days ago where maybe 2 adults speak not very much English.  I knew it would be fine. Lindsay knew it would be fine.  Everyone that knew what we were doing knew it would be fine.  But I just didn't know if it would be fine!

It was fine. And now, like I said, we have a normal family routine.  My guess is the next 3.5 months will be much like these first two weeks.  Lots of walking around this place, lots of gelato, lots of Ticket to Ride, King's Corner, and Innovation.  Lots of pizza at Pizzeria del Borgo 1 block from our apartment.  It feels good to be home.  We are comfortable here.  All that was missing was a guitar.

And the best freaking Sicilian cannoli that I've had since Lindsay turned 32!