In addition to hedgehogs, Torino has a vast population of (what I'm convinced are, anyway) salamanders. They can be seen and heard scuttling away from humans whenever it's sunny. I keep hearing them when I go on my walks. It takes me a second to realize that no, I'm not going to get pounced on by a cat or a bird, it's just a salamander running away.
As most of you know, I don't like spiders. To me, spiders belong in places I will never see them and never go, and they should never invade my house. If they do, they forfeit their lives. So, when I saw that there were two spiders chilling in the skylights in my room, I was prepared to do battle for control of the room. Without a step stool or adequate weapons, though, I have a hard time reaching them. In my time here, I have come to a treaty with i ragni: So long as they stay in their windows and don't come down into my room, I won't attack them. If they leave the safety zone of their skylights, though, they're fair game. In exchange, I will do my best to herd the mosquitoes and the flies towards them so they have food. That's right. I'm making use of having these mini predators in my room to help get rid of the pests (I need bug spray so I won't get eaten anymore...).
Wednesday I went to an Argentine tango lesson with the other au pair who lives in Rivalta. It was a beginning lesson, and in the 90 minutes we barely covered the "basic step" (the 8 count pattern with a leg cross for the follow). As per usual, there were quite a few more women there than men, so I spent most of the class leading (The other au pair and I were dance partners, and we switched roles a couple times. With me being taller by at least 4 inches, though, it makes more sense for me to lead). The entire class was done in open position, which was not something I was expecting. I have to admit, this class opened my eyes to multiple things.
The teachers were a couple who looked to be in their late 40s. They knew their stuff and understood that most of the other people in the class had never danced ballroom before or danced in general.. The first thing they covered was connection/moving from your core instead of your arms I'm rather embarrassed to admit this, but the time we spent simply shifting our weight back and forth using our core helped me a lot. Since I was doing this as a leader (the male teacher used the terms "leader" and "follower" to describe us, which helped me, though it may have confused the other students), I had to be aware of where my weight and my partner's weight was located, and that I needed to not rely on my arms to move my partner.
I don't know how I missed being aware of this in the past, but I did. Doing this as a lead helped me gain this awareness. I think I learned more in that basic lesson than I expected. I also got the compliment that I was a good follow from the teacher. That made me feel slightly better about things.
Sadly, I don't think I can continue in the class. It costs 95 euros, and I don't know how long it runs (I would rather not leave the class in the middle and skew the numbers). Also, with the difference in the number of male and female participants, I would most likely end up leading almost exclusively (it's weird to go from being what's considered an average height to being one of the taller people in town!!), which--while it might help my overall dancing--is something I would prefer to do after I learn the follow's part, since that's the part I would prefer to dance.
Thursday morning our Italian teacher showed us where the coffee machine was located (since we kept yawning during previous lessons). Now, this is not your ordinary run of the mill "brew coffee and pour a cup" coffee machine. This thing has about 12 different choices (with the 12th being an empty cup): 4 coffee based drinks, 3 decaf coffee based drinks, lemon tea, and two different kinds of hot chocolate. The best part? I got the same amount of coffee from this machine that I would get from a café for .35 euro cents rather than 1.20 euro. This means I can get my coffee fix twice a week and be saving money. Granted, I'm also considering saving up once I get back to the states to invest in an espresso machine. I find that I like the Italian style of coffee. =)
Now for the practical Italian lesson of the week. If you want to get un gelato, you need to know the flavors:
Fiordilatte = vanilla
cioccolato = chocolate
caffe = coffee
menta = mint
nocciola = hazelnut
fragola = strawberry.
So far I've had all of these flavors except vanilla. I think I gave myself away as a foreigner, though, because I ordered nocciola and fragola the other day. The look on the woman's face as I asked for these two flavors was one of "Are you sure you want that...?" Cono is cone, and the sizes are: piccolo-small (1 scoop), medio-medium (2 scoops), and grande-large (3 scoops. That's too much gelato for me!). Know that in Italy you have to get a receipt (it shows that the shopkeeper pays their taxes), and you must take it with you when you leave the shop in case you get stopped by an inspector, who will ask to see the receipt. If you don't have the receipt, both you and the shopkeeper get fined. Once you get home, though, you can throw the receipt away.
Saturday one of the grandfathers took the eldest (the girl) and I out to a lake (lago piccolo) for a canoeing lesson. Luckily the teacher there understood that I spoke very little Italian, and she was nice enough to switch languages when directly addressing me. She forgot my name, though, and so for the next two hours I was known as "Oregon". It made me giggle. The lake was situated in the mountains, and I could see houses dotting the mountainside past the little town. We went on a perfect day, too. It was sunny but not overly hot, and there were some clouds hanging around the mountains, but the view was still fantastic. It made me realize that I really do need to get a memory card so I can borrow a camera and start taking pictures.
I need to get my hair trimmed, but I'm rather hesitant to get it done while I'm still learning Italian. I can just see myself using the wrong word while asking for them to trim my bangs and end up with a crazy haircut... And it would be my fault for not knowing in the first place the correct word to use. I'll probably end up asking one of the parents what the word is, and going in a couple weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment