This morning I went to a doctor as a followup to last week's incident, because I've still been feeling kinda weak each morning. We discussed what had happened and my personal and family health history, then she took my BP and did an EKG. Everything looks normal, so she thinks that, as suspected, I simply fainted from a confluence of factors. However, she recommended that I get a couple more tests just to put everything to rest, so we'll try to schedule that sometime soon.
With yet another trip to the cell phone carrier stores, we finally got our US cell phones fully working with Italian SIM cards. They had been working for phone calls and texting, but not for data. It just took a small configuration change to the APN (Access Point Name). All is now well, so we can now access internet anywhere, including Google Maps while driving. With that done, we cancelled our Verizon numbers which had been expensive for the last week. It's interesting that Vodafone won't accept a US credit card for autopay, so we apparently have to go into the store each month to pay my wife's bill (I have a SIM card issued by the mission); not a big deal since it's right next to the big Target-like store (Auchan) where we'll go regularly. This type of store didn't exist in Italy in the seventies! We also cancelled our auto insurance since we no longer own any cars.
This afternoon was our first weekly Institute council meeting, with us, Ugo, the young elders assigned here, and three of the student leaders. We discussed upcoming activities and logistics, which helped the two of us come up to speed on what's happening. These kids are awesome. One of them, Oscar, is majoring in Electrical Engineering at the Sapienza University here nearby, which has over 100K students, and he wants some help with math, physics, and electronics courses, which I will happily provide. He served his mission in England, and his English is excellent.
My wife made some wonderful snickerdoodle cookies which were very well received! She is a woman of many talents. I did the dishes. We are really having fun together, laughing at lots of stuff. Her navigation skills using Google Maps are (surprisingly) good, but she says she has a great incentive -- keeping us alive! Tonight would normally be a Book of Mormon class in English, but possibly no one is coming, so we may get to go home early.
Last night and today I finally had time to prepare one of my vegan bowls with rice, beans, and chopped veggies. Today I brought my prepared bowl to the Institute and kept it in the fridge until dinner, when I zapped it in the microwave. It was wonderful to have some of my normal fare, so hopefully I can keep up the routine.
Just around the corner from our apartment are a bunch of stores, including a nice grocery store (Conad), an Italian post office, and a fun little "Chinese" store, which is what the Thackers called it because the proprietors are Chinese. It has tightly packed aisles with all kinds of stuff, from suitcases to tools to electronics to home goods to stationery.
We are still waiting for paperwork to apply for our permesso di soggiorno ("permission to stay") documents, which is basically an extended visa. The woman from the government who normally handles the paperwork in Milan is out of town, so it has been delayed. Apparently we need to get the application in very soon, but that's difficult because they haven't provided us the proper forms yet. Possibly it will be done by tomorrow, so we'll see if we have to run around to get everything finalized.