Genius!

Juice, breadsticks, and Nutella...all in one!

Trains!

I really love the train situation in Europe! I'm kind of cheating because after Italy, all over my city to city transportation will be cheap flights, but in Italy it's been all about the trains. There are different types here, all run by the same company (Trenitalia). The Regionale is sloooooow but cheap. It's usually a little dirty and it smells bad. It usually runs between the small villages but I've seen it offered for transport between some big cities. Another option is the Intercity and it's just what it sounds like. I took it from Milano to San Remo and it was fine. All of the seats were divided into compartments of six that had a glass window and door. Sometimes they oversell it, and there are up pull down seats in the corridor that people can sit on. The fancy trains here are called the Frecciarossa, Frecciabianco, and Frecciargento. Right now I'm on the Frecciarossa and it's kind of awesome. I've got my own little desk with a power outlet and wifi (obviously). It can go up to 225 mph. They keep having announcements on here (both in Italian and English) advertising the bar in the middle of the train that has "high quality beverages and salami" haha.

Observations in Italy

. What happens when you no longer have access to a hair dryer or straightener.

As my time it Italy begins to wind down, I thought I'd share some random things that I've noticed or wondered about.  I've been super lucky to be able to have an experience here that the average tourist almost certainly will never have, and I feel like I've really lived in Italy (however briefly) and not just swung in and out briefly.

TV shows here are hilarious, because they are almost all American shows that have been dubbed over.  They never have subtitles here, even in the films that are in the theatre.  Everything is dubbed.  So far, I've watched the dubbed versions of "Private Practice", "Criminal Minds", "Extreme Makeover, Home Edition", "The Simpsons", and "Grey's Anatomy".  I only understood the last one, and that's because I'd already seen the episode (Lexie, NOOOOOOO!).  It's pretty funny though, to hear the voices for the characters that they pick.  My host family always offers to turn the English on so I can watch shows, but I can't justify that when there is just one English speaker and five Italians sitting around watching it, you know?

Mamas here are amazing.  They totally do it all.  Yesterday my host mom did the following:  Went into town and worked at her art gallery in the morning. Went to the Roletto commune (the city offices) and did some of her Mayor duties, came home and did all of the laundry for the whole family and then ironed it all, picked me up from work and shuttled me around or a bit, cooked this fabulous multi-course meal (while i lounged around in the gorgeous swimming pool because she wouldn't let me help), and then sat back and ate very little of it while her family (plus another teacher and I) devoured it.  She does so much!

Things that Italians do that I think are funny:  Regularly say "Mama Mia!" to express surprise.  Buy milk in room temperature cardboard cartons and then not refrigerate them until they're opened (is it real milk then?  I don't know!!!!!).   Speak to each other super loudly all the time, so much so that I thought they were all mad at each other all the time until my coworker told me otherwise.  Charge three prices for things ($$$ if you're an obvious American, $$ if you're an obvious foreigner but not from the States, $ for the locals....I usually get the $ or $$ prices, depending on where I am and what I'm buying).  

Italian pharmacies are awesome!  Farmacia.  Here they have more leeway in what they can and can't do.  You can usually go into one and explain your case and they'll give you a prescription, no doctor needed.  One of my coworkers stubbed her toe in a super bad way in San Remo, and the dude at the Farmacia cleaned it up, bandaged and padded it up, and told her what to do to care for it, and all for free.  Even with my insurance, a trip to the urgent care clinic in the states to have that done would cost me $40.  I've done something to my ankle, sprained it or whatever.  I went to the Farmacia, explained the situation and they took me into the back room and checked me out.  I got an ace bandage kind of thing and instructions on how to wrap it and care for it, and the cost was just €3 (for the bandage).  They then wished me a nice visit to the region and sent me on my way.  I dont understand how anyone can NOT support some sort of universal public health care system after seeing one in action.  They rightfully realize here that healthcare shouldn't be limited to those who can afford it.  EDIT:  OBAMACARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    :)

The education system is interesting here.  My students aren't that much different than my American ones in terms of behavior, except they need much more handholding.  When you don't speak the language, that can get annoying.  What happens is that my kids here start finishing their work and don't know how to quietly entertain themselves until everyone is done, so they all get out of their seats and end up waving their work in my face going "Spreeeeeeeng-ah, done!".   And then I have to tell them like 20 times to sit down and mime it a couple of times and they're like, oh ok.  Every.  Single.  Day.  Every instruction to them has to be done in a mixture of English, broken Italian, and lots of pantomime.  Even making a big circle to play a game can take 5 minutes sometimes because they just don't do that here and they don't get it.  Thats not to say that they're stupid, though.  Italy ranks pretty high above the USA is all subject areas.  It's just that there instruction style here is all about sitting in your desk and memorizing stuff and working independently and being super studious.  They don't seem to cater to different learning styles as much.  All of the kids have to take these major exams at the end of each year, and those exams determine if they advance or not.  School ends, they get a week to study on their own time, and the they all go back and take the exams.  It's pretty intense.  One of my host brothers has to repeat next year because he apparently spent too much time studying "MTV, Nintendo, iPhone, and futball" (according to his older brother).  A college kid I was talking to at a party the other night said he spent a semester at a fancy east coast American school last year, and he was laughing about how easy it was.  He said it was what they did in high school.  But again with the independence.....  My American students seem to be much more confident and self assured than their Italian counterparts.  So I guess Italy got the smarts and we got the attitude and problem solving ability.  :)

Saturday I head to Florence, for a couple of days, then Rome for a couple more, and then I leave Italy for Paris.  I've REALLY enjoyed my time here.  It's such a lovely country.  The food is amazing, the people are wonderful, and it's breathtakingly beautiful.  I'll definitely miss it, and want to come back soon to visit people and see all of the places that I'm not making it to this time around.  I'll try to update again from Firenze (Florence) or Roma, so ciao!

Turino

I went to Turino this weekend, and what a lovely city it is.  Turino is the original capital of Italy (before it was moved to Rome to be more central), and the home of the 2006 Winter Olympic.  It's a really beautiful place!  The first thing we did upon arriving by train was meet up with some of the other teachers  and seek out food.  We ended up in a pizzeria where €5 bought you a fresh margherita pizza.  After that we walked around the city checking out the sights.  There are beautiful old buildings and sculptures just hanging out randomly here and there.  We walked through a beautiful park that ran alongside the river and saw a castle.

Despite my love of the rustic setting of Roletto, it was nice to be in an urban area again.  I bought some beautiful leather sandals and enjoyed the crowds of people.  This weekend in Turino was the festival for Saint Giovani, the patron saint of the city.  Lots of stuff going on.  We found a moscato wine festival going on in the streets and decided to do that.  For €10 you got a badge and a wine glass, and could walk around to all off the different tents that were set up and fill your wine glass up with as much as you liked.  You could also wander away from the festival,  down the street, and just keep on sipping on your wine.  No one cared at all.  After the festival we went with some new friends we had made to an Irish pub.  We were hungry so we stopped in a this fast food place that basically makes tacos but with Italian ingredients.  It's the first time I've seen a tortilla since I left the states.  I had a tortilla filled with mozzarella,  zucchini, tomatoes, basil, and a balsamic vineagarette and it was AMAZING.  At the pub, we watched some of the France-Spain soccer game, before declaring ourselves exhausted ad walking in the rain back to our hostel, the Tomato Backpackers.

Our hostel was pretty gorgeous.  We had sprung for a twin room with a private bathroom.  We had a long balcony that wrapped around the entire courtyard area, and doors that opened to it from the bathroom and bedroom.  The only bad thing about the place was that there was no a/c, and it got pretty hot.

This morning we woke up and strolled into the city center, where we found the ultimate in heaven......an outdoor market dealing in antiques and crafts.  I had a pretty proud moment where I was able to haggle down the price of a lovely vintage book from €8 to €5, all in Italian from greeting to bargaining to goodbye).   We wasted a bunch of time there and then went and found a cute cafe called the Gatsby, where we had excellent cappuccinos and canolos (soft pastries with creme inside, like the Italian equivalent of a Boston creme donut). After a visit to the grocery store, Carrefore, a small disaster when we got lost looking for our hostel again (which caused us to miss the train we wanted), we are finally back on the train to Pinerolo.

I need advice!  My job ends on the 29th, and I'll leave the next morning.  I don't have anything scheduled until July 4th, when I have a flight out of Rome to Paris.  Where should I go?  I don't have a huge interest in Rome, so I don't want to spend more than a couple of days there,  I have zero interest in the Vatican, except for maybe the Sistine chapel.  I'd really like to go Florence, but it's a 7 hour train ride and somewhat expensive for the ticket.  I might go to Cinque Terre with some friends. People tell me nice things about Pisa as well.  Help!  SUZ!  TELL ME WHERE TO GO!!!!!!

Buon Appetito

The food here has definitely been one of the best parts of this whole experience. For the most part I'm eating very well, with the exception on the whole school lunch thing (more on that in a second). However, I'm about to shatter your Olive Garden loving world here. Real Italian food is fairly different than what we know it. For starters, the salad comes last , right before dessert. The meal usually goes antipasto (appetizer), pasta, entree with vegetables, salad, dessert. Those big puffy breadsticks we all know and love? Wrong! No such thing. Here they are thin and hard and usually sealed up in packaging. The package of saltine crackers that sits on your American table in a basket is a closer relative to real Italian breadsticks. So your Olive Garden unlimited salad and breadsticks meal is about as Italian as a can of Chef Boyardee. Another big fat faux-Italian lie is vegetarian lasagne. Does. Not. Exist. I took this one personally! When I said that I liked it, my host family looked at me like I suggested they make it with puppies. Here its strictly a meat dish with no vegetables other than the tomato sauce.

School lunches here are bizarre. At my camp, we mess around in the church and courtyard all day and then trek the kids over a couple of blocks to the primary school for a school lunch. The lunchroom is actually a relatively small portable building with tables that seat 6 or 7 each, each one with a table cloth, basket of bread, pot of Parmesan cheese, pitcher of water, and drinking glasses. The kids serve themselves the water. The lunch lady wheels in. This cart with a big pot of pasta in it, and shovels pasta into breakable bowls, with the teachers then serve to the kids. After the kids are done with the pasta, the teachers pick up the bowls, take them to the kitchen, and then the lady comes back with her cart with the entree pot and more clean plates. She shovels the food onto plates, which the teachers then pass out to the kids again, and then we pick up the plates when theyre done. Then we take baskets of the fruit of the day and hand them out. It's like a little bambino restaurant with the worst food ever. Usually some kind of gloppy vegetable and some sort of boiled meat. For me, they take off the meat and give me slices of gloppy mozzarella cheese. Today instead of pasta there was rice, but even that is wearing on me. I will never complain about American school lunches again.

The homemade food is great though! My friend's host family regularly has me over for dinner and they we've all sorts of fresh veggies. My host family made a giant pizza feast the other night, and it was easily the best pizza I have ever had in my whole life. I had no words for the amazingness of this pizza. Afterwards we ate f ruin that we had picked in the orchard earlier. Everyone here has a garden in their yard that they grow their own food in. It makes my tomato plants in Austin look super weak. They take a lot of pride here in growing their own food, and it's so fresh and wonderful. So overall, school lunches aside, the food is good. I'm eating lots of good stuff, lots of gelato, and lots of fresh fruit.

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.

Ciao!

In Roletto! The Internet is still shaky. However, I'm living with the MAYOR of my town. The house is about 300 years old and surrounded by peach, cherry, apple, and pear trees. Grapes are growing on the balconies of the house. It's gorgeous! School starts tomorrow. People here speak little to no English. When the other teacher and I walk down the street talking to each other, people stop and stare at us and we hear "Americano!". I've eaten gelato almost every day. I should have regular Internet after Tuesday, so expect more updates then. Ciao!