Pleasantly Surprised

As I stated earlier, I will sometimes use this blog to vent about my frustrations with living in Italy. However, I am also pleasantly surprised sometimes!

For instance, a few days ago, Chris needed to get a routine MRI done on his ear (nothing to be nervous about). We had to go to an Italian cancer hospital off of the mountain highway, which is very close to both the base and our house.

The staff at this hospital was fantastic! Also, there was an older woman in the waiting room with me who was waiting while her husband had an MRI too. She was this very fashionable, elegant, beautiful woman - and had to have been in her 70s. She went out of her way to strike up a conversation with me, knowing that I was an American. She spoke no English, except for a few phrases, like "Good morning" and "Good afternoon". But, I understood what she was saying, and in my limited Italian, actually had a great conversation with her!

All a pleasant surprise for a hospital adventure.

The latest pleasant surprise happened just yesterday. We bought an LCD flat-screen TV about a year ago. It started showing these annoying lines down the screen, so we finally took it back to the BX to ship out for service right before Christmas. The people there told us not to expect it back before at least February, so we were prepared to not get it back until then at the earliest. I mean, there were holidays going on, so we assumed that no Italian store would even look at it before mid-January.

But, lo and behold, we got it back last night! I must say, I am impressed, at this particular moment, with the work ethic of one Italian store owner.