The Navy is all about helping us adjust to life out here. Yesterday I finished up the Intercultural Relations course that's required of all new military members reporting to Naples. It's pretty good--two days of class, followed by a day-long "field trip" into the city. The class teaches you how to read Italian and some basic survival phrases, and also goes into the big differences that you'll see in the culture here. Of course, most people take this their second week in Italy, not their sixth (like me), so I'd already had the chance to experience a lot of these. But they still did a good job of it, and then explained how to buy food, how to use public transportation, some basic hand gestures, the different sorts of restaraunts, and all sorts of really random but really useful things to know when you're arriving in a foreign country. Then yesterday they took us downtown to show us how to get around on public transportation (which I had already figured out how to do by myself, but apparently confused the hell out of some people; it's amazing how some folks can be so completely helpless and lost on public transportation without somebody to to tell them exactly where to go, even when there are signs right there). And we walked around the city. A lot. And it was hot. A lot. And we had lunch, and it was good. Stopped by the opera house and picked up the next season's schedule--they have some good stuff coming up if anyone wants to come out and visit. The season runs something like November-April or May, I think.

We all just about died of heat exhaustion wandering around the city. And it's supposed to be unbearably hot and miserable this weekend, too. Which makes me realize it's probably not the best weekend to be visiting Rome, especially since the first thing on my agenda when the train gets in tomorrow morning is an 8-mile hike along the Appian Way. On the other hand, I'm very eager to try out my new Italian phrases: "I have a ticket for Rome," "Where is the train for Rome?" and once I get to the hotel, "I have a reservation for Hodge. H-O-D-G-E."

Since the entire nation of Italy goes on vacation in August, it looks like I'll be waiting until September to start any formal instruction in Italian, beyond the CDs and phrasebooks I brought with me. The U of Maryland has evening classes two nights a week on the base; I'm thinking that's the way to go. Much cheaper than a tutor, although perhaps not as effective.