Yippee!

We have received our "non-availability" letter from the Housing office. This means we are officially released to get housing "on the economy" [out in town]. We are actually 17th on the waiting list, so housing is pretty full right now. And even better, we're released right now, but in four months, housing then gives us the option to move onto base again. It's an option only. So if we secure housing on the economy, then find out our utility bills are unaffordable or we live in an unsafe area, or anything else that is really horrible, then we can move onto base at that time. Or we can continue on in our house in town.

We're very excited. Unfortunately, both realtors we've talked to have no real options for us in the area we want to live. We're hoping for a single-family house, behind gates, with an ocean-view. This may sound like a tall order, but it's what most military families have, so it's not a complete reach. It's just that for the same reason base housing is full, so is military-desired, town housing full. We're at the end of PCS [transfer] season, so other families have come in and snagged all the good stuff.

In other news, tomorrow we take our Italy driver's license. For this, we need a current U.S. license and to pass a written test on Italian road signs. We've been studying. Here are some of my favorites - see if you can guess what they mean.

I'm not sure that this one really exists as I spent over 1/2 an hour trying to find a clear picture on the internet of one. I finally resorted to taking a blurry photo of our study paper:

Any guesses? I'll give you a hint: The triangle indicates a yield.

If you guessed, as I did, "Yield to french horns," that is incorrect. My next guess was "yield to parades." Wrong again.

This means "yield right-of-way when meeting bus on mountain road."

Another favorite is this one:

This does NOT mean "No Amish people." In reality, it means, "No animal drawn carts." There's yet another one for "No pushcarts," which looks an awful lot like a farmer pushing a hand-plow. And the final one to show you is not one we were actually given to study. I found it in my search for photos of road signs we actually have to know. But this is my favorite:

We're not sure what this sign means, but we sure hope we get to see it in person. Our best guess is: "Slow down, crucifixion going on ahead."
There is actually an even better road sign here in Italy, but you'll have to check Nathan's Facebook page to see it.