A day in the life

I wake up every morning at 7:00 AM in my beautiful apartment, stroll down my first set of stairs into the living room/kitchen and have cereal or il gnoccho for breakfast (a local specialty salty flatbread, which goes wonderfully with fresh cheese spread and prosciutto crudo).  Then I sit down and try to finish the blog I started writing at midnight and finish my compito (homework) for Italian class.  Get dressed, etc., stroll down my second set of stairs out the door (lock it) then down to my underground parking spot.

Living room

kitchen

Prima colazione!

My car here is so fun to drive; a Renault Scenic, manual gearshift, diesel.  The driving is so smooth (once I got used to how fresh the clutch is)!  I am assimilating well to the size of the roads.  There are some two-way backroads that are barely the size of one side of a U.S. road.  Every so often there is an extension in the shoulder to scurry into should you come across any traffic.  One "interesting" thing about the roads here are the roundabouts.  They are "very stylish" right now.  I didn't want to over-exaggerate so I planned to say that there was one every two miles, but I paid attention this morning and there is a long strip where you come across one every 400 meters.  It is absurd.  I've had a tough time figuring out directions here because my eye isn't trained to distinguish differences among the Italian towns.  I had my first attack of culture shock the other day when I had been driving an hour to get to my class and still hadn't found my parking spot.  On a good day it takes 15 minutes to get there.

I am learning so much in my Italian class!  We meet for four hours Mon-Fri.  I have 7 compadres in the class: two from Russia, a couple from Denmark, a young girl from Morrocco and two Japanese men who chef in Italian restaurants located in Japan (they didn't know each other before the class!) I don't know if I should chalk it up to age and experience or that I have already learned the structures of other languages, but I am much more brave and self confident this time abroad than when I was in Argentina years ago.  I'm less afraid to go out and try my Italian and I'm very talkative in class.  We'll see if the other students start hating me...

Halfway through class we take "una pausa" and go across the street to a bar to get coffee.  "Bars" here are both little cafes with pastries and lots of coffee and what we think of in America as bars with a full list of alcoholic drinks.  You can find them everywhere.  Italian coffees are what we think of as espressos, only less liquid.  They generally take me three sips, but they are strong.  Most Italians drink coffee at breakfast, at the morning break, after lunch (but never order coffee with milk in the afternoon or evening; they say milk halts digestion) and then after dinner they have an orzo decaffeinated coffee that I opt for.  The cappucini here are so foamy and delicious!  It's a different concept not carrying my coffee around with me for an hour but slurping it all in one shot.

After class I drive to my "family's" house for lunch with the mom.  We have very stimulating conversations, either practicing Italian (I've grown accustomed to their voices and can understand quite a bit), or discussing the economy and politics.  Being a business owner, I think she has very good ideas.  She also dresses better than any real human I've ever seen.  I am slowly developing a style here.  I appreciate the intelligence it takes to dress well, and I also embrace dressing to make yourself feel good and command attention as a form of feminism.  Maybe I'm getting a bit deep here, but I've recently started a love affair with a new scarf and it's introducing to me a world of fashionable opportunities.  Those who know me well will be shocked, I know.

After lunch I have a couple free hours to myself.  Yesterday I picked up a used road bike, which was waiting for me in a man named Ginger's garage.  My family warned me that he was the town gossip, and would probably ask me all kinds of questions.  He only explained to me how all the lights and locks work, then sent me out with a "bon voyage!"  I think he had been warned that I speak little Italian.  My host mom assures me he'll talk to everyone about me for the rest of the week.

The kids get out of school at 4:30, so I go back to the house and hang out with them.  I have Richi help me with my homework, and Bea and I will play Italian/English pictionary or some other simple game.  They are really fun kids and I look forward to spending time with them.  I really want to help them in any way I can!  I hope there is an improvement in their English at the end of my stay.  This family treats me like gold, and I want to give them a payoff.

We go to piano lessons, fencing and volleyball, depending on the night of the week, then we come home and have an aperitivo.  The sparkling wine here (spumante) is fantastic!  Then dinner around 8:30, which typically is fish or pasta.  They eat SO MUCH pasta here, but the rule is no carbohydrates after 2:00 PM (we follow it loosely).  Apparently it's working because the entire family is in fantastic shape.  I could use a few more vegetables in my life, but I have nothing to complain about because the food is delicious.

Pasta Arrabiata - "Angry pasta", with a little spicy kick.  NOM!

I come home, turn on my TV program "Questo Nostro Amore" and catch up on my internet.  Then I climb the flights of stairs up to my castle and get ready to do it all over again.  I feel so alive with traveling; so many new words, actions, places and things to absorb!  Buongiorno, arrivederci, and until tonight