September 22nd - 25th
Most of this week was bureaucratic and informational briefs.
Day 2 of AO:
I mostly skipped Day 2 of AO. Dan was required to attend almost all of it. I slept in and then only went to the brief about the process for getting/registering a car. I spent the afternoon going shopping with Jen and Amy for a dress for Jen. (I met Amy in Norfolk and Jen on Sunday at Amy's).
Dan told housing we would like to live off base.
Day 3 of AO:
Today was the day we had driver's ed and took our driver's license test. It was a multiple choice test about what various driving signs meant. Dan and I both passed. Wooo!
We went to the Chapel Services brief, but mostly because it was before the Vet brief. The next thing we had to attend was the AOR Anti-Terrorism brief. It was....a bit intense.
Dan had to attend the next few briefs, but I went off to get the pets registered with the Vet. This went smoothly. One more thing accomplished!
Day 4 of AO:
Day 4 was about MWR who does a lot of tours and events for the Service Members here. It sounds like they have bunch of great trips that they organize around Italy and other parts of Europe.
We also were required to attend an Intercultural Relations brief. I will say this, the information was good, the presenter was delightful, but it was too much at one time and way too long. It was 4 hours long with a mini break in the middle. I got very fidgety and restless by the end of it. I wish more of the information had been in a packet rather than flashed up on a slide.
Dan and I ran off after the briefs to talk to housing. They told us we were allowed to live off base and needed a CNA (certified non-availability) to start the house hunting process.
Day 5 of AO:
This day started with the security brief. There was good information, but I kind of wanted to move back to the US after it. Dan wanted to see numbers/statistics and was not as swayed by the Security Chief's stories.
The next part of this day was going over to Capodichino to get my Sojourner's Permit. It's required for me to be able to reside in Italy for more than 90 days. Luckily we ended up near the front of the line, so it didn't take long. Part of the process was getting fingerprinted. They take this part seriously. They did finger and palm prints. My hands were entirely covered in ink by the end. Luckily the ink washed off with some scrubbing.
Dan checked into PSD to get our ration cards, we got lunch, and I checked in with the NMCRS.
When we got back to the Support Site we went back over to housing to talk to a housing counselor and set up a showing.
