Laundry and Kaffe

There are three things that almost every Italian wants to talk about with me.  1). Obama.  They love him, and Europe thinks we are all idiots for G-Dub (yup).  2). Cowboys, because I am from Texas, yes?  (haha, no)  3).  Burlusconi, do I know of him?  He is an idiot, yes? (yes, I know of him).  They love to try out their English on me, and even though it wasn't a priority when I came here, I've been picking up some Italian.  It's funny because in this tiny village of maybe 2000 people, not many speak any English, and none speak it fluently.  My coworker and I are able to walk around and talk freely in public and no one knows!  We attract a lot of attention because of it.  We are Americana!

Toms tan

The house where I am staying is GORGEOUS.  Parts of it were built almost 300 years ago, but it has some slightly new wings as well (only 200 years old, ha!).  There are a lot of different fruit trees on the property and a swimming pool.  The mama is the mayor of the village, but I haven't met her yet.  She has been out of town on holiday, and her four children, ages 12-19, have been looking after me.  Here's a funny story about the oldest son, who is 19.  I asked yesterday if I could do some laundry.  He's like, ok, so we put it in the dual washer/dryer thing and then I go into town for a bit.  I get held up in town, whatever.  The son comes later to get me from my friend's house and says, "oh I hung up your laundry.". UHHH WHAT?  Apparently in Italy, they only use the dryers if the weather is cold.  So this Italian guy just hung up all of my laundry, undies and all, on the line outside.  No big deal!   Except!, it started to rain last night.  All of my clothes were soaked.  So they stayed out all night, and were still damp this morning.  I went to work.  I saw the son after work, and he says, "I put your clothes on your bed.".  Hahaha, oooooook.  Again, no big deal.  This is how it's done here.

The church where the school is being held is so old.  It was built in the 1400s.  We have two classes there, both inside and out.  After that, we line up the kids and walk them over to the primary school for lunch, where the bambino and ourselves are served a three course lunch of pasta, entree, and fruit/dessert, and then kaffe (espresso).  After that, the kids run wild in the gym for a bit and then we walk them back to the church for a couple of more hours of English.  Today was the first day and it was loooooong and hooooot, but still fun.  I'm so tired, though.

The church where the school is housed

As for the every day stuff.......   Sill eating lots of gelato, still walking everywhere, still going Ciao!  Ciao!  Ciao!  Kaffe is a total lifestyle here.  We went to the softball game of the one of the girls here.  Softball is very trendy now.  In the concession stand was an espresso machine and all the parents and just hanging out, chugging down little cups of it.  In the petrol stations, espresso.  Everywhere!  Paper take out cups do not exist.  You stand there and drink your little kaffe in the china cup and saucer and then you go.  If there's a single thing that Italians love to laugh at us about, it's our obsession with Starbucks and our whole coffee on the go thing.  They just don't get it.  The kaffe here IS amazing though.