Moving, Part III

We had to leave our dog at my grandmother's house. She would send him to us later, when the paperwork was finished. We arrived in Sicily. Our loyal van would follow us a few days later. None of our goods have arrived yet, so for the first month or so we live in TLA. I'm not sure what that stands for anymore - Temporary Living Assistance? We lived in one apartment for only a few days, and then moved into a different one. Us kids loved it. It was on a hill, so that we could walk off the street into our front door, but out the back was a balcony which looked down a whole story into a parking lot. The floors were all marble, and the bathroom was the biggest room. Right when you walked in, you could either walk down three steps to the side, or facing straight ahead make a flying leap into the boys' bedroom. Inexplicably, my parents preferred the former. My first memories of Kinder Eggs are in this place. We thought they were the greatest things, and they were the only toys we had with us at the moment. They call them Kinder Surprise here, and actually have made them illegal most places stateside in case people don't realize that the toys inside aren't edible. This is a great pity. Polly Pockets, of which i still have a large collection, are illegal for the same reason. Silly people. The Sicilians were (and i assume still are) very friendly. One lady gave us a ride around town in a great white van soon after we arrived. It was just Mom and the kids - Dad was at work. You have never driven, until you have driven in Sicily. The lanes are narrow, the hills are steep, the driving is fast, and there is absolutely zero personal space on the road. We thought it was just as good as a roller coaster ride, and treated it as such, leaning into each other and shouting. Mom looked a little green, although both she and my father came to love driving in Sicily and constantly complain about the arrogance of American drivers. Dad has a favourite story about one of the first times he was driving: It was the first time we saw a police car, we saw another driver flash his headlights(the signal for "Get out of my way, please") at it, and instead of ticketing the guy for speeding the cop moved over. Another time, on the mainland, traffic was jammed solid across four lanes (which in Naples means six lines of cars). There was an ambulance with sirens going lights flashing, stuck behind all of these cars. One driver really needed to get through -he was honking his horn and waving a whitehandkerchief. People just squeezed their cars tighter together so hecould get on through, which he did, through several miles of such traffic.The ambulance had to wait, though, with the rest of us. As long as you kept your head and were respectful, you could get away with pretty much anything. Soon, though, we found a more permanent residence in Motta. Before we left the landlords invited us to a sort of party downstairs. There was a lot of pizza, and wine. Each pizza had different toppings on it, like eggplant, or french fries. We didn't eat much. My brothers and I spent most of the time playing with bouncy balls in the parking lot. UPDATE: Moving, Part I (links to all the other parts available in Part I)