Vienna, Austria — Meh…

New Years 2013 was our first NYE overseas.  I was slightly depressed bc it was the first Christmas we didnt spend with our families.  But then I remembered, my cousin lived in Austria where he was a professional backetball player!  So what did I do?  Immediately messaged him to see what his plans were.  He didn’t have any so we packed up the Infiniti and drove the 6 hours to Vienna.

When we arrived, I finally got to meet my cousins girlfriend (they are now married) and she is originally from Vienna.  Her mom and sister was so nice and cooked everyone a huge meal.  It was myself, Mike, my cousin, his gf, her sister, their best friend and my cousins friend who at the time played ball in another country!  Amazing people

This is myself and my cousin…

Everyone at dinner…

Now Vienna didn’t give me the amazing butterflies that Venice did.  While the city is incredible beautiful and my cousins gf’s family were so nice and welcoming, I can’t say the same about other individuals in the city.  We had a really bad racial bias experience that night that I haven’t forgotten about that just soured the rest of the evening.  However, overall Vienna is a nice country and the food is pretty good too.   I do wish I had taken more photos but considering we went there to party and most of us were drunk the whole time — it didn’t really happen #dontjudgeus.

Venice, Italy — You will always have a piece of my heart!

The title of this post says it all.  Living overseas, after living in Washington, D.C. my entire life wasn’t easy!  There were so many things that I had to get used to.  But if there was one place that almost immediately had me smitten, it was Venice, Italy!  To start, we lived on Aviano and were only a quick 40 min train ride to the island of Venice!  So understand that we went there all the time.  The architecture, the food, the locals and oh my goodness the shopping was just amazing!

A few must do’s for anyone visiting Venice —

• Visit Bacaro Jazz Bar!  So they play jazz via a laptop, don’t have a live band, their bar is small and there are bras all over the ceilings.  But the food is delicious, their homemade Sangria is to die for and they are loyal to their customers.  The vibe here is just amazing!

• Do the damn Gondola ride!  Listen, you’re probably going to be in Venice only once so just do the ride!  Its fun, the tour guides are funny and entertaining and it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.  And look — if you don’t want to pay the price — just negotiate.  The Gondoliers are always open to negotiating.  You can thank me later

Below are a few more photos from our multiple trips to Venice!  Now excuse me while I go hide in a closet and wish I could go back for one more Spritz Aperol!

So Many Updates…

I always say I am going to keep my site updated and in the moment when I type it on here, I really truly mean it.  Reality is, it never ever happens.  LIKE EVER!  Luckily this time, instead of letting  few years go by I only let about 6 months go by.  Progress right?!

So while I have some free time while I am at work, I am going to update my blog with my adventures from living overseas from 2013-2016!  I promise I will get to my 2017 updates sometime soon HA HA.. First up — Venice, Italy!

Let’s talk about Italia!

I am going to take this post as a good time to vent about a little country I call Italy!  First let me start by saying this:  Italy is a BEAUTIFUL country!  We live up north by the mountains and I will never tire of the amazing sites I can see right outside of my house. Oh and the food…lawd Jesus the food is AMAZING!!  America could learn a thing or two about how to cook authentic Italian food.  It’s not heavy like American-Italian food.  Although if I am being honest I would have to say I do crave a piece of Papa John’s with garlic sauce here and there lol.  Don’t judge!  But my favorite thing here?!  I can drink a “spritz” or a glass of wine at 11:00am and not feel like an alcoholic!  Apparently, it’s the norm here and I really appreciate that!!!

With that being said, however, there are quite a few things that completely frustrate me about Italy and really make me appreciate the good ole US of A!  For starters, NOTHING stays open past 8 or 9pm.  Not a gas station, not a grocery story, not even a fucking porter potty!!  Nothing…Nada…Zip….Zilch!  I am so used to the convenience of if I forgot some tomatoes or milk, I could run to the grocery store, 7-11, that local convenience store on the corner, whatever!!  That is just impossible here even on base.  Another issue I have (and yes it is a selfish one but SO WHAT!), is I can’t run any of my appliances at the same freaking time!  Let me break it down for ya!  I can run the washer, but can’t run the dryer at the same time.  I can run the oven, but can run the dishwasher at the time.  Do you know how long it takes to do a fucking load of laundry???  Well, to be honest I don’t either bc the fiance does all of the laundry but I am sure he can’t be too happy with having to deal with that! I’m just saying!

Work is also a big issue here.  In Italy, Americans can not work on the Italian economy.  The only jobs available for us are the jobs on base.  Well that would be fine if they didn’t give all the jobs on base to the Italians!  WTF!  I got lucky and was able to find a job within my first few months here but I feel bad for a lot of my friends who like me, are NOT stay at home moms/wives and want to work but can’t.

Of all these things that I have complained about to far can you believe not one of them is my biggest pet peeve with Italy?!  My biggest pet peeve here has to be the lack of respect and common courtesy from some Italians!  I am sorry, but some Italians are fucking rude!  If I accidentally run over someones foot with my shopping cart my natural reaction is to stop and apologize.  Oh not here in Italy!!!  They just keep on going…like nothing happened.  Some Italians walk right in front of you when your in line, it is just so incredible frustrating.  And I swear I do NOT think they have seen many black folks in their lives.  Especially black folks that are engaged to Caucasian individuals lol.  I can only shake my head at that and remember that there is a different type of culture here versus the US!

But even with all of these pet peeves and gripes, I am 100% grateful to have the opportunity to live in Europe.  I will get to see things and places that some people never will in a lifetime!  And so far I have made some great friends—American AND Italian!

We are here until 2016, so here is to hoping my feet will survive the massive run of shopping carts until then…. ;-/