TIAMLFTA the USA # 23: Personal Vehicles

You want to go to the store? Hop in the car. You want something to eat? Hop in the car. You want to do anything? You hop in the car. Now we can quibble about how bikes are better than cars all day, but the fact of the matter is I would take just about form of personally motivated transportation over the cattle car buses I’ve been bouncing around on for the last two months. Even getting walk places would be an improvement. It is easy enough to walk around Florence itself, but we’re a ways away from the city here in Settigano. Something to look forward to.

I assume that it will be hard to transition back to standard, comfortable life in the USA when my time abroad is over. So, to help me get psyched about the Kansas January and term papers that await me in the spring I am starting a list of things I am looking forward to Stateside. Look for more “Things I am Most Looking Forward to About the USA,” or “TIAMLFTA the USA” (pronounced “tee-am-left-a”) for short, in the weeks and months to come!

TIAMLFTA the USA # 22: Making Phone Calls

My new least favorite pop-up on the Internet is not the “Congratulations! You’re the One Millionth Visitor!” anymore. It is the page on the RailEurope website that says, “Oops! The information for this trip is not available on our website at this time. But our Help Center is at your service! Call…” That’d be a great idea. If I wasn’t ABROAD without a PHONE. Still figuring that one out.

I assume that it will be hard to transition back to standard, comfortable life in the USA when my time abroad is over. So, to help me get psyched about the Kansas January and term papers that await me in the spring I am starting a list of things I am looking forward to Stateside. Look for more “Things I am Most Looking Forward to About the USA,” or “TIAMLFTA the USA” (pronounced “tee-am-left-a”) for short, in the weeks and months to come!

TIAMLFTA the USA # 21: Reading Packaging

There is an interesting looking package right next to the Oreos in the supermarket. You pick it up because you want to see what’s inside…but wait. You can’t read it. Guess your options are to buy it and try it out, translate the packaging word by word with the pocket-sized Italian dictionary in your purse, or forget about it. Based on my historic patience level you can probably guess which one I pick, unless there is visible chocolate involved. Sometimes it’s just nice to have simple “What is this?” questions answered on the spot. Ah, English. How I miss you.

I assume that it will be hard to transition back to standard, comfortable life in the USA when my time abroad is over. So, to help me get psyched about the Kansas January and term papers that await me in the spring I am starting a list of things I am looking forward to Stateside. Look for more “Things I am Most Looking Forward to About the USA,” or “TIAMLFTA the USA” (pronounced “tee-am-left-a”) for short, in the weeks and months to come!

TIAMLFTA the USA # 20: Making Smoothies

We do eat a lot of fruit here, but I miss making smoothies. Besides gelato, there aren’t a lot of cool food options here, and on top of that my mom and I were just perfecting our homemade smoothie recipes, not to mention the fact that smoothies made up about 95% of my breakfast menu while I was living in Ireland. Therefore I was pretty hooked and now I’m having withdrawals. Unfortunately it will be a little cold when I get back… but maybe I can put on my parka and some gloves to maintain homeostasis.

I assume that it will be hard to transition back to standard, comfortable life in the USA when my time abroad is over. So, to help me get psyched about the Kansas January and term papers that await me in the spring I am starting a list of things I am looking forward to Stateside. Look for more “Things I am Most Looking Forward to About the USA,” or “TIAMLFTA the USA” (pronounced “tee-am-left-a”) for short, in the weeks and months to come!

TIAMLFTA the USA # 19: Bacon

There’s ham, and there’s bacon, and yes there is a difference. Pasta carbonara in Europe? Don’t get excited when it says “pasta with a cream sauce and bacon.” It’s going to be ham. They’ll call it bacon, but it’s not.

I’m hoping there’s a pound of ready-to-fry all-American bacon in the freezer when I land.

I assume that it will be hard to transition back to standard, comfortable life in the USA when my time abroad is over. So, to help me get psyched about the Kansas January and term papers that await me in the spring I am starting a list of things I am looking forward to Stateside. Look for more “Things I am Most Looking Forward to About the USA,” or “TIAMLFTA the USA” (pronounced “tee-am-left-a”) for short, in the weeks and months to come!

TIAMLFTA the USA # 18: My Beads

I’m missing the crafty aspect of my life right now. In addition to not having my beads to make jewelry, I also don’t have fabric, thrift stores, or general crafty tools and supplies to try new projects (like the many tissue paper flower designs I’ve been ogling for the last week or so). When I get home, I have an extended date with my craft room. We might just run away together.

I assume that it will be hard to transition back to standard, comfortable life in the USA when my time abroad is over. So, to help me get psyched about the Kansas January and term papers that await me in the spring I am starting a list of things I am looking forward to Stateside. Look for more “Things I am Most Looking Forward to About the USA,” or “TIAMLFTA the USA” (pronounced “tee-am-left-a”) for short, in the weeks and months to come!

TIAMLFTA the USA #17: Renting Movies

Ahh, Family Video. How I have taken advantage of you over the years. Never again will I take for granted a 9pm decision to watch a movie that just came out on DVD. I will be visiting you very shortly after arriving home. And you can expect a postcard any day now.

I assume that it will be hard to transition back to standard, comfortable life in the USA when my time abroad is over. So, to help me get psyched about the Kansas January and term papers that await me in the spring I am starting a list of things I am looking forward to Stateside. Look for more “Things I am Most Looking Forward to About the USA,” or “TIAMLFTA the USA” (pronounced “tee-am-left-a”) for short, in the weeks and months to come!

TIAMLFTA the USA # 16: Strawberries

Okay, so this isn’t entirely true, because they do have strawberries here, they are just expensive and hard to come by, which, in October, is almost exactly the same as in the United States. So I guess I just wanted to express how much I miss strawberries, and how that would be the case no matter where I currently am in the Northern Hemisphere.

I assume that it will be hard to transition back to standard, comfortable life in the USA when my time abroad is over. So, to help me get psyched about the Kansas January and term papers that await me in the spring I am starting a list of things I am looking forward to Stateside. Look for more “Things I am Most Looking Forward to About the USA,” or “TIAMLFTA the USA” (pronounced “tee-am-left-a”) for short, in the weeks and months to come!

TIAMLFTA the USA # 15: My Watercolors

Italy is beautiful, and sometimes it would be nice to have something besides a digital camera with auto-focus to capture it with. I got myself some colored pencils, but they’re really just not scratching the itch. When I get home I am going to watercolor a poster from this picture.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="453" caption="A Settigano Sunset"][/caption]

Get ready, it’s going to rock. I let you know how it goes—but it’ll be December before it actually happens. BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE MY WATERCOLORS.

I assume that it will be hard to transition back to standard, comfortable life in the USA when my time abroad is over. So, to help me get psyched about the Kansas January and term papers that await me in the spring I am starting a list of things I am looking forward to Stateside. Look for more “Things I am Most Looking Forward to About the USA,” or “TIAMLFTA the USA” (pronounced “tee-am-left-a”) for short, in the weeks and months to come!

Humility and A God Named Max

On Tuesday we got into an interesting discussion about humility in my Benedictine Spirituality class. The Rule of St. Benedict was written over 1,500 years ago and is the guiding document of ancient and modern members of Benedictine religious orders. Our class is dealing primarily with this text. One of the amazing things about reading the Rule is how much it makes sense. You think about Dante, or Shakespeare, people who lived five or six hundred years ago and had profound things to say, but even their work is not as quickly accessible as this pamphlet that was written only a few years after the Roman Empire fell.

The Rule is in sections, the seventh of which deals with humility. From the first four parts of this section, our professor, Sister Judith, distilled these core ideas for us:

The Rule’s Rules of Humility (Otherwise Known as the Facts of Life):

1. God’s God and you’re not.


2. You don’t always get your way.


3. Sometimes we have to do what other people tell us to…


4. …And sometimes it is going to be awful.

I just really like this because a.) It shows how down to earth the Rule really is, and b.) It’s the kind of practical advice it’s nice to hear over and over even though you feel like you shouldn’t need to. Who needs a better reminder that they’re not God than an Italian train station? But it’s still centering to hear.

Another topic that captivated me was our discussion of being watched by God. Some admitted to being a like creeped out by this, but Sister did a good job of framing it for us.

Our attitude towards God’s attention to our lives should be like a child playing on the playground while a loving parent watches. They are constantly imploring their parents to “Watch me! Look what I can do!” and even if the parent has no idea what they did or where even trying to do they coo gentle reassurances to the child that they are being watched. Children love to have the security of that loving eye on them at all times. Therefore, our attitude should be one of shame, or guilt because we’re worried about what God is going to “catch” us doing, but one of joy and excitement because there’s always someone to turn to and say, “Did you see what I just did?”

In an extension of the childlike theme that ran through my day on Tuesday, that evening a speaker came to talk to us. She is an American who has spent much of the last 15 years in Italy because she met her husband, an Italian man, while she was modeling in Italy in college (and yes, she was tall, and yes, even after 4 kids, she was stunning). Anyway, she came to talk to us about her life and conversion experience. I won’t rehash her whole story, except to say that she talked about a long period of her life—high school to college—where she no “faith” in God per se, but talked to “Max” every night before bed. “Max” was her way to feel connected to something, even though she thought she was making it up. Max may not be real, but the hunger that caused her to seek him out was very real. That hunger resulted in her conversion. The childish, almost imaginary friend-esque nature of Max really spoke to me about the child in all of us that wants to know that we are not the be all and end all of everything. Because that we can’t face. We’re not meant to. We yearn for God even when we don’t know what his name is, and at the end of the day, God is the only answer.

Peace.

Trilingual Pizza

Saturday night John and I decided to cap a wonderful day in the city of Florence (which included a stop at the beautiful and impressive Piazza Michelangelo and a walk down the glitzy Pont de Vecchio) with some small town pizza here in Settigano. There is a tiny restaurant just up the road whose name I still do not know because, in true small town Europe fashion, there is no sign over the door. You have to already know that it’s there. Our RA, Pietro accompanied us, and thankfully his Italian both eased the ordering process and got us a lovely little discount on the pies.

We brought them back to the Villa and set up shop in the kitchen, thanks to the kindness of one of the workers, Aureilian, a wonderful man from Cameroon who speaks both French and Italian with a smattering of English. The four of us proceeded to spend the next hour eating delicious pizza, drinking Italian made Spanish wine, and speaking in three languages. Okay, speaking might be a stretch for John and I, but we were definitely communicating and that’s something.

At one point I set down my knife (because restaurants believe in letting you be responsible for how much pizza you put in your mouth by not pre-cutting your pizza) and looked at my dinner mates and smiled. Where else in the world would this be happening to me? Not a lot of places I can think of. I am so thankful that I am in Italy right now, having these kind of experiences. I may not be fluent in Italian or even French (a language I’ve been trudging through for about six years now) when I leave, but I will have had experiences communicating, and isn’t that what this is all about? We are here to see the similarities just as much as (if not more than) the differences, and laughter (and wine) mean the same thing across the language barrier.

So here’s to language, culture, and the love for tomato sauce and melted cheese that ties us all together.

Peace.

Pasta, Conversation, and a Language Lesson

Wednesday was our last full day of class before our final with our beloved Florentine Art and History professor, Francesco. He is easily one of the best professors I have ever had, most because he is so unbelievably passionate about what he teaches.

His day job is giving tours all over Umbria, a region of Italy that includes his hometown of Perugia. He started by giving free tours as a college student to friends and relatives of friends, which has since grown into his own business that gives tours of Italy to many many people every year. If you’re ever in Umbria, look up “Guide in Umbria,” which is Francesco’s company. His accent is adorable and his knowledge is seemingly bottomless. You won’t regret it.

Today I had the pleasure of sitting near him and lunch and picking his brain over a big bowl of pasta one last time. He shared a few gems that I’d share with you. The conversation turned to Shakespeare, as conversations so often do when people realize that I am studying English and theater. I think it is most readily available melding of the two for most people. Francesco said that he loved Shakespeare and regretted only that he could not read it in its original English. I shared the same sentiment about Dante, whose poetry is absolutely stunning in Italian. Francesco told me that there is a saying in Italian that means “Translation is a betrayal.” I think it is something like, “La traduzione è un tradimento.” As sad as that makes me, it really is true. Languages are so rich with their own nuanced meanings and contextual rhythms that it is so hard to reproduce the emotional and linguistic effects of writing in a different language.

A rather odd example of this is the handbook of Scientology, which, yes, I read over the summer just to understand what all the hype was about. L. Ron Hubbard wrote that book with the idea of translation in mind, using very simple tenses and sentence structures that would make it fast and easy to translate, thus spreading his weird message around the world even faster. But he lost something with that choice. The language is passive, often devoid of emotional meaning. Just something that made me think.

Francesco also told me what “Ciao” means—a secret known to less than one percent of Italians in his estimation. Ciao is derived from schiavo, the Italian word for “slave.” So when you greet people with ciao you are essentially saying “I am the slave of you.” Something for your random information file.

Peace.

Italian Skies

I have become a big fan of cloud photography. Maybe it's my gorgeous view from up here in the Settigano hills, or just how few trees there are (especially tall ones) but I keep turning my camera up every chance I get. Here's a few of my favorites from all over Italy.

Peace.

 

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="720" caption="The Duomo, Firenze"][/caption]

 

 

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="604" caption="Castiglione del Lago, Umbria"][/caption]

 

 

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="604" caption="Paraglider over the Apennines, Umbria"][/caption]

 

 

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="720" caption="Settigano, Firenze"][/caption]

 

Day 14: Arrival in Italy

I thought the adventure was over when we left Avignon.

Oh how very naïve I remain.

The trip to Florence was supposed to be composed of three trains. Yes, three. The first was about five minutes late, which was enough to get our hearts pounding because we only had thirty minutes between trains at the next station. The second came on time, but once we had boarded we waited over thirty minutes to leave because of an accident and there were numerous delays throughout the trip, which came to a total of about an hour delay. We were scheduled to have an hour and 13 minutes between the second and third train, so we were very nervous this time. But then we get to the station and our train to Florence doesn’t even show up on the departures monitor and it is supposed to leave in seven minutes. It turns out, there was no third train.

Through a series of events related to me several times in French, none of which I understood, our train had been cancelled and we were promised instead a bus that would take us to Florence.

Now John is 6’6” and even though the sleeping berths on trains are cramped, they are also horizontal. But, with no other choice, we dutifully waited for the bus. Keep in mind that this is at 9:30 at night. The bus came at 1:30 AM. Right.

There were literally only tow seats left on the bus and they were in the very back row of five seats. Luckily John got the middle, so he had some legroom, but it was still cramped and hot.

About twelve hours later we finally rolled into Florence. The first thing I did at Villa Morghen, where we are staying for the semester, was take a long, long shower.

Our initial nomadic travels are now over, but never fear! I will continue to post my comings and goings, perhaps not as frequently, but hopefully just as faithfully, as I have for the last two weeks. I am in the process of getting all moved in to my room here at the Villa (Hello no more suitcases!) and I will be happy to report on the first day of school tomorrow! Bon nuit!

(I’m going to have to get out of my habit of speaking French!)