first quarter report

yep, we've been here a sum total now of 3 months. That's 12 (well 13 now) weeks to some. Its gone from quite nice balmy summer August weather (summer was only 3 weeks long this year, but we chanced onto it at the beginning of our stay) to cold-like-you-wouldn't-believe. its not just that the last 4 years in California have removed our cold weather starch; there is something in the air here that really sends a stiff chill down the spine. I think also the culture shock is reaching (god willing) its trough of depression - we are, I believe following the ol' technology hype cycle curve...


We are where "Personal Digital Assistants" label. I'll call it the culture adaptation curve, and its a bitch. There's no telling how long that trough will last, but I'm thinkin' it may be flat for a while. The biggest thing (apart from the cold, which some members of the family (who will remain anonymous) are constantly reminding us is so shitty) of course is our inability to string a coherent set of Deutsch words together in order to communicate. It's all fine and good when you're in language class and all the other people are as useless as you are: "zum Beispiel: Ich komme aus Amerika, Wie heissen Sie?, Deine Frau ist so fast dick", but out on the strasse, now that's a different matter. You gotta understand what they say.....oh, yeah, I hadn't considered *that*.

We're going to Naples next week. That's good at least. Now we get to look confused in Italien.