All is in it's place.
I enjoy this phrase I've just learned and I use it often. too often. I do this a lot because I really don't know all the phrases, so I say what I know over and over again. It works well for them good ol' memory. Speaking of memory, we play it a lot. In fact, we play memory for hours. No joke. The girls really love it and they are really quite good. However, one thing to consider is that they are old cards. So, one of the lions is colored orange on the back, the mouse has a spot of yellow, the "bambi", as we call it, is bent and so is the rabbit but it's bent the other way. The zebra has pen marks and the goat has a bite mark taken out of it. It has turned into a game of memory not only within the game but from game to game. The girls and I all know that when the first card we flip is a monkey, we look for the card on the table with the rip in it, and so on. Benedetta used to beat me all the time, because she knew all of the tricks and I didn't. However, having been here for two months, I have learned and I am victorious. Having said that I have had to start letting them win again because it's really not fun when a big kid ruins all your fun and wins all your games. (But I could win everytime.)
And yes, you heard right. Monday marked the day that I had left Canada two months ago. These little anniversaries cause me a lot of reflection, which is good, because I've really come a long way and I forget that sometimes. I also got a parcel from home this week! It had maple syrup for the family, because it's quite the delicacy here, peanut butter and Cheez Whiz for me (all from Kraft, our lord and saviour, Amen), a nice notebook from Mom with a handy place for a pen and most important of all, my slippers from Grandma! Yes! I still remember when I got here, and fully unpacked, and I was all like, awesome, slipper time! But no. They were no where. Well, not no where, they were in my parent's house. But now they are on my feet! Right now! They smell like the basement. This made me cry. But, still, thanks Mom! This made my month!
About the peanut butter. This is the food I miss the most, I think, (well not anymore because I just had a spoonful of it) and I decided to share some with the family. So, at the table after dinner, I took some biscotti, which is just the word for cookies, it's not a five dollar wafer from Starbucks, and delicately dipped them in peanut butter. Delicious. I savoured the moment and waited for them all to smile and tell me how awesome it was.
Uh. No one finished it. Well, Alessandra did, but one was enough for her. The girls hated it. Leo has warmed up to it and asked me for some today after supper. But, initially, it was a whole table of "blech". Sarah said I ruined the biscotti and asked for a new one. Good riddens, I say! More for me! But seriously. How weird is that? I get the whole thing about them not being used to processed food, but it's peanuts. Delicious, sugared, salted, smushed, pasted, chemical-filled peanuts. What's not to like?
Allora. I have been out for two whole nights in a row! I'm pretty much ecstatic because I realised how much I really missed being out with people. I love people! The first night, Tuesday, Valentina invited me over because she and Andrea are going to London for her uncles wedding and will be gone for ten days, I believe. We had dinner again. Maria Vittoria was there, too. That is her and I in the picture on the left. I had met her on Halloween. Now, the thing to understand about dinner here, is that they have it around midnight. Well not really, but they go for aparatifs around 6 or 7, and then head home or to a resteraunt around 8 or 9, and then eat around 9 or 10. At the house with the kids we try for 7 everyday, and it's usually between 7 and 8,30. Allora, (which I have discovered is actually the word for 'then', but they used is often to say 'Ok then') the night was great! They asked me to share some Canadian music, so to YouTube we went, and I played some tunes from Diana Krall, Norah Jones (whom they knew), Twilight Hotel, Weakerthans and, of course, Oh Canada. It's really quite the pride starter. That hit off the Italian music of the night which started with the national anthem and moved on to some socialist punk and some operatics. I then showed them some clips of Lacrosse! Our national sport, didn't you know.
This is Merlino, the dog, and Maia, the cat. There is a pretty good video Valentina made of them on YouTube. I will post it because it's super cute.
Andrea, with his smoking indoors like a European and all, me and Valentina in her wicked Pj's.
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We all hung out with some wine (a very nice Merlot that mixes nicely with the air this time of year and brushetta. Just kidding. I don't know anything about wine, but it was Merlot and it was smooth and delicious. So was the brushetta, which I now know how to make!) and beer we got at Canyon (Which I think is the only bar they go to. That's loyalty.) and sat at the table and talked in Italian about Canada, Italy, their impending trip and music. We also had a very in depth conversation about bad words, because I don't know any. Now I do. And as with the rest of the language, it takes practice. Lots of practice.
When she asked me if I liked "gelato caffe" at 1 in the morning, I knew I was in a good place. She even sprinkled coffee on top! Delicious.
Andea with his 'perfecto' hand. They do actually do that here. They were dancing to their national anthem here. Pretty good moves, if I say so myself.
Now, don't get me wrong. I don't really "speak" Italian yet. I am still learning past and future tenses, and therefore it is very broken. But the only thing to do is speak and get your point accross, and they understand and correct you and therefore you learn. I have just decided that being self consious about the language will only set me back. Therefore I will be a rambling fool for a few more months until I know everything. It's fun, but often it takes a few tries. Such as, "Gia, sono in Parigi, uno mese fa." Which is "Already, I am in Paris, one month ago." The grammar is off but the point is there.
Also, language is more than words. It's stomping around like a soldier when you don't know the word for march, or pointing to a guy banging on the door of a closed bar yelling about cigarettes and asking "Lui e...? (He is)", at which point they say "Ubracio." Tada! I learned the word for drunk. Which brings me to last night. This is when said conversation took place. I went to CUST, the place where Francesco shows a movie every Wednesday night. After the movie, we had the chat about the movie. I didn't like it, so I didn't talk, because I didn't know how to say 'useless'. It was the Portrait of a Lady with Nicole Kidman, but in Italiano. Watching dubbed movies is always interesting. They try to match the voices, and generally they are well done. Johnny Depp has a great voice over, which I heard in Pirates of the Caribbean 3, and I knew The Simpson's was on without looking at the TV when I heard Marge's voice. Homer's, however, is an awful choice. But back to CUST.
After everyone chatted about the film, Francesco asked me if I would like to join them for a drink! Yessir! I talked with lots of people about what I do and what they do and how long they've lived here and things about Urbino and Canada. They think it's cold here. Bahaha, I said! It's really nice to practice Italian with new people, because you have to get used to different accents and voices. I've sort of started to comprehend the different in accent between people from north and south Italy. Generally I think people from the south are not Italian until I ask them where they are from. Which is always embarassing. It happens. They speak very differently. It was about 1,30, and we walked a couple streets over. On the way we passed on bar. They way they generally work here is that about 6 people fit in the actual bar, and the rest of them overflow onto the street where they drink open liquor and stack empty beer bottles on the side of the street along with plastic shot glasses. But the streets aren't roads. Don't think Whyte Avenue. Think Cobbled Way. We went to a different bar, where it was the same scene, and Francesco and three other people we were with walked in, but when the girl in front of me tried, the man said, "Scusa ragazze, e chiuso." Damn straight you're sorry you're closed. They all got a drink and came back out to the crowd. This was fine, really. I don't need alcohol to have fun.
We chatted as the crowd slowly walked off, drunk people walking around (banging on bar doors asking for cigarettes) and I just felt good being out, making jokes, meeting people. I don't remember all of their names, but I will. It's hard to remember foreign names, because, well, they're foreign and it's not only a new name to remember, it's generally a new sound and a new order of letters that you have never heard before. I have hope. If I can say "Parmigiano" (parmeson) properly at the supermarket now, I can learn names. (they don't even ask twice!)
This is the poster for the movie night. I think it's nifty:
So, this is my follow-up to having told you my plans for the week. This is my week! Of course, in between working and studying and writing and relaxing. After each night, being out past 2, I get up as usual to make breakfast for the kids at 7,20. I have been working on a short story in Italian, in which one sentance takes me one hour, but it works to help me study the tenses. The nice thing about this whole not working 9-5 idea, is that after the kids are gone to school, I can go back to bed or write or chill on the porch with a tea or head downtown to check out the shops or have a croissant and tea in a cafe or attend the classes I have been going to which you will hear about later. Then, later in the afternoon I start work again which lasts into the evening. This is always fun, anyways, because it's after school and before dinner, which is game time and gelato time and sometimes movie time. Then, after supper, I'm free to go out if I so desire, as long as Alessandra doesn't need me to stay in.
I think I may have repeated some ideas I have already written, but this is really a train of thought thing I have going here. And I often think about the same things. I'm sure you needed a reminder anyways. :)
All is well, and I feel quite lighthearted having had some relaxing evenings with young folk. It does, of course, invoke many emotions, especially those of the last young people I hung out with. It's very hard not to miss your friends while you are making new ones. But, this is why we have things like the internet! I love hearing from everyone! Not to say it alleviates the homesickness, but it makes it more of a homecough, and not a full out sickness. Let me know how you're holiday planning is going! How exciting. The decorations here are great, and I am totally used to the blue now. It's a haze of magic.
However, speaking of coughs, I am starting to feel a tickle in my throat. Such are the rewards for late nights in winding streets.
Buono Notte! Enjoy your afternoon!
